All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 513 - 127: Raid (2/3)

Chapter 513: Chapter 127: Raid (2/3)

Feathered arrows blotted out the sky, and fiendish Qi swirled like clouds and fog; both vanguards had already clashed.

The great axes of the Cang Armor Guard severed the legs of the charging Iron Cavalry’s horses, only to have their own heads impaled by several long spears that followed closely. The giant arrows fired by the hidden crossbow carts in the center of the battle formation were powerful enough to pierce through city walls, but the Martial Army, bolstered by the martial formation, managed to block them with their flesh, albeit being blown away as a consequence.

No war cries could be heard, even though it was the most intense battlefield, only the sounds of swords and shields clashing, arrows tearing through the air, and great axes chopping down on spear shafts.

The front lines of both sides had become interlocked like interwoven teeth. Several times, Da Chen’s Martial Army had breached into the inner circle of the Iron Cavalry, but each time a harassing cavalry unit on the flank would close in and dissolve their offensive.

Three branches of the Dust Li Martial Army—the Desert Riders, Frost Riders, and Wind Chasing Cavalry—were engaged in battle. The main formation of Desert Riders, which Han Hao was a part of, fought directly with the Martial Army due to their number. The Wind Chasing Cavalry, on the other hand, was fighting on two fronts, trying to break into the Broken Blade Forests but were also blocked.

Meanwhile, the Frost Riders seemed to be held at the outskirts of the battlefield, hidden within the blizzard, their position uncertain, tying up a significant part of the Martial Army’s attention to guard against potential surprise attacks.

In the center of the Military Formation, Hang Mofeng and Han Hao were both accumulating Fiendish Qi and directing their forces, trying to suppress and seize control of the Earth Vein and nature’s spiritual energy.

As commanders, their essence was not ’powerful martial artists’, but instead, they were the pivot and eye of a huge, ever-changing Formation. They had to bear the backlash of the entire army’s Fiendish Qi, but with a Divine Weapon, they could use the power of the weapon to bear the backlash and then exert a strength far beyond their own capabilities.

Dust Li had none, and all of Da Chen’s had been transferred away, making neither side’s Martial Army complete. But in the lands of the Northern Border, such a fight was already horrifying enough.

As long as one side’s martial formation could seize control of the influx of nature’s spiritual energy, that would ensure a definitive victory.

In this respect, Hang Mofeng held an advantage with his seasoned experience, especially as his army was also equipped with the rocket artillery provided by An Jing. Explosive warheads shot forth and though the shield-bearing Martial Army amongst the Iron Cavalry blocked them, the explosion’s high temperature and shock tore apart their upper bodies, and the aftereffects even washed away nearby soldiers.

For a regular army, these men would undoubtedly be dead. But for the Martial Army, aside from a few unlucky ones who were knocked unconscious, the blast simply knocked the others down, who quickly reformed their battle formation. Nevertheless, this advantage was enough for Hang Mofeng to steadily push the front line forward, leaving the enemy’s dead in his wake while closing in on the central army commanded by the Giant Spirit Kind.

"Something’s wrong, the enemy is dying too quickly!"

Hang Mofeng, who never allowed success to cloud his judgment, keenly noted the unexpectedly high number of Iron Cavalry deaths. This wasn’t normal, as to prevent sudden attacks by enemy powerhouses, all martial formations were set to prioritize defense over offense, with battles resulting in at most four or five deaths every fifteen minutes before the formation collapsed.

However, the number of corpses left behind by the Iron Cavalry was in the hundreds, a significant casualty for the Martial Army, especially since those Martial Army soldiers seemed quite average in strength and certainly did not look like the cream of the crop accustomed to hundreds of battles.

"Fall back!"

Without a moment’s hesitation, Hang Mofeng raised his hand, and the Martial Army immediately halted their advance and steadily retreated—seeing this, Han Hao clicked his tongue, but there was nothing he could do about the thwarted plan.

On the ground, the corpses of the dead soldiers suddenly began to twist and burn, turning into billows of dark gray flames. Within the flames, doors began to open, and a thick yet shadow-like hand appeared from the chest cavity of a corpse, followed by another hand...

They quickly solidified, transforming into towering Demon Monsters with green faces and sharp teeth, their backs steaming with dark gray flames akin to ash. Bloody tears dripped from their empty eyes onto the ground, hissing with corrosion.

"...Netherworld Fierce Ghosts."

Hang Mofeng watched these Demon Monsters climbing out from the corpses, his expression grave: "The Taiming Sect’s reinforcements are like this? Sacrificing the Soul Spirit to summon Ghost Gods..."

These fierce ghosts were not weak, stronger than the least skilled ’Wandering Soul Warriors’ and ’Dead Soul Armored Soldiers’, they were part of the ’Changyou Ghost Army’, ghosts that could exist in the Present World for a long time. They were not Wandering Ghosts but rather ’Netherworld regular soldiers’ equipped with armor.

The Changyou fierce ghosts, wielding rudimentary bone swords, roared toward the Martial Army. As dead beings, they were extremely hard to kill, resistant to the influence of Spiritual Fiends, and even Demonic Qi could not penetrate them. They were once part of the main force against the Heavenly Demon army and now they had become the enemy. These fierce and fearless Demon Monsters, even as spears and swords pierced and split their bodies, still lunged forward to bite at the Martial Army’s Armor, sparking dazzling flashes.

