roccoschili Chapter 460 - 456: The Northern Domain Soldiers’ Highest Tribute: A Salute to Lord Divine Mosquito
Chapter 460 - 456: The Northern Domain Soldiers’ Highest Tribute: A Salute to Lord Divine Mosquito
The snow in the Northern Domain had finally stopped.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the thick clouds covering the perpetually dim sky parted.
A long-awaited ray of sunlight pierced through a gap in the clouds, shining down at an angle.
Chu Sheng hovered in mid-air, silently surveying the scene below.
The sunlight illuminated a land scarred by devastation.
In the distance, the giant black wall—the first line of defense—was more than half reduced to rubble. On the broken ramparts, the dark red stains of long-dried blood remained.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but carnage.
The ice plains were blanketed with a dense layer of corpses.
There were colossal, savage-looking members of the Alien Race, as well as all sorts of bizarrely shaped Outer Realm Fierce Beasts.
But even more numerous were the Human Race warriors in their standard-issue Great Xia Battle Armor, and their Contracted Beasts, who had fallen with them in pools of blood.
Severed limbs were scattered everywhere.
It was as if the entire Northern Domain had been washed anew in blood.
They had won, but it was a pyrrhic victory.
Some reinforcements who had arrived spontaneously from various regions, along with logistics units, were now busy on the battlefield.
Silently and carefully, they collected the bodies of the fallen warriors, preparing to transport them back to their hometowns.
Finding a complete body was a luxury they could rarely hope for.
Watching all of this, Chu Sheng felt a strange, indescribable feeling.
He wasn’t human anymore, so the life and death of humans didn’t really affect him much.
But the hellish scene before him still made him feel a little heavy.
’War... what a nasty business.’
Wait a minute.
Corpses?
It was as if a switch had been flipped in Chu Sheng’s brain.
The fleeting trace of sorrow that had just surfaced was instantly replaced by another, much stronger emotion.
’Holy shit!’
’So many corpses of the Alien Race and Outer Realm Fierce Beasts!’
’Last night, when I entered Feng Wuji’s Power, a huge battle was still raging here!’
’This is all treasure! This is all precious Life Essence!’
’If I don’t hurry up and collect it, the longer it sits here, the more Energy will be lost! What a huge loss that would be!’
’What a monstrous waste!’
At this thought, Chu Sheng couldn’t stay still any longer.
With a beat of his wings, he prepared to dive down and begin his grand undertaking of "scavenging."
But just as he was about to move, a figure materialized before him out of thin air.
It was Luo Zhan.
The commander of the Northern Domain had changed into a clean uniform, but the exhaustion and pain on his face were impossible to hide.
He simply watched Chu Sheng in silence.
Immediately after, Li Zhantian, Tie Mulan, Man Gu... one by one, the powerful experts of the Human Race who had survived the great battle appeared behind Luo Zhan.
And then, more Human Race warriors.
They flew up from the battlefield below, from the broken city walls.
Behind Luo Zhan, they silently and neatly formed a massive square formation.
The formation was comprised of several thousand people.
This was the entirety of the Northern Domain’s defenders, along with the reinforcements from the other three major war zones—all that was left after this catastrophe.
Many of them were still wrapped in thick bandages.
Some were missing arms, others had lost legs. Some even had half their bodies blasted away, held together only by their powerful Life Force and sheer willpower.
Yet, every single one of them had clear and bright eyes.
Like the cold corpses below, they were all true warriors.
Chu Sheng was a bit bewildered by this sudden spectacle.
’What’s going on?’
’What are they trying to do?’
He wondered inwardly, ’Are they going to ask about the outcome of the battle between Feng Wuji and the Purple Nether Demon Lord?’
However, Luo Zhan didn’t ask.
He just gave Chu Sheng a deep look, then took a sharp breath and, with all his might, bellowed a command that echoed throughout the entire Northern Domain.
"All units!"
The voice reverberated across the vast, empty ice plains, reaching every single person’s ears clearly.
The next second, Luo Zhan snapped his right hand up, giving Chu Sheng a flawless, textbook-perfect military salute.
Behind him, Li Zhantian, Tie Mulan, Man Gu... the several thousand surviving warriors—be they generals or soldiers, powerful experts or common folk—all raised their arms in unison at the exact same moment.
Saluting the tiny mosquito hovering in the air!
Their movements were perfectly synchronized.
Their eyes were filled with inexpressible respect, gratitude, and a hint of... fanaticism.
Without this mosquito, every single one of them would now be among the cold corpses below.
Without this mosquito, the entire Northern Domain, and indeed the whole northern region of Great Xia, would have become a slaughterhouse for the Alien Race.
This salute was for the one who had saved their lives!
This salute was for the one who had saved their nation!
Chu Sheng was stunned.
He looked at the thousands of battle-hardened warriors saluting him, at their sincere and fervent gazes, and for a moment, he had no idea how to react.
He wiggled his mosquito legs, feeling a bit awkward.
’Well, it’s true that I, Lord Mosquito, played the most crucial role in this battle, single-handedly turning the ti-ti-ti... tide, and I did get a lot out of it.’
’But isn’t this display a bit over the top?’
’It’s making me, Lord Mosquito, a little embarrassed.’
’Well, just a little.’
’There’s no need for this, really.’
’When it comes to the post-war debriefing, just give me some practical rewards. Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, Energy Crystals... I, Lord Mosquito, will accept them all.’
Just as Chu Sheng was lost in his wild thoughts, Luo Zhan’s voice rang out again.
"At ease!"
Thousands of arms dropped in perfect unison.
Luo Zhan flew forward a few steps, stopping in front of Chu Sheng.
He looked at Chu Sheng, a genuine smile gracing his face.
"The Northern Domain needs to regroup now. You must be tired, too. Get some rest, and please don’t leave just yet."
"Later, there will be a post-war debriefing. When the time comes, you will accompany me to the Military Department headquarters."
"I will report your contributions in full, without omitting a single detail."
Hearing this, Chu Sheng flapped his wings nonchalantly.
BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ.
’Alright, alright, I get it.’
’Don’t keep Lord Mosquito from his important business.’
’Everyone, dismiss. Go do what you need to do.’
With that, he couldn’t hold back any longer. His body flashed, transforming into a black streak of light as he shot directly toward the corpse-strewn battlefield below.
Leaving Luo Zhan and the others to look at each other, dumbfounded, in mid-air.
’This Lord Divine Mosquito... certainly marches to the beat of his own drum.’
...
For the next two days, the Northern Domain was immersed in the tense but orderly work of post-war reconstruction.
The broken city walls needed to be repaired, the fallen soldiers needed to be buried, the spoils of war needed to be tallied...
Through everyone’s efforts, the first line of defense, which had been almost razed to the ground, was preliminarily repaired at an astonishing speed.
This was the speed of war.
The Northern Domain was slowly recovering from the wounds of war.
Inside the military camp, within a tent set up exclusively for Chu Sheng, Chu Sheng was sprawled comfortably on a large, soft bed, gleefully taking stock of his gains from this trip to the Northern Domain.
Tallying up his loot after every major battle was a good habit he had cultivated over time.
Nothing felt better than this.
’Alright, System, open my panel!’