149. Assassination 2

"My Lord, there are one hundred and ten of them in total. They entered the city late yesterday evening and scattered into the street that My Lord frequently takes."

"It seems they are really desperate to take such a risk. However, I just don't understand—do they really think killing me will solve all their problems?" Mo Fei was referring to the actions of those empires.

"I feel the matter might not be that simple. Just the fact that individuals from the outer continent have joined them, and given that we still don't know who these outer continent people are, why would they do this? We simply cannot fathom their intentions." Vader sensed something peculiar, but he could not come up with any good counter-strategy.

"That's true. If these people from the outer continent were the enemies we are currently pursuing, it might be slightly easier to explain. But I've thought about it a lot over the past few days. If it really were this defeated enemy force, these empires wouldn't be foolish enough to deal with a routed army like them. Could these outer continent people be another group of enemies who have set their sights on us? Perhaps only enemies who have never fought us before could give these empires such a surge of hope?" After pondering for days, Mo Fei felt certain that the entity contacted by these empires was not the defeated force he had crushed.

"I also feel it's unlikely to be the enemy force we routed," Elder Ao Fu said. "If I were in their position, I wouldn't seek out a defeated army to accomplish such a task. Right now, we are planning a counter-offensive against their territory. While they might consider assassinating our empire's key figures to prevent this from happening, our expeditionary fleet set out long ago, sweeping everything in its path. We wouldn't recall the fleet just because something happened within the empire. They should be concentrating fully on intercepting our fleet rather than thinking an assassination could stop these events."

"Such a move would only invite more brutal retaliation from us, rather than halting our operations," Kane interjected from the side. "If I were them, I wouldn't do it either. As for the coalition's deployment, I doubt it's those defeated troops. They've managed to distribute their forces across both sides of the Golden Stone Empire and the Dragon Rock Empire. No matter which empire is attacked, the other would be held in check, hesitant to dispatch troops easily. And..."

"And only our empire or the imperial coalition can send out troops," Mo Fei said, startled. "Their target is actually our empire or the imperial coalition! What incredible audacity."

"Where could they be hiding? It's unlikely they could slip into our territory without making a sound, is it?" Vader's face turned pale. As the head of the intelligence department directly responsible for these matters, he had not received any news until now.

"Aren't there four empires sandwiched between the Golden Stone Empire and the Dragon Rock Empire? I'm sure there's something wrong with them!" Mo Fei said. "Go and investigate immediately. When did these four empires start sealing their borders? Only by sealing the borders could they possibly prevent our assassination squad from sending messages back. Perhaps our assassination cells within these four empires..."

Nothing can truly be hidden forever; it is merely a question of whether it is discovered sooner or later. Although the assassination squad sent by the Death Empire when it was still in the Demon Realm had gone into hiding back then, their characteristics were simply too obvious. They consisted entirely of elves and a few werewolves, making it possible for observant individuals to notice their every move.

"If anything has happened to them, I will slaughter the royal families of these empires. They brought this upon themselves," Mo Fei said angrily.

"My Lord, there is no need to investigate. Didn't we give orders a few days ago for the Golden Stone Empire and the Dragon Rock Empire to seal their borders? The reports they sent back later indicated that the borders between those two empires had already been sealed off long ago by these four empires. They thought these small empires were simply afraid of the heavy forces massing along their borders, so they didn't pay much attention to it. They mentioned a bit of this in their communications to us, and at the time I thought so too, but now it seems..."

"Orders!" Mo Fei said coldly. "The Golden Stone Empire's garrison and a detachment of Golden Stone Empire troops are to immediately assemble in the central border region of these four empires. The Dragon Rock Empire will dispatch a portion of its forces to strike directly into the center. Order both armies to launch an attack the moment they reach the border, advancing from the center to converge. Kane, you must immediately rush to the City of Death, personally command the coalition main army, and I will follow closely with the empire's elite. Once we converge, we will wipe them out."

"Understood!" Kane said no more, turned around, and walked out of the council chamber.

