Chapter 1173: Endless Sacrifices

To the west of the void continent, the Empire’s steadily advancing western route was no longer as calm.

A brigadier general ran into the central command at great speeds and presented a sealed document tube on one knee. “Sire, an urgent missive from Duke You!”

A middle-aged man with a short beard took the document cylinder, unsealed it, and read the contents swiftly. He became somewhat angry almost immediately, saying, “Rushing us again! What’s the point? I want to get there faster too, but how can I goddamn speed up?”

At this moment, the distant battlefield was filled with rolling smoke and explosions, signs of a fierce battle. A general nearby was disgruntled. “We’ve broken three defensive lines in a single day, how faster can we go? Who knew those dark races would be so crazy? They’re hell-bent on risking their lives instead of running away. Their Zhao-clan peoples’ lives are important, but what about our brethren’s lives?

An elderly general said, “Sire, Zhao Jundu’s fame is too great and has entered the Emperor’s eyes. We can’t treat him like a normal Zhao clan member. This battle will be a great accomplishment if we succeed, but all our troubles will be for naught if we perform poorly.”

The first general glared at him. “What kind of words are those!? Our lord has taken to the field personally and returned injured. What else will you ask of him?”

There was a bit of blood seeping out from under the short-bearded man’s robes. He frowned after listening to his subordinates arguing. “Enough arguing!”

After everyone was quiet, he glanced toward the frontline, saying, “We hadn’t encountered much resistance since the day we set out. We were only a bit slower because we were cautious all along. Yet now, the dark races have laid down several defensive lines, each akin to an impenetrable wall. I don’t remember them having that many troops on the continent. It seems there has been a great deal of changes to the situation. If even we are encountering such resistance, it’s easy to imagine what the central and eastern routes are facing. Things don’t look good for Whitetown, either.”

At this point, he paused for a moment before saying, “The dark races’ scheme this time is nothing to scoff at. No matter what they’re planning, we can lay waste to all of their schemes if we advance and fight our way through their defenses. Issue my command, go all out with the attacks from here on out. We must break through two more defensive lines before sundown!”

The fierce general said, “General, our brothers have just returned from the frontlines. We’ll suffer significant casualties if we attack right now.”

The short-bearded man’s expression turned dark. “What, are you afraid?”

The fierce general’s face turned red. “Wang Dahai has never been afraid of death! General, please watch. Leave the current defensive line to me!”

“Good! I will go personally if you fail!”

The Empire’s offensive intensified abruptly. With the addition of more powerful troops, the situation on the frontlines became tense for the defending army, and casualties rose exponentially.

The old general beside the short-bearded general gazed at the distant horizon instead of the frontlines. A constant stream of Evernight transports was appearing there, apparently building a new defensive line.

The old general looked dissatisfied. “What are those show-offs from the Imperial Guard doing? Are they planning to let the entire Evernight reinforcement army into the continent?”

The short-bearded man gazed up at the sky. “They’re probably not having a great time, either.”

In the void, an Imperial battleship and several other warships were firing at a duke-grade flagship. The void was filled with warship wreckage. There was even a battleship that had been broken into two, drifting helplessly in the empty space.

The duke-grade airship was dauntless. Despite being beleaguered and battered, it stood firm without retreating, its cannons big and small firing back with all their might. And wherever its main cannon aimed at, the Imperial ships there would have to evade immediately. Even the battleship didn’t dare take the shot.

On the bridge of the battleship, an aged general was issuing orders with a serious expression. He was trying to find a weakness in the enemy vessel and destroy it in one shot.

An officer rushed into the bridge at this point. “General Niao, another transport squadron has appeared at the rear!”

What should they do?

All officers’ eyes fell upon the old general. The man’s cheeks twitched briefly as he glanced at the desperately struggling grand-duke flagship. After a moment of silence, he slammed his fist on the control board and said through clenched teeth, “Keep attacking! Sink that thing before us first!”

The officers immediately returned to their posts to resume the attack. They understood what General Niao’s orders meant. Letting the transports pass meant that the ground-battles on the void continent would increase in difficulty. Once the battle was over, the commanders of each army route, especially the Zhao clan, would never let the general off easily.

Yet their squadron had been pinned down by the duke-grade flagship. No one dared to turn about before the vessel had been sunk.

There was, of course, a way if they had to intercept the transports no matter what. They would have to send some of their warships to keep the flagship busy while the main forces turned around to deal with the transports.

Except for the main battleship, all other vessels were basically doomed if they had to face the duke-grade flagship. The Empire would surely lose some warships in the short time it would take to intercept the transports.

General Niao had known the captains of each airship for many years. How could he make the decision to send these comrades and friends to their deaths? The old general had been in the Imperial Guard fleet for thirty years and counting, yet he had never been forced to make such a difficult decision.

