Loser System and Berserker Me

Chapter 163: Iron Gate Pass

“We surr—”

The envoy was just about to speak when the person beside him slapped him.

“Surrender, your head! We are welcoming Great Tang’s heavenly soldiers back to their land! We, the citizens of Great Tang, have suffered greatly under the tyranny of those barbarians. Finally, the heavenly soldiers have come to rescue us!

“Bring out the head of the wretched Tibetan chieftain and welcome the heavenly soldiers in!”

Such scenes were happening throughout the Western Region.

There was no need for them to verify whether the Anxi army was coming for them or not. More often than not, the terracotta soldiers were already right outside their city gates before they had time to react.

Thus, the smaller nations in the Western Region swiftly surrendered.

Some of them even went as far as to dupe the Tibetans to a banquet and, using the smashing of a cup as a signal, diced them apart.

Eysh, we didn’t want to go this far either, but we needed something as proof of our surrender. Otherwise, the Anxi Protectorate General might come after us too.

Of course, there were also some who, for some inexplicable reason, thought that they could fend against the terracotta army with the thousand soldiers they had. There was no choice but to strongly persuade these people to surrender.

Those living served to boost Great Tang’s Anxi population, whereas those slaughtered were reanimated as undead to slave off for Shu Yichao.

Just like that, the newly-appointed Anxi Protectorate General claimed the three major cities south of Tian Shan in just a few months, slicing the Tibetan Empire’s influence in the Western Region by half.

But this was only the beginning.

The Tibetan Empire had been cruelly suppressing those under their rule for years now, which made their rule unstable as if they were sitting on powder kegs. Many desired to rebel, but none had been able to light the spark thus far.

But now, someone had succeeded in lighting a roaring blaze. The Tibetan Empire was going to face a huge storm as a result of that.

Oblivious to them, Shu Yichao was in a dilemma.

“Holy shit! It’s going to explode!”

A single misstep could lead to the regret of a lifetime.

Once again, Shu Yichao had gotten ahead of himself summoning his undead army. He didn’t even want to see how many zeroes there were in the weekly maintenance fee anymore—he couldn’t afford it anyway.

Despite having just launched a reckless invasion that gave no care about the casualty rate, he still had too many terracotta soldiers on hand.

They aren’t dying fast enough! What should I do?

I guess the Tibetan Empire just has to suffer a bit more. I’ll continue my invasion and pray that there are more kind souls like the Lizard Queen and the Antlion Whisperer.

There was also another matter he was conflicted over.

To his surprise, Khotan was a resource point producing fine jade. It had a jade mine despite being a tier-2 city!

This meant that he might be able to produce terracotta warriors.

That was the core force of a late-game undead player, a troop far superior to those mud clumps!

The only problem was that terracotta warriors needed another resource before they could be summoned—lions.

This was a huge bummer.

Where am I supposed to find lions in this damned place? Am I supposed to charge right through Central Asia, West Asia, and Egypt, just so that I can enter Africa to capture lions?

It went without saying that antlions couldn’t be considered lions.

“Bro, you look troubled. What are you worried about?” Miazova asked.

“About my mount.” Shu Yichao scratched his head.

“Your mount?” Miazova fell into deep thought.

The sand monitors were excellent mounts in the desert, but it was lacking compared to the Tang army’s mounts. For instance, their black-armored elite knights rode on dragonblood steeds…

“Why don’t you take a look at Dayuan?” Miazova suggested.

“Hm?” Shu Yichao raised his head in confusion.

Dayuan? Ah, if I remember correctly, that place breeds fine steeds.

But what I need now are lions, not steeds…

“Indeed.” Miazova nodded. “Their pegasi might be inferior to the dragonblood steeds, but they aren’t too bad either. At least they are capable of flight.”

Pegasi? And it can fly?

“…We’re heading to Dayuan right now!” Shu Yichao leaped to his feet.

