36: Chapter 36 Local Forces?

As dust began to rise at the edge of the territory.

The first to appear in view were the elite squads led by Lin Feng and Commander Lin Yu.

The warriors' armor was stained with blood, and many bore wounds, yet their steps remained firm and resounding, their gazes as sharp as ever.

Commander Lin Yu and several Spirit Healing Priests moved through the ranks, their hands glowing with a soft green light as they passed over the wounded warriors' bodies, causing wounds to close at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Immediately after, the other three squads, primarily composed of trainee soldiers, returned from different directions.

The new recruits' faces bore the exhaustion and lingering shock of their first high-intensity combat experience, but more than that, they showed the tenacity of having survived the trial of blood and fire.

Led by veterans, they carried or dragged prey even larger than yesterday's.

Finally, the strongest exploration team, led by Lin Yin and Lin Yan, returned to bring up the rear.

Lin Yin's moon-white holy robe was spotless, yet it was surrounded by a faint aura of malevolence; Lin Yan and the Mystic Rock Spirit Guards were like moving mountains, their rock armor covered in deep claw marks and corrosion, yet they remained as steady as boulders.

The army, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, all returned to their newly expanded "home" at the stroke of noon.

Lin Tian stood at the entrance of the territory, his gaze sweeping over every face—some familiar, some fresh—all stained with the hardships of wind, frost, blood, and fire.

No one spoke, but a quiet atmosphere of having survived a disaster and returning with a full load silently permeated the thousand-plus people.

After a brief rest and food replenishment, Lin Tian summoned the four team leaders to hear the detailed process of their morning exploration.

After half a day of high-intensity combat baptism, even the new recruits who had only undergone Fusion today had much more solid auras.

The lowest were stabilized at black iron 3-star, while the majority had risen to black iron 4-star, their eyes showing less of the panic of first-time combat and more of the calmness born from surviving slaughter.

The six Spirit Healing Priests (including Commander Lin Yu) who accompanied Lin Yin and Lin Feng's elite squads had leveled up even faster, all reaching black iron 6-star, with their bodies overflowing with more abundant and gentle life energy.

Next were the findings of Lin Yin and Lin Yan.

"After we left the territory," Lin Yin's voice was as cold and clear as a spring, and she began to speak slowly.

She had regained the calm posture of the Holy Envoy of the Profound Moon, her moon-white holy robe spotless, only a trace of gravity from the inspection remaining deep in her eyes, "We only saw scattered low-level corrupted magical beasts nearby, which we ignored.

But after crossing the boundary we cleared yesterday and going less than five kilometers deeper, the situation began to change."

She described that the corrupted magical beasts began to appear in groups of three or five, their rotting auras merging together, and they displayed eerie coordination in their movements.

Fortunately, the team was strong enough. With the defense of the Mystic Rock Spirit Guards led by Lin Yan and the precision kills of the Moon Shadow Archers, combined with the Spirit Healing Priests promptly purifying the contamination of wounds, they wiped out several groups of enemies without any serious danger...

Inside the Lords Mansion, Lin Yin reported all this to Lin Tian clearly and calmly.

She omitted the pathetic details of the Goblin scouts, only emphasizing the size of the tribe, the general distribution of their strength, and the threat they posed, and gave her own judgment: "...The highest combat strength is about bronze 3-star, only one person, the rest are nothing to worry about. With the current strength of our territory, we can defeat them."

Time traced back to about an hour ago, when the squad he led wiped out a group of troublesome corrupted magical wolves in a forest clearing, they heard intense fighting and beast roars coming from ahead.

He signaled the squad to hide, while he himself, like a golden phantom, silently crept closer to Inspect.

Pushing aside the last bush, he saw a devastated clearing:

Five strong Minotaur warriors were fiercely fighting three thick-skinned black iron 8-star magic bears.

