Chapter 114: The Army’s First Glimmer of Brilliance

[Second Skill]

“Soldiers! The time has come for the people to test us! Charge with me!”

With the activation of the group buff skill, a surge of pre-battle inspiration, and the power of idol faith, the morale of the field army soared dramatically within moments.

Mo Fangyuan raised the Empire’s Blade and led the charge.

[Strength 2]

[Health Regeneration 1]

[Speed 2]

[……]

The moment he drew the Empire’s Blade, countless positive buffs cascaded over Mo Fangyuan’s body.

His physical attributes were now strong enough that he could face off barehanded against the Wither wrestler from the original game without defeat.

“Whoosh!”

The ranged combatants, armed with crossbows, released their long-awaited volleys of arrows.

The first wave of monsters charging forward fell one after another under the relentless ranged assault.

[Sweeping Blade]

The Empire’s Blade, spanning two full block lengths, cleaved through all the monsters attempting to breach the front line, bisecting them at the waist.

Through his night vision, Mo Fangyuan could clearly see every detail inside the cavern.

The space was vast, filled mostly with zombies, along with skeletons, spiders, and other creatures—zombies predominated.

Assessing the situation, he abandoned the idea of unleashing his full power.

“This is a prime opportunity to temper the soldiers’ will and skills, and to enhance their teamwork and coordination.”

War was always the fastest path for a soldier to grow stronger.

“Roar! Roar! Roar!”

Blocking the breach caused by the explosion, Mo Fangyuan directed the Night Watch to exploit the tunnel’s terrain advantages to annihilate the monsters’ living forces and expand their gains.

“First line, fall back to reload; second line, step up!”

Mo Fangyuan arranged the crossbowmen using the Ming Dynasty’s “Divine Machine Gun Volley Formation” from his previous life: dividing troops into three ranks to shoot in turns—first line fires then falls back to reload at the third line; the second line follows, then the third, cycling continuously.

He had stumbled upon this tactic in a military video on Bilibili and now found himself applying it in reality.

Of course, due to the unyielding ambitions of a certain island nation, which, failing to overpower militarily, resorted to soft power invasions on China’s spiritual and cultural fronts, most people no longer recognized the original name, only the island’s plagiarized and renamed “Triple Strike.”

The ranged attacks continued ceaselessly, volley after volley, while the melee fighters, finding no room to exercise their skills, could only stand at the forefront to finish off wounded monsters.

With ranged output, melee clean-up, and defense coordinated, wave after wave of monsters fell lifeless.

“Roar!”

Another batch of zombies perished.

“Something’s off here!”

Mo Fangyuan sensed something was wrong. They had already slain about a hundred monsters—enough to form a small horde.

Even though the cavern seemed large, it shouldn’t house so many creatures.

“There must be more to this—could it be a spawner?”

Seeing the endless stream of monsters in such a cave, the first thing Mo Fangyuan thought of was a spawner—an uncraftable, non-droppable object.

A spawner, as the name implies, is a cage-like device housing a miniature, continuously sparking and electrically charged small monster inside.

It functions as a monster generator, spawning the entity of the tiny monster within the cage under dark conditions.

Previously, Mo Fangyuan’s favorite pastime in survival mode was converting spawners into monster farms, then using redstone contraptions to repeatedly whip up fresh monsters.

“There’s very likely a spawner inside; if not, then some other block capable of generating monsters!”

After this long of a fight and the monsters still not being finished off, even a fool would know there must be a monster generation device here.

“All soldiers, heed my command! Advance in battle formation!”

In truth, Mo Fangyuan could have simply charged in alone with the Empire’s Blade.

With its blessing, he was an invincible force in single combat, stronger even than Lu Bu.

But Mo Fangyuan was a commander-in-training; with such a golden opportunity before him, how could he not seize the chance to learn the art of leading a war?

These low-intelligence, instinct-driven common monsters wouldn’t understand why a weak, blocky human would dare strike back.

With coordinated ranged attacks, a dozen melee soldiers swiftly butchered their way deep into the cavern.

The vast cave exposed various ores, confirming it was untouched by mining.

As they delved further, skeletons and spiders—pushed aside by the zombie hordes outside—began launching attacks against the blocky soldiers, attempting to pressure them.

But the might of the block men stood firm; they were fully capable of cleansing this area of monsters.

Mo Fangyuan remained calm, scanning left and right for possible routes leading to the spawner.

Most mines consisted of numerous natural tunnels and a few connecting passage platforms.

In Minecraft, caves are categorized into eight types: small caves, medium caves, large caves, voids, ring caves, various-sized ravines, giant cave mouths, and underwater caves.

Using night vision, Mo Fangyuan found this cave platform quite large—with five or six natural tunnels linking to upper or lower levels—classifying it as a medium-sized cave.

“The spawner is very likely around here!”

Soon, Mo Fangyuan pinpointed a small exit tunnel.

From this tunnel, zombies emerged continuously, while other tunnels showed few or no monster appearances—the result was clear.

“Advance in the designated direction!”

Mo Fangyuan issued orders, leaving the execution to his troops.

As the soldiers advanced, they placed torches on the ground to prevent monster spawns.

Gradually, monsters dwindled; other tunnels ceased producing monsters, but the one Mo Fangyuan designated still spewed forth zombies.

“It has to be there—confirmed.”

The entrance was narrow, allowing at most two people abreast. Mo Fangyuan’s Empire’s Blade stood two blocks tall, limiting its effectiveness in such cramped quarters.

“Teams One through Five, guard the other tunnels. Team Six, advance with me!”

The narrow passage dictated troop numbers; better to take a small team deep inside than have many idling outside.

“Yes, sir!”

As Night Watch veterans, they quickly demonstrated their specialty—torch placement.

Gripping his long-unused diamond axe firmly in his right hand, Mo Fangyuan led the charge once more.

The narrow tunnel made ranged attacks impossible without risking friendly fire, so they resorted to close combat.

With a single blow, Mo Fangyuan cleaved a zombie’s head clean off, maintaining his role as the vanguard, pushing deeper into the tunnel.

“How many years have these monsters been accumulating? So many!”

Mo Fangyuan had previously researched online that under occupied conditions, a spawner refreshes 3 to 4 zombies per minute.

Now, the tunnel floor was littered with over a hundred zombie corpses.

Combined with the masses lying on the cavern platform, the total likely reached five or six hundred.

“Your Majesty, King! There’s firelight ahead!”

One soldier beside him alerted.

Firelight meant a spawner was nearby—they had reached their destination.

Not far ahead, a small crack in the tunnel wall emitted a faint red glow.

“This is definitely it!”

Looking closely, Mo Fangyuan saw the mossy cobblestone and cobblestone marking the dungeon.

Dungeons always contained spawners and consisted of cobblestone and mossy cobblestone.

Inside the dungeon, besides the spawner, one or two chests would generate, containing mostly bones, string, and gunpowder. With luck, one might find music discs, saddles, horse armor, or other valuable items.