The Almighty Ring

When it was almost noon in the game, Jiang Fei had already ransacked another two small towns and Hua Mulan was already leading more than thirteen thousand refugees. Among these refugees, there were less than seven hundred soldiers and the others were ordinary civilians.

“Master Inquisitor, all the people in the nearby towns have been evacuated, what do we do next?” When Jiang Fei flew down again, Hua Mulan asked.

“Have all the towns that are a little further away been evacuated too?” Jiang Fei was a little addicted to looting by now. After all, these monies came too quickly and too easily!

“The remaining towns are relatively closer to our fortress. The Nephilim’s Assault Unit probably won’t dare to go to those towns. Also, we already have too many people in our hands, we can’t take anymore!” Hua Mulan said.

“Hmm…” Jiang Fei pondered. What Hua Mulan said was very true.

After all, there were less than seven hundred soldiers even with Hua Mulan’s subordinates and the guards of each town combined. These people were already struggling to maintain the order of more than ten thousand refugees. Moreover, because all of them were evacuated in a rush, many refugees did not bring enough food and water. Therefore, there have been many occurrences of robberies in the refugee group, making things harder for the soldiers under Hua Mulan’s command.

“Okay! Let’s move them into the hinterland first!” Jiang Fei thought about it and decided.

Although Jiang Fei could become richer if he ransacked another few small towns, he had to hurry and resettle these refugees. Otherwise, these refugees who did not have food and water could become a mob in a blink of an eye. If that happened, Jiang Fei’s Quest would probably fail.

Jiang Fei was still pretending to patrol in the sky, looking out for the Nephilim’s Assault Unit that did not exist, while Hua Mulan was trying to organize the refugees in order to advance into the hinterland of the Light Faction.

More than ten thousand people marched forward. This attracted the attention of the Light Faction very quickly. A cavalry rushed to the scene immediately. However, Hua Mulan was a legitimate Light Faction general and she was following the orders of the Saint. So, after these cavalrymen briefly understood the situation, they did not dare to stop her. They just rushed back and reported the news to the frontline commander.

The frontline commander of the Light Faction, Bernard, was also a Level 85 high-ranked commander like the frontline commander of the Dark Faction, Ivan. When he heard that a huge number of civilians on the frontline had been evacuated, he immediately became angry!

“How can this be! No! We must make them go back!” Bernard immediately ordered.

Bernard did not want these civilians to retreat to the Light Faction’s hinterland because these civilians could provide the Light Faction’s troops with various supplies if they stayed in the bordering areas. If they had to transport all these supplies from the inland, it would be very costly and their supplies could be easily cut off by the Nephilim’s Assault Unit!

Moreover, if the war progresses to a worrying state, these civilians would immediately be forced to become soldiers. They would be the first to serve as cannon fodders and play a role in defending the attacks of the Dark Faction. So, if these civilians stayed in the areas at the frontline of the war, it was very beneficial to the Light Faction’s line of defense.

“Commander, we can’t stop it! The ones who are handling the evacuation of these people are the Saint’s guards, and the one leading them is General Hua Mulan!” The officers under Bernard were in a difficult position.

“Sigh! This Saint is really annoying! After she got caught because she tried to show off her skills, she’s still bringing me trouble!” Bernard frowned.

Although Bernard and the Light Saint were both loyal to the Light Faction, the two of them had very different philosophies of war. Bernard believed that the purpose of war was to win. For victory, he would use the people’s war strategy and it did not matter even if there were many casualties.

However, the Light Saint believed that the purpose of the war was to protect the safety of the people. If a war was at the expense of the lives of civilians, then there was no point fighting in such a war!

Therefore, when Heinz threatened to kill everyone in the entire town, the Light Saint could have held on and defended with the help of the Moonlight Church before reinforcements arrived. However, she voluntarily allowed the Nephilims to take her captive.

To Bernard, this kind of behavior was unreasonable because the Light Saint was far more important than all of the civilians of a small town combined. If all the civilians of a small town died, it would not really affect anything. However, when the Saint was taken captive, the Light Faction immediately had to become passive. In the upcoming battle between the Light and Dark Faction, they would only be able to passively defend themselves. They would not dare to take the initiative to attack because they feared for the safety of the Saint!

As both of them had differing war philosophies, Bernard was unable to tolerate the withdrawal of these civilians from the battlefield. In his eyes, as long as someone was a member of the Light Faction, they were obliged to sacrifice their lives for the Light Faction. This was regardless of whether they were civilians or soldiers!

Even though Bernard was insistent on not allowing these civilians to withdraw from the battlefield, he furrowed his brows when he heard his soldier report that the general in charge of the evacuation was Hua Mulan.

It could not be helped. Although Hua Mulan was a female general, she was known to be invincible in the Light Faction as those who were below the rank of Overlord was no match for her. Moreover, this strong woman was extremely loyal to the Saint. If she was really carrying out the orders of the Saint, then Bernard would not be able to do much even if he personally went there and tried to stop her. He would just get beaten up and embarrass himself.

“Ehh?!” Bernard suddenly had an idea. He said to the signaller under him, “Go to the field headquarters and request for Sylphy to come down here!”

“Yes!” The soldier left to do his job.

At this time, as the Holy Church’s Assassin Sylphy had been ordered to keep watch of the frontline defense, she happened to be inside the Divine Light Fortress. As Bernard could not beat Hua Mulan, he thought of Sylphy. She was a disciple of the Moon God and she was an Overlord. If she tried to control the situation, Hua Mulan would probably give in to her.

Soon, Sylphy arrived in front of Bernard. “You wanted to see me so urgently. What’s going on? Is there a problem with our defense?”

Even though this girl was obsessed with Jiang Fei and would go crazy whenever he was around, she was still quite normal when he was not around. She was very loyal to the Light Faction. So, when she heard that Bernard had an urgent matter, she immediately thought that there was a problem with the defense.

“Your Royal Highness Sylphy, there is indeed a problem. The captain of the guards under Her Royal Highness the Saint has actually made a huge number of civilians withdraw from the battlefield. This has increased the amount of pressure on our defense significantly!” Bernard said.

“How can this be?! Hua Mulan must be executing the orders of the Saint again. Sigh! This silly Saint is just way too soft-hearted!” In her normal state, Sylphy was a cold-blooded assassin. She even dared to assassinate the Nephilim’s Fourth Prince. So, why would she care about the lives of some civilians?

Therefore, Sylphy’s philosophy of war was the same as Bernard’s. Victory was the priority. Civilian casualties and things like that were not within their consideration.

“Your Royal Highness Sylphy, will you…” Bernard did not say it out. However, his purpose of looking for Sylphy was so that she could help him. After all, if Sylphy was not someone who firmly prioritized victory in a war like him, the Luminous Vatican would not have sent her here to keep the defense in check!

“I’ll go with you!” Sylphy did not even hesitate. She immediately decided to go with Bernard and try to bring these civilians back.

“We’ll leave now!” Bernard rushed out of the fortress with a cavalry, whereas Sylphy flew there directly.