Bringing the farm to another world

Chapter 16358 Retreat
"They've retreated, they've retreated, everyone's gone. But strangely, they took all the corpses with them, their corpses and our corpses, they took them all, leaving not a single one behind." A disciple ran up to Xu Zhengqing and reported to him.

Xu Zhengqing was taken aback by the disciple's words, then turned to look at the disciple and asked, "Are you sure they've left?"

The disciple nodded excitedly and said, "It's confirmed, they did leave, but their retreat was personally covered by those kingdom-level experts, so we had no way to catch up."

Xu Zhengqing nodded and then said, "Okay, come with me to take a look." After saying that, he led everyone out of the command hall and flew up to the upper floors. The upper floors were fine, but when they reached the second floor, Xu Zhengqing's expression changed. The entire second floor was covered in blood and mud. The ground was now covered in dark brown mud, and the strong smell of blood was nauseating. There were bloodstains and signs of a fight everywhere, but there wasn't a single corpse.

Xu Zhengqing stood there, coldly watching everything. Then he went to the first floor. The situation on the first floor was much better than on the second floor. Although there were signs of fighting and bloodstains everywhere, it was not as bad as the situation on the second floor.

When they reached the ground, they found that all the buildings on the ground had been destroyed, and several huge energy swords were flying into the distance; those were the Blood Slaughter Sect members retreating.

Xu Zhengqing stood there watching the departing Blood Slaughter Sect disciples. He took a deep breath and then said in a deep voice, "Calculate our losses. Remember, the more detailed the better."

A disciple immediately responded and went to tally the losses, while Xu Zhengqing just stood there, watching the Blood Slaughter Sect disciples disappear into the distance, his expression neither sad nor happy.

As dawn broke, the sky began to lighten. Who could have imagined that this great battle, which caused huge losses to both sides, would only last one night?

Just then, two people suddenly appeared beside Xu Zhengqing. Xu Zhengqing turned his head and saw that it was General Li and Shi Yong. He quickly saluted the two of them.

The two returned the greeting, and then General Li asked, "Was the loss significant?"

Xu Zhengqing said, "It should be quite large. The exact number hasn't been tallied yet, but I don't understand why they took our bodies as well, instead of just taking their own people's bodies."

Shi Yong's expression was not good. He said in a deep voice, "I have a bad idea. Do you think they might want to use our corpses to create ghosts?"

Upon hearing this, General Li and Xu Zhengqing's expressions changed drastically. Shi Yong looked at the two and said, "The corpses of cultivators are top-grade materials for refining ghosts. If they really use the corpses of those who died in battle to refine ghosts, that would be feasible. Didn't some kingdom-level experts die in battle today? The corpses of kingdom-level experts are even more top-grade materials. If they really do this, it will be difficult to deal with them in the future."

General Li and Xu Zhengqing's expressions grew even more grim. General Li said, "It seems there really are a few demonic sects in their occupied territories, but ghosts aren't so easy to refine, are they? I remember that under normal circumstances, just raising a corpse takes many years to refine a ghost. A corpse that has just died like this cannot be refined into a ghost. Only by raising the corpse in a special place and nurturing it properly can a ghost be refined."

Xu Zhengqing nodded and said, "That's right. If ghosts were so easy to make, wouldn't the Demonic Sect have already surpassed the righteous sects' masters? So even if they take away those corpses, they won't be able to make ghosts in a short time."

Shi Yong said in a deep voice, "I know that's how it is. I just want to remind you that we must deal with them as soon as possible. We absolutely cannot wait too long, otherwise their strength may become stronger and stronger."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhengqing's expression changed. He then said, "That's true. Just because they can't refine it now doesn't mean they won't be able to in the future." General Li said in a deep voice, "Let's see how much we lose this time. I wonder if their losses are as great as ours."

Xu Zhengqing said, "It's more than enough." General Li's expression softened a bit.

At this moment, a disciple came to the three of them, bowed to them, and then gave a jade slip to Xu Zhengqing. After Xu Zhengqing took the jade slip, he used his spiritual power to probe into it. After reading the contents of the jade slip, Xu Zhengqing gave it to General Li, whose expression was not good.

