The Monster is Coming

Chapter 471 The Night Before Dawn
The blood of the Fierce Claw seeped into the cracks of the bricks in the New Star Valley Square, solidifying into a mark of revenge imprinted on the hearts of the Rongling tribe.

Broken Tooth, the Bone Clan's overseer, was very satisfied with the effect of this "sacrifice." In its eyes, the Rongling Clan members had become visibly "docile."

Open anger and resistance disappeared, replaced by a deathly silence of numb obedience.

Soon, the new shackles fell completely.

The Code of Laws promulgated by Shattered Teeth was inscribed on a black stone tablet in the center of the square:
1. All war-grade weapons must be surrendered.

Second, the Riftbone Clan has absolute control over all resources, technology, and population of the Velvet Spirit Clan.

Third, the Rongling people must unconditionally obey conscription and complete the assigned labor and production tasks.

IV. All forms of gatherings are prohibited, and a system of collective punishment will be implemented...

In the days that followed, the steel jungle of New Star Valley was no longer filled with the resounding footsteps of the Thunder Armor Legion's patrols. Instead, the footsteps and whipping sounds of the Lizardman guards of the Bonebreaker Clan were heard.

The energy orbit network is still operating, but it is no longer full of free citizens; instead, it is filled with truckloads of young and strong Rongling people who have been conscripted.

They were silently transported to various mines, front-line fortifications, and even remote oversight posts inhabited by other slave groups, all controlled by the Bonebreaker Clan.

The continuous "bloodletting" is a deliberate strategy employed by the Bone Splitter Clan to disrupt the formation of an organized resistance force within the Flesh Spirit Clan.

Countless families were forced to separate, their futures uncertain.

But as Tu Hu had predicted, the Riftbone Clan gradually began to rely on the Velvet Spirit Clan during this period.

Over the years, the Rongling tribe has achieved a series of astonishing results, allowing the Liegu tribe, who revere strength, to witness for the first time the earth-shattering changes that "creative research and development capabilities" can bring.

The previous Bonebreaker frontline legion relied on shouts and bone whistles for communication, but under the leadership of the fourth-generation leader Jing Si and his team, a set of bone rune communicators based on "spiritual communication technology" was distributed to the Bonebreaker management.

During this period, the communications team also built a massive information relay base station for the Bone Splitter Clan.

The ability to transmit orders over short distances instantly has greatly increased the efficiency of the "pilot legions" in their operations, resulting in a significant decrease in casualties.

The power structure of the Bone Split Clan then realized that war could be fought so effortlessly.

Immediately afterwards, faced with mountains of spoils and plundered resources, the Qiming team "voluntarily" submitted a resource transportation plan.

They used energy orbit technology to connect resource points, frontline fortresses, and Bonebreaker territories in several key occupied areas.

The transportation journey, which used to take months and relied on slave pack animals, has been shortened to a few days.

The continuous flow of supplies to the war machine was delivered with unprecedented efficiency, making the conquest of the Bonebreakers even more efficient.

Over the years, the value of the Rongling tribe in the eyes of the Liegu tribe exceeded the total value of all other slaves.

But the importance of the Rongling tribe has only just begun to emerge.

As the Bone Clan's dependence on the Velvet Spirit Clan grew, the Tiger Slaughter's plan was also unfolding.

Understanding the enemy's war potential is the first step to revenge.

To achieve this, it is necessary to fully integrate into the Bonebreaker Clan's war system.

The heavy responsibility of carrying out this crucial task fell on "Iron Heart's" shoulders.

He was the fourth generation in Tu Hu's eyes, born during the most prosperous period of the Rongling tribe, but forced to grow up in the darkest and most humiliating years.

The trajectory of life, from the very beginning, is permeated with the hopes and shadows of the entire ethnic group.

In order to integrate into the Bone Splitter Clan's war system, the "Equipment Department" it led proposed a weapons and equipment modification project.

Before this, the equipment of the Bonebreaker warriors was rudimentary.

The bone armor on his body was taken from hunted wild beasts and was enhanced for defense through rough polishing.

The weapons were mostly maces inlaid with sharp animal teeth, or bone blades modified from the natural shape of the huge bones of certain creatures.

All defensive and offensive methods rely almost entirely on an individual's innate physical strength and combat skills honed through countless battles.

Ironheart's choice was to "tailor-make" a set of standard weapons for the Bone Splitter Clan.

The plan was submitted to Tu Hu and Jing Si and approved.

Tu Hu only gave one sentence:

"Let them get used to the better until they can't leave."

