by Tinalynge
“The capital of Shenyuan is much like one of our cities, but instead of humans, it is filled with humanoid beasts. They all looked similar to humans but with distinct beastly features. I was allowed to live at the castle where the Queen of Shenyuan stays. I soon uncovered quite a bit of disturbing information. Shenyuan is divided into sixty-four prefectures, and each prefecture is controlled by a Lord of the Forest. For one to become a Lord of the Forest one needs to be a Saint ranked expert.”
“What?!” Disbelief was visible in everyone present. Everyone forgot that they were supposed to be quiet. They were all too shocked to hear that there were at a minimum of sixty-four Saints within Shenyuan. Having sixty-four Saints was far more than what the Siban Empire current had. The Siban Empire had at most half that amount. Although it was half Shenyuan’s amount, they had been arrogant recently as they had more Saints than any of the other three Kingdoms within the continent. Hearing that Shenyuan had this many experts, shock and terror filled everyone present.
“Your majesty, it gets worse,” Li Meilin said with a low voice. Her words instantly bringing the entire hall to silence. Everyone was looking at her with terrified eyes.
“The reason they allowed me to leave Shenyuan was because they were starting things which they did not wish for me to know about. There is within Shenyuan a person who is a half beast half human. This person warned me that Shenyuan is preparing for war. That they will either attack the Taiyang Kingdom or our Siban Empire. He is from the Taiyang Kingdom, and the reason he told me and helped me escape was for the sake of warning the Taiyang Empire. It is obvious that Wan Qiao, the beast known as the Queen of Shenyuan, plans on starting a war against us, humans, to expand their empire.”
Hearing this the face of the emperor turned pale, but it was not only him everyone in the building was now worried. If Sixty-four experts were willing to go to war, then who would be able to block them? According to their knowledge no one could do so.
“I doubt that they will take all sixty-four experts of Shenyuan to fight in the war,” She continued. “Shenyuan was always the target for the Taiyang Kingdom and us. If they were to leave it empty then the kingdom they do not attack is likely to go and attack them; however, their army will not only consist of Saints.”
“Each of these experts have ten thousand guards. These guards are not soldiers, but I imagine that they could easily be forged into soldiers. Let us assume that half the Saints will be used for the war then they will still have a lot of guards following. Although these guards are not soldiers, and although our army is more than four times as big, all their guards are either Kings or emperor ranked experts. When it comes to quality, theirs are far better than our army. We also have to remember that these experts are not human cultivators, all of them are magical beasts.
Li Meilin was very worried about their current circumstance. Her heart was beating erratically, and her eyes were closed shut as she wondered what punishment she would get given the bad news she was brought. However, when she snuck a peek at the exalted man in front of her, what she saw was not horror at these events instead he seemed to be pondering.
Silence prevailed within the hall, no one dared to speak After a short while with only silence, a few sobs could be heard here and there. Clearly the ladies of the upper class were terrified by the information Li Meilin just provided. Li Meilin, herself, felt her heart bleeding with worry and fear.
Finally, a long time after Li Meilin had finished her speech, the emperor spoke with an even voice and clear determination.
“We thank you for the information you have brought us.” He said. His voice booming through the silence of the hall, completely overshadowing the few sobs that were heard here and there. “We will meet with our generals and discuss how to handle this matter with these magical beasts. Although they are more numerous than us, we will not back down from the responsibility of protecting our citizens.” Hearing the emperor speak such words, all the nobles and officials within the hall felt elated. If those guards of Shenyuan chose to fight against their Siban Empire, it was not certain who would emerge victorious. Guards were not soldiers, and as stated previously although they were stronger, they still had more experts on their side. Even if the opponents were kings, although they were far stronger than Dukes, how would they win if twenty or thirty Dukes attacked them at the same time? Although most Kings would prevail, a battleground was no ordinary place. The emperor was betting on their ability to overrun the smaller army.
“Generals, heed me!” The emperor called out as he stood up, and around twenty men from the audience stepped forward; their backs straight and their faces serious. It was obvious that they understood just how important the meeting they were to attend would be. Stepping forward, each and every one of them bowed deeply to the emperor. After the men waited for the emperor to stand, all of them bowed deeply once more. The officials and the nobles standing in the room all kowtowed to the emperor, waiting for him to leave the room.
“Oh,” Standing, the emperor looked back for a moment as his eyes fell on Li Meilin, the woman who seemed young but who was an exalted expert. “Li Meilin, you are to follow Us. You are the only one who has ever been inside the Shenyuan jungle. Having your assistance will be a great help to Us.” He said with a steady voice before he went towards the door behind his throne. Leaving the room, the Generals and Li Meilin who were bowing, all scrambled to follow behind the emperor. Their heads lowered so that they would not look at the emperor in front of them.
