Chapter 244: Casualties

Lang Jiao submitted, her Divine Soul prostrating in total surrender, paying deep homage, and yielding to Meng Yifan.

In an instant, Meng Yifan's Soul Imprint shone with immense brilliance, like a small Greater Yang, suspended in the center of Lang Jiao's sea of consciousness; then, the light contracted, transforming into a brilliant stream of light that merged into Lang Jiao's Spirit Core.

From this moment on, the life and death of this Level 4 Lower-Tier Demon Beast were entirely within Meng Yifan's single thought.

Lang Jiao opened her eyes, looked at Meng Yifan with a complex expression, and said, "Master."

Meng Yifan put away the illusion array; Lang Jiao's headless clone picked up her head with its mouth, ran before Lang Jiao, and then turned into a flowing substance, merging into Lang Jiao's body.

The Shadow Clone Secret Technique is truly miraculous; although Lang Jiao's clone had its head severed by Meng Yifan, Lang Jiao still had a way to resurrect the clone, though it required consuming a massive amount of her Demon Power and life force.

Lang Jiao's true form possessed the combat power of a Fourth-level Lower Grade Peak, but after employing the Shadow Clone Secret Technique, with both bodies fighting together, she could fight above her rank, exerting combat power comparable to a Level 4 Intermediate Demon Beast.

"Give the order to end this war," Meng Yifan said.

"Awoo!" Lang Jiao let out a long howl toward the sky; the Monster Army still attacking the city paused, then retreated in an orderly fashion.

Fighting until now, the defenders on the city walls were already exhausted, and most importantly, their ammunition was nearly depleted.

The AK47 Assault Rifle could fire continuously, but Meng Yifan had only given each Imperial Guard Company soldier three or four magazines of ammunition.

The Demon Beasts attacked the city crazily, and the battle was extremely intense; every part of the city wall was plunged into a great battle. The Imperial Guard Company soldiers fired continuously, killing Demon Beast after Demon Beast. When their bullets were spent, the Imperial Guard Company soldiers had to fix their Stabbing Blades and engage the Demon Beasts in close-quarters combat.

If the battle were to continue, the casualty rate of the Luolong County defenders would inevitably skyrocket.

The Toad leader and the Third Grade Mantis Demon Beast sensed something was wrong and wanted to flee, but Meng Yifan and Lang Jiao struck separately, quickly suppressing these two Third Grade Demon Beasts.

"Commander, why are you doing this? Have you forgotten that you are a princess of the White Wolf Clan?" the Mantis Demon Beast looked at Lang Jiao, who had personally suppressed him, in disbelief.

Lang Jiao did not answer; ever since she acknowledged her master, she had lost her sense of self, feeling that whatever Meng Yifan said was correct. As long as it was Meng Yifan's order, she would execute it—this was the terrifying nature of the Soul Imprint.

"Are you willing to submit to me and fight for me?" Meng Yifan asked.

"Bah! We of the Demon Race swear never to be slaves," the Toad leader barked.

"Then you can go die." Meng Yifan swung his Ghost Head Blade and finished off the Toad leader, then looked coldly at the Mantis Demon Beast and asked, "What about you? Are you willing to submit to me?"

The Mantis Demon Beast appeared to have great backbone; he snorted coldly and said, "Human, stop being arrogant. Eight-tenths of Dongchuan Prefecture has already fallen into the hands of my Demon Race. Even if you barely win this war, what is the point? What about the next one? And the one after that?"

"My Demon Race army is like a surging river, endless and inexhaustible, and there are numerous high-grade experts. How could a tiny place like Luolong County resist? You wanting me to submit to you is truly wishful thinking."

"If you are sensible, let me and the Princess go. When my Demon Race army presses the border next time, we might spare your life."

"If you won't submit, then go die." Meng Yifan could not be bothered to waste his breath on the Mantis Demon Beast; he swung his Ghost Head Blade fiercely and chopped the Mantis Demon Beast in two.

"All troops, hear my order: open the city gates and follow me to slaughter the Demon Beasts!" Meng Yifan shouted loudly.

The four city gates opened simultaneously, and the soldiers, brandishing their weapons and led by Third Grade Experts, pursued and killed the remaining Demon Beasts outside the city.

The remaining three thousand Demon Beasts were at most Level 2 Demon Beasts at their strongest, and since their leaders were either killed or had surrendered, the remaining Demon Beasts were like scattered sand. Very quickly, under the attacks of experts like Shen Dahu, Kong Sanqiang, and Liu Sheng, they were routed and slaughtered continuously.

Except for some eagle-type Demon Beasts that flew away, the rest of the Demon Beasts were completely wiped out. This siege war initiated by the Demon Race ended in a total victory for the humans.

"Victory! We have won!" Excited cheers from the soldiers rang out in Luolong City; the surviving soldiers hugged each other, celebrating the hard-won victory.

More than forty thousand commoners also cheered and jumped for joy. With the Demon Race army attacking the city, every one of them had been terrified, fearing the city would be breached and they would become food for the Demon Race. Now that they had finally won, it was wonderful, truly wonderful.

Cheers rang out throughout the city, but Meng Yifan frowned, his expression grave. From start to finish in this battle, the Luolong County defenders had also suffered heavy casualties: twenty-five Imperial Guard Company soldiers died, over four hundred Salvation Army soldiers died, and over two thousand able-bodied defenders died.

Some soldiers, at the very last moment of their lives, were still fighting bravely, dying together with the Demon Beasts; they were all heroes.

Meng Yifan looked at the remains of these fallen soldiers, and his heart felt heavy.

Among these corpses were many figures he was familiar with; just the day before, they had been lively and participating in training.

Some had even greeted Meng Yifan cheerfully, asking if their children were studying well at school, and saying that if the children were disobedient, he should give them a good spanking.

Unfortunately, today they had become cold, mangled corpses.

When Meng Yifan was on Earth, working as a mercenary, he had become accustomed to life and death, but now it was different from before.

Back then, he only needed to look after himself; now, tens of thousands of people in the city relied on him for their livelihood, which made Meng Yifan feel the weight of his responsibility.

"You are all heroes. Rest assured, I will take good care of your families. As long as I have a bite to eat, I will not let them go hungry." Meng Yifan bowed deeply to the soldiers' corpses.

Meng Yifan was very grateful to these soldiers who fought without regard for their own lives. If they had not killed a large number of Demon Beasts, Meng Yifan could not have harvested a massive amount of Experience Value, broken through his cultivation level consecutively, and thus would not have been able to defeat the Level 4 Lang Jiao.

Rather than saying Meng Yifan won this war, it would be better to say that the sacrifice of these soldiers bought the victory of this war.

To this day, Meng Yifan still did not know if the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World was truly a game. He had played games before, and he had controlled game characters to slaughter enemies within those games.

But at that time, Meng Yifan knew clearly that those he killed were just NPCs, just data scripts; once killed, they were killed, and they could be mass-produced and infinitely respawned anyway.

But in the Great Martial Heavenly Dynasty World, every single person was a living, breathing human with flesh, blood, and emotions.

Everyone had only one life; they bled when injured, and when killed, they were truly dead. Their loved ones would grieve and shed tears.