My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 160

"Compared to that nobleman from before, these guys are far inferior," she said calmly, cutting off the part that was stuck to Theresa's shield. "Well done, though. I admit you have some merits—but more importantly, Mr. Bozocasti has become our strongest support."

The sounds of fierce fighting could be heard nearby. The loudest sounds came from where the Wendigo was standing.

"hiss..."

Guided by Monica, Theresa turned around and discovered that the two dukes, under the protection of the Templar Knights who had poured in from outside, were sitting on their thrones, watching the battle below and deep in thought.

Noticing the approving look from Duke Yang Hao, Theresa's lips twitched. She thought to herself, "I'm fighting to the death here, and you, the boss, are just watching the show."

This is really... I don't know what to say.

She shook her head and rejoined the battle with her sisters. They had just killed one infiltrator, and now Mr. Bozocasti had blocked five infiltrators, while another five were surrounded by a mixed force of Serpent Scales, Creed, and Templars, unable to advance or retreat.

They hadn't received orders to leave any survivors for the infiltrators, so in other words, their job was to wipe out all the enemies here.

But their lord didn't think that way.

At Duke Yang Hao's command, the soldiers and spies killed the remaining nine people, leaving only the head of the infiltrator alive, who was in a state of ecstasy. They realized that Duke Yang Hao hoped to obtain the information he wanted from this head by various means.

Chapter 96

It was a creature that was still alive, with only its head remaining... Yang Hao didn't even know how to describe it. She had an expression of ecstasy, as if being severed from her body brought her not only pain, but also the pleasure of soaring to the clouds.

Koschke whispered in his ear that after a long period of time, many immortals would find that nothing could stimulate their emotions. Over time, they would begin to become obsessed with things that were incredibly strange to mortals—pain was one of them, but she had never seen anyone who could feel pleasure from pain like this before.

"In short...Ms. Kal'tsit, do you have a way to extract the information we need from his mind?"

Knowing that simply asking questions would be pointless, Yang Hao could only turn to Dr. Kal'tsit, who had been standing by their side protecting them—she was the only researcher here, and a good doctor at that. If even she couldn't help, then keeping his head would be meaningless.

When Yang Hao asked her a question, Ms. Kal'tsit simply nodded:

“I might be able to get her to say something by stimulating her brain,” she said. “But I’m not sure—whether she even knows the information you need. And it seems this head… this creature’s vitality is far too strong. I need Bozocas to keep an eye on her for me, is that alright?”

“Of course. Mr. Bozokastie, please come with Ms. Kal'tsit. Thank you for your help.”

"You're welcome."

The tall Wendigo nodded, then used his halberd to lift the head off the ground, and left the audience hall with the head still attached, intending to complete their work in a medical room in the Duke's mansion under Monica's guidance.

Meanwhile, after they left, Yang Hao dismissed most of his guards and left Theresa behind. He then said to Koschche, who was standing beside him, with a worried expression:

"We managed to withstand this attack, albeit risky. But are these guys really Duke Nikolai's half-ascended beings? I have serious doubts..."

"Perhaps... um? Darling?"

Indeed, don't they look a bit too weak?

Monica could easily kill an individual one-on-one, after all, she was a fully ascended being—but Mr. Bozocasti could take on five people at once and still seem to have no trouble, and the remaining five were wiped out by the mortal Templars and spy forces... Although it might seem like he was outnumbered, isn't he just too weak?

Yang Hao was very skeptical about this... However, the [Puppet Stage] told him that they had indeed annihilated a group of half-step ascendants—and the weakest of them.

[Event: An unsuccessful assassination]

Although Duke Nikolai's half-ascended beings were not paid to do chores, as objects deliberately "abandoned" by the living city, these weak half-ascended beings clearly suffered great damage in terms of strength and body.

The powerful near-ascended beings have all been absorbed by the living city; those remaining will only be weak. But even so, this doesn't necessarily mean it's good news—

Duke Nikolai decided to hold a grand ceremony to increase his control over the deformed soldiers.

'Does that mean he can finally concentrate his forces and launch a massive attack?'

...This is really not good news.

After all, the reason why the Duchy of Kosiché is able to withstand their attack with some difficulty is entirely due to the fact that Duke Nikolai has no real control over those deformed soldiers. He can only guide those deformed soldiers to move in a certain direction, but when it comes to "which target to attack", he is at a loss and can do nothing.

Once Duke Nikolai gains control over his deformed soldiers... then it's conceivable that the front lines Yang Hao painstakingly helped Sonia reclaim will face their greatest test yet—it could be a tidal wave of enemies following Duke Nikolai's concentrated attack on a defensive line, or it could be something else entirely... but...

