Chapter 2733: Battle of the Northern Border

Inside the War Council Chamber, the Old Snake-Man, Grand Lord Arcadia, and Grand Lord Hila were all in attendance.

Hila still didn't care about anything. The Chaos Legion at this moment was quite interesting, with duties divided as follows:

The Old Snake-Man was in charge of logistics and supply allocation, Arcadia commanded the border garrison, Su Xiao was the one who went out to wage war and seize supplies, and as for Hila, she was responsible for being beautiful—the Chaos Legion's designated visual representative, none other than her.

"We can pull at most another 350,000 frontline troops. The pressure on the defensive lines has increased significantly recently, especially on the northern and central fronts."

Arcadia spoke, the fury in his eyes evident. Being continuously raided by small groups of troops made him feel baffled. The Duoyin Empire, the Elven Forest, and the Northern Border—the three parties acted as if their brains had malfunctioned, frequently launching attacks that benefited no one.

In reality, this was caused by Qiyuezhe (Contractors) taking control of small military units. Contractors wanted to farm merit, so naturally, they had to pick the soft persimmons, and the current Chaos Legion was exactly that.

This kind of non-stop harassment-style raiding didn't matter much in the short term, but the Chaos Legion's total troop strength was now only around 1.98 million.

Unlike the Six-Race Alliance, they no longer had a massive population base. In other words, once an Orc soldier died in battle, there were no new recruits to replace them; every one lost was one less.

The reason Arcadia said they could only pull 350,000 was precisely because of this. Defensive lines needed to be established at the edges of the war zone, and furthermore, the Chaos Legion's four major cities also required garrisoning with a portion of the troops.

This left a very limited number of Orc units available to be pulled. Counting Su Xiao's existing 250,000 Orc troops, his total Orc army would reach a scale of 600,000.

The Six-Race Alliance had 6 million troops, while his side had 600,000. This disparity in combat power could not be bridged by a War Lord title—at least, not yet.

After completing the handover of the Orc units, Su Xiao returned to his room on the seventh floor and sat before the fireplace to think.

The current turning point lay in the Northern Border or the south. He had to either attack the freezing Northern Border or head straight for the Elven Forest. The center was absolutely not to be touched; the reason was simple: he couldn't win.

The Duoyin Empire was very ambitious. Su Xiao even suspected that after the Chaos Legion was wiped out, the Duoyin Empire might go on to clean up the Northern Border or the Elven race in the Elven Forest.

Fundamentally, the Duoyin Empire at this time was no different from the Chaos Legion of the past; it was just that Duoyin was smarter, knowing how to make itself appear harmless, unlike the Chaos Legion back then, which displayed an image that once it occupied the continent, the continent would be on the verge of destruction.

Su Xiao concluded that Duoyin's troops were more numerous than they appeared. It was even possible that the troops hidden within the Duoyin Empire were more than what the Six-Race Alliance was currently showing.

If the Chaos Legion were wiped out, it would mean the failure of the main quest, and the consequences were easy to imagine. Su Xiao didn't see many turning points right now.

Counting on the Chaos Legion to have some trump card was impossible. Therefore, the upgrade of the War Lord title was the key at this moment.

Su Xiao didn't need many troops. If he could promote the War Lord title to a seven-star rank, he felt that with just a few hundred thousand Orc soldiers, he could strike directly at Duoyin's royal capital. He needed an unstoppable force.

By then, no matter how powerful the Duoyin Empire was, this behemoth with its head chopped off would surely fall into chaos, and might even suffer internal division due to the struggle for power.

Su Xiao estimated that if he truly completed the "Plan to Occupy Duoyin's Royal Capital," then even if he didn't find the Void Tree Fruit, his gains from entering this world would be worth it.

Moreover, the Void Tree Fruit was likely in the hands of those in high positions of power. Occupying Duoyin's royal capital would give him a high probability of finding it.

The plan remained unchanged: head toward the Northern Border. Su Xiao needed to win over a source of assistance there; otherwise, the plan could not continue.

Occupying the "Flame Valley Fortress" seemed smooth, but in reality, it was not. It had cost one 【Sun's Fury: Apollo】 to achieve.

This time, Su Xiao had brought two 【Sun's Fury: Apollo】. Although the manufacturing cost wasn't high, the exchange of materials was limited.

He didn't intend to use the remaining one in the near future. Therefore, how to break through the enemy's city walls was the biggest problem at hand. If he didn't attack the fortress, it would be hard to trigger a campaign, unless he engaged in a super-large-scale plains battle, which would cause too much attrition to his own soldiers.

Campaign victory = title reward = opportunity to upgrade War Lord. What needed to be solved now was how to break the fortress and trigger a campaign.

After determining the subsequent goals, Su Xiao lay on the bed and fell asleep.

