Galen approached the reopening of Ahn'Qiraj with utmost caution.
Over ten thousand years ago, when the trolls were the overlords of ancient Kalimdor, they spent thousands of years fighting the Aqir insectoids to the death, ultimately resulting in mutual destruction, which gave the night elf empire the opportunity to rise.
The Zandalari Empire staked its national destiny, only managing to split the Aqir Empire into Ahn'Qiraj and Azjol-Nerub. To completely eliminate the insectoids dwelling underground, one had to eliminate C'Thun.
Anything related to the Old Gods was fraught with danger.
However, Galen already had experience dealing with Yogg-Saron, so facing C'Thun would be much simpler.
In his previous life, Galen witnessed the opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, when the insects that poured out of the gates were overwhelming, like a flood being released.
Galen was very confident in withstanding the first wave of the insect swarm.
After all, in terms of the number of troops, Galen stated that besides his millions of base soldiers, he also had plenty of cannon fodder such as gnolls, quilboars, and centaur whelps. Adding his main battle legions and the tauren forces, charging into the core area of Ahn'Qiraj was still possible.
The difference was…
Galen didn't want to use the naaru as a meat shield again…
Owing too many favors is not a good thing, especially to powerhouses like A'dal.
With Aegwynn, the demigod mage, running errands, Galen didn't need to personally handle troop deployments, and he had more important things to do.
Reforge the Scepter of the Shifting Sands!
The red fragment of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands was in the hands of the red dragon Vaelastrasz, the son of Ptyalos, who had recently sent the fragment over under his father's orders.
The blue fragment was in the hands of the blue dragon Azuregos, but this guy hid the fragment in the belly of a whale shark…
As a result, this bizarre dragon was beaten up by Ancagalon and was searching for that fish in the entire sea.
The bronze dragon prince Anachronos flew over to stop the night elves from unsealing the Scarab Wall as soon as he heard about it!
When this bronze dragon prince saw that it was Galen who advocated opening the Scarab Wall, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Thousands of years ago, Anachronos had met Galen during the War of the Shifting Sands and greatly admired the strength of this night elf druid, but he didn't know that the Galen Highlord was actually another dragon in disguise.
When he learned that his old friends, the blue dragon prince Arygos, the green dragon princess Merithra, and the red dragon prince Kaelestrasz, had not died, but were only imprisoned inside the Scarab Wall and had suffered more than a thousand years of soul torment, he changed his mind about dissuading him and decided to stay and assist Galen's plan.
It should be known that the reason the bronze dragon clan joined the War of the Shifting Sands was not to protect Kalimdor or Azeroth.
The dragons didn't know that behind the Qiraji insectoids was the Old God C'Thun, and they didn't know that the insectoid invasion was a conspiracy of the Old Gods. They only thought that this was a war between the insectoids and the night elves, a normal racial replacement.
It was not until the Qiraji insectoids unscrupulously attacked all non-insectoid creatures, threatening the Caverns of Time in Tanaris, that the bronze dragons, led by Prince Anachronos, joined the War of the Shifting Sands.
The bronze dragon prince felt guilty for dragging his friends into the war and failing to bring them back intact.
However, this guy didn't leave after handing over the fragment of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. He needed to ensure that the night elf highlord in front of him gathered enough troops to deal with the insectoids.
The integration of the army would take time, but the reforging of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands was completed after the bruised and swollen blue dragon sent the last fragment.
While waiting, Anachronos proposed forming a team to investigate the Scarab Wall.
Anyway, being idle was also being idle, so Galen treated it as a vacation.
Galen transformed into his green dragon form at this moment and soared in the sky with Anachronos.
As Anachronos, who had participated in the War of the Shifting Sands, knew that Galen had "comprehended" the green dragon transformation during the War of the Shifting Sands, the two of them conducted reconnaissance from the air.
In the northern part of Silithus, basically, besides some scorpions, there were only some wind elementals that appeared in the real world running around.
However, after Galen and the others approached the south, some strange insects gradually appeared.
Some of those insects looked like large bees. They swarmed in dark masses, flying around towering stone pillars.
These should be considered the flying units among the insectoids.
Among the Qiraji insectoids, the number of low-level worker insects was huge, and their magic resistance was very weak. Large-scale spells or artillery could cause good effects on them.
