Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Luo Ying instantly understood what he needed to do at this moment.

Because in his field of vision, several lines of text clearly appeared.

"In the early years of Tianbao, following recruitment to Anxi, frequently engaged in battles, at that time the armies first used Mo Blades, all recognized Li Gaoling as capable.

"Enemy forces, a hundred thousand strong, lined up to the north. The enemy general issued a challenge. The official army pursued it, pushing them back to their formation. The enemy army advanced in unison, the official army retreated, and was taken advantage of by the enemy. The army fell into chaos, with enemies rushing towards the supply convoy. Li Gaoling said, 'If today I do not use myself as bait, the army will be utterly destroyed.' He then bared his flesh, took up a long blade, stood at the forefront of the formation, and loudly called for a spirited attack. Those who faced his blade, both men and horses, were shattered. He killed dozens. The formation was thus somewhat stabilized. Following this, Gaoling led the frontline army, each holding a long blade, advancing like a wall, leading the soldiers, and nothing could withstand their assault."

Clearly, this was the historical record that still existed of this battle.

It was obviously an improvement made by the designer of Dark Sand after going through the Cavalry Trial, applied to the game mechanics.

Previously in the Cavalry Trial, players were directly thrown into General Qin Kaiyun's battlefield to kill enemy generals without any textual hints.

Zhao Haiping had to consult historical documents after exiting the game to find the original texts.

But this time, Dark Sand's official release directly displayed the historical original text accessible to players.

Though it was in classical Chinese and not translated, it saved the players the time they would have spent consulting historical documents themselves.

For Luo Ying, this was clearly good news.

Obviously, Dark Sand's officials also figured out that for content with fixed historical documents available, there's no need to make players look it up themselves; just writing it out directly is better.

Of course, for large-scale trials in Trial Illusion that require solving puzzles, historical documents won't be provided, as that would both spoil the fun of solving puzzles and might lead players astray, limiting their creative thinking.

However, for smaller instances like the Cavalry Trial and the Commoner Trial, looking up historical documents isn't particularly challenging; a simple online search could yield answers.

The real difficulty in these instances lies in using the fragmentary records from historical documents to reimagine and recreate these awe-defying maneuvers in actual combat scenarios.

So, the officials simply provide the currently available historical documents to players, letting them figure it out on their own.

Luo Ying read through the content several times but felt no joy.

Just like during the Cavalry Trial, even having seen the historical text and knowing the approximate truth, he felt it was just like finishing a fantasy novel—completely unhelpful for making his way through the game!

The historical text from the previous Cavalry Trial could essentially be summarized as follows.

Gao Yi was a formidable warrior, and Qin Kaiyun led light troops in a raid. Taking advantage of Gao Yi's unformed ranks, Qin directly charged for the command flag and killed Gao Yi amidst thousands of troops, then broke out through a heavy encirclement.

It sounded simple, but actual attempts revealed it was nearly an impossible task.

And now, the text from the Commoner Trial wasn't much different.

"In the early years of Tianbao, following recruitment to Anxi, frequently engaged in battles, at that time the armies first used Mo Blades, all recognized Li Gaoling as capable."

This part talked about how Li Gaoling had originally joined the army in Anxi, where Mo Blades had just started to spread widely among the Anxi Army, and among those using Mo Blades then, Li Gaoling was the best.

"Enemy forces, a hundred thousand strong, lined up to the north. The enemy general issued a challenge. The official army pursued it, pushing them back to their formation."

This was the backstory of this great battle: the rebel elite force of one hundred thousand arrayed in the north, coming out to challenge and after a fierce battle were pushed back by the official army close to their formation.

This matched almost exactly with the scene Luo Ying had seen earlier in the Trial Illusion.

At this point, it was fairly safe to conclude that the rebel challenge followed by a retreat was likely a trap to lure the enemy. But the official army of the Liang Dynasty, greedy for achievements, had rashly advanced and thus was caught off guard by the sudden counterattack of the rebels.

"Enemy army advanced in unison, the official army retreated, and was taken advantage of by the enemy. The army fell into chaos, with enemies rushing towards the supply convoy."

This part described how the apparently retreating rebels suddenly turned around and attacked together, causing the Liang Dynasty's official army to fall back unable to resist. Amidst the confusion, the rebels took advantage and even made bold attacks towards the official army's supply convoy.

"Li Gaoling said, 'If today I do not use myself as bait, the army will be utterly destroyed.' He then bared his flesh, took up a long blade, stood at the forefront of the formation, and loudly called for a spirited attack. Those who faced his blade, both men and horses, were shattered. He killed dozens. The formation was thus somewhat stabilized."

This detail from the battle was the most extraordinary.

After shouting these words at the front of the formation, Li Gaoling straight away took off his armor, baring his torso, and took up a Mo Blade, standing at the very front of the formation and single-handedly fighting off the charging rebel elite troops.

And the result was, "Those who faced his blade, both men and horses, were shattered, killing dozens."

Moreover, there was no record of any injuries sustained by Li Gaoling in the historical documents.

From all indications, it's highly likely he was completely unscathed.

After all, with the armor off, whether hit by arrows, slashed by swords, or speared, it would result in either death or injury—it's almost impossible to continue commanding the battle like nothing happened, and the historical records surely would have noted it.

Since there's no such record, and he continued to command the battle afterwards, he was probably fine.

So, with his armor off, Li Gaoling single-handedly chopped down dozens of cavalrymen, not only remaining unharmed but also managing to shatter both men and horses together.

"Thus Gaoling led the frontline army, each holding a long blade, advanced like a wall, leading the soldiers, and nothing could withstand their assault."

The final part was not just about Li Gaoling's bravery alone, but the entire Mo Blade Team demonstrating their formidable prowess.