novelraw Chapter 330 Even More Afraid of Living Alone
Chapter 330 Even More Afraid of Living Alone
Chapter 330 Even More Afraid of Living Alone
The situation in the eastern region may appear calm, but it is actually changing rapidly.
Chang Tianchen received the transfer order long ago and led tens of thousands of warriors to set off in batches to the vicinity of the tribes in the eastern region that had already surrendered. They discreetly disguised themselves as local beastmen, and in addition to guarding and protecting the area, they also spied on intelligence about the surrounding territories.
As expected, the Uja and Daxing tribes launched a raiding war in the middle of the autumn hunt.
They chose to launch a surprise attack on a dark and windy night. It happened to be a cloudy night, so the moonlight was almost invisible. A large number of warriors silently crossed the border of the territory and rushed straight towards their target location.
Chang Tianchen squatted on Wu Zhuo's back, peering down to observe the situation below, and said with a smirk, "As expected, they really chose to operate tonight!"
As the moon approaches its midpoint, its light grows brighter, and it may even become clearly visible at night.
The moonlight is weakest only at the beginning and end of the month.
However, the hunting teams in the eastern region mostly set off in the middle and late part of the month. If a surprise attack is launched at the end of the month, the hunting teams that have not gone far are likely to receive the signal and rush back to fight as quickly as possible.
After all, when hunting far away, not all the time is spent on the road. Many times, you have to stop to observe the movement of the prey, chase after the migrating prey groups, and even waste a lot of time waiting for news. Hunting the prey is a long and arduous war of attrition.
So, by the end of the day, the hunting party couldn't actually cover much ground.
Therefore, the first few days of the month are the best time to launch an attack.
Today is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. In fact, the moonlight is not weak when the weather is relatively clear, but tonight it is cloudy with thick clouds, so everything is pitch black.
Wu Zhuo's night vision was not as good as Chang Tianchen's, especially when Chang Tianchen asked him to increase the flight altitude. He could only hear a lot of faint sounds from far below, as well as the sound of the wind whistling past his ear tragus at high altitude.
But this extremely dark environment is practically the home ground of the snake warriors.
Most snake warriors possess a temperature-sensing organ, mainly located in the pit of their heads. This organ can sense the faint heat emitted by warm-blooded creatures, allowing them to accurately locate enemies or prey and thus achieve precise hunting in extremely dark environments.
Aside from sea creatures, nearly 99% of the orcs on land are warm-blooded orcs. Only a small minority are extremely special cases, as their heat-sensing organs cannot detect them.
However, this special ability, placed on a battlefield like today, would definitely be the nemesis of these uninvited guests.
Seeing that most of the enemies had brazenly entered the territory and were advancing straight in, with a clear objective, heading directly for the stronghold of the attacked tribe, Chang Tianchen couldn't help but admire Ling Chengen's foresight.
"Boss Chang, shall we fight?" Wu Zhuo felt that the voices were getting very close. If this continued... even if they were prepared, there might still be some casualties.
"Don't move for now, be patient." Chang Tianchen shook his head and rejected his suggestion.
He used the heat-sensing organs that the snake race was born with to observe the raiders below, and at the same time attached his superpower to his eyes, and soon saw countless slowly moving orange-red dots.
Each of those small dots represents a soldier.
As these scoundrels approached the first line he had set up, a red firework suddenly shot into the sky, accompanied by a distorted hum. Then the firework exploded, turning into countless sparks that scattered across the sky. The attackers were also attracted by this huge commotion, and they all stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sky above.
After the fireworks faded, countless flames lit up simultaneously, followed by arrows covered in burning oil falling from the sky.
Countless fireballs lit up in mid-air, quickly hitting the spots of light on the ground and the exceptionally tall but gradually dehydrated and dried-out grass and plants.
Listening to the wails and screams below, Chang Tianchen clapped his hands with satisfaction and laughed, "With such limited skills, you think you can break through my defenses? You're simply overestimating yourself."
Wu Zhuo said, "There will always be some who are not hit. If they don't retreat, they will definitely find an opportunity to advance and force their way through."
Chang Tianchen said, "I considered these things from the beginning. The isolation zone and firewall have already been set up in advance."
