North Africa, Atus West, Dosa.
After arriving in Dosa by car, Dorothy controlled the special advisor, played by Ed and named Ney, to get out of the car. Together with Naifnis, she made contact with Adan, the commander of the Revolutionary Army in Dosa.
Adan invited Ed and Neff to have a simple dinner. At the table, he more detailedly explained the current situation to Dorothy, as well as the problem of the previous failed expedition to Kanak.
During the exchange with Adan, Dorothy learned that shortly after the troops clearing the outer defenses of Kanak set off, they were ambushed by undead before even approaching Kanak. Those undead were ambushed under the sand along the marching route. When the troops passed over, they suddenly drilled out from under the yellow sand. Those skeletons and zombies used cold weapons to launch a surprise attack on the marching troops.
Since many soldiers had never seen undead, when they were attacked by such a large number of undead, many people directly had emotional breakdowns. The marching troops instantly fell into chaos. This chaos did not last long before they were immediately subjected to artillery fire.
Remote artillery fire combined with undead sneak attacks caused the entire army to instantly fall into chaos. The chaos lasted for a long time. Although the officers tried their best to maintain order, the effect was minimal. The troops began to retreat and flee on a large scale. It was at this moment that the Savior Sect armed forces arrived at the scene. They appeared from beyond the horizon, with gun-wielding undead warriors as the vanguard and ordinary human soldiers behind. They launched a charge against the chaotic Revolutionary Army, completely routing the entire force. The Revolutionary Army's vanguard suffered heavy casualties, with only a small number of officers successfully rallying the remnants and retreating in an orderly manner. In the end, only about one-third of the people successfully escaped back to Dosa. This dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the other Revolutionary Army units in Dosa.
In the descriptions of the soldiers who retreated, those undead were described as extremely terrifying and very numerous, numbering tens of thousands. Dorothy did not fully agree with these exaggerated descriptions.
Compared to the Main Continent, due to the chaotic order in North Wu and the existence of a large number of ancient ruins, the residents here are closer to the hidden. People here have long lived under the shroud of various mysterious legends. Extraordinary injuries and Spirit Sight spread events occur frequently. As soldiers in war, they have a vague knowledge of the existence of the hidden and have heard more or less about the legends of the undead.
However, they had almost never heard of such a large army of undead. The undead army gave the surviving retreating soldiers immense psychological trauma. After returning, they constantly exaggerated the number of undead armies. By the time it reached Adan's ears, there were tens of thousands. Such rumors directly caused the entire Revolutionary Army soldiers in Dosa to fall into a state of low morale. Even Adan himself was affected. During the meal, Dorothy could occasionally see traces of fear in Adan's expression.
After roughly understanding the situation on the front line, Dorothy controlled Ed, who had finished dining, to return to the arranged accommodation to rest. Dorothy herself had already checked into a decent hotel in Dosa and began to ponder the current situation in the room there.
'The Savior Sect armed forces in Kanak... suddenly received a large amount of undead support... Hiss... This is not good. It seems my biggest worry has still happened. Those guys from the Netherworld Coffin Society have united with the Savior Sect in Kanak.'
Sitting by the window, while enjoying the breeze strongly fanned by the Corpse Puppet beside her, Dorothy thought with a frown. Then she moved her gaze upwards, looking at a large world map placed on the table, her eyes focused on the location of Holy Mountain.
'According to information from Shadi and Vanya, after the Church confirmed Mukhtar's death through its own informants and that Shadi was truly purging the Savior Sect forces within Adus, it has almost believed in Shadi's sincerity of genuine conversion.'
'After the Kankdar assassination attempt was reversed, Awei's faction within the Church gained dominance on the Adus issue. To cooperate with Shadi's domestic rectification movement, Holy Mountain sent pilgrimage teams led by individuals of Archbishop level to other areas in North Wu severely affected by the Savior Sect, directly threatening other important areas of influence of the Savior Sect, tying up the power of the Savior Sect headquarters, making it unable to provide effective support to the remaining Savior Sect forces within Adus, turning them into an isolated army.'
'Such an isolated army is indeed easy to eliminate, but it is also easy to take risks, perform some unconventional adventurous operations, and more easily seek any force that can be united. After learning that Dead Eagle Valley was under the control of the Savior Sect armed forces in Kanak, I have always been worried about whether the Netherworld Coffin Society, which is also eyeing the Lakheman Royal Tomb within the valley, would unite with the Savior Sect armed forces. I didn't expect this worry to come true. The Corpse Coffin and the remnants of the Savior Sect have indeed united. Such large-scale undead manipulation, besides the Corpse Coffin, no other force can pull it off, right?'