The Iron Heart team started by working on the materials.

They conducted a detailed analysis of the body structure of the Bonebreaker warriors, their methods of exerting force during combat, and the trajectory of their energy (bloodlust).

Then, they requested the overseer, Broken Tooth, to allocate a batch of resources for the research and development of weapons and equipment.

The application was approved quickly.

The first step for the Iron Heart team is "forging armor from bones".

In the New Star Valley, a "bone furnace" was built, using an energy field to fuse the bones of powerful wild beasts with specific metallic minerals into a brand-new bone alloy.

This material retains the natural affinity of bones for the bloodthirsty energy of the Bone-Splitting Clan, while also possessing the malleability of metal.

Based on this, they designed the "Ferocious Beast" series of standard bone armor.

The armor's structure was optimized based on the limbs, with key areas using a multi-layered composite structure, making it lighter while increasing its defensive capabilities several times over.

The interior is also etched with energy-guiding patterns, which can passively guide the wearer's blood energy to cover the whole body, forming an invisible energy buffer layer.

The second step is to refine evil into a blade.

The Ironheart team believes that the Bone Clan warriors' crude infusion of bloodthirsty energy into their primitive bone blades was inefficient and prone to damaging the weapons.

They designed the hollow "Bloodthirsty Blade" series of weapons.

Its internal cavity structure allows the Bonebreaker warriors to naturally generate suction when wielding it, guiding the bloodthirsty energy to converge more efficiently at the blade's edge, greatly enhancing its destructive power, and also triggering a small-scale energy impact when it hits a target.

The grip of the handle is meticulously designed, far superior to that of a bone blade.

When the first batch of ferocious beast bone armor and bloodthirsty blades were issued to Shattered Fang's guards for testing, the warriors wearing the new armor easily crushed their colleagues wearing the old bone armor during the drills. The captain, wielding the bloodthirsty blade, shattered the Black Dragon Stone, which used to require several slashes to break, with a single strike, and the crimson energy swirling on the blade lingered for a long time.

Seeing the visibly increasing combat power of his warriors, Broken Fang was shocked and decisively reported the news.

The high command of the Bone Splitter was shocked upon learning the news.

An order came: Full production, prioritize equipping the main force.

From then on, the name "Iron Heart" of the Rongling tribe was mentioned more and more frequently in the Liegu tribe army.

The warriors of the Bone Clan began to yearn for a set of "Beast" armor or a "Bloodthirsty" blade.

They still regard the Rongling people as lowly slaves, but they have to admit that only these slaves can make them stronger.

But what the Bone Splitters didn't know was that this was also a shackle imposed on them by the Tiger Slayer.

It's hard to go from extravagance to frugality; the Bone-Splitting Clan doesn't understand, but Tiger-Slaying does.

When the Rongling Clan fully integrated into the Liegu Clan's war system, this shackle had already quietly closed.

While the Bone Clan was obsessed with war equipment, Ironheart's team quietly recorded data such as the number of pieces of equipment forged and distributed.

This data will help the Rongling Clan to outline the detailed war power of the Liegu Clan.

For every perfect weapon that Tie Xin crafts for the enemy, he also creates a manual outlining how to disassemble and destroy it in the future.

Time flies, and ten years have passed quietly.

The Rongling tribe has permeated every gear of the Liegu tribe's war system like flowing water.

It became an indispensable propellant for this massive machine of conquest.

Their status has undergone a substantial change.

Although they were still slaves in name only, they began to be treated as equals with ordinary Bonebreaker warriors.

The warriors of the Riftbone Clan may still harbor contempt for the weak, but they will still feel awe when faced with the artisans and scholars of the Velvet Spirit Clan who can boost their combat power.

Tie Xin himself became a special existence in the eyes of the Riftbone Clan.

It can even bring assistants and freely enter and exit many military strongholds to conduct on-site inspections of equipment usage and communicate directly with the management of the Bonebreaker Clan's legion.

The fierce Bonebreaker warriors will demonstrate weapon-wielding techniques to Ironheart and offer suggestions for improvement.

Tie Xin will silently record this information.

Under this "intimate" cooperation, the Bone Splitter's war power was no secret to the Velvet Spirit Clan. Ironheart's equipment department, through the production quotas, legions allocated to bone armor and bloodthirsty blades, and the frequency of replenishment, accurately outlined the number of the Bone Splitter's main legions and the patterns of their deployment rotations. They could even clearly know which legions would be deployed for war in the near future.

