Ice Storm understood what Meng Chao meant.
Hundreds of thousands or even more than a million rat people passed through Collapsed Space Plains at the same time and headed north while being chased by the Blood Hooves Warriors.
Whoever was able to escape alive would be a strong soldier who could withstand the battle.
A saber made from hundreds of thousands of corpses was bound to be much hotter and sharper than a saber made from any other training method.
"Then what should we do?"
Ice Storm asked gravely. "Should we go through Collapsed Space Plains or War Drum Forest?"
"Of course we'll follow the group and go through Collapsed Space Plains."
"You're right. If we break out of War Drum Forest, it'll be safer, but I don't think that what we need the most right now is safety. Instead, we need more training and fighting so that we can digest the ancient treasures we stole from the temple and the totem armor that has been upgraded to the next level so that we can gain a comprehensive understanding of the techniques we've learned from them.
"That way, when we reach Pure Gold City and find the people we're looking for, we'll be able to give them a huge 'surprise', right?"
Once they made up their minds, the two of them quickly returned to the group. Just like everyone else, they filled their waterskins to the brim and headed into the vast Collapsed Space Plains.
Sure enough, just as they had expected, after marching for only half a day in the grassland, the entire team had completely dispersed.
This was a ragtag bunch of people who were put together at the last minute. Their stamina and health were all uneven, and they had not been working together for a long time, so their pace was not uniform at all.
Yesterday, under the lead of Old Bearskin and the round bone club, they barely managed to form a line and move forward.
Today, when they heard that their pursuers were right behind them, they went into the plains that were half the height of a person and had a very bad field of vision. If there was even the slightest movement, their formation would be thrown into chaos.
First, they turned into a long snake. Then, the long snake split into seven or eight pieces from the middle.
Each piece was like a curled up earthworm that wriggled forward.
When they reached the depths of the plains, the number of pits dug by the rodents gradually increased. Occasionally, someone would step into a pit by accident and sprain their ankle or the back of their foot.
His injuries were not serious, but the time he wasted was enough to be fatal.
The fugitives, who had been deeply shocked by the mighty image of the Great Horned Rat God in their dreams, all believed that this was a test given to them by the Great Horned Rat God, and they did not want others to die with them. Thus, they all rejected their companions' attempts to help them up, gripped their weapons and divine medicine tightly, and gradually fell behind.
When dusk arrived, the fugitives completely lost the concept of lining up.
It wasn't just Old Bearhide and Round Bone Club's teams. All of the hundred-man teams had fallen apart. The rat people were all in groups of three to five. Like a swarm of headless flies, they groped their way towards the northeast.
At this moment, everyone knew very well that it was impossible to regroup the disorganized motley crew into an orderly and obedient army.
If they wanted to live, they could only grit their teeth, keep their heads down, and run forward.
Fortunately, the scattering of the fugitives also made it extremely difficult for the pursuers to hunt them.
It was just as Meng Chao said. Even if there were hundreds of thousands of wild boars scattered all over the plains, it was still impossible to capture and kill all of them.
Now, it all depended on who had the worst luck and who would be caught by the pursuers, which would then buy more time for the other fugitives.
Of course, to the rat people who believed in the peerless might of the Great Horned Rat God, perhaps they would be "lucky" if they ran into the pursuers. They would have the chance to die in the most heroic manner and have their souls leave their bodies so that they could ascend the Sacred Mountain.
Meng Chao and the hailstorm continued following Old Bearhide and Round Bone Club.
Along the way, they gathered up the scattered fugitives and regrouped thirty to fifty men and horses.
This was also the largest team they could control in the current situation.
Old Bearhide's expression was stern.
His face was already full of wrinkles, but now, they became even deeper.
Round Bone Club translated his expression and told everyone that Old Bearhide had smelled the scent of centaur warriors.
Just as he expected, the moment Bloody Dusk descended, violent shouts and shrill screams rose from all directions.
There was no cover on the plains. The sound waves of the Blood Hooves Warriors mixed with their totem power could travel very far. They were like war drums that could destroy people's souls, and they struck the chest of every fugitive.
Based on the source of the sound, there were indeed a few pursuers. They relied on the advantage of being as fast as lightning to get in front of them because they were one with their horses.
Even though there were not a lot of pursuers in each team.
But if they ran into them, they would only die.
As the shouts of the pursuers rose and fell, the nerves of the fugitives were so tense that they felt like they were about to break.
No one dared to rest. Even though their legs were so numb that they could no longer feel them, and their chests were so hot that they were about to explode, they still staggered forward.
At midnight, Meng Chao and the hailstorm's fugitive team plunged into a battlefield that had just ended.
The stench of blood that hung over the battlefield had already solidified.
