Cthulhu Gonfalon

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.

The second was speed. On the premise of stability, the soldiers had to then pursue speed in action. When at war, speed was required whether in marching or fighting. So long as the soldiers were fast enough, the enemies would neither have the time to respond to an attack nor catch up with them when it was time to retreat. In this world, there was no recipe for any army to emerge victorious in every battle. But so long as an army could maintain a speed that was always faster than its enemy, or at least be able to escape when it was about to lose a fight, then this army would not suffer a crushing defeat.

There might be other aspects to pursue besides these two points. But at the moment, for this rookie army, just these two points alone were more than enough.

For the vast majority of the armies in the world, just these two points alone were more than enough.

When the sky gradually darkened and the soldiers in the military base had gone to rest, Sui Xiong and Wenner also headed for different places.

Wenner set off to look for a few other military bases, while Sui Xiong headed to Keane Hill.

When he first learned that the training methods of these military bases were actually acquired from Keane Hill, he was really taken aback—in Crick’s memory, the training methods of Keane Hill were not so complex and sophisticated. They were very simple and basic.

After arriving at Keane Hill, he made himself invisible and stayed in the army base for a few days to observe the situation. Then, he determined that the new armies of the merchant party were indeed using the training methods of the Keane family.

And he also found the source of this set of training methods.

It was simply the accumulation of time, that was all.

In view of Keane Hill’s lack of strength, which resulted in several heartbreaking incidents years ago, since Anna Keane took over as Baron Keane, she made great efforts in reorganizing the armament of the army. For training of soldiers, she inherited the tradition of “recruiting law-abiding people for the army” that her brother had left behind. But she also compared her army with armies from other places. Then together with the knights under her command, they designed a set of detailed training stratagem. In the years that followed, they constantly revised and improved this set of strategy. Almost 30 years had passed since then. The young ladies back then had long become middle-aged women. This territory had been passed on to the hands of the next generation. And based on this ever-improving set of training methods, Keane Hill had trained an outstanding army that boasted strong combat power and resolute determination. In several border conflicts, this army had fought so impressively that they justified the power and might of Keane Hill.

Anna’s style of work was different from Crick’s. She was not as deep and soft as Crick. She was more direct and vicious. Over the years, the aristocrats around her had suffered losses under her hands more than once. It was because she had beat up these aristocrats around her so harshly that they submitted to her out of fear, this was why the Thunder Lord could do nothing to Keane Hill—no matter what he wanted to do, the aristocrats around Keane Hill would never want to do anything to antagonize Keane Hill again. And without their support, Keane Hill was simply beyond the reach of the Thunder Lord’s power.

Previously, under the proposition of his second son, the lord promoted Viscount Samat, who was then conferred with a territory next to Keane Hill. He wanted to make use of this warrior, who was fully loyal to his younger son, to provoke Keane Hill. If Viscount Samat blew things out of proportion and things got out of hand, the lord would have an excuse to mobilize his army. But that diehard loyal subject of his younger son was currently playing a live version of island survival in Sui Xiong’s God’s Kingdom. Ray Shack, who had replaced his identity as Viscount Samat, did not have the slightest intention of making any trouble at all. As a result, the lord lost one of his territories in vain and sulked for days.

As for that second son of the lord… Because of the mistake he made on this matter, not only did he lose the advantageous edge he originally had in the battle of inheritance rights, he had also given the oldest son of the lord a chance to hunt him down and hit out at him. Currently, he was almost on the verge of losing this battle for inheritance rights. Now, the only suspense left was that when his brother became the lord, would he be allowed to secure his position as Marquis of Peace? Or would his brother follow the fine tradition of the Duchy of Thunder and send him to join the company of predecessors who had lost their inheritance rights in the past?

Presumably, the possibility of the latter was higher.

After all, the most reliable ones in this world were the dead ones.