Chapter 1405 - 27: Psychological Shadow Area

Chapter 1405: Chapter 27: Psychological Shadow Area

Within the Sun Kingdom’s territory, in the Capital, City of Morning Light, Central District.

Inside a solemn hall, this was the Divine Court, the faith center of the Sun Kingdom, and also its military command hub.

Inside the great hall, one Priest after another hurried back and forth, none of them looking very good.

Inside a certain office.

Knock, knock, knock...

A figure was slouched in a leather chair, a hot towel over his face, his fingers lightly tapping the desk in front of him.

The air in front of the desk twisted, and a blurry projection appeared.

"I told you, unless it’s absolutely necessary, don’t come to me."

The man with the hot towel over his face spoke.

"We’re still not pulling out?"

The projection was a woman’s voice.

"No rush. Coordinating inside and out is the best option. You came to me—did those lunatics pull some other horrifying stunt?"

"Uh~ it’s like this."

The female projection sounded a little helpless.

"What did they do?"

The man in the leather chair tugged the hot towel off his face, revealing an utterly ordinary, forgettable face. He was Qing Ye.

"Solomon stormed into that neighboring mid‑sized country. You can imagine the destructive power of that cannon."

"Just that?"

Qing Ye frowned. He had plenty of crazies under his command as well, so Solomon’s move didn’t surprise him.

"The Ghost Lady castrated one of our own Contractors..."

"Keep going."

Qing Ye rubbed his temples.

"Gulu... kidnapped five Contractors from Holy Sanctuary Paradise in the Eastern War Zone and is now preparing to demand ransom."

"..."

A vein throbbed on Qing Ye’s forehead.

"Those things are trivial."

"But... there’s a Contractor called Old Smoke who’s raised a rebel army inside the Geya Alliance."

"A rebel army?"

That Cunning Old Fox Qing Ye obviously couldn’t wrap his head around what kind of clown move this was.

"Their numbers have passed three thousand. The target of the uprising is the Sun Kingdom. That rebel army is all about dying gloriously; they’re fighting very bravely on the front lines. What’s even more ridiculous is that this Old Smoke guy doesn’t seem to be aiming for independence. The Geya Alliance will clean him up sooner or later, but they won’t move on him for now. Right now he’s the vanguard, the kind that dies the fastest."

"That... barely... counts as a good thing."

Qing Ye didn’t seem inclined to clean up Old Smoke.

"Among the targets they’ve risen up against is our Angry River Adventure Group."

"?"

Qing Ye was very puzzled. He might be a Cunning Old Fox, but even he couldn’t always predict a madman’s thought process.

"The specific reason is unclear. That’s more or less it."

"You can go."

Qing Ye wanted some peace and quiet. He’d practically worried himself half to death; not only did he have to scheme against Holy Sanctuary Paradise, he had to guard against Apocalypse Paradise, and on top of that, his own people kept "surprising" him.

"In the final stage, it still comes down to those people: Gulu, Solomon, Old Smoke, Night of Beheading. If those people could actually unite..."

Qing Ye gave a bitter smile. Even he felt that was unlikely. In terms of overall combat strength, Reincarnation Paradise was the strongest, no doubt about that. Contractors who managed to claw their way up to Fourth Tier in that brutal environment were nothing like those fence‑sitting God Sticks from Sanctuary or the hothouse Flowers from Apocalypse.

Reincarnation Paradise’s biggest problem wasn’t combat strength, it was the lack of internal unity. What Qing Ye wanted was to get the Contractors on the Reincarnation Paradise side to band together. That sounded selfless on the surface, but Qing Ye had his own motives.

...

Gwafe Canyon. Su Xiao yanked the pin from a hand grenade and tossed it into a nearby makeshift trench.

Boom!

After the blast, the position Su Xiao was on fell silent. This routed Sun Kingdom force couldn’t hold back the Geya Alliance soldiers surging forward with unstoppable momentum.