Another point was that the worker insects had no ability to think for themselves and could only passively accept orders from higher-level worker insects or brain bugs. If the brain bugs were found and beheaded, the insects would lose their mobility.
This reminded Galen of a movie he had watched in his previous life about a war between humans and insects.
That scene had completed a small shock to his young mind.
"These insects are all the lowest level, with strength probably around rank one or two, pitifully weak. If the Scarab Wall hadn't been breached, then these insects would just be the offspring of the scattered remnants that originally remained outside."
Anachronos guessed.
"Hey, just the remaining insects have developed into such a large scale in a thousand years. Then, as the insectoids' nest, the underground of Ahn'Qiraj must be crammed with insectoid armies!"
Fortunately, the night elves and dragons are both long-lived races. A thousand years hasn't made them replace generations. Otherwise, their approach of sealing the insects would be leaving a legacy of trouble for their descendants.
"We just didn't have a solution back then…" Anachronos defended.
That's right, Ancagalon had been slacking all along, not daring to use his full strength, but at that time, the night elf base army in Un'Goro Crater had been ready to set off. Once Fandral messed up, the army would move into Silithus and clean up the mess for his dear disciple.
"Then the time to solve it has come."
Galen took the lead and landed in front of the black Scarab Wall. A solar storm erupted from his body, and the surrounding insects instantly turned into charcoal.
"Aren't you bronze dragons known for traveling through the timestream? Then you must have seen when the seal will fail and the insectoids will swarm out?"
The bronze dragon prince was speechless. He touched the Scarab Wall.
The Scarab Wall was a seal made by the priestesses of Elune using divine magic to create sand, roots, and other things. He had only casually created the Scepter of the Shifting Sands and the Scarab Gong.
Through Anachronos's sensing, the Scarab Wall was still intact, but that didn't mean it would always remain intact. According to the current energy fluctuations, he estimated that in three to five years, this Scarab Wall that had stood for thousands of years would collapse!
The Qiraji had accumulated power for millennia, and were about to reappear in this world.
"Galen, I don't understand. Why do you insist on opening the Beetle Wall now? According to my earlier sensing, this wall can hold for a while longer. We could use this time to give the mortal world five years to prepare, couldn't we?"
"Oh? The mortal world? Do you dragons want to remain uninvolved? Are you not going to save the Green Dragon Princess? Are you just going to abandon the Blue Dragon Prince and the Red Dragon Prince like that? I'm afraid Ysera and Queen Alexstrasza wouldn't agree, would they?"
Every moment they lingered, the three dragons trapped deep within Ahn'Qiraj would be in greater danger.
In reality, they had been tormented by C'Thun's mental attacks for the past thousand years.
Among them, the Green Dragon Princess and the Red Dragon Prince had persevered. However, after the Blue Dragon Prince was rescued five years later, his psychological defenses seemed to have crumbled. In order to compete for the throne of the Blue Dragon King, he actually cooperated with Deathwing and was eventually sanctioned by his own people.
"Galen, you don't need to provoke me. I am a warmonger."
The Bronze Dragon Prince gazed firmly into the depths of Ahn'Qiraj…
After a brief reconnaissance, Galen and Anachronos left the Beetle Wall.
The night elves in Cenarion Hold conducted this kind of simple patrol once a month, so Galen and the others were not afraid of alarming C'Thun in the depths, but they also didn't dare to stay too long, to avoid arousing suspicion.
The Bronze Dragon Prince was a warmonger, but that didn't mean that most of the Bronze Dragons were also warmongers, so it was hard to say whether they would participate in the Second War of the Shifting Sands.
Galen brought Anachronos to the local night elf commander, told him about the Bronze Dragon Prince's intentions, and asked him to inform Darnassus of the situation as soon as possible.
In fact, one-third of the garrison in Cenarion Hold belonged to Galen, but more of the troops were loyal to Tyrande and Malfurion, so the commander was also one of their direct descendants.
After waiting for a few more days, Aegwynn sent a message saying that the army was ready and could move out at any time.
Galen looked at the list of troops that Aegwynn had sent over.
The main battle forces were the Omar First Legion, recalled from Draenor, the Varrokal First Cavalry Regiment, the Heni Mareb Third Legion, Fral's Fourth Legion, and Durin's Fifth Legion.
