195: Chapter 195 What is a Surprise?

"Yes."

Tian Ming's avatar fluttered.

Following that, Xu Qin continued to issue orders.

"Chuan Yun, Tietang!"

"Take your Ranged Troops and form up behind the parapet on the north side of the trench."

"Soul-Eater Battle Skeleton, switch to bombardment mode and deploy behind the second trench."

"Jiafeng, all of your Vanguard Beetles must burrow into the bottom of the first trench, and detonate when the Centaurs Charge over."

"Long Gu, bring the Bone Dragon formation and stand by below the Floating City. Do not move without my command."

"Shadow, same old rules, look for an opportunity."

The orders were issued one by one.

Xu Qin stood on the deck of the Floating City,

watching the approaching emerald-green continent to the south.

Unlike the grayish-brown of the Giant Race,

the surface of this continent was covered with vast grasslands.

The endless green formed a sharp contrast with the gray-and-white of the Boundless Domain.

"Such a vast grassland..."

Xu Qin rubbed his chin,

"Could the environment of a continent be linked to its racial traits?"

He looked at the collision countdown again.

There was still one hour and forty minutes left.

"There's still time."

...

One and a half hours later.

Xu Qin stood on the Watchtower, overlooking his own masterpiece.

Under his brilliant planning, the entire continent

had become very... tragic to behold.

No,

to be exact, very magnificent.

Tian Ming led the Troglodyte legion and the Necro-Beetless

to carry out a simple yet violent "expansion"

of the existing underground passages.

The so-called expansion was actually blowing off the entire tops of the tunnels.

Thus,

within a range of eight kilometers behind the southern collision line of the Boundless Domain,

densely packed trenches crisscrossed.

Each trench was five meters deep and three meters wide.

On the outside of the trenches, the excavated dirt and stones were piled into a meter-and-a-half-high parapet.

Three lines of trench defense were deployed in echelon.

Looking from afar,

the entire continent was covered in gray-and-white gullies everywhere.

"Goodness... this is way too tragic."

Even Xu Qin found it hard on the eyes to look at.

The moment the trenches were completed,

Chuan Yun and Tietang's Ranged Troops

had already taken their positions at the parapet behind the first trench.

The Soul-Eater Battle Skeleton switched to bombardment mode,

and deployed behind the second trench.

Jiafeng's twenty-six thousand Vanguard Beetles

all burrowed into the bottom of the first trench.

Xu Qin looked toward the collision line,

waiting for the countdown to reach zero.

Ten minutes later.

Hum!

The purple barrier disappeared.

The next second...

Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!

The sound of horse hooves was like muffled thunder,

bursting forth from the emerald-green grassland opposite.

Countless half-human, half-horse figures,

at a visible high movement speed,

charged toward the collision line.

Centaur Warriors led the Charge, their four hooves galloping wildly, and metal spears pointing forward.

Centaur Archers closely followed behind,

drawing their bows and nocking arrows while moving at high speed.

This speed... anyone could tell with the naked eye that it was extremely fast.

If it were flat terrain,

this kind of Charge would be completely unstoppable.

But the problem was...

"Hehe, didn't expect that, did you? I've been guarding against this move of yours for a long time."

Xu Qin laughed out loud directly.

Sure enough,

under his gaze,

the Centaur army that had just crossed the collision line came to a sudden, simultaneous halt.

It wasn't that they wanted to stop.

It was that they were shocked to discover there were no longer any direct routes leading to the opposite base camp.

Trenches five meters deep and three meters wide lay across their path.

The Centaurs in the back crashed into the front ranks,

and the formation instantly fell into complete chaos.

The four-legged structure of the Centaur Warriors

could simply not jump over trenches of this width.

Even if they barely managed to jump over the first one,

there were still a second and a third one ahead.

And the passages between the trenches

were so narrow that they could only accommodate two or three Centaurs abreast.

