Green Monster Epic

"Your Excellency, I believe the most urgent task for our Allied Forces right now is to sweep the grasslands and clean up the scattered demon forces wandering there, to prevent them from causing further chaos."

"The grasslands can no longer withstand such turmoil!!"

Ahmad, the centaur general with snow-white and radiant skin, along with Besilam, the treant, Nordin, and a group of other legendary powerhouses, were seated around a large felt tent. These dozens of figures represented dozens of powerful individuals, gathering the backbone of several major forces in the Mansa Wilderness.

Ahmad earnestly advised everyone, trying to steer the Allied Forces' actions in a direction beneficial to the grasslands.

The three major royal clans of the grasslands had already been scarred and battered after 5-6 years of infighting, and they desperately needed a period of rest and recuperation to slowly recover. However, judging from the actions of the Wilderness Allied Forces, they did not seem to intend to stop at the border of the grasslands, but rather wanted to continue south in one fell swoop to wipe out the main force of demons or devils.

This was an outcome that the centaur warriors of the grasslands did not want to see, no matter what, even though the warriors of the Wilderness Allied Forces had just helped the centaurs defeat the demon army.

If the Wilderness Allied Forces marched south, then as a member of the Wilderness Alliance, the centaur warriors would inevitably have to send an army to follow, as this would be the politically correct choice and the price they had to pay. Moreover, as the wilderness territory closest to the Hillen Continent, the logistical support after the Allied Forces marched south would inevitably be taken over by the centaur clansmen, since they were right next to the front lines!

"Demons and devils are indeed the enemies of our Ferman World, but their main target now is not our wilderness. Which of the human nations and the Beastman Empire is not stronger than our wilderness? Why should we join in this excitement!!"

On the other side, the kobold legendary sorcerer Corantin spoke from the sidelines, helping Ahmad. As a member of the hawkish faction in the wilderness who hated the surrounding civilized forces, he was naturally overjoyed at the current situation.

"Everyone saw what happened to the Spring Country before. The Allied Forces of the human nations stationed a million troops in the Lionheart Kingdom, but they did not send troops to rescue them, ultimately leading to the fall and destruction of the Principality of the Spring Goddess's followers, who were close to the Temple of Nature!!"

"Humans treat their compatriots like this. Who can guarantee that if we send troops to help them, they won't turn around and suddenly attack our wilderness!!"

"For tens of thousands of years, humans have never given up their covetousness and invasion of the Centaur Grasslands!!"

"Everyone, am I right???"

Sparse responses rang out. The hawkish faction members in the felt tent and the representatives of the centaur tribes agreed with this view, but the true leader of the wilderness has never been the Skycat, but the Temple of Nature, which has always been hidden in the dark.

Now, the avatar of the Father of the Oak, the core deity of the Temple of Nature, has appeared on the grasslands, which shows how important this invasion of demons and devils is to the Temple of Nature.

For countless years, the Temple of Nature has held a transcendent position in the wilderness, rarely stating its position, allowing the wilderness races to speak out in the pursuit of interests. However, when it comes to the ideological disputes of the Temple of Nature, they can still quickly control the situation, such as the Wilderness Allied Forces' rapid support for the grasslands after the invasion of the devil legions.

Based on their own interests, the centaur race did not want to fight anymore, while the hawkish faction in the wilderness wanted to kick them when they were down and watch the human kingdoms be ravaged by devils. Although the angles were different, the attitudes they showed were similar.

"The devils sent Duke Moloch, the former commander of the Sixth Layer of Hell, to expedition the Ferman World, which means that they will have other legions invading, and even a duke with real power may come. If it really floods over, our wilderness may not have the foundation of the human nations."

"If the devil legions turn their spears and point their weapons at our wilderness, how confident do you think we can be to resist their attacks?"

The demigod Besilam was a seed grown from the main body of the Father of the Oak. When it sprouted, grew, and possessed sentience, it voluntarily gave up its independent personality and became an avatar of the Father of the Oak, possessing the ability to communicate with the Oak God Kingdom at any time and guide the will of Silvanus to descend upon the Ferman World.

