Shut the Door and Beat the Dog

Preparations went quickly. Soon after the main force arrived, everything was ready: two tall, makeshift platforms and an assortment of roadblocks around them.

This was Huo Hai's first time seeing a battlefield with his own eyes. Perhaps because the two worlds were different, their preparations differed too. People on the Heavenly Spirit Continent were exceptionally strong, so building the platforms had taken little time. That would have been almost impossible on Earth. The roadblocks were unusual as well.

They were nothing like the anti-cavalry barriers he had imagined, perhaps because soldiers on the Heavenly Spirit Continent seldom rode horses. Horses were ordinary beasts, after all, and gathering Spirit Beasts into herds was exceedingly difficult.

Instead, the roadblocks resembled great heaps of porcupine spines. Without some special ability, even a Spirit Practitioner Realm expert would struggle to cross them, let alone with so many soldiers standing guard.

Huo Hai had no intention of showing himself. Staying hidden was far better than stepping into the open. For various reasons, he disliked meeting high-ranking officers. "Who would've thought I'd still hate officials this much?" he said with a self-mocking smile. He knew his previous life was to blame. He had never had the slightest fondness for officials.

"Everyone's in position. Begin the battle." The legion commander stood at the rear atop a makeshift platform that served as the temporary command post. A large contingent of guards stood nearby to protect him.

At his order, the messengers hurried to relay it, and the army finally moved.

Huo Hai looked on with disdain. "Tch. What a bunch of useless fools. They don't even know flag signals." People on the Heavenly Spirit Continent seemed to devote all their ingenuity to cultivation; almost nothing else had developed. Forget coded messages and other military basics—they did not even