Apocalypse Gachapon - Chapter 1967: Li Daqian's hesitation
“Grandfather!”
A girl who looked about twenty years old turned her head to the man who had entered, smiled slightly, then returned her gaze to a topographic map and continued conversing with two people beside her.
The man walked over and sat to the side. He looked at the topographic map but didn’t linger on it for too long, instead focusing his gaze more on the girl. The emotions in his eyes were complex: affection, pity, unwillingness, anger, cherishment…
Half an hour later, the three people ended their conversation, finalized the specific plan, and then the two other men, who exuded an imposing presence, nodded to the man who had entered later and turned to walk out of the tent.
Through the open tent flap, one could see a sprawling military camp outside, with many Evolved and mutated lifeforms doing what they needed to do between heaven and earth.
The tent flap closed, making the inside a relatively isolated space again.
“Grandfather…” The girl sat down next to the man, holding onto one of his arms. Her tone was slightly subdued as she said, “You have already made a decision, so why are you still hesitating?”
The girl’s large eyes were full of confusion. She had an adult-like body and excellent intelligence, but regarding other matters, her perspective was relatively simple.
But this simplicity that could, at times, go straight to the core of the problem.
Since you decided, why be hesitant?
This sentence echoed in the man’s heart, leaving him momentarily speechless.
“Sigh, I just… perhaps, I’ve just tasted the flavor of power, and thus am unwilling to let it go.”
After a long moment, the man let out such a sigh.
The girl smiled casually. “What is power? And how can one grasp power? Is it like before, when you controlled the Thousand Beast Villa? But aren’t you still the same now? In my view, it’s just a change of name.”
The man shook his head, indicating that things weren’t thought of that way.
“The people of the Thousand Beast Villa still follow your command, don’t they? The war beasts are also still under your command. Even their quantity and quality are much stronger than before at the Thousand Beast Villa. I think the only change for you is going from the Manor Lord of the Thousand Beast Villa to the Commander of Cloud Peak’s War Beast Camp.”
This man was Li Daqian. The little girl was his granddaughter.
Li Daqian looked at his granddaughter, whose eyes still held innocence, and for a moment didn’t know how to respond.
After submitting to Cloud Peak, he had been having some difficulty accepting it in his heart.
Apart from a few old comrades from the family, the other people of the Thousand Beast Villa had no objections to submitting to Cloud Peak. Especially his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter—his closest people—not only did they not object, they were even slightly pleased, even though they tried to hide it in front of Li Daqian, how could they hide it from him.
Internally, the Thousand Beast Villa had almost completely sided with Cloud Peak from the moment Li Daqian was forced to make the decision.
This left Li Daqian with a deep sense of loss.
Did he really not want to submit to Cloud Peak in his heart?
Li Daqian had asked himself this many times afterwards. It seemed… he really wasn’t that determined.
This psychology stemmed partly from their long-standing good relationship with Cloud Peak, which led him to identify strongly with Cloud Peak. It also led the other residents of the Thousand Beast Villa to identify strongly with Cloudtop.
On the other hand, it was Cloud Peak’s powerful strength that made Li Daqian, who was still at Level Eight, unable to muster any will to resist.
Having survived until now and become a leader in his own right, what he lacked least was a heart that could assess the situation. He knew that circumstances were stronger than the individual.
Cloud Peak’s power made one feel a sense of helplessness from the bottom of one’s heart.
Since that was the case, what was there that he couldn’t come to terms with?
Li Daqian asked himself this again, but still felt uncomfortable in his heart.
He knew he needed to adjust this sentiment.
As the appointed Commander of Cloud Peak’s War Beast Camp, he had been largely inactive due to this sentiment. It was his granddaughter who had been managing his affairs. Her previous status as the Commander of the Cloud Peak War Beast Camp and the Little Princess of the Thousand Beast Villa meant no one questioned her authority.
But ultimately, maintaining this state for too long would clearly cause dissatisfaction among other high-level members of Cloud Peak. Once that happened, one couldn’t guarantee what might occur.
Li Daqian felt that the core members of Cloud Peak now had already killed until their eyes were red.
During this period, Cloud Peak had almost emptied its nest, striking out in all directions, for what seemed to Li Daqian a ridiculous goal—unifying the entire planet.
Li Daqian felt that, even in the post-apocalyptic world, this feat, which no force on Earth had ever accomplished, was something Cloud Peak similarly couldn’t achieve.
For no other reason than this world was too vast, with too many forces. In many corners, there must be extremely powerful lifeforms and forces.
How could a single force unify such a planet?
Taking a step back, even if Cloud Peak had the strength to unify it, how many years would it take? And once unified, how would they manage it?
Anyway, from the bottom of his heart, Li Daqian didn’t quite agree with this approach. He felt that Xia Lei and the Cloud Peak leaders were simply suffering from a persecution complex, having lost their backbone in the absence of Ye Zhongming.
Just like now.
Because of Cloud Peak’s strikes in all directions during this time, their goal was no longer a secret. This naturally provoked desperate resistance from other forces.
Cloud Peak’s War Beast Camp, plus the troops of Young Master Yun and Xiao Peng, after a series of battles, had already fought their way beyond the previous national border and entered the territory of Southeast Asia.
But here, forces previously driven out from the country’s region had united with local forces from Southeast Asia and stood blocking the path of this Cloud Peak army.
In terms of numbers, Cloud Peak was at an absolute disadvantage. The allied forces numbered nearly 400,000, and more were gathering from further south towards this location.
As for Cloud Peak, Young Master Yun and Xiao Peng, plus the War Beast Camp, totaled only around one hundred and twenty thousand. Even counting one hundred thousand war beasts of varying levels, they still had nearly one hundred thousand fewer in number than the enemy.
But neither Young Master Yun nor Xiao Peng, nor even Li Daqian’s own granddaughter, had any intention of retreating.
Just earlier, Li Daqian’s granddaughter was discussing with Young Master Yun and Xiao Peng whether to launch a surprise attack before the enemy reinforcements arrived.
It didn’t take long for the surprise attack plan to be finalized.
It seemed that Cloud Peak’s bones inherently held a confidence to fight and win against anything ahead of them.
They might win, but the losses should be significant.
Li Daqian thought this to himself. Looking at his granddaughter beside him, who was concentrating on considering the battle plan, he decided to fulfill his duties.
For this battle with an extremely high risk factor, he would go in place of his granddaughter.
But before Li Daqian could tell his granddaughter about this decision, a commotion suddenly broke out outside. Then, a twenty-person squad appeared in the teleportation array at the center of the camp.
“Sister Miya!”
Watching his granddaughter throw herself into the arms of Miya, who was walking over wearing a beautiful suit of battle armor, Li Daqian realized things might have changed.
Sure enough, after gathering Young Master Yun, Xiao Peng, and others into the tent, Miya announced to them that in one day, Little Tiger would bring his team, along with the two Level Nine lifeforms, Red Hair and Undead Fish Dragon, here for support. They would simultaneously launch an attack, striving to crush the enemy forces. At the very least, they aimed to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, forcing them into a short-term defensive posture.
Afterwards, specifically three days later, all of Cloud Peak’s high-level personnel were to return to the mountain villa to attend a plenary meeting.
