Chapter 48: Slaughter
To most people in Zhou, they could only find that the city was taken over by the Qin and run away. But to Oji it was the same thing as if it were a Zhou city still as both nations were subject to his Crimson Sect.
Showing his Cultivation was enough to get the guards to go look for someone high ranking and showing that captain proof he was from the Crimson Sect allowed Oji into the locked down city.
Inside the walls was a gruesome scene as the soldiers of Qin were piling up the bodies of the slain. "It appears they put up quite the fight." Oji observes as a cart filled with bodies was driven by.
The Qin driver laughed. "They had no choice but to come out to us after the General had us choke the life slowly out of the place. We would have been happy to let them live as a Qin city, but once their Skeleton Foundation Clan Leader made the mistake of challenging the General there wasn't any reason to be kind anymore."
Oji nodded. It wasn't rather unusual of the peak to face off, but the quality of most random city's only Skeleton Foundation was typically far inferior to a well trained General belonging either to the Royal Clan or a powerful Regional Ruler like Zhou's Skull Sect. After there was no longer forces to counterbalance the General, his highest officers, and his aides nothing was stopping them from crushing all resemblance of resistance.
But that didn't mean it would come for free either. That handle of people at the absolute top could hardly slay an army with only themselves. "How bad were the loses?" Oji inquires, nodding at the smaller pile of bodies from Qin.
"They took better than 1 man out of 10 with them, including the General's brother. Best strategist we had too. Command is still working on filling that void." The disgruntled soldier answers.
Oji looked around at the devastation with new eyes. He understood now. The Qin had been bloodied extraordinarily by such a tiny place, which had vastly infuriated them. Thus they had vented all the built anger in wanton destruction of both life and structures.
"I need to speak to Command actually." Oji let the trooper feel his High Origination Cultivation. Oji might not qualify as part of the top brass in an army of this scale, but he certainly could be a Captain or Lieutenant. Plenty of status to attend a meeting or directly meet with the top brass. The cart driver pointed the direction to Oji willingly enough.
So Oji made his way through the camp quickly, trying to block out the pools of blood and the shattered ruins of homes on the way. Soon enough he got to the building where the Qin army's HQ was set up and were arguing over their ability to continue to press in. Oji was able to quickly observe that they had only a single Skeleton Foundation General and about 20 Pinnacle Origination filling the other most vital roles. Nowhere near enough to actually threaten the Skull Sect with annihilation, which would be a necessary middle step to taking down Zhou.
The reason for that was actually very simple. Painfully simple so that even Oji could understand it.
This army wasn't capable of fighting several Skeleton Foundation and nearly 100 Pinnacle Origination fighters at the same time. After tying up about a fifth of that with their own leaders, the remaining top members of the Skull Sect would be left unchecked to slaughter everyone as they pleased.
Once a fighter was able to be a truly unstoppable force, an army was worthless. Just lambs for slaughter. Which was why innumerable tactics and methods existed for containing dangerous individuals and wars almost always sectioned off into theaters that contained those who could still have an effect on a powerhouse within that theater by ganging up on him.
For example, if Oji were to fight one on one he would do pretty damn good to hold off a Transformation High Origination. If Oji were honest with himself, Advanced High Origination was coming close to his limit. But facing a group of ten? Depending on their teamwork, Oji might handle 10 Early High Origination with difficulty or narrowly lose to 10 Perfect Mid Origination.
That was already well beyond the normal, as while it became many times harder to apply Oji's defensive methods, they still would keep him alive. What allowed Oji to fight so far above his pay grade was the way he could neutralize impact, redirect force, read people and launch unpredictable, deadly attacks. All of which were trickier to apply when three completely unique attacks were always caging him and 3 people were covering the asses of 4 people recuperating from launching their most domineering attacks. Since Oji couldn't simply tank these attacks he would have to find the hole in the teamwork that let him break out.
Most people his Cultivation would need the 10 against 1 to feature 10 Initial Mid Origination or lower so they could tank a shot a reverse the tide. Oji himself might be able to slaughter a 100 Initial Mid Origination.
All this meant that in a Mid and High Origination battlefield, Oji was a piece able to carry out a slaughter. And if he was left unchecked he would eventually create an unstoppable momentum by removing the lowest level the enemy has. Allowing his weaker soldiers to flank and coordinate to fight the stronger enemies while Oji and more capable allies don't face the threat of going solo against a dozen foes.
All leading to a complete collapse of relative power in their forces followed by a one sided slaughter. It wouldn't even stop at a single battlefield, but could ripple up or down. One side of a Low and Bottom Origination battlefield getting thirty or forty Mid Origination who could freely act would quickly checkmate the fight. A Peak and Pinnacle battlefield gaining dozens of High Origination would start to gain advantage from the simple difference in numbers created.
In theory, a peerless enough genius at any level could therefore make the battle as a whole revolve around him. In practice it usually was the case that highest Cultivation had the most weight while the lowest level fodder did the most dying. It was easier for a victory at the top to send a handful of unstoppable fighters than for a lower battlefield to send up enough capable fighters to tip the scales. But both were possible and had happened in the past.
The General was staring at Oji as he walked into the now ceased discussion. "Who let you in and what do you want?"
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