Chapter 483: Cruel Battlefield

"So..."

Saladin withdrew his finger, "They can only bet, bet that the defensive line can hold, bet that we won't find their hidden location so quickly."

He looked around the audience, the corners of his mouth under the shroud seemed to hook into a cold arc:

"Then, how should we respond to this 'expectation'?"

After a brief silence, a Tier 7 wizard of the Chaos Secret Sect spoke slightly excitedly:

"Take the initiative to attack, find their hidden location, and destroy it before they complete the trump card!"

"Correct, but not entirely." Saladin shook his head slowly, "Finding the hidden location is a must, but sending a large army to attack directly is too risky... Who knows how many traps and defenses those hidden old foxes have set up in their hiding place?"

"If we fall into a bitter battle there, and the main force on the Plane Nuolun workshop defensive line takes the opportunity to kill out, we will fall into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts."

He paused and said the real plan:

"My suggestion is—two-line operation."

"First, arrange some Tier 6 wizards to lead mid-to-low-tier combat power to conduct 'harassing attacks' on the Plane Nuolun workshop defensive line every day. The purpose is threefold: one is to attract the opponent's attention, making them think we are still obsessed with frontal breakthrough; second is not to let them live too comfortably, to continuously consume their energy and resources; third is to observe the changes inside the defensive line at all times, to prevent the opponent from secretly transferring troops or playing other tricks."

"Second, and most importantly: draw elite Tier 5 and Tier 6 wizards to form reconnaissance teams, using our current position as the center, and search radially outward."

Saladin's finger drew sectors on the battlefield situation map:

"Each sector is arranged with three to five reconnaissance teams, each team led by an experienced Tier 6 wizard, equipped with four to six Tier 5 wizards who are good at concealment, tracking, and survival."

"Their mission is to find the hidden trump card deployment location of the Plane Nuolun workshop. But at the same time, they themselves... are also 'bait'."

"'Bait'?" A wizard muttered, immediately understanding his idea.

"Yes, bait." Saladin's voice was colder by a few points.

The wizards present basically all reacted.

If the Plane Nuolun workshop discovers that the coalition side is looking for their hiding place, what will they do?

Undoubtedly, they will definitely intercept and clear the reconnaissance teams as much as possible on the outer periphery.

And this gives the coalition information—by counting the 'death rate' and 'loss of contact rate' of the reconnaissance teams in each sector, they can inversely calculate in which directions the Plane Nuolun workshop's interception power is mainly concentrated.

Whichever direction the reconnaissance team suffers the most miserable losses, and whichever direction the loss of contact speed is the fastest, it means that the Plane Nuolun workshop has invested the most interception power in that direction.

And why invest heavy troops to intercept in that direction?

Of course because... that direction is close to their real hiding place.

Thinking through this plan made the eyes of the wizards present light up.

Simple, but effective.

"Of course, the cost of doing this is..." Saladin's voice had no ups and downs, "Even with us Tier 7 wizards sitting in the rear, ready to support at any time, the death rate of those Tier 5 wizards acting as 'bait' will probably soar to an exaggerated level."

He paused and added:

"Conservatively estimated, the final survival rate of Tier 5 wizards participating in reconnaissance missions may not exceed ten percent."

Ten percent.

This number made some wizards of the Chaos Secret Sect frown.

This death rate is already close to the death rate of newcomers participating in plane wars for the first time.

The problem is that in this way, what dies is not the newcomers who can produce a large number every few years, but the real elites who have survived multiple rounds of screening.

But Saladin's next words made their frowned brows relax again:

"However, thinking from another angle—Tier 5 wizards who can survive this high-intensity reconnaissance battle, regardless of strength, mentality, or luck, absolutely have the qualifications to be promoted to Tier 6. This is equivalent to... using the enemy's power to screen the seeds with potential for us again."

"Those who survive will be the real elites. Those who die... just consider it a necessary sacrifice for the war."

Cold, but rational.

This is the wizard's way of thinking.

After a brief silence, the Tier 7 wizards present nodded one after another.

"Agreed."

"Can be executed."

"I also agree."

The high-tier wizards quickly reached a consensus, and the orders were quickly summarized and issued.

Three days later.

Plane Nuolun workshop defensive line, Fortress No. 7.

After 72 consecutive hours of uninterrupted construction, the entire steel defensive line had completely "come alive."

The energy circuits between the hundreds of fortresses were completely connected, and the completeness of the super-giant composite defensive array reached 97%.

The pale golden shield changed from the original translucent to an amber color like substance, the thickness increased five times, and the number of runes flowing on the surface reached twenty times that of the start of the war.

Looking down from high altitude, this defensive line is like a golden Great Wall stretching across the grey-white wasteland, emitting heart-palpitating energy fluctuations.

Inside the fortress, Ke La Ke stood in the newly expanded control room, looking at the three-dimensional projection sand table that had expanded five times, his brows slightly frowned.