Two years ago, the fire outside the City of Ten Thousand Beasts burned for a whole night. Most of the bare, dry vegetation on the Mulan Plain was completely burned away by the inextinguishable fire. The Uga tribe lost many people in that battle. Even the warriors and beastmen of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts died in the fire because they failed to evacuate in time and were buried in the collapsed caves.
Therefore, fire prevention and rescue training in the northern wilderness during the autumn and winter seasons is a key project that the military, the city's emergency management center, the water resources department, and the law enforcement team need to examine.
In the current Beast City, even five-year-old cubs know how to escape and avoid a fire, and what methods to use to extinguish a fire safely in the shortest time in different environments.
The army's archers did not cease their first volley of arrows until five minutes later.
Thanks to the advance planning of the firebreak, the fire caused by the arrow was brought under control within half an hour, and only a small open area was burned.
Sensing that the arrows had stopped falling, the orc warriors who had narrowly escaped death began to flee in secret, after some furtive probing.
Some people are afraid and choose to hide.
Some people are fearless and choose to keep moving forward.
And then there are those who... just want to find a safe place to hide for a while.
As the fire was nearly extinguished and the thick smoke had drifted away, heavy tortoise shells were pried open from the dark embers. Some people had fainted due to lack of oxygen, while others had choked to death from the smoke because the protective shells made by their earth-elemental abilities had not been properly sealed.
Chang Tianchen ignored the fleeing ones and continued to keep an eye on the orc warriors who were about to reach the second line of defense.
The warriors, wounded, charged forward despite being hit by arrows, escaping by sheer luck, only to fall into traps dug by the snake warriors.
As Wu Zhuo watched the number of people advancing dwindle, he nervously swallowed and asked, "Just how many lines of defense have you set up?"
"Five paths."
Looking at the enemy soldiers and horses lying in disarray, Chang Tianchen felt that this battle command should be rated as an A-level.
In this battle, they did not lose a single soldier, but they almost destroyed more than a dozen metal-type forging masters.
Wu Zhuo asked, puzzled, "Isn't it said that once is enough, twice is enough, but not a third time?"
"If they stop testing the waters after the third step, then what's the point of preparing the traps later?"
Chang Tianchen shook his head and said, "There are such cases. Many people are deceived twice in a row, and when they encounter a similar third situation, they give up directly. But there are always some people in this world who don't believe in bad luck. After all, they have risked their lives to get here. If they give up on the third attempt just because a third thing that looks somewhat similar and resembles a trap appears, then the loss would be too great."
This involves the psychological issue of sunk costs.
However, if you don't cut your losses at the beginning, the subsequent investments will snowball and get bigger and bigger. This gambler's mentality will eventually lead to bitter consequences.
……
With the intervention of the Beast City army, the ambitious plans of the two tribes were shattered.
The joint raiding plan between Ujah and Dahang ended in failure.
After this, Daxing and Wujia tried several more times, unwilling to give up, and selected several places as breakthroughs, but without exception, they all failed. The warriors who managed to escape were basically beaten badly by the well-trained warriors of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts.
Ujah and Daxing were completely hampered. Faced with the well-trained army of the Beast City, they could only choose to maintain a cautious standoff and dared not launch an attack again.
This ceasefire dragged on until the following spring.
The elite soldiers of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts were well-nourished and robust during the winter, each with a ruddy complexion and full of energy.
On the other hand, the warriors facing off against the orcs only had two meals a day, and they were mostly meager in quality. After a long winter, they had become emaciated and looked like refugees who hadn't eaten for half a year. It was early spring, and many tribes were still experiencing severe shortages of supplies.
Ling Chengen... has started the war.
The war broke out first in the eastern region. The territory north of Zhaoshi Mountain and Yejiang, which had been occupied by Uja and Dahang, was completely taken back within a week. At the same time, more than 30,000 prisoners of war who surrendered directly in the end were also captured.
The eastern plains, stretching towards the central region, were vast and fertile, and all of them fell into Ling Chengen's hands.
They also captured some of the surrounding mountains, forests, and freshwater lakes that were relatively easy to attack.
In the three years that followed, the Northern Wilderness witnessed its largest war of unification.
At the age of twenty-two, Ling Chengen finally conquered the most difficult region in the Northern Wilderness.
When the entire south was incorporated into the territory, she officially took over all affairs from Ling Xiao and became the city lord of Ten Thousand Beasts City.
