Chapter 50: The Methods of King Duoyin
Northern Border Main Battlefield.
After the ‘Yatade Wall’ was destroyed, this area became a contested region between Duoyin and the Northern Border.
Although Duoyin and the Northern Border had attempted a temporary alliance to eliminate the Wolf Cavalry Legion, the war between the two sides was no pretense.
Originally, the Chaos Legion was the common target of the Six-Tribe Alliance, and Duoyin and the Northern Border had barely achieved peace. But with caution against potential betrayal, both sides secretly developed their strength while beating down the Chaos Legion.
Currently, the Chaos Legion’s population had fallen below 5 million. Even with a vast territory, this population deficit couldn’t be remedied in just a few years, or even decades.
Neither Duoyin nor the Northern Border worried about the Chaos Legion making a comeback within decades. Instead, they saw each other as the true rivals.
To secure their dominant positions, both Duoyin and the Northern Border had raised massive armies within their territories. The resource consumption of combat units differed greatly from that of civilians.
Given their current troop levels, if Duoyin and the Northern Border didn’t settle their conflict, within a few years at most, they would both decline from supporting too many soldiers.
In other words, the current situation was already predetermined. After the Chaos Legion’s fall, a war between Duoyin and the Northern Border was inevitable.
The destruction of the ‘Yatade Wall’ accelerated this process, pushing both sides from probing skirmishes directly into a decisive battle.
The Northern Border wouldn’t engage in a war of attrition with Duoyin; the Chaos Legion was a bloody example.
As for coexisting with Duoyin, that was even more impossible. The Lizard Clan was the most typical lesson. Once prosperous, they had occupied the entire Eastern Border of the continent.
The Lizard Clan revered the power of ‘crystals.’ The famous ‘Eye of Modifak’ once stood in the Eastern Border, a landmark of the Canglong Continent.
At the height of the Lizard Clan’s power, Duoyin, the Northern Border, and the Elf Clan were all insignificant. If the Lizard Clan hadn’t been obsessed with mysticism, they would have long dominated the Canglong Continent, driving other races to its fringes.
The Lizard Clan didn’t do that. They saw themselves as ‘walking guardians,’ doing their utmost to maintain the continent’s balance—until Duoyin gradually grew strong.
Without war or invasion, as time passed, the Lizard Clan’s glory faded, until the ‘Eye of Modifak’ collapsed.
Everything seemed so natural, yet it sent chills down one’s spine. An ancient, mysterious, and neutral transcendent civilization had gradually declined.
Many historical scholars suspected that Duoyin’s techniques were actually derived from the Lizard Clan’s crystal power, then improved upon.
Even so, when the Dark Lord·Agamemnon rose, the Lizard Clan’s secret mages still charged to the front, beating the Grey Orc troops black and blue. Unfortunately, their numbers were too few.
Today, the Lizard Clan had become a small-to-medium race on the edge of the Eastern Swamp. They held a seat in the Six-Tribe Alliance mainly due to their ancient heritage and mastery of crystal power.
This was the fate of peaceful coexistence with Duoyin. As for the Northern Border’s Ice Descendants, they lived in bitter cold, and the concept of survival of the fittest was deeply ingrained in their bones. They would never accept the Lizard Clan’s fate.
Su Xiao stood on the back of the Demon Flame Dragon·Barbatos, overlooking the main battlefield below. Last night, he had destroyed a 35-kilometer stretch of the ‘Yatade Wall.’
At this breach, the total troops from both sides exceeded 3 million. Some areas were in chaotic melee, while others had established temporary defensive fortifications.
Both sides wanted to drive the other back, but neither could gain the upper hand for now. The Northern Border’s Ice Descendant warriors were naturally stronger than Duoyin’s soldiers—that was their advantage.
Don’t think Duoyin’s soldiers were weak. Their starting point was lower, but during the war with the Chaos Legion, they were the absolute main force. Over 98% of Duoyin’s soldiers had been on the battlefield, 70% had experienced multiple wars, and 40% were veterans who had crawled out of piles of corpses.
The current situation was what Su Xiao wanted. The plan returned to its previous state: first, join forces to beat down the Northern Border. Once they were crippled, it would come down to whose backstab was more precise and ruthless.