Therefore, when Besilam spoke, everyone's voices quieted down, and they listened attentively to his words.

"We once used divination magic to find the right path for the wilderness, but the future is shrouded in a fog, which means that unknown malice has been spying on the wilderness."

"Looking around, the only things that can bring disaster to the wilderness, besides the original four civilization entities, are the abyssal creatures that bring pain and destruction to the Ferman World. The four forces of the Ferman World have coexisted peacefully with our wilderness for tens of thousands of years. If they really want to attack the wilderness, I'm afraid it won't be at this time!"

"……"

Rational words flowed slowly from Besilam's mouth. The almost emotionless tone reached the ears of the surrounding legendary powerhouses, causing everyone to fall into deep thought for a time.

"Of course, our Wilderness Allied Forces have been fighting with the human nations for tens of thousands of years, so naturally we can't do things for free to help them. Therefore, our plan is to only attack Spring Country's capital, Mingxi City, completely destroy the Gate to Hell within Mingxi City, and then withdraw our troops and return. What do you all think?"

Maintaining the balance of nature has always been the purpose and philosophy of the gods of the Temple of Nature, but this does not mean that the Temple of Nature can be completely selfless. The attitude of the human gods towards the nature deities can be seen from their sitting idly by as the Spring Kingdom fell and was destroyed.

Since this is the case, it is impossible for the Temple of Nature to weaken its own strength for the sake of humans. Even if the nature deities are willing, how can the many tribal leaders of the wilderness and the neutral deities behind them be willing?

Gods are also products of the qualitative change of life energy in intelligent beings, but essentially they also have their own desires and pursuits. In fact, there is not much difference between them and those short-lived intelligent beings, except that they live longer and are more powerful.

"……Your Excellency Besilam, do we really have to fight this battle? The distance between Mingxi City and us now is more than 2,000 miles."

When everyone else was silent, it was still the representative of the centaur tribe, General Oswald, a legendary high-level warrior from the Borjigit clan of the golden bloodline, who paced back and forth in the felt tent, asking with some agitation.

"We must fight. If we don't destroy the Gate to Hell, we can't guarantee that Hell won't send dukes like Moloch again, and even Asmodeus, that despicable fellow, may appear in the Ferman World."

"Faced with demons, we can let them confront and entangle with the human kingdoms and fight with the Beastman Empire, because the chaotic nature of demons makes their plans often bring too many variables. The more rigorous and important the plan, the more likely the demons will expose clues over time, and we can naturally watch their actions coldly."

"But devils are different. They always do things with great purpose, and they act very cautiously, and they will not easily reveal their true purpose."

"This time, in a devil's plan involving a Duke of Hell, we have no way to fathom the extent of their ultimate scheme, nor can we place our hopes on them. Therefore, taking advantage of the opportunity while the devil legions are engaged in battle with the allied forces of the human nations, we must destroy the Gates of Hell and send that group of filthy bastards back to Hell!!!"

Beselmeyer's voice was hoarse, with a texture like wood scraping against wood, as he slowly but firmly replied.

"We all know that the centaur tribes on the Centaur Plains have suffered greatly in recent years, so we don't expect you to provide much more in the way of supplies and manpower. The second batch of reinforcements and supplies from Mansa City should be heading south soon. Your task, while recuperating, will be to organize manpower to help transport these supplies. What do you think?"

As a controller, understanding the thoughts of his generals and influential groups is fundamental, and knowing how to allocate tasks to his subordinates is an intricate art.

Fortunately, Beselmeyer has a long lifespan. It may seem that for countless years he has only stood in the inner city of the Thornsburg, but in reality, he has not forgotten to learn and understand new knowledge. Over the long years, one always needs something to pass the time; otherwise, life would be too dull and tasteless.

"Of course, your centaur tribes' elite cavalry are crucial for charging formations and assaulting strongholds, so we hope that each of your three royal families can conscript ten thousand knights to accompany us."

