Chương 198: Pre-Battle Speech

Having dealt with the Ten Apostles, the Chief Priest turned to the assembled crowd and asked: "Regarding the candidates for the new Holy Maiden and Hero, does anyone have any recommendations?" A Grand Priest stepped forward and reported: "Your Eminence, a few days ago I went to see the great-granddaughter of the King of Sazos. She turns twelve this year, fitting the exact criteria for a Holy Maiden.

"If we select her, when the day comes that we transform the Sazos Kingdom into the Goddess's Terrestrial Divine Realm, she will serve as a wonderful tool for propaganda." The Chief Priest nodded in agreement, but the Grand Priest who had spoken wasn't quite finished.

"Your Eminence, the King dotes heavily on his great-granddaughter and protects her exceptionally well. I had to employ every method at my disposal just to catch a glimpse of her. When I returned, the King somehow found out—and the way he looked at me made it seem as if he were ready to murder me in the next second!" A lingering dread showed on the Grand Priest's face; that old king, whom they usually manipulated like a puppet on strings, had actually flared up with such a look.

It had genuinely given him a fright at the time. The Chief Priest let out a contemptuous snort.

"It seems His Majesty has yet to figure out his true place, daring to bare his fangs at his master. The next time his old illness flares up, leave him out in the cold for a few days to dry out.

"The new Holy Maiden is settled then—we shall take the King's great-granddaughter. I will speak to the King about this personally. Now, what about the new Hero? Have you found any trace of the new Hero?" There were three types of Heroes in this world: The first type was the Divinely Chosen Hero—the mortal avatar of a deity. Upon the death of a previous generation's Hero, a new Hero would instantly be selected by the god. Generally, they were young boys or girls.

In the beginning, before divine miracles manifested, the chosen ones wouldn't even realize they had become Heroes and required a long period of development. This made it extremely difficult for the Church to hunt them down. The second type involved using special artifacts to elevate oneself into a Hero—take Kanda, for instance, who turned into a Hero by using the Crest of the Hero. Why could these special artifacts bestow such power?

It was said that ancient saints, demigods, or the departing wills of departed transcendent beings bound their knowledge and power into objects via secret arts, allowing those items to choose successors who aligned with their will, bestowing knowledge and strength upon them. The third type comprised those who gathered the destiny of a whole nation or race, ascending to sainthood through sheer merit—which, translated into the terminology of this world, meant becoming a Hero. These three types of Heroes could overlap.

For instance, Leon the Hero was both a Divinely Chosen Hero and a bearer of national destiny. Kanda the Hero was a user of a special artifact combined with national destiny. In short, the Church of the Goddess of Life currently had no way of locating the new Hero among the tens of millions of souls living in the Sazos Kingdom. And there was another glaring problem: both the Purity Pendant and the Purity Sword were now in the hands of the monsters!

Only when two sacred artifacts were held by the Hero and the Holy Maiden would they form their complete, true form. Without the sacred artifacts, saying their combat power was halved would be an understatement. Rubbing his temples, a sacrilegious thought flashed through the Chief Priest's mind: Once the new Hero is identified, should we place him under direct control? Leaving vital sacred artifacts in the hands of an uncontrolled individual is far too dangerous.

Just look at this mess—the artifacts landed in enemy territory, and nobody even knows how to retrieve them. However, the Chief Priest quickly shook his head, driving the blasphemous thought out of his mind. The Hero and the Holy Maiden were both mortal avatars of the Goddess; every single one of their actions served as an execution of the Goddess's holy will. They were free beings—who would dare restrain them? Did he want to lose his position as Chief Priest?

"Sigh! I must hurry and bring the new Hero and Holy Maiden to my side for early education, saving us from having them run wild every day." The Chief Priest muttered a quiet complaint before directing the assembly to discuss how to retrieve the two sacred artifacts. Should they accede to the monsters' demands and pay a exorbitant ransom in supplies to buy them back? If they did that, what would become of their reputation? Two months later, in the Monster Forest, inside the Iron City Citizen Square of the Alliance.

