Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Watching Kua Fu's body gradually dissipate, Beichen in the sky snorted coldly, elegantly and handsomely swiping his Longsword, eventually vanishing as well.

This also marked the final victory of this battle.

In the players' field of vision, the fog once again thickened, signaling the end of today's enjoyment.

The players all sighed with emotion.

"Damn it, every time we fight to the death, it's always Beichen who reaps the rewards!"

"Why is it that we suffer all the hardships, but he gets to play the hero?"

"No way around it, he's an NPC, only responsible for transitional animations. Didn't you see when Old Buddha and Meow King fought, how they just floated around until the last moment to shatter the Joy of Fire with one stroke? It's all tricks, we're used to it by now."

"The battle was still quite confusing, I can barely understand why Fei Lian ran away, since his character is indeed a coward, but why did Gonggong ram into the Restorer's fortress?"

"Haven't we already discussed it? It's all the game developers' tricks to destroy the city so that we keep grinding."

"Ah? Are they that scheming and malicious?"

"Oh, stop worrying about that, we should just keep leveling up. As long as we can level up, let's just keep moving bricks."

"Forum meet-up! Bye everyone!"

...

Soon, all the players had disappeared, leaving only Meng Yuan and Can Shang in the entire historical fragment.

Can Shang was already floating in the air, absorbing the remaining power.

The demonic power injected by the demonic spirits when they twisted space-time, as well as the vast amounts of demonic power left dispersed when the two great demons, Gonggong and Kua Fu, were slain, were all continuously transformed into a vast righteous energy, absorbed by Can Shang.

By now, she had reached her peak state at about twenty-five years of age, her long hair fluttering in the air, her entire being brimming with vigorous power.

"It's incredible... I really did return to my peak state so quickly!

"Now, we have the confidence to battle any great demon!"

To Can Shang, this victory was unprecedented; previously, only a rare few Restorers could reach this stage, and the progress this time equated to pushing forward to the era of the Great Chu.

Since the great demon Gonggong, who guarded the Liang Dynasty, had all his avatars annihilated, and Kua Fu, who guarded the Great Chu Dynasty, also came running over to help, this avatar was also destroyed.

And Fei Lian, who himself guarded the Great Sheng Dynasty, had already lost the defense, and in the process of fighting together with Xingtian, was severely injured, his strength also heavily damaged.

Reaching to the Liang Dynasty, all four great demons under the command of the Demon Lord Chi You suffered heavy losses!

In past cycles, Restorers could only face Kua Fu directly upon reaching Great Chu, and it was difficult to completely annihilate the other three great demons. Additionally, Demon Lord Chi You might also intervene personally, so practically none of the past Restorers succeeded in breaking through Great Chu.

But now, due to Meng Yuan's outstanding performance, it had caused even Kua Fu himself to come over to help in the Liang Dynasty.

This was originally a very dangerous situation.

Meng Yuan's behavior involved tremendous risks because forcibly using Emperor Taizong of Liang as an anchor point to transfer his power to the core of the historical fragment of the Liang Dynasty carried the nature of a surprise attack, which made the Restorer's power much weaker than the demonic forces.

Yet, Fei Lian and Kua Fu both came over to help, instantly turning it into a one versus three scenario.

Unexpectedly, the players were so ingenious, exploiting the individual character flaws of the three great demons and defeating them one by one, ultimately achieving a thrilling victory.

Although the consequences included the Restorer's fortress being destroyed, it could always be slowly repaired.

"I have a premonition. The final battle may come faster than expected."

Can Shang and Meng Yuan came together into the endless void, gazing at the distant, chaotic time currents.

The various dynasties in the river of history were like galaxies, while the massive historical fragments within the dynasties were like stars or planets, closely revolving around.

Magnificent and breathtaking.

Viewed from a god-like perspective, the current path resembled a sharp sword, fiercely piercing the darkest core of the darkness.

The history fragments occupied by the demonic spirits showed a clear difference from those conquered by the Restorers, from the Sheng Dynasty to the Qi Dynasty to the Liang Dynasty; Meng Yuan's actions grew increasingly risky, from three segments to two segments and finally to one segment, the territory possessed by the Restorers continually shrinking, yet having crucially snatched the all-important core segment.

Thus, even though this glaring light seemed isolated and weak, it was indestructible and extremely sharp.

Meng Yuan looked ahead to the historical fragment.

Yan and Chu were similarly large unified dynasties, finding powerful anchor points like Emperor Taizong in these places would also be feasible, meaning Meng Yuan could still continue using his previous tactics of island-hopping.

Of course, the further forward, the deeper into the domain of the demonic spirits he would go, and the greater the risk.

Meng Yuan asked, "Do you think the demonic spirits will give us a chance to easily break through the Chu Dynasty?"

Can Shang was silent for a moment, then shook her head, "I don't think so."

Clearly, this time the Restorers' strength had made the demonic spirits wary. Originally, Gonggong alone guarded the Liang Dynasty, but both Kua Fu and Fei Lian had also come over to help.

This time, the Restorers had achieved another great victory; would the demonic spirits continue to ignore this?

Further ahead, the Chu Dynasty was guarded only by a severely weakened Kua Fu. If the other demonic spirits did nothing, Meng Yuan could certainly lead the players effortlessly through the offensive, but would such a scenario occur?