These Minotaurs were over 2.2 meters tall, with knotted muscles covered in dense brown-black fur, topped with a huge bull head, their horns curved and sharp.

They wore simple but sturdy armor made of mixed metal and leather, wielding dauntingly huge double-edged battle axes or maces in their hands, their roars like thunder, full of primitive wild power.

Their fighting style was sweeping and powerful, with amazing strength, and every collision with the magic bears emitted a dull, loud noise, sending wood and stones flying.

Lin Feng observed calmly, quickly evaluating in his heart: "The leader of the Minotaur warriors has a strength of about peak black iron 9-star, and the other four are also around black iron 8-star.

Although the equipment is rough, it is standard, and there are obvious traces of tactical coordination... This is a race with organization and combat heritage, by no means comparable to scattered soldiers."

He did not act rashly. After noting the location and characteristics, he quietly withdrew, deciding to bring the intelligence back first.

Lin Feng reported his exploration process, speaking quickly, "In the beginning, we encountered the same things as Lin Yin, but we encountered Minotaurs wearing leather armor and holding weapons... That is the situation."

Lin Tian listened, leaning forward slightly, his eyes flashing with keen interest.

"Goblin tribe? Local faction... finally encountered one?"

He rubbed his chin, "It seems it's not that we haven't encountered them, but that our reach wasn't far enough before. Since they aren't strong and are lying right at our doorstep..."

He looked at Lin Yin, then at Lin Feng, who was eager to try, a determined arc curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Lin Yin's analysis is correct; we cannot allow such a threat to remain on our side. How can others be allowed to snore beside one's bed? This afternoon, assemble the main force and pull out this nail!"

He made the decision decisively, "Lin Feng, just keep the Minotaurs you encountered under surveillance for now; concentrate our strength to solve the Goblins first. A civilized tribe must have accumulated quite a few 'good things'."

His words already carried the domineering aura of a pioneer and the anticipation of rewards.

At this moment, hearing Lin Tian's decision, Lin Feng responded in a deep voice: "Yes, Lord. I will arrange for people to keep the Minotaurs under surveillance."

He also agreed with prioritizing the Goblin tribe, for which they had enough information and which was relatively weak.

With Lin Tian's order issued, the atmosphere in the territory tightened again, but it was filled with high fighting spirit.

A formal expedition against a local faction was about to begin this afternoon.

Having ascertained the true strength of the Goblin tribe, Lin Tian already had the intent to kill.

He positioned this expedition as a "combat training" and "combat power test".

Just how strong were the newly fused Crimson Sun Divine General and the Holy Envoy of the Profound Moon? He himself was full of curiosity.

"I only know they are very strong, but I really don't know exactly how strong."

Because the corrupted magical beasts on the road had already been cleared by Lin Yin's team on their return trip, the army moved extremely fast.

The team of nearly a thousand people, led by the familiar Lin Yin, quietly arrived at the outskirts of the hidden valley in just over half an hour.

The air became heavy, and the unique noisy and foul smell of the valley faintly wafted in the wind.

"Stop advancing, approach stealthily," Lin Tian ordered in a low voice.

The entire army instantly turned into silent shadows, moving silently toward the edge of the valley like a tide washing over a beach, under the cover of trees and rocks.

Lin Yin was like the sharpest scout, her figure flickering at the boundary between light and shadow. Occasionally, her moonlight longbow would flash with a faint light, and several sleepy Goblin sentries on the high points in the distance would silently collapse, arrows accurately piercing their fragile throats or brows without them even being able to let out a warning.

Lin Tian, Lin Yin, and others lurked behind a dense bush, pushing aside the branches and leaves to look down.

The scene in the valley was in full view: chaotic, filthy, and noisy.

Goblins were busy in a disorderly manner like an ant colony; there was almost no decent patrol team to be seen, and the defense was laughably lax.

Occasionally, a few better-equipped Goblin warriors were shouting and ordering others around, but most were small, wretched, ordinary Goblins.