Chapter 1254: Practical Combat Drill

Since learning that the Foreign Tribe had hidden a unit of elite soldiers, Ye Liuyun's forces suddenly fell silent.

Ye Liuyun holds his troops in check every day, but he is not idle.

He first streamlined the Demon Cultivator army, selecting the fifty thousand strongest soldiers by realm, and trains them daily.

For this, he had Qin Peng specifically prepare a Secret Realm, where all training takes place to avoid detection by the Foreign Tribe.

Emperor Xia has lately been busy sweeping the entire Zhongyang Dalu, hunting down intrigue nets everywhere and eliminating them one by one.

Within the Foreign Tribe's overall command, Tuomu Hai sits quietly, lost in silence.

Di Mu did not bring the Warship back; instead, he handed over the intrigue net he had painstakingly built over many years.

Originally, in his fury, he wanted to send that elite Foreign Tribe unit to retaliate against the Great Xia Empire.

But because of Ye Liuyun's presence, he worries that the elite unit would suffer too many losses.

Moreover, Ye Liuyun has been unusually erratic lately; I don't know what medicine he's selling from his gourd.

If he reveals his Trump Card too early, it could hand the initiative of the war to the humans.

"Perhaps Emperor Xia sent Ye Liuyun here just to make me play my Trump Card first!" Tuomu Hai thought to himself.

In the end, he decided to proceed steadily, leveraging numerical superiority to suppress the Great Xia Empire first.

At present, their equipment resupply is almost completely cut off; no intrigue nets provide them with resources any longer, so he must organize some Demon Cultivators to forge equipment.

Although he now distrusts humans, he has no choice.

The Foreign Tribe's numbers are still a minority, and they are unfamiliar with human materials and equipment manufacturing.

Thus, the front lines have become a war of attrition.

Both sides occasionally launch a siege, yet the overall front never shifts, maintaining a balance.

Each side quietly develops its strength, compensating for its shortcomings.

Ye Liuyun spends each day in the Secret Realm, training by fighting alongside the soldiers.

He himself also steps onto the field to spar with the troops, relying on no external aid, challenging opponents of Fifth Layer of the Life-and-Death realm.

The elite unit cultivated by Qin Peng also practices combat daily.

Resources such as Formation Plates, Spirit Stones, and the like are all available for these elites to use first.

After intervals, they go out to engage the Foreign Tribe in a real battle to test combat effectiveness.

Moreover, each engagement demands total annihilation of the enemy, preventing any reports from reaching them.

During this period, Ye Liuyun fully refines his Life-and-Death Domain.

Often, once he unleashes his Life-and-Death Domain, Martial Cultivators of Earth Sovereign Fourth Tier have no hope of victory.

Within his domain are three Guardian God Seals. When fighting a person, it's like one versus three, each delivering a different attack style that leaves the opponent defenseless.

However, to face a Fifth Tier Earth Sovereign Demon Cultivator, he finds it very hard without Buddha Light Power.

In the Earth Sovereign realms, each tier gap is huge. Even though Ye Liuyun's Mysterious Origin is very condensed, fighting across three tiers is still very taxing.

As Ye Liuyun's and Qin Peng's training winds down, Qin Peng proposes that the two units spar once to gauge their strength.

"A real battle?" Ye Liuyun asked.

"Of course it's a real battle! Without a real battle, there's no point!" Qin Peng said decisively.

"But if the real battle causes heavy casualties, won't we have trained them in vain?" Ye Liuyun said reluctantly.

"Dying now is better than truly falling on the battlefield. What we need are the elite among the elites. Otherwise how can we face the Foreign Tribe's elite soldiers? Going would just be a death sentence!" Qin Peng remained cold and objective.

"What strategy then?" Ye Liuyun finally made a decision.

"Throw them into the Secret Realm and let them fight on their own. We only observe, without commanding. When the total numbers drop to half, we'll call a halt." Qin Peng suggested.

"But what if some deliberately hide and refuse to fight?" Ye Liuyun retorted.

"Those useless ones, once found, are eliminated outright!" Qin Peng said resolutely.

"Fine then!" Ye Liuyun also hardened his heart.

Soon, both elite units received notice: the duel is set for three days later.

When the news spread, they were both nervous and excited.

The nervousness is because the opponents' strength is similar, so the ones who might fall are themselves.

The excitement is because such opponents are rare.

Although they have fought the Foreign Tribe's main forces before, the ordinary Corpse Demons in those armies were never true opponents, so the fights felt unsatisfying.

The Leaders on both sides are also devising strategies.

Qin Peng's elite unit has the advantage of ferocious beast companions, but the disadvantage of fewer numbers—still under thirty thousand.

On the Demon Cultivator side, numbers are larger and equipment complete. Over this period, through the Refinement Alliance's slaves, they have amassed twenty thousand men, now equipped with new shields.

Thus even Ye Liuyun and Qin Peng are unsure which side will ultimately prevail.

Victory is judged by the proportion of survivors when the battle is declared over: the side with the lower death ratio wins.

The winning team will have its future resources doubled, while the losing team's resources are halved.

Martial Cultivators value cultivation resources most; without them, their strength improves more slowly than others.

Consequently, in recent days the entire camp has been shrouded in an oppressive atmosphere.

Even the ordinary soldiers feel that something big is about to happen.

Yet the two units have no leaks; no one knows why the tension is so high.

Three days later, Ye Liuyun and Qin Peng lead the two units into the Secret Realm, issuing each a Token to hang around their necks.

"After killing an opponent, crush their Token," Qin Peng ordered.

As soon as a Token shatters, a display appears on our side to tally the casualties.

"The sound of my bell will be the signal. When the bell rings, the battle begins. When it rings again, the battle ends. After hearing the ending bell, no one may strike again!" Ye Liuyun issued the command, then had the Leaders on both sides lead their units away.

The two units moved east and west, diverging according to their prior plans.

Ye Liuyun's Divine Sense had been following them, and when they were far enough away, he immediately rang the Mourning Bell.

The sound of the Mourning Bell spread throughout the Secret Realm, causing both groups to feel a pang of panic.

Although the bell was far away and not specifically targeting anyone, it still had some effect on them.

All the soldiers immediately became tense.