The Whole World Focuses Here!

The Daiwa Settlement's radio station soon issued a statement to all of Azure Star.

The Emperor would lead one million Dahe people to attack the Raging Waves instance!

The Emperor called the force he was leading the "Dahe Raging Waves Expeditionary Army"!

He also hoped that outsiders would stay out of it. Anyone who was not a member of the Great He Clan and voluntarily applied to challenge Raging Waves next time would be making an enemy of the entire Dahe Settlement.

As soon as the news broke, settlements across Azure Star erupted!

Ordinary challengers would never get involved with an instance like Raging Waves. They couldn't get away from it fast enough.

Many challengers had already been terrified by the increase of Raging Waves' capacity to one million.

The larger the instance's capacity, the greater their chances of being randomly selected!

Judging by the previous two challenges to Raging Waves, many people had already become convinced of one thing: Raging Waves was simply unbeatable.

It was also full of tricks. One careless step, and they would fall into a trap and have a huge number of points forcibly deducted.

Many had all but resigned themselves to certain death if they entered, and had begun burning incense and praying early, hoping they wouldn't be selected.

Now that the Daiwa Settlement had claimed all one million challenger slots, everyone was only too happy to let them.

With help from all kinds of media in the Dahe Settlement, countless news stories about the matter began to spread online. It almost seemed as though they might even pull attention away from Lin Ye.

News articles and posts appeared one after another:

[The brave Great He people will rise at last after a temporary setback!]

[The Emperor unleashes his divine might in fury! A million-strong army sweeps across Raging Waves!]

[Get up where you fell. The Great He people will forever be invincible!]

[A battle of a million comrades: this will be the largest group instance assault in Azure Star's history!]

[Glory is at stake this time. The Dahe Settlement will wager everything!]

[The Emperor has not fought in over a decade. Today, he returns to the martial world to cut down Raging Waves with his blade!]

Perhaps the people of the Dahe Settlement wanted to wash away the humiliation Itō Hidetaka had caused, or perhaps they had found spiritual solace in their Emperor.

Countless members of the Great He Clan took to the streets to cheer the Emperor on.

"Long live the Emperor!"

"Long live the Emperor!"

"Long live the Daiwa Raging Waves Expedition!"

"Long live the Daiwa Raging Waves Expedition!"

High-pitched cries rang out across the Dahe Settlement. The settlement, which had been somewhat desolate, was boiling with excitement once more.

The people had made up their minds: they would keep waving their flags and cheering for the Emperor until the Raging Waves instance opened again!

For some inexplicable reason, the scene had an air of "the wind whistles and the Yi River runs cold."

Whether it was hype or a genuine outpouring of emotion, everything happening in the Dahe Settlement once again drove the excitement surrounding Raging Waves to a peak.

On one side was Lin Ye, the genius designer of the Great Xia people, and his Purgatory-level instance, which had broken countless Azure Star records the moment it appeared.

On the other was the Emperor, a top Great He Clan expert who had not entered an instance in over a decade, and his million followers.

No matter who won or lost tomorrow's instance assault, it would become an Azure Star legend!

For a time, all of Azure Star was fired up.

The Firmament seemed to recognize the mood on Azure Star as well and directly issued a new policy:

[Firmament notice: Dear challengers, tomorrow, all instances on Azure Star except "Raging Waves" will be temporarily closed. All challengers may freely watch the livestream of the Raging Waves challenge and learn from its instance design...]

The Firmament had actually declared an "amnesty"!

There were only two fixed amnesty days in a year, one called the "Yuan Festival" and the other the "Birth Festival," to commemorate the birth and passing of humanity on Azure Star.

On those two days, instances would not open, and challengers would not enter them.

Everyone could enjoy a brief spell of peace without living in fear for their survival.

Yet now, the Firmament had actually issued a policy similar to an amnesty day specifically for Raging Waves.

All these things coming together meant that when the instance opened tomorrow,

all of Azure Star's ten billion eyes would be focused on Raging Waves!

Inside the director's office at the Great Xia First Instance Technology Research Institute.

After seeing the news that the Emperor intended to attack Raging Waves of his own accord, Ding Chang grew somewhat nervous.

"My heavens..."

"Even the Emperor is going to enter the instance?"

He had considered the possibility that powerful experts might choose to challenge Raging Waves, but he hadn't expected it to be the Emperor!

The Emperor was LV4, a figure ranked in the top twenty of the Hero Ranking. He alone possessed a military force complete with naval, land, and air units.

Every LV4 challenger was a power who dominated their own territory.

Even more frightening was that the Emperor was bringing one million of his own people into Raging Waves with him.

It was easy to foresee that every one of those million would be among the Dahe Settlement's finest! Every one of them would be skilled at fighting in instances!

If Ding Chang remembered correctly, aside from the Emperor, the Dahe Settlement's Shogun had also advanced to LV4 five years ago.

The Dahe Settlement had been gaining momentum in recent years precisely because it had two LV4s holding the fort!

Two LV4s, plus a million carefully selected elites, amounted to the combined strength of an entire settlement.

As for Raging Waves, Ding Chang didn't dare say, since he had yet to see the technology used later in the instance.

But the other instances on Azure Star definitely couldn't withstand this "expeditionary army."

The only reason some instances had never been conquered was that their player capacities were relatively small.

"Xiaoyu, did you remind Lin Ye before to stay vigilant at all times and fix every loophole in the instance?"

"The Firmament really went too far... It actually raised an instance's capacity straight to one million! An instance capacity that large might not be a good thing for Lin Ye."

Zhao Jianyu had been urgently summoned to the office by Ding Chang.

"Teacher, I gave him every reminder I should have. Lin Ye said he was confident."

Zhao Jianyu answered somewhat helplessly.

"Confident? That was before the Emperor announced the assault, wasn't it?" Ding Chang grew somewhat agitated. "The situation is completely different now."

"These million challengers aren't unaffiliated individuals. They're a group, just like before!"

"And this time the commander isn't that Itō Hidetaka, but the Emperor!"

Ding Chang's heart was practically in his throat.

"The Emperor is a supreme expert supported by the entire Dahe Settlement. The military power at his command is immeasurable!"

"And the Shogun, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, and his subordinates all possess formidable combat strength and are exceptionally skilled at trading life for life..."

"There are also the Dahe Settlement's ninja. They're extremely good at staying hidden and assassinating key units in instances."

Ding Chang said a great deal, but in the end, Zhao Jianyu could only shake her head.

As the First Instance Research Institute, it had always conducted in-depth investigations and research into the experts of the various settlements.

She naturally knew that the Dahe Settlement had come prepared this time.

"Teacher, we understand all that, but it's impossible to ask Lin Ye to close the instance at the last minute now..."

"I also tried calling Lin Ye earlier, but no one answered."

Zhao Jianyu had called Lin Ye as soon as the Emperor made his announcement, hoping to tell him about some of the institute's research findings on the Emperor, including his combat characteristics and level of combat strength.

Unfortunately, Lin Ye's phone had remained in sleep mode with Do Not Disturb on.