"Uncle Vader, issue the order. Trap this hidden enemy force and wipe them out completely. Go close the net."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Vader acknowledged and walked out as well. With his departure, that assassin battalion of over a hundred men was destined to vanish from this continent.

..................

The newly replenished and rested elite marine forces of the Death Empire followed closely behind the cavalry battalion, setting out once again. At the very rear of the entire formation were the Death Empire's unstoppable ballistae, which struck terror into the hearts of the enemy.

This time, to achieve speed and concealment, Mo Fei dispatched all of the empire's scouts. They were not tasked with reconnaissance; instead, their full effort was directed toward intercepting and killing all enemy spies heading toward those few empires. Mo Fei knew that within the borders of his own empire, countless enemy spies must have been planted to monitor every move of his main army. Therefore, before the main army set out, these elite scouts departed ahead of schedule. Concealing themselves, they rushed at full speed toward the borders of those empires, where they would fulfill their interception mission. At such a time, anyone entering those four empires from the direction of the Death Empire was a target to be eliminated.

The Dragon Rock Empire and the Golden Stone Empire had preemptively sealed off the junctions of the various empires. While they could not withstand the onslaught of a massive enemy army, preventing enemy spies from crossing the border was not a problem.

As the Death Empire's main army marched out, these early-arriving elite scouts discovered their targets. Those spies, heads lowered as they hurried toward the four empires, fell into their hands one by one. Had the Emperor not commanded them to uncover the intentions of these spies and obtain concrete proof, these spies would have vanished from the continent without exception.

With the help of the elite scouts, the Death Empire's Death Iron Cavalry arrived first. Without making a sound, they entered the training camp, where the main army had already been positioned by Kane not far from the borders of the four empires. At this distance, for cavalry, a single charge would bring them right to the enemy's doorstep. *How come I'm leading infantry this time?* Kane thought to himself with a silent sigh. Still, he knew that in any major battle of the empire, the elite imperial iron cavalry would always be the first to enter combat. By then, he could ask the Young Master to switch his assignment.

This military march was not merely about speed; behind the dense defensive network of elite scouts, no spy could possibly break through. Moreover, the Golden Stone Empire and the Dragon Rock Empire had already locked down their borders, forcing the enemy to detour through the Flying Dragon Empire. But by the time they managed to report the information back to their empire, that territory would arguably already belong to the Death Empire.

"To achieve surprise, the cavalry will act as the vanguard and launch a dense charge, followed closely by the infantry. Do not spare a single enemy. As for the royal families of these empires, capture them for me. I want to gather them and execute them all together," Mo Fei said viciously.

"My Lord, let me lead the cavalry! As the commander of the cavalry, leading infantry all the time just feels a bit awkward!" Kane said in a low voice after Mo Fei finished giving his orders.

"Go. Remember my words: I want your cavalry to sweep away the enemy's key targets at the fastest possible speed. I don't want my infantry fighting a positional war."

"Rest assured, My Lord, I guarantee my cavalry will blast open this corridor within two days and drive straight toward the enemy's other two armies." Kane was brimming with confidence; he didn't hold these small empires in any regard. Sandwiched between the Golden Stone Empire and the Dragon Rock Empire, once captured, these four small empires would form a straight, direct corridor.

"After Kane's cavalry strikes, I will follow with the infantry. This time, I'll let them know that even with outsiders helping them, they are still what they always were—incapable of turning the heavens upside down. Tomorrow at dawn, move out immediately. For now, go rest."

Just as the sky was growing pale, Kane's cavalry battalion had already completed its assembly. Normally, at this hour, everyone would still be deep in dreams.

A shrill ringing sound swept over the heads of the cavalry battalion—the signal for the attack. In an instant, iron hooves rose into the air and slammed heavily onto the ground, producing a thunderous roar. The Death Empire's invincible black torrent of death was on the move.

Kane gave the enemy no quarter. As he broke through the enemy's border, he indeed spotted the enemy encampment stationed not far away. The enemy soldiers had long been jolted awake by the thunderous pounding of iron hooves, but they had received no combat orders. As they stared at each other in blank dismay, the Grim Reaper descended upon their heads.

