Chapter 1442
Chapter 1442 - 1438: Shadow Wraith Warlord
1,553 words
•
8 min read
The battlefield was never a matter for just one or two people. Even someone as powerful as a Quasi-God felt powerless in the face of a plane war.
The collapse in the direction of West Hill Mountain wasn’t simply a matter of one line being broken.
It was as if a checkpoint had been torn open, and when the "Iron Cavalry" streamed out, the misfortune fell upon the entire area behind it.
Once the Abyssal Insect Swarm had breached the defense line, they immediately showcased what this race excelled at: multi-lined operations.
They dispersed in several directions to conduct rapid raids. Escapees were nowhere near as fast as these hunters. This led directly to the tragedy that scores of cities were slaughtered overnight.
These life forms required no prisoners; the biomatter of mortals would become their soldiers, and the brains of the Wise would become their sources of intelligence... The hostility of this world towards the Bug Clan had its reasons—Blood vengeance wrought by the long history of war on Mercury 42.
Even now, many Scholars have determined that the Intelligent Insect Race was a native of this world, but when it comes to history and hatred, trying to reason is really pointless.
"...We will prove our worth."
The Awakened Insect Race chose the most challenging battlefront without hesitation.
However, it was still not enough; they could only hold off one direction.
The scattered Abyssal Worm Swarm had already begun to enter the stage of rolling out troops and exploding combat power; their main source of biomatter wasn’t even the local Intelligent Race... The nearly infinite resources of fish and marine life forms in this sea world had become their best hunting grounds.
Large sea-hunting insects, akin to whale sharks, were hunting all over, and at the same time, were searching for important "strategic points."
The stability of this world far exceeded Earth’s. Randomly punching holes from other worlds required meeting many conditions... The most common being massive sacrifices and sources of Divine Power.
These scattered Insect Swarms were continually creating disasters, and at the same time, they were drilling holes into this world.
This was troublesome... It wasn’t a material void, but more like a "closing of distance" on a high-dimensional level. Simply put, it allowed the Abyssal Will from the other side to have even greater influence on the existence of this world.
Originally, the only weakness of the current Abyssal Insect Swarm probably was the deficiency of top combat power. But if let them continue with sacrifices, drilling holes, it would only be a matter of time before multiple Abyss Lords flooded in.
"Are the other lines in bad shape?"
"Pretty much, the issue is that Mortal Legions are at a disadvantage against the Swarm... But we’re a bit stronger on this front, most warriors have become Battle-professionals and gained Beastification Ability."
The soldiers under Lulu’s Salvation Army didn’t have any picky habits.
Just to become a professional was a blessing, and to receive a Beastification buff an even more dreamlike event. They wouldn’t gather points to repeatedly "gamble on Beastification types," but would use all their strength to master the immediate combat power they could get.
They understood... The best combat power was the one that kept them alive; looking too far ahead was pointless.
".....It looks like I must advance again."
Lu originally hesitated over which second seventh-tier to choose... but now, looking at the battlefield before him, it seemed there really was no other choice.
"Tell me again about your Soldier Path... I’ve already purchased your ’Profession’ from the library, but I still need a more firsthand understanding."
The current situation was quite clear; the Swarm’s dispersing tactics put great pressure on the defenders. After all, the local warriors couldn’t micro-manage split forces as efficiently and steadily as they could... They could use dozens of small combat units as bait, even letting you wipe them out entirely, just so the main force could reach a place of strategic significance.
Faced with such an opponent, our own side inevitably had to split forces... Obviously, in such a battlefield, there was no profession more useful than that of a Soldier.
High-Tier Battlefield Commanders’ dominance was something Lu Ping’an had seen too much of; he had previously only considered it a support for his own ability system. But seeing Lulu’s military might, he was certain that the demand in this aspect could not wait.
In fact, the perfect micro-manipulation against the insect swarm had always been the optimal solution of the human "battlefield commander" system.
