"Whatâs going on?"
Aside from a few Special Service Officers who were cleaning up the battlefield, Dai Sect, Wushan Divine Lady, and others gathered around.
"It shouldnât be suicide."
Wushan Divine Lady said, "The person I performed acupoint stimulation on couldnât even commit suicide."
Bai Pu silently displayed a message from the Spirit Realm Will.
[Pon Sai Patrol Leader: The True Red Mark within Clare erupted, causing (106) points of real damage to him.]
[Clareâs Life Value reached zero, and Clare died.]
"This should be the work of the Demon God Mark, to prevent its followers from being controlled by others."
Bai Pu slowly said, "This patrol leader, Clare, was in a severely injured state, with only 106 Life Value remaining, so the True Red Mark caused him 106 points of real damage, no more, no less."
Everyone nodded in agreement with Bai Puâs assessment.
Wushan Divine Lady and Dai Sect looked at Bai Pu in astonishment.
Both, as top-tier Awakened, realized one problem:
Bai Puâs Pure Blood Control has a terrifyingly high priority!
Even the power of the Demon God couldnât expel Bai Puâs Pure Blood, and could only prevent his followers from being controlled by Bai Pu by killing them itselfâflipping the table.
"What should we do now?"
Blood Spider, having lost her target, felt a bit at a loss, "Should we attack Pon Sai City? It seems... very challenging."
"Of course not." Wushan Divine Lady and Dai Sect denied in unison.
Wushan Divine Lady added, "Thatâs the dumbest plan, itâs too risky."
Even top Awakened like Bai Pu and Dai Sect, holding peak titles or candidate status, couldnât act recklessly in the Demon Fighting: Combat Academy World with a difficulty level of 5.2.
A few people attacking a city with unknown intelligence? Thatâs really too rash.
The patrol team just now was merely composed of dozens, including a Level 9 Warrior and a group of Level 8 or 9 Enhanced Elites.
This suggests that Pon Sai Cityâs regular army probably consists of rookies with Elite Templates, mixed with a large number of Enhanced Elite Level veterans.
Plus, leaders at the Warrior Level and commanders at the Enhanced Warrior Level...
Although Dai Sect and Wushan Divine Lady are formidable, their Professional Energy will eventually deplete.
Awakened must exploit the contradictions between native forces to stir up trouble in the Spirit Realm.
Originally, Bai Pu intended to use this patrol leader, Clare, to understand the power dynamics surrounding Pon Sai City and uncover organizations hostile to the Demon God forces of Pon Sai City.
This is the proper path for Awakened exploring the Spirit Realm.
But with Clareâs death, this line was severed.
"What should we do now? Should I infiltrate Pon Sai City and capture a person without the True Red Mark?" Wushan Divine Lady volunteered.
Bai Pu looked up at the sky; it was noon and the highland sun seemed particularly close.
"Infiltration will have to wait for the evening, we donât have that much time to waste."
Bai Pu gently shook his head, "Actually, this patrol has already told us a lot of things."
Bai Pu stepped into the bloody, cluttered battlefield, caught a warhorse, and flipped its front hoof. The poor horse in Bai Puâs hands couldnât even struggle, only huffed to resign itself to fate.
"Most of the patrolâs horses have marks of blood and dirt on their hooves. Judging by the color and level of dryness, this was applied less than an hour ago. Itâs evident this patrol had just carried out a massacre type of combat mission."
Blood Spider was tempted to ask "why it was a massacre mission," but she held back.
Fortunately, Bai Pu explained the reasoning for his judgment.
"I have thirteen pieces of evidence supporting this judgment; Iâll show you three of them now."
"First, patrol leader Clareâs horseâs left front hoof has a roughly made, undyed linen strip wedged in the horseshoe gap, which is distinctly out of place with the well-armored Pon Sai Cavalry attire."
"Second, the rump of the last horse at the patrolâs tail end has three shallow, open wounds. Judging from the angle, force, and other factors, it reminds me of a weaponâ
"A farmerâs pitchfork."
"Third, the mane on the neck of one of the patrolâs horses shows obvious burn marks, and the horseâs neck has smoke-singed traces as well."
During Bai Puâs description, everyone present couldnât help but visualize a scene in their minds.
A burning village, wailing villagers. The patrolâs hooves galloping over a ground strewn with corpses and blood, cavalrymen wielding sabers for a frenzied slaughter.
Even if there were farmer resistance, pitchforks could only cause insignificant minor injuries to the patrol...
The Special Service Officer Xu Dog, responsible for tracking, couldnât suppress a look of shock beneath his dog-head mask.
Xu Dog was adept at tracking, with a strong grasp of scene details, but he had only discovered two relatively obvious abnormalities. He never expected Bai Pu to find as many as thirteen!
What terrifying insight is this?
Wushan Divine Lady said, "But the marks found on these warhorses could have been left before. Why do you think this happened today?"
Dai Sect shook his head and said, "Divine Lady, you donât understand the military system of the Pavir Plateau in the Demon Fighting World. Every regular army cavalry has at least three auxiliary soldiers, one of whom is a groom in charge of the warhorse. If the groom leaves dirt in the horseshoe gap overnight, leaves such obvious smoke and burn marks unwashed, the next morning, the cavalry master will whip him hard."
Wushan Divine Lady suddenly nodded in understanding: "Now it makes sense. Hence, when Chen Dragon was flying, the direction this patrol was coming from, wasnât it exactly that massacred village?"
"Thatâs right, and possibly where we can find the resistance organization." Bai Pu said.
"Gangxin, I have another question." Dai Sect said sternly, "These villages are very weak, even a patrol from Pon Sai City can easily slaughter them. Why do you deduce that we can find an organization resisting the Demon God through the villages?"
Bai Pu raised his finger: "Two reasons."
"First, the village was clearly very weak, yet it didnât submit to Pon Sai City and become meek subjects, thus inviting a massacre. Why didnât such a weak village submit?"
If the village had submitted to Pon Sai City, itâs hard to imagine the regular army of Pon Sai City would massacre its own subordinate village.
Without subordinate villages, how would the city sustain its food and manpower? Rely on those noble lords to farm themselves?
It seems the village didnât side with Pon Sai City for only one reason: there exists an organization resisting Pon Sai City and even the Demon God forces behind it!
"The second reason is the Spirit Realm Willâs balance of faction power."
Bai Pu slowly said, "Itâs clear that Otherworld Travelers joined the Demon God faction, and with our Huaxia Battle Group, on the Awakened level, itâs at least an equal exchange. So on the level of native forces, it wouldnât allow the Demon God to have a monopoly; a force resisting the Demon God must exist."
Dai Sect nodded in agreement. He initially had some doubts about Bai Pu, after all, Bai Pu was only nineteen years old, maybe very capable in combat, and lucky too, but in terms of command ability and overall perspective, he might not be convincing.
Now, Bai Pu, relying on personal wisdom and judgment, forcibly reconnected the broken clues!
Dai Sect was fully convinced that Bai Pu had the ability to command this top-tier Huaxia Battle Group. He sighed inwardly, indeed, achieving such success after two years of Awakening is not solely due to luck.