Douluo 2: This Dragon God has too much martial virtue

Chapter 592 Panic Spreads (A Two-in-One Chapter)
In short, the Xuanming Sect's leader was completely consumed by worry, completely focused on salvaging his precarious relationship with Longge, fearing a single misstep would bring disaster upon the sect. After all, according to reliable sources, the Tianhun—no, the Tiandou Imperial Family—was planning to exterminate his entire family! How could he spare any effort, and how could he dare rescue the mother and son who, in his view, were simply asking for trouble?

The continuation of the family and its core interests have always been his unshakable primary consideration as the sect leader. The affection between husband and wife, father and son, etc., have to take a back seat and can even be sacrificed in the face of the sect's survival.

For him, his wife was gone, but with his status and position as the Xuanming Sect's leader, was he worried about not being able to find a new wife who could bring more support to the sect than an eloped princess? Losing his son was a pity, but he was in his prime, so he could just have a few more children and train new heirs.

The continuation of a sect's bloodline never rests on a single individual, and the Xuanming Sect isn't just his own. Therefore, there's no such thing as "I mourned for three years after losing my son, and I died on the spot after losing my wife." Being indecisive and emotional is the most unacceptable weakness for a head of a family.

His only hope now was to stabilize Dragon Pavilion and prevent the Xuanming Sect from sinking due to the trouble caused by the mother and son. As for whether Xue Lingxun and Xu Sanshi lived or died, and whether they could perform a miracle in this desperate situation... that was no longer his priority; it depended entirely on their own luck.

At this time, the rebels of the Douling Empire were stationed at the foot of a mountain range. Further ahead was a plain where soul beasts roamed.

"Sanshi, you are still too weak."

A soft yet undeniably majestic female voice, accompanied by the howling cold wind of the wilderness, broke the suffocating silence within the makeshift tent. Xu Sanshi looked up suddenly and saw the heavy curtain being lifted, revealing a tall, middle-aged woman in elegant attire.

She is Xu Sanshi's mother, Xue Lingxun, the princess of the fallen Douling Kingdom.

"Mom!" Xu Sanshi rushed over, his tone full of worry, "It's windy outside, and you haven't recovered yet. Why don't you continue to rest?" Xue Lingxun fainted due to anger when she learned that Emperor Douling announced the merger with the Tianhun Empire. She has been displaced all the way, and her health condition has always been worrying.

Xue Lingxun used her son's hand to steady herself, shook her head gently, and glanced at the simple furnishings in the tent, the deep worry between her son's brows, and the generals who also had sad faces. She took a deep breath of the cold air.

"Rest? If I just lie down and rest, am I going to have to watch our troops being gradually consumed by hunger, civil unrest, or pursuers in this wasteland?" Her voice was slightly hoarse from weakness, but it directly tore apart Xu Sanshi's last shred of hope for family support. "I'm deeply saddened by your father and the Xuanming Sect's choice, but I'm not surprised. After all, the sect's survival is above all else."

"But now, Sanshi, listen," Xue Lingxun's gaze grew sharp, sweeping across the faces of everyone present. "We were forced to leave Lingdou City and drift here, seemingly with nothing. But we're still alive, and we have these soldiers who swore to die by our side. The Douling royal blood that flows in us is the hope of restoring our nation!"

"The empire has collapsed, the old lands have been lost, and the people's hearts have been scattered. This is certainly a desperate situation, but it may also be a place of rebirth!" Her voice was not loud, but it seemed to be able to drown out the wind outside the tent. "Those branches of the old royal family and local forces that are still watching, or even gloating, will not offer help in our time of need. They will only wait to see us disappear completely! At this moment, hesitation and mercy are cruelty to ourselves and our followers!"

"Pass on my orders," she said, looking at a wounded general, her tone unquestionable. "In the name of Princess Xue Lingxun and Prince Xu Sanshi of the Douling Empire, tell everyone that we are not fleeing, but strategically shifting! The imperial legitimacy still exists, and the flame of revival is unextinguished! Anyone who remains loyal in this difficult time will be rewarded with great honors and land when we recover our homeland! Anyone who shakes the morale of the army and defects to the enemy... regardless of their status, will be executed without mercy, and their families will also be punished!"