Although the words sound like a negotiation with the three representatives of the centaur tribes, in reality, Beselmeyer's tone was unquestionable. The cavalry as a military arm is too powerful for armies fighting in the age of cold weapons, almost capable of swaying the course of a battle, so the Church of Nature's southward march must ensure that their army has a well-organized and powerful cavalry force.

Ahmad and Oswald, the representatives of the three golden tribes, exchanged glances, their eyes filled with helplessness. In the end, they had no choice but to bow to reality and nodded dejectedly in agreement.

The meeting brought the wildlands allied forces to a consensus. What remained was to formulate a comprehensive plan around this goal.

Of course, all of this was too far removed for Mauro and the other common soldiers. He was currently leading his tribesmen to collect spoils of war and search for the bodies of fallen tribesmen.

Of the 12 tribesmen who died, only 8 bodies could be recovered. The remaining 4 corpses were probably mixed in with the pile of fragmented bones. A large fire burned fiercely, and countless bodies of wildland tribal warriors and demon soldiers were thrown into it, then turned into ashes in the flames.

A melodious and rugged wildlands tune was chanted by the wildlands indigenous soldiers, as a farewell to their fallen comrades.

After a few days of rest, the main force began to gather. The Snow-Eared Tribe's commanding officer was the legendary elder Talibo. After all, it was the command of the tribe's ten-thousand-strong army. Although only 5-6 thousand warriors were currently leading the vanguard, and half of them were vassal tribe warriors, this did not prevent the Snow-Eared Tribe from sending a legendary powerhouse from the tribe to control the army's command.

With Talibo, this legendary figure, stationed in the army, at least their Snow-Eared Tribe's army would not be used as cannon fodder, giving the tribal warriors a better chance of survival.

Soon, the vanguard army of 400,000 wildlands allied forces began their southward march.

With the defeat of the ten-thousand-strong demon legion deployed by the demon legions on the plains, the road ahead of the wildlands allied forces had become clear. Apart from scattered demon stragglers hiding in the vast and desolate former territory of the Spring Country, secretly spying on the wildlands allied forces' main body and harassing the logistics and scouting squads, the allied forces encountered basically no trouble in the remaining thousand-plus li of the journey.

It was a pity that the land of Spring Country, once prosperous, had become a desolate land overgrown with weeds and teeming with snakes and insects after years of occupation. Because there were still many demon stragglers wandering around, even the figures of large animals in the valleys and forests were rarely seen, having long become food for the demons.

The warriors of the other tribes, besides casually marching during normal times, gradually became lax. Other than when the army rations were distributed twice a day, when they had some energy, at other times everyone would slack off if they could. The warriors of the Green Field Tribe, however, turned the sadness left by the last war into motivation for daily training. The scene of Lolo, the earth spirit, breaking through during the war was still vivid in their minds. The tragic scenes of several companions whose bodies were found spurred everyone's spirits, making them cherish every opportunity to improve themselves.

Just as the wildlands allied forces were collectively marching south, a force was quietly emerging on the northern border of the Centaur Plains.

The Nagrand Highlands had long been occupied by countless kobold tribes. The highlands, rich in mineral resources, were being dug into deep caves by a group of kobolds with mining talents. The Wakan Tribe was a medium-sized kobold tribe with some strength in the Nagrand Highlands. Since the tribe's high priest, Ludi, took office more than three years ago, he had begun to spread the divine might of the great Masked Monarch among the kobolds.

Now, almost all of the tribe's 3,000-plus people had changed their faith, following Ludi in worshiping this deity whose specific race was unknown—the Masked Monarch.

Under the teachings and instruction of this deity, the Wakan Tribe's people had rapidly increased their knowledge of poisons, traps, and other aspects. There were also more talented scouts and thieves in the tribe than before.