With a gloomy face, Dorothy thought this in her heart. Currently, she was still unclear about what agreement the remaining Savior Sect armed forces in Kanak and the Netherworld Coffin Society had reached that made the two parties unite. She could only guess that this agreement must be related to the Lakheman Royal Tomb. Perhaps at some opportunity, both sides decided to jointly excavate the Lakheman Royal Tomb.
'If they are really preparing to excavate the Lakheman Royal Tomb together, it's completely not a good thing for me. I must find a way to stop them. Their combined strength is likely beyond my ability to deal with. Therefore, to fight against them, I must also unite the forces around me, Shadi's Adus Revolutionary Army...'
Dorothy thought this. Now, she had initially made up her mind to help the Adus Revolutionary Army break through Kanak. For this, she must immediately step up her actions. For Dorothy, no matter what she did, gathering intelligence was always the priority.
'Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated. This was true for small-scale Extraordinary battles in the past, and it is even more true for the current battlefield. The top priority is that I must fully collect intelligence on Kanak, know their details, and then slowly formulate a plan.'
Dorothy thought this, and then she made a plan, deciding to approach Kanak tomorrow and use the Corpse Puppet to conduct reconnaissance on the entire city to figure out the situation of the Savior Sect and the Netherworld Coffin Society inside.
After making preliminary plans, Dorothy wiped the sweat from her forehead, then turned her head to look at the Corpse Puppet beside her, who was still tirelessly fanning her. She controlled him to increase the force. After feeling a stronger breeze dispel more heat, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to think about how to get through this hot North Wu night, as she would be unable to operate the Corpse Puppet after falling asleep later.
...
Time flew by, and soon a night passed. Dorothy, who woke up early the next morning, immediately controlled Advisor Ney to also get up in the hotel near the command post. After a brief rest, Dorothy had Ed leave the city early in the name of surveying the terrain. Dorothy herself also mingled within a camel caravan and left the city together.
Dosa is about seventy kilometers away from Kanak. Dorothy's team traveled light and reached Kanak City in the afternoon after marching for most of the day under the scorching sun and wind and sand. During this time, Dorothy continuously controlled the eagle Corpse Puppet to patrol in the sky, gaining a bird's-eye view of a desolate and vast expanse of yellow sand.
Dorothy used several eagle Corpse Puppets as the vanguard of her team to conduct reconnaissance on the area more than ten kilometers ahead. Just as the eagle Corpse Puppets flew to a distance of about thirty kilometers from Kanak, Dorothy discovered something was not quite right and immediately stopped further reconnaissance.
Among the light, small camel team almost entirely composed of Corpse Puppets, Dorothy rode on a camel, using the superhuman vision of the eagle Corpse Puppet, combined with her own Spirit Sight, to gaze at the distant sky and earth, and immediately discovered abnormal phenomena.
In the sky several kilometers ahead of the eagle Corpse Puppet, Dorothy could see sporadic wraiths drifting in the air. There was one every long distance. They faced the ground, floating prone, as if peering down at the earth.
And on a desolate flat ground, Dorothy also saw that every few hundred meters there was a skeleton or a zombie wandering. They maintained a fixed distance from each other, holding firearms, and walking forward in the desert with their mouths wide open, heading towards the distance.
On the road to Kanak, from the sky to the ground, countless dead were wandering. They were driven by some force, spaced hundreds of meters apart, arranged in a huge and wide formation, constantly patrolling, blocking the path for Dorothy's team to continue advancing towards Kanak.
'So many undead... they are all patrolling. It seems those guys have completely monitored the surrounding areas of Kanak to prevent anyone from approaching...'
Looking at the scene in the distance, Dorothy, sitting on a camel and wearing a sun-protective cloak, couldn't help but think to herself that she knew the Corpse Coffin people would use undead for vigilance, but she didn't expect the range of vigilance this time to be so huge, and the number of vigilant undead to be so many.
Next, Dorothy began to move in other directions. She investigated around the boundary of the undead vigilance line, drawing the edge of the undead vigilance zone on the map in her mind, based on the extent of this boundary line. After a long period of investigation, Dorothy determined the center point of control for this large group of undead, determined the coverage area of the entire vigilance zone, and couldn't help but be startled.
'This... this control distance is a bit too far, isn't it? This vigilance zone is so large, it's completely unexpected...'