…

Iron Gate Pass was an important gate between the Tibetan Empire and the Western Region. Amidst the towering snow mountain was a wall that rose into the clouds. Lightning crackled on its surface, and stone boulders were waiting to be catapulted at foolish invaders.

The pass was as imposing as the mountain, and its sides comprised steep cliffs. There was no way to circumvent the pass. The only road through the pass was narrow and covered in snow.

A misstep could result in one plummeting from the mountain.

Any army that dared attack this metal gate would have to pay a heavy price for it.

There was no way to bring heavy siege weapons through the narrow path, and any stone thrown by the garrison troops would gain tremendous speed as it traveled down the mountain, turning it into a deadly weapon.

But now…

“The undead army is here!” a soldier on the walls shouted.

Quite some Tibetans had fled to the Iron Gate Pass in recent days in a fluster, and through them, the garrison troops learned a piece of shocking news—a massive undead army had crawled out of Kucha and was threatening to drown the world.

The garrison troops initially thought that those fellows were talking nonsense, but more and more escapees verified the news.

Even the escaping chieftains swore by it too.

That left the garrison troops with no choice but to take their word for it.

“Could there really be a million undead troops?”

Soon, the truth was presented before their eyes.

They didn’t see the legendary Anxi Protectorate General, the necromancer behind this crisis, but they saw gray terracotta soldiers with skull faces flooding in as if the turbid wastes of the celestial river had been dumped on the mortal world.

The earth shook.

The snow mountain rumbled.

The Tibetan garrison troops thought that they had fallen into hell. Legs trembled. Some even thought of fleeing, only to be immediately cut down by their commanders.

“Who dares run?!” a Tibetan commander roared angrily. “They will be punished by martial law!”

His intimidation calmed the Tibetan soldiers for the time being.

“The Iron Gate Pass is as unshakable as a monolith! The enemy won’t be able to breach our defense even if they are a million strong!” the chief commander of the Iron Gate Pass bellowed. “We might not lose a single man even when a thousand of their men have died. What do you have to fear?! Get back in position!”

The Tibetan soldiers began making preparations for their defense.

Things unfolded as their chief commander said. The Iron Gate Pass was simply too treacherous. The garrison troops’ cannons, catapults, and all kinds of defensive artifacts rained down on the terracotta soldiers, smashing them into smithereens.

A glistening enchanted ballista arrow could impale an entire row of terracotta soldiers.

A boulder thrown down from the wall would swiftly accelerate, building up to an incredible momentum that crushed countless mud and bones on its way down.

Less had to be said about the other lightning and fire-related attacks.

If the mage operating the defensive artifacts failed to decimate dozens of terracotta soldiers with each strike, it would only mean that they were subpar.

It didn’t take long for a huge pile of bones and mud to gather beneath the walls.

The Tibetan soldiers initially felt uneasy, but smiles soon emerged amongst them. Rather than putting their lives on the line, this felt more like playing a game.

“Hahaha! I was worried about this bunch of fellows, but they turned out to be as weak as little chicks…”

They casually loaded an arrow into the ballista and fired it, impaling a row of terracotta soldiers.

“Tsk tsk tsk. 13 only? That’s unfortunate.” A Tibetan soldier shook his head.

“Look here. I’ll get 20 this time.” Another Tibetan soldier joined the competition.

They even made a deal that the one who got the least terracotta soldiers today would treat everyone to a drink later on.

This joyous hunting event lasted for two hours before their smiles began to fade.

“We should have killed tens of thousands of them by now, so why aren’t they giving up?” someone murmured uneasily.

“It also doesn’t look like their army is thinning.”

“…”

A Tibetan soldier quickly climbed to a vantage point to take a look. His face swiftly paled.

“What’s wrong?” someone below asked.

“It’s the same,” the Tibetan soldier replied in horror. “The undead army hasn’t decreased at all since this morning!”

“HA?!”

The Tibetan soldiers beneath looked at one another.

“Ki ki ki!”

Just then, an eerie laughter echoed among them.