Chapter 256 - 154: The Fate of the Northern Expedition Legion Is in Our Hands
The next day. Three days remained until the end of the month!
After an afternoon and a full night of debate, compounded by the failure of last night’s raid, the peripheral lords finally made up their minds and split into two factions.
About two-thirds of the lords chose to relinquish control of their armies. Most of these lords were poorly developed, with scores far too low to make the leaderboard, destining them to return to Cuiwei Star after this phase.
They didn’t care about troop casualties; their greatest desire was to earn more points so they could return to Cuiwei Star and live a life of leisure.
As for the remaining one-third, they consisted of a few lords whose scores were just shy of the leaderboard, and a handful of opportunistic leaderboard-ranked lords like the four Xiong Family brothers, who were just there to fish in troubled waters.
The rest of these lords had grown attached to their territories and couldn’t bear to see their soldiers used as cannon fodder. Furthermore, they were pessimistic about the Northern Expedition Legion’s chances in the remaining few days, believing the legion had no hope of victory.
The lords unwilling to hand over command split into two groups. One group, like the Xiong Family brothers, volunteered for marginal reconnaissance and patrol missions, dispersing to the legion’s periphery.
The other group paid 20% of their earned points to officially leave the Northern Expedition Legion.
Having consolidated the Northern Expedition Legion and gained command of all soldiers present, Mei Yuan felt confident once more in his ability to break through the Sniper Corps.
Of course, it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t break through. As long as he could inflict some casualties on the dozen or so leaderboard lords on the other side, and counting the territories of the Human Race leaderboard lords he had conquered along the way, he would have considered his mission a success.
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At the first light of dawn, the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Legion began to move. A small number of troops followed their lords and headed out to the flanks. They would move along the foothills to the base of the mountain pass, preventing the Sniper Corps from sneaking down from above.
Another group of Northern Expedition soldiers struck their camp and followed their lords toward the forest behind them.
Since they had already left the Northern Expedition Legion, Mei Yuan didn’t fully trust them, even though their units still contained parasitized heroes. He demanded they retreat to a location more than 50 kilometers away from the legion—a hilly area outside the forest.
The main force began to assemble under Mei Yuan’s command. Today, he planned to launch a probing attack to test the strength gap between the Sniper Corps and his own forces.
Meanwhile, in a forest at the base of the mountain pass.
A dozen or so core (parasitized) lords stood with their agile and Mage-type units, gazing up at the cliff face above.
A small black dot was falling from above. Upon closer inspection, it was the figure of a person.
A moment later, the figure landed on the ground, a long, thin rope trailing behind him.
"Reporting! The climbing rope is in position. No danger detected above."
After he landed, dozens more people descended one after another, each carrying a long rope.
Once everyone was in place, dozens of ropes now hung down the steep, smooth cliff face.
These were the soldiers who had climbed to the summit bare-handed under the cover of darkness last night, aided by the Mages’ Magic, to conduct reconnaissance.
"Good. It’s finally done," said a man who appeared to be the leader among the lords.
"Unfortunately, it’s already bright out!"
"But it’s fine. We’ll climb slowly, one person per rope at a time. That way, even if the Sniper Corps spots us, they won’t easily notice."
The soldiers lined up behind the ropes and began climbing, one by one.
Nearby Mages thoughtfully cast a Light Body Technique on each soldier.
From the Sniper Corps’ position, the distant, smooth, steep cliff face was now dotted with small black specks. They were utterly inconspicuous against the rock.
Anyone who saw this scene would have overlooked it.
However, there are always exceptions. A bored Lin Kong stood on the observation tower of the Central Army Camp, accompanied by Shadow, using his territory’s newest high-powered telescope to observe the Northern Expedition Legion’s every move.
This was no ordinary telescope. It used Magic Runes internally, allowing the user to zoom in on the view. It could see much farther and more clearly than any standard optical telescope.
In a world where the average soldier’s attributes were many times that of a normal human, an optical telescope’s range was actually shorter than that of some expert sentries.
"Huh, why are some of the Northern Expedition Legion’s troops retreating?"
"Hm? And there are people heading to the base of the mountains. Are they that brazen? Running over there in broad daylight, aren’t they afraid we’ll intercept them?"
’Let me check those cliffs. They couldn’t be trying to sneak a climb, could they?’
"Well, what do you know? They actually are!"
"Shadow, quick, look! They don’t even have flying units. They’re climbing by hand!"
"Are we just going to watch?"
"It’s fine. Just notify Yuan Xiaobo and his men. Tell them to intercept. I’ll report to Lord Li Hua in a bit. We gave him a set of these telescopes too, so he might have already seen it. This will save him the trouble of sending someone to ask me."
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On the mountaintop, Yuan Xiaobo had reverted to his original form, staring boredly at the clouds below.
"If only I could see through these clouds. Then I could sit here and watch the show."
"Give me a break. With your personality, if you saw the fighting below, you wouldn’t be able to sit still for a second."
The speaker was Yuan Xiaobo’s father, Yuan Dafeng. As a veteran Legendary Hero of the Monkey Race, he had come along this time to act as Yuan Xiaobo’s Personal Guard and attendant.
"So, when are you getting married? Your mother and I are waiting for grandchildren!"