Chapter 65: You Look So Good When You're Shameless (1)
Before long, they were done cleaning up the battlefield. The northern team returned, each carrying at least one wound.
On the truck.
For the return trip, Su Yu was in the same truck as the team leader. Team Leader Liu's left arm was filled with blood. However, the iron-willed guy acted like he could feel no pain. He was even in the mood to tease Su Yu, "Your father used to love bragging about killing Infinite Strength cultivator as a Great Strength cultivator. I think everyone in Nanyuan has heard his story by now. But look at me, I just killed an Infinite Strength cultivator as well but I'm not getting all cocky."
Su Yu was originally in a somber mood, but the team leader's words lightened the mood considerably. Previously, he saw Team Leader Liu as a serious and strict individual. But now, his impression has changed. Su Yu understood that he had obtained the team leader's acknowledgement.
Previously, in Team Leader Liu's eyes, Su Yu was a baggage that might trouble the Windcatcher Department during critical moments and mess up their mission. But today, Su Yu had contributed to the fight with the Infinite Strength cultivator. If it wasn't for the short distraction provided by Su Yu, even if that cult member would still die, the department would probably suffer massive losses to achieve that.
It wasn't proper for Su Yu to gossip about his father, so he changed the topic, "Team Leader Liu—"
"Just call me Uncle Liu." Team Leader Liu was no longer looking so strict. He smiled and said, "We're like family and you're not a part of the department, so don't be too formal with me."
"Uncle Liu," Su Yu did not hesitate. He asked, "There are quite a lot of cult members this time. They even have an Infinite Strength cultivator with them. If they work together and stand their ground in the house, the department won't be able to defeat them so easily, right?"
Team Leader Liu nodded, "Of course. If they had defended the house, with an Infinite Strength cultivator around, they only need to hold our advance and buy time for the Infinite Strength cultivator to sneak behind us and we will probably lose around half our people."
"Then..."
"You want to ask why they were so foolish to flee separately?" Liu Pingshan sneered, "Because they're scared of death! Who in the Myriad Race Cult is not afraid of death?
"Standing and fighting? That means fighting with their lives on the line. Why should they do so? When danger arrives, it's every man for himself. By escaping, there is a chance of survival. But if they stand and fight, the people holding the line will definitely die."
Liu Pingshan was filled with disdain, "The Myriad Race Cult has elites as well. Their elites are actually quite strong. But they lack the conviction to stake their life. Of course, there are some lunatics within the cult that are willing to do so, but those lunatics will only appear in major operations.
"A small branch like this will not have anyone willing to fight. They are decent when things are advantageous for them. But if there is a chance of defeat or death, they will instantly fall apart."
Liu Pingshan looked at Su Yu and seriously said, "That was why I called them worms. No matter how many experts they have, any setback will break them. That is completely unlike the human armies that can fight regardless of whether things are going well or not."
"In warfare, morale matters a lot." Liu Pingshan's face turned solemn, "So long as we maintain our morale, even if we are weaker, we still stand a chance to turn things around. To come back from death's door. To defeat the many with the few. Morale is a major component in such feats. No matter how many of us you kill, you won't be able to break us!
"The elite armies of humanity such as the Martial Dragon Guards are capable of fighting until the very last man without breaking. However, a worthless army of a hundred thousand will probably break after losing about ten percent of their people. On the battlefield, very few are willing to fight until the very end."
Liu Pingshan gave it some thought and added, "If you have the chance to step foot in the Allheaven Battlefield one day, you will discover that when two armies of a hundred thousand soldiers meet, most of the casualties do not come from the direct clash. Rather, they come from the pursuit phase after one of them starts routing.
"Therefore, the first priority of any human army in the Allheaven Battlefield is morale. Those charging at the vanguard are all veterans that have served at least ten years in the army. They are the best of the best, the ones who will remain unyielding even when casualties reach fifty percent or more.
"If new recruits are allowed to stay at the front, the moment they suffer high casualties, they will break and drag the entire army down with them. There are many examples of armies destroyed by their own routing soldiers on the battlefield."
Su Yu nodded. His doubts were dispelled. He had been wondering if the cult members were being particularly stupid today or if that Infinite Strength cultivator was a fool. Why would that person hide in the house? He might as well lead his underlings out and fight. That way, the chances of them escaping or even winning the fight would be higher.
But now, Su Yu understood. The issue was that the cult members were afraid of death. Sure, nobody was unafraid of death. Were Liu Pingshan and the others afraid of death? Yes! However, they had conviction, faith, and courage.
"Uncle Liu, which human army is the strongest on the Allheaven Battlefield?"
"Cough, cough." The question was making Liu Pingshan awkward. After thinking about it, he decided to be honest, "I'm afraid of misleading you. If you're not going there in the future, it's fine for me to brag here. But you might really go there one day. I can't mislead you.
"On the Allheaven Battlefield, human armies are very tenacious and powerful. But if we call them unrivaled, then we are overestimating ourselves. The divines, the devils, the demons, and even some minor races have their own elite armies. They are very capable as well."
Liu Pingshan narrated, "Back then when I was at the Allheaven Battlefield, I once encountered a contingent of one thousand soldiers from the Celestial Devil Guards. I was serving in the Mountain Shaking Army. There were ten thousand of us and one thousand of them. The soldiers of both parties were mostly in the Great Strength and Infinite Strength Realms. We encountered each other at the Sealed Dragon Gorge and fought there."
"In the end...after losing four thousand of us, we defeated them." Liu Pingshan sighed. "They are really strong. They fought until the very end. I remember that toward the end, they only have a single third-stage Skysoar cultivator surviving. That person could have escaped since we had suffered massive casualties as well, but...that fellow launched a final charge at us. He died facing us, not with his back to us.
"The Mountain Shaking Army almost fell apart during that battle. In the end, our general arrived and personally buried them there. Apart from their weapons and some other spoils of war, all their corpses were buried there. We did not harvest their corpses."
In truth, corpse harvesting was extremely profitable in the Allheaven Battlefield. However, that army had earned their respect so the Mountain Shaking Army decided to bury them instead of harvesting them.
Su Yu exhaled lightly. So there were actually such unyielding armies among the other races on the Allheaven Battlefield as well? That wasn't supposed to be a surprise, but the thought had simply never crossed his mind since in Great Xia, the governmental propaganda only focused on the greatness of their military.
Liu Pingshan continued, "Of course, there are very few armies like that. They are mostly the elites of the various races. The human race has powerful armies, but we also have some weak armies as well. Not every army will be an elite. We shouldn't underestimate ourselves, but we also shouldn't overestimate ourselves and look down on the myriad races."
"If we're really that strong, we would be the ones invading them instead of fighting them to a standstill on the Allheaven Battlefield."
Su Yu nodded. While they were conversing, the trucks had entered the city.