Xu Yuan's words were like a heavy bomb, setting off raging waves in Black Blade's heart.
Hearing Xu Yuan speak, Black Blade seemed to freeze in place, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
He stared at Xu Yuan with eyes wide open, his face full of shock, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.
Only after quite a while did he snap out of it like waking from a dream, and an indescribable surge of emotion and warmth welled up in his heart.
At this moment, Black Blade's feelings were extremely complicated, with sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and spice all intertwined.
Just as Xu Yuan had said, Black Blade had always regarded himself as a loyal subordinate, doing his utmost to work for Xu Yuan.
However, he had never imagined that Xu Yuan did not see him as a subordinate at all.
Black Blade knew very well that Xu Yuan wasn't just saying polite words. He could feel that Xu Yuan genuinely cared about him.
Ever since arriving at the Trial Grounds, due to a series of unexpected changes, Black Blade would occasionally lose focus while reporting work to Xu Yuan.
Although he tried his best to hide it, the attentive Xu Yuan still noticed something was off.
Whenever that happened, Xu Yuan would always ask him with concern whether he had something on his mind, while Black Blade would always choose to remain silent.
He felt that he was just a subordinate and shouldn't cause trouble for Xu Yuan, and he felt even more embarrassed to pour out his worries to him.
But Xu Yuan remained the same as always, sincerely caring about his every move.
At this moment, Black Blade's nose felt sour, his eyes grew moist, and tears swirled in his eye sockets.
He struggled to restrain his emotions, not wanting to lose his composure in front of Xu Yuan.
He knew very well that Xu Yuan was not the kind of person who spoke empty words, every sentence came straight from the heart.
This sincere bond deeply moved Black Blade and also made him realize that his place in Xu Yuan's heart was far more important than he had imagined.
"My King… I…"
At this moment, Black Blade had many things he wanted to say, but when the words reached his lips, he didn't know where to start.
He felt as if his tongue were tied, unable to form suitable sentences to express what he felt inside.
He knew that he was least good at dealing with situations like this. Once he encountered them, his mind would become a complete mess, losing all ability to think.
Xu Yuan naturally understood this. He didn't expect Black Blade to give any perfect response. The reason he said those words was simply to let Black Blade understand that the importance he placed on Entity 303 and the others was no different from the importance he placed on Black Blade.
When he saw Black Blade wanting to speak but not knowing how to begin, anxious like an ant on a hot pan, he decided to change the topic at the right moment.
"It's getting late. They should be arriving soon."
Xu Yuan's voice was calm and gentle, as if unaffected by what had just happened.
"How are the preparations going?"
Hearing Xu Yuan's question, Black Blade felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
He took a deep breath, tried to steady his emotions, and then quickly began to report.
"The main force and supplies have all been transferred through the tunnels."
"The remaining small group is already on standby."
"When the time comes, if those two HIMs talk to you alone as planned, the main force will move out immediately and surround everyone else who remains."
Sure enough, once it came to a field Black Blade was familiar with, his mind instantly became clear.
Hearing Black Blade's words, Xu Yuan nodded.
"Then stay on full alert and welcome their arrival."
———
[On The Outskirts Of The Jungle]
The main forces of Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM were advancing in a grand procession toward the jungle.
They did not choose the commonly used plan of splitting troops into several routes, but instead concentrated all their forces together.
That was understandable, after all, they had long since given up on competing with Xu Yuan in terms of troop numbers.
Because of that, they no longer needed to arrange formations or hide forces.
Logically speaking, without the trouble of arranging formations and concealing troops, the overall marching speed of the camp should have been quite fast.
But in reality, it was the exact opposite.
And the main culprit slowing down their advance was Tyrant HIM's monster army.
The monsters within Tyrant HIM's monster army were all mindless monsters spawned within the Trial Grounds.
Although Tyrant HIM had already given them hats, allowing them to move normally during the day, controlling the movements of so many monsters was still somewhat troublesome.
Before Tyrant HIM cooperated with Annoying Village HIM, Tyrant HIM was still able to manage these monsters.
After all, at that time, including Yicheng, Tyrant HIM only had five or six players under his command.
Those five or six players could steadily attract the hatred of the monster army, so the monsters were fairly easy to control.
But now it was different.
After Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM joined forces, the addition of iron golems gave the monster army yet another source of hatred.
Then, with the addition of Grayfist and the others, the number of hatred sources for the monster army skyrocketed.
Because of this, Tyrant HIM's monster army became much harder to control than before.
As a result, Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM had been arguing the whole way on their journey to Grayfist's base.
Annoying Village HIM's intention was very clear, he hoped Tyrant HIM would abandon his monster army. On one hand, this monster army was indeed difficult to manage and seriously slowed down the entire team's advance.
On the other hand, since Annoying Village HIM and Tyrant HIM had already decided not to engage Xu Yuan in a battle of troop numbers, this monster army had lost its reason to exist.
However, Tyrant HIM firmly rejected this suggestion.
To him, this monster army represented everything he had in the Trial Grounds. It was the crystallization of all his efforts since entering this place.
Even though these monsters had no self-awareness, even though after victory they would not be able to realize their own contributions, and would not even receive any rewards, Tyrant HIM was still unwilling to abandon them so easily.
And even if they slowed things down, so what? Had Xu Yuan run away or something?
Thus, the two fell into a stalemate, neither able to persuade the other.
Although Annoying Village HIM felt helpless about it, since he couldn't forcibly intervene, he ultimately chose to compromise.
From the dispute between the two, it wasn't hard to see that there were still major differences in viewpoints between Annoying Village HIM and Tyrant HIM.
Fortunately, Grayfist's arrival brought them a new idea.
Grayfist proposed a clever solution that resolved the problem with ease.
He had the iron golems hold wooden doors and herd the monster army together like driving ducks, then push the monster army forward.
This way, the monster army wouldn't scatter, and there was no need for anyone to attract hatred.
Only then did the marching speed of the team increase somewhat.
More than an hour later, the main forces of Tyrant HIM and Annoying Village HIM finally arrived outside the jungle…
[T/N: There's a monthly discount ongoing on my P@treon page for the next three days. You can get 20% off on your membership. Enjoy~
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