On the sand table, the golden area representing their own defensive line was as stable as a mountain.

But on the periphery of the defensive line, especially in the circular area 100 to 500 kilometers away from the defensive line, dense red light spots were constantly emerging, disappearing, and emerging again like locusts.

Those were the "harassing troops" sent by the Chaos Secret Sect and the Tower of Extinction.

The number was not large, each time ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions, with Tier 3 and Tier 4 as the main ones, mixed with a small amount of Tier 5.

Their tactics were very disgusting—not launching a frontal strong attack, but dispersing into dozens of small teams, approaching the defensive line from different directions, releasing a few rounds of long-range wizardry when entering the edge of the turret's range, and then retreating immediately.

By the time the fortress's turrets were charged and aimed, they had long run out of the optimal range.

If people were sent to pursue, they would fight and retreat, leading the pursuing units into the preset trap area.

Previously, even a Tier 6 wizard fell because of this.

The Plane Nuolun workshop side was not without plans to support, but just as they were preparing to reinforce, the opponent's high-tier wizards also had synchronized actions.

After all, the Tier 7 wizards of both sides... and a certain Tier 6 wizard who was a bit over-standard were monitoring each other, which could be said to be pulling one hair and moving the whole body.

And although the Plane Nuolun workshop side had Ke La Ke, a powerful combat force, the overall combat power was still at a disadvantage.

If they started a war away from the defensive line, the winning rate was worrying.

What's more, the wizards of the workshop all received orders to delay time as much as possible, and starting the general decisive battle in advance was not a rational choice.

So the Tier 7 wizards could only sit still.

And if they ignored those low-level wizards of the coalition, they would be like flies, harassing 24 hours a day without interruption, so that the wizards on the defensive line could not get a moment of peace.

"Typical fatigue tactics."

In the center of the control room, Dionysius Spencer hovered in mid-air, looking at the red dots on the sand table, his voice showing no emotion:

"The opponent knows that a strong attack won't work, so they switched to this kind of harassment that consumes energy. On the one hand, they don't let us build peacefully, on the other hand... they are also probing the reaction speed of our defensive line, looking for possible loopholes."

Ke La Ke nodded, but his gaze was cast towards the more peripheral area of the sand table.

There, the blue light spots representing their own reconnaissance teams were constantly contacting, exchanging fire, and disappearing with the deep red light spots representing the enemy reconnaissance units.

The intensity of those battles... was terrifyingly high.

"The reconnaissance battle on the periphery has been going on for two days." Ke La Ke said in a low voice, "According to statistics, the frequency of encounters between our reconnaissance teams and enemy reconnaissance teams has increased by 300% in the past 24 hours. And... the battle loss ratio is very unsatisfactory."

Dionysius was silent for a few seconds and spoke slowly:

"The opponent is looking for our 'hiding place'."

Ke La Ke's heart tightened.

As one of the core operators of the fortress defense system, he certainly knew—a part of the Plane Nuolun workshop's Tier 7 wizards and 500 Tier 6 wizards were not on the defensive line.

Where they went is top secret, and even the vast majority of Tier 6 wizards do not have the authority to know.

But everyone can guess that those missing high-tier wizards must be carrying out some kind of crucial "trump card deployment."

And the enemy clearly noticed this and began to search crazily.

"Our troops are insufficient, and the units that can be dispersed are limited. If this continues, even if we stop the opponent, they can calculate the approximate direction based on the casualties." Ke La Ke said in a deep voice.

"So the reconnaissance teams we sent out have two missions." Dionysius's voice was very calm, "First, find the enemy's possible 'hiding place' similar to ours. Second... intercept and clear the enemy's search power in all directions as much as possible, and try our best to delay the speed at which they find our hiding place."

"But in this way, the battle intensity in this area will rise rapidly."

As if to verify his words...

On the edge of the sand table, a blue light spot representing their own reconnaissance team, after being besieged by three deep red light spots, flickered violently a few times, and then...

Extinguished.

That meant, an elite Tier 5 wizard... had fallen.

Dionysius Spencer turned his head to look at his junior brother whose expression was too calm: "If I remember correctly, those two students of yours also voluntarily applied to participate in the battle, right? Aren't you worried about them?"

"These two little guys have good qualifications, it would be a pity if they were lost."

Ke La Ke nodded expressionlessly: "It's okay, they both have resurrection items."

Dionysius Spencer, who originally intended to comfort his junior brother, choked hard upon hearing this.

He wanted to speak but stopped, stopped but wanted to speak, organized language...

Finally, he made a "tsk" sound and left here with a mouth full of sourness.

On the sand table, another blue light spot was extinguished in the encirclement of deep red light spots.

But immediately after, new blue light spots flew out from the defensive line, throwing themselves into that peripheral area soaked in blood color without hesitation.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 484 =====