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Chapter 366 Helping Out! A War of Attrition in the Otherworldly Forest! (Please Subscribe)

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After the count finished cleaning the blood off his body, the maids quickly massaged his shoulders.

The Earl then coldly said to his trusted scholar, "Blood Gate Yorn hasn't been blinded by greed after all; they've finally learned to abandon their family interests."

"My lord, do we need any help?"

"Help? Of course we'll help!" The count chuckled, taking a sip of the wine offered by a maid. "We'll not only help, we'll help big enough, but the family's interests absolutely cannot be neglected! Send fifty rune knights and five hundred squires to provide them with military assistance. Hmm, also give their new recruits two hundred enhancement potions. Remember this: we need at least ten percent of the Blood Gate's future profits!"

Old scholar: "————"

"What's wrong? Do you feel it's not enough?"

"Your Excellency! The Redford family also needs to ensure the safety of the nearby forbidden areas; this is a perfectly reasonable deployment of troops."

.

The Redford family is a lineage of earls comparable to the Blood Gate's Yorn Royce family, and they also support the usurper as king. They possess an army of over 15,000, and although they also need to guard some sealed forbidden areas, patrol, and hunt down invaders, their workload is far lighter than that of the Blood Gate's Royce family.

It should be noted that Count Royce of the Blood Gate had previously dispatched a large army to participate in the battle in order to help the new king.

Unfortunately, they lost 60% of their forces in that war. In just over a year, they were far from being able to recover to their peak strength. At this moment, Count Jon Royce the Younger was sending out letters everywhere seeking help, promising a rich reward for any assistance provided.

The old scholar listened to the count's cold laughter and thought to himself that his master's ambitions were far too great.

"But Your Excellency, a mere ten percent profit—the Jon family might not easily agree to that." The old scholar still hesitated.

"They won't agree?" The count slammed his wine glass down on the table. "Then let them talk to the snake people themselves! Let's see if those scaly beasts can reason with them!"

The count stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at his territory.

"Count Yorn caused us losses for short-term gains; he must pay the price. The world of the snake people is a new world where humanity can thrive. You know what that means, right?" The count's voice burned with fervor. "It means limitless possibilities! This desolate land we stand on now is a mess left by the gods of the past—either a deathly wasteland or sealing away something we can't afford to offend. But behind the Blood Gate, once we wipe out those snake people, it will be a perfect virgin territory!"

"Unlimited potential"—these four words are like a spell, driving all the greedy souls on the Forsaken Continent.

This is why, even though they knew that Jon Royce was pleading and bleeding, the nobles around him were like sharks that smelled blood, tearing at his flesh while kindly pushing him forward.

The Blood Gate can be severely weakened, but it must never be breached by the Snake People.

Once that rift gets out of control, the surging army of snake people will flood all the surrounding human territories.

At that point, it won't just be a matter of losing 10% of the profits; it will be a problem that everyone will face!

It's important to understand that resources on the God-Abandoned Continent are extremely scarce compared to other places.

On the Sacred Star, the Forsaken Continent is known for its barrenness and danger.

The spacetime rift controlled by the Yorn family is a very good resource world.

That world was very suitable for human survival. Although there were snake people that could not be eradicated, humans still had a significant advantage.

Of course, there are quite a few such worlds on the continent of God's Abandonment.

The Abandoned Continent connects to many worlds through spacetime rifts in various locations, but the other worlds connected to the Abandoned Continent have too many problems.

A desolate world, a barren world, a planet unsuitable for human habitation, a primitive, savage, and dangerous planet.

Of course, there are also worlds controlled by a small number of intelligent beings.

To date, very few worlds on the God-Abandoned Continent have been found that can sustain human life for an extended period.

Some demon worlds are even extremely dangerous!

This also means that during each major celestial convergence, the races that have taken root in the God-abandoned Continent not only have to expend enormous energy and resources to defend themselves, but also have to actively expand their territory, otherwise they are very likely to be wiped out.

