Chapter 950: Strange Atmosphere! No Trust!
The victory report from Ling Zhan's side left Adasim feeling a little stung.
Fortunately, although Adasim was the commander-in-chief of the western war zone, other peak powerhouses had the authority to ignore his orders.
Originally, the adventure legions of the Ten Great Guilds added up to about 1.5 billion in number.
Each adventure legion had an average of 150 million top-tier adventurers.
These were truly the elite of the world's ten strongest adventure guilds.
But now, only five or six hundred million actually boarded the warship.
That's because some guild leaders refused to obey Adasim's command at this time, unwilling to watch their own people go to their deaths, so they didn't let their legions join the assault.
In their view, Adasim was being a bit too eager for quick success and profit.
Adasim, of course, was furious, but he couldn't scold them.
After all, as world-class powerhouses, no one fears or dreads anyone else.
Even as commander, Adasim had no authority to force other guilds.
So these five or six hundred million adventurers were those under Adasim and a few guild leaders he was close to.
Meanwhile, the Rotten Witch Cathy was calmly constructing a massive spatial teleportation array nearby.
Naturally, the other adventure guild leaders preferred to stick with Cathy.
Compared to Adasim, Cathy was clearly much calmer and more reliable.
Half an hour's flight distance.
The warship crossed the Abyss of Betrayal.
But by that time, its magical energy shield was already falling apart.
The reason: during flight, those beasts long corrupted by demonic miasma launched ferocious attacks on the warship.
These beasts were utterly reckless, unleashing all sorts of skills as soon as they saw the ship.
Some even leapt from the bottom of the abyss, slamming their armored bodies into the warship.
This left cracks all over Adasim's warship's energy shield.
By the time they reached the sky above the demon soldiers' position…
Boom!!
Boom!!
Boom!!
...…
A barrage of artillery!!
What greeted them was a line of magic energy floating cannons, all set up and ready!
Each cannon fired pitch-black beams like the sharpest blades, slicing through the ship's magical shield.
"Abandon the ship!"
"Airdrop! Everyone, airdrop with me!"
"Hit the ground and wipe them out!"
Adasim roared.
His massive form crashed down like a cannonball from the sky.
Even when the floating cannons hit his body, not a single scratch appeared.
This was the toughness of a world-class powerhouse's body!
He was unfazed by the cannons' attacks!
But…
He, as a world-class powerhouse, could withstand these attacks unharmed.
His troops, however, could not.
Most of the adventure legion were adventurers above level 160.
As they dropped, the floating cannons locked onto them one by one.
They were treated like target practice, bombarded relentlessly.
The real problem: these cannons' ammunition wasn't ordinary.
Upon hitting the enemy, it would release Ten Thousand Demons Toxic Mist.
This mist would instantly inflict four effects: coma, poison, bleeding, and weakness.
Coma lasted 10 seconds.
Poison and bleeding lasted 30 seconds.
Weakness reduced all attributes by 20% for 10 minutes.
So…
Even with buffs, when faced with this special toxic mist, they still got hit.
The kingdoms did have carefully developed SSS-grade neutralizing agents.
But the Ten Thousand Demons' side had equally skilled alchemists and magitech experts, who made the deadly toxic mist.
It's a special poison fog crafted from the core demon crystals deep in the Lair.
Ordinary dispel and purification skills were useless against the toxic mist's effects.
So…
Adasim watched darkly…
His soldiers, as they parachuted down, fell like broken kites—straight into the hands of waiting demon soldiers.
Thankfully, four world-class powerhouses went on this mission.
Adasim and three guild leaders didn't hesitate to fight, smashing through countless cannons and cutting a path forward.
But even so, under the hail of cannon fire, out of the original five or six hundred million adventurers, seventy million were lost.
In this western expedition, the Ten Guilds sent about 1.5 billion in total, with logistics and support pushing the number to two billion.
Losing seventy million from two billion may sound minimal.
But…
This was only the first battle!
They hadn't even reached the main fortress yet!
And already seventy million elite troops were lost!
Plus…
This was with four world-class powerhouses leading the way, just to cross the Abyss and take a small stronghold!
In a regular frontal assault, losses would never exceed ten thousand.
Four world-class powerhouses storming a stronghold guarded only by demon emperors—it'd be a walkover.
But because of the Abyss of Betrayal's terrain, casualties were heavy.
Ultimately, it was because Adasim was too impatient for results.
When Adasim and the other three guild leaders somberly counted losses and merit points…
Cathy finally arrived with the rest of her troops.
She glanced at the battlefield's corpses and only shook her head.
For a stronghold the size of a major city, to lose seventy million troops—this was… incomprehensible.
Cathy's followers didn't get any merit points, but seeing the fields of corpses, they were relieved.
Relieved their own guild leader hadn't come along.
The whole adventure legion was plunged into a strange atmosphere.
It was… weird.
At the very least, many adventure legion members looked at Adasim differently now.
With suspicion, and distrust hidden in their eyes.
After all…
Who could fully trust a commander who led his people to death?
"Rest for two days! Then we move on!"
Adasim growled.
...…
...…
Meanwhile,
Ling Zhan was already counting his system quest rewards.
[System detected host has secured an outstanding victory in the Demonic Valley battle. Now issuing system rewards…]