Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

There are several reasons for choosing Graystone Castle:

First, Graystone Castle is the closest small town to the main city of Altavian. In case of trouble, it can easily seek help from Altavian, and the two can even support each other from the opposite direction. If the Altavian army were to mobilize, it could reach Graystone Castle within half an hour.

Secondly, Greystone Fortress itself is a wartime fortress with high and thick walls, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Once captured, it will not be easily overtaken.

Third, Graystone Fortress has a relatively developed mining industry, with many channels for selling various ores within the city. The Divine Dragon Guild is currently researching the commercialization of the anti-magic ores from Dragon City. If they can take over Graystone Fortress, it would be equivalent to taking control of a complete supply chain from mines to markets.

There was one more thing Liu Nian didn't say aloud—Greystone Castle used to be the headquarters of the Glory Guild. Reinhardt, who had been so intimidated by him that he dared not fight, had once been based there. After the Glory Guild collapsed, Greystone Castle became a city with very few players, where basic order was maintained by system NPCs.

Now, the Pharaoh's army has arrived, and Graystone Fortress has suffered heavy losses.

Liu Nian noticed a lot of messages about Graystone Fortress in the chat channel. It seemed the Pharaoh's soldiers emerged directly from inside the mountain, entering Graystone Fortress underground, rendering the city's defenses completely ineffective. The walls were still there, but the enemy was coming from within the city; what use were the high walls then?

Currently, Graystone Fortress is in a state of semi-collapse—most of the NPC guards in the city have been killed or wounded, and the already few players have been almost wiped out.

The battle at the Temple of Eternal Sleep continues, but Liu Nian is no longer worried.

This place has the most capable people in the guild; taking it down won't be a problem at all.

"Liu Nian, leave things here to us," Wu Zhan said. "You can go to Graystone Fortress with peace of mind!"

Liu Nian nodded without saying anything more.

Knowing that time was of the essence, he immediately summoned the Colossus.

This enormous biological transport ship appeared on the top floor of the temple, carrying the Sun Eater and Demon Bear Clan players, as well as a portion of the Abe Bee Clan.

The reason for bringing them along is simple—Liu Nian could single-handedly crush the Pharaoh's army, but he couldn't conquer and control a city on his own.

Cities need people to guard them, manage them, and control their key transportation hubs.

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Greystone Fortress, once a wartime stronghold, has now completely changed its appearance.

Although the city walls appeared intact and the city gates remained tightly closed, a raging fire had already broken out inside the city!

Thick black smoke billowed up from within the city, rising like thick columns of smoke straight into the sky. Flames flickered within the smoke, turning the entire city sky a dark red.

"This isn't looking good," Liu Nian said, squinting on the dragon's back.

Sun Eater also realized the seriousness of the problem: "The undead didn't attack from the outside... they launched a direct attack from within!"

Liu Nian put away the little fire dragon and summoned Arachne to activate group invisibility.

"Walk."

The three of them quietly made their way to the city wall.

The protective array of Graystone Castle had completely failed. The defensive runes that should have activated automatically were now dull and lifeless, as if their power had been cut off from the inside. Arachne had sent them to the city walls with very little effort.

As soon as Shi Ri glanced down, the expression on Xiong's face immediately changed.

The city is teeming with the dead!

Skeleton soldiers marched in formation down the main street, mummies searched for survivors in the alleys, and giant scarabs rummaged through the ruins for corpses. The bodies of the killed players and NPCs, before they could even cool down, were turned into new skeletons by the necromancer's resurrection spell—they staggered up from the pools of blood, dark red flames burning in their eye sockets, before turning and lunging at their former comrades.

The city was filled with sacrificial arrays made of corpses and flesh. The runes on these arrays emitted a dark red glow on the ground, like some evil creature greedily devouring the city's life force. As a result, the number of undead creatures increased over time.

What angered Devourer of the Sun was that he saw a group of undead players defect to the enemy!

They're helping the undead army slaughter NPCs in the city!

In fact, it was precisely because of the betrayal of these traitors that the defenses of Graystone Fortress were rendered completely ineffective, as they opened the nodes of the defensive array from within.

Now, all non-undead players in the city have been slaughtered, leaving only the NPC guards to hold them off.

However, the combat space for these NPCs has been compressed to the vicinity of the city lord's mansion, and the situation is extremely precarious. Once the city lord's mansion is breached and the city lord is killed, the city will immediately change hands.

When Shi Ri saw that the undead army was about to storm into the city lord's mansion, he panicked and prepared to jump in to help immediately.

Liu Nian grabbed the bear by the tail: "What are you doing?"

"Help me!" Shi Ri turned around.

"Help?" Liu Nian rolled his eyes, speechless. "Who said we were here to help?"

Devourer of the Sun paused for a moment, his bear brain racing: "Aren't we supposed to drive away the undead and then move in?"

"So you do know we're here to take over Graystone Fortress!" Liu Nian released its tail.

"I know!"

"Then let me ask you," Liu Nian pointed into the city, "we'll break in now, help wipe out the undead, and then what?"

"And then we took over the city!" said Sun Eater as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"What happened to the city's original power?"

The Sun Devourer opened its mouth, then closed it again.

His original idea was that while the city still had resistance, they could help now, which would save a lot of trouble—the NPC guards would hold the city back while they suddenly appeared from behind, working together from the inside and outside, making it easy and pleasant.

But Liu Nian didn't care about that little bit of help at all.

What he wanted was to completely occupy Graystone Castle and make it his own territory.

Looking at Shi Ri's thoughtful expression, Liu Nian's lips curled up slightly: "Have you figured it out? If we go down to help now and drive away the undead, won't Graystone Castle still be the same NPC faction? The city lord will still be the same city lord, and the garrison will still be the same garrison. At most, we'll get the title of 'ally,' and even the right to garrison there will depend on their whims."

Devourer nodded, and the expression on the bear's face changed from anxious to thoughtful.

"But," Liu Nian raised a second finger, a cold glint in his eyes, "if the undead kill all the original NPCs in the city, kill the city lord, and scatter the garrison—and then we intervene and clear out the undead, who will own Graystone Castle?"

"Return...return to us?" The bear that devours the sun slowly opened its mouth.

"Right." Liu Nian patted the Sun Eater's butt. "In the end, those survivors might even thank us."