Chapter 998 — The Psychic Songster
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
In Gao Yang's view, what Luo Yan was doing did not even count as a conspiracy — everything was happening openly and aboveboard.
It even gave him a certain feeling — as though Luo Yan Augustus, far away in Aldernan, had cast him a glance across the miles, telling him to watch and catch what came next...
And Gao Yang thought about it seriously, and concluded that he really could only catch it, because all of this was, conveniently, exactly what he had been hoping for.
By whatever means, reducing the number of carriers of mental contamination, weakening the War God's influence in the material world, and keeping the enemy beyond the nation's gates were all things that had to be done; in this regard, Luo Yan had merely played a tacit hand in concert with Cecil...
"Ancestor, is this really all right?" Heddy could not help but frown. This whole chain of maneuvers by Luo Yan Augustus had gone well beyond her expectations; in her memory, only this coffin-rising patriarch of the Xuanyuan Sect before her could have pulled off such bold, rule-defying moves. "The Typhon are using our hands to clear out those mentally mutated infectees..."
"The key now is not whether this is right, but that it is the only option — Luo Yan has thrown us a ball we have no choice but to catch, and now we can only play this out with him," Gao Song said, his manner calm. "Rather, this actually suits my thinking — we do not have the energy to spare for those Typhon whose minds are still sound, but if the ones on the other side are infectees... that is another matter entirely."
The strange feeling in Heddy's heart was still hard to dispel. She pressed her lips together, a flicker of disbelief on her face: "But he can actually do this openly... those soldiers and nobles contaminated by the War God are no longer of ordinary mind, yet he still commands them at will, and the War God has shown no reaction at all throughout..."
"Just as we have long been analyzing how gods are born and how they operate, Luo Yan Augustus has his own research in this area as well," Gao Song said, his expression turning grave. "He has clearly found the underlying pattern... With the god in a half-mad state, he has precisely exploited the loophole in the domain of 'war' — even sending those infected followers of the War God to die at the front is, in essence, part of supporting war. So long as that remains within the framework, he will not draw the War God's backlash, and those mentally contaminated nobles and soldiers will obediently obey orders from Aldernan."
"The problem is that even a deranged army still has ordinary intelligence on the battlefield — and because they have lost the fear and weakness of normal humans, those mentally contaminated people can unleash combat power far beyond that of normal soldiers," Heddy said sternly. "By sending those out-of-control nobles and soldiers to Winterwolf Fortress, Luo Yan Augustus is also steadily wearing down our fighting strength..."
"Of course he wants to wear down our fighting strength — we have a mechanized legion of over a hundred thousand camped on Typhon soil; do you think he can sleep at night?" Gao Yang waved a hand. "His thinking is not hard to guess. I can only say... this is a very well-laid plan."
Luo Yan Augustus's intentions were plain as day to Gao Yang — this chaotic, sudden war had plunged both empires into a whirlpool, and countless people could not see clearly what the future held, yet for the rulers of the two empires it all lay before them as clearly as mountains and rivers under sunlight.