Transition

"Miraculous, truly miraculous. I never expected Elves to actually exist."

The Soul Beasts of Dragon Valley Forest crowded around Barus and Elena, staring at the Dragon and the Elf as if they'd never seen anything like them.

After Rus Wang established a connection between Zheer Continent and Dragon Valley Forest, he had also brought along his eldest son and his wife, who had been wandering around his daughter Iyuda's territory. It was a perfect opportunity to show the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, who had spent so long fighting humans, why Elves were beings the Soul Beasts had to ally with.

"They really don't have even the slightest trace of having killed a Soul Beast."

As for the Hundred-Year Soul Beasts that, according to Rus Wang, had invaded the Elves' kingdom and been killed in retaliation by the Elves? That didn't matter to the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. A bunch of brainless Soul Beasts were no different from animals without Soul Power.

What shocked them most was that this Elf, the first Titled Douluo in Elf history, had truly relied entirely on filling her dantian with Soul Power to increase her cultivation and condense a Soul Core. Her body bore no trace of bloodshed. (After killing a Soul Beast, even without absorbing its Soul Ring, the lingering pheromones could still be sensed by Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts a century later.)

"Alright, alright. We old-timers shouldn't crowd around these young folks. Everyone, go back and tend to your injuries."

Once the Giant Mountain Golden Ape confirmed that Elena truly bore no trace of bloodshed, he told his brothers to follow him and get moving. While Rus Wang patrolled Dragon Valley Forest, they needed to use the Intermediate Stamina Recovery Potions he'd handed out to recover as quickly as they could.

Though Dragon Valley Forest now fell under Rus Wang's rule, it still wasn't one of his main priorities. After meeting the Elf Elena today, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts all understood that Zheer Continent was the true place the Soul Beasts needed to protect and migrate to.

Aside from their bodies maturing slowly, Elves were truly leagues ahead of humans in the eyes of Soul Beasts.

"Dad, why do both sides line up in these long, straight formations and charge at each other when humans go to war?"

Elsewhere, Rus Wang transformed himself, Barus, and Yanjin into human form. They hid in a secluded spot and observed the battlefield where the Star Luo People fought the Indigenous People.

They hadn't realized how bad things were until they took a closer look. All three Soul Beasts were speechless.

Humans had Soul Tools, and this was how they chose to wage war?

The Indigenous People's army had no choice but to charge into close combat; their Soul Tools were outdated. But the Star Luo Empire's tactics made no sense at all. Their fixed-installation Soul Tools had a range of more than ten kilometers, yet they insisted on setting them up within a few kilometers, where the enemy could be seen, before firing.

Barus couldn't help wondering whether the Star Luo People had ever heard of artillery zones, TOT tactics, or firing data. If this had been an Elf military exercise, the Elves would have been thrilled. They could skip the calculations and setting up the fixed-installation Soul Tools entirely; they'd just send people around the flank to seize them.

"Forget about that. Yanjin, what do you think? Are you ready?"

This time, Rus Wang and the others hadn't come to observe the battlefield just for the sake of watching. They also wanted to slow the Star Luo People's conquest of the human territories across the continent.

A few days earlier, Rus Wang had used his water attribute to make it rain along the Star Luo People's supply lines for an entire week, severely delaying their supply deliveries over dirt roads. The Star Luo People's beachhead defenders were running short of clean water and food, so the allied Indigenous human kingdoms had noticed their weakness and attacked. That was what Rus Wang was watching now.

The Star Luo People couldn't even defend themselves from their trenches. No wonder the people of the Sun Moon Empire had once managed to break through the defensive line that the Star Luo People had painstakingly built along the mountains.

"I've been waiting for this. Just say the word, Rus."

In an instant, flames soared through the beachhead camp behind the Star Luo People's long line. Thinking the camp had fallen and believing they were being attacked from both sides, the Star Luo army soon began to rout.

Seeing this, the Indigenous human alliance immediately pursued them.

