The Invincible Overlord of Heroes.

The cleaning progress was slower than Xu Lai had imagined.

The demons did indeed deploy a large number of ambushes in Ashenvale, but ambushes are only effective when the enemy is unaware.

Brandi, Eric and the others were originally going to search for these ambushes.

They had anticipated the ambush and made arrangements for their soldiers, so they would not be really frightened.

Even if they were really frightened and caused chaos for a while, after all, they had such a huge advantage in numbers and attributes that there was nothing to be afraid of.

The main trouble lies in the terrain that has been modified by demons and the traps that are triggered from time to time.

The complex terrain and the lava flowing everywhere made the troops' advance extremely slow.

But fortunately, Xu Lai had intermediate path-finding skills, so the difficulties in the terrain were largely offset.

In most cases, Xu Lai's intermediate pathfinding skill is more than enough, and he has no plans to expedition to hell or go to the swamp.

If the intermediate pathfinding could be upgraded to advanced level earlier, the impact of the lava terrain on the troops could be completely eliminated.

In addition to the effects of terrain, there are also traps, both natural and set by demons.

Coupled with the occasional harassment from ambushes, the unsatisfactory advancement speed is understandable.

After all, the Qingfeng Corps is composed of new recruits and lacks experience and training.

Not to mention the Xiandeng camp, there is almost no organization or discipline, and a lot of time is needed for training in queues and other things.

The murlocs and Naga guards can be considered regular troops, but after all, they have been living in the sea for a long time and are actually very unfamiliar with land.

But at this time, Xu Lai cannot leave and must stay here.

Without him in charge, and without the defense, path-finding and resistance, he was a little worried about clearing the hillsides on both sides.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait too long. Good news came from Reina that the main force of the Qingfeng Legion had also advanced into the Pafix Plain.

If we don't count the logistics troops led by Wang Chao, it is estimated that Lena will be able to come and join him within a week.

At that time, Xu Lai would be able to leave Gray Valley to Lena, and run back to Qingfeng City to visit the pregnant woman at home.

A week later, Jian Yuan was the first to complete the cleanup task and cleared out the nine magic traps in the valley.

Soon after, the main force of the Qingfeng Legion led by Reina arrived at Little Graycastle one day later than expected and stationed outside Little Graycastle.

Originally she was supposed to arrive a day earlier, but the devil suddenly sent out a large number of winged demons to attack Wang Chao's logistics corps.

Fortunately, Lena did not abandon the logistics troops and always kept the logistics corps within her attack range.

She asked Yan Feng to lead the archers to intercept, while she would lead the main force to provide support.

The combat effectiveness of the Winged Demons is actually not very high. Wang Chao and his logistics team, who have followed Lena and Xu Lai in their battles, are already at a high level.

If this force were placed in other places, it would already be considered a main force.

However, they were mainly responsible for transportation and were not wearing any weapons or equipment, so they suffered some damage in the hasty attack.

Including Rena's sieges in other places, because of the tight time and heavy tasks, injuries and sacrifices are inevitable.

Originally, Xu Lai planned to leave after Lena arrived.

But the Qingfeng Legion has been fighting for so long, and Lena's side is not as relaxed as Xu Lai's.

The Qingfeng Corps is mainly composed of infantry. Although it has fleet support to help with transportation, the logistical supplies cannot be provided directly by Qingfeng City.

Basically, Reina and the Qingfeng Legion have not stopped running for even a single day in the past two months, and there was even a record of fighting two battles in one day.

It is neither moral nor reasonable for Xu Lai to just sit back and do nothing at this time.

He first ordered the entire Qingfeng Legion to rest for three days, and then gave the room he had cleaned himself in Little Gray Castle to Lena.

Elvy, Yu Lan, and even Anna were all sent out by him.

It was impossible to bring servants with him when he went out to fight, so the only person he could order around was Roland.

Since he had nothing to do anyway, Xu Lai took matters into his own hands and cleaned up a few rooms.

These rooms have been inhabited by demons, and if they are not cleaned up properly, they will be uninhabitable.

Although Lena knew that Xu Lai was trying to curry favor with her, there was nothing she could do as she really fell for it.

She had been imprisoned by Moril for decades, but the elves only conducted a large-scale search for her at the beginning, and then there was no news of her.

But when she came to Xu, she was treated with great courtesy and trust from the moment she came out to pledge her allegiance.

Xu Lai could easily hand over the ultimate treasure to a stranger he had just met.

And he handed over all his main army troops to her without saying a word.