Hang Mofeng had no choice but to retreat defensively, which was already a good outcome. Had he been reckless and pushed forward, his entire vanguard might have fallen amidst this horde of fierce ghosts.

However, Hang Mofeng had also noticed something: had the Frost Riders been around just now, they could have taken advantage of the situation and launched a joint onslaught with the fierce ghosts. Even if he had seen through this plan, he would still be caught in disarray, leaving many dead behind.

But that did not happen. This meant that, in fact, the Frost Riders were not nearby at all—the Iron Li people were not fighting on two fronts, but three!

"Linjiang City?"

Hang Mofeng, seeing through it, found it was to no avail. As the Da Chen forces retreated, Han Hao also gathered power, launching an attack.

The power of the Martial Army’s battle formation converged, controlling the power of Heaven and Earth, and Hang Mofeng prepared for a tough defense. To his surprise, he found that the enemy’s all-out attack, paid for by revealing their trump card, was not aimed at him, nor was it Linjiang City which he had just deduced.

It was the Earth Vein.

A thunderclap exploded beneath the earth, and with it, a terrifying tremor raced unimaginably fast toward the distance. At first, Hang Mofeng thought it was an attack targeting Linjiang City. As he was about to warn An Jing to be careful, he realized that this Earth Vein strike was in response to another division of the Martial Army, still battling the Tree Sea Spirit afar, and was targeting Broken Blade Mountain!

In Linjiang City, An Jing stood at the Earth Pulse Hub, his eyes closed, but his forehead’s swordlike pupil dazzling, with the Civil and Military Formation Plate spinning behind him.

The Earth Vein is a network, like a spider’s web, and the Earth Pulse Nodes are where the strands intersect. Using this network, Da Chen, which occupies the Earth Pulse Hub, can control the vast territory.

But just as blood vessels are to the human body, the hub is the heart, and any attack on the Earth Vein network can use this network to strike directly at the nodes and hub. If the hub is strong enough, it can withstand the tremors, but if it is not, it leads to a heart stoppage.

The tremor created by the Iron Cavalry essentially forms massive clotting blood clots within this ’Earth Vein network’, clogging the Earth Pulse Hub and nodes, forcing the entire network to be paralyzed in short order.

If they succeed, the Earth Vein around Broken Blade Mountain will be disabled for some time... which naturally includes the seal beneath the Primordial Spirit Cave.

"They think by disabling the Martial Army from suppressing the Earth Vein, they can take advantage by launching a sneak attack?"

As soon as An Jing felt the Earth Vein tremble, he opened his eyes. The Civil and Military Formation Plate behind him disappeared into the Earth Vein, and their collision caused equally violent tremors, scattering all the overly condensed, clot-like Fiendish Qi, and dissolving each Earth Vein attack one by one.

The reason An Jing hadn’t joined the battle immediately, aside from the fact that a battle involving the Martial Army wasn’t something a single Martial Artist could easily engage in, was because he needed to guard the hub, to block any potential sneak attacks on the Earth Vein by the enemy.

With him there, the defense of Broken Blade Mountain’s Spirit Land was as stable as Mount Tai.

"As expected, are there protective guardians like Divine Weapons?"

At this moment, Han Hao also realized that his attempt had failed. Linjiang City acts as the hub for the Earth Vein network surrounding Broken Blade Mountain, echoing the Primordial Spirit Cave from afar. If there is a Divine Weapon guarding there, it can resolve most of the attacks.

If that’s the case, then his usual tactics would be blocked, making it an extremely difficult bone to chew.

"Please handle this."

With a sigh, Han Hao turned and slightly bowed to the True Demon Envoy beside him, and the envoy nodded in response: "Indeed worthy of the Divine Mandate, as immovable as Mount Tai. Without using methods beyond the ordinary, it’s impossible to defeat him."

"Let the last division of the Martial Army work with the Ice Chi to launch an attack on Linjiang City."

In the distance, within Yujiang City, the slumbering Ice Chi awakened. A monster without horns, scales, or a spine, its eyes were hollow, showing nothing but pure, icy indifference, with only a flicker of icy blue light.

Since its birth, it had been devouring the Earth Pulse Qi underneath Yujiang City, not just to store power, but to merge itself with the Earth Veins around Broken Blade Mountain, using the Earth Vein as its dragon’s spine, in place of the planned Primordial Spirit Golden Spine.

Although this meant the Ice Chi was bound in place and could only breathe with this piece of Heaven and Earth, unable to move freely, it was a small discrepancy, acceptable if the plan could be achieved.

At this moment, the Ice Chi let out a long chant, ascending into the sky, turning the gloomy clouds to freezing cold instantly. Between Heaven and Earth, the wind and snow roared, and snow clouds fell. The icy blue shadow of the Ice Chi Dragon raced like a sword, carrying with it a division of Frost Riders hidden in the blizzard, assaulting Linjiang City.

But what met it was a missile.

A missile that was launched ahead of time, stirring up the winds and snows before the Ice Chi did, causing the whole area of a hundred miles around Linjiang City to be cloudless—a weather missile!