I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

The Realm of Origin, District 21, the main city of the Myth Guild, "The City That Never Falls".

On the city wall, Hua Zitong, clad in a set of dark gold legendary plate armor, looked heroic and dashing.

Her high ponytail swayed slightly in the wind, and her gaze went beyond the towering city walls to the boundless wilderness in the distance.

It has been a full six months since Li Wu entered the Arcane Wasteland.

In the past six months, the world has changed so much that she, a reborn person, hardly recognizes it anymore.

At first, she thought Li Wu would be gone for a month or two at most.

But Li Wu seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, leaving no trace.

"Guild Master, the magic crystals in the third defense zone have been replenished, and the defensive array's energy has reached 98%."

A guild officer respectfully reported behind her.

"Understood." Hua Zitong's voice was devoid of emotion. "Tell the brothers on duty to be alert; the beast tide could come at any moment."

"Yes!" The cadre accepted the order and left.

Hua Zitong looked away and rubbed her throbbing temples.

For the past six months, she has been operating at almost the limit.

With Li Wu gone, the entire weight of the Myth Guild rests on her shoulders.

During the first month after Li Wu left, everything was relatively stable.

Relying on his reputation as the "Server Champion" and his ability to "instantly kill a level 100 expert with three arrows," no guild in the entire 21st server dared to oppose Myth.

The Blood Wolf Guild was disbanded, and its leader, Blood Wolf War Soul, deleted his account and ran away, as if he were avoiding some kind of natural disaster.

Hua Zitong seized this precious window of opportunity and led the guild to expand rapidly.

Immovable Mountain and Steel Shield, along with the core members of the first and second guilds, are clearing new dungeons at an unprecedented speed, and the guild level is rising rapidly.

Lin Hai then used the immense prestige left behind by Li Wu to sign one business deal after another, and the guild's coffers filled up at a visible speed.

But peaceful days are always short-lived.

When players generally broke through level 80 and began to access higher-level content, a change occurred.

With Li Wu no longer an insurmountable obstacle looming over them, the ambitions of other guilds began to rekindle.

After the Ironblood Alliance changed its third guild leader, it transferred a truly elite team from the first server. They focused on development and rose rapidly, showing signs of becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Myth Guild.

Established guilds like Fengyun Zaiqi and Yuehua have also attracted a large number of new members, greatly increasing their strength.

Three months after Li Wu left, the Myth Guild successfully reached level five.

According to the plan left by Li Wu, the next step is to obtain the "City Building Token" and build their own city.

The difficulty of obtaining this token far exceeded Hua Zitong's expectations.

It is not dropped by a specific boss, but is obtained through an epic quest chain called "The Road to Kingship" after the average player level reaches 90.

This task requires the guild to go all out, consume a huge amount of resources, and compete with all the other top guilds.

It was a fierce battle that lasted for a whole month.

Hua Zitong still remembers that in the final stage of the mission, in order to seize the key item "Ancient Royal Scepter", they fought a massive battle of thousands on the Burning Plains against the Ironblood Alliance, the Rise of the Storm, and two other emerging guilds.

In that battle, even with Sword and Rose and Flower Language Guild as allies, the Myth Guild still faced an extremely difficult situation.

Immovable as a mountain, in order to cover the main force's retreat, endured the concentrated fire of hundreds of people, died three times, and lost a whole level.

The steel shield's heavy armor was riddled with arrows, and its health bar was almost never full.

Even she herself was caught off guard by the enemy's chief mage during a charge and almost taken down in one go.

Finally, there was the night breeze.

The usually taciturn assassin, at the most crucial moment, at the cost of serious injury, snatched the scepter from the enemy commander, and then, with his last strength, threw it to her.

As she grasped the cold scepter, and the system notification indicated the mission was complete, she glanced back at the battlefield. More than a third of the Myth Guild members had been killed or wounded.

Many familiar faces turned into white light and waited at the respawn point.

At that moment, she really missed Li Wu.

If that man were here, none of this would have happened. He would simply stand on high ground, draw his bow, and with one or two arrows, all the enemies would vanish into thin air.

There was no need for so many people to pay such a heavy price.

But she couldn't show any weakness.

She is the acting guild leader of the Myth Guild and the backbone of everyone.

She could only suppress all her exhaustion and longing, calmly direct the troops to retreat, and then begin to build the city.

The process of building the city was also full of twists and turns. Site selection, planning, resource allocation, recruiting NPC craftsmen... each of these was a huge project that would have kept an ordinary guild extremely busy.

Lin Hai's hair turned even whiter during this period, and he traveled between various departments every day with huge dark circles under his eyes.

Finally, a month ago, the "City That Never Falls" rose from the ground.

This majestic city, standing at the border of the Cursed Lands and Stranglethorn Vale, has become the most dazzling landmark in District 21.

It not only represents the glory of the Myth Guild, but has also become the most solid home for all guild members.

But home needs to be protected.

The system stipulates that after the new city is completed, a "battle to defend the city" will begin.

Only by successfully repelling the monster siege can this city truly belong to the guild.

Hua Zitong wasn't worried if it was just a normal monster siege.

The city's defense system, which she designed herself, was impregnable.

But the intelligence she received from her ally, Dragon Shield, indicated that this siege was no ordinary affair.

The system will unleash an unprecedented "city-annihilation level" beast tide, more than ten times the size and intensity of a normal siege battle.

Even more deadly is that during the beast horde attack, other player guilds can launch attacks on the Undying City, and all damage dealt by the attacking side will receive a 50% bonus.

The moment this rule was announced, the entire District 21 was in an uproar.

The new leader of the Ironblood Alliance, "Ironblood Mad Lion," immediately announced that he would unite all "ambitious individuals" to break through the Undying City on the day of the city defense battle and pull the Myth Guild off its throne.

Respondents flocked to the event.

Although Myth Guild has remained number one for the past six months, without Li Wu's absolute dominance, coupled with the grudges it formed with other guilds during the "Road to Kingship" quest, it has long become the target of everyone's criticism.

Now that the system has given them such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how could those ambitious people who have been suppressed for half a year possibly let it go?

Hua Zitong knew very well that this was not just a battle to defend the city, but a final battle that would determine the future of District 21.

If they win, Myth Guild will firmly establish its dominant position; if they lose, the City of No Fall will be reduced to ruins, and Myth Guild will suffer a severe blow, perhaps even never recovering.

"Twenty-three hours left..." Hua Zitong muttered to herself as she looked at the countdown on the system panel.

Immovable Mountain and Steel Shield have reached level 120, and the average level of the guild's core members has also broken through the level 100 mark.

This force would be top-tier in any region.

However, it was still not enough in the face of a joint attack from almost the entire district, as well as that terrifying city-destroying beast tide.

She had prepared for the worst.

All war supplies have been prepared, and allies Sword and Rose and Flower Language Guild have pledged their full support.

But she knew in her heart that her chances of winning were less than 30%.

"Where are you..." Hua Zitong's gaze turned to the distance again, and for the first time, a trace of confusion and weariness appeared in her eyes, which were always full of determination and decisiveness.

"It's been half a year. If you don't come back soon, I might... really not be able to hold on."

The wind blows across the city walls, carrying the desolation of the wilderness.

She stood there like a lonely statue, with the brightly lit city behind her and the darkness that was about to engulf everything in front of her.