This does not mean that Yang Hao has no chance to do anything.

Holding a ceremony means that preparations will take time. If Yang Hao can interfere with Duke Nikolai's every move during the ceremony, perhaps Duke Nikolai's ambitions will be thwarted.

But how can I interfere with his every move?

Yang Hao opened his mouth, then suddenly had a bold idea:

There were many reinforcements outside the city who, under their orders, did not rashly attack Duke Nikolai's living city, but they did not necessarily need to attack that city, did they?

Yang Hao knew that although a large number of alien soldiers roamed freely in the wasteland outside the city, most areas were safe, with enough open space for them to [set up naval cannons]...

We can lower the naval guns in the city using a hoisting system, then have the reinforcements outside move the guns and ammunition to a safe location, and finally have them shoot at the vulnerable rear of the living city from a distance. Wouldn't that solve the problem?

After all, a living city can't hide its weaknesses in its center. If it wants to change its appearance, it will inevitably expose another weakness to our forces in another direction. Even if the naval artillery sent over doesn't cause serious damage to the living city, it doesn't matter—Yang Hao only needs them to affect Duke Nikolai's plans!

After all, large-scale ceremonies require a vast battlefield, and if even one launched artillery shell manages to hit the area surrounding the ceremony site...

...feasible.

He swallowed hard, turned to Theresa, and said:

"Theresa! Immediately have the armory manager prepare the naval gun shells and disassembly/reassembly of the naval guns. I have a plan!"

"Huh? It is—"

Theresa paused for a moment, then quickly went to carry out Yang Hao's orders. After she left, Kosiché looked at Yang Hao, puzzled, hoping for an explanation.

Facing Koschei's gaze, Yang Hao nervously rubbed his hands together, explaining his audacious plan and stating that he needed all of Koschei's help. Only she could mobilize the reinforcements outside the Koschei Duchy, thus preventing the puppet stage from being controlled, and only she could fill in any details he had overlooked. Truly.

..... .....

Noon on the 21st.

Sonia had successfully stabilized the front line at its initial position. Watching their battle unfold through the puppet stage, Yang Hao was satisfied and ordered them to go back and rest for a while—because the Deep Sea Hunters would still need to contribute to the work tonight.

Meanwhile, Theresa's orders were also completed. She had all the technicians in the armory who maintained the naval guns ready, disassembling the four naval guns and placing them in easily movable, wheeled, giant secure containers, while also preparing four tractors. Those vehicles could start as soon as they hit the ground, and as long as reinforcements from outside could reach the city, moving the naval guns wouldn't take them much effort.

The problem, however, lies in how to break through the encirclement. From Yang Hao's observation, the wasteland surrounding the Duke of Koschie is now completely surrounded by those deformed soldiers. Although they appear to move freely, in reality, if they see a living person, they attack like sharks smelling blood—if there are no living people at all, they will kill and devour their companions at mealtimes, further reducing their numbers while also creating even stronger individuals.

Although those slow-moving, fleshy monsters that looked almost as tall as a story didn't have the ability to climb the city walls, Yang Hao knew they definitely had the ability to directly block the tow truck.

Therefore, their plan to relocate the naval guns required highly coordinated planning to ensure its successful execution on time. The key to this plan lay with Yang Hao and Kosiché—or rather, their teamwork.

First, Yang Hao's puppet stage cannot control the actions of troops not under his command, but he can see the movements of reinforcements and completely control the actions of his own people.

Secondly, Kosichrie is the actual controller of this external reinforcement force; only she has the authority to command the 5 reinforcements, including the 3 Sarkaz mercenaries outside. However, unlike Yang Hao, she doesn't know the reinforcements' every move, so she needs Yang Hao's assistance to find out exactly where the receiving force is.

Therefore, in summary, the following plan must be strictly executed in the following order: [Kosiché gives the order], [Yang Hao checks the map and reports the situation continuously], [Kosiché gives the order again until the squad reaches the target location], [Yang Hao orders the technicians to send the naval cannons and tow trucks to the city walls]. This is a test of the couple's tacit understanding and cooperation.

"So...darling, can we begin?"

"Ah."

In a secluded place, under the watchful eyes of Head Maid Monica and Miss Theresa, they exchanged glances and began the plan.

First came Kosichä's orders. She used a communicator to order the external reinforcements to move to a hilltop, far from the living city of Nikolai but within range of naval guns, to build a concealed position. Then she ordered a group of elite Sarkaz mercenaries and noble private soldiers to form an elite squad and begin moving along the hills in a large circle toward the outskirts of the Kosichä duchy, where equipment was already being transported.

