Chapter 20: The Borrowed Army

When Li Mingxing quickly regained his composure, the witch gave a slight nod. By then, she was already quite satisfied with him and believed he was the most suitable person to help her complete her task.

So she led him into her witch’s cottage, and this was Li Mingxing’s first time stepping inside one.

Once he entered, he found that this witch’s cottage was somewhat different from the one he had seen before in the Medusa’s dwelling.

There was not nearly as much clutter inside. In the center of the hut stood a wooden table as well, but there were no alchemical tools on it. Instead, it held things like leaves and branches. Li Mingxing also noticed a crystal sphere in the corner, at least half a meter across. Presumably, that had been what was used to monitor and observe him earlier.

After seating Li Mingxing, the witch asked, “From the way you came in, have you seen a witch’s cottage like this before?”

“Yes.” Li Mingxing hesitated for a moment, but in the end answered honestly. “I once encountered a witch’s cottage, and I had one of my subordinates learn mapmaking. I also learned several methods of poison-making.”

“Mapmaking and poison-making—that’s the alchemy branch. Never mind why I’m telling you this. Since you’ve encountered a witch’s cottage before, then we can speak plainly. I ask you to do something, and you gain benefits from me. Meeting a witch’s cottage is as simple as that,” the witch said lightly, deliberately making it sound easy.

“What do you need me to do?” Li Mingxing did not ask what the witch could give him first; instead, he asked about his task.

“I want the Amazon tribe utterly destroyed,” the witch said indifferently. “You already know I am a dark elf. I came here to watch over the Amazon tribe and the unicorns nearby. Now those unicorns have been taken to Dragon City, and I cannot allow the Amazon tribe to take the same path. So I need them wiped out completely.”

“That’s impossible. You saw the battle earlier. I lost so many troops and still wasn’t their match.”

“I know. But what if I provide you with another force?” The witch fixed him with her gaze. “A force that is strong, and accustomed to fighting in the jungle. I can see that you yourself are not well suited to jungle warfare.”

Li Mingxing hesitated, then finally sighed. “That still seems unlikely. Don’t forget, there are pursuers behind me, and the Cleaners are there as well.”

“The pursuers are not a problem. They’re only there to take advantage of the situation. Once they see your strength increase, they won’t dare strike on their own. As for the Cleaners, the people of the three great cities have all had dealings with them. Though outside forces say they are the sweepers of the forest, we know they are the builders of cities. In this forest, only they can move faster than the trees grow, and build a city before the trees have time to rise.”

“So that’s how it is.” Li Mingxing frowned when he heard this. “Then that means these Cleaners shouldn’t have much fighting strength of their own. Why do they seem so fearless?”

“It’s because as long as there are trees, they cannot die. Add to that the fact that they are only interested in construction, and in the end no one bothered to concern themselves with them.”

“Then why is it usually said that no battles happen within fifty li of where they exist?”

“Because the trees they plant suck blood. Don’t look at me like that—I heard it from others too. But everyone spreads it around, so it has been passed on.”

After finishing his questions about the Cleaners, Li Mingxing did not ask any more. Instead, he began to weigh his own situation against that of the Amazons.

As he thought, the witch said nothing. She simply watched him quietly, watched his fingers tap lightly on the tabletop, watched his expression shift from difficulty to hope, and then from hope back to difficulty.

At last Li Mingxing gave the table a light slap and said, “I want to know how many troops you can give me.”

“How many do you want?”

“Three hundred. I need at least three hundred, and at least fifty of them must be third-tier or above. Ideally, there should also be some coordination between the unit types,” Li Mingxing said.

“Do you really think I can provide a force like that?” The witch merely looked at him.

“All right then. How many can you provide?” Li Mingxing said somewhat helplessly.

“I can give you three hundred, but most of them are first-tier. There are fewer than seventy second-tier ones. Take them or leave them.”

