Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor

Chapter 1404  Civilization War: Modern Warfare

All the leaders appeared, but everyone had a somber look on their faces. With one look, everyone could guess what the others had experienced and gave a sympathizing look.

”Letʼs start by sharing data,” one of the leaders said, and everyone agreed. The meeting immediately started with these leaders reviewing the battle experience of all the bases. Although there were a few outliers where one squad was enough for one cultivator (one pilot single-handle killed a cultivator), the overall result was the same for more than two million bases.

Du Cong was not the only one who decided to use numbers to eliminate the enemy, so all these leaders realized the bleak future awaiting them. Wang Wei trained them to be compassionate and look out for their fellow compatriots, but now, they had the burden of sending these young people to their death.

”There is some good news,” said Leader Lang Xi from Base #23456.

”What did you find?” The others knew Lang Xi was excellent at data analysis.

”Have you noticed that the bases with primary research on puppetry suffered fewer casualties? Lang Xi pointed out. ”Of course, since they did not have to send their pilots,” someone sneered.

”And what does that tell you?” Lang Xi said, rolling his eyes at this manʼs jealousy. Doesnʼt he know we are all in this together?

”Our focus should be building puppets,” Du Cong said. ”With more puppets, we can reduce the amount of pilots that die.”

”We can probably replace all 3-C pilots with puppets,” commented another user. 3-C pilots are the group that suffered the most significant casualties.

”That sounds like a good approach.”

”Donʼt forget that the price of building one puppet is more expensive than building a 3-C armor and training a 3-C pilot.”

”We can always research ways to reduce the price. Our peopleʼs lives are more important.”

”Fair, but what do we do with the 3-C pilots and lower?”

”We increase their resources to ensure they become 4-B and higher pilots,” someone suggested. ”Those who cannot be promoted can be turned into teachers if they have the talent.” As of now, puppets cannot completely replace pilots for many reasons, including costs, cultural acceptance, and, more importantly, higher-level puppets require souls and cannot be easily manufactured.

”Do we need to vote?” someone asked.

”No need since we all agreed.”

”Letʼs do it to make it more formal.”

”But who will supervise this election? The Great Guardian is not here.”

”We should probably elect a representative to lead these meetings.”

”Do we do it now?”

”If so, I want to be the leader.”

”Me too.”

”I donʼt trust your judgment, so I want to be the leader.”

”What did you say?”

”Donʼt think I donʼt remember how bad your grades were when we trained under the Great Guardian.”

”You! That was the past.”

”Enough,” someone yelled. ”We can ask the guardian to hold elections, but for now, we still are discussing important matters.”

”Yes, letʼs get back to the main topic. Lang Xi, did you discover anything else from the data?”

”There are a few more things,” Lang Xi nodded. ”The bases with the highest efficiency in hunting their cultivators are the ones that used poison-based armors and assassin-type armors?”

”Those guys that play dirty?”

”What do you mean by this?”

”I didnʼt mean –”

”That is the point Iʼm making,” Lang Xi cut this argument. ”We must use all means available to use to kill our enemy. Thatʼs how cultivators fight, and thatʼs how we need to learn how to fight.”

”I guess that makes sense.”

”Pilots that include body refining into their training regimen are much higher caliber,” Lang Xi continued. ”Lastly, the best performance armors are the Flesh Armors created from the cultivatorsʼ bodies.” Everyone was quiet.

”What? Scared?” Du Cong sneered. ”Since they see us as commodities, we can do the same to them.”

”He has a point.”

”I know, but itʼs not easy to adapt to the cruel nature of this world.”

”The Great Guardianʼs training warned us of this — you guys just didnʼt pay attention.”

This conversation was about to turn into another argument when everyone suddenly received an email — to be exact, it was two, all from Wang Wei. The first had this subject title: How To Incorporate Pilot and Puppet. Low-level puppets have a core that needs to be controlled by a puppeteer near it. If they need to be automatic, the puppeteers can program directions into the puppet, but its actions are still limited.