Under the personal supervision of Li Qinwu, with the cooperation of a multi-person engineering crew and various heavy-duty units, the massive crater in the ground of Citizen Square had been completely filled in. The tall Statue of the Penal Corps was successfully rebuilt, meticulously glued back together using the concrete, rebar, and shattered stones blasted apart in the earlier attack.

Now, this Statue of the Penal Corps was covered in dense networks of cracks, which paradoxically imparted a deep, tragic weight to its appearance, making it look all the more like a veteran warrior who had weathered countless bloody battles. At the time, someone had suggested to Li Qinwu that they could use concrete to smooth over all the cracks. But Li Qinwu refused, explicitly demanding that these scars be preserved. He believed that pain, just like glory, was something history needed to remember.

At this moment, over ten thousand soldiers and tens of thousands of residents were gathered in Citizen Square, standing in neat block formations that filled every square inch of the area to overflowing. Li Qinwu stood fully armored beneath the Statue of the Penal Corps, gazing down at the military and civilian crowd below. Though the tens of thousands of soldiers and citizens formed a vast sea of people, not a single soul uttered a sound.

All eyes turned toward Li Qinwu beneath the Statue of the Penal Corps with scorching intensity. Li Qinwu remained silent for a long moment before slowly speaking.

"Soldiers! Citizens! Two months ago, a tragic calamity occurred right here. Our nation lost 699 members of our family!" He pointed toward a rectangular stone monument situated at the foot of the Statue of the Penal Corps. Nothing was carved on the monument except the chiseled number: 699. Li Qinwu lowered his head and fell into another extended silence, as if observing a moment of quiet grief for the deceased. After three or four minutes passed, he suddenly jerked his head up and bellowed in rage:"Warriors!

Citizens! Our country is facing an existential threat!

"The enemy entered our territory with complete impunity, launching indiscriminate slaughters against our soldiers and civilians, destroying our public infrastructure!

"Why did this happen? How COULD this happen?! What kind of sick mentality drove the enemy to dispatch extraordinary forces into our territory to wreak havoc?

"I pondered day and night without answer—until the enemy told me with his own mouth! He said:'Your nation is a joke! Your nation has no dignity!!'" Li Qinwu practically roared that final sentence. His booming voice echoed far across the entire square, creating loud reverberations against the distant buildings. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Li Qinwu glared fiercely at the crowd of tens of thousands, making everyone involuntarily tense up.

"That enemy was right! Because we lacked national dignity, because we lacked the power to protect our national dignity, the enemy felt entitled to act without restraint—disregarding the most basic sentiments shared by intelligent beings, employing the most extreme and atrocious methods against our land, stripping away our citizens' lives at whim, and destroying our national property—all because we lacked national dignity!" Li Qinwu lowered his head, a single tear rolling down from the corner of his eye.

His words struck a painful chord in the hearts of everyone present, filling them with a wave of helplessness before kindling a towering, inextinguishable fury. Li Qinwu let that tear trail down his cheek, and then his expression suddenly turned ferocious. Clenching both hands into fists, he raised them high above his head and waved them violently.

"BUT IS THAT TRUE?! Do we REALLY lack dignity?! NO!!! WE HAVE DIGNITY!!!

"We have self-respect, because I see the rage burning in your eyes!!! I see the bitter refusal to submit in your eyes!!! I see your fiery, furious souls, aching to turn your own blood and bone into bayonets and bullets to drive them deep into the enemy's chest!!!" With a contorted expression, Li Qinwu swung his arms violently, spray flying from his wide-open mouth. A terrifying, explosive surge of emotion raged through the hearts of the crowd, causing ripples of turmoil through the orderly formations.

The flames of anger were thoroughly ignited in every sensible person present. Their eyes turned bloodshot as they tasted the sting of humiliation and the burning desire for vengeance. They wanted nothing more than to charge before the enemy right this second, rip open their chests, and devour their flesh! Li Qinwu raised both fists above his head and unleashed an earth-shattering roar:"The enemy's actions are utterly atrocious, their methods inhumanly cruel! They undermined our national security!!

