Yi E’s scalp tingled as he heard Yi An’s words.
“What’s going on! Why is the Third Legion heading to the City Lord’s Mansion?”
“I don’t know either. The message from below said a clansman riding a black fierce tiger led them to charge the City Lord’s Mansion, and they even killed some of the patrol guards along the way!” Yi An was panting heavily, whether from running or nervousness.
“Killed the patrol guards along the way? This Old Man Liu is rebelling! I wonder which young master that clansman is.”
The patrol guards were a unit established after An Chen Shang took office, primarily tasked with patrolling the entire city. Ostensibly for public order, everyone knew it was his surveillance force targeting factions that opposed his ascension.
In the nine divine cities, the descendants of the City Lords competed for succession. Apart from their private armies, none of the major legions of the Divine City’s military were allowed to interfere. This had long been an unwritten rule, and now it seemed Liu Ye was about to break it.
“Quickly give the order! Leave ten legions, a million men, to hold back these hundred thousand humans. The rest are to rush to the City Lord’s Mansion as fast as possible! Remember, just hold them back! Don’t be foolish and throw yourselves to be slaughtered! Do you understand!” Yi E’s eyes gleamed; an opportunity had arrived!
For ages, the Third and Fourth Legions had been stationed at the Great Canyon, facing tens of thousands of monsters from the Outer Heavens that strayed into the divine cities each year. Each of these monsters possessed strength between Rank Seven and Rank Ten. Besides killing, they had no other resources for cultivation and advancement. Thus, in a hundred thousand years, less than half of his five million soldiers had broken through a bottleneck, and only a hundred had broken through twice.
The root cause of this was the scarcity of cultivation resources.
Now, if Liu Ye interfered in the conflict between the young masters, it would be difficult for the City Lord’s current private army of a million men to resist. If he stepped in, An Chen Shang would undoubtedly seek his help. At that point, he would have leverage.
Whether he refused or agreed, he would have sufficient reasons to act, of course, depending on the price An Chen Shang was willing to pay.
In an instant, the Fourth Legion, which had been charging towards Zhou Ning Dong and his men, retreated like a tide in moments, leaving behind a million soldiers to continue the fight. The remaining three million-plus rushed towards the City Lord’s Mansion like a flood.
“General, what are they playing at? They were about to inflict casualties on us, why did they suddenly retreat?” the adjutant asked, bewildered, as his remaining health was less than a third.
Several of the outermost Blood Cows of the Stingers had even reached the critical health line.
“It’s likely something is happening on General An’s side. Support, bring back the low-health Blood Cows. Their main force has retreated, so we need to hurry and finish these guys off before meeting General An,” Zhou Ning Dong said with renewed vigor.
This enemy force, though not numerous, was truly ferocious. Almost every group of a dozen men would focus their attacks on a single individual, while the ranged units behind them, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands strong, would concentrate their firepower on one target.
Fortunately, these fellows retreated after less than ten minutes of engagement. Otherwise, the Stingers would have suffered casualties. Although hundreds of support units with resurrection skills were accompanying them, the moment one person died, the dam would break, leading to more deaths. And with only a little over a hundred support units capable of resurrection, how could they possibly keep up?
“Brothers, we don’t have much time! It’s a rare opportunity to have so many leeks delivered to our doorstep, so put in the effort! Maybe after this operation, our talents can be upgraded again!” the adjutant shouted into the command channel after hearing Zhou Ning Dong.
The gains this time were immense. Just from killing city guards, they had over thirty-five million. Coupled with previous kills, they had eliminated nearly forty million Dark Elves. The Dark Holy Stones obtained directly exceeded one hundred and fifty million! Although eighty percent had to be handed over, thirty million Holy Stones were still a terrifying harvest.
One Dark Holy Stone was equivalent to ten thousand Spirit Stones, which was one hundred trillion gold coins! Thirty million Holy Stones converted into gold coins was an unimaginable sum.
Roar…
The roars of over a hundred thousand mounts shook the heavens, and over a hundred thousand cavalrymen erupted. Time was already tight; at worst, they could just respawn.
Meanwhile, inside the Qitian Tower of the Dark Divine City, An Chen Shang had lost his composure from the start. He had become like a fierce beast ready to devour anyone, his eyes fixed on the battlefield and the Third Legion charging towards the City Lord’s Mansion.
“Damn you! Liu Ye, you old scoundrel, how dare you betray me, betray the entire Dark Divine City!”
“And An Chen Yu, why do you want to be a dog of the humans instead of a proper Dark Elf! You were lucky to survive; aren't you happy with that?”
“Someone! Give the order! All armies within the city are to converge on the City Lord’s Mansion. Anyone from the Third Legion seen approaching is to be killed without mercy! Furthermore, activate all defensive structures of the City Lord’s Mansion. I want these fellows to never return!”
These fellows, attempting…
The armies within the Dark City, apart from the city guards and patrol guards, also included various stationed security detachments. Although their total numbers were only two thousand, the number of stationed points within the city exceeded three thousand, totaling around six million.
In addition, after An Chen Yu took power, his private army, initially around two million, had expanded to three million.
This brought the total to six million!
This meant that if the First and Second Legions stationed outside were included, the number of soldiers deployable by the City Lord’s Mansion was close to seventy million!
Of course, these soldiers were secondary. The most terrifying aspect of the City Lord’s Mansion was its outer defensive structures.
Indeed, the City Lord’s Mansion covered an area of one hundred thousand mu, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a city within a city. Unlike Fengle City, where the entire city was enclosed by walls and defensive structures were built upon those walls, the Dark City and other divine cities had the City Lord’s Mansion enclosed by walls, with defensive structures positioned on the City Lord’s Mansion’s walls.
The primary reason for this was resource conservation.
Both upgrading the wall’s level and the defensive structures required endless resources. Let alone constructing tens of thousands of defensive structures like in Fengle City; even a thousand defensive structures would be extremely taxing for these natives. For them, it was more practical to cultivate millions of subordinates with such resources.
Even so, these defensive structures had been upgraded to Level Forty-Five over the countless years.