The improvement in the tribe's strength had also allowed the tribe's influence to expand outwards. Originally occupying only a corner of the southern Nagrand Highlands, an area of two hundred-plus li, with the emergence of talented people in the tribe in recent years, the territory had already expanded to over 400 li. A dozen kobold tribes had been exterminated by the Wakan Tribe, and thousands of kobold compatriots had become slaves of the Wakan Tribe, staying in the Wakan Tribe's mines all day long, producing a steady stream of ore for the tribe.

"Praise the great Masked Monarch, all praise belongs to the Monarch. There is no god but the Masked Monarch…"

The daily morning prayer was the most important thing for Ludi. Before the sun had appeared on the horizon, he had already knelt before the tall stone statue in the village, piously beginning to pray. Behind him, the believers he had taught in recent years came one after another, joining in the prayer.

Today's prayer was particularly smooth. Ludi only felt a coolness all over his body, and his whole person felt light and airy.

"My faithful believer, it is time to execute My plan…"

Suddenly, a magnificent, sacred voice came from his mind. Ludi seemed to be bathed in a sacred light, and a golden, brilliant light filled his eyes, making him unable to open them completely.

"I humbly obey Your Divine Decree!!"

Ludi lowered his head in awe and humility, a look of madness in his eyes, and murmured a response.

The deity's will only lingered on Ludi for a brief moment, but Ludi could clearly feel that his strength, which had been stuck at the 11th-level priest, had been directly raised to the realm of a 13th-level high priest. The several divine spell knowledge and spell models that suddenly appeared in his mind, needless to say, were certainly the divine grace bestowed upon him by the great Masked Monarch.

Filled with fighting spirit, and imagining the rewards the gods would bestow upon him after he flawlessly completed the king's years-long plan, allowing him to break through to the legendary rank and gain a long lifespan and immense power, Lu Di couldn't contain his emotions and chuckled foolishly.

"Get to work, all of you! You stupid fools!"

With great effort, Lu Di regained his composure and immediately changed his expression, harshly scolding the tribesmen behind him.

As the sun began to shine on the earth, the Wakan tribe also began to bustle with activity. Groups of ragged, sallow-faced, and wooden-looking kobolds, low goblins, and other creatures were driven out of the caves behind the Wakan tribe's mountain, dragged out, and then thrown alive into a deep pit.

The view shifted into the pit, where Lu Di, who had just finished his prayer, was leading a team of fully armed kobold soldiers, throwing the captives, who had rolled down from the top of the pit and were completely disoriented, directly into a mysterious structure at the bottom of the pit.

This structure was likely familiar to many wilderness natives. It was, in fact, the flesh altar that had brought disaster to the wilderness in the past.

No one had expected that a complete flesh altar would be preserved in the secret place of a wilderness native. And judging by Lu Di's actions at this moment, he seemed to be completing the activation of the flesh altar, summoning the great enemy of the Ferman world from the endless abyss—demons.

The kobold, low goblin, and other slaves, whose hopes had long been extinguished by life, were prepared for this moment from the very beginning. As they were thrown into the flesh altar without any resistance, the six-pointed star constructed of obsidian began to slowly rotate, and the demon statue in the center of the millstone gradually began to emit black smoke, slowly spreading out.

Boom!

Hundreds of intelligent beings were gradually ground down by the altar's millstone, turning into nourishment for the altar. A foul-smelling blood mist began to form, and then, along with a slender black beam of light, shot into the sky, indicating that the flesh altar had connected to a certain coordinate in the abyss.

More slaves were thrown into the altar. In recent years, the Wakan tribe had used slaves to mine ore, smelt metal, and exchange it for large amounts of coarse and stale grain to feed the slaves. Although many slaves couldn't withstand the dark and endless labor in the mines and lost their lives, the Wakan tribe had continuously expanded and attacked other native tribes over the years, still raising more than two thousand kobolds.

Feeding so many slaves required a large amount of food, and therefore, voices of resentment had emerged within the Wakan tribe. However, as soon as Lu Di found out who these voices belonged to, the fate awaiting these original Wakan tribesmen would be the same as the other slaves: a miserable life in the dark mines.

