"Damn kobolds. This was all because of that orange-yellow kobold. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses. I'd better not see him again."
Lin Lei cursed.
At his side, Furell heard Lin Lei's words and immediately thought of the kobold tribe near their goblin camp. Only kobolds from that tribe could have survived against the Granite Golem.
"Lord, are you saying the kobolds led it here?"
Lin Lei nodded gloomily.
After making sure, Furell continued, "Lord, there's a kobold tribe nearby. Their chief happens to be at the same level of strength as me. Do you think this wasn't an accident, but rather..."
"You mean the kobolds planned this attack in advance? But I don't understand. Why would they risk their lives to attack us?"
Lin Lei was baffled. He generally didn't feel much hostility toward intelligent beings.
"They're afraid, Lord. Our organized sweep made them think we intended to wipe out every creature around Crouching Dragon Ravine, including them. After all, in their minds, humans don't treat other races kindly.
"They wanted to lure this monster here and weaken us so badly that we'd have no choice but to stop the sweep. If you hadn't brought strategic weapons like heavy crossbows this time, Lord, we really would have suffered the heavy casualties they hoped for."
At that moment, Furell seemed to have transformed into a sage. His guess matched the kobolds' actions exactly, completely overturning the image he'd always had as a clumsy, simple-minded fool.
Lin Lei listened intently. Furell's words gave him a whole new perspective, though Furell's apparent change didn't surprise him. After all, no one who led others could afford to be dim-witted.
"Get the troops ready. We're marching on the kobold tribe. Furell, you should know the area well. You'll lead the way."
Lin Lei wasn't one to let others get away with harming him. Once he learned the truth, he immediately decided to wipe out the kobold tribe. Before, he might have considered making the kobolds his subjects. Now, that was out of the question.
They had caused the deaths of human and goblin soldiers. If Lin Lei incorporated the kobolds into his forces, the army might not mutiny, but morale would certainly suffer. The goblin tribe would also be deeply displeased; they and the kobolds had been bitter enemies for years over their hunting grounds.
In fact, by the time Furell finished explaining what had happened, Lin Lei had already moved the kobolds from his blacklist to his death list. He planned to conquer the entire tribe and make them slaves in his territory.
As someone focused on practical gains, he didn't care whether slavery was humane. He had no qualms about using slaves to work for him.
"Baron, you absolutely mustn't. Our soldiers have just been attacked by that monster, and every one of them is exhausted. They need time to rest and recover.
"Besides, we're nearly through the second half of the sweep. We can't give up now and let two days of hard work go to waste. We should continue the sweep while taking a break, and attack once the soldiers have mostly recovered."
Allen hurriedly stopped Lin Lei, trying to dissuade him from acting on impulse. As a senior officer at Crouching Dragon Ravine, Allen had long mastered the principle that mercy had no place in command. When faced with a problem, he could think rationally and maximize their gains.
Lin Lei stopped when he heard Allen's words. He drew back the hand he'd been about to place on his horse's back.
He knew Allen was right. The soldiers were exhausted, and going after the kobolds now would only lead to more casualties.
Lin Lei clenched his hands into fists, then finally relaxed them.
"Let them live a little longer.
"Have the soldiers clear the battlefield. When the sweep reaches the kobold tribe this afternoon, we'll fight them to the death."
"Yes."
Allen replied respectfully.
But hidden in the dense forest, someone watched Lin Lei and his men with malice.
It was Bambu, who had used the Granite Golem to do his dirty work. After escaping, he hadn't returned to his tribe. Instead, he'd hidden nearby to spy on the human enemy.
"Sigh. Even the Granite Golem, with platinum-tier strength, couldn't inflict much damage on them. This time, our tribe really might be destroyed."
Bambu sighed. Seeing the humans regrouping, their morale as high as ever, he slowly backed away, preparing to return to his tribe and make arrangements.
"The kobold tribe is right here."
Furell pointed to the enormous valley in front of them.
Six hours had passed since the Granite Golem incident. After sending the dead and wounded back to Crouching Dragon Ravine, Lin Lei had led the remaining six hundred men to the kobolds' territory.
"Crossbowmen, move up. Spearmen behind them. Cavalry, wait at the rear."
Mounted on a black-maned horse beside the battle flag, Allen issued his orders.
"Crossbowmen, fire! Break down their gate!"
With a series of sharp whistles as the bolts tore through the air, the wooden gate collapsed under the barrage.
"Hyah!"