The Evernight side had placed their bet in the form of a duke-grade airship, but the Empire—or General Niao at least—was not willing to fork out the same. This meant that the general was gambling with the ground forces as chips.

Difficult decisions like this were playing out before several other commanding officers from the Imperial Guard. Some made the same decision, while others would rather lose an arm and a leg to intercept the transports at all costs.

The Evernight side should’ve been at a disadvantage, but one squadron after another kept appearing in the void. It was obvious that these forces weren’t transferred from the mainland on short notice. They had been hiding near the battlefield all along.

No one had the time to complain about the Imperial military’s intelligence failure. They actually didn’t notice the movements of such a large fleet. The Evernight side was also quite ruthless. They had so many soldiers, yet they didn’t send them in earlier during the war, allowing the Empire’s ground forces to topple the entire warfront.

The Imperial Guard had split itself into several small squadrons to fight the Evernight fleet and take back control of the void. Most of the experienced commanders from the Imperial Guard chose to eliminate the Evernight fleet’s new fighting power before intercepting the transport squadrons.

Their choice couldn’t be considered wrong, but this sharply increased the pressure on the ground forces. Standing in Whitetown, one would see a constant stream of transports landing over the horizon, almost as though there was no end to them.

Qianye had forgotten how many people he had killed. That normally well-controlled body was now feeling numb, and slaughter had turned into a reflexive action. The long-period of blood boil elicited a sharp pain from his blood core, and the crystalline granules embedded in the tissue were mostly drained and dim.

Yet, the number of dark races before him remained just as high.

Dazed all of a sudden, Qianye looked around but found no comrades. Where were they? Were they all dead? Where were the reinforcements? Were they almost here or were they no longer coming? One question after the other popped into this mind uncontrollably.

The distraction was broken by the pain on his body. Without even turning back, Qianye slashed backward and bisected the werewolf attacking him.

The wound this time, however, was quite painful. He looked down to see a large gap below his ribs, the werewolf’s claw and half his arm was still latched onto the wound. The wolf’s claw had nailed itself to Qianye’s rib bone, but fortunately, Qianye’s constitution had already strengthened his skeleton. That was the only reason it wasn’t broken.

He took a deep breath and urged this blood core into operation. A spirited glow immediately returned to his eyes. The dark races were inherently sensitive to strength—their aggressiveness weakened significantly after sensing the surging power in Qianye’s body.

However, true experts could sense that Qianye’s aura was somewhat unstable. His current momentum was better interpreted as a dying flash. The experts searching for an opportunity around Qianye grew in number.

Doer and Digger were paying constant attention to Qianye’s situation. No matter how fierce the battles went, the two commanders made no move, nor did they show any signs of taking the field again.

Digger would glance at Doer every once in a while, but the werewolf showed no change in expression no matter how injured he was.

Seeing Qianye on the verge of collapse, Digger could no longer sit still. “Lord Doer, do you think he can still fire off one of his attacks?”

“You’ll find out if you go and try.”

After some hesitation, Digger checked his own body briefly but ultimately decided to remain where he was.

Seeing that neither Digger nor Doer had the intention of moving, Qianye stood tall and unfurled his luminous wings. A feather of light shot straight into a vampire marquis’ chest.

The marquis screamed loudly and fled, but he collapsed just outside of Whitetown, never to move again. There was neither blood nor injury on his body throughout the entire process.

Digger’s eyelids twitched briefly.

He had already suffered a Shot of Inception and was merely suppressing the injury. In truth, his constitution and defense weren’t much better than that marquis. He would likely suffer a grave injury even if he wasn’t killed immediately.

Digger glanced at Doer with eyes full of fear. He had no idea whether that unfathomable werewolf duke had seen through Qianye’s hidden card, or if it was just a lucky guess.

It was at this moment that a faint red light flickered in Doer’s hands. As sensitive as he was to blood energy, Digger immediately realized what that red glow was. The bloodline power of this blood energy was so profound that even a vice-duke like him couldn’t help but tremble.

Doer’s expression finally shifted. He gazed toward the battlefield and said, “Finally, I have some results. But we still need a bit more work. Lord Digger, it’s our turn to take the field.”

A nodding Digger followed the werewolf down toward Whitetown.

Inside the city, Song Zining had just returned to the temporary camp after fending off a wave of attackers. All of a sudden, he noticed a corpse at the corner of the room. The body was covered in a combat robe, but the outline was clearly that of a young girl.

Song Zining’s heart sank, knowing that there were only a handful of young girls in Whitetown. He walked over in large strides and removed the robe, revealing a child-like face. His mouth was immediately filled with a bitter taste.

The one lying there was the Nineteenth Princess.