Although this emperor was nothing but a Duke ranked expert, he was feared even by most Saints in Siban. The reason behind this was not only because of his high rank and his royal blood but also because behind him were two shadows. Shadows that no one would recognizes unless they themselves had the rank of a Saint. These two shadows were the emperor’s personal aides. When it came to strength, no Saint within Siban was their match. Even when it came to Shenyuan, the emperor had faith in his two shadows were capable of dealing with quite a few of their opponents. Although Lord Song whom he had sent to Shenyuan before was a Saint, he was nothing but the weakest amongst all his Saints. That he did not make it out was not shocking in the least for the emperor. What was shocking was that Li Meilin had made it out, and this was something which caught the emperor’s interest.
Chapter 246 - The Army Commanders
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Chapter 246: The Army Commanders
Waking up the following morning, Hui Yue felt both exhausted and excited. He spent quite a few hours preparing to meet the many experts and start preparing for war. He was going to speak with a whole training ground filled with Emperor ranked experts; experts who proved to be stronger than their peers, and he felt slightly nervous thinking about how he should go about it.
Dressing himself, the young man left the elegant rooms he had been given. As he left the room he found that the hallway outside was not empty as he expected, instead Lord Pan was standing there with Wan Qiao and a small group of lords. This took Hui Yue by surprise; it was completely unexpected.
Looking at them, he cleared his throat, “Excuse me; I am in a hurry this morning. How can I help everyone?” He asked perplexed. He was not certain why this many experts awaited his departure, but now that they were here, it would be rude not to hear what they wanted.
“Don’t mind us,” Lord Pan said with a hearty laugh when he saw the perplexed expression on Hui Yue’s face. “We are just here to see what you plan on doing with the many Emperors that are awaiting your arrival,” He continued his words showing the intent of all the experts by his side.
Hearing why the experts were here, Hui Yue felt slightly sour as he grumbled to himself, ‘I already have to deal with a lot of pressure, and now these lords think that they can come watching as though this is some sort of entertainment.’
‘This is a good thing,’ Lan Feng pointed out as he heard the grumbling Hui Yue. ‘When the lords are here they are most likely backing you with their strength. Having them observe what
is happening likely none of the Emperors would want to test your strength. Well, to be honest, I don’t think that this would happen. I do think that some of the Emperors will be jealous of you and your position, but they cannot show their jealousy as long as their lords are present.’
‘I guess you’re right,’ Hui Yue sighed as he looked at the guards. With a nod to Lord Pan, Hui Yue turned around and quickly left behind the group of lords who followed. The group was chatting amongst themselves with smiles on their faces. All of them were excited to see just what Hui Yue had planned for this group of guards that were waiting for him.
Walking through the castle, Hui Yue quickly made it to the training ground. Swallowing his saliva, his throat suddenly went dry when he saw just under a thousand Emperors standing in front of him. All of the emperors were looking at this young man. Some of them had a gentle smile on their faces, other of them appeared spiteful. Some looked serious while others looked as though they were being made fun of. But one thing they all had in common was that all of them were watching Hui Yue. Some of them started speaking together while others were quiet, yet as Hui Yue made his way towards the top of the arena, he could see all the Emperors and all the Emperors could see him.
“I am glad to see you all made it here today,” Hui Yue said with a smile on his face. He did not try to enhance his voice, all he did was speak. Not all the Emperors had quieted down, making it impossible for some of them to hear what was being said.
Hui Yue paid it no attention instead he continued, “I want everyone to split up. Thousand man commanders go over there. Two thousand man commanders move over here.” Both times he pointed to various places within the training ground; however considering that the Emperors were still speaking amongst themselves many did not hear what he said. The young man paid no attention to them and kept pointing out the locations for five thousand man commanders, and finally ten thousand man commanders. While he told the Emperors to find their location, only a few of them actually moved. Most of the others were still busy chatting amongst themselves, not paying attention to what he wanted them to do.
Seeing this, Hui Yue’s eyes darkened, and with a voice that was the same strength as before he opened his mouth, “Those experts who ignore me, I will just tell your lords that I have no use for you. If you cannot even follow a simple order, then there is no way I can make you into army commanders.”
Although this was said with the same strength voice as before, it instantly caused everyone who was mumbling amongst each other to quiet down and stare at Hui Yue. Some of the experts opened their mouth, their expressions were filled with disbelief, but as they looked at the young King that was standing on the arena, they saw a hard face which showed no signs of remorse. It was clear that he was completely serious.
Seeing this a sudden rush appeared in front of the stage and after only a few moments, all the experts had sorted themselves so that they were grouped together by which rank they had in the army.
“This young man is quite skilled,” One of the lords said as he saw how Hui Yue managed to make all the experts get in order. “Although our Emperors are unaware that we are watching, he is fully aware of it. To threaten them in such a way while knowing that we already are aware of what is going on. I cannot wait to see what he is going to do next.”
