Chapter 378 - 9: Preparations of All Sides (Part 2)

Chapter 378: Chapter 9: Preparations of All Sides (Part 2)

It was possible to abandon one’s territory at this stage, but it was incredibly difficult to acquire a new one after giving it up. Without a territory, there was absolutely no chance of advancing. Before despair truly set in, the border lords were unwilling to voluntarily give up their hope of promotion.

The main things the lords discussed were how to coordinate and which lords would defend which locations.

Naturally, the 200,000 troops Yuan Xiaobo had mentioned were assigned to the center of the front lines.

Meanwhile, Li Hua, who was also in the meeting room, was assigned as the support team commander. His territory’s Sword Immortals had to be ready to provide support at any moment, and he was required to keep at least ten hundred-hero teams on standby.

Li Hua agreed without hesitation. The number of Sword Immortals in his territory had already surpassed ten thousand. Although he had fewer than ten Legendary Tier Sword Immortals of the highest caliber, he had as many regular Legendary Tier ones as they could possibly need.

During the lords’ discussion, various battle strategies were gradually perfected—which lords were responsible for which sections of the plains’ border, how to coordinate, how to provide support...

Li Hua listened from the side, quite satisfied. Although these lords no longer saw him as a big shot and he’d lost the respect he’d had in the previous stage, at least most of them were academy-trained. Their war strategies were methodical and well-structured, far better than a half-baked amateur like him.

’Only if they defend well can I feel at ease enough to go steal territory from the enemy’s rear.’

He was a little annoyed at being looked down on by these weakling lords, but ’if pretending to be weak makes them defend with all their might, then let them look down on me!’

...

Meanwhile, since Yuan Xiaobo had taken his men to fight on external battlegrounds, Mei Ying had no choice but to arrange for other heroes to lead the scouts and manage reconnaissance in enemy territory.

Besides Yuan Xiaobo, a Legendary Hero, the territory currently had seven other such top-tier Legendary Heroes: Chenxi, Mei Ying, Xia Luo, Manqiluo, Amuti Goodwin, Rose, and Zolt Hard. Including Yuan Xiaobo, that made eight in total.

(Dong Lin was an Epic Hero, and his personality was unsuitable for reconnaissance, so he was immediately ruled out.)

Among them, Chenxi, Mei Ying, and Xia Luo all held important positions within the territory. Under normal circumstances, they couldn’t get away and were definitely unable to lead the reconnaissance teams.

Manqiluo was currently commanding the plant-people within the defensive flora of the outer defensive perimeter. She had to be on standby at all times and also couldn’t leave.

Amuti Goodwin and Rose were leading legions in the northwest and northeast, respectively, making it inappropriate to send them to lead reconnaissance units.

Zolt Hard was the leader of the Fierce Raptor Druids. For the past four years, he had been holed up in the Jade Sanctuary, where he broke through to the Hero rank on his own, becoming the territory’s first troop unit to self-promote to the highest level of Legendary.

He was currently holding down the fort in the northern legion. The northern front faced an entire continent belonging to a single race, making it extremely important.

Therefore, even though he was a great fit to lead a reconnaissance team, he could not be allowed to leave the northern legion.

’Forget it. I’ll just send some from the Legendary tier.’

Mei Ying reviewed the territory’s top Legendary Heroes and found that every single one already had a task. In the end, she decided to choose someone from among the more common Legendary Heroes.

After four years of development, a great number of subjects in the territory had passed the Celestial Tribulation to become Demons, and many sprites had also evolved into elves.

Before Lin Yu finished the second stage of the competition and returned to Cuiwei Star, the territory had a total of over 6,000 heroes of various tiers. Four years later, the number of heroes in the territory had shot past one hundred thousand, and the growth rate was still accelerating.

Unfortunately, in four years, only Zolt Hard had broken through to become a top-tier Legendary Hero. Otherwise, the territory’s high-end combat power wouldn’t be so scarce.

’In the upcoming war, I need to have these heroes fight properly. It’s hard to break through when you just train in isolation and lack real combat experience.’

Mei Ying picked and chose from the vast number of Legendary Heroes, nearly going cross-eyed from the effort.

Among the one hundred thousand heroes, the lowest tier was Excellent Tier, which was also the most numerous.

(Subjects or troops of Ordinary and Fine tiers cannot pass the Celestial Tribulation to become Demons.)

(Sprites with insufficient potential that can only reach the Fine tier will directly transform into pixies, not elves.)

A minority of the heroes were Legendary Tier, but this was only a minority in comparison to the number of Excellent Tier heroes.

In reality, the territory had a full ten thousand Legendary Heroes. Trying to choose a few to lead reconnaissance teams was actually quite difficult—there were simply too many options.

In the end, Mei Ying could only pick a few familiar names from the Legendary Heroes on standby:

Kirkland Gordon—leader of the Sharp Claw Druids, promoted to Legendary Hero via the Hero Altar.

Pela Tek—deputy leader of the Fierce Raptor Druids, promoted to Legendary Hero via the Hero Altar.

Yuan Dafeng—Yuan Xiaobo’s father, of the Monkey Demon Race, a Legendary Hero.

Seven Stars—a Seven-star Ladybug of the Insect Race, a Legendary Hero.

These four Legendary Heroes would each lead a different reconnaissance squad, entering the enemy’s domain from different directions to gather intelligence.

...

At the border of the World Tree Territory, where it met the lands of three other races, a few figures passed through a tall forest and arrived at the edge of an abyss. After a brief moment of shock upon seeing the chasm, they began their respective activities.

In the western border forest, several short figures conversed quietly in the shadows. Upon closer inspection, one could see their pointed noses and long whiskers, making them look like oversized rats.

"As expected of a race the tournament deemed capable of taking on three others at once. This ability to manipulate terrain alone is beyond what an ordinary race can compare to."