The dull and explosive drumming that was full of self-contradiction echoed again. It was a sign that the reformists were about to launch another wave of attack.
Li Yao and the team snuck in through the intense smoke and blended into the army of the reformists.
After Li Yao’s decoration, their crystal suits were now rusty, riddled with holes, and stained with blood and mud, as if they had been fighting on the battlefield for half a month.
The identification system had been compromised by the two kids, who fabricated new identities for them. Unless their crystal suits were taken off, it was absolutely impossible to tell who they were on the messy battlefield.
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Li Jialing were all experts in using crystal suits. Naturally, there was not a problem for them to put on the standard crystal suits of the Imperium.
Li Xiaoming and Li Wenwen’s situation were trickier, but the two kids boasted the naturally-endowed technique of controlling spiritual puppets. Li Yao had specifically chosen two particularly short and exquisite medical crystal suits for them and modified the crystal suits by stuffing a lot of control units to help the limb movements. Then, the kids were able to keep up with the three of them.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before the troops attacked, the cannons of the two parties began to have a dialogue again.
To cover the charge of the infantrymen, the reformists had no time to bother with the weak defense of their cannon positions but revealed all their firing points to compete with the heavy cannons of the Kurfürst families.
The warships in the sky were also descending relentlessly against the stormy anti-air firepower, searching for the heavy cannons of the Kurfürst families.
Even though they could not annihilate the enemy, they still needed to disrupt the roars of the enemy’s cannons so that the soldiers on their side could march into the enemy’s defense line quickly, turning the battle into an inseparable mess. That way, the tragedies where half a legion was wiped out by a few heavy cannons would be impossible.
During the five minutes, at least ten thousand cannonballs left terrifying arcs in the midair.
The cannonballs were in such high density that many of them even collided into each other in the sky, resulting in colorful fireballs. The blasts spread out to all directions like storms.
The soldiers under the storm of cannonballs, despite the protection of their crystal suits, were still shuddering in fear like ants.
In both the armies of the reformists and that of the Kurfürst families, most of the soldiers and bottom-level officers were low-level Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage at best. So much as one or two cannonballs were to explode next to them, it would be the same as the full-strength strike of an expert in the Core Formation Stage or even the Nascent Soul Stage, which was too much for them.
In better cases, their internal organs were shattered, and their faces bled hard.
In worse cases, their crystal suits were torn apart, and they died the most miserable death.
Some of the least fortunate ones, who were at the landing point of the cannonballs, were directly vaporized without leaving the slightest residue.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun had calculated the trajectories and landing points of most cannonballs with their astonishing computational abilities and avoided all the destructive explosions, but they could barely keep themselves steady in the blasts. Their skin was stinging, and they felt bitterness below their tongue.
Xiaoming and Wenwen followed the adults, both confused and excited. Their eyes that were as clear as water and mirrors absorbed every detail on the hellish battlefield.
The self-brutalization of human beings, the marvelous dance of the broken limbs, the mix of blood and guts, the red mist that had been burnt up by the fierce fire, the screams, the moans, the cries, and the devastating roars… Everything they perceived turned into the special curves in their databases, shaping their souls and making them grow more or less like human beings.
Under the cover of the warships and the heavy cannons, the crystal suit legions of the reformists finally marched into the frontal positions of the coalition army of nobles again.
Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu!
The previously silent positions immediately turned into a burning forest. The crossfire outlined complicated mazes of death where countless vigorous lives were lost and obliterated. Their bodies that used to be brimming with hot blood fell like weeds blown by wild winds.
The first wave of troops that marched forward was crushed back, but behind them were the supervising team made of the veterans of the Deep Sea Fleet, who shattered the hope of escape of the defeated soldiers with a firepower a hundred times stronger, forcing them to turn around and march at the swirl of death again.
“The firepower of the coalition army of nobles is too fierce!”
Li Jialing couldn’t take it anymore. His body was barely wounded, but his nerves were almost breaking down. He was the first to shout, “The commander on the reformists’ side is so useless that he doesn’t know any way other than marching forward simply? What can it achieve except for reaping the lives of their own soldiers? What commander has Blackstar the Great chosen?”
“He is not useless. This is just a field training.”
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao analyzed the trajectories of the cannonballs in the midair, the firing point configuration of the defense line of the nobles’ army, and the movement of the reformists’ troops by his side. With extreme calmness beaming out of his eyes, he said, “Haven’t you discovered that the troops of the reformists are mainly the regular legions of the Imperial Guards, mixed with tremendous private troops of the local sects and nobles who have surrendered?
