The two looked at the lizard-man with the sly face and couldn't help but snort in disgust, thinking to themselves that they were not as shameless as this creature. However, the three big shots arguing above didn't seem to notice, and the lizard-man officer Kokin, who had kept his head down all this time, quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He thought to himself, this time that terrifying Wizard should give back the soul he held captive, right? What did the Wizard say again? As long as the lizard-man didn't die by the time the Moon rose, it meant the soul had returned to his body?

Kokin couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. Would that cunning Human Wizard go back on his word?

He shivered.

...

Nightfall came quickly—

No matter if Kokin really lost his soul when the Moon rose, Conrad and He Youji'er had already started to move.

Far away, several miles away, from the hilltop near the Silver Elf ruins, one could see the ruins below lit up with blazing torches, looking like a sea of fire— in fact, such a scene wasn't common in the past because it signaled that the lizard-man bandits encamped inside were planning a major action—they were gathering. But getting the chaotic lizard-men to gather wasn't an easy task, especially when trying to reassemble over a thousand of them, most of whom lacked even the basic conception of left and right, was a monumental effort.

About an hour later, another long line of torches emerged from the west, entering the Balrog ruins. The twinkling torches soon gathered together, their collective light illuminating the sky in that direction.

At the same moment, four dark figures stood silently on the hilltop—

"The Black Fire Sect believers have gathered as well," Brand said quietly, eyes reflecting the firelight.

"And Conrad's men too," Sanfde added from the side.

Brand nodded.

"Are you so sure they will split their forces into three groups, Lord?" the young man asked again as he turned back. "What if they unite as one? What if they see through our trick?"

"There's no such thing as 'what if'," Brand thought, confident in his aggro-drawing skills. If they were up against those elite legions later on, especially the armies led by Madara's genius commanders, his little tricks wouldn't work. But with these lizard-man bandits, there was absolutely no way they could guess his intentions. He had a very advantageous factor—he knew exactly how much strength they had, but their understanding of his strength was based on Redi's verbal description of twelve Silver Level guards.

Under these conditions, whether it was the Lizardman Commander or the commander of the Paper Card Mercenary Group, Conrad, both would never have imagined that Brand's plan was to swallow them all whole—to take all this massive experience. Let alone suspecting, even if Brand told them face to face that he was going to use just a dozen Silver Level warriors to take down a bandit group of over a thousand, they would probably think this young man had gone mad.

But Brand paused and then replied, "Even in the worst case, it's only that they unite as one. But that would still be better than us coming all the way here. You must remember, they are the hunters, we are the prey. In a hunt, it's always the prey that decides the direction, not the hunters."

The young man remained silent, nodding.

The Silver Elf Commander still stood on the side with a cold expression and said nothing. At this distance, his Strength was greatly limited, and honestly, he couldn't see much more than Brand could.

The last person beside the three was Miss Merchant—

Romantic's understanding of the twinkling torches on the faraway hillside was far less intuitive than the others; on the contrary, she found the light dots quite beautiful. The way they gathered in the darkness and entered her view looked like a masterpiece composed of flames, making her feel exceptionally beautiful from her heart. However, Brand hadn't called her here to watch the firework show, because soon, those torches began to spread and eventually formed three straight lines—

"Lord, you guessed right!" Sanfde's eyes sparkled with excitement as he couldn't help but say. But his expression quickly turned gloomy. Brand's confidence and assuredness involuntarily reminded him of Macaro. If there was anyone in Gray Wolf Mercenaries' heart who always had a way to lead them forward, it would certainly have been Macaro. Unfortunately, the so-called 'forever' was just wishful thinking, after all.

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