General Li's spiritual power also swept over the jade slip. After seeing its contents, his expression remained calm. He handed the jade slip to Shi Yong and said, "Our losses exceeded five million, while the enemy's losses are estimated to exceed seven million. Unfortunately, because there are no corpses, we cannot make a final confirmation. However, the enemy's losses are definitely greater than ours, which means they are already severely weakened. Don't forget, although we suffered many losses there, the price they paid to keep those people was also considerable. And they are no match for us in terms of either numbers or the number of experts. So we can afford the losses, but they cannot."

Shi Yong nodded, then said in a deep voice, "The enemy is indeed very strong, but compared to us, they are still much weaker. That's perfect, so we can send troops to deal with them."

General Li nodded and then said, "It is indeed a good thing, but we are afraid we have no way to deal with their shape-shifting energy shields."

Shi Yong said in a deep voice, "We don't have to fight them. Their energy shields can threaten our large magical artifacts and can break our defensive formations. We can simply avoid using our large magical artifacts against them. This time, their attack on us only targets one city, and our attack on them only targets one city. Both sides are concentrating their forces on one point, so either side can break the other's formation. Therefore, we can manage without using our large magical artifacts. As long as we don't use our large formations, their shape-shifting shields won't be very effective. After all, although their shields can shapeshift and are quite fast, they are not flexible enough, and they are too large a target. We can see them from a distance and just dodge them. To be honest, neither large magical artifacts nor those shape-shifting shields pose a significant threat to a single cultivator. Without large magical artifacts, their shape-shifting energy shields are useless against us."

General Li nodded and said in a deep voice, "That's right. Their energy shields don't really pose much of a threat to individual cultivators. So we won't need to use large magic weapons in our next attack."

Xu Zhengqing said, "I think large magical artifacts are still usable. You saw that when the enemies attacked today, they used those deformable shields, and they used them when they retreated. This way, they can take more people with them. Our large magical artifacts can also transport more people. In this way, it's possible to attack or retreat."

General Li said, "Even if a large magical artifact is used entirely to carry people, it can only hold a maximum of one million people. If we want to attack them next time, we can't just send tens of millions of people. That won't be very effective. We need to send more people, occupy a territory, and then establish an underground base to firmly control that territory. In this way, the number of people absolutely cannot be less. Tens of millions of people are not enough. We must have a sufficient number of people."

Xu Zhengqing nodded and then said, "If we calculate it this way, we really don't have enough large magical artifacts right now. If only we also had the kind of transformable shields that the enemy has. If we don't use large magical artifacts, will our speed be slower?"

Shi Yong shook his head and said, "No, we will still be very fast and even more agile. You don't know, do you? After we retreated from the enemy-occupied area, some of our people actually managed to escape back from there. They were actually the guards of a stronghold outside Qingyuan City. The enemy didn't discover them. After they informed us, they escaped back on their own. They were small in number and didn't use any large magical artifacts, so they were small targets and were not discovered by the enemy."

Xu Zhengqing and General Li were both taken aback by his words. They really didn't know about this matter. Now that they heard him say this, General Li immediately said, "Can you be sure they are alright? We can't fall into the enemy's trap."

Shi Yong said, "It's been confirmed. They are indeed safe. I had someone identify them. They were stationed in a small town outside Qingyuan City. They were the first to discover the enemy, but the enemy didn't discover them. They reported this to Elder Lü and the others, and then they fled back. However, when they got to Qingyuan City, they found that the city's protective shield had been breached. They didn't dare to return to Qingyuan City, so they tried to go directly to the base. But the base's protective shield had also been breached, and they discovered that there were enemies there. They didn't dare to return to the base either, so they fled back. I specifically asked someone who knew them to confirm their identities. They are indeed our people, not sent by the enemy."

General Li and Xu Zhengqing both breathed a sigh of relief. Then General Li said, "If that's really the case, then we really don't need to use large magical artifacts anymore. We used to use large magical artifacts because we thought the enemy didn't have anything that could directly threaten them. But now we know that the enemy has ways to threaten large magical artifacts, so we have to be careful when using them."

Shi Yong said, "Let's report this incident to higher authorities, tell them about our results, and then prepare for the attack. We should deal with those enemies as soon as possible; if we deal with them too late, I'm worried that something unexpected might happen."