On the continent of the Forsaken Gods, there are over a hundred spacetime rifts that have already been sealed.

These spacetime rifts at the sealing points have existed for a long time; some are in other worlds that are extremely dangerous, while others are relatively safe.

These spacetime rift sealing points are generally called spacetime forbidden zones, and their danger levels vary greatly from high to low.

For example, the forbidden areas sealed by elves and dwarves are ranked in the second tier of danger in the human kingdom.

On the continent of the Forsaken Gods, the first tier undoubtedly consists of the nine spacetime sealed forbidden areas of the Great Ice and Snow Wall and the other three forbidden areas of the kingdom.

Every time a major celestial event occurs, the Great Wall of Ice and Snow and the nearby forbidden areas, because the gods of the past did not completely seal them off, become the most devastating battlefields, where large-scale population extinctions frequently occur.

Besides these, the God-Abandoned Continent also has second and third tiers of spacetime rifts.

Some rifts had purely negative consequences on the other side, and were directly sealed away by the powerful figures of the human kingdoms. Other spacetime rifts, due to the abundance of resources in the other world, became a key focus of human kingdoms.

Even nobles from some human kingdoms can reap countless benefits from another world every time the great celestial bodies converge.

For example, in the southern border of the kingdom, there is a very wealthy area that is occupied by the Duke of Rose, who controls two otherworldly spacetime rifts.

Although those two places cannot be inhabited for long periods due to various reasons, the other world produces various rare minerals and a large quantity of medicinal herbs that can be used to enhance one's abilities in extraordinary battles.

The Duke of Rose's wealth was well-known throughout the God-Forsaken Continent. The Duke of Rose's family was so extravagant that they used rare wines from the Eastern Continent to feed top-quality ingredients, simply because they felt it made the food taste better.

Fortunately, the Duke of Roses family ran into trouble.

In the brutal war of usurpers a few years ago, the Duke of the Rose chose the wrong side, and the royalists he strongly supported suffered a crushing defeat.

Even though the Rose family is now incredibly wealthy, they have to keep a low profile. The elite troops in the other party's territory are less than three-tenths gone, and their former glory has long been covered by a thick layer of dust.

Due to the celestial convergence issue, the southern human kingdoms were forced to begin recruiting soldiers from below.

Orders of all kinds flew to every village and town like snowflakes.

The wounds of the usurper's war had not yet healed; countless young men from families had just become names on tombstones, and their parents had not yet fully recovered from their grief when a new conscription arrived.

This made ordinary people, who were already tightening their belts to make ends meet, feel the cold touch of the rope around their necks once again.

However, this has been the daily life of the God-Abandoned Continent for the past few hundred years.

When natural disasters strike, civilians are conscripted to serve as cannon fodder, and those who cannot survive are slaughtered in the process.

When man-made disasters strike, civilians are conscripted to fight, and then the bandits scattered across the land are dealt with upon their return.

For ordinary people on this continent, life is a cycle of worse, worse, and extremely worse.

Being able to eat a full meal in peace is something to pray to God for three days and thank Him for His blessing.

However, behind this despair, a spark of madness is burning.

"Have you heard? Go to the Blood Gate to fight, and you can get ten silver coins for killing a snake-man! If you can survive, you might get a piece of land! Although it's a relatively barren territory in the Blood Gate, at least we'll have permanent property."

"Stop dreaming! You think the land the men own is given away for free? They earned it with their lives! I heard from Grandma that snake people are very strong."

"The snake people are strong, but we're strong too! And this is better than starving to death in this muddy mess! My cousin's neighbor fought alongside noble lords back in the day, came back as a squad leader, and now he's married to two wives! You and I are both twenty, almost old, and still not married. Do you want to live like this forever?"

Upon hearing this, the man hesitated for a moment, then said, "Then I'll join the army too!"

"Okay, if we survive, we'll live the high life, and I'll find another woman like you and have lots of kids!"

"good!!!"

Fighting alongside the lords is the only, and also the bloodiest, path for commoners to rise to the upper class in this world.