In addition to the infantry, there was also a tank armored regiment and an artillery regiment.
Originally, Old Ranger Hawksbill and Nathanos's Seventh Legion were also supposed to participate in this war, but they were temporarily borrowed by Illidan.
That arrogant fellow shamelessly said that he had found the key to destroying the Burning Legion.
When Galen asked him for details, he remained silent, only smiling mysteriously and telling Galen to wait for good news.
Illidan was putting on a show, trying to pique Galen's curiosity.
Unfortunately, Galen was not fooled. First of all, he could monitor the movements of the two legions from the Heart of Origin, thereby deducing Illidan's purpose.
Secondly, Galen didn't even need to guess to know what this unruly fellow was going to do!
Nothing more than a surprise attack on Mardum to seize the Sargerite Keystone.
In this timeline, Illidan didn't have many usable troops. The Ashtongue Deathsworn were taken by Galen in advance, the blood elves hadn't appeared, and Vashj was still Galen's old flame.
Illidan had only gathered a group of night elves who were full of hatred for the Burning Legion as his subordinates during his escape, and trained them into demon hunters.
In addition, Galen had changed Kael'thas's fate, indirectly causing Illidan to lack high elf demon hunters under his command. He didn't have many usable troops, so he temporarily kept the Sixth Legion and the Seventh Legion to supplement his strength.
As for the lack of two main battle legions, Galen didn't care. He directly pulled up the Free Wind Riders, Storm Wing Riders, and Void Wing Riders griffin knight regiments to fill the gap.
The remaining troops were vassal races belonging to the Crusade.
Ever since Agamaggan returned, the old sow of the Death's Head Clan had been thinking of relying on the faith of the boar demigod to unify the entire boar tribe, but…
Agamaggan operated in reverse, directly summoning a large number of boar people from Razorfen Kraul and Razorfen Downs, and letting them join the Bristleback Clan and the Thornmane Clan, almost making Kargath Bladefist a lone wolf.
The boar people were originally a fertile race. In recent years, apart from Galen pulling them to be cannon fodder in the Battle of Mount Hyjal, they had almost been eating and drinking well, and their numbers had multiplied several times.
The addition of a large number of boar people in Razorfen Downs greatly increased the power of the two boar chieftains, Tirth and Eight-Ring. Now, in the face of Galen's conscription, they directly pulled out an army of 80,000.
The kobolds' speed of giving birth to kobold pups was no less than that of the boar people. Flint Tagtok, who had been promoted to a legendary geomancer, directly pulled an army of 100,000 kobolds…
Compared to Flint Tagtok's development model of winning by numbers, Gnoll King Hogg personally led 50,000 gnoll warriors to help.
The Crusade's nominal troops alone had exceeded 300,000, plus the night elf troops from Eldre'Thalas and the centaur vassals, Galen conservatively estimated that they could break through 500,000.
Back then, the Battle of Mount Hyjal was only this scale. C'Thun enjoyed the same treatment as Archimonde. After all, when dealing with Yogg-Saron, Galen's troops were not so abundant.
Just as Galen was feeling pleased, a group of unexpected guests arrived.
The leader of this group was a night elf. Galen only felt that she looked familiar, but he couldn't remember her for a moment.
"Highlord, Imryel Shadow Hunter has come to report!"
Imryel?
Galen searched for this name in his mind, and finally remembered who she was!
She was a highly skilled hunter, belonging to the ancient hunter organization: the Unseen Path!
The Unseen Path was a secret organization established by Sentinel Namuria Whisperwing after the War of the Ancients.
This elite sentinel believed that the Burning Legion would definitely return in the future, and as the instigators who brought the Legion, the night elf race had a responsibility to prepare for this. Therefore, she established the Unseen Path in the sentinel corps and had been monitoring the Broken Isles.
When Galen took the Windrunner sisters on a time-traveling adventure, Sylvanas and Alleria made a name for themselves with their superb archery skills. Namuria even invited them to join the Unseen Path and gave them badges of elder status.
And Imryel was Nymuria's disciple. Galen had met her once.
"It's you! Imryel! Long time no see!" Galen greeted her warmly.
"Indeed, it's been a long time, Highlord!