Moreover, except for strategic needs, Xu Lai never interfered with her control over the Qingfeng Legion.

Although the elves do not believe in dying for their friends, as for Xu Lai, Lena really doesn't know how to repay him except working for him with her life.

In addition to giving the best room to Lena, Xu Lai also took Roland and others, carrying the wine and meat prepared in Qingfeng City, and personally went to the army to entertain the troops.

Xu Lai had issued large-scale bounties several times.

These soldiers have also eaten the priceless dragon meat, and their wives and children at home are also well taken care of.

Therefore, although they had been running around and fighting for more than a month, no one complained after seeing Xu Lai.

Xu Lai shook the soldiers' hands warmly, handed them a bowl of wine, and whispered, "Thank you for your hard work."

No matter how tough and strong the old soldier is, who shed blood but not tears, he has to look up at the sky with sobs.

Xu Lai knew that he was putting on a show, and even the soldiers knew it.

But knowing this is one thing, the empire has ruled for nearly a thousand years, but have you ever seen a king fight with his soldiers or toast to ordinary soldiers?
Not to mention the king, even the nobles in the territory have always looked down on them from a high position.

If Xu Lai was willing to humble himself and not look down on them, they would be willing to work for him.

The morale that had been lost due to days of hard work was gradually improved by Xu Lai's cries of hard work, until it was restored to full value again, or even exceeded.

It took Xu Lai three full days to entertain the troops.

During these three days, Brandi, Eric and their team were unable to completely clear the hillsides on both sides.

After all, the Valley of Gray stretches for thousands of miles, and is bordered by countless towering mountains. It would take several years to clear every inch of the hillside.

However, they have cleared a safe passage that leads directly to Graycastle.

That's enough.

Xu Lai originally wanted to leave the task of attacking Graycastle to Lena, and let her and the Qingfeng Legion rest for two days before setting off.

But just when Xu Lai was gathering his strength and planning to fly back after filling up his stamina bar, Crimson Bishop Dur sent the latest battle report from Lionheart City.

Lionheart City was under siege for several months. Kerrigan fought in Lionheart City for as long as Xu Lai had fought in the Western Empire.

Thanks to the hell demons constantly summoned by the Gate of Hell, all of Lionheart City's catapult ammunition and archers' arrows were almost used up.

Although the food reserves were sufficient, they had run out of ammunition a week ago, and could only allow the demons to bombard Lionheart City. The commander of Lionheart City at the time, Duke Luisin, was unwilling to sit and wait for death, so he led the most elite Royal Knights of the Imperial Capital to charge at the demons.

Specific battles and detailed battle reports cannot be transmitted through magic communications.

Anyway, the result Xu Lai got was that the entire Royal Knights, more than 5 serious 6th-level knights, plus 5000 7th-level grand knights, brave knights, and Commander Luisin, were all wiped out in one battle.

By the next day, the walls of Lionheart City were completely lost.

Hundreds of advanced arrow towers, spell towers, and turrets were all flattened.

Under the cover of the Angel Legion, some nobles and troops retreated into the City of Holy Angels, a city within a city.

Although the City of Holy Angels is known as a city within a city, it is not a real city after all.

Successive emperors could tolerate the construction of city walls in the City of Holy Angel, but could not tolerate the construction of advanced arrow towers. At most, there were only some watchtowers.

Fortunately, the priests had a strong inhibitory effect on demons, and coupled with the desperate charge of Luwasen and the Royal Knights, the demons suffered considerable losses.

For the time being, Kerrigan did not launch a full-scale attack on the City of Holy Angels, but instead led the demons himself to attack the palace of the High King Aled.

Dur told Xu Lai that once Kerrigan completely captured Lionheart City, he would find the heart of the castle.

With a population of millions in Lionheart City, it can be completely transformed into a demon city in three to five days at most.

At that time, by building a castle gate, the demon army will be able to flow back and forth between large hell cities such as Lionheart City and Briston at any time.

There is no doubt that if Xu Lai failed to capture Briston before that, he would most likely face Kerrigan head-on.

In the unexpected decisive battle, Xu Lai certainly couldn't leave it entirely to Reina.

Before attacking Briston, they still had to overcome the difficult hurdle of Graycastle.

Kerrigan has already breached Lionheart City, and it is only a matter of time before he captures the Imperial Palace and Holy Angel City.

And even if Kerrigan cannot take over Holy Angel City for the time being, it is not difficult to take over Lionheart City.

Because no king would bury the vital heart of the castle in someone else's home.

