Chapter 8: Temple Turmoil

The wild boar leader guessed correctly. After winning several consecutive battles, Lidas’s confidence surged; if not for Li Bin holding her back, she might have led the fifth squad of Amazonian warriors straight into the temple.

Even though she was made to stay, she couldn’t sit still for a moment. She clung to Li Bin’s side, relentlessly urging him to launch an attack.

“Master, look at those wild boar men—they’re no different from the ones we’ve encountered along the way. Let me fight, I promise I’ll take the temple for you in no time.”

“No,” Li Bin refused her flatly. “Your Falcon Archers burned through a lot of arrows in today’s battle; we need to resupply. Without the Graveyard Mage, we have to quickly process the corpses we’ve just acquired, or they'll become useless. If you want to fight, wait until tomorrow.”

“But, Master, if we miss tonight’s opportunity, tomorrow the wild boar men will form larger units and pose a greater threat,” Lidas protested, unwilling to give up.

“You think they haven’t already formed one?” Li Bin barked. “I watched all the battles today. At first, I cheered your attacks, but then I wondered—are we facing mere wild boar men?”

“What else could they be?” Lidas asked.

“Wild boar men?” Li Bin scoffed. “Have you ever seen wild boar men with clear ranks, who maintain their weapons and gear? You took their red fur as a racial trait and even named their units after it, never realizing how such assumptions cloud a commander’s judgment. If we fought based only on your intelligence, we’d die without knowing how.”

“What are you saying, Master?” Lidas felt a twinge of unease at Li Bin’s words.

“Come with me,” Li Bin said, leading Lidas to the center of the temporary camp, where the fifth squad’s Will-o’-the-Wisp slaves were busily unloading corpses from the undead supply wagon.

Li Bin grabbed the corpse of a Red Boar Chainball Soldier, tore off its leather armor, and asked, “What do you see?”

“Nothing much, just that he’s strong. Strong muscles aren’t unusual for someone so powerful,” Lidas said, studying the corpse closely but seeing no issue.

“What, you didn’t notice the fur on his body is actually a layer of reverse-growing scales?” Li Bin flipped the corpse over.

Lidas looked carefully and indeed found that the Red Boar Chainball Soldier’s back was covered in a layer of backward-facing scales disguised as fur. She muttered, “Red fur, scales all over—they’re Infernal creatures?”

“Exactly. They’re likely low-tier Infernal beasts: Infernal War Boars,”