Chapter 71: Earth Kingdom

The day after the battle, Jia Yuan sat in the Governor’s

Manor.

“Everyone is gone?” asked Jia Yuan. He had many friends and acquaintances

from his time in BlueFire City, and was worried about them.

“Not a single citizen was seen in the city. Since this was a

city with a large Water Kingdom population despite being in the Fire Kingdom borders,

it’s possible they all retreated back into Water Kingdom land after the

takeover.” Lin Zheng replied.

Jia Yuan pondered this. “What about the Fire Kingdom

citizens then?”

Lin Zheng’s face turned grave. “I doubt they Water Kingdom

would just let them go… if they’re the right age and are healthy, they could be

turned into soldiers. Why would they let us have more soldiers? Depending on

how merciful the Water Kingdom is feeling… the Fire Kingdom citizens were

probably either captured or killed, unless they all escaped before the city was

taken. In fairness, the nearby cities did see an increase in travelers

recently.”

Jia Yuan pondered this. “Do the numbers match?”

“Not really. But that’s normal in these times.”

Jia Yuan suddenly turned in Lin Zheng’s direction. “I just

thought of something. Say that my 31st battalion was to take heavy

losses. How would I regrow my battalion? There’s no tournaments or anything to

choose recruits for older units of the Burning Legion.”

“Hm… this draws into why a war hadn’t been fought for such a

long time. In times of war, the best Army soldiers are sent to replace those in

the Burning Legion who can’t fight anymore, whether because they died or were

injured.”

“But if all of these prized soldiers are moved to the

Burning Legion, then the Army itself takes a hit! After all, most soldiers don’t

even cultivate, and if they do, they are unable to progress past the first half

of the Absorption level. As such, the Kingdom will begin providing more

commoners and non-cultivating soldiers with Songs, hoping that some talents

will quickly develop.”

“You can imagine how long it takes for a Kingdom to stock up

on so many Songs… they’ll need hundreds of thousands of Songs, if not more. As

such, after the last war, the various Kingdoms spent huge efforts on obtaining

the greatest amount of Songs possible. But there are only so many people who

are capable of Composing.”

But now, the Water and Earth Kingdoms clearly feel that they

have stored enough resources to fight a prolonged war. Jia Yuan knew that with

so many resources being stocked up, there was no way this war was going to be a

short one. This was a war that would likely end in the complete and utter

destruction of yet another Kingdom… just as the Sword Kingdom had been

destroyed so many years ago.

The next day, the 2nd Army and the 31st

Battalion set out. BlueFire City was currently being occupied and run as a

military base by the 4th Army.

Lin Zheng grumbled. “Every time we conquer a place, some

other Army is there to take advantage of it, and my 2nd Army is

whipped into fighting yet again.”

Jia Yuan nodded. Even in wartime, certain armies were given

easier assignments than others. As for being assigned to aid the 2nd

Army, which was regularly assigned to the most aggressive and dangerous

assignments, he didn’t care. He wanted to one day stand at the top of the

world, free to do whatever he wished! If he shirked from a simple war on one of

the smallest and weakest continents in the world, how would he be able to make

his dream come true?

But of course, few of those who lived on the Continent of

the Five Elements even knew about the outside world.

After traveling for a bit, Lin Zheng had the entire 2nd

Army set up camp. In the meantime, a new messenger had arrived from the Fire

Kingdom.

Lin Zheng read it, then spoke to Jia Yuan, Fan Meng, as well

as his own commanders. “We’ve been congratulated for retaking BlueFire City

ahead of schedule. We’ll be sent extra equipment and supplies. However, the war

isn’t going as well in other places. The Air Kingdom has been rather heavily

invaded by the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Kingdom is also under siege from

many places. It can almost be said that our acquisition of a sieging base is

the sole bright point so far for our side this war.”

Jia Yuan and Fan Meng glanced at each other. They didn’t

really feel too much allegiance to the Fire Kingdom. Fan Meng was loyal only to

the Black Wing Merchant Guild, which had looked over him when others had

shunned him due to his poor cultivating talent. As for Jia Yuan, he had

previously been a slave of the Fire Kingdom. It was Guo Huo who had found and

freed him. Furthermore, the greatest benefit Jia Yuan had earned in his life,

was from a previous leader of the Sword Kingdom, which he knew had been jointly

destroyed by the other Kingdoms.

If any of the Kingdoms sustained large losses, neither of

them would really care, but…

The two of them were very competitive! How could they let

the side they were fighting for lose?

Lin Zheng continued. “We are to head south to provide aid to

the Air Kingdom and fight alongside their 1st Army.”

And so, the 2nd Army and 31st Burning

Legion Battalion headed south, where they would spend the next few years

fighting against the forces of the Earth Kingdom.