Huo Yuhao whispered next to Tang Wutong’s ear as he explained his idea to her. Immediately, Tang Wutong revealed a strange expression on her face. “That’s so bad of you! Hmph! Do you dare to say that you aren’t doing this for Ju Zi?”

Huo Yuhao immediately tried to clarify, “Of course not. If I remember correctly, the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion is the most powerful legion that the Sun Moon Empire’s royal family controls directly. The royal family must value this soul engineer legion with great importance. Ju Zi is not the only one who knows how to set up an overt scheme, is she? There is no longer any chance of us winning the war in a direct manner. After the palace in Dou Ling City was destroyed, we don’t even know if any members of their royal family are still alive. Hence, we can only turn the tables around bit by bit. I want you to take ten thousand steps back and consider this. If the Sun Moon Empire were to conquer the entire continent in the future, wouldn’t it be better for it to be under Ju Zi’s control rather than Xu Tianran or the Holy Ghost Church?

Tang Wutong burst into laughter and said, “Look at how nervous you’ve become. I was only testing you. Do you really think I don’t trust you?”

Huo Yuhao also smiled and said, “Of course I know you will believe me. But I still think there’s a need to explain. It is a form of respect for you. Come, let’s descend.”

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao pulled Tang Wutong’s hand and disappeared into the woods. Of course, the place they descended to was quite far from where the two soul engineer legions were.

In the meantime, the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion were still patiently recovering their soul power. It had been a long time since they were attacked by Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong. Even though the Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion would not become complacent because of this, they were still grateful for the peace that they had been enjoying for the past few hours.

It now seemed like Xu Tianyuan was right to say that the enemy only had one chance to strike them with the Class 9 decomposition cannon.

Xia Xuanchen had been monitoring their surroundings for any movement. In fact, he did not even dare to sit down and cultivate. The next thing he was about to do was set up the trap. This trap had to trick the enemy into believing that both of them had a chance of defeating the legions.

He was ultimately different from the soul engineers under him. He could never relax when he knew that his enemies were still out there lurking around. He believed that they would not give up so easily after following them into the forest. It was common for strong soul masters to have patience that could outlast most people. How could they have attained their powers without the ability to withstand loneliness and be patient?

A significant amount of time went by very quickly. Very soon, the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion would all have fully recovered the soul power they had expended. Following which, it would be time for them to complete their trap. This also happened to be the most dangerous moment. It was understood by everyone that some of them had to be sacrificed in order to bait their enemies. However, Xia Xuanchen could not help but feel a sense of fear about his mysterious, powerful enemies, who seemed to be wielding Class 9 decomposition cannons.

“Commander, one of our surveillance soul tools has indicated that someone is heading in our direction.” A soul engineer from the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion suddenly reported. His words startled Xia Xuanchen.

“Someone’s coming? How many of them?” Xia Xuanchen immediately became very alert as he questioned his subordinate rapidly.?Could they have lost their patience?

“There are a lot of them. They seem to be coming towards us by land. On top of that, they are currently surrounding us.” The soul engineer who was providing the update was visibly nervous, because the size of the enemy force was simply enormous. The only possible people who they could encounter in the Dou Ling Empire must be their enemies. And these enemies seemed to have managed to pinpoint their location, and were now surrounding them.

A solemn look formed on Xia Xuanchen’s face.?Their reinforcements have arrived? If that’s the case, the odds against us have become a lot worse.?However, he was not really afraid of their reinforcements. After all, the Dou Ling Empire was the weakest empire on the Douluo Continent. In fact, they did not even have a proper soul engineer legion. No matter how many people—including soul masters—they had sent to surround them, Xia Xuanchen would not be afraid of them. After all, they were going up against two beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions that were part of the Hand that Protects the Nation. Even though these legions had lost more than a third of their people, the bulk of their force—especially the most powerful soul engineers—were still present.

“Get everyone other than the five commanders to get ready for battle.” Xia Xuanchen ordered.

He was no longer concerned about the trap for now. He knew he had to focus on fending off the enemies that were surrounding them before he could think about the trap. In fact, he believed their attack could help act as a trap or bait for his two other enemies. He might just be able to kill two birds with one stone.

While he was issuing orders, Xia Xuanchen quickly moved over to the surveillance soul tools. It was apparent that running their aerial surveillance soul tools in a foreign land would not be as effective as running them in their own territory. Hence, they had only brought land surveillance soul tools with them. Even though they had a smaller range, they were a lot more accurate.

Xia Xuanchen could see a lot of red dots scattered on the screen of the surveillance soul tool. If every red dot represented a single enemy, he was actually unable to determine how many people they were up against.

