The setting sun was like blood, and the battlefield was filled with cries of slaughter.
Although the war had raged on for eight hours, the human and beastman soldiers were still full of vigor. This was not because their stamina was exceptional, but because waves of humans and beastn had already perished. Those who couldn’t keep up were long dead, and those still bathing in blood and fighting were soldiers newly reinforced from the rear of both camps.
Su Xiao continued to wield his blade, slaughtering enemies. Such large-scale warfare could easily drive a person mad, losing their sanity.
After slaughtering a short-statured goblin—sothing rarely seen on the battlefield—Su Xiao glanced around; no one nearby had noticed him.
With a thud, Su Xiao "fell to the ground." He wasn’t out of stamina; he was pretending to be a corpse to recover stamina. Although he fell, he still held his knife, ready to deal with any approaching enemy if exposed.
As soon as he fell, Su Xiao noticed sothing was amiss within the pile of corpses beside him.
A dwarf and two human soldiers were lying on the heap, not far from one another, all severely exhausted and recovering their strength.
The dwarf was covered by a beastman corpse, which was a decent camouflage, while one human soldier had intestines spilling from his abdon, and the other was half-soaked in a pool of blood.
"Hey, should we kill him?"
A tall, thin soldier nudged the nearby one-eyed soldier.
"Don’t talk. We might just make it until the war ends."
The one-eyed soldier’s face was sared with dirt and blood, and his singular eye kept darting around.
"I feel like that dwarf wants to hamr , better kill him. We have three people now."
It was clear that the tall, thin soldier had noticed Su Xiao pretending to be dead a few ters away.
"Don’t count ; I need to rest for a while."
On both sides of Su Xiao lay a beastman corpse; he was in a good spot.
"Coward of the Empire, who did you just call a dwarf?"
The dwarf spoke from three ters away but didn’t get up; the reason was simple—severe exhaustion.
"What, unhappy? Get up and hamr if you dare"
The tall, thin soldier sneered.
"I’ll fight you."
The dwarf within the pile attempted to stand. This was typical of dwarves, fiery-tempered and straightforward.
"Stand up if you dare."
The one-eyed soldier also sneered. The dwarf wanted to rise but noticed three pairs of eyes fixed on him. After hesitating, the dwarf squeezed further into the pile, deciding that staying out of sight was safer than venting anger.
The war continued, and with ti passing, the sky gradually darkened, and the light of fire illuminated the battlefield.
About an hour later, the sun dipped below the horizon, marking the start of the night battle.
Su Xiao stood up, and upon seeing him rise, the two human soldiers also got up. As for the dwarf, who knows where he’d crawled off to; he wasn’t foolish enough to stay here and die.
Su Xiao’s stamina had recovered considerably, and his previously sore arms were restored—these were the aftereffects of repeatedly using Ring Break.
The battlefield was brutal, but there were no deserters from the Imperial side. This wasn’t because the Imperial soldiers were exceptionally skilled but because there were five thousand supervisory soldiers with heavy crossbows stationed at the rear. Desertion would an imdiate execution, and besides, most soldiers had families; fleeing ant never setting foot in any city of the Empire again.
By now, there were no more soldiers locked in combat near Su Xiao, as the Imperial soldiers coordinated seamlessly and with effective command, giving them a significant advantage and pushing the tribal forces back.
"Soldier, why aren’t you at the frontline killing enemies?"
A dozen supervisory soldiers dressed in leather armor and ard with heavy crossbows approached from the rear. While overseeing, they also cleared out the pretending dead from the tribal army.
"Too tired from killing, taking a break."
Su Xiao turned and walked towards the frontline, a common sight for these supervisory soldiers, especially since they could sense Su Xiao’s aura, which was not one of a deserter.
"Soldier, have you eaten?"
An older supervisory soldier spoke up.
"Had a al in the morning."
Su Xiao was indeed quite hungry, having fought all day.
"Just right, we brought so dry rations. You two, join us."
The older supervisory soldier waved, inviting two other soldiers.
On this battlefield, filled with the sll of blood and various strange odors, a dozen people began to enjoy dinner. The dinner wasn’t lavish; it was a kind of pancake made from flour, at, and vegetables. Unlike pies, these were wind-dried, making it impossible to bite through if your teeth weren’t strong.
This is the exclusive dry ration of warti. The advantage is it’s easy to preserve, ready to eat, convenient to carry, and nutritionally balanced, helping soldiers maintain stamina. However, it has many drawbacks; it’s hard to eat. Imagine mixing flour, at, vegetables, salt, and water together, baking it, then wind-drying it—tasting good is out of the question.
After eating five marching pancakes, Su Xiao felt full and got up to head to the front line.
"Let’s go."
"Mm."
The supervisory team only nodded. The battlefield isn’t a good place for intersections. So veterans don’t even want to know the nas of the new recruits. Forming friendships with them is a terrible thing because you never know when the new recruits might die. Over ti, veterans on the battlefield choose not to mingle with them. After all, no one wants to repeatedly experience the feeling of a friend dying in battle.