Hearing this, Li Mingxing muttered in frustration, “If I’d known that, I should have asked for four or five hundred.”

The witch only smiled and said nothing, but Li Mingxing had already seen through her. This witch possessed the ability to influence the mind, though she could probably only control first- and second-tier troops.

Once he understood this, Li Mingxing’s headache over the mission grew worse. He did not know whether these first- and second-tier troops, after being controlled in mind and will, would be able to carry out his orders perfectly. All he could do now was hope the witch would not act too recklessly; otherwise, those three hundred men would amount to nothing more than cannon fodder.

Fortunately, the witch did not make things too difficult for him. After agreeing to provide Li Mingxing with three hundred soldiers, she immediately went and brought out seven or eight hundred for him to choose from, leaving him no room to change his mind.

Li Mingxing examined the troops the witch had brought out. Because of their strength, he paid even more attention to their coordination with one another.

After some selection, he picked out fifty little fairies from the lot. Though these creatures were only as big as fists, their attributes were surprisingly good, with three qualities in particular.

First, because they were so small, their attacks were not easy to notice. As long as they were not seen, no one would counterattack even if they struck.

Second, their attack power was quite weak, so they usually relied on poison. Of course, the poison they used was a kind of pollen toxin, whose effects were limited to paralysis, confusion, and blindness.

The third was that all of them could speak the language of bees. At need, they could summon swarms of bees to attack enemies, and the more of them there were, the more bees they could call forth. It did not even consume mana. It was, in truth, a very useful skill.

Li Mingxing then selected fifty second-tier brown bears from the troops. These animals were much like the battle leopards he had once commanded: they possessed a certain intelligence, could understand human commands, and could even communicate with people.

Among the creatures of this forest, the brown bear was one of the few that used earth-based abilities. In addition to their long bodies and formidable defense, they could once an hour cast a body-strengthening stone-skin spell or an earthen spike technique.

Li Mingxing chose fifty brown bears in one breath precisely to make up for his weakness in lacking sturdy front-line defenders.

To the witch, however, these bears were also treasures. After Li Mingxing took every brown bear she had, she stopped offering him any more second-tier troops.

Thus, the remaining troops could only be chosen from first-tier units. After some consideration, Li Mingxing decided that if he wanted to deal with the Amazons, he had to counter their guerrilla tactics.

That meant he had to consider two things: range and speed. If he could not improve the speed and range of his own side, then the only option left would be to suppress the Amazons’ speed and range.

In the end, Li Mingxing chose two hundred first-tier units: one hundred little wolves. These were the best companions of nature druids. Not only were they fast-moving, they also possessed stealth and the ability to strike twice.

Most importantly, their sense of smell was extremely keen, and they should be able to track down the Amazons hiding in the forest.

As for the other hundred, they were various venomous snakes chosen by Li Mingxing. This request gave the witch some trouble. After all, although this inner world was like a tropical rainforest, most of the inhabitants were elves, and creatures like snakes had long since vanished without trace.

In the end, the witch only found eighty venomous snakes for Li Mingxing, and had to make up the shortfall by giving him twenty first-tier falcons to serve as scouts.

As for the lack of snakes, Li Mingxing could only feel helpless. In the earlier battle, he had already noticed that every Amazon carried a vial of antidote. His original plan had been to send poison ahead first, drain their antidotes with toxins, and then use whatever poisons he wanted afterward, leaving them with no defense.

But now, it seemed that plan would not be so easy to carry out. Li Mingxing would have to arrange these snakes more carefully.

As for the falcons, he did not care much. He already had harpy women under his command, which were enough for scouting. The falcons were only icing on the cake.

What concerned him more was that this witch had so many natural creatures under her control. He even suspected that her true profession might be druid.

If that were the case, then she would be tremendously useful to Asha, who served under Li Mingxing. Had he known this earlier, he should never have sent Asha to the Dark Elf city. If he had not done that, his chances of victory now might have been a little better, instead of standing at only fifty percent.