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However, both sides' reckless withdrawal of troops eventually led to a severe shortage of combat power on the southern front. Under Enlai Ke's orchestration, the Holy Light Temple and the Mercenary Empire launched two consecutive campaigns, recapturing many strategic strongholds. Of course, the human forces on the eastern front were also restless, but Chen Xuanfeng's Fontainebleau troops showed no intention of mobilizing. After several skirmishes, the human side gained no advantage. Seeing that Chen Xuanfeng made no move to deploy his forces, the warring Lion, Eagle, and Bear Clans, though suspicious, gradually grew bolder. The scale of the civil war expanded, even reaching the point of deploying super-tier magical beasts.

Faced with this situation, Chen Xuanfeng continued to wait—for an opportunity to maximize his influence. But before that, he still had to resolve the human threat.

Thus, in the early summer of that year, another crisis erupted in the southern continent. This time, the source was neither the beastmen nor the elves, but a horde of dark creatures swarming out from the underground world.

PS: Uh... Happy New Year, ^_^.

Heroic Werewolf Scroll Chapter 103: Fishing for a Kingdom with Heaven’s Bait

The Starsea Continent had been embroiled in war for tens of thousands of years. Despite the loss of countless historical records, numerous military treatises documenting the wisdom and experience of predecessors remained. Scholars who studied and expanded upon these works were also abundant. In recent years, a certain perspective emerged, categorizing strategies into "shadow stratagems" (covert) and "light stratagems" (overt), arguing that light stratagems, which relied on overwhelming momentum, were superior to shadow stratagems, which depended on cunning. However, in Chen Xuanfeng's view, such distinctions were merely academic theorizing. When it came to actual strategizing, all available factors were mobilized—how could one neatly separate momentum from cunning, or shadow stratagems from light stratagems?

For instance, this time, to incite the underground races and magical beasts to invade the southern continent, he employed a variety of methods. First, using divine secrets obtained from the Great Demon King Bato, he simulated the divine aura of the dark deity Spider Queen Lolth, driving hordes of underground beasts to migrate to the surface. Then, disguising himself as a human, he stormed the largest underground city of the dark elves under the guise of the "Gold-Plated Godslayer," confronting the manifested will of the Spider Queen at the altar of the city's central temple.

Years ago, Chen Xuanfeng had schemed to destabilize the underground world and forcibly extracted the Spider Queen’s divine mark from the soul of the dark elf girl Ye Ge under his command, earning the dark deity’s enmity. This time, entering the underground world—her domain—he had no intention of escaping her notice. However, the current Chen Xuanfeng was no longer the Sword Emperor of the past. As a true Saint-level powerhouse, his strength was nearly at the peak of what this world could endure. Even if the Spider Queen’s true form was millions of times stronger, the power she could manifest in the material plane was far weaker than Chen Xuanfeng’s full might. Thus, even without using his two divine weapons and while suppressing his strength, Chen Xuanfeng narrowly escaped the battle against the dark elf matron possessed by the Spider Queen’s will. In the end, divine power shattered the temple, but Chen Xuanfeng seized the opportunity to steal the dark elves’ sacred artifact, the "Eight-Clawed Crest," and disappeared into the wind.

Since the deity’s manifestation was brief and the temple altar was destroyed along with the stolen artifact, the Spider Queen could only issue a divine decree to "pursue at all costs" before withdrawing her will. Meanwhile, the dark elves, deliberately misled by Chen Xuanfeng, mobilized their war machine and marched toward the direction of his escape—the southern continent.

Chen Xuanfeng’s actions were too swift. Despite the young dark mage Enlai Ke, now in charge of the southern military command, significantly strengthening surveillance of the underground world, he failed to thwart Chen Xuanfeng’s scheme. Even when the dark elves launched widespread attacks on human settlements, they couldn’t convince the dark-skinned, sharp-eared race that their assailant was a werewolf. Mutual distrust created an insurmountable communication barrier, and with the dark elf matrons sensing the Eight-Clawed Crest’s presence in the southern continent, half the region soon descended into chaos.

This was Chen Xuanfeng’s scheme—one the humans knew of but couldn’t counter, just as they had been unable to stop the civil war triggered by Xi Luo trapping Chen Xuanfeng for seven days.

Thus, Enlai Ke was deeply troubled.

"There’s no other way. The Pope is still recovering—the soul damage from his self-detonated domain can’t be healed by ordinary means. Reports of underground beasts wreaking havoc have come from all twelve kingdoms, and even officers within the allied forces are wavering. We must resolve this issue first. So, we have no choice but to recall the 'Frostmoon Knight' and the Celestial Knight to quickly quell this internal chaos. Otherwise, not only will morale collapse, but the elves might also seize the opportunity to strike," the young mage, serving as the southern coalition’s commander, explained with a frown to the council of elders formed by various factions.

Thus, the two young Sword Saints, who had infiltrated the beastman alliance to incite the civil war a hundredfold, were forced to return south. And the opportunity Chen Xuanfeng had been waiting for gradually emerged.

By the third month of the civil war, bloodshed had become increasingly frequent. The Lion Clan and the Eagle-Bear alliance shifted their war objectives from "gaining advantage" to "inflicting casualties." Large-scale war machines and military formations designed purely for slaughter began appearing one after another, with sieges and battles escalating the death toll.

Most critically, the Yak and Wolf Clans were gradually dragged into the conflict.

Though the Yak had previously declared they would "not join any internal war," everyone knew post-war would bring a redistribution of benefits—aligning with the victors was far more advantageous than remaining neutral. Thus, many Yak were tempted. Though the chieftains and council had voted to stay out of the conflict, none of the nine major Yak tribes held overwhelming influence. This balance of power meant weak enforcement, and as the war intensified, four Yak tribes were swayed by the Lion Clan, rendering their earlier declaration void. Days later, two more tribes joined the Lion faction. Though the yak, wild yak, and white yak tribes remained neutral, the Yak Clan’s plunge into civil war was now unstoppable.