Chapter 3399

In the first battle with the Clan Alliance, his side successfully captured 35,628 Clan soldiers. At this time, these Clan soldiers were strictly guarded by the Wild Boar Warriors.

Among these 35,628 Clan soldiers, over 95% were wounded. If the Clan side redeemed these soldiers, the subsequent treatment and disability subsidies would be a huge expense.

There were two factions in the Clan Alliance: the bureaucratic faction and the military. The bureaucratic faction was led by Alliance Chief Toyn. In times of peace, this side, which controlled the economic, resource, and tax lifelines, had greater power.

The Alliance military was led by Alliance Marshal He Kangdiwei. He and Alliance Chief Toyn were once competitors. Due to the last failure, he could only rank second in the Clan Alliance.

In terms of contribution to the Clan Alliance, He Kangdiwei should have become the leader of that side after the war. It could only be said that he trusted the wrong person.

The current situation was that Alliance Chief Toyn's side did not intend to redeem the 30,000-plus captives on Su Xiao's side. They did contact him, but their attitude was extremely arrogant, ordering Su Xiao to release all captives within 2 days, otherwise, he would face cruel retaliation from the Clan Alliance.

These words could be treated as farts. By now, it was an inevitable result that he would be irreconcilable with the Clans.

On the other hand, Alliance Marshal He Kangdiwei urgently hoped to redeem the captives. Firstly, this troop called the War Hammer was once his old subordinate, and he should give them care, otherwise, it would chill the hearts of other Alliance troops.

Secondly, he wanted to use this matter to make a fuss, suppress Alliance Chief Toyn's side, and regain sole control of the military power.

Su Xiao reached this deal with the Alliance Marshal, and the result was both good and bad. The benefit was that it could make the internal contradictions within the Clan Alliance sharper and make them fight among themselves. The disadvantage was that once Alliance Marshal He Kangdiwei regained military power, this guy known as the "Lone Wolf" would be very difficult to deal with.

After much deliberation, Su Xiao decided to try using Li Xiniwei's line. Li Xiniwei was too comfortable in the Tribunal and even had the leisure to cause trouble. Since that was the case, he would arrange hell-level difficulty for the other party.

Like causing trouble? Very good, become a double agent and cause trouble beside the Lone Wolf. Beside the wolf, the fox would inevitably settle down. Li Xiniwei was that fox.

The current situation was very clear: Su Xiao was the "Hunter," Alliance Marshal He Kangdiwei was the "Alpha Wolf," both sides were evenly matched, and Li Xiniwei was the "fox" wandering between the two sides.

Su Xiao hung up the communicator. The negotiation with the Alliance Marshal went more smoothly than expected because Su Xiao didn't use the captives to exchange for weapons, combat uniforms, active ores, etc.

If he asked for these war supplies, even if the Alliance Marshal agreed, Alliance Chief Toyn would stop it and label the Alliance Marshal as aiding the enemy.

Although this was the result Su Xiao wanted to see, he wouldn't treat the Alliance Marshal as an idiot; the other party couldn't possibly agree to take out war supplies.

What Su Xiao asked for was 【Active Crystal】. Currently, he had only obtained one 【Active Crystal】, and it was mined by his own side. To mine this thing, it required both time and a certain amount of luck.

Su Xiao's asking price was 10 【Active Crystals】 in exchange for 30,000-plus captives. Regarding this price, the Alliance Marshal hesitated for a while. 【Active Crystals】 were too rare and were all taken away by the "Watchtower" side. This thing was a necessity for cultivating the fortress core.

It could be said that without 【Active Crystals】, one couldn't cultivate a T5-level mobile fortress. Don't look at how the T5-level mobile fortress wasn't very good in all aspects, but all T0-level fortresses were improved bit by bit.

It had been agreed with that side that this deal would be carried out tonight, at the defensive line on the west side of the Borderlands.

Su Xiao had three goals this time: 1. Rapidly develop the Sun camp and take the opportunity to improve the War Lord title; 2. After developing, obtain more benefits and 【Active Crystals】; 3. Find 【Dark Mist】.

【Dark Mist】 was the key to winning this victory. Previously, Saintess and Orandi were fighting to the death with his side and didn't go to find 【Dark Mist】.

On the other hand, Golden Count didn't even come to the war zone during the last offensive and defensive battle, obviously searching for 【Dark Mist】. With the other party's ability, at this point in time, there was more than a 70% chance that he had already obtained 【Dark Mist】.

Assuming this, the enemy and his side were now tied. His side had half a World Core, and the enemy had 【Dark Mist】. Only by letting the two merge would one be the final winner.

Looking at it this way, the situation where that side was hammered into a major disadvantage had been quietly turned around by Golden Count. There were at least 600 contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise side, and they were tied together with the Clan camp, sharing a common hatred for the enemy.