Kane finally encountered a formidable adversary. After he trampled the enemy's forward camp, the enemy organized resistance in the rear camp. Wave after wave of magic spheres rained down upon Kane's cavalry unit. Ordinary cavalry would have been thrown into absolute chaos by this point, but such magic was hardly worth mentioning to the Death Iron Cavalry of the Death Empire. Their protective armor was smelted from the magic cores of Level 10 or higher magical beasts; how could these Level 7 or 8 spells shake them even in the slightest?

*This must be the enemy's command headquarters. These small empires couldn't possibly have so many mages; it must be the enemy from the outer continent. Capture them alive!* Kane shouted the order.

Wherever the iron hooves passed, those at the vanguard fell beneath them, while those to the side were plucked right off their mounts by the cavalry riding magical beasts. A swift strike from a heavy crossbow in the rider's hand knocked the mages unconscious, leaving them slumped across the backs of the magical beasts.

Every cavalryman in the front rank captured a mage, leaving none for those in the rear.

The enemy commander clearly did not know that the Death Empire's cavalry was immune to magic attacks. Stunned for a moment, he too was plucked up and knocked out by Kane, ending up draped across a magical beast's back.

The rest were not so fortunate; wherever the iron hooves trampled, victims were either pierced by a myriad of arrows or crushed into pulp. When Mo Fei arrived with the infantry, he could only clean up the scattered fleeing soldiers. However, Mo Fei secured over ten thousand mages whom Kane had knocked unconscious, along with the highest-ranking commander of the enemy camp.

He hadn't expected the military campaign to progress so rapidly; it seemed the empire's cavalry had matured even further. Staring at the unconscious enemy commander, even a fool like Mo Fei could tell these people were not from his own continent, nor were they the defeated enemies of the past. They were people from another continent. However, it didn't matter which continent they came from; Vader would surely pry the answers from their mouths. Handing these prisoners of war over to an infantry squadron to be escorted back to the training camp, Mo Fei issued the order to sweep the enemy's outer perimeter.

The enemy's encampment had been assaulted by the Death Empire's cavalry and followed up by the infantry without a single soul escaping. Out of an army of 400,000 and nearly 30,000 mages, aside from the 10,000 captured mages and their commander, not a single person was left alive. Enraged by their collusion with an outer-continental force to plot against him, Mo Fei had issued a shoot-to-kill order. He didn't need that many living captives; ten thousand-odd was more than enough.

Seeing so many enemy mages, Mo Fei finally understood what they had been relying upon. To think they could deal with the Death Empire using just these tens of thousands of mages was terribly naive. Had they known that the armor equipped by the Death Empire could defend against magic attacks, they likely wouldn't have dared to do it. After all, this was the Death Empire's absolute secret; even their allies were unaware of it.

The enemy coalition had deployed so many mages along this route clearly to deal with the Death Empire's concentrated heavy forces. However, their wishful thinking had come to nothing. After this 400,000-strong army was shattered by the Death Empire's iron cavalry and then surrounded and devoured by over a million infantrymen, Kane's cavalry battalion encountered no further meaningful resistance all the way through. As for the imperial palaces of these small states, Kane's cavalry couldn't care less. With nearly a million infantrymen following behind, did they really think anyone could run away?

Mo Fei swept away the enemy local troops who had been scared half to death by Kane all the way. Upon reaching the capital of the first empire, looking at the terrified guards shivering atop the city walls, Mo Fei sneered. With a wave of his hand, the modified giant siege ballista was slowly rolled forward. This ballista had been used twice before: once for testing in Misty City, and the other time when Kane took it to the Golden Stone Empire.

Adjusting the angle, the wound-up giant ballista slowly aimed at the gate of the imperial city. A crossbow bolt thicker than a man's thigh was loaded into the launch slot by a Berserker.

At the command, a huge sonic boom echoed, and half the imperial palace gate was instantly blown away. With a wave of the hand, a tidal wave of infantry surged forward, instantly engulfing the palace grounds.

Two days later, when Mo Fei followed Kane to strike the fourth small empire, the impatient Kane had already captured that empire's reigning monarch.

