Afterward, when the Heaven and Earth Furnace closed and Ouyang Lie and Xiang Shan returned having ascended to the Ninth Order, they took command of the Xuanming Army and the Blood Flame Army respectively. No one had any objections — they had entered the Heaven and Earth Furnace from the Xuanming Domain and the Blood Flame Domain respectively, so it could only be said that those two domains had been fortunate.
The Crimson Fire Army had also sent many Eighth-Order cultivators into the Heaven and Earth Furnace back then, but none of them had managed to ascend to the Ninth Order. They couldn't blame anyone else.
When Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing were finally freed, every army had been watching with eager anticipation, hoping these two Ninth-Order powerhouses would be stationed with their respective corps to bolster their strength.
But only two Ninth-Order cultivators had been freed, while eight armies were clamoring for them. In the end, it was the General Bureau that made the call — Xiao Xiao would be stationed with the Cloud Firmament Army, and Wu Qing would take command of the Purple Swallow Army.
Some had considered merging the twelve armies into six. That way, six Ninth-Order cultivators would suffice.
But each of humanity's armies currently fielded far too many troops. Merging two into one would only make them more unwieldy and harder to coordinate.
Moreover, humanity would produce even more Ninth-Order cultivators in the future. Would they have to split the armies again then?
With these considerations, the General Bureau had insisted on maintaining the original twelve-army structure.
But this inevitably meant that half the armies would have no Ninth-Order cultivator to anchor them. The General Bureau could only allocate Sacred Spirits to assist in battle, trying to maintain the balance as best they could.
"The General Bureau has its own difficulties — what are you yelling about?" Hearing Zhao Li's complaints, Wang Qian couldn't help but snap at him.
"I know that." Zhao Li had a fiery temper, but he wasn't someone who failed to see the bigger picture. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have brought up something like this. It was just that their current situation was far too dire — they were very likely to perish here, and a man facing death had little concern for anything else.
"If you're so capable, ascend to the Ninth Order yourself, and then the Crimson Fire Army will be yours to command!" Wang Qian cursed.
Zhao Li flared with rage: "Ascend to what? My path ends at the Eighth Order in this lifetime… And those bastards in the Logistics Division — I earned my own merit credits to exchange for resources to modify the warship, so why did they refuse? My merit credits were hard-earned, so why can't I use them to modify the warship? If we'd modified the warship earlier, would we be stuck in this mess? I won't rest easy even as a ghost until I've settled the score with those bastards!"
Wang Qian fell silent and focused on killing the enemy.
Their warship was a standard model produced by the artifact refiners in the Logistics Division. Virtually ninety-nine percent of all squads used this type of warship, and each one consumed considerable resources to produce.
In earlier years, the human side had not prohibited soldiers from exchanging merit credits for resources to modify their warships. Merit credits were earned at the cost of one's own life, and the higher-ups hadn't restricted how soldiers used them. So many people had liked to do this — a workman must first sharpen his tools. Making a warship more powerful not only improved one's chances of survival on the battlefield, but also enabled more effective killing of the enemy.
Back when Yang Kai had led Dawn through the Ink Battlefield, their warship Dawnbreaker had consumed an enormous amount of merit credits for modifications. Nearly all the merit credits Yang Kai had earned had been poured into Dawnbreaker, greatly enhancing its various capabilities and allowing Dawn to thrive in one bloody battle after another.
But in recent years, the higher-ups had put a stop to it. The leadership wasn't unaware of the benefits of modifying warships, but with humanity's resources so scarce, every last bit had to be carefully allocated — there were no surplus resources for soldiers to spend on warship modifications.
Only a select few elite squads, after submitting applications and receiving approval, could exchange merit credits for resources to modify their warships. Even then, the credits required far exceeded what it had cost in the past.
Zhao Li's cursing of those Logistics Division fellows wasn't entirely unreasonable — the Logistics Division was simply carrying out orders from above. But given how dire everyone's situation was, with death potentially moments away, a bit of cursing to vent his frustration couldn't hurt.
"Captain, the defensive formation is about to give!" a crew member's urgent shout rang out.
Wang Qian looked up. The protective barrier enveloping the warship had dimmed to almost nothing, its collapse imminent at any moment.
Taking a deep breath, Wang Qian bellowed: "Prepare for a fight to the death! Xiao Wu — activate the warship's self-destruction formation in ten breaths!"
"Yes, sir!" The Fifth-Order Open Heaven cultivator who had been named answered grimly.
Even in death, they would take as many of the enemy with them as possible!
Zhongwu Yu, who had been repairing the Tiger Venerable, also halted his work. There was no point in wasting any more time now. He drew his long sword, stepped to Wang Qian's side, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, his gaze resolute as he stared at the dense mass of Ink Race forces surrounding them outside.
One by one, the squad members summoned their Artifacts and gathered around Wang Qian. Their auras surged and their combined presence rose, forming a battle formation.
Though facing an army of thousands, they would press forward without retreat.
Fight to the bloody end!
Suddenly, a commotion erupted from within the enemy ranks. In the next instant, Wang Qian and the others' expressions shifted. Through their perception, they sensed a massive wave of life forces being extinguished all around them — as if countless Ink Race beings had died in the span of a single heartbeat.
However, because the Ink Race forces surrounding their warship were so numerous that they filled their entire field of vision, they couldn't see what was happening further out and had no idea what was going on.
Just as they were still reeling in bewilderment, ripples suddenly appeared in the void ahead. Where the ripples passed, the void trembled and shattered, and countless spatial rifts swam through the air like fish.
Those innumerable spatial rifts enveloped virtually all of the Ink Race forces — only the area around their warship remained untouched.
In the next instant, the Ink Race army that had driven them to the brink of death — regardless of strength, regardless of position — erupted with spurts of Ink Blood simultaneously. Every Ink Race being was sliced into multiple pieces by the spatial rifts. Many died without ever understanding what had happened, their faces frozen in expressions of shock.
"This…" Wang Qian stared, jaw hanging open.