Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 462 – Since We’re Already Here, Let’s Collect It All

Long Su’s expression shifted slightly.

“That place… the last person stationed there was carried out after just two months.”

“Carried out in two pieces,” Long Yao added quietly from behind.

“Arranged by the Fourth Elder.” Lin Fan leaned against the tent pole, his tone so casual it didn’t sound like he was discussing a death sentence.

“When the old man speaks, what can I do?”

“Tell him ‘sorry, I’m afraid of the dark’?”

Long Su was left speechless for a moment, opened her mouth, then didn’t try to persuade him further.

Hu Ya, on the other hand, clapped Lin Fan on the shoulder with a hearty slap, putting real force behind it.

“No worries!”

“Ning Shuang can flatten a Mad Lion with one palm strike. Those fourth and fifth-tier trash underground won’t be any trouble.”

“Besides, while you’re down there, take a look around for us and see what good stuff is hidden inside.”

“I’ve been curious for a while now—every time we pass that area, the patrols block us from getting close.”

The corner of Lin Fan’s mouth twitched.

Good stuff?

You’re the good stuff.

Over forty sixth-tier women—if all of them were made into Skins, that’s at least forty Epic Grade ones.

Add that to the existing one hundred and fifty, and that’s one hundred and ninety.

Still ten short.

A gap of ten, in a military fortress packed with over three thousand experts—that’s practically picking fruit from a tree.

“By the way.” Lin Fan shifted position, tucking one leg up onto the bedding.

“After you were conscripted, did anyone tell you what you’re actually going to Blue Star to do?”

“Did anyone mention specific combat objectives?”

“Grab stuff!” Hu Ya answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, still chewing on the last tendon she’d torn from the bone.

“The Purebloods grab the front lines, we pick up the scraps behind them.”

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“Anyway, they want territory and valuable things—we just need everyday resources we can use.”

“Our Marshstone City hasn’t opened a mine in three years. If we don’t get supplies soon, we’ll literally starve to death.”

Long Su’s tone wasn’t as light.

“Honestly, our Redrock City is about the same.”

“The Dragon Emperor Hall has drained every city’s resources dry these past years—even iron ore output has to be handed over at sixty percent.”

“When the Conscription Order came down, the city lord’s first reaction wasn’t fear. It was joy.”

“Joy?”

“Finally, a chance to go out and get something.” Long Su touched her battle robe, washed pale from countless cleanings, and gave a bitter smile.

“We don’t care about fighting for the Dragon Clan.”

“What we care about is whether we get a piece of meat to eat after we’ve done the fighting.”

Long Yao added quietly from behind.

“The fifth-tier teams further back have it even worse.”

“They know full well they’re going to die. The Purebloods would never let them live to share the spoils.”

“But they still came.”

“Why?”

“Because not coming means no chance of living at all.” Long Yao’s voice dropped.

“Any city that refuses the conscription gets wiped off the map entirely.”

“Once, the city lords of two minor branch cities joined forces to resist an order. The next day, the Council of Elders sent a peak seventh-tier expert. Both cities were burned to the ground—people and buildings alike.”

“Not a single one left—adults or children.”

The tent fell silent for a moment.

Hu Ya was the first to break it.

She seemed rough around the edges, but when it came to keeping morale up, she never hesitated.

“Alright, enough moping.”

“We’re here now. Thinking too much won’t change anything.”

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“When the time comes, stick close to the main force, grab whatever you can, and just don’t get used as cannon fodder.”

“If you really can’t win, run. Long legs are an advantage.”

She turned her head to look at Lin Fan.

“Ning Shuang, what about you? What do you want from Blue Star?”

Lin Fan looked down, adjusting his cloth shoes, patting off the dust clinging to the uppers.

“What I want is already on its way.”

Hu Ya didn’t understand. He poked his own forehead with a bone.

“Why do you Dragon Clan folks always talk so formally?”

“Can’t you just be as direct as me?”

“You’ll understand once you get to Blue Star.”

“Now I’m even more curious!” Hu Ya chuckled.

The tent flap was pushed open from outside.