There are no myths of noble birth here, only cold, hard military achievements.

In this damned world, you may be destitute and starving, but you must never let anyone see your weakness.

Because weakness is the original sin.

While the southern human kingdoms were in dire straits, the pioneering team was also facing new challenges.

Originally, the war still had traces to follow.

The three-race alliance was dealing with nothing more than those unorganized forces from other worlds.

All they need to do is guard the spacetime rift, or wait for the enemy to break through their lines like a hunter waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump.

However, with the arrival of the second phase of the celestial convergence, more spacetime rifts that are difficult to pinpoint appeared, and the sporadic attacks they encountered increased day by day. Their strangeness was so perplexing that even the most battle-hardened warriors were troubled and deeply puzzled.

These enemies are composed of a very complex group.

The slender minotaurs are much more agile than their ordinary kin, yet possess the agility of monkeys and are incredibly fierce in their attacks. They often serve as assassins, inflicting heavy casualties on the allied forces of the three races.

However, their bodies are fragile and easily broken.

If these are considered outrageous, then the robust, rugged-looking night elves are even more outrageous.

They were no longer as handsome as in the legends; instead, they were violent and savage, even more so than ordinary wild beasts. They had thick skin and flesh, and once they went berserk, they were fearless of death.

These guys are like berserkers, very difficult to deal with.

Then there are the ogres, these giants who should be of low intelligence, but they appear frequently in the second phase of the Sky Convergence, displaying astonishing cunning and tactical prowess. They are also very adept at close-quarters combat.

If it weren't for the upgraded power armor system and the large army of robots used as cannon fodder, humanity would have no chance against them.

Besides this, what's even more shocking is the chattering goblin commanders.

These creatures, who are traditionally considered dirty and cowardly, are able to manage these half-beast, half-human freaks in an orderly manner.

When the three-race allied forces dealt with them, they often found that the enemy's command system was commanded by goblins.

This completely overturned the pioneering team's understanding of traditional Western fantasy worlds.

After defeating the enemy, the pioneers were momentarily at a loss for words when faced with the twisted racial traits of those who had been killed.

If it weren't for the fact that the allied forces with the dwarves later encountered fox and gnoll soldiers whose movements were relatively normal, everyone would have wondered if they were being blinded by some kind of illusion, thinking they had encountered the most chaotic racial hodgepodge in history.

This is the strange aspect of the second phase of the celestial convergence.

The energy fluctuations are unpredictable, sometimes so violent as to warp space, and sometimes so calm as to be unsettling.

When energy surges, the spacetime portals connecting different worlds are no longer just relatively stable rifts. A phenomenon called "spacetime inrush" occurs randomly.

It makes the spatial barriers of another world fragile and torn to shreds, and the spacetime convection will randomly and forcibly pull creatures from other worlds onto the God-abandoned Continent.

These otherworldly visitors, thrown out of nowhere, range from ferocious predators to harmless herbivores, from heavily armed alien armies to lost lone wolves—anything is possible.

You cannot predict where the enemy will come from, when they will arrive, or how many there will be, let alone their racial composition and tactical intentions.

The seemingly impregnable defenses became extremely vulnerable in the face of such a bizarre offensive.

The randomness of time and space distortion is like a Damocles' sword hanging over one's head, ready to fall at any moment, making it impossible to sleep soundly.

Worse still, the military strength of the three races began to become insufficient.

Although humans occupy vast territories, they have to search for enemies across hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land.

Keep in mind that the entire human exploration team currently numbers less than 100,000.

A large portion of the workforce involved in the project is concentrated in the industrial zone.

How can such a sparse population defend such a vast territory?

The defensive pressure is beyond description; it's like Mount Tai pressing down on us.

During this period, the land reclamation team has been frantically dispatching drone teams to conduct reconnaissance and patrols day and night. The logistics and maintenance members are also so busy that they are almost smoking from tightening the screws, but they can only do their best.

