As he led his men into retreat, deep into the vast forests of the continent, Biao's mind still recalled the scene of the massive explosion from a few hours ago. He could hardly process the shock that he had felt after witnessing that power that was no less than a fully-powered attack from a Rank 8 practitioner.
Biao recalled how the young scholar had remarked that these 'weapons' would be the future of Mankind. He admitted that he hadn't fully been trusting toward the young scholar's claims and had been secretly dismissible about these so-called 'hot weaponry.' However, seeing was believing.
And now, he believed.
A Rank 8 cultivator was a rare item; to produce such an entity, one needed resources, talent, luck, providence, enlightenment, and many other intangible and uncontrollable factors.
On the other hand, as long as one had sufficient resources and production methods, one could reliably produce these weapons at a cost that was incomparable to sponsoring a practitioner.
Biao understood now why the young scholar called these weapons the 'future.' A standard rifle of current make could easily kill an unprepared Rank 3 cultivator; who was to say that other weapons with greater lethality wouldn't be invented in the future?
This begged another question; what roles would practitioners like him play in the future then? Would he be forced to adopt passivity like those bookworms and scholars that he hated? Or would he be put to death by the powers that decide be, when his strength and abilities were no longer required?
The Great Warrior stopped thinking about this matter feeling the onset of a headache. Whatever comes in the future, he would leave it to his future self to face it. Currently, what mattered most was that he stuck to the orders given to him.
Igniting the rations and ammunition wasn't a tactic devised by him; it was instead an instruction given to him by Wuzhi. The scholar did not explain how Biao had to accomplish this task; only that he accomplished it.
For the first week, Biao led his men to mirror and study the movements of the Mu Household faction's armies. The Hielanders were patient, treating the enemy soldiers in the same way that they would treat beasts before a Great Hunt. They learnt, observed, and studied every aspect of every soldier before coming up with a plan.
The 'disappearances!'
Honestly speaking, this was hardly a new tactic employed by the Hielanders. They frequently used it during their Great Hunts to kidnap infant Wild Beasts when their parents were out. They would do so to agitate the parent Wild Beasts, allowing the hunt to proceed with greater ease.
Besides, a good Wild Beast was a dead Wild Beast. None were spared.
The following five days of the second week were preparation for the 'main' objective; setting the rations and ammunitions on fire. Their plan to distract attention away from their objective had been a resounding success, and the Hielanders accomplished the task given to them.
It was just that, no one had expected the explosion that followed or the sheer devastation that it would cause. The Hielanders who had not been informed of the explosion did not manage to retreat in time after lighting the fire.
Nearly two thousand Hielanders died from the subsequent explosion. However, Biao did not consider these deaths to be meaningless as they had allowed them to learn of the true devastation of this hot weaponry. Besides, the damage done to their enemy was of a much, much greater scale.
The Mu Household faction's campaign had more or less been brought to ruin.
Leading the seven thousand and some change Hielanders into retreat, Biao thought about the second 'main' task that the young scholar had given him and slightly shivered at the thought.
He looked southeast where the major city of Mirano was located. It served as the home base and headquarters of the Scarlet Demon Army. Biao's second 'main' task was to reach Mirano at the earliest and convince the Scarlet Demons to attack the ruined armies of the Mu Household faction!
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The decisive heartlessness of the Heaven Scheming Devil's sole disciple and successor could be felt in this order.
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A Rank 7 cultivator possessed great strength and speed. Biao managed to reach the gates of Mirano after merely a day's travel.
After he explained his reason for arrival, he was led to meet with the War Commander of the Scarlet Demon Army. As he followed his guide, Biao quietly considered the Scarlet Demons.
The Scarlet Demons were renowned throughout the world for their toughness, bloodthirstiness, and warmongering spirit. Each Scarlet Demon was a massive entity standing anywhere between eight to ten feet tall! They wore hulking armour painted in red-black colours and wielded massive weapons that weighed in the hundreds of kilos.
One was not born as a Scarlet Demon; the Scarlet Demons were made. They were the result of the Demon Sovereign Fang Gu's research into human evolution and genetic modification.