In order to gain the favor of the faith god and move towards the legendary rank, Lu Di didn't care about the opinions of the Wakan tribe members. He wouldn't even frown if he had to personally destroy the Wakan tribe.

Lu Di had a secret that no one in the kobold tribe knew. Several years ago, the tribe leader, the high-level dual-wielding swordsman Oliver, was assassinated, and Lu Di had played a part in it. He had secretly provided information to that group of evil god worshipers and lured Chief Oliver out alone, finally leading him to the ambush site of the evil god worshiper squad.

The end result was that Lu Di seized the opportunity to rise and occupy the position of tribe leader, which led to the current state of the Wakan tribe.

Lu Di's collusion with the evil god worshipers was aimed at this important moment. From the assassination of the former leader to allow Lu Di to take over, to the subsequent descent of various inherited knowledge from the masked king, which improved the tribe's strength, increased its talent, and captured a large number of natives, every step was a cooperative plan between Lu Di's faith god and the abyss demons.

"Swish!"

Suddenly, many figures appeared in the empty central space of the altar. As the figures gradually became clearer, the crazy faces of the demons were revealed in front of Lu Di and the others.

Lu Di felt apprehensive and afraid. This was the legendary evil race, and the desolate state of the Mansa Wilderness today also originated from this race. Although he had been bewitched by the evil god, Lu Di had spent a lot of effort to summon these evil fellows to the Nagrand Highlands, but the natural repulsion of Ferman creatures towards demons still added a bit of disgust to Lu Di's dog-like face, which he then quickly suppressed.

"Guests from afar, welcome."

The altar was still running. The number of nearly two thousand captives thrown into the altar was only 1/4 of the total. The leading demon of the first demon team to walk out of the altar was a tall berserker demon. The berserker demon, carrying two long and large scimitars on his back, didn't bother with Lu Di's greeting after walking out of the altar. He just took a deep breath of the fresh, blood-stained air and let out a long howl, his eyes crazy and greedy.

More and more demons crossed the operating altar and came to the material world. The pit, which wasn't very large, gradually couldn't accommodate so many demons, so many demons simply climbed up the steep slopes, easily overlooking the Wakan tribe from the high altitude.

"Attack!"

The berserker demon stood on the edge of the pit, exchanging glances with Lu Di. After receiving the other's response, he waved his thick hand, and the demon team, which had already walked out of the altar with more than 300 members, surged towards the Wakan tribe's village.

Before long, a series of shrill screams and angry roars began to erupt in the Wakan tribe's village. The suddenly descending demons unleashed cruel methods, turning the huge kobold tribe into a killing field to welcome their arrival.

Half a day passed, and the tidal wave of shouts and screams in the Wakan tribe gradually faded. The more than 40 elite middle-level confidants who followed Lu Di, and their less than 100 family members, huddled together, trembling as they looked at the increasing number of demon figures around them, their eyes filled with sadness and apprehension.

The kobold tribesmen who were still alive and kicking half a day ago had now become cold corpses, thrown and tossed by the demons into the deep pit, used as nourishment for the operation of the flesh altar.

A day later, the Wakan tribe was removed from the Nagrand Highlands. What was exchanged for the blood and flesh of more than 5,000 natives was the demon army of more than two thousand in front of them. The leader was a six-armed snake demon who was only one step away from being promoted to legend.

At almost the same time, along the route that Allen and Richard and their temporary adventure team were pursuing the evil god worshiper assassination squad, scenes similar to those in the Wakan tribe occurred in several other tribes.

One by one, hidden flesh altars were activated. One by one, the new leaders who had replaced the heads who had been assassinated by the evil god worshipers either simply led their tribes to side with the demons, or directly used despicable means to turn the entire tribe into nourishment, becoming the nourishment for summoning the demons to descend.

One by one, elite demon armies, though not too large in scale, reappeared on the lands of the wilderness.

At this time, no one in the wilderness had noticed the signs of the demons' return. They were gathering supplies and troops for the Allied Forces' southward march, and they were also cheering for the recovery of lost territory in the Centaur Grasslands.