This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 672, Section 671: Clearing the Way

Batch after batch of wounded demons were carried down from the front. Duke Eugene stopped his horse on a gentle slope, his gaze passing over the groaning soldiers and landing on the distant horizon where explosions still occurred from time to time.

An adjutant rode up on horseback: "Sir, the casualty statistics for the vanguard are in. Not many died, but quite a few were wounded or maimed, mostly from ambushes by those 'puji' who were feigning death. They probably wanted to..."

"They're trying to slow us down with the wounded," Eugene said, revealing his adjutant's suspicion.

Wounded soldiers require medicine and care. Whether they are transported back to the rear or carried along, they are a greater burden on the army than the death of a single soldier.

If Eugene were to order the wounded to fend for themselves, his soldiers would inevitably become fearful of battle and injury.

However, this is not a particularly innovative tactic; the Empire frequently uses similar methods when dealing with humans.

Therefore, Eugene also had his own way of dealing with it.

"Pass down the order to bring out those slaves. The vanguard will be responsible for supervising them."

……

"You, come here!"

The fierce-looking, horned overseer shoved and dragged Evan and the other slaves to the front of the army.

Although Evan was wrapped in a fairly thick coat, the wind from the North was still bitingly cold.

His body was no longer as robust as it had been when he was a soldier. After being captured, he was like a commodity, resold time and time again.

The demon merchants, mining overseers, and manor managers eventually ended up in the supply train of this northern expeditionary army.

A year of slavery had reduced his body to nothing but a skeleton, with ribs protruding and skin hanging loosely on them, like wearing an ill-fitting old garment.

Unlike the other numb and ignorant slaves, he knew what the imperial army was doing with so many slaves; he had seen it firsthand.

At that time, he was still wearing the armor of the Kingdom's army, standing behind the battlements, obeying orders from above to fire arrows at the prisoners and slaves who were pushed forward.

Those people cried out and cursed, forced forward by the swords and blades of the demons behind them, and then fell in droves beneath the city wall.

Now, it's his turn to be down there.

Each slave was given a shovel, and nothing else.

Evan took the shovel; the iron handle was scalding cold.

They were separated and assigned to different demon squads.

Evan was pushed by the shoulder by a lizardman soldier and led to a hillside riddled with potholes.

Those holes were pitch black and filled with mycelium.

"Break those holes down." The lizardman gestured with his chin toward the holes. "Fill them up."

Evan, gripping the shovel, glanced back.

Three demons stood not far behind him, their explosive crossbows always pointed at his back.

boom!
A loud explosion was heard not far away.

That was when another slave encountered the plop that emerged while filling the hole.

The demons who were supervising his work did not hesitate for a moment and used explosive crossbows to blow him and Puji up together.

"As expected..." With his guess confirmed, Evan realized that he was doomed.

Fear, humiliation, and then anger!
Why didn't I die in that war?

Since he was going to die anyway, why use his flesh and blood to pave the way for the demons he hated?
Evan gripped the shovel tightly, turned sharply, and was ready to fight.

However, seeing his reaction, the three vanguard foremen put away their crossbows. A horned demon soldier stepped forward, drew his sword, and knocked the shovel from Evan's hand. The emaciated Evan had no strength to resist and could only watch helplessly as the gloomy-looking horned demon brought down a second blow.

"What are the logistics team doing? They're cramming in this kind of untrained trash!"

"Alright, alright, the mission is important, let's hurry back and get two more to use."

No one glanced at Evan lying in the snow, even though he was still breathing.

Blood brought life out of his body, and in his last moments, Evan seemed to see his daughter walking towards him.

“By…Anka…”

The "daughter" plopped over, then stretched out her tentacles, casually poked at his exposed internal organs, stuffed them back in, sprinkled some spores on them, and then dragged him into a larger hole nearby...

When the three demons returned with two slaves, the horned demon frowned and looked around: "Strange, where are the humans?"

"He's either hiding or got snatched away by a poop," another demon guessed, seemingly unconcerned. "Never mind, after that slash, how could he possibly survive?"

“That’s true.” The horned demon nodded after hearing this, then drew his knife and menacingly threatened the two slaves to start working.

Similar scenes are happening in every corner.

After the Empire began using slaves to fill the hole, although the harassment from the puji continued, the attack methods quickly changed from self-destruction to tentacle spikes or hallucinogenic spores.

Most of the slaves who died were not killed by the Puji, but by the Demon Clan's explosive crossbows.

As for those that were injured and abandoned, they were quietly picked up by Puji.

For Lin Jun, these slaves were high-quality personnel who could be easily converted into the Fungus Castle team.

They're much easier to reform than those captured Imperial soldiers!
In Lin Jun's view, Eugene using these slaves to clean the cave was no different from paying a toll.

Since he had already paid, Lin Jun didn't bother with any more tricks for his army for the time being, and focused on recruiting people.

During this time, Bardot launched a surprise attack. While the Imperial Army was focused on the front, he led a small elite force to raid the rear of the main army, targeting the supply train.

Unfortunately, despite using various methods of concealment, they were still discovered by a demon beforehand.

In the end, they could only launch a surprise attack, causing some casualties, before retreating before being surrounded.

Bardot did not try a second time after failing the first.

Eugene is on guard now; if things go wrong, he could find himself in danger.

Bardot was brave, but not foolish.

Although frustrated that the raid had failed, he still stayed obediently in the dwarven camp, waiting for the Imperial army to arrive.

Meanwhile, in addition to filling in the caves, the Imperial army also cleared out forests of hallucinogenic mushrooms, petrifying mushrooms, and corrosive mushrooms along the way...

Because these mushroom forests were noticeably strange from a distance, they did not cause many casualties, but they did significantly slow down the Imperial army's advance.

The journey, which should have taken less than a week, took nearly half a month to reach Luohe.

The two adjutants gazed at the defensive camp on the opposite bank from afar. One of them sneered, "Do they think they can wear us down by simply dragging us along?"

His tone was full of disdain, but the reason he complained was that he was annoyed by the endless stream of mushrooms along the way.

Another adjutant exhaled with some doubt: "Hey, don't you think the weather's starting to get colder again?"

"Because it gets colder the further north you go! What, are you frozen stiff?"

"Too……"

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(End of this chapter)