That was highly unlikely.

Meng Yuan must prepare for the worst: that includes all great demons, including Demon Lord Chi You coming out of their nests, preemptively arriving at the historical fragments of the Yan and Chu dynasties to engage in an early decisive battle.

Meng Yuan pondered for a moment, then said, "Since a decisive battle seems inevitable, we might as well choose the battlefield that is most advantageous to us."

He pointed to a spot in the starry sky, "I want to choose the battlefield for the decisive battle there."

Shenshang followed his finger and realized it was somewhere in the Chu Dynasty.

"You mean... Fenglang Residence?"

Meng Yuan nodded, "Exactly, Fenglang Residence. Because there, we can directly borrow the power of General Wei Huo.

"If we're going to play, let's play big, directly confront the demons there. No matter how many demons come, we'll respond to all changes with constancy.

"Bring all the heroes from the past, load up the whole family, one wave push, if we win, we'll utterly defeat the demons! If we lose… if we lose, we'll just retreat and start over.

"Anyway, it's unlikely for the demons to accurately find and kill me among countless people. I escape very quickly."

Shenshang's face twitched with veins, "That's hardly something to boast about!"

Meng Yuan retorted, "Why not?"

Shenshang fell silent.

"You have a point, I'm somewhat at a loss for words."

So far, every step Meng Yuan took had completely exceeded Shenshang's expectations, yet each step was quite effective.

Especially Meng Yuan's abilities to disguise and survive - these were simply off the charts, unsurpassed by any previous Returner.

And these abilities could even be used inversely, like this time when he successfully used a strategy similar to the empty fort trick to scare away Fei Lian, tearing a crucial breakthrough through the siege of three great demons, laying a solid foundation for this victory.

As for strategies…

Meng Yuan, the rightful Returner, had basically no strategies.

His strategy was to recklessly charge forward and start battles in the most unexpected places for the demons. Even if the power discrepancy between them was huge, he just let the players figure things out.

And the players?

They indeed had great wisdom and strength, but more importantly, they thought this was a game and believed they could win no matter how they fought, so they always fought without any pressure.

It was astounding how they bluffed their way to victory until now.

Well, winning in a confused, unclear manner is still better than losing clearly and definitively.

Shenshang nodded, "Alright, let's do as you say!"

She adjusted her power, targeting the distant location: Fenglang Residence!

Fenglang Residence, a proper noun here, represented the most glorious historical slice of the Chu Dynasty and pointed to an existence at the pinnacle of historical generals: General Wei Huo.

The strong righteous energy formed a beam of light, striking directly towards the darkness ahead and accurately hitting that largest historical slice!

As expected, countless Demonic Qi erupted once again, attempting to block.

Kua Fu, who guarded the Chu Dynasty, had sent an avatar to help Kua Fu in the Liang Dynasty, but it had already been completely slaughtered by players. Thus, it couldn't possibly hold them back now.

As for attempting an operation like before, pulling another distorted historical slice to block, that was even more impossible.

This time, the situation was even smoother than before, virtually without any obstacles reaching the core location of the Chu Dynasty's historical slice, establishing a sufficiently strong connection with General Wei Huo.

"Eh, were the demons truly caught off guard and failed to react in time?"

Shenshang was somewhat surprised. The outcome was overly optimistic, almost to the point of being unrealistic.

Meng Yuan, however, said nothing and continued to watch the changes in the river of history.

Indeed, not long after, the historical river underwent new changes!

The dark mass in the distance suddenly surged like a tidal wave, encircling the historical slice that Meng Yuan and Shenshang had just connected.

Shenshang exclaimed in surprise, "It's the Demon Lord Chi You! It has made a move by itself!"

Only the Demon Lord Chi You himself could mobilize such immense Demonic Qi.

This time, the Returner had made a one wave push with the whole family, and the demons had done the same.

If Chi You didn't act, with the incomplete power of Kua Fu, even adding a weakened Fei Lian, it was impossible to stop the players.

Once the players recaptured both Chu and Yan Dynasties, continuously accumulating power, they would then move on to the historical slice of Ancient Times to battle Chi You. At that point, the demons would have no advantage whatsoever.

Therefore, the demons also opted for a strategy of a one wave push with the whole family.

The Demon Lord Chi You also concentrated most of his power and gathered all the remaining power of those four great demons, directly flying dragon face-hugging, surrounding this historical slice.

In this battle, whoever lost would be completely blown apart!

If the demons won, many previous victories of the Returner would be erased, almost all consumed Demonic Qi would have to be spat out, possibly retreating to the late Qi Dynasty or even the Great Sheng Dynasty, and they might not even be able to hold that position.

If the Returner won, then the demons would be completely finished. Although there was still some power remaining in the historical slice of the Ancient Times, converting a large amount of Demonic Qi and then rolling over the rest was just a matter of time.

Meng Yuan smiled slightly, very confidently, "This is good; now, both sides have a chance, victory or defeat all in one fell swoop!

"As long as there's a chance to win, that's good because players can always find a way to seize even the smallest opportunity!"

Shenshang commented sarcastically, "You're quite proud of that! Despite being the one who does the least."

Meng Yuan responded with a chuckle, "You don't understand; this is called governing by doing nothing and winning without fighting. The highest realm of Taoism, which you don't understand."

He began preparing the announcement for the new version.