["Bang!!"]
"Before these two idiots could react, you grabbed their heads, poured True Qi into them, struck their very souls, and forced their spirits to separate from their bodies. Then, wielding the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, you absorbed their souls into it. Next, the Banner reformed these two Dragon-Men, and they instantly switched sides. Finally, you ordered them to return to their own bodies. With a smooth, fluid series of moves, you completed a deep-seated transformation of the two Dragons' souls, making them wholeheartedly decide to abandon the darkness for the light."
['"We pledge allegiance, Master!"']
['"Tell me everything you know about the dimensional rift!"']
"The two Dragon-Men began their report. It turns out that this gap used by the Dragon-Man army to traverse the two dimensions was indeed opened with help from someone on the human world's side. However, the Dragon-Men themselves didn't know who it was. In the past, they had repeatedly failed when trying to open a stable rift to the human world. Because your intelligence outpost had been destroyed, they couldn't mobilize resources on the human world's side, naturally making everything inconvenient. During one of those attempts to forcefully open a rift, when it seemed it would fail again, someone on this side actually lent a hand, stabilizing it."
"The Dragon-Man Realm Master believed the situation on this side was unclear and that a reckless attack was not the best strategy. But the Sixth Expeditionary Army hadn't been on a campaign for hundreds of years, and the entire force was eager to earn merits to exchange for extended lifespans. After repeatedly petitioning the Realm Master for permission to fight, he finally agreed. However, during the process of using this rift, the Expeditionary Army discovered a problem. The rift wasn't very good. The main issues were its slow transmission speed and the low mass it could transfer at one time—even if materials were placed in storage items, their mass didn't disappear. This forced the Sixth Expeditionary Army to transfer people and supplies batch by batch. Before the final batch could be sent through, the earlier Dragon-Men had to hide in many nearby underwater caves."
"These underwater caves weren't naturally formed. This was the Chaotic Crystal Sea, and beneath the seabed lay vast veins of Spirit Crystals. These caves were left behind after the Wang family finished mining the crystals. To avoid discovery, the Dragon-Men dug the caves even deeper and arranged defensive forces and anti-detection measures around them. The entire process took a full forty years."
['"Some of you have been hiding underwater for thirty or forty years? Dragon-Men aren't fish, how could you stand it?"']
['"Reporting to Master, it was indeed uncomfortable, but we had Tortoise Breath Pearls. By holding them in our mouths, we could breathe underwater like fish, and we survived on the fish that lived there."']
"The two idiots who came up for a smoke showed you the green pearls under their tongues. The Dragon-Man tribe truly seemed to prefer making their tools in the shape of pearls. It was probably because they all had Dragon Pearls inside their bodies—a form of racial worship."
['"Since this rift is so hard to use, why not open a few more?"']
['"Reporting to Master, the mother realm did try to open another one. But the mysterious person who helped us stabilize this rift didn't help again. And those of us who had already crossed over couldn't act, because a complete Expeditionary Army formation wasn't fully assembled. If we made a move prematurely and were discovered by the human world, the war would be difficult to fight. On the other hand, we also had to consider the cost..."']
Maintaining two rifts didn't cost just twice as much as maintaining one. Every world had basic rules to maintain spatial stability. When one rift appeared, the world's automatic repair power against it was relatively weak—it was like the world catching a minor illness, and the immune system didn't react strongly. If there were two rifts, the immune system would officially intervene. To ensure both rifts operated normally at the same time, the resources consumed would be enormous. The Dragon-Man Realm could certainly afford it; they had already plundered many worlds. But was it necessary? There were many factions within the Dragon-Man tribe. A hostile faction only needed to submit a complaint to the Realm Master, and the Sixth Expeditionary Army would find it difficult to get special funding. After all, since there was already one rift, the Sixth Expeditionary Army could fight if they could; if they couldn't, the Seventh and Eighth Expeditionary Armies were waiting in line. How could others fight with one rift while they couldn't? Where did all these excuses come from? Their great Dragon-Man Realm wanted results, not excuses.
Hearing this, you couldn't help but sigh. The Dragon-Man army that had thrown the human world into chaos, caused the tragic deaths of countless heroes, and left the land desolate was just the Sixth Expeditionary Army. Even if, hypothetically, the human world defeated them today, so what? There were still the Seventh and Eighth in line. Forget about them attacking all at once; even if they came one by one, in a war of attrition, how could the human world sustain it?
"To truly solve the Dragon-Man invasion, we need to prevent them from crossing over at all, buying the human world more time to develop. At the very least, we need to fight a defensive counterattack on home ground without being at a disadvantage." From the brutal battles of the past few years, you had confidence in the human world's development. The human race and the Demon Tribe, the two once-mighty races, were now merely covered in a layer of dust. Given enough time, even if they couldn't restore their former glory, surely they could manage self-defense.
You pushed aside thoughts of longer-term problems for now. The current issue was eliminating the Sixth Expeditionary Army; otherwise, there would be no future problems to consider. How should this rift be dealt with? Should you destroy it now, cutting off the Sixth Expeditionary Army's retreat and preventing them from receiving more supplies and reinforcements?
No. Your choice was to keep it. But you would reform the souls of all the soldiers guarding the rift. To avoid attracting attention, you didn't touch the generals above the Martial King level; you just secretly reformed the Dragon-Man soldiers. The issue of reinforcements from the Dragon-Man side wasn't something to worry about. It took forty years to transfer two hundred thousand Dragon-Men; this war couldn't possibly last another forty. Even if it did turn into a protracted war, you could always destroy it then. Keeping the rift would make the Sixth Expeditionary Army believe they still had a way out. When the day came for them to truly retreat, you would give them a surprise! At the same time, all the soldiers guarding the rift were now your people, playing along with the generals' act. If any resources were sent through this rift, then from now on, it would be one share for the Sixth Expeditionary Army, one share for you. Perhaps weapons sent to the Expeditionary Army might end up missing a screw or having an extra handle.
Year 79, age 98.
The Dragon-Man tribe's rift between the two realms was now under your control.
So, you arrived at their stronghold established east of the Hundred Death Mountains. The Dragon-Men's architectural style looked utterly sinister. They hunted large animals and demon tribes, skinned them and dismembered their bones, using the bones for frames and the fur for roofing, setting up a camp thick with the stench of blood. "Truly barbaric!" You sneered in disdain.