They infringed upon our citizens' lives!! They insulted our national dignity!!

"In that case, let us show them—let us show them the consequences of doing so!!" He drew his greatsword and brandished it wildly in the air.

"Citizens of the Alliance, our rage is a massive powder keg that needs only a single spark to explode—and now, the enemy HAS ignited that spark!!

"Now it is our turn to send our message to the world: WAR!!

"Use WAR to tell our enemies and potential foes that the Alliance's dignity is inviolable! If they dare cross our line even by a single inch, war and death will be their only destination!! THE ALLIANCE WILL PREVAIL!!!" As Li Qinwu shouted the final slogan, the tens of thousands of people in Citizen Square threw their heads back and bellowed in unison: "THE ALLIANCE WILL PREVAIL!" The massive wave of human voices united into a roaring crescendo that surged straight into the clouds.

Flocks of birds were startled into flight from the surrounding undeveloped primeval forests, while hundreds of alarm bells mounted on nearby towers rang simultaneously. The clanging warnings echoed across the land, as if announcing to the world that a ferocious beast was about to unleash its wrath. As Li Qinwu's speech concluded, he gained a massive surge of Charm skill proficiency.

The hatch of the airship stationed right in the center of Citizen Square opened, and 800 paratroopers bearing parachute packs marched inside with uniform, disciplined strides. They were about to board the airship to launch a sudden strike against the enemy's core command apparatus 2, 000 kilometers away, bringing utter destruction and punishment to their doorstep! As the troops boarded the airship, several high-ranking Alliance officials approached Li Qinwu's side.

Gobu-Mao leaned in and whispered in Li Qinwu's ear: "Boss, once you leave, no one knows when you'll be back. I'm worried that Keshi might cause trouble over his brother's death.

"Ever since he heard that his younger brother was scared to death, he's been claiming illness and refusing to return to his unit. He isn't even bothering to hide his resentment toward you, Boss." Li Qinwu let out a cold snort.

"He still has the nerve to feel resentful? Does he not know what his brother did?!

"Send orders to treat Kochi's incident as a prime example of dereliction of duty, broadcast it to all Alliance citizens, and send military police into the First National Defense Regiment to monitor the thoughts and sentiments of all human officers.

"Knight Reao is trustworthy, without a shadow of a doubt. But the other human officers need to be monitored closely!" Knight Reao was controlled by the system, making it impossible for him to do anything harmful to Li Qinwu. However, Keshi had displayed a very obvious attitude of resistance due to his brother's death. The exercise army had been back for a month, and this guy had dared to play sick for an entire month without coming to see him. What the hell did he want to do?

Eat arsenic to fast-track his own funeral? Li Qinwu was genuinely exasperated by his utter lack of political awareness. Yet Old Li still possessed a sense of camaraderie: he still remembered Keshi's achievements back in Poloya. Keshi hadn't made any mistakes himself—the one who erred was his brother—so Li Qinwu had no reason to touch Keshi or enforce guilt by association. His younger brother was dead, so feeling resentment was something Li Qinwu could understand.

Understanding was one thing, but Li Qinwu would still have people monitor him. If he actually tried to pulled any sneaky moves, Li Qinwu wouldn't hold back. Furthermore, the next time he met Keshi, if his awareness was still this low, Li Qinwu would banish him to go guard a reservoir. Damn it, no amount of past merit could survive his sheer stupidity. Additionally, regarding the human populace, Li Qinwu had noticed a growing issue over the two months he spent administering the Alliance.

While integration between the various fantasy races was relatively harmonious, the humans tended to huddle together for warmth, beginning to exclude other races and forming their own isolated social circles. Upon investigation, Li Qinwu discovered that this phenomenon stemmed from the education humans had received; after all, back when they were in the human world, everyone taught them that monsters were bone-crunching, man-eating beasts.

When they first arrived in the Alliance, they were slaves living hand-to-mouth, full of anxiety. But now that they owned land and houses and their basic survival was secured, their minds began to wander, and the monsters around them started looking eyesores. There was another underlying reason: humans hailed from established homelands and the long-standing civilizational history of the Four Human Nations.

