Chapter 150: An Awkward Situation!

"What the hell is going on? According to the standard conventions of teleportation, shouldn't the Main God have dropped us somewhere far away from other believers?" Guo Lang asked, somewhat speechless.

"Normal situations are like that..." Xiaotao said with a hint of embarrassment in her tone. "But in a summoned plane, all the Main Gods maximize the protection of their seeds' information. Therefore, before deploying believers into the plane, it is extremely difficult to gather information about other believers. Master, I can only say your luck is abysmal."

"Damn it!" Guo Lang had a strong urge to punch someone, but matters had already reached this point; he could only figure out the situation first. Above all, he needed to know what was happening outside.

The place Guo Lang and Alice had hurriedly sneaked into was a rather humble dwelling, home to a normal family of four. A sturdy, honest-looking man was tightly shielding his wife and child behind him, gazing at Guo Lang with a vigilant expression.

Guo Lang glanced at the man's attire and was surprised to find he was wearing crude battle armor. Two meters away from him lay a simple shield and a broadsword—he was actually a soldier!

The man possessed decent composure. He made no dangerous moves in the first instance, nor did he rashly attempt to grab the weapon not far away, which was why he hadn't been directly finished off by Alice. Even the woman behind him only trembled slightly as she hugged the child, without screaming, which Guo Lang found rather interesting.

"State your name, soldier!" Guo Lang coughed, lowering his voice as much as possible while a flash of purple light flickered in his eyes, releasing a faint trace of pressure!

"Arslang Durbet!" The man had good nerve. Despite facing Guo Lang's pressure, he tried his best to keep his voice from trembling. Although a hint of tension was still audible, he was far stronger than the average person.

Guo Lang's eyes flashed, and he gathered several pieces of information at once. First, the current power level of this plane should be around the lower tier of mid-magic. This ordinary soldier's physical fitness and spiritual power were about twice that of Planet D, almost approaching a Level 1 archer from Guo Lang's own plane. It was a good place for his current rank to recruit troops.

Next was the other person's name. Through language translation, it seemed to mean something like a powerful fierce beast. Such a naming convention felt very grassland-like, but Guo Lang had just looked outside and noticed the city's construction level was not low; it didn't look like a grassland civilization.

So, Guo Lang probed, "Where are you from?"

Upon hearing this, the man's pupils constricted. After a brief struggle, he looked at the imposing Guo Lang and ultimately chose not to fight. Instead, he knelt on the ground and pleaded, "I am a soldier of the Baira Royal Court, but my mother was a person of your Ross Empire. I, and my child, both possess the bloodline of the Ross Empire. Please, at least spare my child!"

"Oh?" Guo Lang touched his chin. A casual probe of his had fished out quite a bit of information. The other party seemed to have misunderstood something, thinking he was someone from the Ross Empire. Well, following this line of reasoning, the streets outside being eerily quiet with cavalry occasionally mustering to head out should be, as Xiaotao said, due to a war.

That explained it. He and Alice were dressed so stealthily that they were easily mistaken for enemy spies who had sneaked into the city, and the quiet surroundings were entirely a result of the chaotic warfare. In such turbulent times, most people naturally didn't dare to step outside.

Thinking of this, Guo Lang removed his cloak, revealing his black hair and Eastern face, which left the man in a daze. The man stared blankly and asked, "You... are not from the Ross Empire?"

Guo Lang did not answer him, instead finding a place to sit down, while Alice leaned against the door. Guo Lang smiled as he looked at the man and asked, "Are you a deserter?"

"Uh..." Hearing this, the man's expression dimmed, a trace of shame appearing on his face as he lowered his head even further. The wife beside him, seeing this, grasped her husband's hand and glared angrily at Guo Lang, shouting, "My husband did it for us! He is no coward, he..."

"Shut up!" Guo Lang said coldly. The sudden burst of momentum made both husband and wife shiver all over, while the child behind them shrank into the corner, trembling.

This villain persona was quite convincing... Guo Lang felt secretly pleased with himself, but maintained a stern expression on his face as he said, "From now on, I ask and you answer. Don't say superfluous things, and your woman had better not interrupt again, or I'll kill your child first!"

"Yes, yes..." Both of them bowed their heads in terror.

"Where is this?"

"Ah?" The man looked bewildered!