The advantage of galloping freely across flat land in the past had vanished at this moment.

Xu Qin stood on the railing of the Watchtower, with his arms crossed over his chest.

Looking at the chaotic Centaur army below, he said with a smug expression:

"Isn't it quite a surprise? In such a short time, I was able to dig so many trenches?"

That's right,

no matter who it was,

they might not have thought that their opponent

could, in the short period of time before the collision,

construct such an exaggerated defense line.

There was no help for it; Troglodytes were naturally born to dig pits.

A few minutes later,

the Centaur army on the opposite side quickly reacted.

The front-row cavalry stopped their Charge and dispersed one after another.

Taking small groups as units,

they moved quickly along the edges of the trenches,

attempting to use this method to find gaps or routes to bypass them.

But after circling around,

they were shocked to discover...

None!

An eight-kilometer depth

was entirely filled with trenches!

Furthermore, the connections between the trenches

were crisscrossed and overlapped even more,

making it completely impossible for cavalry to accelerate their Charge.

Xu Qin shook his head as he watched the anxious scouting cavalry on the other side rushing about.

"Such trash. Since you won't make a move, then I'll make a move."

"Attack!"

The order was given.

Clang, clang, clang!

Behind the parapet behind the first trench,

thousands of Undead Dwarf Musketeers raised their guns and fired in a volley simultaneously!

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!

Dense soul-energy projectiles smashed toward the Centaur cavalry at the edge of the trench.

-1612!

-1608!

-1615!

...

At the same time,

the Skeleton Elf Archers' soul-energy arrows followed closely behind.

-2498!

-2502!

-2495!

...

The Centaur vanguard unit stranded at the edge of the trench

suffered devastating blows instantly.

The existence of the trenches made it impossible for them to approach,

while the Ranged Troops behind the parapet could output damage safely.

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

Another volley of fire.

Nearly a hundred Centaur Warriors in the front row fell.

Seeing that the situation was bad, the remaining vanguard unit

directly turned their horses around and evacuated at top speed.

The movement speed of the Centaur Clan was indeed fast,

and in just over a dozen seconds,

the entire vanguard unit

had retreated to the south of the collision line.

Xu Qin nodded as he watched the opponent's decisive retreat action.

"Not bad."

There was a hint of appreciation in his tone.

"To actually use their brains and know to run when things look bad."

"Much stronger than those Star Lords from before who only knew how to surrender and beg for mercy."

Xu Qin turned around, returned to the bone throne, and sat down,

continuing to flip through the reconnaissance report.

In the first round of engagement,

they killed 87 Centaur Warriors,

with zero losses on their own side.

"An opponent has to be like this, otherwise fighting is completely meaningless."

He propped up his chin,

looking at the quiet grassland across the collision line.

"However... just defending won't do either."

Xu Qin began scrolling on the regional map.

From the collision line to the opponent's core building,

the straight-line distance was about thirty-one kilometers.

Push straight across from the ground?

It was possible, but there was no need.

The movement speed of the Centaur Clan was too fast,

and flat land was their home turf.

If his beetles pushed forward, they would only end up being kited by the opponent.

Because the opponent's core building

was a considerable distance away from the collision zone,

and directly rushing over there was no different from sending oneself to die.

"Since that's the case, then we won't go via the ground."

Xu Qin clicked open Tian Ming's avatar.

"Tian Ming."

"Present."

"Starting from the collision line, follow the route I've marked, and dig towards the opponent's core building."

"Fifteen meters deep, five meters wide, with dual parallel channels."

"No rush, dig slowly."

"Yes."

Tian Ming's reply was concise as always.

Xu Qin pulled up the air force establishment list again.

The Bone Dragon formation remained still; that was a trump card and could not be exposed.

Skeleton Vultures were also not suitable; they were too fragile and mainly used for reconnaissance.

Thus, he clicked open the air force [Storm Wingguard] that he hadn't used much before.