Four Split Personalities

Motan didn’t think as much as Yizou did, which wasn’t because he was particularly easygoing, but rather because he had been subtly reminded of some matters before setting out. He was somewhat prepared and had conducted his own investigations into the Holy Church Union under another personality, uncovering some not-so-secret insider information. Thus, although he was outraged and frustrated after the incident, he did not allow anger to cloud his judgment, but instead quietly took note of the score in his heart.

Even Yizou could see who had orchestrated that previous ’accident’, but Motan had to admit that the opponent’s methods were rather sophisticated; so sophisticated that, on the surface, it seemed impossible for anyone to find the slightest fault.

Even he himself, who had always been on guard, only realized something was amiss when he was half a step into the ’trap’. In the end, he still couldn’t bring his team back unharmed. If he had not contacted Fire Yang immediately through the friends messaging system upon realizing something was wrong, and if Fire Yang hadn’t promptly organized a group of warriors to rush to the outskirts of Sumer at top speed, taking charge to lead everyone not to retreat but advance, they would not have disregarded the enemy’s expected retreat towards the ’conveniently’ fractured defensive line of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Instead, they boldly charged through the comparatively weaker left flank of the heretics, tearing open a breach and escaping towards the main peak of Sumer. Eight or nine out of these twenty people would have perished in that ambush.

Nevertheless, when Motan finally met up with Fire Yang, the nineteen people who had been following his commands had already suffered more than half in casualties, including Yizou, the strongest among the high order saint knights, who were all at the end of their strength. During the breakout, five holy knights from the Fertile Sect and the Church of the Dawn, and two priests from the Justice Sect went down. Six priests from the Sun Sect, after helping Motan and Yizou to rejoin the main force, resolutely took on the task of covering the rear and launched the combined divine [Red Sun Hexagram Formation] without consulting anyone. They managed to cover the retreat of their hastily responding comrades, sacrificing themselves for their faith.

In the end, only Motan, Yizou, four priests from the Church of the Dawn, and the youngest member of the team, Xue La·Qin Ke Bei Er, an eighteen-year-old apprentice priest from the Sun Sect who would turn eighteen next month, survived.

The other thirteen all perished in battle, with no survivors.

The frequently changing defense lines in the first month, the deterrent of seeking no merit but ensuring no fault, the combat exercise-like ’expeditions’ barely laced with the smell of gunpowder, the constantly adjusted detection sequences, the mixed support squads comprised of different sects, these superficial signs continuously dulled Motan’s vigilance, until he was finally led into a deadly trap.

The heretics’ predictable rebound, the logical contraction of the Northern Expedition Army’s Second Battalion, the naturally occurring changes in the outer four-layer defense, all these created a lethal trap.

Within a mere ten minutes, the support squad, which was just on a normal mission, lost all their cover and were completely exposed to the eyes of nearly a hundred heretics. Under the enemy’s subconscious restraint, they were forced to slow down, unable to return to the defense system that the Second Battalion had reconstructed on time, thus being left vulnerable to face the heretics’ long-gathered counterattack.

It was a meticulously planned murder that sent shivers down one’s spine, and yet it was a murder without any evidence.

Because the battlefield was transparent to every warrior of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and so were their adjustments and deployments. Therefore, everyone knew what they should do at any given time, and what their comrades were doing, with the entire command structure operating transparently and seamlessly, like a finely-tuned machine.

And it was this seemingly transparent system that was the brilliance of this murder.

Precision and rigor meant an error margin approaching zero, and such a plan was unrealistic from the start because humans are not machines. No one could achieve the impossible that only stands in theory.

But Motan was initially unconcerned with this issue because while it’s difficult to achieve those ’limits’ in theory, humans also have the ’flexibility’ that neither machines nor theory possess. Though oversights are inevitable, under normal circumstances, such as the changing of guards, if someone is five minutes late, at most it means the current guard has to stand for an extra five minutes. A little coordination is all that’s needed, after all, rules are rigid, but people are adaptable.

However, at a certain point in time, the ’flexibility’ that had always been part of the Northern Expeditionary Army’s strategic structure suddenly disappeared.

From... The moment when the twenty-person squad led by Motan departed their station.

The four-line defense structure continued to operate according to the established plan, but under the control of some, it quietly became extremely strict. The total of sixteen teams involved in the rotation and mobilization achieved a level of precision akin to that of a machine.

This naturally could not be considered a mistake, but Motan’s squad, which had already left the main force, did not expect the ’flexibility’ that had always been maintained would vanish the moment they departed.

And then, the long-prepared counterattack of the heretics arrived!