How did this happen? Huo Yuhao could tell from his training that the Star Luo Empire had very solid foundations, and even their recruits were controlled with strict military discipline. Why were the defeated soldiers so dispirited?
Huo Yuhao landed quietly on the ground and merged himself into the defeated army. He was dressed like a normal soldier in the first place, and he discovered from the other soldiers that the Sun Moon Empire"s sudden a.s.sault was a lot more ferocious than he had imagined.
The Star Luo Empire"s aerial surveillance was simply too weak, to the point where the Sun Moon Empire managed to transport powerful individuals through their western borders in different batches. They a.s.saulted the Star Luo Empire in full force, and after their Cla.s.s 9 stationary soul cannon sh.e.l.ls wreaked havoc with their frightening power, these powerful individuals rushed into the army camps that were sent into disarray. They focused on killing officers and creating even more chaos, and they caused the entire Northwestern Field Army to descend into utter chaos and confusion.
If not for the White Tiger Duke"s strict handling of his soldiers, and the fact that he had formidable prowess at controlling his army, the Northwestern Field Army would have sustained even heavier losses. The front lines had already lost about seventy thousand people.
According to the defeated soldiers, beams of powerful light rained down from the sky continuously after that terrifying explosion occurred, and decimated the Star Luo Empire"s stronghold on the mountaintop. Afterward, large numbers of soul engineers flooded into the Ming Dou Mountain Range and ma.s.sacred everyone.
This was clearly a fighting style where top-tier fighting strength was used to open a path. Furthermore, with the soul engineer legions" ability to fly, the Sun Moon Empire"s aerial army had an absolute advantage. The Sun Moon Empire had complete air supremacy, and they had used it to great advantage.
The Star Luo Empire always knew that they were lagging behind the Sun Moon Empire in terms of soul tools, but only after this all-out war had erupted did they understand how big this rift was.
Yes, this rift was truly far too big.
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Huo Yuhao returned to his journey after obtaining that information. He understood that with the frightening power of soul tools, the defense mechanisms in traditional wars of the past were far from enough to withstand the Sun Moon Empire"s a.s.sault. The Sun Moon Empire had come prepared, and the Star Luo Empire was in deep trouble after they lost the Ming Dou Mountain Range, which was their first line of defense. This defeat was likely to be impossible to turn around!
Huo Yuhao didn"t take long to fly over two hundred kilometers. Huo Yuhao could sense intense soul power undulations that were rippling and exploding from a distance. The sky was beginning to darken, and flashes of varying colors that bloomed and flickered continuously on the borders were thus even more obvious.
He quickly noticed what had happened to the Ming Dou Mountain Range.
There was an enormous gap in the Ming Dou Mountain Range. This gap had a very strange, extremely sinister shape, and was burned black. It was evidently caused by the frightening explosive force of Cla.s.s 9 stationary soul cannon sh.e.l.ls bombarding the mountains. Huo Yuhao could see from a long distance away that large numbers of soldiers from the Sun Moon Empire were streaming into the Star Luo Empire"s borders through this gap.
The Star Luo Empire"s defensive perimeter had been utterly crushed on all fronts. But what about the White Tiger Duke and the others? Could it be that the White Tiger Duke and his personal guards had been slaughtered?
The remnants of the Star Luo Empire"s armies were battered and bruised. Voluminous aerial surveillance and land surveillance soul tools dotted the sky roughly ten kilometers away, while soul tool fronts and positions constructed by soul engineers were gradually taking shape on the ground. Brilliant flashes that flickered from time to time slowly disappeared at the same time.
The Northwestern Field Army"s front had been completely lost after just half a day.
Huo Yuhao gulped as he hovered in midair; even he was a little lost.
That was the Star Luo Empire"s most formidable fighting strength! Were they actually crushed that simply?
Huo Yuhao couldn"t tell which soul engineer legions were stationed beneath him, and he closed his eyes as he withdrew every inch of spiritual power that he had let out.
He was under the cover of Imitation, and even aerial surveillance soul tools couldn"t detect his presence. Only thermal detectors could possibly discover his presence.
A rose-gold vertical eye gradually surfaced behind Huo Yuhao"s back, and his head glowed at the same time as a rose-gold wheel of light appeared behind his head. The aura of destiny undulated outward at the same time.
His Spiritual Detection"s range was ultimately limited, and his spiritual power wasn"t as powerful as that of the Evileye Tyrant King, who could reach five hundred kilometers away with Spiritual Detection. When Huo Yuhao"s Spiritual Detection reached a range of ten thousand meters, his accuracy would be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the battlefield at the border was so large, it was clearly impossible for him to find the White Tiger Duke with Spiritual Detection. Therefore, he opted for another method. He wanted to try a method that he felt he could have used a long time ago, but had never tried before. He wanted to try to use destiny to guide him.
This wasn"t a soul skill. Huo Yuhao possessed the power of destiny, and he was using his heart to feel, sensing for palpitations that stemmed from destiny.
The vertical eye behind Huo Yuhao was withdrawn after a moment, and his eyes turned towards the north. Something in the dark was guiding him, that the White Tiger Duke should be to the north.
He turned around and sped up once again, racing towards the north.
The Northwestern Field Army was not just stationed at the western borders; they were also near the Heavenly Soul Empire at the same time. They could reach the Heavenly Soul Empire"s borders if they traveled less than five hundred kilometers north from their position. The White Tiger Duke was actually taking what was left of his forces and retreating towards the north. Why was he doing that?