"For at least the next hundred years, we'll have to keep an eye on the Indigenous human alliance's defensive line along this great river."

Barus turned to ask his father and Aunt Yanjin.

"Dad, Aunt Yanjin, it's strange. The Indigenous human alliance has been beaten so badly. Why haven't they thought of joining forces with us Soul Beasts?" Barus asked his father in puzzlement. He'd read some books his father had casually picked up while disguised among the Star Luo People, and he was currently learning the Star Luo language from Aunt Yin Ji. So he knew what the humans and local Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent were up to.

"That's unrealistic, son. Unless a person like Huo Yuhao, the first master of the Spirit Pagoda, appears among the Indigenous People of Dragon Valley Continent, human and Soul Beast leaders will have no means of negotiation beyond fighting each other."

Rus Wang explained it to his son.

"More importantly, there's the Spirit Pagoda. Soul Beasts have no place in it; it's entirely controlled by humans. After Huo Yuhao went to the Divine Realm, his original vision for the Spirit Pagoda could still be maintained on the surface for a few generations, thanks to the people he influenced. But once that generation of humans is gone, how will the humans who come after them coexist with the Soul Beasts who once worked with Huo Yuhao?"

"Just like the provincial system you had in your country, and the incentive policies Uncle Evans and Uncle Light promoted? As time passed, they stopped fitting the needs of the Elf Kingdom and its economy?"

"That's a very apt way to put it, Barus."

Yanjin smiled and patted Barus on the head, praising him.

"Everything is constantly changing. Only by adapting to the current can you survive the rapids."

"So, we lost?"

Duke Libai... no, now an Earl, had been locked up for months. After his release, his friend, the empire's General Kallen, came to welcome him. Over drinks, he learned what had happened in the south-central region of Star Luo Continent over the past few months.

"That bastard Dezuola did it. He thought he was invincible just because he came from a thousand-year-old noble family. He took the 8th Army deep into enemy territory all by himself, forgetting even the most basic principles of military logistics—and that the Indigenous People had a Titled Douluo. It would've been a miracle if he hadn't lost."

"That does sound like the sort of thing those aristocratic families back home would do."

After hearing Kallen's detailed account of how that bastard Dezuola had been defeated, Earl Libai was speechless.

An army had to be fed before it could fight.

Though Earl Libai and Kallen had never been able to ensure that the soldiers received the full rations set out in the official regulations, they had at least kept a tight grip on the logistics officers and never let the soldiers under their command go into battle on empty stomachs.

Unlike the new generation of nobles like them, who had earned titles through military service while expanding into Star Luo Continent, most of those pampered heirs from Douluo Continent, who lived off their ancestors' accomplishments, barely qualified as humanoid creatures.

The conquest of Star Luo Continent had indeed ended with the empire's main force defeating the local human kingdoms, but that didn't mean victory had come easily. Without their advantage in Soul Tools, the Indigenous alliance—whose people had the will to defend their homes—could have held the Star Luo Empire's forces at bay in the north of Star Luo Continent.

Instead, they now survived in the south of the continent, relying on its vast stretches of undeveloped mountains and a few scattered population centers.

"How did His Majesty take it?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

Earl Libai was surprised. Could the ministers really hide the deaths of more than twenty thousand soldiers from him, something that had happened just a month or two ago? General Kallen looked around, then leaned toward Earl Libai and whispered.

"According to the latest rumors, the old Emperor has fallen gravely ill again."

"The loss of an entire army is nothing compared to the terror of the Emperor being gravely ill."

Libai immediately understood.

"For now, stay on your fief and have your people plant crops and build roads. Once things settle down, we'll meet again."

Kallen was, after all, a General commanding an army and a military district on the border, while Earl Libai was a noble with a fief of his own. At a time like this, they couldn't afford to meet too often. If the old Emperor didn't pull through and the new Emperor grew suspicious after ascending the throne, neither of them would come out of it well.