After taking a deep breath to calm himself, Carod ordered everyone: "Hurry up and clean the battlefield. Remember to leave the balls for these two."
The Ninth Legion had suffered damage to their arrow towers, and unfortunately, there were some deaths; but the numbers didn’t even come close to what they could’ve been. In the end, this was still an overwhelming victory.
Even with only a third of the spoils and without the most valuable parts of the bulls, it was already enough to cover all losses with a little left over. The problem was the lingering bitter feeling. It was like savoring a delicacy only to find a bug in the last bite.
Everyone moved quickly, but they could barely contain their anger. If everything had gone according to Pouzek’s plan, the entire legion might have been wiped out or forced to retreat even further. In that case, Carod would’ve been dismissed immediately, without even needing a formal evaluation.
The unexpected arrival of that couple was what frustrated Pouzek’s plans, stopping him from getting everything he wanted.
Carod suppressed his fury and walked up to the couple: "Sorry about all this. How about we give you half of everything, on top of what you asked for?"
While the soldiers worked, Carod calmly explained: every part of the Giant Devil Bulls was valuable. However, the balls were worth more than half of everything else.
The higher a cultivator’s level, the lower their fertility. This was suppression imposed by the heavenly laws, since the stronger an individual became, the greater the potential of their descendants.
That was why it was extremely difficult for two supreme cultivators to have children. Many would never be able to produce offspring throughout their entire lives. However, when they did succeed, there was a high chance that the child would inherit their parents’ most powerful talents, along with their bloodlines, giving the child a massive advantage over others.
Particularly in that place, where the Charming Eyes Race ruled everything, bloodlines held no value, because children of this race could be born from any couple. But if one parent belonged to the Charming Eyes Race, the chances of the child being of that race increased considerably.
This was one of the reasons why the queen and the heroes captured mutants without caring about their bloodlines. The best were selected and sent to that planet. This way, the Charming Eyes Race could produce offspring with powerful individuals, ensuring the children were born with exceptional abilities. Not caring about the partner’s bloodline was a unique advantage of this race.
Carod was an example of this. His mother belonged to the Charming Eyes Race, while his father was a hybrid beast from outside. He was born into his mother’s race and came into the world as a Charming Eyes Race of King-level.
He explained the division within his race. There were three types of Charming Eyes Race, from weakest to strongest: Fighters, Kings, and Divines.
This classification was determined at birth, and it was rare for anyone to evolve beyond it. What defined their level was how much of the race’s power they could use.
Those at Fighter level had only their innate ability called Divine Reflection. According to Carod, this ability made cultivating sacred power easier.
However, this differed from the information Alm and Bruno had. To them, Divine Reflection should make it easier to comprehend natural laws and the heavenly laws. The queen, it seemed, had completely altered this factor; the "sacred power" he mentioned seemed to be the same kind of power that the heroes received from her.
Since the queen severed the race’s connection to the heavenly laws, they began directly absorbing her golden power to cultivate. In other words, the stronger they became, the more they absorbed, and the harder it was for them to rebel. It was perfect, really. Alm could only nod in understanding.
As for the King level, like Carod, they were those who could minimally wield the power of their eyes. This was the gift that gave the race its name, allowing each individual to create something unique, capable of altering reality on a small scale, similar to the manifestations of the Empyreans. Surely, the queen had created the Empyreans based on the abilities of her race.
Finally, the Divine level were the elite of the continent, holding the highest positions. They fully mastered the race’s power and created their own techniques using their eyes.
Alm and Bruno knew just how terrifying this could be, as that old man they had encountered definitely fit the Divine level, and his power already seemed overwhelmingly stolen.
Once the soldiers finished collecting everything, Carod offered half the spoils to the couple, but Bruno refused: "I don’t want anything but the balls. They’re already worth half of everything, and I’d be shameless if I took more. I wouldn’t have been able to kill so many on my own; everyone contributed."
After saying this, Bruno had to ignore Alm’s mental curses.