Even if they traveled at full speed by vehicle, it would still take them more than half an hour to complete the detour. And unlike their off-road vehicles, the trailers towing the heavy naval guns needed to travel on the smoothest possible roads, so finding their way might also take them a considerable amount of time...

Therefore, after Kosichek gave the order, Yang Hao could only stare blankly at the movements of the small blue dots representing friendly forces on the map.

A while later, just as Yang Hao was watching the small team take a long detour while searching for a smooth path, Sonia's mother, whom he had ordered to rest, returned.

As soon as she returned, she looked towards Yang Hao. After learning from Monica's whisper that they had been attacked that morning, her face turned grim and she became angry. However, in the end, seeing that Yang Hao was safe and sound, she sat down on the metal chair next to him and watched him until she entered a state of "rest".

Her anxious, reproachful yet protective gaze made Yang Hao a little flustered... but he quickly recovered.

A while later, he saw that the team was blocked by something halfway there. They were forced to change routes, and it seemed that they would have to go straight down the mountain, drive through the roaming monster horde, and head directly to the target location to pick up the vehicle.

“They said they encountered rugged terrain that even off-road vehicles couldn’t cross, so they had no choice but to enter the wilderness halfway and head to our city to pick up the vehicle.” Kosiché’s words brought Yang Hao back to reality. “They will choose to break through the loose blockade of those mindless aliens directly—but when they receive the tow truck, they will still encounter a strong blockade during their breakout.”

"I've already instructed the operators to use the non-removable naval guns on the other side of the defensive wall to clear the way for them. But there's one thing I've been wanting to ask—besides the mortar crew having high-explosive shells, why do the other shells on Ursus need to hit a sufficiently hard object to explode?"

"Because they were designed from the outset to counter landships or other mobile cities, they never considered attacking a flesh-and-blood unit moving across the wilderness."

"Ugh."

In my hometown, there are quite a few anti-aircraft guns that were supposedly designed only for air defense, but ended up killing people as well. Why can't the weapons designers in Ursus be more flexible?

Yang Hao felt a headache coming on, but under his command, the distant defensive wall did indeed hear the booming of naval guns firing again and again. Although, according to Yang Hao's observation, the impact on the alien soldiers on the ground was negligible, at least some of the shells still hit the units they called "tumor monsters".

Although the shells could only create penetrating holes in them, and the number of holes they created was even slower than the healing speed caused by the shells eating their own remains due to the poor accuracy of the shells... it was not without its reasons: at least many of the wounded, but unable to eat their own remains, fleshy monsters left the area of ​​the shelling and went to cause trouble for their roaming counterparts.

"I'm so glad Duke Nikolai didn't have much control over these monsters..."

Seeing this, Yang Hao breathed a sigh of relief.

Chapter Ninety-Seven

When the team arrived at the wasteland 2 kilometers away from their target location, they were only a few minutes' drive from their destination—and the biggest threat to them was none other than those towering, fleshy monsters.

Fortunately, the city's naval artillery had already repelled the monsters. The vast majority of the lumpy monsters didn't linger on their main course, and even those that remained only slightly slowed them down by carrying the tow trucks and naval artillery. Considering that most of the deformed soldiers weren't very agile and might not be able to keep up with the slowest vehicles, if they could acquire the items and break through the increasing number of deformed soldiers, then Yang Hao's plan should be able to be completed smoothly.

"They are still some distance from our target location... When they are 30 seconds away from the target location, I will have the technicians airdrop everything down, and at the same time have the launching devices on board drop the few remaining high-energy stones we have to create a burning zone... If this continues, as long as no unexpected situations occur, we should be able to get at least three of the four naval guns to the appropriate locations."

“My dear, you said ‘no surprises.’ I don’t think Duke Nikolai would be unresponsive to our actions—although he certainly doesn’t have much control over his mutated subordinates, but…”

"Either he sends out the teams he can control to deal with our squad, or he can only watch helplessly and at most guide those deformed soldiers toward our squad."

Duke Nikolai could only guide the mentally challenged aliens in a certain direction—either towards the narrow barricades or towards the collapsed ramp. But in short, all he could do was guide.

Those incredibly strong but unintelligent aliens lacked the ability to handle more complex matters. Duke Nikolai couldn't even manage to retreat a heavily damaged force during battle, and it was thanks to this that Yang Hao and his men were able to hold out for so long.

In other words, even if Duke Nikolai discovered the movement of the Kosichean reinforcements, he couldn't control the aliens running rampant in the wilderness, who were already disobedient to him, to launch a successful counterattack. He could only watch helplessly, at most guiding the troops still under his command in the city—but if he did that, Yang Hao could calmly continue advancing forward at this time when the pressure on the front lines had decreased, establishing a third, rudimentary defensive line in case of unforeseen circumstances.

