Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1267 - 1260: 9000 Camp

Chapter 1267: Chapter 1260: 9000 Camp

"Nine Thousand Battalion, are they tough to deal with?" Luo’er tentatively asked.

"Extremely tough. When the commanders of the Nine Thousand Battalion unite, all their armies become formidable. Fighting with them requires a much greater sacrifice to achieve victory," Zisu said seriously.

"Our current plan," Tuya suddenly spoke up, "as long as we can drive away the Dongsheng troops and stop them from advancing north, we should then cease hostilities. As for the southern part of West Outer Heaven, it’s best not to seek control."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible," Linglan Liu’s eyebrows inverted, her attitude firm, "West Outer Heaven is the Demon Clan’s West Outer Heaven, not Kyushu’s West Outer Heaven. If we can’t drive them out, then West Outer Heaven will become Kyushu’s West Outer Heaven. What will we have left to call home if the Dongsheng troops advance north again?"

"But as you’ve seen, with every counterattack, we’ve suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Dongsheng Empire’s private soldiers. If we keep fighting, the Demon Clan will be wiped out. Then, what would be the point of talking about the Demon Clan’s West Outer Heaven?" Tuya spread his hands as he spoke.

"To save the land and lose the people means losing both; to save the people and lose the land means keeping both," Luo’er murmured this phrase involuntarily.

The leadership of the Demon Clan seemed to fall into argument again, but as an outsider, Luo’er thought carefully, and Tuya’s words indeed seemed reasonable.

Meanwhile, the population of the Demon Clan is dwindling; just holding off this invasion from the Dongsheng Empire is an impressive feat. If they aimed to advance south and recapture the southern lands of West Outer Heaven, would that not be a waste of resources and lives? The Demon Clan has hardly enough people to bring misfortune anymore.

Thinking this, Luo’er couldn’t help but look at Zhuyan Yu. After exchanging a glance with her, Zhuyan Yu seemed to understand Luo’er’s thoughts, so she opened her mouth and asked, "If the enemy advances south but plans north, how should we respond?"

"Hmm?" Hearing her somewhat cryptic words, Luo’er was stunned.

Zhuyan Yu’s thoughts were partly in accordance with Luo’er’s, but also differed, such as she disagreed with the Demon Clan ceasing hostilities after repelling the Dongsheng troops.

The Dongsheng troops had traveled from Kyushu to West Outer Heaven with already half of their morale depleted, and due to the long journey, sustained logistics had become challenging. Only in these conditions does the Demon Clan’s army still stand a chance of battling.

If they let the Dongsheng Empire establish a stronghold in West Outer Heaven, they would use the southern part of West Outer Heaven as a base to conquer the Demon Clan. It would not be so easy to drive them out by then.

They might not necessarily be able to win a battle, but if they do not fight now, they would definitely be defeated in the future, a fact that Zhuyan Yu understood very clear.

So she also felt that even if this war repelled the Dongsheng troops, Abisien should not stop attacking. Even if they couldn’t overcome the Dongsheng’s private soldiers, they had to create enough trouble to prevent them from stabilizing production and to look for potential opportunities to annihilate or drive them out.

However, from Zisu’s description, Dongsheng’s Nine Thousand Battalion was not so easy to deal with. A phrase like ’commanders united’ essentially ruled out internal conflicts among the battalion’s leaders, so Luo’er definitely couldn’t use the same methods against the Nine Thousand Battalion that might work against the Dongsheng troops. The future battles remained a significant issue.

"Gentlemen!" Bai Po knocked forcefully on the table, stopping the leaders’ disputes, then spoke seriously, "Regardless, our primary goal currently is to repel the one hundred thousand strong army of the Dongsheng Empire. As for advancing south, let’s discuss that when the time comes."

He paused, then continued, "Now that we’ve received help from the visitor of the Western Continent, we believe that the Dongsheng Empire won’t be able to keep this aggression going forever. Someday, we will drive all of Kyushu’s people out of West Outer Heaven and reclaim our homeland."

Bai Po was quite authoritative among the leaders, so as soon as he finished speaking, the leaders halted their quarrels.

However, Luo’er also discovered that the internal dynamics of the Demon Clan were not as united as they appeared. The three leading tribes of the Beast-Ear Race seemed reluctant to drive away the Dongsheng Empire, only cooperating because the Dongsheng’s threat jeopardized their survival, prompting them to come and help defend Lingyuan City with the Beast-Ear Race.

