Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Squad Leader
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"First, before explaining the strategy, let's review the power balance between us and the Parlun Society."
Zhuge Seol-ha fetched a brush from somewhere and taped a fresh sheet of paper to the blackboard, beginning to meticulously outline the current situation, conditions, and more.
"Our side's greatest assets are the Wudang Sect, based in Hubei Province, and the Zhuge Clan. Not only are their scales substantial, but the forces they can deploy far outstrip our other allied factions.
There's a very high chance the main battles will be shouldered by these two."
Zhuge Seol-ha boldly wrote 'Zhuge Clan' and 'Wudang Sect' in the section for the righteous factions, then continued.
"The next tier would be the Murim Alliance and the numerous righteous factions under it. Most of the factions currently aligned with the righteous side are here in Hubei Province for the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly.
The Nine Great Righteous Sects and Five Great Families have each sent portions of their main forces, led by elder-level figures, and the Murim Alliance's Alliance Leader is personally stationed here in Hubei..."
The righteous factions' top expert is also here at the moment.
Her brush, writing down our allies' forces at an astonishing speed, circled the final phrase for emphasis.
It was the words 'Righteous World's Greatest'.
The sole warrior comparable to the current era's supreme under heaven, the 'Divine Bow', a battle-hardened veteran called the history of the martial world itself, revered by all righteous folk.
"Uh... isn't it about time for that one to ascend to immortality?"
"Watch your mouth. I saw him just a few days ago, and he's still perfectly hale."
However, even for a martial artist boasting an extraordinarily long lifespan, he had lived far too many years.
He was no longer the figure who could freely display the overwhelming might befitting the title 'Righteous World's Greatest'.
"Well, sure, he's definitely of advanced age, looking like he can barely lift chopsticks let alone a sword, more plant than person..."
"I didn't say it was that bad."
"Even so, he's the Righteous World's Greatest, isn't he? He might not be main firepower, but he'll step in once at a critical moment."
She casually spoke of deploying a senile elder on the brink of death from old age, then began listing the Parlun Society's forces.
"The Parlun Society's main strength is crystal clear too. The crown prince's direct subordinates. A significant portion of the Blood Cult's forces, which surpass even the Heavenly Demon Cult, called the strongest single faction.
The crown prince himself doesn't seem to be descending in person, but his underlings alone are plenty threatening. The Blood Zombies created by the Blood Cult are real pains to deal with."
At the mention of Blood Zombies, the possessors all nodded in unison.
Blood Zombies were special stiffened corpses made from the bodies of warriors who possessed outstanding martial arts in life.
Since they could replicate a certain level of the original warrior's power, they boasted strength incomparable to ordinary stiffened corpses.
On top of that, there were Poison Stiffened Corpses that spewed corpse poison from their entire bodies.
Golden Blood Stiffened Corpses, whose bodies were vastly reinforced during creation to produce even greater power than in life.
Flying Stiffened Corpses, the pinnacle among stiffened corpses, and more.
The stiffened corpses primarily handled by the Blood Cult were without exception tricky and dangerous to face.
Before the remake, the Blood Cult's scale wasn't that large, so encounters with those loathsome things were rare.
But now, with the Blood Cult's size incomparably greater, both the quantity and quality of their stiffened corpses would be on another level.
In the worst case, something even beyond Flying Stiffened Corpses could drop right into the heart of Hubei Province.
"On top of that, there's a very high chance other grand army-level executives from the Parlun Society will join in.
Not just one or two, but quite a few grand armies likely participating in the crown prince's plan. The most probable candidates are those in provinces held by the Nine Great Righteous Sects and Five Great Families.
From their perspective, those entrenched factions are thorns in their side, so they'd want to blunt their momentum this time around.
The grand army in Yunnan Province was handled by Baek Hyun, and Hubei's was taken care of early by me, so what's left are Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Hebei, Sichuan, and Gansu. Seven in total.
Some grand armies have identified leaders, but there are more unknowns, so their exact strength is uncertain. Still, as grand army-level executives, they shouldn't be beyond our capacity."
Having thus compiled both sides' forces, Zhuge Seol-ha neatly set down her still-wet brush and continued.
"Purely in terms of forces, we're not at a disadvantage, but the issues are the spies infiltrated among us, the unfairness of the ambushers versus the ambushed, and the disparity in preparation time and resources. They know our strength, so they've undoubtedly crafted strategies and tactics to overcome it.
