God of Pets

Chapter 360 Battle Plan
“Taking the initiative is not advisable. Perhaps we can use a flanking maneuver. With these mysterious spirits gathered here, their lair must be vulnerable. We can send troops to destroy their lair first, forcing them to return, which will resolve this predicament,” Bai Yueguang said.

Zhu Hongzhu shook her head and said, "Our understanding of the Phoenix Forest is limited. It won't be easy to find the lair of these mysterious spirits. Searching for them one by one would take too much time. Judging from the current situation, they should soon be heading towards the Qilin Mountains. There's not enough time."

“Then let’s lure them in, find a strategic location, set up a defensive line in advance, and kill them there,” Zhang Yujian said after thinking for a moment. “The valley we passed through before should be quite suitable.”

Bai Yueguang objected, "With our limited forces, if we were trapped in the valley, I'm afraid not even a single person would escape."

After much discussion, they still couldn't come up with a perfect solution. The disparity in troop strength was too great, making many plans difficult to implement.

Currently, their three battalions only have a strength of six or seven thousand men. If there are only about one hundred thousand Mystic Spirits, and considering that those Mystic Spirits are of varying levels and different races, and are essentially a rabble, it would not be difficult to scatter these six or seven thousand elite third-awakening troops.

But now there are millions of Mystic Spirits gathered here, and there are more than 100,000 of them at the third awakening level, possibly even 200,000 or 300,000. We really can't fight a battle like this.

However, these three battalions already represent all the third-awakening combat power of the Qilin Legion. Sending second-awakening cultivators over now would be of no use at all.

"Team Leader, what are your thoughts?" Chen Guan looked at Shi Zhimen, who hadn't said much.

“The disparity in strength is too great; a direct attack is not advisable,” Shi Zhimen said.

The three of them, including Bai Yueguang, were not surprised. In this situation, it would have been the same no matter who was in charge.

It seems that the only thing they can do now is to request support from headquarters. A surge of mystical spirits of this scale would require multiple legions to work together to possibly repel it.

But even if the report is submitted, it remains to be seen when the supporting troops will arrive.

Apart from the Fiery Legion, which is relatively close, the other legions are quite far away. It will take time for the orders to be sent and for the legions to arrive, so it's uncertain whether they will make it in time.

But this is not what Chen Guan wants. If other legions come to support, wouldn't they have to share these secret spirit resources?

Seeing that Chen Guan was still looking at him, Shi Zhimen felt a little excited.

Clearly, Chen Guan had no intention of requesting support, otherwise he wouldn't be looking at him like that.

Shi Zhimen also wanted to fight this battle. Although the previous intelligence did not mention so many Mystic Spirits, the types of Mystic Spirits were roughly described.

Before Shi Zhimen arrived, he had already done a detailed deduction and considered all possible scenarios.

He had indeed anticipated this surge in the number of Mystic Spirits and had considered strategies to deal with it.

"We can use Battalion Commander Zhang's strategy of luring the enemy deep into our territory and Battalion Commander Bai's strategy of 'besieging Wei to rescue Zhao,' employing both methods simultaneously. We can use the smoke screen to divide the battlefield and defeat them one by one," Shi Zhimen said.

“As I just said, we don’t know where those mysterious spirits’ lair is. Searching for them one by one would be too time-consuming. If we lure them in deep, with such a large disparity in troop strength, I’m afraid we’ll be the ones who get trapped,” Zhu Hongzhi said.

“I’ve researched the Phoenix Forest before and drawn a new map. You battalion commanders can take a look.” Shi Zhimen took out a map and spread it on the table.

The map shows the areas and terrain that the Qilin Legion had previously explored, along with some markings. "Based on previous intelligence and the analysis of the area where the Mystic Spirits are currently located in the River of Flames, we can roughly determine which direction they came from, and thus roughly deduce the area where their lair is located." Shi Zhimen pointed to the marked areas on the map and said, "I have marked the areas corresponding to these Mystic Spirits, and their lair should be within this range."

"How can you be so sure that their lair is within this area? Just because they came from that side? Is it possible that they came from somewhere much farther away?" Bai Yueguang said.

“Of course, that’s a possibility. But theoretically, it shouldn’t be. Take this Demon Fang Crocodile, for example. Although they are amphibious, they are slow on land and not used to long journeys. They must have come from the river. There are three branches of the river that lead to the River of Flames. This one is the main river that leads to the River of the Underworld. The water there is too deep and not a comfortable zone for the Demon Fang Crocodile…” Shi Zhimen analyzed one by one.

At first, the group was somewhat dismissive, but upon hearing the rest, Bai Yueguang and the other two showed expressions of surprise.

Shi Zhimen's analytical and logical abilities are indeed quite surprising.

“We can send a small team to harass their lair; we don’t need to actually attack them. The Mystic Spirits have their own ways of communicating, so we just need to let them know that their lair is under threat. And then here, we need to lure them along this route. The Fanged Beasts aren’t fast on mountain paths… This forest will widen the distance between the Giant Ape and the Giant Python…”

Shi Zhimen analyzed each plan and possibility one by one.

The three of them, Bai Yueguang, kept raising various questions and doubts, and Shi Zhimen answered them one by one. Surprisingly, no question could stump him.

"What do you think?" Chen Guan asked after they had all fallen silent.

“It’s theoretically feasible… but whether we can execute it perfectly is another question…” Zhang Yujian said.

He knew that a plan was one thing, but actual execution was another. With so many people together, it was normal for things to go wrong.

“Perfect execution isn’t necessary… I’ve already made contingency plans… If the plan goes wrong… and things get out of control… we can evacuate from here…” Shi Zhimen continued to doodle on the map.

Zhang Yujian had nothing to say; Shi Zhimen's thinking was indeed extremely thorough.

"Gentlemen, we have less than seven thousand people against a million-strong group of spirits. If we can defeat them, this one battle alone will be enough to make us famous in the history of the Heavenly Court's army. Moreover, even if we request reinforcements, it is unknown when they will arrive. We cannot gamble with our base and Qilin City, so we can only win and cannot afford to lose..." Chen Guan said slowly, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the group.

The group of people felt a chill run down their spines; they knew that Chen Guan was right.

Most of the soldiers' families lived in Qilin City, and they couldn't afford to gamble.

"The message needs to be sent back first, and we also need to request reinforcements, but before that, we must do our best for our corps and our loved ones. Are you ready for battle?" Chen Guan asked calmly.

"My Moqilin Battalion is ready for battle at any time." Zhu Hongzhi gave a standard military salute.

“The Jade Kirin Camp has never been defeated,” Bai Yueguang added.

Although Zhang Yujian hesitated for a moment, he knew there was no turning back, so he had no choice but to agree.

(End of this chapter)