She was also the first queen of Xiao Kingdom, the first kingdom in the Northern Wilderness.
That same year, she had her second child.
The first child was Shi Ruo'an's, a female mermaid baby named Ling Jixue.
When she was born, she looked like a miniature version of Shi Ruoan, but now she looks four or five points like Ling Chengen.
However, children grow up very quickly, changing every year, and no one can predict what the future holds.
The gentle-natured Shi Ruo'an gave birth to a very fierce and domineering merman cub.
This child has been fierce since he was little, full of energy. He cries the loudest when he's hungry, and once he's full, if he can't sleep, he starts to torment people.
The child awakened remarkable mental strength at just over two years old and also possessed ice-type superpowers.
Therefore, their ability to create drama has become increasingly sophisticated, and they have become even more difficult to deal with.
After taking care of this demon pill for three years, Shi Ruoan's famously good temper has almost completely disappeared.
My head starts to ache every time I see her step across the threshold of the yard.
He wanted to be a loving father, but unfortunately, he didn't have the means to be one.
The second child was Bai Qingyu's, a male giant tiger cub named Ling Jixing.
This child was exceptionally beautiful from birth, but in his beast form, his fur was a light golden color, unlike the yellow fur of the Thin Mountain Giant Tiger. Even the black stripes on his body were very light in color, as if he hadn't been properly infused with ink at birth.
But this little guy's beast form comes with full eyeliner and long eyelashes, and he's lazy and obedient. He doesn't cry or fuss, making him an extremely easy-going cub.
Ling Chengen was initially very pleased, as she was finally welcoming her youngest son, the Spirit Pearl, after her eldest daughter, the Demon Pearl.
But... things were far more complicated than she thought.
Because this child listens to his older sister very much, ever since he was able to run and jump, he always follows Ling Jixue around happily, and he takes the blame for his older sister every day.
Every time he was caught and brought back, he would look so cute and pitiful that Ling Chengen sometimes couldn't bear to discipline him.
As for Yuheng, he doesn't want children.
Ling Chengen considered giving him a nursery, but he refused outright.
He is the last remaining member of the Fuqing clan. Whether his bloodline continues or ends is entirely up to him.
But Yuheng shook his head, indicating that he didn't need it.
When Ling Jixue was five years old, Yuheng's supernatural abilities were already unfathomable. Ling Chengen had no way of knowing how powerful he was. He only knew that Yuheng had personally extracted half of a green heart stone from his body and given it to Jiaojiao, who would often nurture it with his supernatural abilities.
Then, three years later, the half of the heart stone actually turned into a Fuqing Clan cub.
This young Fuqing tribe child is almost a carbon copy of him.
Yuheng gave him a name, Yushu.
Like Yu Heng, Yu Shu was born with wood-type abilities, but because he left the Nan Yuan tribe's territory, he did not have any companion plants. However, since he was a part separated from Yu Heng, Jiao Jiao can actually be considered his companion plant.
According to Yuheng, after his death, Yushu will inherit Jiaojiao.
Even though he died, the jiaojiao would not wither away completely and lose its life.
However, Ling Chengen was more curious about how long he could live.
High-level wood-type warriors can often live for a very long time unless they encounter natural disasters or calamities.
Not to mention beings like Yu Heng, who are almost impossible to kill.
When Ling Chengen asked this question, Yu Heng just listened attentively, staring into her curious and beautiful eyes, gently stroking her face, and finally chuckled softly, "I will die with you."
Looking at the smile spreading across his lips, Ling Chengen suddenly realized that he wasn't joking or saying sweet nothings.
She said, "That's not funny at all."
I hope you live a good life.
Ling Chengen knew he had a long life ahead of him, perhaps a hundred years, or perhaps two or three hundred years...
Yu Heng stared intently and said calmly, "It's impossible now."
He has separated his heart stone, and his source of power is damaged, making it impossible for him to return to what he was before.
He will grow old and die slowly, just like her.
"Besides, I don't want to live that long; it's too lonely to be alone."
Watching her, and all those around her, leave one by one...
Year after year, day after day.
Until no one else around him could remember their faces and deeds as clearly as he did.
Living like that is more painful than dying.
"Yes, I'm more afraid of living alone than dying."