A whistling sound approached. A massive fireball flew past Su Xiao, dozens of meters away, and he could still feel its scorching heat. Duoyin’s war machines were troublesome.
The Demon Flame Dragon·Barbatos let out a roar and flew toward the rear of the battlefield. When they returned to their own camp, Su Xiao saw that the Wolf Cavalry Legion had completed its assembly.
Su Xiao planned to attack the Northern Border, not only to deal with their Heavy Hammer units but also because Duoyin’s Holy Emblem Knight Order would soon become enemies as well.
Moreover, Su Xiao needed to earn battle merits in the Northern Border. After defeating the Elf Clan, he thought he no longer had to worry about battle merits, but now it seemed Yueshitu was a troublesome opponent.
Su Xiao currently had 3.86 million battle merits, while Yueshitu, in second place, had already obtained 2.98 million. This was somewhat unexpected for Su Xiao.
Yueshitu’s battle merit growth was peculiar. When Su Xiao gained merits, it was in bursts of tens of thousands, even over a hundred thousand. But with Yueshitu, it was like an electricity meter ticking—changing every second.
Su Xiao really wanted to figure out one thing: where exactly was Yueshitu getting these battle merits?
The current battlefield was only this Northern Border main battlefield. Baha had scouted and reported that Flame Master, Gulu, Huanghai, and a few others were the most active.
Aside from these people, Baha hadn’t seen any other active contractors. This gave Su Xiao the feeling that he and Yueshitu were competing on ‘different channels.’ He couldn’t affect Yueshitu, and Yueshitu couldn’t affect him.
Rumor had it that Yueshitu was a summoner, the type where one person was an entire legion. But Su Xiao hadn’t seen any legion, only Yueshitu’s skyrocketing battle merits.
It was the same with Huishenshi earlier. Clearly not at the front lines, his battle merits had still surged, even far exceeding the number of orc casualties. But a few days ago, Huishenshi had given up and stopped earning merits.
For Su Xiao, this wasn’t good news. Huishenshi being so well-behaved meant he was either in the Northern Border’s Frost City or in Duoyin’s capital. If there were any lucrative opportunities here, that guy would have come out to cause trouble.
Assuming Huishenshi really was in Frost City or Duoyin’s capital, could he discover the Void Tree Fruit first and seize it ahead of time?
So for Su Xiao, Huishenshi suddenly stopping his schemes was definitely not good news.
Putting that aside for now, Su Xiao wasn’t actually too worried about Huishenshi obtaining the Void Tree Fruit.
How did Huishenshi compare to Tuanzhang? Before Tuanzhang went to the Void to seize the ‘Void Tree Fruit,’ he had already discussed it with Su Xiao. If Tuanzhang succeeded, he would find a way to get the corresponding formula and have Su Xiao help him process the fruit.
In Tuanzhang’s words, if anyone could bite into the Void Tree Fruit, he had to be notified. He wanted to see with his own eyes what kind of divine being could damage its outer skin without the proper formula.
If Huishenshi got the Void Tree Fruit first, it was simple: just keep hunting him down afterward. Huishenshi was a violator anyway, and Su Xiao was having trouble finding where the Void Tree Fruit was.
Standing on the dragon’s back, Su Xiao looked down. He ordered 100,000 Wolf Cavalry to hold their position while the remaining 500,000 would advance. This arrangement was to guard against unexpected events.
Su Xiao didn’t think he could foresee everything. If all 500,000 Wolf Cavalry were wiped out in the Northern Border, the remaining 100,000 would be his hope for victory.
Just as Su Xiao was about to order the full army to move, the diplomat·Difudun hurried over. Seeing this, Baha went forward to negotiate.
After a while, Baha flew back. The news he brought was that the King of Duoyin wanted to meet Su Xiao.
The content of the meeting with the King of Duoyin was his usual tactic: a beautiful princess was already prepared, waiting for Su Xiao to claim her. Such a straightforward approach could hardly be called a marriage alliance anymore; it was more like giving away an imperial princess.
In Baha’s words, this old bastard who kept giving away daughters—where the hell did he get so many daughters? Truly impressively virile for his age.