No matter how you look at it, Yang Hao has made a profit. However, he doesn't need such petty gains: he needs his ship's cannons to reach the designated location and give Duke Nikolai, who is currently holding a ceremony, a good look! So now he is nervously but calmly studying the map on the [Puppet Stage], choosing a suitable route for his team.

...... ......

While Duke Kosiché and his wife were working hard for the future of their city and the Ursus Empire, Duke Nikolai also knew that his foolish subordinates had failed.

He never had any faith in those fools from the beginning, because his powerful and trustworthy subordinates had been assimilated into the heart of the living city. In other words, his most trusted subordinates were gone—the remaining insects, what could he do with them?

Ha ha.

When he realized through shared senses that the first foolish thing those half-ascended beings did after infiltrating the Duke of Koschche was to openly commit mass murder, he knew the insectoids were untrustworthy. Therefore, he felt no emotional reaction to the insectoids' ultimate failure—because he knew that instead of being angry for the insectoids, he should focus on improving his control over the aliens.

But to increase his control, he needs to hold a ritual. To hold a ritual, he inevitably needs blood and corpses, but now the city's blood and corpses are almost completely depleted—so what can he do?

Duke Nikolai pondered for a moment and decided to sacrifice a portion of his troops—after all, the two front lines were too wide for these lowly aliens to advance on anyway. It would be better to sacrifice some insignificant aliens and gain more for himself through their deaths.

He needs control. Once his control increases, he can bring the aliens in the wilderness into the fight—but then again…

"Did the bleeding from the claws that were previously damaged by naval gunfire severely affect the activity of the living city?"

He looked at the enormous heart before him, which was beating rhythmically but seemed weaker than before, and murmured to himself.

“Yes, sir—the living city is far too weak now. It hasn’t even taken over the entire city—it needs food.” His adjutant appeared on the wall and spoke in a chanting tone. “It has lost far too much of its core blood—that blood could strengthen our Xenomorphs, but it’s such a waste, such a waste.”

"Then let it eat. Anyway, most of those stupid aliens have nothing to do. Rather than letting themselves eat themselves, it's better to let them die with more value." Duke Nikolai grunted, and two breaths of gas with the smell of concentrated sulfuric acid sprayed out from the three nostrils on his back, directly corroding his clothes and also completely corroding some of his organs that were no longer necessary.

His body had changed considerably since ten days ago. His arms were as pink and tender as a newborn baby's, and his facial features possessed both male and female characteristics. His skin was cracked, and pale veins dotted his cherry-red muscles. His body was filled with fluid-filled cavities, which opened countless channels between his internal organs; sometimes, his heart would even release stomach acid that circulated within him.

His stomach had long since been turned upside down into the shape of a cup. This cup, made of stomach, still retained its original function—but more importantly, it was used to hold [sacrifices].

Sweet – honey, sugar.

Sweetest of all—the nectar of an everlasting flower obtained in a dream.

Salty – sea salt, mountain salt.

Zhi Xian – the bone marrow of one’s closest relatives, the weathered ashes of one’s ancestors.

Based on his hazy memories, Duke Nikolai had spent decades gathering the offerings he needed to ascend to a higher realm. Now, the cup within his body was filled with these offerings, and his body was ready.

He only had one last ritual left—once that was completed, the being named Nikolai would become the highest-ranking Ascended Being on this land, the sole victor.

Chapter Ninety-Eight

For some reason, Yang Hao felt that the plan was going too smoothly.

At 1:20 p.m., when the reinforcement squad finally managed to take away the tow truck after suffering thirty casualties, and successfully left the wilderness and climbed the hills at the cost of destroying one tow truck and a naval gun, Yang Hao thought that Duke Nikolai would definitely take the opportunity to do something to his plan. He waited anxiously for a while, but in the end, he found that Duke Nikolai did nothing.

Although reports from the front lines indicate that many of the wandering alien soldiers have been "recalled," overall, it seems that those soldiers are not planning a full-scale attack on the Dukedom of Koschche. They also don't seem to be planning anything against the reinforcements outside.

Forget about any plans to do anything outside... there's been no activity even at the front lines? In fact, the pressure on the front lines has lessened?

Yang Hao frowned. He did not choose to advance rashly. Instead, he had the soldiers at the front confirm that the number of deformed soldiers in front of the barricades had indeed decreased significantly. Then, he ordered the soldiers to try to expand the position outward little by little to see if this was a trap set by Duke Nikolai.

However—that's not the case.

"What the hell is going on?"

Seeing that his soldiers had indeed pushed the front line forward by nearly 50 meters after suffering some casualties and rebuilding the suggested positions there, Yang Hao couldn't help but mutter to himself.