Previously, Udis had suffered joint strikes from the Saint Radiance and Brilliance armies, barely withstanding the immense pressure. Especially within the combat squads, those human races from the Brightness Sanctuary were fanatically zealous, their faith unshakable. While the combat prowess of those individuals might have had flaws, their coordination in squad warfare was something the elite teams Udis had hastily assembled simply could not match.

In this round of scout warfare, Udis sustained heavy losses.

Of course, Lei Dong knew why the enemy suffered such significant losses in the elite squad infiltration battles. This stemmed, in fact, from the inherent nature of the Abyss race. Years of deceit, betrayal, and being betrayed made it exceedingly difficult to truly integrate and foster mutual trust within a small squad of six or seven individuals.

These hastily cobbled-together squads suffered from a severe lack of trust; they could not afford to turn their backs on their comrades. Furthermore, there was a critical, fatal flaw: Udis relied excessively on Mind Flayers as a major weapon.

Certainly, cultivating Nascent Soul level powerhouses through Chaos Crystals and controlling them with Mind Flayers yielded a large number of fiercely loyal, fearless subordinates. However, while armies controlled by Mind Flayers were formidable in large-scale frontal assaults, it was utterly ridiculous to expect these somewhat crazed and listless entities to execute flexible, mobile elite squad operations.

Yet, precisely to prevent morale from collapsing, Udis dared not allow any genuinely capable experts to lead these 'puppet soldiers,' who were practically walking corpses.

If the practice of controlling armies with Mind Flayers were exposed to the wider Abyss races, it could incite rebellion. After all, no one wanted to end up as a corpse controlled by a Mind Flayer. And who could guarantee that Udis wouldn't do the same to them?

Due to all these factors, when the enemy avoided direct confrontation and instead utilized squad infiltration tactics, Udis, as the defender, not only failed to gain an advantage but actually suffered far greater overall losses than the enemy.

This placed immense pressure on Udis. As for seeking a decisive frontal battle, setting aside whether the enemy would agree, even if they did, those Sky Main Cities, with their terrifying defensive capabilities, were no pushovers. Udis had no confidence that after a frontal assault on those Sky Main Cities, he would retain enough strength to control the Abyss Domain even if he won.

And so, having no other choice, Udis began urgently pressing Lei Dong to break this unfavorable situation. However, he also knew that his dear ally, Lei Dong, was not having an easy time. Leading a coalition of Abyss forces alone, he was already tasked with holding off the armies of King Liuyue and King Chixing. Simply fulfilling his primary duty was demanding enough; attempting to counter-attack King Chixing and achieve his defeat was undoubtedly extremely difficult. Even a victory would result in losses for Lei Dong's forces that were unacceptable.

Significant losses for Lei Dong were something Lei Dong himself could not accept, and Udis, who was plotting to incorporate Lei Dong's army into his own forces in the future, also found this unacceptable. After all, such a well-trained elite army was a rare asset.

After deliberately appearing to ponder for a long time, Lei Dong seemed to make a firm resolution, stating gravely and seriously, "Big Brother, the only viable path now, as you suggested, is to defeat King Chixing—and ideally, capture him alive—to reverse the current disadvantageous situation. Those winged humanoids of the Winged Race specifically exploited the difficulty in forming effective elite squads within the Abyss Domain by employing this tactic of attrition and harassment. The longer this drags on, the worse the situation becomes for us. Once morale collapses, many Abyss armies will defect to the enemy simply to survive."

What Lei Dong said was precisely what Udis had been thinking. However, after calming down slightly, Udis still found it genuinely difficult to ask Lei Dong's men to suffer such high casualties. To Udis's surprise, after careful consideration, Lei Dong proactively requested to engage and turn the tide, which even made the cunning old fox, Udis, feel a pang of emotion.

"My dear Brother~!" Udis feigned reluctance, "Under these circumstances, your forces will suffer greatly. I, your simple brother, feel truly sorry about this."

"Big Brother, putting aside the most basic principle of earning your keep," Lei Dong replied with a show of righteous indignation, "we are allies first, and second, I, Lei Dong, feel a deep kinship with Big Brother. Now that we are in the same boat, we succeed together, and we fail together. I, your humble brother, am willing to risk it all. As long as Big Brother can sweep away the traitors later, these small losses now will seem insignificant."

"Indeed, once the traitors are swept away, I, Udis, swear that I will share that alien realm equally with my dear brother." Udis seized the opportunity, cunningly painting a grand vision for Lei Dong to incentivize his army to fight desperately.

