Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest-Chapter 279 - 77: Behind Enemy Lines, Corpse-Born Mud Sea
Chapter 279: Chapter 77: Behind Enemy Lines, Corpse-Born Mud Sea
The day for deployment had at last arrived. A pre-battle oath-taking assembly was held in the camp while the Allied Forces headquarters began assigning tasks.
As previously communicated, Huofeng Team was responsible for the conquest of the Mysterious Realm in the Mirror Lake of the Ailao Mountains, and most of the other teams were working with the Pingxi Army to set up defenses, intercepting the enemy forces moving north.
The opposition was primarily made up of civilian sorcerers, with no limitations on supplies like ammunition, and having suffered heavy losses under the long-range artillery of the Annan Army, they now operated in decentralized tactical teams of three to five, each acting independently, some without even a unified command or coordination… This decentralized situation was somewhat bothersome for the headquarters, inducing a feeling of vexation, as if “despite being overwhelmingly more powerful than the enemy, we are dragged down by the endless guerrilla tactics into a quagmire of policing conflict.”
Losing the battle was, of course, out of the question. But even if 99% of the Transcendents were eliminated, allowing the remaining 1% to infiltrate could still cause considerable damage. And since the sorcerers possessed various unfathomable and unpreventable spell techniques, there truly wasn’t a better means to deal with this handful of cockroaches, each hard to kill and selected from a hundred miles around.
To put it in a metaphor, it was like humans dealing with cockroaches in a house—easy to kill a roach, but cleaning them out completely is quite challenging.
After discussions and assessments by the superiors of the Privy Council, a rather aggressive tactical plan, codenamed “Champion Marquis,” was ultimately developed.
In imitation of the historical event involving the Champion Marquis Huo Qubing of the Han dynasty, the plan involved penetrating enemy territory to launch a surprise decapitation strike on the Witch King’s headquarters, forcing the Witch King to call back a significant number of troops for defense, thereby greatly relieving the defensive pressure within the borders.
Of course, the Sorcerer Alliance Army as a whole exhibited a decentralized tendency. Many civilian Transcendents joined the northward movement in pursuit of cultivation resources not to protect the Witch King, so one couldn’t expect a single decapitation strategy to solve everything.
Both the “Champion Marquis Squad,” tasked with the decapitation strike, and other teams working in consort with the Annan and Pingxi Armies within the territory, were to face an unprecedented rigorous test.
The Champion Marquis Squad needed to act like the tip of the spear, and it goes without saying that they required only the best members.
The Zhenghai and Qingan teams, comprising a total of 11 members, akin to two special forces squads, would cooperate and act in concert.
Thus, the Privy Council had officially authorized orders, placing “Longcheng Flying General” Yan Yu in charge of leading the team, granting him full authority for all decisions during the operation, with the primary goal of suppressing and beheading the Witch King, permitting lethal action both domestically and abroad.
Upon receiving this authorization, Yan Yu wasn’t particularly surprised; it was as expected.
The Privy Council of his former life always adhered to this heroism mindset: in order to protect as many civilians as possible, lower-level cultivators were to intercept the enemy, while higher-level cultivators took on the higher-risk decapitation tasks… The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility—the hero is expected to give more, even to sacrifice more.
This mode of thinking diverged sharply from foreign perspectives. For foreign Transcendent powers, the more senior the Transcendent, the more valuable they were considered and the more they needed to be preserved in combat, whereas defenseless civilians could be sacrificed without a second thought.
It’s hard to say which mode of thinking was superior. Even though Yan Yu himself upheld the heroism of protecting the country, he couldn’t deny that sometimes this mindset was fatal: for instance, the death of the Valkyrie in his previous life was a damn huge loss.
Enough about that.
In this life… I will shoulder the burden, I will give permission, I will bear the weight of Lu Country!
After receiving the orders, everyone quickly left the headquarters and rose into the sky on their swords.
“Old Yan,” Li Zhaojiang said with deep meaning, “we’re following you this time, so you better act the part of the big brother well.”
“Okay,” Yan Yu replied indifferently, “First on the battlefield, I’ll send you.”
“What? We trust you as our big brother, yet you want us to bear the brunt when things get tough?” Li Zhaojiang pretended to be dissatisfied, “Rebellion! The brothers will revolt and turn the tables fiercely!”
“Okay,” Yan Yu remained calm, “then I’ll change and send your sister instead.”
“Dammit!” Li Zhaojiang was stunned and exclaimed, “So, making it tough for a woman, huh? You really have the guts, Yan Yu!”
“Ha, getting worked up again.”
“Enough, Ah Jiang, stop joking around,” Li Minghu finally spoke, “Yan Yu, what are we going to do next?”
“Find the Witch King first,” Yan Yu answered.
That said, the problem was that the Witch King wouldn’t be walking around wearing a sign on his head inscribed with “I am the Witch King” in four large Lu Country characters.
