Chapter 716 (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins lacked decisiveness at the critical moments and did not have that kind of spirit where they would leap into boiling cauldrons or raging fires with fixed gazes and clenched teeth. But so long as the situation was not that urgent and the pressure was not too great, they would still be able to maintain a clear and understandable way of thoughts.

The core problem that the merchant party lay in the lack of a reliable army loyal to itself.

So the moment the merchant party obtained the way to train a reliable, professional army from Keane Hill, they did not waste any time in putting it to practice. And they had been very careful in keeping it a secret.

Every military camp was located in a fully controlled secret base in the north of the established Chamber of Commerce. No one was allowed to approach within a radius of at least 30 miles, even the convoys sending rations and supplies were only allowed up to 30 miles away from it. Then the base camp would send its own trucks to take over the task of transporting. To prevent aerial reconnaissance, more than 20 mid-ranked mages, or even higher-level mages, rotated on around-the-clock shifts where they would cast spells to maintain an illusion spell big enough to envelop the entire military base.

Generally speaking, those tasked to carry out aerial reconnaissance were adventurers of the martial system who rode flying demon beasts to circumnavigate the base. They did not have the ability to see through illusions. But nothing could be too strange in such a vast world. Perhaps there was someone who was of a unique bloodline that he could see through illusions—for example, the heir to the James family of Keane Hill, Donald James. Or perhaps, there was someone who owned a magic prop that enabled him to see through illusions, or even… Sometimes, even the battle mages might have to play their part as scouts just to obtain more detailed and reliable information.

So these military training bases had a second shield—huge roofs.

Supported by numerous pillars, these roofs were extensive enough to provide the bases shelter from wind and rain. They were also able to completely obscure the view of prying eyes from the sky.

These hastily constructed emergency roofs were naturally not that sturdy. They were most probably similar to merely the carports or canopies found on Earth. But even if they were not that sturdy, they could still block the view from anyone. Even if the spellcasters were able to see through the illusion spell, it would be quite difficult for them to further see through these roofs with their reconnaissance spell to look at the soldiers below, who were sweating and training hard every day.

In fact, even Wenner would almost be fooled if not for him being so experienced.

Because on those roofs, there were patterns painted by a specialized painter—these patterns were exactly the same as the ground. From afar, it would look no different from the normal ground. If one did not fly close to it, even the gods would not be able to spot the problem with it.

The illusion spells of mortals were ineffective against the gods, but these patterns that were drawn on the roofs were not magic. Wenner was almost fooled by this simple, yet crude method.

Of course, he would not tell Sui Xiong about this.

The two gods stayed in the air and watched for almost a day. They watched how the soldiers trained in combat skills, battle arrays, military orders, physical fitness… those training ways were relatively simple and concise. There was nothing fanciful, nor was there the pursuit of anything ingenious. There were just two words to describe them: steady and swift.

The first was stability. Any action, whether fighting or marching, had to pay due attention to “stability.” These new soldiers were going to be the pillar and core of the merchant party’s army in the future, so they had to first fulfill the requirement of stability and reliability. In this way, at the critical moments, they would be able to play a decisive role.