The communications network department controlled by Qiming has mastered the neural network of the Riftbond Empire.

Information relay nodes are scattered throughout the territory of the Bone Splitter Clan, and the flow of each command reveals troop movements, logistical supply lines, and shifts in strategic priorities.

They can even deduce the direction of each action by analyzing changes in communication traffic.

Secondly, there is the resource dispatch center, which monitors which resources are prioritized for delivery to which war zone, and in what quantities. Combining this with equipment allocation and communication information, it then reverse-engineers the intensity of the fighting in that war zone and the pace of the next offensive.

All the fragmented information eventually converged in Tu Hu's hands and was recorded in the Dream Weaver Crystal.

Inside the illusionary space, a huge sand table is operating in real time.

The map clearly shows the territory, troop distribution, resource flow, and communication lines of the Bone Splitter Clan... The level of detail even exceeds the knowledge of the Bone Splitter Clan's high command.

In Tu Hu's eyes, the Bone Clan was completely transparent.

In addition, whenever the Bone Clan conquers a new territory and discovers an unknown resource, their first reaction is to send samples to New Star Valley as quickly as possible to analyze the resource's characteristics and hopefully transform it into a weapon of war.

This dependence gave the Rongling people a great deal of "freedom to play their part".

Over the course of more than a decade, the Rongling people came into contact with a vast amount of unique materials and energy technologies far exceeding what they had mastered before their enslavement. As a result, their overall technological level underwent an explosive leap, reaching a new level.

But technological leaps are only one blade of the sword of revenge.

Tu Hu always understood that before launching a counterattack, the scattered forces must first be unified.

The biggest obstacle right now is the Bone Splitter's continuous "dispersal" strategy.

New Star Valley is like a tree whose branches and leaves are constantly being pruned. Although the trunk is still there, the most important vitality has been conscripted and dispersed to various mines, the front lines, and even to other slave groups to serve as supervisors. They are like kites with broken strings, making it difficult to connect and organize.

They bear the most direct oppression and are the group with the most intense resistance and anger, yet they can only bury their hatred deep because they are isolated and helpless.

Communication and organization are major hurdles on the path to revenge.

The answer ultimately pointed to a technology in the Dreamweaver knowledge base: Lingxi Crystal Core.

This is a miniature crystal that needs to be implanted into the body of a living being; it is essentially a more advanced form of "spiritual communication".

Once implanted, it can establish a connection with nearby signal towers at any time and is powered by the organism itself, eliminating the need for disassembly and recharging.

But before putting this technology into practice, Tu Hu made a request to Qiming's team:
“We need absolute security. I have faith in my people, but the Bonebreakers may possess interrogation techniques we are unaware of. If someone leaks the existence of the Dark Web… we can’t afford to gamble.”

Having understood Tu Hu's intentions, Qi Ming chose to implant a miniature bomb inside the Lingxi Crystal.

The Spirit Crystal is crafted into a special device capable of eavesdropping on the conversations of its implant recipients. If any betrayal is discovered among the implanted clansmen, or any behavior that may expose the dark web, it will be detonated and executed.

In order to ensure the survival of their people, they had no choice but to turn their hidden weapons against their own kin.

Following this, the development plan was launched.

The core material used is described in the resource requirements list provided to the Bonebreaker Clan as: energy-conducting material, used to upgrade the transmission efficiency of the next generation of communication nodes.

The Bone Clan members who received this list had no understanding of technology or whether there were any problems with the materials.

The Bone Clan, having already developed this habit, decisively sourced materials from various locations according to their needs.

During mass production, Qiming's team used the Dreamweaver Crystal's spiritual imprinting technology to encapsulate the crystal, ensuring that the internal communication logic could not be cracked by the Riftbone Clan or their slaves.

Batch after batch of Lingxi Crystal Cores, disguised as "new type of communication node enhancement components," were secretly delivered to clansmen scattered across various regions through the material channels controlled by Tie Xin, mixed into equipment boxes transported to different places.

Once the recipient of the crystal core follows the instructions, the implantation can be completed quickly.

The entire process was completely silent.

Over the years, the dark web has come to life.

It became an invisible communication bridge among the Rongling tribe. Each region was divided into different groups on the dark web, and all Rongling tribe members could communicate through the dark web to learn about the situation in each region.

During this period, a new building was added to Xinxing Valley.

To the Bone Splitters, this building was designed to monitor the status of communication networks in various locations. It had numerous green dots on it, each seemingly representing a normally functioning communication node.

In reality, each green dot represents a member of the Rongling tribe who has accessed the dark web.

