In the wilderness.

Large numbers of orcs collapsed before turning ethereal and dissipating. These orc foot soldiers decreased in number, but none of them showed any fear; they roared and charged until the last orc collapsed.

“None of the orc foot soldiers fled.” Xu Jingming and the others were a little surprised.

“It should be set by the rules of the virtual world,” Heng Fang said. “If these orc foot soldiers flee in all directions, it will be somewhat troublesome to wipe out all the enemies with just the five of us.”

“Be careful. The light cavalry is preparing their charge,” Wang Yi reminded.

“A cavalry charge is much more terrifying than an infantry charge,” Xu Jingming warned his team as he carefully observed.

The 300-strong snow wolf light cavalry gathered together and shot arrows from afar. After Xu Jingming and the others raised their shields to block the arrows, these light cavalry troops retracted their bows and arrows and picked up the spears on the snow wolf’s back. Every snow wolf light cavalry soldier now held a spear and started charging at high speeds.

Rumble!

The cavalry charged forward with spears pointing out like trees!

“How fast. We can’t even escape.” Yang Qingshuo was alarmed.

“I’ll hold the front.” Xu Jingming held his two shields and stood in front of the team. Liu Chongyuan, Yang Qingshuo, and Heng Fang fanned out behind him to protect Wang Yi.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Wang Yi started firing. Faced with the light cavalry running at high speeds, she also shot out one arrow at a time instead of the previous ‘three arrows with each shot!’

Every arrow she shot caused orc cavalrymen to fall from the snow wolves, but these snow wolves were very agile and jumped to avoid the fallen soldiers. These fallen soldiers quickly turned ethereal and dissipated.

When they were close to 50 meters, Heng Fang threw out the short spears in his hand.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Short spears tore through the air and easily penetrated the bodies of the orc cavalry. Sometimes, they even penetrated two orcs in succession.

But after throwing out six short spears, the snow wolf light cavalry arrived in front of him.

Boom!

Xu Jingming guarded the front like a reef.

The snow wolf light cavalry’s charge crashed into Xu Jingming’s dual shields, and they couldn’t help but tumble and fall.

My force-borrowing technique is still inferior to Master’s. Xu Jingming held his dual shields, tilted them, and did some slight footwork. Anything that came close to Xu Jingming would definitely hit his shield—the snow wolf that slammed into him would be sent flying!

However, he could only block a portion of them. Even being at the forefront, he could only ward off 60% of the pressure. Liu Chongyuan, Heng Fang, and Yang Qingshuo also needed to aid in the defense.

Although I have to hone my footwork and shield techniques, I have to leave some soldiers for my teammates. Xu Jingming was the most relaxed. If he unleashed his full combat strength and held his spear, he could wipe out the entire orc army alone.

But there was no need—his goal was to be stronger! He wanted to be on the Cosmos Ranking! He wanted to fight Liu Hai, Lei Yunfang, and Zhou Yi in the future!

He had to seize every moment to hone himself and become stronger.

I have to improve myself as soon as possible. Master and Senior Lei Yunfang are still a huge gap ahead of me. Xu Jingming knew this very well. Under the charge of the snow wolf light cavalry, he tried his best to ward them off with his footwork and shield techniques.

Time passed…

The team rankings in the sky were also changing.

Sharpshooters are losing their usefulness. In the livestream stands, Cheng Zihao was a little nervous. Zheng Bailong’s close-combat strength is showing. My Team White Dragon is already ranked 28th.

In the stands, the silver-haired youth from the Golden Roc Group was also watching. He nodded slightly. Tie Lianyun is indeed strong. Zhao Fan and Zhang Feng, the two genius contestants I selected, have also done very well. Their ranking has rapidly increased, and they are already seventh! Only this sharpshooter, Sun Li, is a burden. If we had succeeded in inviting Wang Yi, my team would be much stronger.

Huh? The silver-haired youth frowned slightly. Wang Yi is the only one in her that’s impressive. Why is their team ranked one place higher than my Team Golden Roc—at sixth place?

Even her team’s results are better than Zhuang Ziyu’s?

Wang Yi’s team only has Wang Yi, and Zhuang Ziyu’s Team Heavenly Note has the help of Yu Cheng, Zhang Qian, Wu Sai, and the other experts! Team Heavenly Note is clearly stronger. The silver-haired youth was a little puzzled as he zoomed in on Xu Jingming’s team and Zhuang Ziyu’s team.

Upon closer inspection, he saw the difference.

What’s going on? The silver-haired youth frowned. Xu Jingming is blocking the charge of the snow wolf light cavalry alone. As for Team Heavenly Note, Yu Cheng and Wu Sai are holding dual shields at the front. Is their dual efforts only comparable to Xu Jingming’s?

Xu Jingming is that good with a shield?

I don’t get it. The silver-haired youth felt a headache. Is there no public ranking that has some credibility? The experts in the second tier are actually inferior to those in the third tier. Even if a corporation wants to spend money, we don’t know who to contract!

Xu Jingming was in the third tier, and Yu Cheng was in the second! Wu Sai was also recognized as having third-tier strength. Yet, the Yu Cheng-Wu Sai duo was on par with Xu Jingming when it came to fending off the light cavalry’s charge?

…

Time passed.

The 300 light cavalry troops were fearless; they charged forward time and time again! After finishing the charge, they regrouped and charged forward again until the last light cavalry soldier died.

“Old Xu, you have to leave more orcs for us. The pressure on us isn’t high enough,” Heng Fang said with a smile.

“Conserve your stamina. The five generals and the heavy cavalry are the biggest threat,” Xu Jingming said. “You’ll be under enough pressure later!”

