Chapter 266 - 158: Forceful Attack 2
However, Mei Yuan continued to send troops charging out. Although most of these soldiers died, they drew the fire of numerous high-tier ranged units from the Sniper Corps, allowing his other forces to trade blows evenly in the exchange.
Of course, this was a delusion on his part. Mei Yuan saw shields within the Sniper Corps’ ranks flickering out from time to time. Though they were quickly restored, he was certain that in the brief moments after a shield vanished, soldiers from the Sniper Corps must have been dying.
After all, it was what was happening on his own side. When a Shield Soldier’s shield was broken, the soldiers within the protected zone it maintained would be inundated by a sea of ranged attacks and killed instantly. Only when a second Shield Soldier stepped up to fill the gap would the area be safe again.
As for why the Sniper Corps filled gaps faster than his Northern Expedition Legion, he reasoned it was simply because the Sniper Corps was defending a smaller area, making replacements naturally quicker.
Seeing that the safe zone on his side was far larger than the one maintained by the Sniper Corps, Mei Yuan was quite proud.
"Keep this up. We’ll trade lives with them. We’re not losing out on this exchange anyway."
The Core Lords beside him were also delighted as they watched the battle. They hadn’t expected to pin the Sniper Corps down near its stockade from the very beginning. This was turning out even better than they had envisioned in their plans.
It was all thanks to the Sniper Corps’ commander’s foolishness, allowing the Northern Expedition Legion’s safe zone to expand nearly to their very front lines.
And so, with the Northern Expedition Legion believing it had the upper hand while the Sniper Corps was, in fact, gaining the true advantage, the two sides remained locked in a meat grinder—one that was chewing up the Northern Expedition Legion—for the entire morning.
...
By the afternoon, the ranged units on the Sniper Corps’ stockade walls had been rotated out several times, and every soldier in the entire corps had seen at least one tour of duty. To preserve the troops’ combat effectiveness, the safe zone maintained by the Shield Soldiers had been pulled back.
If not for the stellar performance of the ranged units on the walls, the Northern Expedition Legion’s ranged units would already be able to fire into the stockade itself.
"Lord Li Hua, we can’t go on like this!"
"That’s right! The Northern Expedition Legion’s forces outnumber us several times over. We can’t win a war of attrition like this. If we keep this up, once everyone runs out of stamina and energy, our defenses will be completely overrun in a single push."
(An ordinary territorial soldier, without special items, abilities, or Cultivation Techniques to replenish energy, needs to rest for ten continuous hours to fully recover.)
"Our energy-restoring items are almost gone. Don’t be fooled by how many soldiers the Northern Expedition Legion has lost; they still have plenty of troops who haven’t even taken the field, and all of them are fresh."
"If we keep fighting like this, it won’t be long before our soldiers run out of energy. Then, the million-plus of us here will all become lambs to the slaughter."
"Lord Li Hua, please, think of something!"
"If there’s no other way, we should retreat for now while we still have the strength to fight. Once our soldiers have recovered their energy, we can come back and resume the fight. Anyway, there are only two days left. This stage ends after tomorrow."
"Exactly. We need to live to fight another day."
"Don’t! Everyone, if you all retreat, what will happen to me and my brother?"
Hearing the lords begin to discuss a retreat, the two brothers, Zhao Yunxiang and Zhao Yunfei, grew anxious.
The other lords could retreat, but the brothers’ territory was located right at this mountain pass. They had no way to retreat. When the time came, the Northern Expedition Legion would surely take its anger out on them.
"Zhao brothers, you’re not on the leaderboards anyway. What’s the use of keeping this territory? Why not just abandon it?"
"Bah! If we wanted to abandon it, why would we have joined the Sniper Corps in the first place?"
...
Seeing the lords start to argue, Lin Kong began to think. ’My territory has quite a few specialty products that restore energy. I wonder if I can provide some support, give them the confidence to keep fighting.’
’(It’s not that I’m afraid of the Northern Expedition Legion. Even if the Sniper Corps collapses, they wouldn’t have time to attack my territory. But it would be a shame to let all the Combat Points the Northern Expedition Legion represents just get away.)’
’Many of the Spiritual Fruits in my territory have energy-restoring effects. The most plentiful are spiritual honey, Natural Essence, and the Water of Life.’
’Spiritual honey has the strongest continuous-recovery effect: +20% energy recovery rate, lasting for two hours.’
’In other words, if it would normally take ten hours to naturally recover 1,000 energy at a rate of 100 per hour, consuming spiritual honey would increase that rate to 120 per hour. It would then only take 8 hours and 20 minutes to be fully restored, saving 1 hour and 40 minutes.’
’It might not seem like much, but if a soldier possesses an energy recovery ability, like the Sun and Moon Breathing Technique or the Star Technique from Lin Yu’s territory, consuming spiritual honey boosts their energy recovery (or absorption) rate by that same 20%.’
’Not only does it accelerate energy recovery, but it also speeds up cultivation. It’s a highly sought-after commodity in Lin Yu’s territory, and many heroes use their battle merits to exchange for it.’
’Then there’s Natural Essence. The Natural Essence Manufacturing Plant produces a huge amount of it every day.’
’Based on quality and size, it can be roughly divided into four types: basic, intermediate, advanced, and superior.’
’They restore 1-10, 10-100, 100-1,000, and over 1,000 Spiritual Energy, respectively.’
’The main reason for the classification by range is that the recovery effect of Natural Essence isn’t precise; it doesn’t restore a fixed amount of Spiritual Energy.’
’However, restoring energy is actually just a side effect of Natural Essence. Its main purpose is to improve one’s constitution and enhance their life potential.’