According to Dorothy's calculations, the coverage area of this undead vigilance zone is extremely large. Calculated from Kanak City as the center, there are undead on alert within a radius of about thirty kilometers. These undead, with one every few hundred meters, almost cover this huge vigilance circle. Anyone who appears within their sight will be vigilantized by them. They will even directly attack those who approach. During the investigation process, Dorothy personally saw a shepherd being approached and chased away by these undead after being discovered, scaring the shepherd into abandoning his livestock and immediately fleeing for his life.
'A vigilance zone with a radius of twenty-five kilometers, controlling hundreds or thousands of undead... Is this something an ordinary'Silence' Extraordinary can do? In Kanak, there wouldn't be some Scarlet old ghost, would there? Or have those people used some item or method to enhance their ability to control the undead?'
Feeling the vastness of the undead vigilance zone before her, Dorothy couldn't help but think with a stern expression. Regardless of the true situation of the Corpse Coffin within Kanak City, this huge dead vigilance zone before her indeed made her feel it was difficult to handle, because she currently couldn't think of any way to break through this huge vigilance zone unnoticed and conduct reconnaissance on the situation within Kanak.
In fact, in Dorothy's observation, these undead seemed to only react to humans and large animals approaching on the ground. Her small Corpse Puppet, when combined with the Ring of Shadow Concealment, could completely block the perception of these undead and sneak through the entire way. However, the problem was that Dorothy's small Corpse Puppet could cross the vigilance zone, but Dorothy herself could not.
Dorothy's Corpse Puppet control distance has an upper limit. The usual control distance is a radius of ten kilometers from the main body. By providing extra Spirituality, the control distance can be extended, but it does not exceed twenty kilometers at most. That is to say, the distance between Dorothy's main body and the Corpse Puppet cannot exceed twenty kilometers at most.
However, the range of this dead vigilance zone before Dorothy was absurdly large. If centered on Kanak, the area within a radius of thirty kilometers is a vigilance zone, and undead are scattered throughout. This means that if Dorothy wants to send a small Corpse Puppet into Kanak, her main body must also go ten kilometers deep into the vigilance zone, and her humanoid target is easily discovered. Once discovered, she will face huge risks.
The terrain all around is almost entirely desert plains, boundless with no cover that can serve as concealment. For someone as large as herself, trying to hide on this plain from the undead sentinels every few hundred meters, both on the ground and in the sky, is completely impossible. Since she cannot approach Kanak for reconnaissance, her small Corpse Puppet cannot be sent in either.
'Hiss... This is troublesome. If I can't gather intelligence, I can't formulate a strategy at all. I really didn't expect the Corpse Coffin people could be so ruthless, creating such a large vigilance zone...'
Frowning, Dorothy thought this in her heart. She, who had always been cautious in her actions, would not choose to act rashly when intelligence was unclear unless it was an emergency. Therefore, when facing the huge vigilance zone surrounding Kanak, she did not take risks but chose to return to Dosa first and then make plans.
...
At night, inside the Revolutionary Army command post in Dosa, Advisor Ney sat on a chair and recounted the situation of his daytime reconnaissance outside the city to Commander Adan, who was sitting opposite him. After hearing Ney's words, Adan couldn't help but speak with a distressed expression.
"Before you returned, Mr. Ney, I had already sent scouts to reconnaissance Kanak, but none of these scouts successfully returned... I didn't expect that group of traitors would use so many undead for vigilance... It seems it will be very difficult to reconnaissance the current situation within Kanak City..."
Adan said this with a frown. Listening to his words, Dorothy was slightly startled, and then had Advisor Ney speak and ask Adan.
"Mr. Adan, with the current military strength in Dosa and lacking intelligence, is there confidence to launch an attack? We don't aim to capture Kanak, only to push the front line to the vicinity of Kanak City."
Dorothy had Ney ask this. If the Revolutionary Army's front line could advance to within twenty kilometers of Kanak City, she could mingle among the large army, approach Kanak City, and let the Corpse Puppet reconnaissance play its role. After hearing Dorothy's words, Adan's distressed expression remained unchanged.
"This is probably very difficult. After the last major defeat and retreat, the army's morale is very low now. Fear of the undead is spreading everywhere, making the soldiers unable to raise their fighting spirit. It will probably be difficult to organize an offensive again in the short term."
"I have already sent a telegram to Shadi General, explaining the situation here now, asking him to send more troops and weapons. Perhaps only after the reinforcements arrive and boost morale will we have the confidence to launch the next round of attack."
...