Then, her eyes fell on Xu Sanshi's face, which was a mixture of fatigue, disappointment and pretense of strength.

"Sanshi, do you feel wronged? Do you feel abandoned by your loved ones and left alone?"

She coughed softly, her tone carrying a sense of world-weariness and self-mockery: "Don't forget, back then I was the most favored princess of the Douling Empire. I abandoned my royal honor and eloped with your father. At that time, the royal family was furious, and my father almost removed my name from the imperial genealogy... I thought it was for love, the courage to defy the whole world."

"But what about now?" Her voice suddenly rose. "When I needed that kind of desperate courage and support, your father, the leader of the Xuanming Sect, chose his sect and his own interests! He wasn't even willing to lend even the slightest helping hand to us, his wife, and his son!"

The love and marriage for which she once betrayed everything seemed so fragile and ridiculous in the face of the test of her family's survival.

The tent was completely silent, with only the sound of the cold wind howling outside. The generals lowered their heads, not daring to look at the grief and anger in the princess's eyes.

Xue Lingxun's words echoed in the tent, filled with grief, indignation, and resoluteness, as if she were the one bearing all the injustice. However, she seemed completely immersed in her narrative of betrayal, unaware of, or perhaps deliberately avoiding, a cold fact.

Decades ago, she had been the first to resolutely abandon the responsibilities and honor of being a princess of the Douling Empire. Back then, for love, she had cast aside her royal status, her father's expectations, and all the obligations and constraints of a princess. She had eloped with the leader of the Xuanming Sect to the Tianhun Empire, prioritizing her personal feelings over her responsibilities to her country, even disregarding the risk of causing a diplomatic incident.

Now, when the country is overthrown, she finally remembered her responsibilities. When she used her status as a royal bloodline to rally the people's hearts, she seemed to have forgotten her previous escape, and instead righteously demanded that others, especially her husband, must sacrifice the core interests of the Xuanming Sect for the responsibility that she had easily given up.

She portrayed herself as a tragic hero abandoned by her family and husband, yet selectively forgot that she was the one who abandoned her in the first place. She demanded that the Xuanming Sect leader now fulfill his responsibilities as a husband and father, supporting her in reclaiming the princess responsibilities she had long since abandoned. This would undoubtedly drag the entire Xuanming Sect into an abyss of no return.

But all of this was based on a complete disregard or rationalization of her own past crucial choices. She couldn't see her husband's current rationality and coldness. From the perspective of the sect leader, his actions were perhaps no different in essence from her own past actions driven by love. They had both made the most important choices for themselves.

It's just that her choice is romantic and selfish, while his is realistic and cruel, and she obviously cannot accept this retributive symmetry.

But the dilemma they faced was a dead end, one that no slogans or will could easily resolve. They had no external support or supplies. The Tianhun Empire, now merged with the Douling Empire to form the Tiandou Empire, had clearly labeled them a rebel force that must be annihilated, cutting off all possible access to supplies. The wasteland was barren, and the beast tide had made matters even worse. The daily food consumption of nearly 100,000 mouths was an astronomical figure. The food they had brought with them was already depleted, and plundering nearby villages would yield little more than a drop in the bucket, and would completely lose the remaining support of the people.

The pursuit by the Heavenly Dou Empire never ceased; their pursuers were like leeches, elite and with clear objectives. This massive army, like torches in the night across the wasteland, could not conceal their movements, and every brief respite could come at a bloody cost. But with an army of nearly 100,000 stretching out in a vast expanse, whether they attempted to hide in the mountains or seek out treacherous terrain for a fortified position, such a large target was easily spotted and locked onto. The mountainous terrain might offer some cover, but it also meant more difficult resupply and significantly reduced mobility.

Dispersing means being defeated piecemeal, a dilemma of the most pressing nature. Breaking up into smaller units does increase concealment and reduce supply pressures. However, it also means fragmenting forces, making them more vulnerable to being surrounded and eliminated piecemeal by experienced pursuers. The troops are already nervous, and once dispersed, they are likely to disintegrate and become difficult to regroup.

