Within the Spiritual Realm Scene, in the Castle Hall built of stone and timber, the battle was already drawing to a close.
The battle's outcome had been decided from the very beginning.
Broken corpses littered the ground, and dark-red, foul-smelling blood was everywhere.
Without exception.
These chunks of corpses and foul blood had all come from the Demon Monsters hiding here.
Whether they were winged imps or groups of Lesser Imps with equally dark-red bodies, thinner and smaller than dwarves, they were all utterly incapable of putting up a fight.
At least, to the Swadian Footmen and Light Footmen, the killing had only just become exciting.
They had already discarded their polearms and drawn their hand-and-a-half swords or Germanic swords.
Their left hands held shields against the demons' counterattacks.
Their right hands swung their swords forward.
Amid the desperate shrieks of imps fluttering and leaping toward them, blood sprayed everywhere.
Any imp that dared approach was immediately cut down on the spot.
As for the Lesser Imps, the most inferior demons who had only just shed their Soul Worm forms, they basically had no ability to fight back and were killed in an instant upon contact.
If the bat-winged imps could still be considered the lowest-ranking cannon fodder on the battlefield,
then Lesser Imps, demons with a status no higher than slaves or serfs among the Demon Race, were simply helpless.
Even the Mercenary Sentinels, who were weaker in close combat, dared to swing their iron-studded Spiked Clubs in a full arc and smash them viciously into the heads of any Lesser Imps that dared come near.
They could give those thin, short Lesser Imps—capable of nothing but terrified screams—a One-Hit Kill on the spot!
Oh, and the peasants and bandits too.
They were even more enthusiastic about the slaughter.
Apart from several more threatening hellhounds, which were dealt with by the Swadian Footmen and Light Footmen,
the remaining few imps and the large number of Lesser Imps were basically all killed by the peasants and bandits.
This had been Shen Mu's arrangement.
He wanted the peasants and bandits to gain more battlefield experience so they could level up as quickly as possible.
"Low-level Battlefield Supply Technique!"
Shen Mu raised his left hand and gently rubbed the Silver Ring with his thumb.
At the same time, he connected with the system in his mind.
Buzz!
A special ripple immediately appeared.
A white glow formed from countless fine Data Streams flashed across Shen Mu's brow.
Then, twenty more crossbow bolts quietly appeared in the emptied quivers on the backs of the Mercenary Sentinels who had returned holding their Spiked Clubs beside Shen Mu.
This meant that the Low-level Battlefield Supply Magic from the Empire of Einfast in Winds of War had taken effect.
The Mercenary Sentinels hung their Spiked Clubs, stained with blood and brain matter, back onto the hooks at their waists.
They then picked up their Light Crossbows and loaded bolts into the firing grooves once more.
The coldly gleaming bolt heads pointed outside.
The Mercenary Sentinels watched their surroundings vigilantly as well.
If anything dared threaten Shen Mu, whom they were protecting, they would immediately pull the triggers and fire the bolts from their Light Crossbows again!
"The battle is more or less over."
Of course, Shen Mu himself remained calm.
After activating the effect of the Low-level Supply Ring,
he took two steps forward and looked at the imps and Lesser Imps, who had mostly been cleared out and were still being hunted down in many of the rooms. There was little expression on his face.
This battle had not exceeded his expectations.
The force under his command would count as a main force even on Calradia.
After seeing the Demon Troops led by a Horned Demon in the corridor earlier, Shen Mu did not believe his troops would lose to the remnants of those demons, who had fled back in disarray after their Horned Demon—their absolute main combatant and commander—had been killed!
Just as now, with most of the demons purged, the entire Castle Hall had fallen quiet.
Yet no dialogue box had appeared on Shen Mu's retina.
That meant the battle was not over yet.
Some surviving demons were still hiding in concealed rooms or corners, clinging to life after escaping the Swadian Peasants and bandits hunting them down.
"Have them search again. Search carefully," Shen Mu instructed the person beside him.
"Understood." A Mercenary Sentinel nodded, then turned and walked toward the Swadian Peasants and bandits. Temporarily acting as a messenger, he relayed Shen Mu's order.
The peasants holding wooden clubs, pitchforks, and even stones immediately became excited.
The bandits carrying Slaughtering Knives also looked fiercely determined.
This was their chance to prove themselves.
If they could find all those weak demons and kill them, would that not demonstrate their value in Lord Shen Mu's eyes?
"Find those demons!"
The peasants and bandits scattered out even more eagerly, their spirits running high.
To the real warriors—the Swadian Footmen and Light Footmen—they seemed somewhat adorable and amusing.
The soldiers also took up positions nearby, vaguely forming a circle around Shen Mu to protect him.
However, Shen Mu pushed aside the Footmen and Light Footmen guarding him. Instead, he stepped out of the protective circle and looked up curiously at the Castle Hall, built of stone and wood and filled with a stone dome and stone pillars.
This was the first time he had truly seen and touched a building made by the Spiritual Realm Human Race.
He was still quite curious.
"If one disregards deities and Supernatural Power, the races of the Spiritual Realm are basically at a medieval level of civilization. Some are even faintly below that."
Shen Mu recalled the information his predecessor had learned.
As he followed the edge of the Castle Hall, running his hand along the roughly stacked wall of massive stones, he touched the cold rock with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"In that case, whether it is the Mount & Blade: Warband World or the Mount & Blade: Bannerlord World, neither is inferior when it comes to civilization compared with the races of the Spiritual Realm..."
Shen Mu paused slightly.
Because he was looking at the narrow wooden staircase in the Castle Hall leading upward.
Its overall appearance was similar to the staircase in his Stronghold Main House.
But it was built on a larger scale.
It was also a spiral staircase converted from a round tower, itself a sturdy defensive structure.
At that moment, waves of shouting and killing could still be heard from within.
The peasants and bandits searching upstairs had found hidden imps or Lesser Imps and were happily working together to hunt down these Spiritual Realm Creatures.
"Lord Shen Mu, please wait here. Let us go up and take a look."
Just as Shen Mu was about to enter the spiral staircase and head to the floor above the Castle Hall, two Swadian Footmen reached out to stop him.
They spoke softly, then drew their Combat Hoes. These smaller, more agile One-Handed Weapons were carried upstairs ahead of him.
Only after confirming that there was truly no danger did a reassuring voice come from within the tower.
"Safe."
"Mm." Shen Mu nodded and entered the tower.
He slowly climbed the winding staircase toward the higher level, especially toward the place where he seemed to feel a faint, peculiar stirring in his heart.
That was the Second Floor of the Castle Hall.
It should have been the private living quarters of the lord or noble—at any rate, the owner of this castle.
When Shen Mu arrived, the two Swadian Footmen took the initiative to push open the door.
Buzz!
Right before Shen Mu's eyes.
At the very center of the Second Floor.
A white crystal wrapped in countless dark-red lines floated in midair, slowly rotating as it released wave after wave of peculiar fluctuations.
It was precisely these peculiar fluctuations that had faintly drawn Shen Mu to the Second Floor!
Shen Mu clenched his fists. Of course, he knew what it was.
"The most important thing in a Spiritual Realm Scene..."
"The Scene... Core!"
Shen Mu even swallowed.
It was said that as long as one controlled this thing, one could obtain the power of time and space.
If one encountered a Spiritual Realm race sealed away by time and space, one could rely on this core—the crystal floating in midair—to dissolve more of the seals and allow more Spiritual Realm Creatures to follow them!
Such a thing was basically priceless. On Blue Star, it had a general name—
Spiritual Realm Mark!
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