The exact procedure of how a Scarlet Demon is made is a secret known only to the Demon Sovereign. However, it was known that the creation of a Scarlet Demon was incredibly difficult with a very low success rate. Eight out of ten people, who undergo the operation, die.
Should the modification succeed the resultant warriors would be one of the strongest, toughest, and most warring soldiers to ever exist.
There was a general misconception among the commoners of this world that the Scarlet Demon Organization was full of such war-god-like Scarlet Demons. This was untrue.
The Scarlet Demon Organization was an umbrella term that referred to the Sovereign-level organization founded and helmed by the Demon Sovereign. It was full of mortals, practitioners, scientists, researchers, Path Explorers, etc. The genetically modified Scarlet Demons also belonged to the organization but belonged to a sub-section called the Scarlet Demon Army.
And it was precisely this Scarlet Demon Army filled with Scarlet Demons that was sent to occupy the South Aislan Continent. And whilst the other organization sent tens and hundreds of thousands of people to participate and contribute towards the occupation, the Scarlet Demon Army merely sent twenty thousand Scarlet Demons.
Having said that, each Scarlet Demon was worth five regular soldiers; therefore, in essence, the military might of the Scarlet Demon Army faction was one hundred thousand men strong!
Even though Biao did not exchange moves with the ten-foot-tall armoured men that he came across, he could keenly feel the strength and spirit of these people. To his surprise, he realized that even the Hielanders, whom he considered the strongest community amongst the humans, would be hard-pressed in a fair one-on-one battle against these men.
A Scarlet Demon was born for war. That was his greatest and only purpose.
With complicated thoughts clouding his head, Biao was finally brought before the War Commander of the 14th Division of the Scarlet Demon Army. He introduced himself as 'Blazing Steel,' and asked for Biao's purpose for visit.
Without beating around the bush, Biao spoke of his reason for coming. He explained how he and his men had inflicted fatal wounds on the Mu Household faction's armies and invited the Scarlet Demons to help in finishing and cleaning up the rest.
Blazing Steel did not immediately reply but instead asked for his aides to confirm this news. After nearly an hour of waiting, the confirmation arrived; it was true. The Mu Household faction's armies teetered on the verge of total collapse.
Blazing Steel seriously considered the matter at hand.
Earlier this year, he had received orders from his boss, the War Master of the Scarlet Demon Army, to reduce their scope of influence and lie dormant in passivity; to react only when provoked. While Blazing Steel did not understand the reason behind this order, he still zealously stuck by it and obediently withdrew the frontlines to encompass only a few key points around Mirano City. He then waited for the enemy to advance and counterattack… but it never arrived.
Both Blazing Steel and his division of Scarlet Demons had been bored out of their minds after all the passive waiting. A few of them even began to seriously consider whether they had somehow accidentally offended the War Master, or worse yet, Lord Supreme Commander the Demon Sovereign, and that this was their punishment for their offence.
Blazing Steel knew that this was not true and brushed it off as nonsense. However, as the weeks and months passed by and the Scarlet Demons saw no war, even he had begun believing in this nonsense.
Fortunately, the arrival of the young heir of the Mu Household faction had shaken things up a little. The war that the Scarlet Demons desperately craved was finally upon them. Bound by their previous orders, they once again lay in wait for their enemies to arrive at the city of Mirano.
They waited and waited and waited… yet, the enemy never arrived. The 14th Division of the Scarlet Demon Army felt tortured.
And just as they were on the verge of breaking into tears, Biao arrived with an invitation for a battle!
Blazing Steel almost wanted to embrace this strangely-dressed native and give him a big kiss. However, he held back when a question suddenly popped into his mind; does acceptance of this invitation mean a violation of the War Master's orders?
Blazing Steel thought and thought hard. After a long period of consideration, he decided to take a risk and accept the invitation.
"Have the kids gather immediately! We shall leave right away and eliminate the faction of that lucky bastard!"
The Scarlet Demon Army was thus drawn in to deal with the Mu Household faction in earnest.