Huo Yuhao flew forward rapidly with some doubts in mind. His thoughts were slowly ironed out, and his expression immediately grew ugly. However, traces of admiration tinged his eyes.
The White Tiger Duke didn"t retreat toward the east, but toward the north. There could only be one reason for that. The White Tiger Duke was one of the main targets for the Sun Moon Empire"s sudden onslaught. The Sun Moon Empire would attempt to take him down at all costs, so their most formidable fighting strength should have been directed at him. He retreated to the north to draw this force away to give the Star Luo Empire"s defeated armies time to retreat. The Sun Moon Empire"s soul engineer legions were still flying through the air, and the threat and damage they could cause to normal soldiers were far too heavy and severe.
Even though the hatred that Huo Yuhao felt towards the White Tiger Duke wasn"t reduced by much, he still admired the White Tiger Duke"s bravery and heroism. He was the marshal, but he wasn"t the first to retreat, and he placed himself in grave danger so that he could buy time for his armies to retreat. This deed wasn"t something that normal people could perform.
Huo Yuhao released his spiritual power at the same time as he continued flying towards the north. Indeed, there were many scars and traces of battle left behind on the ground. Some were left behind by soul tools, and others were left behind by soul masters and the armies. Huo Yuhao saw corpses from time to time, and he could tell from these traces that the battle was violent and vigorous, but there weren"t that many people fighting. The total number couldn"t be more than ten thousand people, but this group had to be the most elite members from both sides.
The Star Luo Empire had few soul engineers and soul tools, but their numbers of true soul masters wasn"t something the Sun Moon Empire could compare to. There was at least one soul master legion in the Northwestern Field Army, with at least a thousand people that consisted entirely of true soul masters. Even though they weren"t the White Tiger"s personal guards, they only listened to the White Tiger Duke"s orders and commands.
The Star Luo Empire had a total of ten such soul master legions. Unfortunately, these soul master legions were far too powerful, to the point where the Star Luo Empire"s royal family didn"t dare to hand them over to the White Tiger Duke for him to command. The entire Northwestern Field Army had only been a.s.signed one such soul master legion.
Huo Yuhao couldn"t fly that quickly because he was surveying the traces of battle on the ground, but the good thing was that he knew he was going in the right direction. The further he flew, the more he understood how much the Sun Moon Empire wanted to kill the White Tiger Duke.
Huo Yuhao could tell from the corpses on the ground that there were at least two soul engineer legions chasing down the White Tiger Duke and his soldiers. Furthermore, these two legions were members of the Hand that Protects the Nation. Huo Yuhao had seen one of them before; that legion had trapped Huo Yuhao and the others, which had ultimately resulted in w.a.n.g Qiu"er sacrificing herself for him. That legion was the Evil Tyrant Legion, and from what the soul engineers who had been killed were wearing, the other legion should be the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion.
These two legions had top-tier equipment; they were beast-ranked soul engineer legions! They were equipped with large amounts of top-tier soul tools, and their average fighting strength was equal to that of a Cla.s.s 4 soul engineer or higher! Furthermore, they were exceptionally adept at teamwork and cooperation.
Huo Yuhao flew for another hour before he could faintly see waves of flickering light in the distance.
These lights were flickering at an incredible rate; it wasn"t hard to see that the battle was extremely intense.
Huo Yuhao found the right direction, so he no longer had to determine his destination. He hurriedly accelerated as much as he could and flew in that direction.
He could see shadows and figures flickering with beams of light in the air over the horizon. This group was mainly split into two groups: the first group belonged to the Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion, whose flying-type soul tools sparkled with blue light, and the other group belonged to the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion, whose flying-type soul tools flickered with dark golden light.
These two soul engineer legions were spread out in midair, and were maintaining their soul engineer front in the air just like that. A blue dome protected the Evil Tyrant Legion, while a dark gold dome protected the Terrorclaw Legion. Huo Yuhao could see that the soul power from these domes came from a spike-shaped soul tool at the tips of their flying-type soul tools. Everyone was releasing soul power from this soul tool, and their soul power congregated and transformed into these enormous domes.
The ratio of corpses that Huo Yuhao saw on the way here was heavily in favor of soul engineers. There were far too few soul engineers who had perished, that number stood at a little over ten, while the Star Luo Empire had left behind far too many corpses. The White Tiger Duke"s personal guards had suffered heavy losses and injuries, and many individuals who should be powerful soul masters were killed in action.
The two soul engineer legions that were hovering in midair were firing thick soul rays towards the ground, again and again. They weren"t firing among themselves or at their own discretion, the soul tools they were using seemed to have a combined effect. Three to five people formed one team, and every soul ray they fired would cause intense explosions on the ground beneath them.
The situation on the ground was far more tragic and disastrous compared to the soul engineers. Huo Yuhao possessed necromantic abilities, and as he reached out with his spiritual power, he could already feel many spiritual undulations on the ground. Those spirits belonged to the dead!
Compared to the two distinct domes in the sky, there were also domes on the ground, and they were also used for defense, but they could only be described as multicolored.
There were almost a hundred different kinds of light, and the situation seemed very scattered and disorganized. It was clear that the soul masters were the main defensive force on the ground.