novelraw Chapter 278 - 30: True Evil God, Pseudo-Evil God
Chapter 278 - 30: True Evil God, Pseudo-Evil God
The Divine Chosen Army arrived in a mighty host before the Royal City of the Gulad Empire. Qin Feng didn’t rush to attack. Instead, he first made camp on the city’s outskirts, laying siege to the cornered Evil God Believers inside like an iron wall. At the same time, he split his forces to deal with the endless stream of Void Creatures spawning and harassing them from the perimeter.
He wanted to push the effects of his stage-two Survival of the Fittest Talent to the absolute limit. First, he would maintain the siege for dozens of days to trigger the combat state required by the Talent. He would wait until the temporary combat power it provided reached its peak, then order an all-out assault to break through the city in one fell swoop.
The specific timing of the operation.
Would be determined entirely by the length of the negotiations between the Queen of Ventecenia and Flame Emperor Galukasa.
If scouts detected Flame Emperor Galukasa leading his army back toward the Royal Capital, Qin Feng would have to order an immediate, decisive assault to take the Royal City of the Gulad Imperial Capital as quickly as possible, no matter how many stacks his Survival of the Fittest enhancement had accumulated.
Conversely, if Flame Emperor Galukasa delayed his return and the Evil God Believers inside the Royal City continued to stubbornly defend, unwilling to initiate an attack.
Then Qin Feng would have ample time to wait. He could wait until all his soldiers had broken through to the Extraordinary Realm with the power stacked from his Talent, and only then launch the final assault on the Gulad Empire’s Royal City.
Of course.
Such a strategy would inevitably come with unavoidable sacrifices.
After all, the outskirts of the Imperial Capital were teeming with endless Void Creatures. They would swarm Qin Feng’s encampment like a tide, launching relentless assaults.
For the next week, the Divine Chosen Army’s siege of the Royal City never let up.
Just then, the mad madam suddenly sent Qin Feng a private message. The words were simple but pointed:
"Tingfeng."
"That Flame Emperor Galukasa is just as you said."
"Something is definitely wrong with him."
"We’ve already offered him the best possible terms for a ceasefire agreement."
"And yet, he still refuses to withdraw his troops."
"He’s dead set on fighting us to the bitter end."
Upon hearing this, Qin Feng let out a cold scoff:
"Heh!"
’That guy!’
’It seems that from the very beginning, he never intended to save his own Imperial Royal City!’
’Worse, I bet he knew Nesia was an Evil God Believer all along. He just deliberately covered it up and used Nesia’s identity to start wars everywhere for his own benefit...’
The mad madam frowned, her voice filled with confusion:
"I just don’t get it. What’s his endgame in all this?"
"His country is gone, his army is scattered, and he’s lost the hearts of his people. Even if he gets lucky and beats the Kingdom of Ventecenia, what will he have left? What’s the use of a victory like that?"
Qin Feng slowly revealed his earlier speculation:
"I speculate."
"Flame Emperor Galukasa most likely possesses a Hero Talent that lets him grow stronger by killing."
"That’s why he’s deliberately provoking wars everywhere, even at the cost of abandoning his own Royal City. All so he can keep fighting you on the battlefield and continuously strengthen himself through slaughter."
The mad madam stroked her chin thoughtfully:
"Hmm... that’s certainly a possibility."
"But."
"There’s still one thing that doesn’t make sense."
"If he’s just trying to get stronger by killing on the battlefield, then he could have just fought our Kingdom of Ventecenia. Why did he also have to attack the Minotaur Kingdom to the north and the island nations to the west?"
Qin Feng froze at her words, unsure how to respond for a moment.
The point the mad madam raised was indeed a key flaw his theory had overlooked.
’Why on earth did Flame Emperor Galukasa divide his forces?’
’If he really just wanted to get stronger through killing, madly stacking effects like my own Bloodthirsty Talent, wouldn’t concentrating all his forces for a fierce assault on one location be far more efficient for slaughter?’
’Taking a step back, even if the Flame Emperor’s Imperial soldiers could also help him stack kills—making his Talent even more OP than my Bloodthirsty Talent... he still would’ve had no reason to open a three-front war.’
’Mainly, dispersing his forces would only slow down the pace of the slaughter, which completely contradicts the core goal of "stacking to get stronger."’
’Unless... Flame Emperor Galukasa’s goal isn’t just to get stacks...’
"Forget it."
"Let’s not worry about him for now."
Qin Feng’s tone was firm and left no room for doubt:
"You should focus on repelling his assault for now."
"Make sure you hold the front line."
"Once I’ve wiped out all the Evil God Believers in the Imperial Royal City, dealt with all the Death Zones here, and completely liberated the Gulad Empire, I will lead all the Holy Empire’s forces to reinforce you."
The mad madam sighed helplessly, her tone heavy:
"Sigh."
"This situation is much harder to handle than we expected."
"Flame Emperor Galukasa’s siege tactics are just too brutal."
"He’s taking advantage of his empire’s large territory and population. His imperial soldiers believe in fighting to the death without retreat and worship him with fanatical devotion."
"He’s forcing all his soldiers into mindless charges while he and his Dragon Cavalry army use the opportunity to launch surprise attacks from the sky."
"He completely disregards the casualty rates of his ordinary soldiers."
"He doesn’t even care about the high casualty rates among his Extraordinary Soldiers and Extraordinary Dragon Cavalry."
"Thankfully, we can still use Magic Arrays to temporarily restrict the mobility of that Dragon Cavalry, preventing them from flying around wherever they please. Otherwise, those few kingdom cities on the front line would have probably all been lost by now."
Surprised, Qin Feng couldn’t help but ask:
"Huh?"
"What about the No-Fly Magic Array?"
"Isn’t that thing specifically made to counter Extraordinary Dragon Cavalry?"
"Without their unique Flying Ability."