On top of that, this enemy they were facing could not be detected by any of the surveillance soul tools they had brought with them.

When the Cla.s.s 9 decomposition cannon was fired, the two Cla.s.s 9 soul engineers had immediately activated the strongest surveillance abilities they possessed. After all, a Cla.s.s 9 decomposition cannon could only be fired within three thousand meters. However, they were still unable to pinpoint where that person was. This meant that they could only react pa.s.sively to that person"s attacks. How were they supposed to not develop a fear of Huo Yuhao?

Xu Tianyuan started to become panicky. He knew it would take them close to eight hours before they reached the territory of the Sun Moon Empire—which was also the former land of the Heavenly Soul Empire. At the same time, they had to do their best to avoid any encounters with troops from the Dou Ling Empire.

If this unknown enemy were to follow them throughout the entire eight hours, it would be a ma.s.sive disaster for both soul engineer legions. In fact, the current situation of the two soul engineer legions simply would not allow them to maintain their defenses and fly at the same time for eight hours. They had to descend to rest and reorganize their forces.

What should we do?

Xu Tianran gritted his teeth as he communicated with Xia Xuanchen. “We need to let everyone rest. Right now, our teams" morale isn"t doing very well. If he launches another decomposition cannon and successfully kills another person, we"ll be in trouble.”

Xi Xuanchen looked at him and asked, “Brother Xu, what do you think we should do then?”

Xu Tianran replied, “We need to descend right away. My Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion will take turns with your legion to maintain our defenses. At the same time, we need to make sure our groups huddle together. This will make the linked defensive barrier thicker, and will help to reduce the effectiveness of the decomposition cannon. Even though we might not be able to stick too close to one another in the air due to the possibility of collisions, we can do so on the ground. Let"s continue discussing this after we let our people recover their energy. We need to think of a way to handle this.”

“I guess we have no choice but to follow what you say.” Xia Xuanchen was also out of ideas.

Both of them immediately gave the order to the remaining members of the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion and Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion to descend.

They chose to rest up and reorganize their forces within a forest. They used their soul tools to clear some of the trees to create an empty plot of land to set up camp. The Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion would take the outer ring, while the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion would take the inner one. Both legions would take turns to maintain their defenses.

At the same time, because of their relatively more compact formation, the strength of their linked defensive barrier was also enhanced.

Xia Xuanchen, Xu Tianyuan and some of the other vice-commanders gathered. They could see the looks of dread on each other"s faces.

They were all members of the Hand that Protects The Nation. Even within the Sun Moon Empire, they were all extremely highly regarded. Even Xu Tianran would speak to them courteously when he b.u.mped into them. This was especially true for Xu Tianyuan, considering how he was part of the royal family.

However, they were in serious trouble this time around. Their enemy who was hiding in the dark was simply too difficult to handle. The biggest problem was finding their enemy. What was the use of their firepower if they couldn"t even locate a target? They could only pa.s.sively wait for the enemy to attack them.

“No, we can"t wait like this. If we continue to wait for him to attack, we will eventually be destroyed by him. In fact, once we lose a substantial number of soul engineers, the others might just start a mutiny.” Xia Xuanchen hammered his fist into the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

Xu Tianyuan nodded and said, “We must find a way to lure these two people out before we kill them. We still have a long way to go before we reach our destination. Even if we were to enter what was formerly the Heavenly Soul Empire"s territory, we would still have to fly towards Shrek City and link up with the rest of the army. It would simply take too much time. If this continues, most of us will probably perish along the way.”

The vice-commanders nodded as they waited for orders from their superiors.

“Brother Xia, you"re the quick-witted one among us. Propose something we can work on. Even if it"s a little risky, it"s still better than not having anything to work with.” Xu Tianyuan said.

Xia Xuanchen nodded and said, “I think our central strategy revolves around our need to lure him out before launching an all-out attack against him. From what I have observed, both of them are extremely powerful. They"re probably—at the very least—Transcendent Douluo. One of them could either be a Cla.s.s 9 soul engineer, or a soul master who possesses a Cla.s.s 9 decomposition cannon. To locate them, we must first destroy their means of turning themselves invisible.”

“Previously, we have already tried to use a variety of surveillance soul tools, but to no avail. The range of the spiritual surveillance soul tools is too small. They can"t be used to locate them. Thus, we have no choice but to go back to basics. First, we will have to bait them into attacking us. Following which, we will employ the carpet bombing method to identify their exact position. Based on our previous observations, they need a bit of time before they can disappear. As long as we are prepared to concentrate our attacking power on them, there"s no way they can escape without being heavily injured. Once they are heavily injured, they"ll probably stop chasing after us. And we would then have achieved our objective.”