Standing before the four captive emperors, Mo Fei gave them a cold look. "We had no intentions toward you, yet you colluded with people from an outer continent to suppress those of your own continent. Did you truly believe you would gain any benefits once the Death Empire was gone?"

Mo Fei let out a long breath. "When the Death Empire is gone, you won't gain larger territories, nor will you gain more profits. You will either become slaves or be executed. I refuse to believe you couldn't see that."

The emperors of the four small empires lowered their heads. Of course they had known, but after escorting these so-called allies ashore, they realized they had welcomed wolves into the house. Nothing was in their control anymore.

"Where are my people?" Mo Fei's voice was so cold that the knees of the four monarchs turned to jelly, causing them to collapse to the ground.

"You had better hope they are unharmed. Otherwise, your entire clans will be buried with them." Having said that, Mo Fei ignored them completely and strode away.

*Why do you all force me to do things I don't want to do?* Mo Fei screamed internally. If the members of those assassination squads had lost their lives over this, Mo Fei would execute their entire clans.

..................

"My Lord! My Lord!" A squad of Kane's cavalry rushed over at top speed, and trailing behind them were the twenty-odd assassination squad members who had been hiding within those four empires.

"My Lord..." When the members of the assassination squad learned that the Young Master had been grieving over their unknown whereabouts, they could not hold back tears of happiness.

"My Lord, it is our incompetence that we could not send the intelligence back in time."

"Good, good! As long as you're safe, it's fine!" Mo Fei finally set his mind at ease.

..................

The horn of advance sounded once more. Having joined forces with the Dragon Rock Empire's army, the Golden Stone Empire's garrison also hurried over with their troops, only to find the war had ended so swiftly that their hurried march had missed out on the action entirely—leaving the Golden Stone Empire's garrison general deeply depressed.

Now, their targets were the remaining fourteen empires. Once these fourteen empires were swept away, very few would remain on this continent. Mo Fei had already made up his mind: he would subjugate them all and incorporate them into the coalition's territory. Mo Fei would never allow a recurrence of what had happened today.

In Mo Fei's expedition targets, there was now an additional entry: the enemy whose continent of origin had not yet been definitively identified was destined to be unable to escape the strikes of the Death Empire.

*This must be a continent dominated by mages,* Mo Fei couldn't help but smile.

It had been so long since he last used magic; Mo Fei suddenly felt a strong urge to visit that continent right away and take a good look around.

Mo Fei's estimation was correct. It truly was a magical continent dominated by mages; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to dispatch tens of thousands of mages all at once. When Vader learned of this news from the mouths of the enemy mages sent down from the front lines, he was dumbfounded. *How could this be?* But a moment later, he calmed down, remembering that the armor equipped by his empire was immune to magic attacks below Level 10. No matter how powerful these mages were, surely not every single one of them exceeded Level 10!

"Quickly, deliver this letter to His Majesty. Be sure to exercise caution and deliver it into His Majesty's hands as quickly as possible." Vader collated the obtained information and summoned the elven scouts remaining in the Elven Kingdom. All of his own subordinates had been taken away by Mo Fei, but fortunately, the distance between the training camp, the City of Death, and the Elven Kingdom was not far, and there were plenty of trained elite scouts within the Elven Kingdom. He immediately requisitioned a battalion of over thirty men, which startled the Elven Queen into thinking something major had happened. She dispatched a kingdom minister along with the squad, and when that minister learned Vader was merely sending a letter, he nearly flew into a rage and beat Vader up.

"Do you know how anxious Her Majesty the Queen has been?" Facing the nearly apoplectic elder-level minister of the Elven Kingdom, Vader dared not handle him carelessly.

"Ah... well... um... that..."

"Cut the crap, kid." The furious elven minister wasn't buying it.

"Didn't the Young Master take all my people away? I had no one left to use..." Vader had no choice but to speak honestly before this furiously provoked elven minister.

"Then why didn't you say so earlier?!"

*Didn't I just say it? How was I supposed to know an old codger like you would tag along?* Stuttering and stammering, Vader finally managed to appease the furious minister. Turning around, he realized he had broken out in a cold sweat at some point.