Grand Muster

Every time the Shortblade Clan launched a Grand Muster, it meant the tribe had reached a life-or-death juncture, or was about to fight a great battle that would decide its fate.

The previous Grand Muster had been decades ago, during a battle against the Sharpfang Clan.

That time, the Shortblade Clan won the war by a narrow margin.

The Shortblade Clan won and reaped a share of the fruits of victory.

But the other tribes that had followed them into battle suffered heavy losses. Though they had also received some spoils, compared to what they had lost, it was utterly not worth mentioning.

Beneath the Shortblade Clan, those tribes and the Shortblade Clan itself were a nexus of contradictions.

The subordinate tribes needed the Shortblade Clan's protection, yet once they had amassed enough strength, they wanted to break away from it.

As for the Shortblade Clan, while protecting those tribes, it also weakened their strength, ensuring they could not threaten its position.

Even without war, every year the Shortblade Clan selected warriors from the subordinate tribes to join its standing army.

Once those warriors were selected, they would never have a chance to return to their original tribes. Even their relatives would be relocated into the Shortblade Clan.

And by continuously bleeding the subordinate tribes dry in this manner, the Shortblade Clan could maintain its prosperity and growth.

While the two great clans of the Half-Orc Empire mobilized their forces, Huo Ling had not been idle either.

In the battle plan he had formulated from the start, he had never intended to attack the Half-Orc Empire's native tribes right away.

Because once he launched an offensive, there was no telling how the great war would end.

Moreover, the intelligence that had gradually gathered showed that the Sharpfang Clan and the