They were like red clouds that were pressed down to the ground.
They also looked like strangely shaped scarlet flowers that bloomed from corpses.
But it was crushed by Meng Chao's team and turned into a nauseating stench again. It charged into their noses and pierced the brains of all the fugitives.
What was even more pungent than the stench of blood were the horrifying corpses.
There were at least one hundred corpses in front of them.
At least, because all the corpses had been ravaged to the point that it was almost impossible to tell that they were still corpses.
These fugitives who had set off earlier than Meng Chao but unfortunately ran into the pursuers had been killed by the centaur warriors in the cruelest way possible.
Even though the rat people were used to seeing death and torture.
They could not imagine that fresh corpses that had just lost their vitality for half a day could be arranged like this … It was as if they had been placed between vultures and hyenas for half a month during the hottest season on the plains.
If they had not received a revelation from the Horned Rat God in their dreams before they left.
Many of them were almost scared out of their wits by the terrifying scene in front of them.
Even though they still maintained their illusory courage.
But this courage only made them fearless, but it could not stop the arrival of death.
Everyone sank into silence in front of the pile of mangled corpses.
Not to mention Old Bearskin, who had always been a man of few words.
Even Round Bone Rod, who had been full of energy yesterday, was now biting down on his cheeks, as if he wanted to swallow the non-existent centaur warrior whole.
"Why don't we stop running?"
At that moment, a voice that was too calm broke the suffocating silence.
Everyone's gazes were on Meng Chao, who was covered in dirt just like them.
"Even if we still want to run, we'll fight before we run. We'll have a better chance of running," Meng Chao said calmly.
He and Hailstorm had not said a word before because they were worried that the powerful Big Horn soldiers hiding among the fugitives would see through them.
But after a day and half a night of observation, they found out that the defeated fugitives were all rat people slaves from Black Horn City.
Round Bone Rod and Old Bearskin were just normal soldiers from the Big Horn Army who did not know anything.
So, there was no need for them to continue hiding. They could test their skills and take the initiative.
Although the two of them treated the pursuers as tools to test their ancient treasures and sharpen their totem skills.
But they never thought that they could kill all the pursuers with their own strength.
If it was possible, they would use the power of the rat people warriors to at least hold back the pursuers on the frontline.
Only then could they deal a fatal blow to the pursuers from the flanks and back.
"What did you say?"
Perhaps he sensed an indescribable intimidating force from Meng Chao, because the bone club took a few steps toward him before he came to a stop. With a face full of hesitation, he asked, "Why do you say that I'll have a higher chance if I fight before I run?"
"If the pursuers are still behind us, and their speed is about the same as ours, we can run. But since the pursuers are already in front of us, if we continue to wander around and run like stray dogs, we'll just be digging our own graves."
Meng Chao looked at the mangled corpses on the ground and sighed. "These brothers died too tragically. But it shouldn't have been like this. We had the Rat God's blessing and the divine medicine he gave us. We also had the determination to die with the enemy. Even if we died, we would have bitten off the enemy's skin and bones. How could we have lost in such a humiliating manner and been slaughtered by the enemy?"
This was a question that the rat people warriors, who were filled with fervent faith in the Big Horn Rat God, could not answer.
"Because we forgot that this was a trial, a great chance to show our courage and determination," Meng Chao said.
"Many of us ran, but the more we ran, the more scattered we became. The more scattered we became, the more guilty we became, and the more guilty we became, the faster we ran. Not only did we use up too much of our stamina, we couldn't even form groups or battle formations. In the end, when we ran into fully-armed pursuers in groups of three to five, there was no way we wouldn't be slaughtered by the enemy.
"In truth, with the Big Horn Rat God's blessing, the rat people warriors might have been able to fight against the human warriors, but there's a very important prerequisite — numbers. As long as we have enough numbers, we can form an iron wall and a storm, and we won't be pigs that can be slaughtered by others!"
Round Bone Rod opened his mouth.
Of course he knew this logic.
The Big Horn Army had always relied on numbers to win over quality.
The problem was, he and Old Bear Hide were just normal soldiers. Gathering around fifty people to run with them was already their limit. If there were another five hundred people, they would not be able to command them!
"That's why I said that we shouldn't run anymore," Meng Chao explained patiently.
"If we want to march quickly while gathering scattered fugitives to form an elite fighting squad of around five hundred people, that's just a pipe dream.
"But what if we stop here?
"If we stop here and dig trenches and pits around us, set up simple barricades, gather scattered fugitives, and gather together a large number that the pursuers will never expect.
"Will we have the chance to fight against the pursuers? We won't be hoping to win, but just hope to inflict pain on them and show off our bravery so that the Big Horn Rat God can see our hard work?"
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