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Although the battlefield is ever-changing, the change right now left Hou Xiaoping and others completely baffled...

Just moments ago, the situation had deteriorated to the brink of complete collapse. Once Buddha’s Gate’s defensive Formation melted away, he couldn’t think of anything his side could use to stop the opposing Sorcerer Team.

But just as the Buddha statue was nearly fully melted, and a one-sided situation was about to emerge, the enemy soldiers suddenly retreated like the tide...

Before he could react, the intelligence system alerted him to orders from the higher-ups.

"General Hou Xiaoping, enemy special forces have been completely annihilated. Please immediately launch a pursuit. Use this opportunity to destroy as much of the enemy’s armed forces as possible, be aware.

.. it’s to destroy as much as possible. The highest command center grants you unrestricted fire authority.

Push the front line forward as much as possible until the four major Federations submit letters of surrender.

Don’t worry about insufficient troops, reinforcements will arrive soon! "

A series of orders left him stunned for a long moment.

All enemy special forces were annihilated?

What kind of joke is this?

The enemies this time included the top three special forces from the Western Camp, along with various levels of dangerous special forces personnel such as the fearsome Black Sorcerers in the Sorcerer Team, the Poison Dragon Knights under the Duchess, and the Super Gene Warrior Squad under Stahl...

With the closure of Huaxi Pass and the disappearance of top-tier combatants led by Zhang Zhengyuan, there was simply no way to deal with any of these special forces, let alone a combined force.

And now you’re telling me they’re all annihilated? Annihilated with what?

Could it be that the upper echelons have been infiltrated by an Illusion Technique master, leading to their control?

This possibility seems utterly absurd, but it felt more real to Hou Xiaoping than the idea that the top-tier combatants from all four districts had been wiped out...

However, soon after, urgent reports from the front lines came: General, the enemy Sorcerer Team is disintegrating, large-scale witchcraft is backfiring...

"How could this happen?" The officers with Hou Xiaoping were all astonished, and someone couldn’t help but say, "Could it be... that General Hou Xiaoliang... succeeded in the assassination?"

Hearing this, Hou Xiaoping gave a wry smile.

He himself, as a brother, did not believe it.

His brother was indeed strong, but the chance of him successfully assassinating that Legendary Sorcerer was less than one in ten, to put it generously.

Even if, by some stroke of luck, he did succeed, it wouldn’t have caused such a collapse.

At most, it would have caused some confusion in the enemy Sorcerer Team, and if the witchcraft failed, they would just replace it with a lower-level Wizard.

Moreover, with the Super Gene Warrior Stahl at the forefront, even if his younger brother did succeed in the assassination, he couldn’t possibly escape, so how could it cause such a great defeat?

Something... something unknown must have happened at the front...

"Notify everyone, launch a full counterattack. Engineers, get ready as well. If the situation turns favorable, immediately move toward the Federation’s network domain!"

"This..." Several officers were stunned. Is this for real?

"Quick!"

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"Damn it, what the hell happened?"

At this moment, the members of parliament at the front line were thrown into a panic as they looked at the battlefield reports.

Stahl’s life signs gone, the Duchess’s life signs gone, Legendary Sorcerer Walter Belli’s life signs gone, Sorcerer Team nearly wiped out, the four Poison Dragon Knights...

"How can those idiots on the frontline lose with such odds?"

"And they even signaled a full army retreat, have they lost their minds? Is it a spy planted by the Central Federation?"

"Enough!" Watching the panicked members, the Northern District Governor interrupted everyone’s talk and urgently asked, "Any other news from the frontline?"

"Contact was lost during the emergency retreat. The enemy counterattacked too swiftly; even the high-ranking officers who took the initiative to contact us five minutes ago have not replied."

"This..." Some council members became restless. What on earth had happened?

Just one hour ago, they were all busy instructing their secretaries to draft some official declarations for the post-war victory.

Statements like "This is not an invasion, but a just act of self-defense," "It’s merely a military operation to ensure the safety of all citizens of the Federation and to stop some madmen with wild ambitions."

To prevent similar incidents in the future, all high-ranking officials of the Central Federation would undergo scrutiny, and a referendum would be held to decide if they were still qualified to govern.

The citizens of the Central Federation would continue to enjoy the same civil treatments without any change. The public should not panic—The Western world has always advocated for peace and democracy. This military operation was for order, not for destruction...

Anyway, they were all lofty words. On one hand, they aimed to appease the anti-war factions within their own Federation, and on the other hand, to avoid provoking a total revolt by the massive populace of the Central Federation.

After all, the vast number of engineers represented the best source of cheap labor. Once the Central Federation was under control, there would be ways to exploit them. Boiling a frog in warm water was the correct approach; being too radical would only incite resistance...

Of course, how to allocate the spoils was the focal point of negotiation among the council members from the various regions. From their perspective, this was almost a guaranteed victory, which is why they had already started discussions on the post-war distribution of benefits early on.

They were even considering whether to restart that concealed project in Huazhong.

But unexpectedly, such a fantastical battle report from the front line came so quickly!

News of the deaths of all top-tier combat forces kept coming in, one after the other, the front collapsing entirely. They couldn’t even maintain basic communication, leaving them completely dumbfounded...

Looking at the chaotic assembly hall, the President of the Northern Zone’s face was pale with fury.

He couldn’t believe that just that morning, the Duchess had invited him to an enchanting get-together that evening.

To be honest, he was quite looking forward to it; after all, she was a legendary woman.

He felt that spending a wonderful night with her would be an unforgettable experience in his lifetime.

However, what he received so soon was news of her death...

In the midst of utter chaos, quite abruptly, council members from various countries received some news, and their expressions changed dramatically. The entire hall instantly fell silent as a graveyard.

The Northern District Governor, seeing the council members with their stunned faces, immediately understood that they had received the same news as he had.

Some high-ranking military officers from the Northern Zone had already fled back. This conclusively proved that the earlier reports of a rout were true...

And the fact that everyone received this message also indicated that military officers from all zones must have used teleportation devices to escape.

High-ranking officers abandoning the battlefield to save their own lives signaled an impending military tribunal. Knowing this, they still chose to do so, which showed just how dire the situation on the battlefield must have been.

"There’s no point in staying..." The Northern District Governor quickly packed his briefcase.

"I suppose you all already know the outcome. We’ve lost, and lost thoroughly.

Now we need to think about how to use propaganda to stop the despicable Central Federation in their tracks.

.. at least... prevent the worst-case scenario from happening! "

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"Mr. Cady, you’re back?"

In the assembly hall of the Northern Zone, President Cady, having teleported back, immediately hurried to his own council.

At this moment, famous political figures and even some capitalist tycoons from the Northern Zone all gathered, clearly indicating the gravity of the situation that even a term of government couldn’t resolve solo.

Because everyone was discussing a very humiliating but the only proposal draft that could stop the military onslaught of the Central Federation...

"Can you explain what’s going on?"

On the way, Cady was already continuously receiving intelligence.

The closure of the Huaxi Pass by the Central Federation was a fake, just an internet blockade.

They even kept their own citizens completely in the dark, not hesitating to cause tremendous upheaval domestically.

Besides a few individuals, none of the senior officers or council members knew what was happening, not even the front-line commanders were aware that this was all an act.

Cady had suspected this outcome when the front had collapsed, but what he couldn’t understand was, even if the Central Federation had staged it all, how could they achieve such results?

Even if Zhang Zhengyuan was alive, even if the Central Federation’s strongest Formation, the Zhuxian Sword, was still operational, it still shouldn’t have resulted in such a devastating defeat...