The battlefield at night isn’t dark, with fires from explosions lighting it up, and occasionally, a green ’teor’ streaked across the sky, which was actually a Green Phosphorus Burning Bottle from the tribal side.
A few minutes later, human soldiers began to appear ahead of Su Xiao, and he quickly blended in among them.
Wielding a blade, slaughtering enemies, searching for the next enemy. When enemies were dense, use the Energy Blade. If they crowded together too tightly, Su Xiao would use Ring Break to clear the field.
Su Xiao noticed so soldiers nearby showed signs of fatigue in their eyes. It wasn’t physical fatigue; it was ntal fatigue.
Su Xiao didn’t have this feeling of fatigue because he tried to rember the characteristics of every enemy slain by his blade, reminding himself that he killed these people and he needed a firm will to bear it all.
Killing is a bad habit. Perhaps Su Xiao couldn’t quit it, but he wouldn’t let himself get accustod to this feeling, which is the trait of a killer.
After killing for an unknown amount of ti, Su Xiao’s hand grew sore from chopping, the nearby enemies gradually dwindled, and those surviving beastman soldiers began looking at him with strange eyes, filled with hatred, reluctance, and mostly fear.
"Bro... brother, that one under your foot is dead, stop stepping on it."
A human soldier looked at Su Xiao, couldn’t help swallowing. He seed to see a blue and red aura mix.
"Mm."
Su Xiao kicked away the orc corpse at his feet. When he looked up, he found the sky was turning white, dawn had co, and he had fought all night.
With sowhat sore arms, Su Xiao looked half a kiloter away at the Black Soil Fortress. This battle was almost over; the next objective was to capture that fortress. Once he captured the fortress, he could move freely in this world.
Around 8 AM, the Imperial Army encircled and slaughtered the last small group of tribal forces on the battlefield, marking the end of this day-and-night-lasting war.
The Imperial Army’s battle achievents weren’t as impressive as imagined. Of the 200,000 tribal forces, about 80,000 died on the battlefield, while the rest fled into the Black Soil Fortress. With the plain terrain and the enemy having a fortress at their rear, annihilation was impossible.
Su Xiao sat on a pile of corpses smoking, the deafening shouts of battle finally disappeared, replaced by the screams of the wounded from both sides.
The dical team, supervisory team, and logistics team quickly moved onto the battlefield. The dical team was responsible for treating their own wounded, the supervisory team for killing enemy wounded or captives, while the logistics team handled the bodies, directing captured orcs to dig pits.
Over a hundred thousand casualties combined for both the Empire and the tribe occurred in this battle. Unmanaged bodies could cause massive problems; environntal pollution would be minor. An outbreak of plague would be disastrous. Plagues always accompany wars because of improper body disposal. More people die from plagues than wars in this technologically backward world.
Friendly corpses were piled onto wagons like scrap, identified later, and their belongings were retrieved. Belongings that could identify the corpses were then sent to those soldiers’ families, while unidentifiable ones were absorbed into the military. Ultimately, the bodies were buried collectively, and officers had better treatnt, with the possibility to be sent back to their hotowns.
As for the enemy’s bodies, they were stripped first, everything of value was kept, and then the naked corpses were piled up and burned.
"Phew~"
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of blue smoke, holding a tablet, playing a ga that sohow appeared. It was a parkour ga, probably downloaded by Bubu Wang. No one else could touch Su Xiao’s tablet.
[Announcent: The enemy has successfully obtained the World Core. It must be reclaid within 20 natural days. After 20 natural days, the World Core will be fully activated.]
Receiving this shocking news, Su Xiao imdiately checked on Bubu Wang, whose vital signs were normal.
Su Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, then started to consider the next move. The situation was clear: the World Core must be reclaid within 20 days.
Just then, a ssage from Bubu Wang popped up.
"Master, steady. I have successfully infiltrated the enemy, and will soon steal back that shiny stone."
As soon as Su Xiao saw this ssage, Reincarnation Paradise’s prompt appeared.
[Announcent: Our side has successfully obtained the World Core. Please hold it for at least 20 natural days; after 20 natural days, the World Core will be fully activated.]
The cigarette in Su Xiao’s mouth fell; this was way too fast. He imdiately composed a ssage for Bubu Wang.
"Bubu, great job, keep it up..."
Before Su Xiao could finish editing his ssage, Reincarnation Paradise’s prompt appeared again.
[Announcent: The enemy has successfully obtained the World Core. Please reclaim it within 20 natural days...]
Su Xiao was completely dumbfounded. The speed at which they obtained the World Core was fast, but losing it was even faster. What on earth was happening over there? Or maybe Bubu Wang did sothing both hilarious and frustrating again. The most important thing—would that guy impulsively chew up the World Core?
Su Xiao sighed, he needed to sort things out quickly; otherwise, Bubu Wang might do sothing outrageous. When he’s not around, that guy is as unrestrained as a wild dog off its leash, to the point of making one breathless with his antics.
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