Chapter 40 Chapter 39 Sleep is Still Important
Chuan Luo was unusually excited due to the black lotus smoke and his victory over his rival. His tail wagged vigorously as he stared at the wine below him. In the darkness, the stacked bottles glowed faintly green.
The succubus’s wine ultimately fell into his hands, and he could imagine the succubus’s furious face when the city fell and she discovered she had been duped, trying to escape with her liquor only to find all of it swapped out.
He laughed heartily, curling his tail around a bottle of wine and shaking it in the darkness, the green glow from the liquid becoming more pronounced.
Unable to resist, Chuan Luo bit the cork, and the rich scent of alcohol spread throughout the room.
“Good wine!”
As he took a deep breath and tilted his head back to drink, he suddenly pulled the strong drink away.
“Not right!” Chuan Luo’s beady eyes narrowed as he focused intently on the liquor.
His exceptionally keen and cunning mind detected a trap.
Where was the trap?
Oh, within that green-tinged drink.
Chuan Luo realized: “Drinking leads to trouble!”
He had to wait for the perfect moment, to leap out when the humans were engrossed in battle, and strike them fiercely.
Chuan Luo picked up the cork, and as he was about to put it in, the enticing green glow of the liquid reminded him of the dimensional stone powder within.
“Just a sip, just one sip.” Chuan Luo tilted his head back, forcefully took a sip, then quickly sealed the bottle and put it back in place.
The liquid burned like a blazing fire as it traveled down his throat.
It was truly undrinkable, nothing but pure alcohol.
Chuan Luo thought, jumping down from the pile of bottles, picking up his clothes from the floor and getting dressed.
Then he grabbed a nearly mouse-man-high dimensional staff and pushed open the rusty metal door. He immediately felt like he had fallen into an ice cave; it was indeed very cold outside.
But Chuan Luo didn’t want to stay in that tiny room, learning about the outside world through his subordinates.
He wanted to grasp everything personally, to see it with his own eyes, lest he be deceived by his subordinates.
Chuan Luo, wielding the dimensional stone staff, hopped and ran out. He personally inspected the army, ordering them to be ready.
Since the news of the succubus’s arrival had reached the mouse assassins, the mouse men had not slept for nearly three days, utterly exhausted.
As time passed, the mouse men gradually began to wane.
Two of the mouse men stood face-to-face, holding bloodied whips and lazily whipping each other, their strength weak, even nodding off.
Many mouse men stood with their backs hunched, wide-eyed and motionless, until a foreman rushed by, pushed them over, and they finally woke up.
Some mouse men, due to lack of sleep, became irritable and anxious, biting each other, completely ignoring the whips, and live out their fury on their companions.
When a subordinate found the jittery Chuan Luo and told him that nearly a hundred mouse men had been injured or killed, Chuan Luo showed no concern. He wielded the dimensional stone staff like a club, driving away some nonexistent illusions, saying, “Wait, just wait!”
“But, great Chuan Luo, if we wait any longer, everyone will be too tired to fight.”
“Hunger will drive them to exert all their strength, and the fire will make them loot.” Chuan Luo shouted, finally calming down, saying, “It won’t be long, it won’t be long. I can sense it, yes, I can sense the weakness of the human toys.”
Finally, he struck his head with the dimensional stone staff, seemingly hearing some sound, declaring, “Now, it’s time, command the whole army! Charge! Kill! I want you to see my might and the spells that will tear the human toys apart!”
With the order given, the whole army appeared dispirited. The clan mice dragged their spears and carried shields, looking as wilted as frostbitten eggplants. Even the expensive mouse goliaths—bio-monsters standing three men high with a mix of mouse and troll genes—held their heads low.
The starving slave mice, however, were full of energy, as dozens of mouse men scrambled for the leftover roasted chicken legs discarded by the foreman. They had been promised that once above ground, they could eat whatever they wanted. Their eyes sparkled with greed, clearly seen as ideal cannon fodder.
While hunger and greed could overpower three days of fatigue, Chuan Luo still felt that something was amiss; this time, it had to succeed.
Yes, the mouse assassins reported that human toys had divided forces to garrison the city, waiting for their surprise attack from below.
He was confident of a successful ambush, after all, human toys with their monkey-like intelligence would never suspect where the attack would come from.
But where was this unease coming from?
Chuan Luo stretched out his neck and sniffed hard, catching the scent of alcohol in the air. He became furious, pointing down with his dimensional stone staff, unleashing a green arc of electricity that struck a mouse man, instantly frying him as a bottle of wine rolled out lazily.
“Of course!” Chuan Luo shouted, “You dare hide from me and drink my wine!”
He yelled loudly, calling for a reassessment of the troops.
Thus, after half an hour of delay, all the mouse men took their positions, ready to ambush.
As the rusted bell chimed thirteen times, Chuan Luo used magic to illuminate three forked symbols on the bell, which glowed green and resonated through the underground.
The fourteen underground ambush points were prepared, exploding in unison, blowing apart streets, houses, and cesspools. In an instant, bricks flew everywhere as the red-eyed mouse men screeched, bursting forth from the depths.
Surrounding them were disoriented Kislevians, swept away by the tide of mice. Even the fiercest Kislevian warrior was silenced beneath the mouse horde. The valiantly resisting fighters were quickly overwhelmed, their gear and flesh torn apart.
As Chuan Luo had imagined, although humans were aware, they were still successfully ambushed.
Over a dozen Kislevian warriors, wearing leather caps, clad in leather armor, and wielding shields and knives, stood back-to-back, blocking the waves of mice and killing many. Yet the mouse men, their eyes bloodshot and numbers overwhelming, charged like madmen.
At the same time, the slave mice leaped onto rooftops, swinging slings to pelt them with stones.
“Lies!” shouted one Kislevian warrior as he severed a mouse man’s head, resenting, “Who said mouse men are tired! That their fighting force is low?”
“Be careful! What a monster!”
The ground shook.
He looked up to see a terrifyingly massive mouse goliath lunging at him, its claws raised high.
“Boom!”
He was crushed beneath it. These dozen fierce Kislevian warriors were flattened by the mouse goliaths.
Chuan Luo rode atop one mouse goliath, shouting, leading the mouse army to gather on the main road, charging toward the city gate, preparing to coordinate the attack.
But lining the main avenue stood rows of steely-winged knights, their wings prominently visible under the moonlight.
The prophecy of the succubi played a crucial role; they had already formed ranks, prepared to charge, attempting to crush the mouse men.
“Prepare to charge!”
The red, hollow lances rose, while the mouse army looked unprepared, some even hesitant.
Chuan Luo at the forefront shouted: “Human toys! Stupid! Foolish! Would Chuan Luo casually rush out unprepared?”
Saying this, he recited a spell, pointing the dimensional stone staff at the city gate, shouting, “Explode!”
A lightning bolt fell from the sky, the city gate exploded, shaking the entire city, with green smoke shooting up to the heavens.
The warhorses of the winged knights, frightened, reared up, even trying to flee, with riders unable to control their startled mounts, causing chaos in the formation. Not to mention, from the dust of the collapsing city gate emerged a towering mammoth.
“Hahaha!” Chuan Luo pointed his dimensional stone staff, “Charge, all of you, hurry and charge!”
“Kill!”
The clan mice shouted and rushed forward, but at that moment a lullaby echoed through the night sky, and the mouse men fell over like toppled rice, peacefully falling asleep.
