Chapter 526: Tempering

Chapter 526: Chapter 341: Tempering

“This is a slave from the Blue Diamond Clan!”

Si Kai studied the exclusive mark on the slave’s forehead and quickly recognized it.

If the man had been a slave to a minor Slave Master, he might not have recognized the mark, but the eight great Slave Masters of the Persian Gulf Empire were simply too famous.

“Blue Diamond? Don’t tell me the other families of the Persian Gulf Empire are called things like Red Diamond and Purple Diamond.”

The Lord’s focus was unusually peculiar.

“That’s right. It’s said the founding Emperor of the Persian Gulf Empire was a pirate who loved collecting gems. So after colonizing that continent across the sea, the surnames he chose were also related to gemstones.”

“Tsk, tsk. The stench of new money is just oozing out of them.” Levi shook his head. In an ancient country like Debei, every family’s surname had a profound origin; you couldn’t even fit all the books studying them in a single attic.

The Persian Gulf Empire, on the other hand, was clearly much simpler and more straightforward.

“Speak. How many men are in your army? What are its divisions? And why have you trespassed on my territory?” Deciding to give it a try, the Lord placed a foot on a chair and looked down condescendingly at the captive. “If you confess honestly, I swear in the name of the gods that I will grant you the right to live.”

“Go…” The burly slave had just gotten a single word out before Levi kicked him to the ground.

Tossing back his high-quality fur cloak, he strode out of the tent with the powerful gait of a tiger, every inch the warlord. Only a single sentence was left hanging in the air.

“Drag him out and behead him.”

Whether it was Knights who spouted “honor is my life” or nobles who acted unyielding in front of their soldiers, a little bit of harsh treatment was all it took for them to confess everything, right down to when they’d peeped on a Maid bathing.

But this slave was truly a tough nut to crack. The Lord had to admit, he couldn’t see a single trace of fear in the man’s eyes. It was the look of someone who had put matters of life and death behind him.

That was rare. The last time he remembered seeing such a look was at White Bone Fortress—in the expectant gazes of the Barbarians as they looked toward him.

“Hog, send the scouts out again. Find out the enemy’s strength, whether they have Mages with their army, and where the hell they came from.”

“The rest of you, break camp and press forward. Mier will be the temporary commander, Leiden the staff officer.”

Following the supreme command, several hundred Jackal Wolf Scouts, in teams of twelve, scattered in all directions like fish returning to the sea.

The remaining twelve hundred soldiers of the High Cliff Castle battalion set out once more, marching northeast.

Normally, with nightfall fast approaching, no commander would order his soldiers to march in the dark. This is because it places extremely strict demands on the discipline of Prole Soldiers, something no ragtag army could accomplish.

But as it happened, the High Cliff Castle battalion was just such an army, with terrifying discipline. Besides, for the Lord of High Cliff Castle, was there any difference between night and day?

Just then, the sun in the sky set, but High Cliff Castle’s own sun quietly rose.

Holy Light bloomed from within Levi. Its dazzling radiance illuminated an area of a thousand paces as if it were broad daylight, as warm as an April spring, as if the Holy Light God himself had descended upon the world.

The Warriors of the High Cliff Castle battalion measured the depth of the Wilderness snow with every step. A fierce, biting wind howled, but once it entered the range of the Holy Light, it became nothing more than a gentle breeze, sending the Barbarians’ hair flying wildly, making them look like Warriors from a Divine Kingdom.

When one’s strength reached the Epic level, every action could alter the weather. Ordinary harsh environments were no longer a concern for experts of this caliber, to say nothing of a Lord who could crush the Legendary.

If he wanted, he could even expand this range further, but that would inevitably risk detection by the enemy, so he kept it just large enough to be sufficient.

Early the next morning, the sun had not yet risen and the sky was a hazy gray, but thankfully, it had finally stopped snowing.

The Jackal Wolf Scout teams that had been sent out returned one after another, then departed again, providing the High Cliff Castle battalion with real-time intelligence on the enemy’s position and movements.

The scouts from both sides had already clashed several times. The result was obvious: the enemy was completely crushed by the ‘Jackal Wolfman Seat Wolf Raiders,’ who were now all Tier Five.

Whether in speed, agility, or Martial Arts, these “wolf cubs” were world-class. Combined with their naturally keen sense of smell and nimble frames, they were absolute aces among scouts, not the kind of rabble that could be easily countered.

Often, the enemy cavalry would be discovered by the Jackal Wolfmen from miles away before they even spotted the scouts. The Jackal Wolfmen would then immediately form a suitable encirclement, doing their utmost to annihilate the human riders.

However, according to Hog, some of the enemy cavalry with facial tattoos were much stronger, and they had caused some trouble for the Jackal Wolf Scouts.

Fortunately, a Scout’s primary duty is to relay intelligence, not to fight. Both sides were only probing each other, so thus far, only a few Jackal Wolf Scouts had been injured, with no deaths.

The relevant intelligence was thus passed into the hands of each side’s respective leader.

…

“Only four or five thousand soldiers? A low-spec legion, and no Mages with them.” Upon receiving the intelligence, the Lord almost laughed. He cracked a dark joke to the crowd: “That just means each of us only has to kill three or four of them. It’s not even a warm-up.”

As soon as he said it, the Barbarians erupted in roaring laughter, shaking the snow on the roadside.

When they first arrived in the Wilderness, a few hundred of them had dared to intercept the ten-thousand-strong Wilderness Alliance Army. During their campaign south, the number of men and Demons killed by their one thousand troops was probably no less than a hundred thousand.