Xu Tianyuan"s eyes lit up as he nodded in agreement. “Sounds good! Let"s follow what you have just proposed. We"ll first allow everyone to rest up. Afterward, we will need our guys to get ready to do some carpet bombing, while I will bring our four vice-commanders to launched a mini linked offensive attack. I believe our firepower should be sufficient if we focus all of it on one of them. Brother Xia, I need you to command the rest of our people, including my Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion. As long as they dare to come near us, I am certain they will not be able to retreat without being injured.”

As he looked at the vicious look on Xia Xuanchen"s face, Xu Tianyuan nodded earnestly. “Since Brother Xu is agreeable, let"s do this then. We will work together and get rid of this troublesome duo. This will also allow us to return earlier to report on our work. Now that Dou Ling City has been destroyed, the Dou Ling Empire must be a mess. Who knows? The Commander might have a change of plans, and require us to provide support.”

“Yes.” Xu Tianyuan might have agreed verbally, but his eyes seemed to show the doubt he had in his mind. Similar to his dislike for Xu Tianran, he was also not a big fan of Ju Zi. However, he had to admit that the War G.o.d Empress was incredibly capable. Many of the people in the royal family, as well as the Elders of the Sun Moon Empire, could neither find a reason to reject her appointment as the Marshal nor afford to disobey her orders. As of now, her popularity in the Sun Moon Empire as the War G.o.d Empress was sky-high. In fact, her reputation might have even exceeded Xu Tianran"s to a certain extent. This was especially true after the Heavenly Soul Empire fell victim to her tactics.

As Xia Xuanchen left to prepare the rest of the legions for the trap, Xu Tianyuan and the four vice-commanders sat down and began their rest. The Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion did not dare to treat their work lightly as they concentrated on maintaining the linked defensive barrier to protect everyone.

Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong were observing everything from above as they floated in the sky.

“That single blow of yours must have frightened them. Look how they have decided to land and protect themselves in that tight formation of theirs. Will their linked defensive barrier become stronger because of that formation?” Tang Wutong asked Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Yes. From the looks of their current formation, the decomposition cannon should still be able to penetrate their barrier. However, it probably won"t have enough energy left to kill a person. It seems like these two soul engineer legions will be a lot more difficult to kill than I thought. However, I can already guess what they"re about to do next.”

“Oh really?” Tang Wutong asked curiously.

Huo Yuhao explained, “Even though the decomposition cannon might not be able to deal with them, it should be enough to deter them from returning to the sky. When they are flying, soul engineers must keep a safe distance from one another, because their flying soul tools eject soul power. This distance might be negligible if there are only one or two people flying together. But if they have a few hundred people flying together, they have to spread their linked defensive barrier outwards. This causes the barrier to thin out, resulting in it losing the ability to block my decomposition cannon. And once the number of dead people increases, the legions will crumble from within. After all, none of them would know who the next target would be. Hence, if I were their commander, and I wanted to ensure that all of them retreat safely instead of being blown to bits by me, my next step would involve luring us out before taking us down.”

Tang Wutong smiled and replied, “Then that would be simple. As long as we don"t react to their bait and never appear in front of them, we will be safe. I don"t see how else they can handle us. As long as we wait till they set off again before we make our next move, there"s no way they can trouble us.”

However, Huo Yuhao shook his head as his eyes flashed with a steely look. “Since they want to bait us out with an intentional mistake, let"s take the bait. In fact, we will grab it with all of our strength, and crush whatever hopes they still have. Let"s go and make our preparations.”

As he spoke, he grabbed Tang Wutong"s hand before turning around and flying into the distance.

In the meantime, the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion was taking a break by meditating, while the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion maintained their defensive infrastructure. They were already a considerable distance from Dou Ling City. It was unlikely that there would be any soldiers chasing after them, considering how chaotic Dou Ling City should be right now.

Very soon, two hours had pa.s.sed, and the soul engineers from the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion had basically recovered their soul power. However, they had no time to refill their milk bottles.

Now it was time to rotate, as it became the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion"s turn to rest, while the Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion maintained the linked defensive barrier.

Xia Xuanchen was able to command both legions in a seamless manner, while Xu Tianyuan and the four vice-commanders continued their meditation, as though everything that was happening around them did not concern them.

Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong had flown up again to see what the current situation was like. After seeing how disciplined they were, Huo Yuhao could not help but frown. His enemies were harder to deal with than he had thought. They were surprisingly composed, even when they were threatened by two powerful soul masters.

“The Evileye Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion"s soul engineers have basically recovered their soul power. Now it"s the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion"s turn. Regardless of whether they plan to bait us or leave, they must first get back into their best state. It"s apparent that they want to see who is more patient!” Huo Yuhao explained to Tang Wutong.

Tang Wutong grabbed his arm and smiled. “Why should we hurry when they"re not even hurrying? Let"s get back down.”

A thought suddenly appeared in Huo Yuhao"s mind. “Wutong, since they have given us ample time, I have an idea. Destroying these two soul engineer legions might not achieve the best effect.”

“Huh?” Tang Wutong"s eyes widened.
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