Carolyn appeared extremely grateful and said, "Grandpa Gui Mi, thank you for your concern. I really have a problem now. You know, the Holy Battle has entered a stalemate. Now, the Kaiser Empire is constantly deploying more troops, which puts me — and the 10 Great Families — in a very difficult and embarra.s.sing position. If you can help me in this matter, I can find a way to put pressure on the Kaiser Empire on my end and force them to hand over the culprit."
"Girl, aren't you making things difficult for me? That should be the right words to use, right? Aren't you clear of what has been happening to my family in the past two years? It's imperative that we deploy more soldiers, but the responsibility doesn't fall on my family only. The 10 Great Families are still one."
"Grandpa Gui Mi, I have already mobilized thirty thousand elites on behalf of the Stuarts, but this is merely a drop in the bucket. I have tried my best to persuade the other families, but they ignored me because I'm just a junior. Uncle Gui Xiao even laughed at me for having wishful thinking."
Gui Xiao was the liaison of the Gui family in the 10 Great Families and the third son of Gui Mi.
"**Cough** How could it be possible that Gui Xiao laughed at you? It must be a misunderstanding. Let's see. I'll handle this for you. I'll deploy thirty thousand troops as well."
"Thank you so much. Don't worry, Grandpa Gui Mi. As soon as the Federation's reinforcements arrive, I will definitely put pressure on Solomon to answer for this," said Carolyn with a smile.
Under the pressure caused by the Kaiser Empire, deploying more troops was inevitable for the 10 Great Families. However, in this matter, there was a distinction between primary and secondary interests. Their elites were not random hired soldiers; they signified the power the 10 Great Families had acc.u.mulated for more than ten years. If they deployed too many troops, they would grow weak on Earth, but if they deployed too few troops, they feared that their troops might be used as cannon fodder. Also, at present, among the members of the 10 Great Families in the Holy Land, only Carolyn could be considered leader material.
The most important thing was that the Holy Land had handpicked Carolyn and Solomon as representatives for their respective forces. This was an open conspiracy, and the 10 Great Families couldn't do anything about it.
Simply speaking, the fact that the Gui Family made this decision meant that they were resigned to their fate. There was no other way, after all. The Holy Land had been constantly exerting pressure on them, and it wasn't possible for the Gui Family to challenge the Holy Land. To put it bluntly, they knew they had to contribute, but at the same time, they wanted to get something in return. They could slowly acc.u.mulate more manpower, but pests like the a.s.sa.s.sins had to be exterminated first.
As for Carolyn, she was very satisfied with this result. Unexpectedly, her plan yielded such great results. It was definitely worth the effort.
One day later, Carolyn's name spread across both the northern and southern bases of the Holy Battle. She managed to recruit 200,000 troops from the Federation to support the Holy Battle. This was considered a 'stimulant' and brought confidence to the battlefield which was stuck in a stalemate.
Carolyn and Solomon were like two bright shining stars, seemingly trying to outdo each other.
...…
The search outside the Shadow Moon Fortress lasted all night, and the search range was extended to the swamp area. In addition to the Griffin patrol in the air, horned hounds were deployed to search for them. This kind of hound had long, pointed horns growing from their noses, but its size and body shape were similar to that of domesticated dogs on earth. Their sense of smell was abnormally sharp, but this slightly primitive method was rather useless against Mu Zi and the others as they were in the wrong place.
It was actually very strange. The Mizobudapi people had a deeper understanding of nature than humans, but they were indeed a little backward in terms of 'technology'. The Octopus people all seemed to have similar understandings and mindsets for everything, but human beings were much more complex. As such, they definitely had greater potential than the Octopus people.
In the middle of the night, Noraba couldn't help but fall asleep. For him, it was like he woke up from a nightmare and finally got to relax. However, Hyde forced himself to stay awake and attempted to recall everything he had seen inside the Shadow Moon Fortress, including its architectural layout, etc. He even tried his best to sum everything up, as well as describe it to w.a.n.g Zhong and the others in detail. Despite being tortured, Hyde had always held on to the hope that this day would come, the day when he would wipe all his enemies out in this place.
This representative of the younger generation of the dimensional people was indeed extraordinary. Although he didn't keep a high-profile like Carolyn and Solomon, he was definitely the cream of the crop. Under such circ.u.mstances and having undergone such a horrifying experience, he could still remain focused and help out with the preparations. His recovery ability was also much stronger than Noraba. However, they had to enter the fortress first before they could make use of the information. The bigger problem now was that it was impossible to enter the fortress…
Previously, Napier suggested that everyone should mix in with the Octopus people who went out of the fortress to search for the 'escaped criminals' tonight and then use Mu Zi's Life and Death aura as a cover to sneak into the fortress. After all, if they were to walk through the gates, they would not activate the elemental formations on the walls. However, after the appearance of the horned hounds, it made everyone dispel this idea. The concealment function of the Life and Death aura was not omnipotent. There were actually many ways to crack it, and one of them was the sense of smell. Furthermore, there might be unknown devices or techniques that would be able to detect them… This idea was not feasible. They couldn't climb the walls either. It seemed that they couldn't even overcome their first difficulty, and everyone was at a loss. It was one thing to want to save the others, but whether they had the ability to do so was another.
The search outside was no longer ongoing in the morning after a fruitless night for the Mizobudapi. They had turned over all the possible places, and their horned hounds which were pursuing the smell were eventually led to the swamp by Mu Zi, where they found two pieces of blood-stained clothing, putting an end to their search. Although the Octopus people were unwilling to give up, it seemed that there was no better way. Other than allowing some Griffin troops to continue to expand the search range in the swamp, the other soldiers gradually returned to the fortress to rest.
At this time, w.a.n.g Zhong crouched at the entrance of the cave and used the telescope to observe the fortress through the gaps of the dead branches covering the entrance of the cave. He refused to believe that such a huge fortress could really be as seamless as an iron barrel. After an entire day of careful observation, it finally seemed to yield some results.
"I've got it."
w.a.n.g Zhong put down the telescope and rubbed his tired eyes. He had been staring incessantly at the fortress for an entire day. Although it appeared impenetrable on the surface, there was definitely no such thing. If they couldn't get in from the top, what about from below?
The moat…
"I can see some debris floating in the moat from time to time, but after an entire day's observation, I haven't seen anyone throwing anything into the moat."
This moat was not made up of stagnant water. Although it was artificially excavated and circ.u.mnavigated around the fortress, it actually had underground undercurrents, so the water would flow all day long. This kind of river should be very clean, but different kinds of rubbish could be seen floating in it. After the first batch of rubbish had been washed away, another batch would appear; thus, the river was never once clear. Since there was no one throwing the rubbish outside, the river was obviously connected to the inside of the fortress.
"You mean…"
"There are sewers in the fortress that directly connect to the outer moat and underground river, and there must be more than one." w.a.n.g Zhong smiled slightly and said, "I think we've found a way to infiltrate this place."