The tent fell silent again, even more so than before. Xue Lingxun's proclamations and promises couldn't conjure up food, couldn't drive away the pursuers, and couldn't make nearly a hundred thousand people vanish into thin air.

Moreover, in this team of nearly 100,000 people, there are less than 1,000 soul masters. This cruel ratio is exacerbating the team's crisis in an unprecedented way.

Relying on their soul power, soul masters can last longer even when food is scarce. Their physical functions and combat effectiveness will not decline rapidly. They are still the core defensive and mobile forces of the team.

But the situation of the remaining ordinary soldiers was completely different. They were the cornerstone of the army, but also the most vulnerable link in the chain of survival. Without the support of soul power, hunger and fatigue would quickly destroy their bodies and spirits.

The marching speed would be forced to slow down, the combat effectiveness would be sharply reduced, and even the strength to pick up weapons would be lost. The weak body would be more prone to illness and injury, and the lack of medical care and medicine meant that any minor injury or illness could become a fatal factor.

Hunger is the most terrifying thing. For a bite of food, military discipline and loyalty may disappear in an instant, and looting, fighting, or even worse incidents may occur at any time.

The large number of non-spiritual masters seriously slowed down the overall marching speed, making them more likely to be caught up by pursuers. Caring for the wounded and stragglers would also consume the precious soul power and energy of the spirit masters.

Just then, hurried footsteps and a flurry of reports were heard outside the tent. A guard entered, kneeling on one knee, his tone tinged with uneasiness:
"Your Highness, Prince! There's a small group of about twenty people from the Third Corps in the rear... They... They left their group without permission and robbed several scattered hunters they encountered in the valley ahead. They also... They even killed people."

The already tense atmosphere in the tent instantly grew even more oppressive. Xu Sanshi's brows furrowed, and just as he was about to explode, the soldier added, "...They're just a few scattered hunters living deep in the mountains, with little contact with the outside world. A total of... about five or six people."

Hearing the words "just a few individual investors" and "no connection with the outside world", Xue Lingxun's tense mouth relaxed almost imperceptibly for a moment, and the faces of several generals next to her also subconsciously revealed an expression of "fortunately it's not a big trouble".

Under the tremendous pressure of survival and the threat of pursuers, the lives of several remote hunters seemed as light as a feather in their considerations.

"It's just a few ignorant low-class people who died..." A general muttered softly, as if to comfort himself, "It's in the wilderness, the news won't leak out, it shouldn't cause any impact."

Xue Lingxun didn't speak immediately. She rubbed her brow, a trace of impatience mingling with fatigue. Her mind was now preoccupied with dealing with the imminent food crisis and the pursuers, and she simply didn't have the energy to deal with such a trivial matter.

"Understood." She waved her hand, her tone indifferent. "Arrest the ringleader and give him twenty lashes as a warning to others. Tell them that if it happens again, they will be executed without mercy. Go away."

She downplayed the situation, believing it to be the most reasonable approach under the current circumstances. It punished the offender while avoiding a larger-scale unrest among soldiers that could have been triggered by harsher punishment.

The soldiers obeyed the order and left. The previous silence briefly returned to the tent, but a more cruel feeling seemed to permeate the air. They had just subconsciously acquiesced to a value system: in the face of survival, some lives could be sacrificed. This undoubtedly set a dangerous precedent.

Xue Lingxun's twenty lashes of punishment seemed so pale and powerless in the face of the hungry and desperate army, and even seemed like a disguised form of connivance.

The punishment was too light to be a real deterrent; and the fact that they had successfully looted food tempted other soldiers who were also struggling on the brink of starvation.

In just a few days, the situation took a turn for the worse and quickly got out of control.

It was no longer just small groups of soldiers stealthily attacking isolated hunters. Organized teams, even with the tacit approval or leadership of some low-ranking officers, began to target the larger villages at the foot of the mountain, which had more food and supplies stored.

Burning, killing and looting are no longer accidental events.

The news was transmitted back to the central army camp again and again, each time more serious than the last.

The military marshals were no longer able to control the situation, and some of them even participated in the looting. Angry villagers began to organize their own resistance, and the surrounding areas, which might have previously had some sympathy for them, now regarded them as a scourge and avoided them as much as possible.

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