Although they had fled the human world for various reasons, those lands were still the places where they grew up—a spiritual anchor that couldn't easily be severed. Thus, the fed and clothed humans had now become an unstable element within the Alliance—in game terms, they were a direct -50% to manpower stability. Li Qinwu couldn't easily move against Keshi, a high-ranking officer in the eyes of the humans, without a legitimate reason; doing so would easily spark unrest.

Fortunately, the supreme leader of the human faction remained Knight Reao, who was bound by the system. As long as Li Qinwu held him firmly in hand, the others could do whatever they pleased. Turning to Gobu-Gong and Gobu-Pao, Li Qinwu instructed: "Starting now, move both of your units out of Iron City and station them at Gobu Castle." He then looked at One-Ear.

"Coordinate with them to transport army rations and supplies to Gobu Castle. Extend our observation outposts into the western forest—preferably all the way to the border of Haruyin Province.

"I suspect that after this operation, the human world might launch a full-scale military offensive against us. We must prepare in advance." Everyone nodded to show they understood. Li Qinwu then gave further instructions to One-Ear: "While I'm away, production and construction must not falter. Expand our population to 500, 000 as quickly as possible. Our current scale makes us extremely vulnerable; a single military defeat could mean total annihilation."

One-Ear nodded, acknowledging the order: "Boss, on the north bank, Meng Li of the Water Wyvern tribe has requested our help to develop more wetlands, and he mentioned they need more ironware.

"As for the Trolls, the new Troll King is still acting crazy—the guy is currently on a hunger strike. The guards found him fainted from starvation earlier." Li Qinwu thought for a moment before replying: "Hold off on developing the wetlands for now; the Alliance lacks spare manpower in the north.

"Wait until we build steamships capable of transporting large amounts of manpower and supplies before revisiting it. As for ironware, have them trade supplies for it—whether it's wetland fish or honey-fruit, set a fair price.

"Oh right, can't that honey-fruit be processed for sugar? Have the Water Wyverns cultivate honey-fruit on a large scale, and the Alliance will purchase it when the time comes.

"Once the timing is right, we'll build a sugar refinery in the north, allowing every citizen of the Alliance to enjoy sugar.

"As for that Troll King, have people keep an eye on him—don't let him starve to death. If all else fails, pry his mouth open and force-feed him liquid food.

"That guy probably wants to avoid going down the old Gluttony King's path, so he's trying to change his fate by going on a diet. Who knows if it'll even work?" After wrapping up these arrangements, the paratroopers finished boarding the airship. Li Qinwu offered a few final words before boarding the airship alongside Kanda. The airship hatch sealed shut, and it rose slowly into the sky as the crowd on Citizen Square chanted: "VICTORY TO THE ALLIANCE!"

Amidst waves of roaring cheers, the airship climbed to an altitude of around 1, 100 meters, caught a surge of magic tide, and set off toward the northwest. Looking down at the dense crowd below, Li Qinwu felt confident in his deployments. Gobu-Mao led the 1st Battalion of the 1st Guards Regiment stationed in the Troll City to stabilize the local situation. Li Qinwu had thrown the corpses of the four Apostles to Gobu-Si on the north bank to cultivate high-quality undead units.

If the other Trolls on the north bank showed any signs of hostile intent, 1, 000 Guards troops combined with the 1, 000-strong undead army raised by Gobu-Si would be more than enough to handle any emergency. The core territory was garrisoned by the 2nd and 3rd Guard Battalions, the 1st National Defense Regiment, with One-Ear in charge of governance.

Gobu Castle housed the 2nd and 3rd Penal Corps Regiments, governed by Gobu-Da, alongside the Crimson Queen, who was tasked with constructing defensive fortifications and handling potential enemy threats. Every strategic pass was garrisoned by heavy forces and capable commanders. Leaving with no lingering worries behind him, Li Qinwu boarded the airship with a boatload of riflemen to drop straight onto the enemy's home base.