Carod turned serious, clearly reluctant to accept. Bruno shook his head and added: "Let’s not argue. Let’s get to the main point. Do you want revenge?"
"Do you have a way?" Jilina asked as Carod’s eyes gleamed.
"Hmph, do you think we don’t have a way to deal with an insect?" Ruri said maliciously. "Master just chose to wait to gain more. His head isn’t worth that much, and if some idiot wants to play games, we’ll help him."
The two of them widened their eyes, and Ruri, noticing this, became visibly irritated: "Look at yourselves. Are you even cultivators? Do you cultivate just to become someone else’s stepping stones? To be humiliated? If that’s the case, you might as well stop cultivating now and reach the same outcome. To be frank, seeing you like this makes me want to leave. Being weak and poor is no excuse for being cowardly."
Carod’s expression turned grim. He sighed: "It’s my fault. I’m the weakest of the nine commanders. If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t be in this mess."
Alm spoke dryly: "This has nothing to do with your strength. The problem is that you’ve accepted this passively. Are you still resisting and making concessions even after being bullied? Let me tell you the law of the cultivation world: every step you retreat, others take a step forward, until you have nowhere left to back up. When that moment comes, you’ll realize that because you backed down and avoided conflict so many times, you no longer have a chance to fight back."
"Against bastards, you can’t just back down. If you’ve decided to leave home and change something in the world, you need to take responsibility. Life is like a jungle; if you’re passive, others will devour you and grow stronger at your expense. In the end, you’ll die and leave those bastards even stronger, hurting even more those who just want to live in peace."
Carod was stunned, and then Bruno sighed and added:
"In the end, all you’ll be able to do is despair. So tell me: do you want revenge? Do you want to fight back? Do you want to reclaim the dignity you’ve lost?"
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"Of course, but we can’t defeat the Third Legion. The power gap is just too big…" Carod smiled bitterly.
The legions’ ranking wasn’t based on the strength of the commanders, but on the strength of the legions themselves. Since all the commanders were King-level, their individual power was technically similar. However, a low-ranked commander like Carod didn’t have the resources to improve, which eventually gave an edge to those at higher ranks.
In other words, for Carod, the most important thing was increasing the collective power of the legion. This wasn’t just about the strength of each warrior, but also the weapons, armor, and other available resources.
The Ninth Legion was the weakest. On top of that, they’d lost their base and were forced to hunt in an outer region, which limited their merit points — the primary wealth of any legion.
As a result, they grew weaker and weaker, and morale plummeted alongside. They could only defeat some of the weaker demonic beast races, feeding a cycle of decline: the strong grew stronger, while the weak became even weaker. Now, reversing this situation seemed nearly impossible.
In the past, the Ninth Legion had more than twenty arrow towers, but some were damaged in recent battles and still needed repairs — something they clearly lacked resources to do. If they hadn’t recovered their losses this time, the next few months would have been extremely difficult, and their chances of being wiped out would skyrocket.
On the other hand, the Third Legion had one hundred and eighty arrow towers and one mobile war chariots, with almost all their members equipped with sacred weapons and armor — crafted by the God of Forge. Compared to them, the Ninth Legion looked like beggars struggling to survive. The power difference was simply massive.
"Why are they so close to this outer region?" Ruri asked, puzzled.
Jilina answered calmly, "This is an outer area close to the Eighth and Ninth Legion bases. Since we lost our base, only the Eighth remains here now. And the leader of that legion is Pouzek’s partner, so he spends his time between her base and his."
The Third Legion supported the Eighth, whose commander had recently taken the position. Although it wasn’t against the rules, competition between legions normally prevented things like this. However, a small portion of warriors from the Third Legion were constantly in this region helping out.
"We just wanted to accumulate points; we don’t have the strength to face them. Messing with the Eighth is the same as messing with the Third Legion…" Carod muttered.
Alm snorted and spoke dryly, "Who said you have to fight them directly? Besides, that would be against the rules. I just want to know if you have the resolve to actually go against them. Fighting is always a gamble; you can never guarantee it’ll work out. If you’ve got the guts to draw a blade, you need to know that another blade might take your life. But since you have almost nothing, your only chip in this game is your life."
