Chapter 2720

With the matter settled, Shopkeeper Wanyan and her two subordinates all thanked him and left.

Zhao Chi had no time to waste.

Although the blueprints for the Spirit Staff and the women's one-piece swimsuit were all gathered, ready to be activated and improved at any time, Penglai Town was still under a 3x time flow.

Zhao Chi really couldn't bear to waste this time, so he hurried back to Penglai Town.

Only now did he notice that the visitor permissions he'd just set for Shopkeeper Wanyan hadn't been used at all.

It didn't matter.

He called Zhuang Ya and immediately entered forging mode.

He went all out to make use of the 3x time.

It wasn't until 7 PM that the effect of the Taiyi Wheel Fragment finally wore off.

Zhao Chi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

【3-Day Forging List】

【Steel Standard Ultra-Heavy Type】:

"Mystic Maiden Armor" 1,300 sets

【List End】

The quantity wasn't much.

But actually, it was already quite a lot.

After all, Zhuang Ya had only been revived this morning; it had only been 13 hours since then, and forging with her had only gone through just over 3 production cycles.

If Zhuang Ya hadn't come, relying only on him and Tang Ruan, they probably could only have produced close to 1,100 sets.

Now in just half a day, coordinating with Zhuang Ya yielded over 200 more sets—Zhao Chi was still quite satisfied.

Adding these, they were still 3,000 sets short.

But it didn't matter.

The female soldiers still had 1,500 sets of crude and inferior Mystic Maiden Armor sets, all previously downgraded equipment that had been kept in storage as backups.

If war broke out they could still wear them—after all, even the inferior ones had 2,400 durability points, three times that of standard steel armor, plenty strong.

Apart from Zhao Chi's side, news kept coming from the front lines.

Zhao Chi was also keeping close watch.

Li Ruanyu and Shangguan Ting basically reported key information, involving the werewolves and the nobles.

Su Qin had no such channel; what she reported was specific frontline information, which also helped Zhao Chi complete the picture of the front-line situation.

Although Shangguan Ting did say some useless things today, most of her information was still very useful.

He didn't know whether it was because giving her those 2 energy points last night had worked, soothing her body and mind, or because the situation was different now, and she had finally gotten serious.

Zhao Chi thought it was both.

Based on their information.

It could be confirmed that the werewolves had redeployed 1 regiment and 1 brigade of troops, which had already thrust straight in from the east into the eastern and northeastern parts of Binghe County.

Stationed over there were the Juedi Regiment and 1 noble brigade.

Comparing troop strength alone, the werewolves held a huge advantage.

Even accounting for overall combat power, the werewolves' advantage was still considerable.

Coordinating with the werewolves inside Binghe County for a pincer attack, the Juedi Regiment and noble brigade could be said to be in extreme danger.

But the nobles had also sent reinforcements.

A full 2 noble brigades pressed in from the north, forming a standoff with the werewolf reinforcements.

After that, the werewolves sent another 1 brigade to support the reinforcements that had just arrived at the front—reinforcements for the reinforcements, so to speak.

So the situation was very chaotic.

At the very center was Binghe County.

Binghe County had a little over 2 regiments of werewolves. Surrounded by the Breaking World Army's 4.5 regiments, plus 2 friendly brigades and 1 noble brigade.

The werewolves were at a disadvantage, but the formation still had some residual power, and the allied forces outside didn't want to attack head-on.

Then, 1 werewolf regiment and 1 brigade came to support from the northeast and east, effectively sandwiching the Juedi Regiment and 1 noble brigade in between.

If the werewolves inside the county coordinated their attack, they would be in imminent danger.

But the nobles sent another 2 noble brigades, which from the north counter-sandwiched the werewolves' 1 regiment and 1 brigade, linking up with the sandwiched noble brigade into one contiguous zone—the werewolf reinforcements once again showed a disadvantage.

But now the werewolves had sent another 1 brigade to aid the werewolf reinforcements in the east and northeast, which made the situation here a stalemate again.

So it could be said the whole thing was a mess right now.

You in me, me in you.

This was a true case of pulling one hair to move the whole body.

Everywhere was too chaotic—once war broke out, no one could predict how things would develop afterward.

Overall, the werewolves showed a slight disadvantage, but they now had a slight formation advantage, giving them a slight edge when defending.

So all in all.

The two sides' strength was really about equal.

Neither side could foresee the final outcome of the war.

Outside the battlefield.

The werewolves were indeed contracting their lines, pulling 1 regiment of troops from the various villages and towns on the outside to reinforce the central area's defenses, so the nobles in the central 7 districts didn't want to touch them at all now.

The territories the werewolves evacuated from the outer areas were truly nothing but devastation—the formations were all destroyed, personnel captured or killed, nothing was left behind.

And because the werewolves were contracting their lines, their forces were relatively concentrated.

So the Tianwang Army, Taiping Army, Blade Army, and other resistance armies also found it hard to take advantage of the werewolves anymore—rash attacks would absolutely cost more than they gained.

Moreover, because the werewolf forces were concentrated at the center, the other rebel armies did not dare pull out too many troops to support the World-Breaking Army — after all, if they diverted too many, the werewolves could send out one or two full corps and wipe out those small and medium rebel armies.

The nobles had just occupied District 8 and were also consolidating their occupied territory, unable to divert any more troops.

Back to the front line.

The lords on the front line were also under enormous pressure.

The same was true for both sides.

In a war of this scale, the absolute advantage of high-ranking lords no longer existed.

Even a state-level lord couldn't hold out when besieged by several prefecture-level lords.

Moreover, prefecture-level lords on the front line were as common as cattle, and no longer worth much.

So state-level lords were also very cautious.

Only those extremely powerful nation-level lords could still afford to make a move.

They were truly strong, with that kind of capital.

But they were all locked in stalemate too.

Right now, no regiment or full corps wanted to take the initiative to attack.

Whoever attacked first would suffer the greater losses, and might even be wiped out entirely — that was plain as day.

Put bluntly, whoever struck first was the cannon fodder.

Taking the initiative to attack counted as the Vanguard Commander, and there would be legion rewards.

But the problem was you had to survive first to claim the reward.

And you also had to ultimately win — lose, and what reward is there to speak of? You'd lose everything down to your underpants, and might not even keep your life.

Apart from that.

Friendly forces… were just friendly forces.

In the end, they weren't your own people.

Everyone feared their allies doing poorly, but feared even more their allies doing too well.

Even within the World-Breaking Army they couldn't fully unite, let alone in this kind of joint force now.

The werewolf side was the same.

Zhao Chi didn't know the werewolves all that well.

But there were certainly plenty of disagreements and disputes within the werewolf ranks — no werewolf team would be willing to sacrifice itself.

So…

The entire battlefield looked grand and massive, yet it was very difficult for the final great battle to truly erupt.

Everything needed a fuse.

But every lord avoided becoming that fuse himself.