Su Xiao understood Golden Count's style. The other party wasn't the type of person who was particularly high-profile and flamboyant, but he was always doing important things. One god leading a group of pits; he didn't walk at the forefront as a leader like Xi, but like Golden Count, seemingly doing nothing, but actually having turned the tide twice.

Because Golden Count pulled back the situation that was about to collapse, Saintess, who was almost beaten into autism, regained her fighting spirit, not to mention Orandi on that side.

It was no wonder the enemy contractors would be like this. As the strongest hegemon in this world, the Clan camp shared a common hatred with this side and successfully borrowed the momentum. It would be difficult not to regain confidence.

Su Xiao's current strategy was that, except for leaving 50,000 Wild Boar Warriors to guard the base fortress, all other Wild Boar Warriors would head toward the west of the Borderlands, that is, toward the Clan territory.

It wasn't to invade the Clan's territory, but to form an M-shaped defensive line a few kilometers in front of the base fortress to prevent the enemy army from getting close to the fortress.

According to reports from his scouts at the border, the enemy army was constantly gathering with the "Border Gathering Place" as the assembly point. The original T3-level fortress in the center of that small town had been upgraded to T0-level.

In order to cope with the melee in the Borderlands, the Watchtower side spent a fortune. There was now one more T0-level fortress, with each of the three Clan families having one, just to ensure a stable win in the upcoming melee in the Borderlands.

The T0-level fortress upgraded by the Watchtower was fundamentally different from the T0-level fortress upgraded by Su Xiao. Su Xiao almost built the Sun Fortress into a living barracks, having the ability to spawn troops, while the T0-level fortress on the Watchtower side only occupied one word, which was "big"—it was simply too big.

The Watchtower's Free City was the T0-level fortress after it was deployed. It could accommodate the population of a city on it. One could imagine how exaggerated its volume was.

The newly promoted T0-level fortress was named Twilight Fortress. The meaning was already very obvious: since Su Xiao's side was the Sun Fortress, that side was Twilight, meaning that Su Xiao's side was almost at its end.

This looked a bit childish, like two families fighting, but the real situation was just like this. It was just naming; it could boost morale and disgust the enemy at the same time. This was a good name.

The name Twilight Fortress truly angered the Wild Boar Warriors. They were praising the sun here, with the scorching sun in the sky, and that side was twilight; it was very annoying.

However, his side didn't stop either. Sun Priestess Octavia named their defensive line the "Togo Defensive Line."

The reason was that more than ten years ago, the humans took a sea route and made a wave of ultimate flanking, landing from the Borderlands side and stabbing the Clans in the ass. This stab almost poked out from the Clans' mouths; it was so refreshing. That surprise attack battle was called the "Togo Borderland Defensive Line Surprise Attack Battle."

Now, after the Clan officers of the Twilight Fortress heard the name "Togo Defensive Line," not only did their asses ache faintly, but they also felt blocked in their hearts.

The battle hadn't started yet, but both sides greeted each other more and more frequently. The core idea was: 'The opposite side is a bunch of idiots.'

The Clan camp's contempt had long been thrown away. The reason why that side chose to disgust the Sun camp in various ways was to mess with their mentality.

Only when facing an evenly matched strong enemy would they choose to mess with the other party's mentality; otherwise, they would have already pressed over like before.

This situation led to the area where the Borderlands and the Clan border met becoming a place where personnel from both sides often appeared. After the patrolling squads of both sides met, standing on both sides and cursing was a common occurrence. The silly Wild Boar Warriors were always at a disadvantage, and the anger in their hearts rose steadily. Those eyes clearly said, "Just wait until the war starts."

In this situation, which seemed a bit joyful but was actually undercurrents, time reached the next afternoon.

The fully deployed Twilight Fortress was slightly smaller in scale than Free City, but it was also magnificent to the extreme. What met the eye were rows of collective dormitories that couldn't be seen to the end. The Clan side was determined this time to eradicate the Sun Fortress.

At this moment, in the large open space on the east side of the Twilight Fortress, a Clan colonel standing on a podium was making a passionate pre-war mobilization with a megaphone.

The Clan soldiers standing in squares below all had tense faces, and a murderous aura came toward them.

On the side of the podium were Clan officers standing casually, some simply with their hands behind their backs, discussing and laughing in low voices.

In their view, this battle wasn't difficult to fight because Brigadier General Rez commanded the War Hammer troops and hammered the Sun camp too hard, causing nearly one-third of the Sun camp's Wild Boar Warriors to die in battle.

Even if the Sun Fortress's vitality recovered quickly, it had only been a day or so. This was equivalent to an enemy force whose defense had already been broken by Brigadier General Rez, handed over to them. If they still couldn't win, it would simply be a shame to Brigadier General Rez, who was sent to the Tribunal. Besides, these generals couldn't afford to lose face.