Carod grew serious, and Ruri added, "Master’s asking if you dare to bet. If you dare, he’s got a plan. If you don’t, then there’s no reason for us to stay here for long. We’ll help until the end of the month when our test is over. After that, we’ll leave."
"I don’t quite get it," Carod said hesitantly. He didn’t know what they were planning, but the lives of his entire legion were at stake. He couldn’t act impulsively, no matter how much he wanted to.
Bruno intervened, waving his hand: "I just want to know your attitude. Do you have that resolve? If everything works out, the Ninth Legion will land a big catch and won’t have to endure the insults of the other legions anymore. If we fail, the Ninth Legion will be so damaged that it’ll never recover. I’m asking if you’re willing to risk it."
For a moment, everyone fell silent. Suddenly, a muscular warrior shouted:
"Commander, let’s bet! We can’t keep suffering like this. Everyone’s morale has plummeted. We’ve lost everything we could lose, so what’s the worst-case scenario if we lose again? People with nothing have nothing to fear!"
"Yes! They’ve pushed us too far, and they won’t stop. How are we supposed to survive on the battlefield like this? I trust this couple. Even though we still came up short in the end… that was our fault. Thanks to them, at least we won this time. Let’s bet now, or there won’t be another chance in the future. I’m sure we can win!" said a small beastwoman with a warrior’s aura.
Ruri shook her head and said, "No. When you gamble, there will definitely be losses alongside the wins. There are no guaranteed bets, or it wouldn’t be a gamble. Deciding whether to play or not is up to you. Think carefully."
"Let’s bet! Commander, we’ve got nothing left to lose!"
"If we don’t fight back now, we won’t even qualify to go against the Eighth Legion."
"Exactly! Being crushed like this is miserable. It’s better to gamble."
Shouts of support echoed from all sides among the legion soldiers. Ruri covered her mouth, nearly laughing. ’Master just got here… how did they all fall under his spell so quickly? As expected, hehehe.’
She relayed this through the array, and Bruno could only sigh. These people had chosen to join the Ninth Legion, and they still had the option to leave. If they did, they could participate in a public test and maybe be accepted into another legion. But they chose to stay; that was because they knew what kind of person Carod was.
Of course, no one wanted to die. However, they preferred to fight alongside someone honest and fair like Carod rather than alongside any random greedy idiot of a commander.
Power wasn’t everything for honest people; doing things the right way still mattered to them. Alm sneered slightly, but this only reinforced the hope he and Bruno found in the places they passed through when encountering people like this.
They didn’t know exactly what Bruno and Alm were planning, but they were sure it was something big. The target was the Third Legion — the same one that had intolerably bullied them for far too long. The flames of anger still burned brightly in their hearts. After being forced into such a desperate situation, even a rabbit would bite, let alone a cultivator.
Seeing everyone’s support, Carod nodded firmly: "Alright, we’ll entrust our fate to you two. We’ll do whatever you ask."
He was tired of it all too. Everyone was already being slowly led to death by Pouzek’s schemes. If they didn’t die, the worst-case scenario was being expelled. But since everyone had made their choice, as commander, he couldn’t be a coward.
"Bring me a map of this place, with all the bases, defensive lines, and hidden areas. I also need to know what trump cards you’ve got and what items can be exchanged with your merit points," Bruno said seriously.
Carod began explaining in detail. Over time, many fortresses with underground formations had been built here: movement systems, defenses, and other essential resources. The legions relied on these fortresses to protect their established bases.
Alm and Bruno listened carefully. They didn’t want to, nor could they, rely on their own power. The plan was still to pull everything off without drawing too much attention… at least that’s what they wanted.
’We can always do the opposite. Every time we’ve tried to be discreet, we’ve failed miserably. Maybe it’s time to try a new tactic,’ Bruno murmured through the array. Ruri grinned maliciously upon hearing that.