A black-armored guard leaned in halfway, his armor clanking against the tent pole with a sharp ring.

“Attention, everyone.”

“Complete personal equipment inspections before noon tomorrow. In the afternoon, the entire pass assembles for formation drills.”

He paused, as if reciting a memorized message.

“Additionally, Second Elder Long Ye of the Council of Elders will arrive at White Bone Pass in two days. The entire army will form ranks to receive him.”

“No one is to be absent. Violators will face military discipline.”

With that, he turned and left.

The tent flap fell, flapping twice before settling.

The people inside exchanged glances.

Hu Ya was the first to whistle.

“Second Elder? Long Ye?”

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“That’s the Dragon Clan’s grand strategist.”

“If even he’s coming, this war is no small matter.”

Long Su’s face visibly paled two shades.

“The Second Elder’s reputation… isn’t great.”

“They say he’s ruthless. Those two collateral cities that Long Yao mentioned earlier—the ones wiped out—were destroyed on his word alone.”

“I’ve also heard he’s quicker to kill his own people than his enemies.” Long Shuangling shrank her shoulders.

“Last campaign, a squad of collateral dragonkin fell back thirty paces, and he ordered the entire squad executed on the spot.”

“Thirty paces. That squad wasn’t fleeing at all—they were just adjusting their formation.”

Hu Ya’s excitement dimmed somewhat.

“Then he’s not someone to mess with.”

“We’ll just stand still and keep our heads down when the time comes.”

The tent fell silent for two seconds.

Lin Fan leaned against the tent pole, his fingers slowly tracing the black bone token at his waist.

The token’s surface was polished smooth, cool to the touch.

Long Ye.

She’d been keeping that debt from Border Dragon City for a long time now.

“Ning Shuang? What are you spacing out about?” Hu Ya called to her.

Lin Fan snapped back to attention, moving his fingers away from the bone token.

“Just thinking about where to stand in the formation for the welcome.”

“You’re picking spots?” Hu Ya rolled his eyes.

“Collateral soldiers like us just stand in the back. The front is all purebloods and high-ranking commanders—we don’t get a say.”

“True.”

Lin Fan lay down, pulling the beast hide over her calves.

Hu Ya kept muttering to Long Su about various rumors of Long Ye, his voice growing softer until it became the prelude to snoring.

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The campfire outside the tent gradually dimmed, and the footsteps of patrolling guards came and went in rounds.

Lin Fan kept her eyes closed, but she wasn’t asleep.

Long Junshan. Long Ye.

Two eighth-rank fighters stationed at White Bone Pass.

Plus a breeding ground and three thousand fifth-rank-and-above expeditionary soldiers.

Interesting.

Long Ye was a cunning one.

If Long Junshan was the Dragon Emperor Hall’s iron fist, then Long Ye was the blade hidden in the shadows.

For someone like him to come to White Bone Pass, this was never just about “overseeing the battle.”

But it didn’t matter.

Long Ye owed her a beating.

Since he was coming anyway.

She’d collect it all together.

Night fell…

Lin Fan felt she would never forget these nights spent in the women’s camp at White Bone Pass.

Hu Ya’s snoring shifted through three different registers. From low-frequency resonance to mid-frequency sawing wood to high-frequency shrieking, a full spectrum of coverage that made one wonder if she’d been a sound system in her past life.

Long Su’s teeth grinding followed a highly regular rhythm, roughly three seconds per cycle—creak, creak, creak—like someone gnawing on a sheet of iron.

Long Yao’s sleep-talking was even more absurd, mumbling something about “Young Master, please be gentle,” with no telling what she was dreaming about.

The tent was filled with a complex odor mixing foot odor, sweat, and leftover barbecue residue, fermented to the extreme in the sealed space of the night.

Lin Fan turned over with a blank expression.

She thought of that large bed draped in Blue Star silk quilts in the Azurewood City lord’s manor, of the hot spring pool with twenty-four-hour constant temperature in the private bathroom, of the fresh flowers and incense that Su Xiaoxiao changed every day.

Then she lowered her head and sniffed herself—still smelling nice.

The difference!