What would happen next was challenging for Luo’er to predict, but regardless, for now, at least Abisien was united, and that was enough.

After a discussion, Luo’er gained a clear understanding of the generals of the Dongsheng Empire. He also thought of ways to deal with these two types of cultivators.

According to the description by the leader of the Demon Clan, both the Royal Dao and the Ba Path somewhat understand the principle of the Defense Shield, which is not actually complicated, and Feng had mastered it on her own.

However, it should be noted that not all cultivators of the Royal Dao can deploy a Defense Shield, nor can all from the Ba Path fail to do so; there is no logical connection between the two.

The Royal Dao cultivators are likely to deploy a Defense Shield, and if they do, the Yuanzi weapons might not be able to damage it, so timing is critical. The Ba Path cultivators are less likely to use a Defense Shield and often prefer close combat. Thus, if encountering such individuals, it would be best to engage them with close combat fighters, such as Feng and Cheng Ziang.

Whether Royal Dao or Ba Path, if someone is shot in the abdomen with a Yuanzi gun, they are essentially beyond saving. Their Inner Core would completely shatter, ending their ability to cultivate forever.

Thus, to combat these generals, Luo’er’s only reliance was on Yuanzi weapons.

In fact, Luo’er found Feng to be quite versatile. She used magic as her offensive tactic, which should categorize her under the Royal Dao, but since she was also trained by a former sword saint, her close combat skills were strong, indicating she could also fit into the Ba Path.

The two generals seemed to have mistaken her for a Royal Dao because they saw her using magic for attacks and chose to engage her in close combat. Unexpectedly for them, Feng’s combat skills were first-rate, and she effortlessly knocked them both down.

But, whether Royal Dao or Ba Path, once the battle started, the Advance Team could only rely on their Yuanzi weapons to fight, without much chance to engage these people directly.

Over the next five days, according to reconnaissance aircraft feedback, the Dongsheng army appeared to have completed their preparations for the attack, and the large force began advancing toward Lingyuan City.

Simultaneously, the Dongsheng army called forth nearly thirty more Kunzhou, seemingly intending to engage the aerial fleet in a decisive battle to the death.

To address this situation, Reimer ordered that the Helrandum be filled as much as possible with Magic Crystals, so that once the Kunzhou launched an attack on the Helrandum, he would immediately use the Yuanzi main cannon to shoot them down.

On the seventh day, the Dongsheng army reached Lingyuan City again, beginning the siege by surrounding it tightly on three sides with a hundred thousand troops and started building siege equipments; they were clearly serious this time.

However, because Lingyuan City was located by the river and the Demon Clan’s navy held an absolute advantage, the Dongsheng army could not completely surround the city. They could only watch helplessly as the Demon Clan ferried supplies back and forth across the river to Lingyuan City.

Though the Dongsheng army had many generals, rivers are not like land, and these powerful generals could still not guarantee they wouldn’t drown; thus, their naval force was one of the few advantages of the Demon Clan. Most of the time, the Dongsheng army could only watch the Demon Clan’s navy move under their noses, out of sight and out of mind.

As reinforcements continued to pour into Lingyuan City, the defending forces of the Demon Clan temporarily reached over sixty thousand, a considerable force for defenders. Without considering the generals of the Dongsheng army, such a force configuration alone would make it quite difficult for the Dongsheng army to conquer Lingyuan City.

Based on the enemy’s deployment, the Command Department of the Demon Clan keenly speculated that the Dongsheng army would either attack from one or two sides, but definitely not all three, as they didn’t have enough troops. Attacking on three fronts would surely lead to failure on all three, so they would certainly choose only one or two primary attack directions.

Considering the movements of the Dongsheng army, the city defenders needed to adjust their deployment at any moment, as it was likely that the Dongsheng generals would form a separate force and attack a relatively weaker side of Lingyuan City.

If these generals managed to breach the city, the defending forces of the Demon Clan would undoubtedly be thrown into disarray, and Lingyuan City would surely fall.

Fortunately, the leaders of the Demon Clan did not need to worry excessively about this issue, as the Advance Team and the aerial fleet had already volunteered. Should the Dongsheng generals attack from just one side, they would immediately act to curb the generals’ assault.