Higher-level puppets need to have consciousness, meaning they must have a soul or some level of spiritual power — thatʼs why they are so challenging to make or why they are so expensive. Wang Weiʼs suggestion was to use Earthʼs Neural Link Technology; he suggested these mortals found a way to link a pilotʼs mind/soul to a puppet to replace their individual soul. With this technology, pilots can control the puppets from afar, thus reducing their casualty. Of course, this approach does not mean there will be no casualty. The soul backlash is enough to kill many pilots, and this is a world where curses and karma techniques exist.

”Iʼm always in awe of the Great Guardianʼs wisdom,” one leader praised before checking the second email. Everyoneʼs eyes shrunk as this one is about the new position of [High Chancellor] to lead this council. Wang Wei laid out rules for the election. However, the election wonʼt happen for a while now. How these 3 million leaders respond to the upcoming catastrophe will help them in their election.

…

Wang Wei calmly observed these leaders. Their failure was expected and could have been ever more severe. The rumor about the effects of mortal blood on the plague has spread, but Wang Wei and the other lineages have reacted swiftly, killing anyone who tried. Previously, they would only capture and seal anyone with the plague, hoping to wait until they had a cure to heal these people. However, as soon as the news spread, they changed their tactics.

Wang Wei allowed some small fries to bypass their defensive lines as a test for these mortals.

ʼI just need to slowly increase the strength of these cultivators,ʼ Wang Wei analyzed. ʼThat also means it wonʼt be long before the first confrontation between 7-A pilots and Law cultivators.ʼ

Wang Wei waited three months until he allowed the first Law Cultivator to bypass their blockade. During this time, these mortals have fought countless cultivators and created many new tactics. Although more than 50 billion people died in just three months, they killed hundreds of cultivators, including many in the Primordial Spirit Realm.

Wang Wei calmly watched the battle. The mortals were suffering a devastating loss.

”The pilot can no longer bear it,” Wang Wei commented. The Law Soul was responsible for building the 7-A armor, but a pilot was still required. However, even if the armor was designed for mortals to use, not just anyone could control an armor with the power of law embedded in it.

7-A Pilots are the elite among elites — their minds have been trained to bear the burden of the law. Unfortunately, their control over the law is subpar compared to a cultivator whose soul is countless times more powerful than theirs.

Additionally, the armor designs were flawed as they failed to consider the environment. In the current battle, the repeated use of the law has created an area infested by, well, the power of law. It makes sense since the power of law could be considered the highest form of energy or power, so when one or more people use it in an area, its power will become concentrated.

Such a change is nothing to a cultivator with a powerful soul, but the same cannot be said for those 7-A pilots. Their frail mind and soul already had to bear such a burden with their armorʼs law, so this law zone became a nightmare for them. The result was that the squad composed of 20 of the best 7-A pilots from all bases were massacred by this one cultivator.

The leaders quickly gathered to find the source of the problem before coming up with solutions. They summoned their best rune engravers and armor makers to attend the meeting. Soon, many solutions were discussed, including better training for 7-A pilots, linking their souls to bear the brunt of the power of law, and adding more souls into the armor to relieve the burden.

”These guys are thinking like cultivators when they should be thinking like scientists and engineers,” Wang Wei muttered before sending them another message. He suggested these people stopped focusing too much on armor after the law level. Instead, they should build 7-A battleships that ordinary, enlightened humans can operate.

Their tactics should change to a few 7-A Pilots holding the cultivator long enough for their fleets — which should be composed of countless 7-A battleships — bombard the cultivators into oblivion with their cannon that contained the power of law.

”Cultivation Civilization prioritized individual power, but the strength of your mortal civilization is community,” Wang Wei uttered. ”Heavenly Dao has broken the rules and allows you to mass-produce weak artifacts, so use it wisely.ʼ

Whether itʼs armor or battleships, they are at the bottom of the barrel compared to the things Artifact Refiners make. However, their advantage is that they are cheap and can be mass-produced. Thatʼs why Wang Wei suggested they change their ways of fighting to resemble modern warfare from Earth.