“Except for the few elites, the regular legions of the Imperial Guards are just mobs. The private troops of the local sects and nobles perhaps have some combat abilities, but their cohesion and loyalty cannot be guaranteed. It is impossible to train such troops into best warriors through regular approaches in a year.
“The greatest disadvantage of Blackstar the Great is the lack of soldiers. Other than the Deep Sea Fleet and the Astounding Thunder Fleet, he only has the few elite troops of the Imperial Guards who are capable of fighting. They are barely enough to defend the Empyreal Terminus Sector, let alone occupying countless planets in the vast space.
“How can you harvest most elites in the shortest amount of time? Through the bloody battles like what is going on here!
“The qualities of the bodies of the Imperial Guards are not bad. They belong to the royal family with the surname of Wuying after all. No matter how they are short of training resources, their conditions must be a hundred times better than the ordinary people’s. If you command a hundred of them to charge forward, not caring whether they will win or fail, as long as ten of them survive in the end, the survivors will be the fervent elites who will be both crazy and stubborn in the next battle.
“I finally understand why Blackstar the Great is slow to remove the enemy’s last base when he has controlled the entire capital. He regards this hellish battlefield as the best training ground and is asking the Kurfürsten’s troops to whet the Imperial Guards and wake up their brutalities that have been sealed for five hundred years for him!”
Li Jialing was rather shocked. “A hundred soldiers move forward, and only ten return alive… Is that an acceptable price?”
“Why not? You wouldn’t think that Blackstar the Great cares about his descendants whose last name is also Wuying, would you?”
Li Yao said, “I assume that in Wuying Qi’s eyes, his offspring are no more valuable than a few sperms. He may even be glad that some of the worthless descendants no longer get to waste his precious resources now!
“A well-trained army is better than a large army. The war against the Kurfürst families’ army is going to happen soon. He has to get a well-trained army as quickly as possible. Also, I may have exaggerated just now. The sky and the earth are both under Wuying Qi’s control right now. So, he can totally control the intensity of the battle. The casualty rate can’t be as high as 90%. It’s thirty percent to forty percent at most.”
Humans were not machines. At least, the humans of the federation and the Imperium were not. Even the most determined troop had to withdraw from the battle with a casualty rate of twenty to thirty percent.
However, with Wuying Qi’s brutality and his commanding arts, it was quite possible that he was really training the troops in such cruel ways.
Li Yao and his team, however, found their journey much trickier. They had to maximize their senses and computational abilities to look for the momentary windows in the impassable fire lines of the nobles’ army. Most critically of all, they had to conceal themselves well and prevent the two parties at war from noticing their weirdness. The best they could afford was that they were regarded as lucky dogs who survived disasters again and again.
Otherwise, if both parties in the war aimed at them simultaneously, it would be quite awkward.
The reformists launched several charges but failed to break in. They gained nothing after dropping thousands of bodies that were twisted with their crystal suits.
But it did not mean that they did not have more powerful weapons.
Under the cover of the few consecutive charges, weirdly-shaped crystal tanks were finally shipped to the frontline.
The turrets of the crystal tanks looked like silver pans. What they unleashed was not fatal heat or mystic rays, but soundwaves that entailed strong mental interferences.
“Brothers of the illegitimate Kurfürsten’s army, stop fighting for your master who is about to be crushed!
“Just look at the highest peak of the Netherwind Mountain behind you. While you are here fighting like caged beasts, your masters whom you pledge your loyalty to and who swear to bring you away with them, those shameless and heartless nobles, have already left with the wealth of the people that they have exploited during the past hundreds of years!
“They would rather load more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on the starships or even bring a few more pets than take you away with them! Please think about it. Is it really worth it to sell your lives for such masters?
“Look! One starship, another starship, a third starship! Every starship is taking away the high and mighty nobles, who can escape back to their nests and continue their extravagant and unaffected lives. But what about you? Are you going to die for the nobles when you have never enjoyed any benefits that the nobles promised?
“Wake up, brothers of the illegitimate Kurfürsten’s army, my dearest countrymen, and fellow Cultivators! We believe that most of you are the real Immortal Cultivators and the most loyal patriots of the Imperium of True Human Beings. You were just deceived by the unpardonable nobles!
“The door of the Reform Committee of the Council of Elders is always open to all the Immortal Cultivators and patriots. There’s still time to embrace brightness and justice. Your action will be regarded as ‘battlefield uprising’. But if you hesitate, your precious lives will really turn into meaningless dust!”
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