Hui Yue’s ice-blue eyes were merciless as they looked at the experts in front of him. Hui Yue was fully aware that these experts all looked down on him, and they were clearly unhappy that they had to follow his orders. Hui Yue, on the other hand, was unhappy that he had to deal with these so-called experts who had no knowledge about what it meant to go to war.
“I am here to teach you what it means to go to war,” Hui Yue said. This time, when he spoke no one else dared to interrupt him. They all shared the emotion that even though Hui Yue was weaker than them, he was someone who had been ordered here by their lords. If he were to say that they were doing badly, was that not the same as losing face for their lords? None of the guards could accept losing face for their lords. Due to this, they all listened to what Hui Yue was saying.
“In war what matters is not your personal honor, nor is it the honor of your lords. In war it is Shenyuan you are fighting for, and for Shenyuan you will become chess pieces who will make sure that we win the war.”
“Thousand man commanders, below you all the men will be split into groups of five. The main job of these groups is to make sure that they survive. Survival and teamwork are what they need to remember. In these groups of five, they are to work together to destroy the human waves that will be pushed towards us. By having five experts looking after each other, it should be impossible for the human wave to get even one of them with the others watching their back. Even if this feels like the powerful bullying the weak, this is war. At such a time there is no room for honor and dignity. Anything goes in war, as long as you can win against your opponent then anything is allowed.”
The words Hui Yue spoke caused many of the experts to look at him in dismay. These were cultivators not warriors. For them, battling against weaker enemies was already asking a lot, but to group together against weaker enemies was even more shameful. What Hui Yue asked them to do went against everything they believed in. Even the Saints who were standing further away and listening to what was being said had gone quiet.
Hui Yue, looked at the dismayed expressions and heaved an internal sigh. The pride amongst these guards was hard to kill. Making them understand that they could not duel their way to victory in war was even harder. To make them understand that they would have to team up to annihilate the soldiers was the only way Hui Yue could guarantee the success of this war; however, to make these proud cultivators change, Hui Yue was not quite sure about how to accomplish this.
Sighing once again, Hui Yue looked at the experts in front of him. “Do not think that war is a duel. This war is something we cannot afford to lose. We have to win and to win we need to use our strongest warriors to decimate the army of the Siban Empire. Although we are strong, the country we are up against has a very large army. As an empire, their army has been trained properly from the start. Every soldier is ready to throw away their lives for the sake of winning the war. They will launch suicide attack after suicide attack. For them, death is something they take pride in. They will keep attacking until they manage to kill even one of our experts. For twenty common soldiers to trade their lives for one King ranked expert, they would be thrilled. Tell me, although your rank is far above these common soldiers, are you able to throw away your lives for the sake of winning a war? Are you capable of attacking a Saint for the sake of killing him, even if it means trading your own life for his?”
Every word that Hui Yue spoke caused great shock in the hearts of the experts. For them, their lives were something they highly valued. They were still training on the path of being a truly supreme expert and wished to break through the bottlenecks they were experiencing. Training and reaching the pinnacle of power, becoming Saints much like their highly respected Lords.
Their hearts trembled as they heard what Hui Yue was saying. The fact that they were willing to trade their lives was something which required respect, and definitely, something which they needed to acknowledge.
“If you want to survive, if you want to win this war for the sake of your lords then you make sure that every group of five works together. They work together to stay alive, and at the same time to get rid of the army. We all wish to survive and cultivate after the war, but not everyone will survive. But, we can work together to lower the number of casualties.”
The experts who at first had looked at Hui Yue with disdain were now all nodding their heads. Their hearts which were filled with unwillingness and a feeling of their dignity being trampled were now filled with vigilance and worry. If a war truly was as dangerous as Hui Yue said, then it was obvious that they would need to change their normal way of fighting.
Even the Saints who were listening were frightened when they heard what kind of tactic
s the Siban Empire was likely to use. Numerous human waves were something that could be countered, but only to a certain degree. Using Wu Wei to kill many men was possible was a solution, but there was a limit to how many people their attacks could reach at a time. To have five King ranked together to protect each other was indeed something that would lower the casualty count of their army. Having listened to Hui Yue so far, the experts finally started to understand why a mere King was promoted as the Grand Marshall. This young man, who seemed to be a cultivator much like the rest of them, was aware of how an army thought and worked something which the Emperors had to admit that they were unaware of.
Chapter 247 - Tent Camp
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Chapter 247: Tent Camp
Having convinced the Emperors that the groups of five Kings fighting together was something needed for this war, Hui Yue did not need to deal with each and every King. They would be dealt with by the Emperors, and most likely in a way similar to how Hui Yue convinced the Emperors.
“Tomorrow I wish to speak to the entire army,” Hui Yue said. His voice resounding throughout the area and everyone nodded their heads. Without noticing, the young man whom they all looked down upon was now an entity whom they revered. Thinking things through, they were all unable to understand how this young man changed their opinions with only a few words, but the words he said made perfect sense. They felt that they were just scolded; that their way of life had been shaken.