Chapter 264 - 157: Meat Grinder 3
"Besides, regardless of whether Mei Yuan has been parasitized, his current points aren’t enough to get him on the leaderboard anyway."
"That’s because his powerful heroes and soldiers have all been parasitized. The Combat Points from their battles don’t go to him—they all go to the Eye Demon."
"So, Mei Yuan, who is doomed to fail the second stage, doesn’t care about his soldiers at all."
...
Hearing Li Hua’s resolute voice, the lords fell silent.
A battle like this was completely outside their calculations.
They just wanted to earn some points and try to get on the leaderboard. But if their soldiers suffered too many casualties, even if they made the leaderboard, they’d just get taught a harsh lesson in the third stage. In that case, it would be better to just take their points and retire for the season.
(The third stage is a confrontation stage, featuring constant combat.)
"Lord Li, if that’s the case, I think..."
"Hehehe, you want to quit, don’t you?"
"I’m sorry, but my territory only has so many troops. If I lose them all here..."
"Besides, all the soldiers fighting right now are ours. Why haven’t you and Lord Lin Yu sent anyone into battle?"
Li Hua thought for a moment, then replied, "Hmm... Since you’ve asked, I’ll be blunt."
"The main reason Lord Lin Yu and I haven’t deployed our forces is for your own good."
"If we joined the fray, you likely wouldn’t get a piece of the action."
"But if you insist we fight, that’s fine. Just don’t blame us for not giving you a heads-up!"
Hearing this, the lords couldn’t help but look at each other in dismay. A wave of whispers spread through the main camp.
"He’s just bluffing, right? He makes it sound like the two of them could annihilate the entire Northern Expedition Legion by themselves."
"Yeah, I’m on the leaderboard too, and my territory is well-developed, but even I wouldn’t dare say something like that."
"I don’t know, it might actually be true. Who here has seen Lord Li Hua and Lord Lin Yu’s true strength?"
"Hiss... Now that you mention it, I guess no one has."
"Exactly! Look, everyone knows Lord Li Hua and Lord Lin Yu are strong, but does anyone know the true extent of their power?"
"We have a better idea about Lord Lin Yu. We know he came in second in the legion confrontation, so his soldiers’ strength and quality are definitely far superior to anyone else’s here."
"Plus, most of us have hired soldiers from Lord Lin Yu’s territory as mercenaries to fight off invasions. Their strength is plain to see."
"Their area-of-effect capabilities are especially powerful, and those are just the troops Lord Lin Yu makes available for hire."
"But if Lord Lin Yu is so strong, why wasn’t he on the February leaderboard?" a lord asked.
"I know about that!" another lord responded. "Back then, Lord Lin Yu hadn’t gotten a good Recruitment Office yet. He spent all of January and February selling resources. I even bought a lot from him. I thought he was a fool at the time, but I never expected him to have such a stroke of incredible luck and get a good Recruitment Office."
"Okay, but even if Lord Lin Yu’s soldiers are powerful, it’s useless if he doesn’t have enough of them, right?"
"And what about Lord Li Hua? Everyone should be familiar with him. He’s always used the public Recruitment Office."
"Lord Li Hua’s strength isn’t his soldiers, it’s his heroes, okay? Didn’t you see that secretly recorded video of him during the invasion? A hundred or so heroes just casually wiped out all those Beastmen?"
"Then... Then..."
"Then what? I think you’re just jealous! You’re the only one who’s been questioning them this whole time. If we didn’t believe in Lord Li Hua and Lord Lin Yu’s strength, none of us would have gathered here in the first place."
The leaderboard lord who had been raising objections fell silent. He had been trying to stir things up mainly because he wanted Li Hua and Lin Yu to act now, which would mean he wouldn’t have to send his own territory’s soldiers out. After all, he was already on the leaderboard and didn’t need any more Combat Points.
However, the ordinary lords didn’t think that way. They put their heads together and realized that with someone providing a backstop, it wasn’t a bad idea to clash with the Northern Expedition Legion and rack up some more Combat Points.
"Still, it’s not good for us to just keep stalling like this, is it? We’re the ones losing out in this war of attrition!!"
"For now, it seems okay. The casualties are within an acceptable range."
"But this is only the first day of the real war!!"
"Sigh, let’s just take it one step at a time~"
...