Five minutes ago, this place had been bombarded. Su Xiao’s luck was pretty good; no shells landed on his head. He could feel Goddess’s affection kicking in. In the past, there was a sixty‑percent‑plus chance a shell would land right next to him.

"Ready?"

Su Xiao looked at his little assistant. She gave a thumbs‑up, indicating she’d set it up.

A moment later, a rifle was raised upright with a white cloth tied to it. As it turned out, the white‑flag surrender worked in many worlds.

The little assistant shook the rifle. Before she even stuck her head out, a dozen hands shot up in the nearby trench—Sun Kingdom Soldiers.

"Cease fire!"

A shout came from down in the valley.

"Drop your Weapons and climb out of the trench."

Su Xiao rested his hand on Dragon Slash’s hilt, ready to use the Dragon Shadow Flash ability at any time.

Seeing Su Xiao and the little assistant step out of the trench, those dozen Sun Kingdom Soldiers also crawled out of theirs.

Several hundred Geya Alliance soldiers charged up from the valley below. In modern‑firefight, high‑ground‑versus‑low‑ground engagements, the Sun Kingdom had still been routed, which showed just how low their Morale was. All they could do now was retreat. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

A few minutes later, Su Xiao, the little assistant, and those dozen Sun Kingdom Soldiers were surrounded.

"Woman, you were the ones who surrendered first."

One Sun Kingdom Soldier spoke up. He probably didn’t want to shoulder the stigma of being the one to surrender.

"I’m Betty Annette of the Second Corps·Third Division·Twelfth Brigade. This is my identification."

The little assistant pulled an ID from her chest pocket. A sergeant took it and checked its authenticity.

"Why were you mixed in with the enemy?"

The sergeant didn’t immediately hand her ID back.

"We were ordered to infiltrate behind enemy lines. This is a Superior Soldier from the Second Corps·Third Division·Special Situation Emergency and Cleanup Strategy Squad, concurrently holding the rank of Lieutenant."

Hearing that mouthful of a unit Name, the sergeant froze for a second, then it clicked: wasn’t that the Slaughter Troop!

"This is my officer’s card."

Su Xiao handed his officer’s card to the sergeant. After he got out of prison, Skardine had given him that.

"Sir, hello, I’m from the Second Corps..."

The sergeant snapped a by‑the‑book salute. Su Xiao’s rank was several levels above his.

The dozen Sun Kingdom Soldiers stared blankly at this scene. The little assistant even waved at them, showing two little tiger teeth as she grinned, shameless as ever.

The dozen unlucky prisoners were tied together in a string, while Su Xiao and the little assistant sat by the fire eating compressed Food.

The situation at the front was a bit unexpected. According to intel from the recon units ahead, the Sun Kingdom forces were retreating. They were indeed getting beaten badly, but their losses weren’t as devastating as expected.

Judging by the Sun Kingdom troops, they were clearly planning to pull out of the Lanchuan Battlefield and fall back to garrison along the Sun Kingdom Border.

Su Xiao’s personal War Main Task hadn’t failed. On the contrary, the Difficulty in this Early Stage had dropped sharply. At the very least, crossing the battlefield was nowhere near as dangerous as before.

The problem was, once all the Sun Kingdom forces were dug in on the border, it would be even harder for Su Xiao to infiltrate the Sun Kingdom interior.

Fighting on your own doorstep made things much easier later on in terms of resupply and tactical deployment. Besides, the Sun Kingdom Border had heavy Defense equipment like War Fortresses and trenches built from concrete and patterned steel.

The Geya Alliance, on the other hand, was taking the fight to someone else’s front door, and the supply pressure that came with that was obvious.

After about ten minutes of rest, the company Su Xiao was with continued to advance, crossing the scorched earth that had endured years of artillery Baptism.

The march went very smoothly. The Sun Kingdom’s troops clearly didn’t want to get tangled up with the Geya Alliance any more than necessary. Along the way, they often passed deserted camps—some had even been abandoned before the fires could be put out.