Lu Ping’an had realized the true purpose of the Soldier Path was entirely for the battlefield... On the battlefield, even high-end professionals who squandered their power recklessly were courting death. While it was possible to slaughter indiscriminately in battles of a hundred or several hundreds of participants, on battlefields with thousands, even tens of thousands of extraordinary combatants, even Quasi-Gods might be exhausted to death.
And for the Soldier Path, whether it was Lu Ping’an, the Black Knight who utilized the life force of others, or Lulu, the White Knight with inherent buffs and Vampiric Auras, they were essentially "battlefield conductors," using others’ lives as their battlefield resources.
This meant that as long as there were "resources" on the battlefield, their own consumption was extremely low... This was the greatest advantage of the Soldier Path: an incredibly strong sustained combat capability.
Lu Ping’an needed that strength; he didn’t want to be overwhelmed and killed by the throngs of cheap creatures.
"So it is, the prerequisite of your abilities is that they are not only your warriors in name but also deeply willing, from the bottom of their hearts, to entrust their lives to you..."
𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
The "White Knight" pathway obviously didn’t suit Lu Ping’an, not just because he wasn’t adept at "becoming an idol," but more importantly, he couldn’t always guarantee the existence of a legion that trusted him.
He was destined to follow the Black Knight path, yet there were many divergences along the way...
"The third-tier Black Holy Grail Holder was the beginning of my venture into the domain of the Black Knights."
The fourth-tier Conqueror embodied Lu Ping’an’s rules of "Trade" and "Contractor," representing his power to plunder and acquire resources through war.
The fifth-tier Reverse Silver War Child was a power of the Evil Gods from the Big Cat Path and, apart from the universal abilities of high-tier soldiers, also endowed Lu Ping’an with the "aura" ability.
However, this too was within the domain of the Black Knight, and since it involved erosive and damage-boosting aura abilities, its practical effectiveness was quite subtle.
His progression to the sixth tier, however, came after a life-and-death struggle with the Big Shot Bane.
That was a natural advancement, a synthesis of his Soldier Path journey... At the sixth-tier phase, the strength was not generally high, but it was often a pivotal point for bridging the gap.
[Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the sixth-tier profession ’Shadow Wraith Warlord (Quasi-rule)’]
Although this advancement in profession was a "natural progression," Bane—whom he used as nutrition, the Fate Counterwind—served in some ways as Bane’s own "Life Illustration" left behind.
[Master of Shadow Wraiths (Lower Gold Passive Trait): Directly or indirectly, those you kill will spawn a Shadow Wraith from their remaining residual souls and life force (initially having about a third of the ’Total Contamination’ of a shadow creature).]
[Shadow Wraith (Special Individual): Its strength is linked to the original body and can be used as a control object for the Black Holy Grail, disintegrating on death and reassembling after a period.]
[Shadow Wraiths are considered true life forms; they can strengthen their power and gain wisdom through slaughter, absorb life force, and undergo Fusion with other Shadow Wraiths.]
This ability, whether creating offshoots or a Fusion system, clearly originated from "Father God Bane’s" Infinite Beast King Legion, a portion of which also incorporated a feature of Lu Ping’an’s Life system, "Wishing Shard (Life Recreation)."
Its strength needed no further discussion, but upon acquiring it, Lu Ping’an immediately shelved it.
"It’s strong, all right, but Shadow Wraiths... They automatically attack all life around."
Newborn Shadow Wraiths were a bunch of famished "negative life force beasts," completely uncontrollable and only suitable as "life bombs" to be detonated.
If it were just Lu Ping’an alone, this wouldn’t be a problem, but obviously, the current battlefield was not suitable for the casual use of his abilities.
By the way, Big Cat was speechless for quite some time after seeing this ability... Originally, the biggest weakness in the Black Knight system was the "lack of trustworthy subordinates," but now, Mr. Lu truly could be a one-man army.
The only problem is that before full mastery, tearing through one’s own ranks was all too easy with this tool.
At that time, Mr. Lu also planned to evolve it once again, turning it into his second seventh-tier profession, completely becoming a tool of war.
Originally, this task was quite difficult, but his disciple, who had reached the eighth-tier "Big Warlord," seemed to provide him with the crucial ability module.
— End of Chapter 1442 —