Huo Ling, having left Tiamat, returned to the military camp.
After much consideration and consulting many strategists and advisers, Huo Ling ultimately chose to proceed with the original plan step by step.
First, he would erode the authority of the Bronze Citadel and slowly weaken Bael.
The reason was actually quite simple. Although Tiamat had said that Bael was torturing Zariel and slowly absorbing her power,
several centuries had already passed since Bael's Backstab against Zariel.
This was not a matter of a day or two. No matter how powerful Zariel was, being drained by Bael like this would be hard for her to endure.
So even if Bael directly devoured Zariel, the increase to his current strength might not be all that great.
As for whether Bael would be able to unleash combat power at level twenty-four or twenty-five of the legendary tier within the Bronze Citadel, it was all within Huo Ling's acceptable range.
Even if Bael devoured Zariel, he would have no way of catching up to Huo Ling's strength in the short term. On the contrary, the garrison troops of the Bronze Citadel might affect the course of the battle.
At the very least, if Huo Ling wanted to obtain the authority of an intact Bronze Citadel, he could not cause excessive casualties in an internal war.
The task of recruiting the commanders of the various war zones was handed over to Intelligence General Colin.
During this period, Huo Ling had become quite the hands-off shopkeeper, handing a great deal of work to the other Dark Generals.
He himself was chiefly responsible for fighting and for providing suitable greater devils for the erosion plan.
To subtly erode their authority, he needed the agreement of the war zone commanders. Since Huo Ling did not want to provoke