Chapter 414 Chaotic Speculations and the Same War

After everyone collected the spoils, they either formed groups of three or five or went alone. Some returned to their own bases, while others continued to support comrades still in battle.

After thinking about some things, Shaoke decided to return to his base. He was worried about whether his base could hold out if the Mage Guild suddenly attacked. After all, the Blue Feather Empire Wanderers Alliance base now only had seven or eight Ninth-rank Professionals capable of fighting, including Mage Roman who had just been promoted not long ago. As for the Eighth-rank Professionals, the mage now simply ignored them. Their attacks rarely posed a threat to Ninth-rank Professionals, of course, except for special spells.

When Mage Roman and the others heard about some of the situations Shaoke had encountered outside, they all frowned deeply. Now they could only passively wait for the enemy's attack, unable to actively strike at anyone, which left everyone very dissatisfied. But without a better option, they could only wait like this.

Days passed one by one. Although there were mages from the Mage Guild who came near this base, their numbers were not large, and Shaoke and Mage Roman, together with some wanderers in the vicinity, wiped out the enemies. At this time, Shaoke also allowed Lan Wei'er and Moyu'er to join such battles. Because now any Eighth-rank or above professional was a precious combat resource.

The chaos in the Barbarian Empire lasted for nearly a hundred years. During this time, Ninth-rank beings from hundreds of empires came here to fight. Some helped the Mage Guild, while others helped the Wanderers Alliance. But Shaoke knew that those who helped them were not out of sympathy but for profit. They wanted to take this opportunity to slaughter their enemies on a large scale on the territories of other empires. This was the reason Shaoke himself found for those people.

That day, after Shaoke and An'er had just finished a patrol mission together, they hid in the mage tower he had built many years ago. Here he would continue to use some special methods to enhance the combat power of his puppet. Meanwhile, Mage Roman was busy training the low-level spellcasters, enabling them to better perform some simple tasks. Of course, Lan Wei'er and the others also had their own things to keep them busy.

"Father's base lost another million people today," Hegel, who had been waiting outside, said quickly as soon as Shaoke came out of the mage tower, relaying the news he had just received. "Due to the fighting, the number of merchants is very scarce, and we are still short of food for ordinary residents."

Hearing this news, the mage frowned, then closed his eyes to think for a while. "Gather the soldiers—we are preparing to fight. Hmm! Now consolidate all the food for the soldiers." After saying this, Shaoke paid no attention to his son's surprise and instead used space magic to go to several wanderer alliances that were on good terms with them.

The mage wanted to persuade the members of these alliances to prepare ordinary soldiers and then launch a mad slaughter on the neighboring countries. This way they could not only vent their anger but also plunder a large amount of food to supply the common people.

"Other alliances in the empire will never allow this, because they haven't sent soldiers to attack our territory," the ruler of the Desasi Empire, an Archer, explained calmly to Shaoke. "Once such a battle begins, we will face the frenzied attacks of more than a dozen empires."

Shaoke shook his head. "Don't worry about those things. I'm just telling you: my base used to have tens of millions of people, now it's only over ten million. And during this time, every year, millions of civilians die due to battles among Ninth-rank Professionals." As he spoke, the mage pulled his cloak tighter and continued: "We don't have enough food to support those ordinary residents any longer. I don't want the people in my base to die from lack of food."

Later, the mage also gathered the rulers of nearly a hundred other alliances for lengthy negotiations in a mage tower of the Desasi Empire. The main topic was whether to use ordinary soldiers to attack other empires.

After more than a month of persuasion, over a hundred wanderer alliances gathered tens of millions of ordinary soldiers. After brief training, the rulers began to command them according to the pre-arranged plan to attack the empires bordering them.

"These empires sent Ninth-rank Professionals to my base area to commit massacres. This was all ordered by their emperors. That means they have declared war on us. They just want to completely wipe us wanderers out and then divide the spoils here." This was an important tactic Shaoke used to persuade the rulers of other alliances. Of course, everyone actually knew that this excuse was merely to deflect internal conflicts within their own alliances. After all, they all saw the phenomenon of sharply declining populations and food shortages. If they didn't do this, in a few years, their bases might completely disappear.

Shaoke personally commanded a force of 100,000 people. Under his orders, the soldiers who entered the enemy country engaged in a frenzied slaughter. Every intelligent being was erased from existence by those who had just been promoted to formal soldiers. Villages disappeared one after another, and even some small cities were captured due to the mages' involvement. Of course, in this process, a large number of new recruits died permanently, but each base continuously sent new soldiers to continue this frenzied slaughter.

Erasing the existence of all intelligent beings was very common in the history of the Barbarian Continent. However, the ones who carried out this task were usually the powerful professionals, not ordinary soldiers. But this time, at the mage's request, the continent's history books still recorded in detail the reasons and detailed process of this crazy eradication by ordinary people.

Every 100,000 people formed an independent corps. Each corps had a Ninth-rank Professional. Millions of ordinary soldiers simultaneously attacked one empire. Although this empire had strong legions, under such a mad, death-defying assault, the empire's territory was quickly occupied. Ripe crops were plundered and brought back. Young and beautiful women, after being taken by the mad soldiers, were sent to various bases, where they would be given as the most primitive slaves to soldiers who had performed meritorious service.

Since no Eighth-rank or above professionals took part in such battles, and the empire Shaoke and his allies attacked at this time was only a small one, the hidden powerful forces of each empire remained unrevealed as long as it was not destroyed.

When Shaoke once again saw a prosperous small city completely erased from the map, he suddenly laughed. Mage Roman scowled at Shaoke. "What's so funny? In just one year, our base now has only five million people, and most of them are women and young children. If we keep going this madly, I think our base will fall apart because of the loss of ordinary residents."

"In one year, we have built a legion composed entirely of low-order warriors. It took us centuries to build such an army before, and now it's done in just one short year," Shaoke said happily, watching the soldiers moving on top of the female prisoners. "And now we have plenty of food, enough to sustain us for more than ten years."

At this point, the mage suddenly turned his head and said in astonishment: "Haven't you noticed? Since these ordinary civilians joined the battlefield, there have been very few Ninth-rank beings appearing around our base, and now the entire Barbarian Empire is the same." Shaoke laughed again as he spoke; he had rarely laughed like this.

"If it weren't for all the alliances following your crazy example, I think things wouldn't have turned out this way," Mage Roman sighed. Although Shaoke's approach seemed to save the civilians of the Barbarian Empire from being accidentally killed or starved to death by Ninth-rank beings, they still couldn't escape death. It was just a different method. "In one year, over a billion ordinary people have died, and that's just the count in our Barbarian Empire! I wonder how many died in the enemy nations."

"Just over a billion beings," Shaoke said with a twitch of his mouth. "As long as there are strong men capable of fighting in our base, I will continue this kind of ordinary people's war. As long as we delay enough time, the next generation of young people will also join this war. I think by then, the war will be even more intense!" At this point, the mage sneered, then looked up and glanced above, before lowering his gaze, because the hostile being who had been detecting him in the sky had already left. This time, the mage had no need to engage in battle. "I have already gathered all women who have given birth to five or more children in our base; they will also join such battles." A six-pointed star magic array appeared before Shaoke, and from it emerged three Ninth-rank professionals. One was a Space Mage, the other was Mage Meigan and his wife, the female warrior. And the one who spoke was that female warrior. "Now I demand that all children undergo martial training. Hah, girls can also engage in such crazy battles." The female warrior took a deep breath; the thick smell of blood in the air was very pleasant to her.