Guo Lang's eyes turned cold. The man was startled into a cold sweat upon seeing this and quickly said, "This is Saint Lander Fortress!"

Guo Lang frowned. "Location, sphere of influence!"

Though he didn't understand why the other person was asking such common knowledge, Arslang honestly replied, "This place currently belongs to the Baira Dynasty..."

Through the questioning, Guo Lang roughly grasped the situation. This place was originally the foremost of the six northern cities of the Ross Empire, but ten years ago, it was seized by the neighboring Baira Royal Court. The Baira Royal Court was a semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural empire with formidable military strength, frequently invading surrounding countries. Most of its farming civilization's lands had been acquired through aggression, whereas the Ross Empire was a purely agricultural empire.

The current situation was that a Fourth Imperial Highness had emerged in the Ross Empire—wise, martial, and commanding an extremely fierce vanguard. Leading his knights, he had actually initiated an offensive to retake former lost territory. Moreover, cutting through like a bamboo knife spliting bamboo, he had already captured five consecutive cities. Among the six northern cities, only Saint Lander Fortress, where Guo Lang currently stood, remained!

Right now, Saint Lander Fortress was heavily besieged, but the Baira Royal Court was temporarily unable to spare forces to reinforce the border due to internal royal succession struggles. Thus... one could say the city's fall was imminent!

This situation was somewhat complicated. Guo Lang frowned. If the believer Xiaotao mentioned was within the enemy army, or even a high-ranking officer among them, that would be awkward. Given the strength of the soldiers here, coupled with surprise attacks by experts of that race, the level of danger would be very high.

Ordinarily, finding him in such chaotic circumstances wouldn't be all that easy, but there was one thing Guo Lang cared deeply about: earlier, when Arslang was pleading for his life, he had solemnly emphasized his bloodline. This puzzled Guo Lang, so he asked about it out of curiosity.

The answer made Guo Lang's mood heavy.

When the Baira Royal Court conquered these six northern cities, because the six cities had held out stubbornly for a long time, causing massive casualties to the enemy commander, it enraged them. After the city fell, they had carried out a bloody massacre!

And now, that Fourth Imperial Highness was also marching under the banner of slaughtering the barbarians to sacrifice to the frontier souls, having already massacred five cities!

In other words, if this city fell now, it would definitely result in a large-scale massacre. Under such circumstances, it would be somewhat difficult for Guo Lang to remain hidden!

"How is the city defense? Since you're a soldier, you should know something about it. How many more days can it hold out?" Guo Lang asked with a gloomy face, though in his heart he didn't hold out much hope. Since the man had deserted, it was naturally because he wasn't optimistic about the situation either.

"It can't hold out much longer!" The man shook his head heavily. "The enemy commander is a master of warfare. Actually, the forces deployed in this war are all the personal knights of the Fourth Imperial Highness. In terms of terrain and troop strength, we had the advantage during the battles, but we were still crushed and lost five cities in a row. I escaped from Yan City; you don't know how terrifying the enemy is. Those soldiers... those soldiers are like madmen, seemingly insensible to pain, devoid of fear, possessed of boundless strength, and extremely difficult to kill. And..." A trace of fear crossed his face. "The enemy has dark magic! Dark magic!"

A flash of realization crossed Guo Lang's eyes. It seemed there was no need to guess—this so-called nearby believer was definitely a high-ranking military officer of the opposing side, and having lurked for quite some time, he must be the lucky person who discovered this plane.

With the believer having already controlled a certain source of troops, the probability of him helping the locals hold this city was very low. However, if he could hold it, he would acquire a certain sphere of influence in a very short time. Guo Lang thought for a moment and asked Xiaotao, "Xiaotao, can high-tech items be used here?"

He was just asking casually, but deep down he roughly knew the result. Sure enough, upon hearing this, Xiaotao directly rejected the idea: "Technological improvements can be used, but modern firepower cannot. Doing so would trigger a plane backlash, potentially causing the plane seal to open prematurely. Therefore, all the Gods have agreed not to let believers use modern firepower, nor can they use extinction-level biological weapons on a large scale!"

Oh, that was at least good news; the undead dogs wouldn't be able to act too wildly. However, for Guo Lang's current predicament, it was rather awkward. If he couldn't use modern technological weapons, how was he supposed to play this game?