“We still have to pay attention to the team’s ranking,” Wang Yi said.

Xu Jingming looked up at the team ranking and said, “We just need to make sure we’re in the top 20. Nothing else matters much.”

Teams that placed 29th and 30th… would encounter Lei Yunfang and Liu Hai’s teams in the first round—they would suffer the most. Xu Jingming also believed that his team wasn’t sufficiently prepared and didn’t want to encounter his master and the others too early.

“Incoming.”

“It’s the last wave.”

Xu Jingming and the others stared intently as the orc army generals and heavy cavalry in the distance only started charging in an orderly fashion after the light cavalry died.

Boom! Boom!

The mounts of the orc’s heavy cavalry were similar to rhinoceroses—they were completely armored! These orcs even had helmets on their heads. Under the high-speed charge of the nearly 100-strong heavy cavalry, it was like a flood of steel. This scene made Liu Chongyuan, Heng Fang, Yang Qingshuo, and Wang Yi’s hearts tremble.

“Captain, it’s better if you fend off most of them.” Liu Chongyuan was a little uneasy. “I’m not confident.”

“Borrow their force. Don’t foolishly fight it all head-on,” Xu Jingming said.

At this moment, Heng Fang, Yang Qingshuo, Liu Chongyuan, and Wang Yi felt much more at ease with their captain in front of them.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Wang Yi tried firing three arrows, but the arrows bounced off the heavy cavalry’s armor.

“We have to use armor-piercing arrows, and we have to find their weak spots,” Wang Yi said. “I’ll be counting on you.”

As Wang Yi spoke, she took out an arrow. The arrowhead was clearly much larger, and she fully drew the bow.

Wang Yi stared at the charging orc heavy cavalry and only released the arrow after some preparation!

The arrow tore through the air and accurately penetrated an orc’s helmet and visor. Blood splattered out of the visor, and the heavy-armored orc fell off his mount, causing a little chaos.

Wang Yi only shot out two armor-piercing arrows and killed two heavy cavalrymen before the orc cavalry arrived in front of them.

“Be careful. We mustn’t crumble,” Liu Chongyuan shouted.

“Pfft.” Heng Fang’s lance stabbed like lightning into a heavy cavalry orc’s helm.

Xu Jingming held his dual shields and stood at the forefront, borrowing the force of the impact and occasionally erupting with strength. The entire heavy cavalry platoon fell into chaos from his impact.

Xu Jingming shouted, “The terrifying thing about heavy cavalry is their charge, but we have to be careful of those five generals.”

The five generals riding drakes had different weapons. Some held swords, some held sabers, and some had axes. All of them had extraordinary might and were following at the back of the heavy cavalry, about to charge over.

Nearly 100 heavy cavalry troops finally charged past the team, and more than 20 heavy cavalry troops died in battle. At this moment, the five generals had fanned out around Xu Jingming’s team just as they were feeling most exhausted. They then charged over on their drakes.

Bang! Bang!

Xu Jingming’s dual shields only made the two drakes stumble to the side, while the attacks of the other three generals landed on Wang Yi and the others.

“Captain, we also need training,” Wang Yi said in the team chat. “You just need to ensure that the team is in the top 20.”

“Brother Xu, watch us,” Yang Qingshuo said.

“This is only the preliminaries,” Heng Fang said.

Xu Jingming also understood that everyone wanted to showcase their strength.

“Alright,” Xu Jingming replied.

…

About ten minutes later, Liu Chongyuan and Heng Fang were still barely standing. Wang Yi and Yang Qingshuo had died in battle.

“Had fun?” Xu Jingming looked at his teammates.

“We had a great time.” Heng Fang and Liu Chongyuan looked at each other and smiled.

There’s only one general left. Xu Jingming turned to look at the general with the sword, who rode a drake and began his final lonesome charge.

“Leave the last one to me.” Xu Jingming walked forward.

The orc general roared, and the drake charged forward ferociously.

Xu Jingming ducked, and the drake missed.

Whoosh.

The orc general brandished his broadsword, producing a huge arc that sliced at Xu Jingming.

Boom.

Xu Jingming took a step forward and exerted force with the shield in his right hand. The moment the shield collided with the sword, it forcefully suppressed the sword and slammed it into the orc general’s chest, causing the orc general wearing heavy armor to fly up and fall off the drake’s back involuntarily.

Xu Jingming charged over and stomped his foot!

Eight Extremities, Stomp!

Bang!

He stomped on the orc general’s helm, causing it to deform and spurt blood.

The orc general turned ethereal and disappeared.

The orc army was destroyed!

Xu Jingming looked back at the sorry-looking Liu Chongyuan and Heng Fang. The three of them looked up at their rankings and smiled.

Whoosh.

The three disappeared and left the wilderness.

…

“The might of this shield strike?” In China’s official livestream, Liu Hai and Lei Yunfang were slightly surprised as they looked at each other. The might of an orc general’s broadsword swing was very strong, yet Xu Jingming’s shield sent the orc general flying—it was a little too powerful.

“Has Jingming broken through?” Lei Yunfang approached Liu Hai and asked softly.

“I don’t know.” Liu Hai shook his head.

“Teachers, what are you talking about? Can you share it with us?” Liu Xin asked with a smile when she saw this.

Liu Hai smiled and said, “We’re talking about Xu Jingming. When he was fighting the orc army, his shield techniques were very impressive. Old Lei told me that… Xu Jingming is very talented in shield techniques.”

Lei Yunfang blinked. Look at you—don’t you even blush when making up lies on the official livestream?