Meanwhile, we're four promising youths—not even full factions—preparing for their invasion in a single day.
To mitigate this absolute disadvantage, we first need to recall what they aim to gain from this raid."
At the same time, she taped the strategy document to the blackboard so everyone could see it at a glance.
"As far as we can tell, the Parlun Society's goal is to annihilate the righteous factions' next generation, who will lead tomorrow.
Crushing the righteous factions' prestige thereby, then inducing chaos and infighting from the successor vacuum to weaken each faction.
Even the Parlun Society can't bear waging all-out war against the entire martial world recklessly. This is scheming to steadily weaken us before any full-scale war."
Thus, we must aim for the opposite.
"Saving every single successor from the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly righteous factions, including ourselves, without exception.
And annihilating the Blood Cult forces raiding us to support Carnivorous Dinosaur and the Demonic Cult."
Our final objectives for this chapter boil down to these two."
Having explained the strategy's goals and reasoning in full, she began detailing countermeasures against the Parlun Society.
"First, personally, I'll mobilize the Zhuge Clan's manpower to the maximum natural extent to bolster defenses and prepare for the Parlun Society's raid. The Zhuge Clan is the one I've cleaned most thoroughly, so no worries about leaks.
But we can't repel a Parlun Society raid on just a few days' prep, so getting hit is a foregone conclusion. We'll inevitably suffer the first strike.
Thus, the strategy isn't stopping the raid outright, but minimizing damage from it, buying time for our other factions to protect civilians and successors and mount a counterattack. That's the most realistic approach."
The pointer in her hand moved busily, ceaselessly aiding her explanation.
"With that in mind, my plan is very simple. At the upcoming Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, draw maximum attention to make the Parlun Society fixate on us.
Make them think they must catch us, at least. Then they'll target us first, letting the other late-generation talents evacuate safely."
Her plan was exceedingly bold.
To protect the righteous factions' other late-generation talents, they would serve as bait and shields, drawing the Parlun Society's focus entirely onto themselves.
This would expose the possessors' capabilities to the Parlun Society and was dangerously self-sacrificial.
"It'll bring considerable risk concentrating the Parlun Society's attention on our four, but... crisis is opportunity too.
No need to overthink. Just show our full power fighting at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly. They'll assume that's our all.
People, after all, struggle to imagine anything beyond the first astonishing thing they see."
But we've got it all, don't we?
That 'beyond'.
At that moment, the possessors instantly grasped what she meant.
Privileges.
The ultimate cards granted from the moment they entered this world.
"No weapon is as powerful as an unseen blade. Factoring in the privileges' overwhelming value, wiping out the Parlun Society executives targeting us in turn is entirely feasible."
Protecting the other late-generation talents achieves the first goal.
Annihilating the Parlun Society—i.e., Blood Cult—forces achieves the second.
A perfectly simple, clear strategy matching her two stated goals exactly.
"Of course, account for my guesses or predictions possibly being wrong. If things go south, act on your own judgment of what's right.
I kept the plan maximally simple precisely to avoid clouding your immediate judgment with my flimsy foresight.
A sturdy wall can shield family and property, but also become a prison trapping oneself. Same with strategies. Who knows what curveballs await? Don't foolishly cling deep to a plan hatched in days."
Wrapping up with that final remark, Zhuge Seol-ha tucked away the pointer at her waist and said last.
"Alright, any questions?"
Hearing that, Baek Hyun immediately shot his hand up.
With an expression more serious than ever, he posed the decisive question to end the meeting.
"Looks done. Wanna grab some food?"
"Aye."
"Sure."
With that, the three guys rose in unison as if scripted, heading out.
Kim Sam-soon stared blankly for a moment, then blurted in undisguised fluster.
"W-Wait! That's it!? It's a rushed plan, so it might have holes everywhere, better ways might exist—we should brainstorm together..!"
"Bro, what's Hubei famous for eating?"
"I haven't been out much, so not sure. Ask Sam-soon."
"I hear lotus root here's killer. Can we do that?"
"Oh yeah, Moo-jin bro's on forced vegan, right? Dinner menu's tricky then... Eh, Sam-soon'll pick."
"N-No..!!"
In the end, even dinner selection fell to Kim Sam-soon.