"Big Brother, my forces have many late-stage Golden Core experts," Lei Dong continued, transitioning from his passionate speech to making demands, his expression tinged with melancholy. "It would truly be a waste for these loyal and well-drilled soldiers to die easily in battle. I wonder if Big Brother could support us with another batch of Chaos Crystals, allowing them to attempt a breakthrough before the battle. If they can successfully reach the Nascent Soul stage, it will both significantly boost combat effectiveness and reduce casualties. While using Chaos Crystals on late-stage Golden Core experts might be somewhat wasteful..."

Lei Dong’s point was not entirely without merit. Chaos Crystals are precious, best used for breaking through major bottlenecks, such as from the peak of the Golden Core stage to the early Nascent Soul stage, or from the peak of the Nascent Soul stage to the early Spirit Transformation stage. Only this way is the effect of the Chaos Crystal maximized. Ordinary strength can be accumulated slowly or attained through other normal means, without needing such an exaggeratedly rare item as a Chaos Crystal.

But now, this was on the battlefield; they were being asked to fight and die, so some incentive was necessary. Lei Dong's subordinates were all elite; their deaths would indeed be a tragic loss.

Hearing this, Udis's somewhat haggard face twisted slightly, pain gripping his heart. Yet, he understood the current situation: although Chaos Crystals were valuable, turning the tide in the short term solely through a few crystals was an almost impossible task.

Grit ting his teeth, Udis finally forced himself to concede, "Fine, I will dispatch someone to deliver forty Chaos Crystals to my dear brother as soon as possible. Please, Brother Lei Dong, organize your counter-attack plan swiftly. Brother, please do not think I am being stingy; refining Chaos Crystals is not easy. These forty are nearly all I possess."

Forty more. Lei Dong felt a surge of satisfaction inside, musing, Of course I know refining Chaos Crystals isn't easy. Even these lower-grade small Chaos Crystals aren't common cabbage you can find everywhere for the taking.

Last time, Lei Dong had received sixty from Udis, plus four from his wife, totaling sixty-four. All of them had been distributed. To increase efficiency, Lei Dong had once again taken the risk of activating his Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land. Fortunately, to maintain the secrecy of the Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land, he had not placed anyone else's troops inside.

With the one-to-ten time acceleration within the Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land, in just one month of external time, a significant portion of the (Qianlong Army) had successfully broken through, aided by various supportive elixirs and small Chaos Crystals.

Chaos Crystals, even these smaller ones, were among the most precious heavenly materials and earthly treasures in existence, providing an incalculable boost to the evolution of life.

As a result, after absorbing sixty-four small Chaos Crystals in that brief period within the Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land, the five thousand Qianlong Army troops experienced a massive leap in overall strength. Focusing on the Nascent Soul level, the initial count of over three hundred Nascent Souls surged to fifteen hundred in this short time. The remaining three thousand five hundred also broke through bottlenecks to advance to the late or peak Golden Core stage during this short period. This meant that the weakest member of the Qianlong Army was now at least a late-stage Golden Core expert.

This transformed Lei Dong's Qianlong Army into a truly formidable force. Yet, Lei Dong seemed unsatisfied; his inner ambition was to promote every single member of his most direct line, the (Qianwu Army), to the Nascent Soul level without exception.

Once successful, Lei Dong, relying on this single Qianlong Army alone, could sweep across the world, invincible. Of course, rapid success required an unending supply of Chaos Crystals. This compelled Lei Dong to extract another forty crystals from Udis.

Even with these forty, he was still short of his ultimate goal by about two hundred. But that was not urgent; one must eat one bite at a time, and one must trick out Chaos Crystals bit by bit.

After closing the communication array, Lei Dong immediately convened an internal meeting. This 'internal meeting' naturally consisted of the Spirit Transformation level powerhouses who were disguised as ordinary Qianlong soldiers using the Thousand Illusions Mask. While Lei Dong's Fierce Ghosts and the Second Qianlong Army could manage the annihilation attack against King Chixing's forces based on the current situation, Lei Dong did not want to bear the massive losses alone.

Udis had Lei Dong as an ally, and Lei Dong, likewise, had his own allies.

Under layers of array defenses, within that small secret chamber, sat more than ten Spirit Transformation level powerhouses in human form. After Lei Dong detailed the current situation, he stated calmly, "Seniors, this is the situation. If our army cannot swiftly eliminate King Chixing's contingent to deter the enemy forces, the morale of Udis's Abyss coalition will gradually collapse. That is a scenario none of us can accept. Furthermore, I must inform you all of something else: my Ghost Servant, Gui Ci, has led a team of elite scouts to venture into the alien realm and has already deployed a Chaos Spirit Gathering Array."

... (To be continued)