CHAPTER 576: DEBATE 2

TL: Rui88

“Everyone!” Abal shouted to his loyal subordinates.

“I have summoned you here this time to determine the direction of our next campaign.”

The Grand Chieftain’s tone was incredibly solemn, yet it betrayed a hint of urgency and anxiety. In his heart, he felt this was an opportunity the orcs had not encountered in a thousand years.

The Kingdom of Ordo, south of the Rocky Mountains, was once the hegemon of the western continent, but its hegemonic status was closely tied to its royal authority. When Ordo’s royal power was at its zenith, Crystal Shine’s influence extended far beyond the territories it legally ruled. To the kingdom’s northeast, beyond the Nerodan Corridor, lay a vast desert dotted with numerous oases like a string of pearls. On these oases, human city-states stubbornly survived. These city-states had once submitted to the Kingdom of Ordo when it was powerful, and the kingdom’s Watcher’s Legion, which guarded the Nerodan Corridor, provided them with protection. For hundreds of years, under Ordo’s leadership, joint human armies had penetrated deep into the Great Plains on several occasions, shattering the forces that attempted to unite the orcs and keeping the plains in a state of disunity.

But a hundred years ago, the royal authority of Crystal Shine began to wane. This decline was especially rapid in the last fifty years, so much so that by the time the current king, Nidro XVII, ascended the throne, powerful secessionist lords like the Jars and Viburen families, strong enough to oppose the royal family, had already formed within the kingdom’s territory. The decline of the centre of power also affected areas beyond the national borders. The royal family was exhausted just maintaining its rule within the country, so its support for border armies like the Watcher’s Legion naturally dwindled. The Watcher’s Legion had no choice but to contract its forces, retreating from the Great Plains and the desert oases all the way back to the Nerodan Corridor, the kingdom’s northeastern gate.

Freed from the joint suppression of the humans, Zalg, who had once commanded the orc tribes, rose to the occasion. He vowed to reclaim the glory of the legendary King’s Tent and relive the splendid history of the orcs’ resistance against the Gubera Empire. And this time, their goal was even grander than that of their ancestors…to penetrate the human world and rule it.

After countless battles, the orc tribes surrounding Zalg had directly or indirectly submitted to the rule of the King’s Tent. The Grand Chieftain’s influence radiated over a vast and expansive area, reaching the Endless Ice Fields to the north, the Rocky Mountains and the oasis human states to the south, the Lucky Forest to the west, and another great human nation, the Gabella Empire, to the east. This stretch of plains in the northwest of the continent was now firmly under the control of the orc leader.

After ruling the tribes of the plains, the King’s Tent had to find a new objective. The glory of the orcs could absolutely not be confined to the plains; this was the unanimous opinion of everyone within the King’s Tent.

But as to where they should expand in the next phase, a disagreement arose among them.

One faction believed they should continue to unify the orc world. The inland plains were incredibly vast, and the plains north of the Rocky Mountains were merely a part of it. The plains seemed to extend endlessly eastward into the interior, and on these eastern plains still roamed orc tribes of all sizes. At the same time, in the Lucky Forest to the west of the plains, there was also a branch of orc civilization…the forest orcs, who had grown accustomed to fishing and hunting. This faction argued that all orc tribes on the continent should first be gathered under the rule of the King’s Tent. However, even within this faction, there was disagreement on whether to subjugate the forest orcs first or to campaign into the inland plains.

The other faction believed that the King’s Tent now possessed sufficient strength to attack the human world…of course, the orcs called it revenge. The King’s Tent had once promised the surrendered tribes a good and prosperous life, allowing them to multiply in a land flowing with milk and honey. Promises had to be kept. What little could they gain from continuing to subjugate their poor relatives on the plains? Only by bringing the wealthy human world under their rule could they fulfill their promise. After losing the protection of the Watcher’s Legion, the oasis states had faced the orcs’ military might several times. Besides offering up great fortunes each time, some had even secretly expressed their submission. This meant the orcs already had a springboard to penetrate the human world to the south. Meanwhile, Ordo in the west and Gabella in the east were also facing crises of varying degrees. The caravans traveling to and from the plains brought news that delighted the people of the King’s Tent even more: the spiritual leader of the human world, the Church of the Lord of Light, was deeply mired in the religious disputes of Horn Bay. In the past, whenever human nations had internal or external conflicts, the Church always played the role of a mediator. Coupled with religious reasons, it served to unite the human world to some extent. Now, they should not have the energy for that.

Was this not a once-in-a-millennium opportunity?

“Infiltrate the Lucky Forest to the west!”

“No, we should continue to attack the eastern plains.”

“You are all wrong. Ordo is a fat sheep right now. It would be a waste not to take it.”

“I think it’s better to attack Gabella. It’s said that Gabella is located in the centre of this land. Controlling the centre of the continent would be a great advantage.”

“Idiot, occupy the centre of the continent? You want the surrounding humans to all come and besiege us?”

After Grand Chieftain Abal posed his question, the tent was momentarily filled with all sorts of suggestions, with everyone voicing their own opinions.

“Grand Chieftain,” Eugene, as the manager of the King’s Tent’s caravans, supported controlling the Lucky Forest first. “I feel we must first accumulate our wealth. Only with wealth can we purchase more iron armour and weapons to equip our warriors. Although we orcs are brave, we are ultimately flesh and blood, and we are at a disadvantage against human swords. Only when we have the same equipment as them can we bring our advantages into play. There are endless treasures in the Lucky Forest, especially animal furs, which are deeply loved by human nobles who are willing to trade gold for them. There are also plants that can be used as medicinal herbs, which can also be exchanged for great wealth. With the Lucky Forest, we can use the money traded from humans to buy their weapons, making our warriors stronger and making it easier to attack the human world.”

“Chief Eugene’s words are reasonable.” Grand Chieftain Abal nodded, seeming to agree with his view.

“Father!” Aguire grew anxious; he supported attacking the Gabella Empire first. “The two princes of Gabella are now in sharp conflict, which also means their country’s strength is divided. The major lords of the empire are all waiting to see who will get the throne. If one of them wins, the empire will have a backbone again, and it will be much more difficult for us to attack Gabella.”

“Aguire also has a point,” the Grand Chieftain nodded as well.