Modern decapitation missions often rely on intelligence infiltration, like having intelligence on someone’s whereabouts and then following that intelligence to carry out a decapitation.
But conversely, without intelligence, it would be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the Witch King.
“I’ll contact the Annan Army for more intelligence support,” Li Minghu said in a deep voice.
“No need,” Yan Yu waved his hand, “Don’t trouble the military intelligence personnel at the front line. I have my ways.”
What ways? Shark!
Don’t underestimate this creature; it’s a precious experience concluded by countless cultivators from a previous life. The principle lies in the fact that the top leader of a Transcendent’s power is often the strongest Transcendent in the group.
As long as you relentlessly Shark, intensely Shark, chaotically Shark! If you Shark the lower-level Transcendents into a field of corpses, if those above don’t show themselves, morale will crumble; if they do emerge, then you can capture them, follow the leads, and find their heads… In this manner, layer by layer, it would take at most five or six tries to lock onto the very top leader.
It seems that the structure of Transcendent powers is actually quite flat.
Hearing Yan Yu explain this, everyone secretly felt relieved.
Apart from the transcendent skills cultivated, everyone was essentially like college students who had not yet entered society, lacking in life experience and social savvy. Confronted with this kind of situation, they were utterly at a loss, not knowing where to start.
Yan Yu said we do not need to do anything but Shark. That’s perfect, it’s exactly what we’re best at!
Thus, everyone’s spirits were lifted, and following the highland terrain, they moved southward, quickly crossing the border line.
The Southern borderlands were densely forested, with public roads and dirt tracks interwoven, with climbing vegetation severing these paths in places. Some areas still had large craters left by artillery barrages, but there were no signs of current fighting—it may have been traces of battles between mortal armies and civilian Transcendents, with the former now wiped out.
A heavy fog suddenly arose in the distance, a dark teal color, rolling in with the wind, and in nearly the blink of an eye approached the group.
“Land,” Yan Yu quickly telepathically ordered.
Everyone immediately descended with their sword light, swiftly dropping below the canopy of trees, the sound of rushing wind and rustling leaves above them as if a tide of countless insects was sweeping past.
The toxic miasma of Green Saint.
Similar to the “Eternal Night Curtain” of the Northern borderlands of the past, the Sorcerers of the Southern border had also cultivated almost endless varieties of miasmas, not only to help them shield from satellite surveillance but also to completely lock down air superiority—even drones entering it would corrode to nothing. If a sword-control cultivator carelessly fell into it, they would be reduced to bones instantly.
Luckily, the miasma seemed to be uncontrolled for now, merely roaming about aimlessly. The group landed in the forest and evaded the pursuit of the Green Saint miasma, only to see that below was a rotting swamp, its stench assaultive.
Countless dry tree roots twisted and contorted like deformed limbs, winding through the foul and filthy mire, with a mass of bones partially visible within them, swarming with flies as if at a grand feast. This sight sent shivers down the spines of the cultivators and made them feel nauseous.
Before setting out, they had received intelligence from the command headquarters that this was the “Sea of Corpse Growth” created by the wicked magic of Sorcerers, which was generating the various miasmas that now plagued the Southern borderlands.
The birth of each Sea of Corpse Growth required the flesh and blood of a large number of mortals as sacrificial offerings. The massive expanse of bones and mire underneath the group’s feet signified that at least tens of thousands of “offerings” had been driven here from nearby villages like cattle, only to be brutally slaughtered by dark and wicked magic.
Such Seas of Corpse Growth, large and small, now covered every corner of the Southern borderlands, for a reason that was even more brutal and direct: the warring Sorcerer powers, incessantly fighting and killing each other. If you have a Sea of Corpse Growth and I do not, you can freely summon the miasmas, launching a war of extermination against me, so I must also create a Sea of Corpse Growth, regardless of the slaughter it entails!
The girls, witnessing this hellish and tragic sight, all showed signs of disgust, rejection, and sympathy; Li Zhaojiang and the other men, however, were indifferent—after all, it wasn’t their kin who had been massacred; what did it have to do with them?
Only Yan Yu slightly frowned, sighing inwardly.
The wild growth of civilian Transcendents meant endless internal strife and cannibalization. Behind “every person practising and gaining power” lay mountains of the weak and dead. Wasn’t the paradise of a few cultivators a hell for the countless mortals?
I, Yan Yu, lack great wisdom and can’t design a social system that allows Transcendents and mortals to live together in harmony.
All I have is a Huang Tingjian sword, ready to send you all to hell. Where is the Witch King?
He turned his head and signaled, and Xie Ruoxi stimulated her True Yuan, sending a bolt of lightning into the mire ahead, creating a thunderous uproar.
Son after, a Witchcraft Squad, alarmed, came floating over from the distance on a sullen breeze to find the culprit who had disturbed the Sea of Corpse Growth… Seeing the multitude of suspended sword lights in the air, they were instantly taken aback.
“Kill,” Yan Yu ordered dispassionately.
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