A Chilling Suspicion

After a brief pause, perhaps thinking he had offered too few men, Ye Rong opened his mouth to say more. But Chen Cheng raised a hand first.

"Does the Great Wall Army only defend from atop the Great Wall whenever the Black Calamity or the Beastmen attack? Do you never strike first?"

The four men exchanged baffled looks. Chen Cheng had changed the subject so abruptly—how had they ended up talking about their past defenses against the Beastmen?

Though he could not see where this was going, Ye Rong told Chen Cheng everything he knew.

"Not exactly. The Beastmen aren't so bad. At first, there's not much they can do. Even when they reach the foot of the Great Wall, we usually leave them alone.

"But once the Black Calamity comes, we have to do everything we can to keep those things away from the Great Wall. With the reserves we have now, it wouldn't hold out for long otherwise."

Ye Rong's explanation was vague, but Chen Cheng could piece together the gist.

"What is this Black Calamity? A natural disaster, or some kind of monster? Why does it only appear beyond the Great Wall?"

Chen Cheng pressed on.

At his question, the embarrassment on the four men's faces over offering only one battalion vanished. They turned pale, their expressions darkening with resentment.

"We don't know. We call them Black Demons. They're monsters that crawl out of the Abyss in the farthest north. They use a special spatial passage in the Abyss to evade attacks from the Orc race's royal clans and reach the Far-North Icefield.

"There, they hide, raid Orc race tribes, and build their strength. Then, when deep winter arrives each year, they head south.

"They're terrifying—monsters you can hardly kill. They look human, but many weaknesses that