When uncontrollable situations such as betrayal occur in the monitoring center, the red marker representing "cleanup" will light up, and then the Spirit Crystal will detonate.

During this period, Tu Hu frequently switched between channels in different regions to listen.

He heard the young Rongling, who had been exiled to the "Blackstone Mine," reporting on the number of Bonebreaker warriors in his area and the local way of life in a suppressed excited voice over the channel.

They heard from their tribesmen, who were far away at the front lines in charge of maintaining the project, that a new legion of the Bone Clan had arrived and was roughly the size of it.

Aside from the groundwork laid before the counterattack, there were occasional moments of warmth.

In a channel designated as the "Gray Rock Hills Surveillance Station," Tu Hu heard a slightly immature voice cautiously tagging members of his tribe in the New Star Valley region:
“Brother Yan, are you still in Residential Area No. 3? Could you... take some time to go and see my mom for me? She has trouble walking and lives in an old building east of Blue Star Plaza... Tell her I'm doing well here, my work isn't too heavy, and she shouldn't worry.”

The channel was silent for a moment, then a voice responded:
"Okay, I'll go around it when I patrol tomorrow, and I'll let you know I'm safe then."

Some clansmen who miss their hometown asked in the channel if the berry orchard in Xinxing Valley still exists, as it was where they used to live.

After receiving affirmative answers from other members of the tribe, the longing emotions conveyed in the fluctuations of consciousness became clearly discernible.

Tu Hu would occasionally hear young Rong Ling exchanging information about berry seeds from various places on some small channels, discussing where to open a new experimental field after returning home... This tenacious vitality that still shone brightly in the face of hardship moved Tu Hu more than any war preparedness intelligence.

As the dark web continues to expand.

Hope, wisdom, resilience, the suppressed spirit of life and blood ties... are quietly transmitted in this invisible network.

Every request and response on the dark web is a glimmer of light that sustains the Rongling tribe as they continue to move forward in their desperate situation.

Secondly, inspired by the knowledge of Dreamweaver, the team led by Jing Si, combined with existing materials, completed a more covert strategic deployment.

The Bonebreakers pursue ultimate individual power and are eager to use any potion that can temporarily stimulate their potential.

Jing Si's team capitalized on this and launched several war drugs.

The most revered item among the Bonebreakers is a red potion called "Blood Rage Preparation".

It can significantly enhance a user's strength, speed, and pain tolerance in a short period of time, with the side effect being a brief period of mania and weakness.

The Bonebreaker warriors were completely unsuspecting, and drinking "Blood Rage Potion" quickly became a habit for many elite warriors during important battles or life-or-death struggles.

Behind this gift of power, Tu Hu carefully weighed the pros and cons.

It's not that they lack the ability to develop slow-acting poisons; it's just that the accumulation of slow-acting poisons will eventually lead to an explosion.

This was like an invisible countdown, forcing them to hastily launch a counterattack before the full effects of the medicine took hold and the Bone Clan suffered mass casualties.

I set a specific time for my counterattack.

Doing so is too risky.

Their choice was to incorporate an inert substance into the potion, so that a portion would remain in the bodies of the Bonebreaker warriors after each use.

This inert substance has no effect on the Bonebreaker warriors and is very well concealed.

When the final counterattack arrives, a specific "neutralizing agent" will be diffused through the air or water to become the spark that ignites the fuse.

At that time, the Bonebreaker warriors who come into contact with the neutralizing agent will be instantly activated, ignited from within by their own power.

Secondly, there are also weapon curses, environmental corruption, mount betrayal, and other hidden storylines that unfold simultaneously.

During this period, every conquest and plunder by the Riftbone Clan fueled the Flame Spirit Clan's flames of revenge.

When "Beast Armor" becomes standard equipment for the legion, and "Blood Rage Preparation" becomes a pre-battle ritual... the Bone Clan could never have imagined that these very weapons that made them invincible were becoming the noose tightening around their own necks.

Nourished by the enemy's greed, the Rongling tribe's sharpness was honed in the shadows and became even more formidable.

In Tu Hu's eyes, the path to victory in this revenge battle was already clear.

What we need to do now is to continue sharpening our blades in the darkness before dawn.

Patience is key; only when the bowstring is fully drawn can the sharp blade be forged.

May the Bonebreaker Clan meet their demise with the power they rely on most.

The Rongling Clan will also usher in a glorious revival at that moment, stepping over the corpses of the Liegu Clan, surpassing its former peak, and standing at a new historical height.

(End of this chapter)