The flames in the fireplace gradually died down, and the morning sunlight shone in through the window. Su Xiao's eyes opened. He felt four dog paws kicking wildly on the bedsheet beside him.

Sitting up from the bed, Su Xiao's gaze was somewhat dazed. Something was kicking his leg, one kick after another, which caused the daze in his eyes to gradually fade.

"Hoo—"

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang also woke up and even let out a sigh, looking slightly exhausted. In his dream last night, he had participated in the Animal Olympics and run a marathon all night, which had tired him out quite a bit.

"Woof."

"No, it's already six in the morning."

"Woof—"

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang acted as if he had a terminal case of laziness; he still wanted to sleep for a while, a daily habit of staying in bed.

An hour later, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang stood on the crown of a War Treant, looking refreshed and spirited.

"Awooo!"

With a long howl from Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, the 600,000-strong Orc army set off toward the Northern Border.

Sitting on the crown of the War Treant, Su Xiao looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance. According to the current food consumption calculations, the dried meat supplies they brought could last about 7 days, which was enough for now.

The main army didn't enter the war zone directly but circled within their own territory. Only after reaching the northern side did they enter the war zone's range.

Half an hour later, Lihui City, Alliance Council Chamber, inside the council hall on the fourth floor.

Six diplomats representing the six races were sitting around the council table, waiting for something.

A messenger ran over quickly, pressed one hand to his chest, and said, "The War Demon has arrived at the northern war zone's border."

Hearing this report, the Elven diplomat breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He looked toward the Northern Border diplomat and said:

"As a member of the Alliance, the Northern Border should naturally block the War Demon. No, it should be annihilated."

"That's right."

The Dwarf diplomat immediately seconded the motion.

"We will dispatch reinforcements."

Among the five diplomats, the Duoyin diplomat was the most reliable, but this could not soothe the bitter mood of the Northern Border diplomat at this moment.

The situation was already very clear: the Chaos Legion was like a candle in the wind, but the War Demon was just too damn good at fighting. Whoever was targeted by this god of slaughter now was in for a bloody disaster.

"If I remember correctly, the Dwarves' Silver Badge unit has been stationed at the Northern Border's border for nearly two years. Shouldn't they come to reinforce us?"

The Northern Border diplomat was a beauty with a cold expression; her appearance, eloquence, and judgment were all hardware conditions for being a diplomat.

"This..."

The bearded Dwarf diplomat felt as uncomfortable as if he had eaten excrement. That Dwarf unit was actually used to guard against the Northern Border.

"Or is it that the Silver Badge unit is prepared to be used to suppress the Northern Border?"

"Of course not."

The bearded Dwarf flatly denied it. In affairs between nations, even if everyone knew what was going on, it could not be admitted.

After nearly a morning of arguing, the six diplomats hadn't reached any conclusion. The final decision was that the Northern Border would temporarily hold off the War Demon's troops, and the other five parties would reinforce them quickly and accurately depending on the situation.

To put it bluntly, before the Northern Border was beaten to a pulp, the other parties would temporarily watch from the sidelines.

Of course, this was only a temporary conclusion. After enjoying an exquisite and luxurious lunch to ensure they were full of energy, the diplomats would sit down and continue arguing; this was the convention.

After all, according to the estimates in the war reports, the War Demon would take at least until 9:00 PM tonight to reach the edge of the Northern Border. If they were intercepted during that time, it might even take two days to reach the area near the Northern Border. Time was very abundant.

More importantly, entering the Northern Border was by no means an easy task. A naturally formed ice wall separated the Northern Border from the war zone. This ice wall was named the "Wall of Yatade," with an average height of about 400–500 meters; it was a naturally formed solid barrier.

A gale carried flying snow, and a wailing sound like a ghost's cry came from afar. The wind was bone-chilling. While the diplomats of the six races were still enjoying afternoon tea and planning to come up with a plan before 5:00 PM, Su Xiao's army had already arrived at the Northern Border.

His black feather cloak was blown by the cold wind. Su Xiao stood on an ice mountain. In front of him was a fortress like a heavenly wall. The left and right sides of this fortress were towering ice walls, and the only gap was blocked by this fortress. This place was called the Ice Hoof Fortress.

Boom!

A loud noise came from the battlefield in the distance. Broken ice splashed everywhere. The corpses of War Treants were piled up below the fortress walls. In the rising flames, Orc soldiers were charging toward the heights.

A bright red signal flare rose into the sky. This meant that the Ice Hoof Fortress was about to be unable to hold on. Their enemy was launching a suicidal attack against them. The city wall was too high? It didn't matter; use the corpses of Orc soldiers to pile up a slope that could be used for charging upward. ===== CHAPTER 2734 =====