The reason why Kerrigan was in a hurry to attack the palace was probably because he thought that the heart of the Lionheart Castle was buried under the palace.

With the number of demons, it wouldn't take long at all to capture the palace and dig deep into the ground.

In other words, Xu Lai doesn't have much time left unless he gives up the Western Empire.

Xu Lai couldn’t guess in which direction Kerrigan would expand after taking over Lionheart City.

Theoretically, it is more profitable to go to the Northern Empire, as there are not many people left in the Western Empire.

The problem is that Xu Lai has such a big grudge with others, it is impossible to expect others not to retaliate.

Since we have to face it sooner or later, we must seize the advantage and occupy a favorable position.

Regardless of other things, even if there is no time to capture Briston for the time being, we must control the Grey Valley and attack Briston's bridgehead.

At that moment, Xu Lai did not dare to let the Qingfeng Corps rest any longer, but directly ordered the two Qingfeng Corps to return to their positions and handed them over to Lena's command.

Looking at the maps of Grayvale and Graycastle drawn by Jian Yuan, Brandi and others, the terrain on the left side of Grayvale is relatively flat, where a larger army can be deployed.

Therefore, the left side of Gray Valley was handed over to Reina and the Qingfeng Legion, who would become the main attacking force in this battle.

At the same time, Anna will lead all the priests and priests to support the Qingfeng Legion.

The hillside on the right side of Grayvale is high and steep, and directly borders the wall of Graycastle.

Xu Lai handed this part over to Eric and Emilia to create opportunities for the feint attack troops and the main attacking Qingfeng Legion.

Xu Lai led the knight corps and the logistics trebuchet unit to launch an attack from the front, which was also a feint attack unit.

He no longer expected to be able to rely on the catapult to slowly blast open Graycastle.

If time is of the essence, we have no choice but to give it a try and no longer worry about casualties, except for the Angel Legion.

With two assistants and one main player, the pressure Reina is under is extremely great.

However, she just glanced at Xu Lai indifferently and firmly accepted the task.

After taking over Great Gray Castle, Xu Lai and his men will be able to go straight to the heart of the matter and attack Briston, the lair of Cregan.

As long as they could surround Briston faster than Kerrigan expected.

Then, even if Kerrigan also possessed the time-space gate, he still could not return.

At that time, Kerrigan would have no choice but to rush to the rescue with his troops.

Whether Xu Lai wanted to capture Briston, completely destroy the Gate of the Abyss, and cut off the devil's reinforcements.

Whether to surround the point and attack the reinforcements, or set up an ambush to destroy Kerrigan's main force, it will be decided by Xu Lai himself.

The initiative of the war returned to Xu Lai's hands.

Even if all else fails, he can still retreat to Graycastle, so he is not completely without a way out.

Naturally, the big moves of the human army cannot be hidden from the eyes of the devil.

Although Brandy and his team cleaned up several times, it was still impossible for them to leave nothing behind.

Lena led the Qingfeng Legion, a force of more than 100,000 mid- and high-level troops, and hurried towards Graycastle.

There is no need to guess. Any demon with eyesight knows what this army is going to do.

But after learning the number of human troops, the garrison heroes of Graycastle did not panic.

He knew the terrain of Graycastle very well. No matter how many human troops there were, they would not be able to deploy.

And although he is not as good as Ferris in city defense, he also possesses the ultimate ballistics.

In his hands, the defense equipment of Graycastle could exert many times its power.

The hillsides on both sides were difficult to walk on, and there was lava everywhere. Even with Xu Lai's super speed talent, the speed was still slow.

On the contrary, Xu Lai and his group, who were walking through the valley, were the first to arrive at the gate of Graycastle even though they were dragging heavy catapults.

Xu Lai still didn't understand much after listening to his subordinates' reports.

It was not until he saw with his own eyes this huge structure that was more than 20 meters high that he couldn't help but feel a little despair.

With a whoosh, a huge crossbow arrow suddenly shot out from the city wall and headed straight towards Xu Lai.

Xu Lai frowned. At this range, even with the help of ballistics, the power would not be very great.

Sure enough, Roland just lightly knocked the terrifying crossbow arrow with his arm shield, and it was knocked away.

However, this crossbow arrow was not originally intended to kill Xu Lai, but to strike a blow to the morale of the human troops.

The ultimate in ballistics, plus the only magical crossbow enchanted with super long range.

In addition, the towering walls built by human craftsmen over several years were able to give Xu Lai a wake-up call within the terrifying range of several kilometers away. (End of this chapter)