Chapter 146

Li Chongshan sat in the main tent, rubbing his head.

He had the beginnings of a headache.

They had stayed in the middle region for some time now and hunted quite a few Vicious Beasts. All the while, the Heavenly Might Battalion’s soldiers were making breakthroughs one after another, and their overall strength was increasing at a lightning-fast speed. More and more Soul Armaments were also produced with every day that passed, and today half of Blue Mountain Company possessed these powerful variant Origin Tools.

Even so, there were problems that naturally occurred exactly because of all this progress.

The extended period of beast hunting that had gone on had alerted the Beast Race and caused them to respond and begin moving.

The Beast Race were not idiots. Once they reached the Demonic Beast level, they would gain some intellect, and hunting them repeatedly would stimulate them into responding accordingly.

All this time, the Ferocious Race and the Beast Race had maintained a tight balance between attacking and defending each other, avoiding large-scale battles at the same time. This was especially true for the Ferocious Race, who didn’t dare provoke the Beast Race without support; it was actually the Beast Race who often initiated Beast Waves to invade Ferocious Race territory.

It could be said that the Beast Race were always the ones attacking. When had they ever been forced onto the receiving end by another race?

This time, however, the situation was obviously different.

A bunch of humans had appeared out of nowhere, started hunting them down, and tried to wipe them out.

Even though the Beast Race knew that humans were the perpetrators and not the Ferocious Race, what did it matter to them? Hadn’t they all come out of the Iron and Blood Country anyways?

If one looked at it from a certain angle, didn’t it even seemed possible that the humans and the Ferocious Race had allied together?

This was a much bigger problem.

When there was no danger, the Beast Race members were free to do as they please, and some even wandered around on their own.

However, as soon as a threat emerged that endangered their race, they would immediately begin to group together.

The current situation was no exception.

From the reports, it seemed that the Heavenly Might Battalion’s hunting expeditions had hit a nerve of the Beast Race’s, and a Beast Wave was about to come.

It was time for them to leave this place.

Even so, they had only managed to make a few hundred Soul Armaments, and there were still many soldiers who had yet to make a breakthrough.

Determining what time to leave and where to go was the main point of discussion for the higher-ups of the Heavenly Might Army right now.

“Yanping Mountain won’t work. The Inferno Tribe lives there, and they are the commanders of the entire Ferocious Race. It’s best to not piss them off too much,” Jun Moxie said.

“Will they not send more troops after us if we don’t piss them off? Of the thirteen branches of the Ferocious Race Army that are chasing us, two of them are from the Inferno Tribe,” Guo Wenchang said.

“But if we attack Yanping Mountain, we might have to deal with two more branches of the Inferno Tribe.”

“That doesn’t matter. It’ll just be fifteen branches instead of thirteen branches; that doesn’t make much of a difference to us.”

“I suggest that we go to Seven Armored Peaks. There are lots of Demonic Beasts there, of which we still need to supplement our strength,” Lin Shaoxuan said.

“That won’t work. It’s too close to where we are now, meaning that we won’t really have moved at all. We cannot gamble on how large or small the Beast Wave will be.” Shi Kaihuang shot down the suggestion as he shook his head.

“Then what about Eastern Shao Castle?” Chu Yingwan asked.

“Resources there are too sparse and we’ll burn through our stores. Even if we go there, we’ll have to leave sooner rather than later.”

“What place has mountains, rivers, and resources that haven’t been occupied yet? We’ll be fighting no matter where we go.”

“Then let’s go and attack Ten Foot Diameter City. They have a ton of resources.”

“The Silver Wolf Tribe’s home? They have thirty thousand Ferocious Race soldiers, their chieftain has top-tier totemic inscriptions and has undergone three baptisms, and their Head Ancestor is one of the Ferocious Race’s twelve Core Ancestors. Attack that place? We’d be better off staying here and trying to fight the Beast Wave.”

“Medieval Lake.”

“Heavenly Forest Westlands.”

“Ayaculer Beach.”

“Shadow Moon Pass.”

One location after another was thrown out before they were all quickly rebuffed. Everyone preferred their own suggestions and argued against the suggestions of other people. With all of them together, they all had different personalities and ideas, making it hard for them to come together on a ingle decision.