"Brigadier General Rez is really aggrieved this time. If other troops had bitten this hard bone in the first battle, it wouldn't just be a matter of breaking a few teeth."

"Mr. Rez was sent to the Tribunal. Those bureaucrats in the Alliance testified that he was lazy in battle, hehe."

"It's ridiculous. If I were to fight the first battle, I'm not even sure if I could come back."

"Who can say clearly about the affairs on the Alliance side? It's not the fault of those bureaucrats. The Alliance Chief and Alliance Marshal there have been fighting each other for so many years, and the two factions restraining each other has long been the norm."

"Sometimes I envy you Aurora Council people."

"Envy us? Last year, when the coastal ring city renovated the underground drainage system, the local councilors held meetings for 6 months and still didn't decide how to handle it. The ring city was flooded into a fish pond, and the civilians could only live on the roofs and city walls. When they were hungry, they sat on their own roofs and fished."

"Cough! Don't say everything out loud, it's embarrassing."

The officers of the three major Clan powers teased and discussed with each other. As the saying goes, every family has its own difficult scripture to read. At first glance, the three major Clan powers all looked glamorous, but in reality, there were many internal problems.

The total commander of the Clan side this time was named Whitley, holding the rank of lieutenant general. As a ruthless person who was crowned lieutenant general at the age of 37 by the Watchtower, Lieutenant General Whitley was more than qualified to serve as the total commander this time in terms of connections, qualifications, and achievements.

On the already deployed Twilight Fortress, 330,000 of the 420,000 soldiers expected to gather here had already arrived, and the subsequent troops were rushing over at the fastest speed.

After the troops gathered to this extent, Lieutenant General Whitley in the general headquarters immediately ordered not to wait for the subsequent troops to arrive. The longer it dragged on, the more the enemy's numbers would increase. Although they banned the trade of Pig-headed Men, they couldn't ban the human side.

In Lieutenant General Whitley's view, the disastrous defeat of the War Hammer troops last time was excusable. Facing an enemy that was numerous, strong in all aspects, and even restrained the Clan soldiers, being able to fight to that extent was already very good. Moreover, the War Hammer troops didn't get the "heavy artillery-level weapons" approved last time for various reasons, but this time, they would use this war weapon.

The dark clouds covered the sky this afternoon. The Clan army set out from the Twilight Fortress and entered the Borderlands. The Borderlands weren't too big; this was a buffer zone left by the Clans to fight against the alienated beasts. In less than an hour after the 300,000 Clan army set out in more than 50 batches, they saw the defensive line held by their own Wild Boar Warriors.

Looking down from above, their entire defensive line was M-shaped. This was deliberately set up by Su Xiao to maximize the power of the "group fighting tactic."

Among the enemy army, Golden Count, Saintess, Orandi, and others were all there. The three of them had already planned in private that if the battle situation was unfavorable, they would use Golden Count's trump card, and then the three of them plus the other strong people on their side would assassinate Su Xiao to death.

"If the matter cannot be done, then this is the only way."

Golden Count looked at the endless Wild Boar Warriors opposite him, his mood slightly complicated. It wasn't that he hadn't seen people developing the legion flow, but he had indeed seen it for the first time that they developed so fast and the quality of the soldier-type units was so high. Fighting to this extent, he always felt a bit incredible.

Actually, compared to Golden Count and others, Hao Mei, who was further back, had a more complicated mood. Her current situation was that a prompt appeared almost every second.

【Prompt: Because you are on the battlefield, your camp reputation +1 point (this is a bonus from the??? ability).】

【Because you are on the battlefield, your camp reputation +2 points (this is a bonus from the??? ability).】

【Because you are on the battlefield, your camp reputation +1 point.】

Since just now, Hao Mei discovered that she was standing here doing nothing, but her camp reputation was rising on its own. This made Hao Mei feel panicked. She looked around and, after seeing someone, asked:

"Lu Di, has your camp reputation risen?"

"What?"

Lu Di tilted his head and looked at Hao Mei in confusion.

"Haven't you heard? There's a buff that increases camp reputation when you are on the battlefield. It is said that as long as you can trigger a hidden mission, you can..."

"Are you sick? Completing any hidden mission won't make your reputation rise just by standing on the battlefield. How old are you, still saying such childish things."

While Lu Di was speaking, he took two steps sideways, meaning to stay away from Hao Mei, suspecting that Hao Mei had drunk herself into a brain problem.

Hearing Lu Di's words, Hao Mei's mood couldn't be expressed. The things she was experiencing now, no one believed when she said them out loud. This was the most unbelievable thing.

At this moment, Hao Mei's inner thought was that she was already standing in place without moving a step, even holding her breath, but her camp reputation was rising faster and faster, faster than her heartbeat. What should she do? Waiting online, very urgent.

PS: (Two updates, 7,000 words, a bit short today.)