These enemies were apparently very calm and composed as they moved towards them slowly. Even though they were not moving very fast, they had already completely surrounded them, and were advancing at a very steady speed.

As of now, the soul engineers still did not know what their enemies looked like. The dense forest prevented them from seeing their enemies. However, it was enough for them to know that their enemies were approaching them.

Every single soul engineer within the legions was ready for battle. This included the soul engineers from the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion, who had recovered a large portion of their energy, but were ultimately still not fully recharged.

After taking some time to analyze their situation, Xia Xuanchen ordered, “Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion, fire your Soul Light Rays and clear the trees that are blocking our way.”

Fighting in forests had always been relatively disadvantageous for soul engineers. This was because soul engineers specialized in ranged attacks. It was a lot harder for them to take aim when there were trees surrounding them.

After hearing Xia Xuanchen’s orders, streaks of blue rays started to sweep around them as they cleared every tree within a thousand meters of them. This created a large amount of space outside the linked defensive barrier. There would be no hiding for any enemy who chose to appear before them. They would be subjected to the powerful soul tool attacks from both legions.

After a short and intense wait, the soul engineers could finally see their enemies.

However, they could not help but shudder after seeing what their enemies looked like.

No matter how strong their enemies were, the members of the two beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions had never experienced fear before the battle had even begun. However, these enemies before them were able to strike fear in their hearts. Because they were not humans.

What are those things?

Huge skeletal structures wielding irregular bone knives were trodding towards them. Some of them were just armed with a single bone.

A few of them were green zombies, which were hopping forward. Some of those zombies had humongous stomachs as foul-smelling liquid dripped from their bodies.

On top of that, some of their enemies were extremely strange-looking. They saw headless knights, humongous frankensteins, and all sorts of scary-looking creatures they had never seen before in their entire life. All of these creatures were radiating a powerful aura of death.

No normal human being would feel good after sensing such a powerful, dense aura of death.

These soul engineers were no exception. Xia Xuanchen was also not exempt from this rule. He had never expected the calm and patient enemy he had imagined in his mind to be a spectral army.

This was simply beyond his imagination. He had never expected to be facing an enemy like this.

Xia Xuanchen ran towards Xu Tianyuan without any hesitation as he woke the commander of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion up.

When Xu Tianyuan and the other four vice-commanders were woken up from their meditation, their jaws dropped upon seeing the spectral creatures trodding towards them.

Xu Tianyuan immediately flew into a rage as he clenched his fist and exclaimed, “Those bastards! I knew it! I was wondering how our enemies could have gotten their hands on Class 9 decomposition cannons! After all, those cannons are guarded with secrecy, even within our empire. Now everything’s starting to make sense. I can still remember how resistant I was back then when His Majesty wanted to form an alliance with the Holy Ghost Church. I remember telling him how we should never associate ourselves with those evil soul masters. I am now certain that those evil soul masters are targeting us after learning about our independent mission. They have taken advantage of a golden opportunity to eradicate us while we are still in the Dou Ling Empire.”

Xu Tianyuan was not the only one who had these thoughts. Even Xia Xuanchen and the other vice-commanders shared the same sentiments.

One of the vice-commanders from the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion spoke aggressively, “I don’t think there are any powerful cultivators from the Dou Ling Empire who can threaten us. If there is someone like that, he or she would have been dispatched to the main battlefield. If they had someone who could conceal themselves and control spatial power to a certain extent, they would have sent him to perform reconnaissance work, and stop us from destroying the Heavenly Soul Empire. It seems like the truth has finally come to light. Those evil soul masters from the despicable Holy Ghost Church! Our army has never been on good terms with them. I can see how they are trying to take this opportunity to weaken the army and the War God Empress’ strength. By doing this, they would have triumphed over us. Who would know the nature of our death now that we are far away from any ally? They’ve probably sent more than two evil soul masters, judging from the number of spectral creatures.”

After hearing the vice-commander’s words, Xia Xuanchen’s face revealed the deep hatred he had developed for the Holy Ghost Church. Now that the evil soul masters had revealed themselves, this meant that they were confident of killing all of them here. They were certain that this secret would be buried with their bodies. It was truly a matter of life and death for both parties.

Xu Tianyuan spoke coldly, “It won’t be so easy for them to kill us. Brother Xia, right now, we can only fight with our lives in order to survive. Those evil soul masters must be hiding somewhere. We need to put all of our trump cards on the table. We need to let them know that our beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions are not to be meddled with.”

Xia Xuanchen nodded and said, “Brother Xu, you can rest assured that during important junctures like this, my Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion will not scrimp on resources. We will definitely do our best to fight for our common survival. Today, I shall lead our brothers to victory along with you, Brother Xu. Once we get back to the camp, we will give those bastards from the Holy Ghost Church hell!”