Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

After updating their equipment and bidding farewell to Lorena, Yang Yu led his squad away from Kena Rockz.

On the way, Yang Yu contacted Bai Jin and General Dongmu again to confirm Dongmu’s location and set their next destination.

The war along the border between Wansheng Country and Luo Ze Empire was extremely brutal and fierce.

Young beastman soldiers used their flesh and blood to build walls, barely holding back the advance of the Luo Ze Empire’s Army.

Even now, countless young beastmen were fighting on various front lines, trying to withstand the humans’ repeated attacks.

Behind each front line, there was one or several important strongholds.

If these were lost, the Luo Ze Empire’s Army would seize the opportunity to infiltrate deeper into Wansheng Country, eating away at it from the inside.

The occupation of Qinghe Volcano was the result of one of the front lines falling.

Originally, the Luo Ze Empire wanted to use this gap to continuously send troops, allowing a part of their soldiers to venture deeper into Wansheng Country, while another part crossed the complex terrain of the hills and mountains to flank the multiple front lines on the border from both front and back, leading to their collapse.

However, that beautiful dream was harshly slapped away.

Qinghe Volcano was recaptured, and the beastmen somehow learned new tactics from someone.

Since then, beastmen fighting in the woods rarely engaged in head-on confrontations with the Luo Ze Empire’s Army, instead using their sharp sense of smell and hearing to carry out unexpected attacks.

Having witnessed this tactic for the first time, Luo Ze soldiers suffered a great deal.

After figuring out the core of Wansheng Country’s tactics, the high command of Luo Ze Empire swiftly adjusted their strategic tactics.

Unfortunately, these tactics still inevitably failed against the beastmen in the dense forests.

The senses of the beastmen were far superior to that of humans, and with the beastmen wearing strange clothes, humans struggled to spot them hidden in the jungle. The beastmen would always discover the humans before being spotted themselves and reacted swiftly.

Even the use of surveillance magic was of little effect.

With no other choice, the Luo Ze Empire could only look for breakthroughs elsewhere, deliberately avoiding dense forests or using magic to slowly alter the terrain to advance their troops.

The Norma Defense Line that Yang Yu and his team were heading towards was located in a mountainous area composed mostly of yellow earth, brown rocks, and sparse vegetation.

There, it meant a significant amount of head-on conflict.

With the title’s enhancement, Lotcar moved faster, and Yang Yu and his team arrived at Liu Tie City, the meeting place, a day ahead of schedule.

This was also a city with a prisoner of war camp.

Influenced by Ming Dalak’s policies, there was a considerable number of human prisoners stockpiled here.

The atmosphere here was completely different from the first prisoner of war camp Yang Yu had seen.

The Luo Ze Empire’s Army had strict military discipline. Even in enemy territory, they would train in an organized and disciplined manner.

It seemed that this only held true under the premise that every soldier could be safely sent back. Without this premise, a series of chain reactions would occur.

Seeing that only officers and above were sent back, many ordinary Luo Ze soldiers became anxious, uneasy, and increasingly terrified, shaking their faith in what they believed in.

Under the rules of the giant dragon, the Luo Ze Empire could appoint commissioners to manage them.

Regrettably, even though these commissioners were trying hard to soothe the prisoners’ emotions, they did not slow the spread of negative sentiment.

Among the growing negativity, various rumors that seemed plausible were most likely to breed.

Some Luo Ze soldiers even firmly believed that their Empire was gradually succumbing to the beastmen’s onslaught, bit by bit.

Fear and anxiety had become the cause of their laziness; they would often sigh with despair, their training lacking in spirit.

Conversely, some soldiers consistently believed that their country would surely prevail. Perhaps even if their Emperor told them that the Empire had lost, they would not believe it.

These individuals formed a stark contrast with the pessimists.

The believers tried every means to ”awaken” those pessimists, even resorting to violence if necessary.

The giant dragon’s rules protected individuals from one camp from being harmed by those of another, but there were no such protections within the same camp.

Thus, the infighting within the internment camp was not within the giant dragon’s jurisdiction.

Passing through the towering fences of the internment camp, Yang Yu saw at a glance who was being bullied and who was gloating with satisfaction.

To be honest, Yang Yu found it hard to associate them with the well-trained, united soldiers he had encountered on the Sailuomen Plain, who fought and died fearlessly for the Empire.

This was one of the downsides to the Luo Ze Empire’s Army’s training methods.

Differences exist between individuals, with varied degrees of understanding and acceptance towards certain matters, each harboring their own thoughts.

Ignoring a person’s thoughts and forcibly molding them into identical ”screws” could backfire.

Absolutely identical ”screws” did not exist in this world.

Among the soldiers of the Luo Ze Empire, many were unwilling to become mere ”screws.”

Even though the Colorful-haired Masked Man was known to be around, the Luo Ze soldiers near the Norma Defense Line showed little reaction to Yang Yu’s arrival.

These captives were merely living the life of captives.

Upon entering Liu Tie City, Yang Yu effortlessly found General Dongmu, who was reorganizing his troops in the city. General Dongmu’s forces had diminished by a full third.

”Yo! Long time no see, General Potato. I can tell you’ve grown stronger again, haha.”

As always, General Dongmu laughed heartily and slapped Yang Yu on the back.

Yang Yu also politely greeted him, ”It’s been a while, General Dongmu.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Yang Yu inquired about the whereabouts of Dongmu’s troops:

”General Dongmu, the number of troops seems off. Is there some operation going on?”

General Dongmu stroked his chin and nodded:

”Well, you could say that.

The unit you previously led had quite a few elites; you trained them well.

While you were gone, I had them fully interact with the others in the ranks; they really learned a lot.

I wanted to return the troops to you intact, but the situation at the front lines is far more complex than I imagined.

I sent people to lead the troops to possible breakthrough points, providing support to other units to prevent the battlefront from collapsing.

Your unit had many elites capable of making a significant impact, so I sent them out as well.”

Having just returned, Yang Yu learned that his previously assembled team had been dispersed to various battlefields. He remained calm, seemingly unsurprised by this outcome.

His unit was not large, but it included the vast majority of Wansheng Country’s elites captured during the winter offensive.

With the elites concentrated in one place and unable to attend to the multiple deadlocked fronts, their eventual separation was inevitable.