Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 1709 Follow-up Plan
Given the situation of the snake people, they cannot be treated as ordinary primitive tribes when fighting them.

The opponent is simply lacking in development capabilities; their combat strength is by no means inferior.

These two low-level snake people, if physically combined, could fight against elite human soldiers.

Following this line of thought, an entire snake-people race is basically equivalent to a fully elite-level combat force.

Given this premise, high-end combat capabilities are certainly indispensable.

The snake people simply lack understanding of realms, but that doesn't mean they lack the combat power of that realm.

Jie Liancheng blindly guessed that the opponent must have combat power at the Vajra Realm level.

During this time, Zhou Chongshan was more concerned about the giant snake-shaped supernatural creature.

Any creature, once it grows to gigantic size, will pose a significantly increased threat to troops and buildings. As the commander of the Trapped Camp, Zhou Chongshan was also frowning deeply at this moment.

Seeing this, Shi Lei gave the two a moment to process their thoughts before continuing...

"What we can confirm now is that the stronghold where these two snake people are located is about two days' journey from the place where you were ambushed."

"However, those two snake people can't clearly explain the exact location of their stronghold just by talking, but it would be quite risky to let them lead the way."

Hearing Shi Lei's words, Xie Liancheng and Zhou Chongshan expressed their agreement.

Carrying out a mission in the desert is difficult enough, but having to take on two snake-people prisoners who could cause trouble at any time, or even set traps for them?
Just thinking about it gave Jie Liancheng and Zhou Chongshan a headache.

"If we transform those two snake-men into undead, can they lead the way?"

Zhou Chongshan put forward his own ideas.

Now that Shi Lei is a mage at the Transcendent Realm, converting an undead is a piece of cake for him. But precisely because of this, he is well aware of the problems with this method and has given a direct conclusion.

"I'm afraid not."

As Shi Lei spoke, he held up two fingers.

"First, low-level undead, after being converted, although they have some instinctive reactions, their consciousness is basically chaotic and confused, and some may even fall into confusion. At the same time, they do not have normal communication ability. If you ask them to lead the way, they may not be able to do so."

"Secondly, during the mission, he will consume necromantic energy. If the necromantic energy is exhausted and they have nowhere to replenish it, they will turn back into a pile of bones. At that time, their souls will dissipate in less than seven days."

"Of course, you can try it if you want."

As he spoke, Shi Lei gestured directly to the personal guard beside him.

"Go and deal with a snake-man, in preparation for converting him into an undead."

After saying that, he turned to look at Xie Liancheng and Zhou Chongshan.

"We don't need to convert both of them. One is enough to get results. Keeping one alive will allow us to collect snake venom regularly, which will benefit the medical team's research."

The staff were very efficient; one of the snake-men was quickly killed and reduced to skeletons.

Shi Lei raised his hand and activated the incantation...

[Skeleton soldiers revive!]

In an instant, as the power of the mantra spread, green ghost fire surged within the snake-man's skeleton, transforming the snake-man before them into an undead.

"Go to your stronghold."

Shi Lei issued his orders as concisely as possible, but the skeletal snake-man stood frozen in place, almost dumbfounded. Shi Lei had clearly anticipated this outcome, and he shrugged at Xie Liancheng and Zhou Chongshan, indicating that this was the reality.

"If this snake-person possessed the strength of the Hundred Refinements Realm before death, then after being transformed into an undead, its consciousness would still be relatively clear."

"If that doesn't work, we can directly infuse magic power to bring his strength back to the Hundred Refinements Realm in a short time. In that case, his consciousness will be clear, and ordinary people will have no chance against him."

The situation is the same in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Soldiers who did not have any cultivation level enhancement in life are transformed into the Undead after death. They can only hope that they will live up to expectations after becoming Undead and eventually break through to the Hundred Refinements Realm, at which point they will regain clear consciousness.

As he spoke, Shi Lei gave some simple commands to the skeleton snake-man...

"Move forward."

This time, the skeletal snake-man understood and began to twist its skeletal body, moving forward with a 'crackling' sound.

Since he was already there, Shi Lei took the opportunity to conduct some simple tests on the skeleton snake-man.

The snake-man's long snake tail was incredibly agile when he was alive; his agility and speed could even be considered an advantage.

Now that he's dead and turned into a skeleton, his agility is clearly greatly reduced, and the snake tail with its skeletal structure has even become a hindrance to the naked eye.

Although both are skeleton units, the undead, who move on two legs, are clearly much more agile than these skeleton snakemen.

Shi Lei then issued some simple instructions to test it, and finally it was basically determined that the snake people were not suitable to be converted into skeleton units.

While all creatures can theoretically be converted into skeleton units, not every creature works well after conversion.

The most typical example within their Great Zhou is that the giant eagles and pterosaurs, after being transformed into skeleton units, instantly became mere ground chickens.

In some ways, they wouldn't even be right to call them free-range chickens. After being transformed into skeleton units, they completely lost their balance. With only their thin legs, they could only crawl on the ground with difficulty. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were useless.

Although the skeleton snake-man in front of us hasn't reached that level yet, it still has some actual combat power. But everything has to be considered in terms of cost-effectiveness, and this skeleton snake-man is clearly not cost-effective.

The test didn't take long. As a skeleton mage, Shi Lei was quite experienced and quickly figured out the problem. There wasn't much else to investigate.

The topic then returned to the subsequent actions.

"According to intelligence, the snake people's stronghold is only two days away from us. With the giant eagle knights cooperating with us, we should be able to find it soon."

Without the snake-man to guide him, finding the way on his own would only take a little more time, so Zhou Chongshan's attention quickly shifted to this.

Shi Lei, however, had much more to think about.

"The problem now is that taking over that outpost might be a problem for us."

As they spoke, Shi Lei went on to explain further…

"That outpost is in the desert, surrounded by sand, so it's not easy for us to provide support from the rear."

"The snake people know the location of that stronghold. If we occupy that stronghold, it's the same as completely exposing ourselves to the snake people's sight. At that time, the enemy will be in the dark while we are in the light, and our situation may be a bit dangerous."

Upon hearing this, even Xie Liancheng, a pure warrior who rarely led troops, realized what was happening.

That's not as simple as just being a little dangerous.

In the worst-case scenario, they might be besieged by an entire army of snake people!

(End of this chapter)