Chapter 1813: Chapter 597: Dead End
A black and a white Xiang Pa slanted across the skies of the Demon World, with vast, clearly visible ring-shaped mountains spewing billowing clouds, casting cold and silence onto the earth; the vast Sacred Helm Plains seemed frosted over, with silver streams stretching for miles.
While Yi Tiao was indulging in merriment, Liu Zhenhuan had already arrived in the Demon World.
This place was a land of heartbreak for him, and he would have preferred never to come here again in his lifetime if he could avoid it.
Rescuing the Wolf Cavalry here was entirely Liu Zhenhuan’s personal idea; he didn’t consult with anyone, nor did he plan to.
Although he didn’t have a good relationship with the high-ranking members of the Wolf Tribe, as a representative of the God of War, every Beamon was like his own child. If he could prevent these Wolf warriors from becoming cannon fodder, Liu Zhenhuan wanted to preserve some sparks for the kingdom.
In this regard, Liu Zhenhuan was fully qualified as a warrior, but as a commander, he had not yet shed the mindset of a military warlord with a peasant’s mentality, something that His Majesty Sal had severely criticized him for.
“Feel heartache over a hundred thousand? Let alone a hundred thousand; even if a million or ten million warriors are consumed, you should remain indifferent to the sea of blood, not even bat an eyelid; that’s the psychological endurance of a senior commander!” His Majesty Sal imparted to Old Liu the most fundamental principle of generalship: “What is war? War is throwing pawns’ lives to pile up victory for the general! Since ancient times, what great general hasn’t treated lives as grass? Which one didn’t rely on initial consumption to inflict heavy damage on the enemy and their own forces, and finally secure victory with reserves?”
“What great general? Great generals are a bunch of cold-blooded butcher bastards!” His Majesty Sal’s words were still fresh in Liu Zhenhuan’s ears, yet he still couldn’t harden his heart, for a hundred thousand living souls were not a hundred thousand sheets of paper to be so easily discarded.
Even if there was only a sliver of hope, Liu Zhenhuan wanted to give it a try.
“Your Excellency…” The five Wolf generals saw the Shaman of Divine Songs staring at the moonlight overhead for a long time. They stamped their feet and rubbed their hands to blow out a puff of white mist, eager to say something, yet unsure of what to say.
For these Wolf Cavalry tasked with suicidal missions, the current situation was dire.
The order to advance into the Demon World was issued very hastily. Although the Wolf Tribe had previously carried out a total war mobilization, after the army entered the Demon World, a small oversight nearly cost the lives of all the Wolf Cavalry — the days in the Demon World were too hot, and the nights too cold!
The intense heat could be conquered, but the cold was deadly.
Among all Beamon warriors, Wolf’s ability to adapt and its tenacious character were undeniably first, otherwise, the kingdom would not have stationed them to guard the Florendon Saline-alkali Forest, the most barren land of the Aegean; but upon entering the Demon World, all Wolf warriors realized that the Saline-alkali Forest they lived in was a paradise.
To charge lightly, almost no Wolf brought any warm fur clothing, and on the first night in the Demon World, the stalwart Wolf warriors suffered heavy non-combat losses due to their inability to adapt to the cold environment.
Fortunately, Wolf carried multiple magic teleportation arrays and had convenient and fast communication conditions. Through the powerful relaying ability of the Seven-degree Gold Rings, the kingdom quickly prepared enough fur winter clothing to support the Wolf Cavalry within two days of entering combat, greatly alleviating Wolf’s pressure.
However, despite this, in just three days, due to the severe lack of cold-resistant equipment, they could only hug their mounts to keep warm, and nearly twenty thousand of the less robust Wolf Cavalry never awoke from the frozen wasteland of a foreign land.
This unforeseen leak caused the originally planned widespread harassment behind enemy lines by the scattered Wolf Cavalry upon entering the Demon World to be postponed, but once the winter clothing was distributed, the Demon Clan’s army would no longer give the Wolf Cavalry any opportunity to disperse and advance.
After seven battles of various sizes, the Wolves were now besieged by the Demon Clan’s superior forces on the Sacred Helm Plains, and their numbers had dwindled to over thirty thousand, making destruction inevitable.
“Obischillaci!” Liu Zhenhuan stared at the moon in the Demon World for quite a while, struggling to come up with a good solution to the current crisis.
The night in the Demon World was so cold that even urine would freeze upon hitting the ground, cold enough to turn waterfalls into glaciers.
In such harsh conditions, even the Demon Clan’s army wouldn’t launch attacks at night.
This was precisely why the Wolf Cavalry managed to survive until now. During the day, a part of Wolf was dispatched as a blocking force to protect the main forces’ retreat. In terms of speed, relying on the high mobility of their riding wolves, Wolf was no less swift than the Demon Clan’s air force. In terms of combat strength, although the Demon Clan’s air force was numerous, Wolf’s nets were not just for show; come night, everyone bunkered down to avoid the unbearable cold. Fresh chapters posted on NoveI(F)ire.net
However, with the formation of the Demon Clan’s encirclement, Wolf’s survival space was being nibbled away; on the boundless plains, even with wings, it was hard for the Wolf Cavalry to escape the Demon Clan’s onslaught.
Liu Zhenhuan brought along maps of the Coast Contribution Continent of the Demon World this time.
During his time at the Demon World Library, he had casually hoarded several sets of maps; however, they now seemed of little use because the measurements in the Demon World differed entirely from those in the Aegean. These maps had no latitudinal or longitudinal markings, making it impossible to use a ruler for map operations, and the reference points were too abstract to identify where precisely the Wolves were on the Sacred Helm Plains.