Those who slip through the net and arrive randomly through the phenomenon of spacetime transmission always appear in the most unexpected places, creating new chaos for the already tense defenses.

Every day is a never-ending war of attrition.

Every sentry post at a key point could become the next target of an enemy attack.

At first, things were alright, and everyone still had the energy to deal with it. But as the number of invaders converging from the sky increased, the commanders and soldiers were exhausted.

The peace of this land is being eroded little by little by this disorder and chaos.

The pioneering team's original aggressive clearing strategy has now been forced to adopt a strategic retreat in the face of a dense barrage of attacks from otherworldly visitors.

All the pioneering team could do was grit their teeth, concentrate their forces as much as possible, and buy time.

The strategic retreat adopted by the allied forces of humans, dwarves, and elves has indeed made some progress.

They would lure the invaders together as much as possible, and then use a saturation attack to eliminate them directly.

After more than ten days of continuous fighting, humanity has indeed made significant breakthroughs. While greatly reducing its own casualties, it has achieved large-scale destruction of the enemy.

This is also the method that humanity has found to eliminate the enemy at the lowest cost.

However, the alliance of the three races also exposed more of humanity's weaknesses.

The location of the three-race allied forces and the elven garrison.

Beneath the ancient, red-leaved, white-barked sacred tree with its human-faced shape, exceptionally rare sunlight filters through the gaps in the red leaves, illuminating the pure white bark and seemingly coating it with a sacred halo.

The elven commander gently touched the tree trunk, feeling the ancient and powerful life force with his fingertips.

His mind had sunk deep into the sacred tree, connecting with the invisible, far-reaching network of the soul.

Deep within the holy city, the elven high priest and governor are receiving the latest battle reports from the front lines through this ancient method.

"In the recent coalition battles, we suffered heavy losses, with more than two thousand of our compatriots killed or wounded. The human side showed friendliness, and their medical surgeries are very advanced, which can save the lives of at least several hundred of our elite soldiers."

What were the casualties on the human side?

"Human casualties have reached three hundred." The frontline commander's voice, tinged with barely perceptible weariness, echoed in the mental network. "If we turn against the Northern Humans, we can use guerrilla tactics to constantly harass them, and sooner or later, we will tear through their defenses."

A soft chuckle, tinged with smugness, came from the internet: "Haha, sounds like those humans aren't invincible after all!"

"Shut up!" An aged yet steady voice quickly silenced the frivolity. "Don't think of war so simply. Human casualties are so high because they don't know the location of the invaders' lair at the intersection of the heavens. They know where our capital is!"

"—

'

"Actually, those humans performed quite well. They quickly learned from their heavy casualties. If the enemy concentrates their forces, our lightly armed troops will be no match for their large army. If it really turns into a full-scale war, they can use their absolute superiority to destroy our capital first, and then gradually sweep away our territory. We will surely be wiped out by them."

"But this at least gives us an opportunity to deal with the northern humans!"

"Alright, put aside your ulterior motives. Let's talk about the recent situation. How have you felt using human weapons?"

"It must be said that although human weapons lack soul, their power is astonishing. If we could also produce those weapons, perhaps we could defeat them!"

"Alright, we'll discuss these matters later." The governor's voice carried an undeniable authority. "Our relationship with humanity..."

The dwarves are now an unbreakable ally! Our sole mission is to eliminate all invaders from this other world!

"That's right. With a formidable enemy at hand, internal strife can be put aside for now. Let's first discuss how to effectively combat those otherworldly creatures."

The high priest's voice rang out, bringing the brief argument to a close.

The elves were quick-witted; long-term plans and immediate interests were always intertwined in their minds.

Compared to the elves, the dwarves, whose relationship had become extremely close after being defeated by humans, seemed much purer at this moment.

They had the divine guidance of their ancestor Gazul, so they didn't have so many hidden agendas.

Although the Allied Commander Liers had some ulterior motives of probing the strength of humanity, he mostly focused on building stronger defenses, forging sharper weapons, and smashing all the monsters from another world.