Even Li Chongshan felt like he was caught in a dilemma and couldn’t decide.

Suddenly, a voice spoke, “Talah Castle.”

It was Su Chen’s voice.

“Talah Castle?” Everyone turned around to stare at Su Chen in shock.

Talah Castle was in the center of the Iron and Blood Country, neighboring the Hawuli Forest. There was a small lake nearby, and there were a decent amount of resources there. The territory belonged to the Inferno Tribe, but there weren’t many soldiers there.

The benefits of attacking Talah Castle was that there were many resources there and that it would be easy to take. However, the downsides were that they would offend the Inferno Tribe even more, and that the place was difficult to siege as it was surrounded on all sides by heavily-fortified strategic cities. In other words, even if they were able to take the castle, they would run the risk of being surrounded.

“Why do you want to go there?” Chu Yingwan asked.

“Because that place has Silverstar Flowers,” Su Chen replied.

Silverstar Flowers were a unique product of Hawuli Forest. It was a rare plant that was exceptionally effective in medicines.

Everyone thought that Su Chen was going to list a bunch of strategic reasons for targeting Talah Castle, but Su Chen had unexpectedly offered a seemingly unstrategic reason.

He continued, “I want the Silverstar Flower.”

“Just because of that?” Shi Kaihuang frowned.

He felt like his disciple should not be this selfish of a person.

“Yes, just for that,” Su Chen replied. “Since you guys can’t make up your mind, I thought that I would suggest something. Whether or not Talah Castle is worth strategically targeting, I don’t care, but I do know that I can get my hands on a ton of Silverstar Flowers if we go there. These can be used to concoct Origin Energy stimulants, and with a lot of Silverstar Flowers, I will be able to produce many of these medicines for the battalion. Also, the Silverstar Flower’s property of stimulating Origin Energy will be very useful for my experiments and are necessary in my plans. To me, they are very important. There are so many possibilities that at some point you need to make a decision. The person who makes the decision should obviously maximize profits and pick the lesser of two evils. I have said all I need to say; you all can keep discussing. Just let me know when you make a decision.”

Li Chongshan laughed, “Well said; we must pick the lesser of two evils. Everyone is clear about Su Chen’s ability, right? If it’s useful to him, then it’ll also be useful to the battalion. We must also consider the gains and losses of benefits.”

Everyone nodded individually when they heard this.

They were all clear about the pros and cons of attacking Talah Castle. When factoring in Su Chen’s needs, Talah Castle became the most viable choice out of all of the ones that had been listed so far.

“Then what about the surrounding fortified cities? Talah Castle is surrounded by them; getting in might be easy, but getting out will be difficult,” Guo Wenchang said apprehensively.

There were many benefits and drawbacks here. Talah Castle was indeed surrounded by many strategic cities, which was their biggest problem. Was it necessary to fight a brute-force battle with the Ferocious Race just over these resources? If that was the case, they might suffer serious casualties even if they were able to win. How many more of these brute-force battles could they even afford to take?

Everyone fell deep into thought.

At this moment, Su Chen suddenly said, “Talah Castle isn’t too far from here, is it.”

Shi Kaihuang glanced at his disciple, somewhat understanding of what he was getting at. “You’re not planning on using the Beast Wave as an opportunity, are you?”

“Why not?”

Shi Kaihuang shook his head. “In all our years of fighting, the Beast Race has had tacit understandings with all the other races. There can be Beast Waves, but they cannot penetrate too deeply; otherwise, the races will all band together to fight back. In addition, the current Beast Race is not the Beast Race of prior years.”

“All I’m asking is whether or not the Beast Wave can reach Talah Castle at maximum range?”

“It can, but that is only for a large Beast Wave, and the wave might not necessarily head in that direction.”

“If the direction isn’t right, then we can redirect it. As for the size of the Beast Wave…… Instructor, you know that creating a conflict is always easier than de-escalating one. If we can’t resolve the issue with the Beast Race, why don’t we just make exacerbate it?”

Chu Yingwan’s eyes lit up. “That’s right. In any case, we’re in the Ferocious Race’s territory. Do we need to be afraid of the Beast Wave? The bigger, the better!”