Chapter 1091 - 389: Girl, Time’s About Up—Let’s Get Moving!

The battle smoke lingered, mixed with the piercing smell of blood and scorched earth.

It swirled amidst the broken remnants of the newly captured Sixth Base.

The ghastly structures built from bones were still emitting trails of black smoke in many places.

Against the backdrop of the leaden gray sky and the howling wind and snow,

it appeared especially tragic.

However, the atmosphere inside the base was completely different from this desolate scene.

Figures clad in deep blue and dark gray intertwined everywhere.

The sixty thousand troops of the Dawn and Cold Bone Fjord Alliance.

At this moment, they mingled together without distinction.

Some leaned against broken bone walls to catch their breath, others simply sat on the ice surface where ugly green blood had frozen.

Their faces shone with excitement mingled with exhaustion.

"Hey, look at this!" A Dawn Warrior proudly displayed a fierce-looking material resembling a large Life Ghost’s spine, shining with a cold light, to a Cold Bone Fjord veteran with frostbite on his face beside him.

"With this hardness and fluctuations, I’ll get a good craftsman to forge a blade when we return. It’ll be awesome!"

The veteran grinned, revealing a half-missing front tooth.

He carefully pulled out from his pocket a baby-fist-sized, entirely crimson sphere that seemed to have lava flowing within: "What about your bone piece? Check out my treasure, the Molten Giant Lizard’s fire pouch. Heh heh, the True Intent contained within made my bottleneck loosen."

"Haha, you’re amazing, old brother!" Another younger Cyan Dragon Gang warrior came over, playing with a few Life Pearls the size of pigeon eggs, each glowing with a different soft light.

"I’ve been saving these up, enough to trade for breakthroughs in Hard Skills when we return. Heh heh, God Fang’s policy is really damn great! You can get rich just by fighting."

Similar scenes played out everywhere in the base.

Warriors gathered in groups of two or three in sheltered corners, bragging about their newly acquired spoils.

Or they sat directly on the ground, operating cultivation techniques to restore depleted Qi Blood and Qi Force.

Next to them lay Life Pearls they had just dug out, still warm with the Life Ghost’s body heat.

Some were so exhausted that they wrapped themselves in thick Life Ghost skin they seized,

and fell into a deep sleep beside the cold bone piles.

Their snores shocked the heavens.

Similar scenes played out everywhere in the base.

After capturing the White Bone Outpost, Fang Qingyu announced a new policy.

Every captured base allowed all participants to take one spoil.

The only requirements were that no fighting over spoils was allowed, and no disruption of marching or combat.

This was free gain for everyone.

As for fighting over spoils, it simply didn’t exist in the wake of six consecutive major victories.

Moreover, the victories were so comprehensive,

that the spoils were piled high, with no need for disputes.

The joy of free bounty diluted the fatigue of continuous battles.

And unobtrusively sped up the integration of the Dawn and Cold Bone Fjord armies.

The warriors exchanged spoils and bragged about the recent combat.

Laughter and boisterous talks echoed in the wind and snow.

But beneath this seemingly relaxed atmosphere,

in the core command hall at the center of the base,

the mood was starkly different.

In the hall’s center, beside a roughly assembled table of bone slabs,

Wei Banmeng, with her cool face, had a slight furrow between her brows.

Her slender fingers pointed at the map on the newly marked Sixth Base location they had captured.

Her fingertips slowly traced the route they had advanced.

"Six bases, six royal bases."

Her voice was clear and crisp, "All of them left behind only a large number of middle and low tier Life Ghosts and a few middle tier leaders to resist, treating them as expendables. They must have collectively and uniformly retreated, and planned to do so before we arrived."

Opposite her sat Ji Wuya, his white hair stained gray by the battle smoke.

His frost-weathered face shared the same serious expression, and he added in a deep voice: "Not just on our route. We’ve just received synchronized intelligence from several other main assault routes."

"General Shi Gandang’s Department, General Zhao Haifeng’s Department, they encountered nearly identical situations. On all routes, the royal Life Ghosts, who were supposed to be commanding, vanished collectively in a short time as if pre-arranged, leaving behind only base troops to delay us."

Hearing this, everyone’s expressions relaxed a bit.

If that’s the case, then the royal retreat was not a conspiracy against just our route.

But rather the Skeleton King Court over there.

Summoned back all the royals.

Then, Ji Wuya’s gaze fell on Fang Qingyu, sitting in the primary seat.

"Colonel Fang, now people from other routes... they’re calling us not to push too quickly; we next..."

He left the sentence unfinished, but the meaning was clear.

He was seeking Fang Qingyu’s instructions on what they should do next.

Everyone’s eyes focused on the primary seat.

Fang Qingyu’s posture was as tall as a pine, his combat uniform, covered with Star Point Tribulation Crystals, was spotless.

At this moment, his starry eyes were lowered,

gazing at the location of the Skeleton King Court on the map.

His fingertip unconsciously tapped on the cold edge of the bone table.

Making a soft drumming sound, as if pondering something.

After a moment, Fang Qingyu looked up, the galaxy in his starry eyes slowly flowing, and his calm voice broke the silence:

"Notify all units."

"First, only maintain the most basic Guard posts. Everyone else, rest in place for ten hours. Take time to recover stamina, tend to injuries, and replenish resources."

"Second, order all base personnel on the rear lines to, aside from leaving two hundred people per base responsible for inventorying materials, caring for the wounded, and liaising with the arriving Federation Logistics Department units, everyone else must immediately bring all cleared core materials and gather with us at full speed."