The moment the kobold tribe's gates opened, Lin Lei spurred Red Hare into the tribe.
The spearmen followed close behind him, along with the cavalry, almost all of whom had silver-tier strength.
Furell was at his side, and the goblins' Boar Riders charged like medieval tanks, smashing into everything in their path.
"%＃@¥&*#%*&..."
Suddenly, an ancient, obscure language filled the air of the kobold tribe. Lin Lei looked around, searching for the source.
At last, he saw more than a dozen kobold elders kneeling on a massive altar.
"That's Dragon Tongue, Lord," Furell explained, coming up beside Lin Lei.
"Our goblins have fought them before, and we've seen this happen. They're trying to forcefully awaken their bloodline and become true dragons.
"This ritual drains their potential and life force. Even if an ordinary kobold reaches diamond-tier strength, it can't become a true adult dragon. They're born with too lowly a nature to possess a dragon's vitality.
"But this ritual is different. It takes the life force they would have had over the next few decades and compresses it into a single day—or, more precisely, two hours. That multiplies their already-scarce bloodline thousands of times, giving them a dragon's vitality all at once. Of course, the odds of surviving such a terrifying ritual are extremely low.
"Kobolds rarely use this ritual. Once they do, they'll turn to dust and scatter within a few hours."
As Lin Lei and Furell spoke, the voices in the air grew lower. The altar was no longer utterly still; it began to change.
"Ah... Bang!"
Several elderly kobolds' bodies began swelling. Dragon horns and heads gradually emerged, but then they suddenly exploded, like enormous balloons pricked by a needle.
Scattered limbs littered the area. None of the pieces was larger than a palm. Their blood formed a vivid, eerily beautiful mist in the air.
The old elders' explosions triggered a chain reaction. The other kobold elders burst one after another, until only the kobold chief, Bambu, remained on the altar.
"Baron, we've captured all the kobolds' armed forces. We have the entire tribe under control."
As Lin Lei watched the altar, an adjutant came to report their victory. With so many more troops than their enemy, they had quickly seized the whole kobold tribe, except for the one person on the altar.
"Understood. You may go."
Lin Lei waved him away, then warily took up his weapon and started toward Bambu.
Looking at the kobold, Lin Lei had a bad feeling.
"Damn it."
The moment Lin Lei stepped forward, dozens of silver-tier kobold warriors burst out of the ground and blocked his path, preventing him from stopping the ritual.
Dozens of silver-tier kobolds weren't much trouble for Lin Lei. With help from the surrounding soldiers, they wiped out every one of them in less than twenty minutes.
"Roar!"
But Lin Lei's worst fear came true. Bambu's body suddenly changed dramatically, transforming from a kobold barely over a meter tall into a Red Dragon covered in scales, twenty to thirty meters long.
"A young dragon."
That was Lin Lei's first thought. He immediately dodged a sudden blast of dragon breath. The scorching flames caught his windblown hair on fire, filling the air with the stench of burning hair.
The instant Bambu completed the ancient ritual, the draconic instinct for savagery overwhelmed his mind. His once-clear eyes became cloudy.
The Red Dragon Bambu had transformed into had lost all reason. The clearest memory in his mind was Lin Lei, the man who had killed so many kobolds—the chief culprit behind it all.
He immediately unleashed dragon breath on Lin Lei without restraint, attacking him with all kinds of Dragon Tongue spells.
"This guy's at least platinum-tier, and one of the strongest platinum-tier fighters at that. The only thing I can do now is hold out until his time runs out. From what Furell said, he should have less than two hours left to live."
As he fled, Lin Lei's mind raced. In the few seconds he had, with death looming over him, he came up with the only plan he could think of.
Without hesitation, he leaped onto Red Hare and rode toward the densely wooded Gloomy Forest.
Thanks to Red Hare's speed, every blast of dragon breath struck behind Lin Lei, letting him escape death by a hair each time.
Bambu, now a Red Dragon, pursued them relentlessly. His huge body cast a massive shadow on the ground as he chased Lin Lei and the others into the forest.
Unable to catch the tiny insect before him, he charged fearlessly into the woods, knocking down trees that had taken decades to grow.
The trees' impact was nothing to the Red Dragon's defenses. Though he wasn't an adult dragon, the obstacles inevitably slowed him down.
To keep the Red Dragon from losing sight of him and returning to attack his men, Lin Lei deliberately kept his distance, making sure it remained in view.
Before you continue