Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 227 - One Hundred and Eighty: War

Chapter 227: Chapter One Hundred and Eighty: War

During this half an hour,

the urgently appointed Xia Wenlin had spread his orders within the city’s defending troops, not a second to lose.

He also anticipated that there might be traitors within Wanxiang City and emphasized this point when passing on the information.

But reality is not something one can solve just by anticipating it, because there wasn’t enough time.

The middle-ranking officers only had time to pass the message to the lower-ranking non-commissioned officers, without any chance to communicate it to the ordinary soldiers.

They barely had enough time to evacuate the caravans at a few of the city gates and to close them.

Moreover,

after a long period of peace, when war does come abruptly, many people would think it’s a joke.

Therefore,

when the troops within the city were assembling in formation, only a handful of the defenders reacted in time, while most of them looked on with dubious eyes.

By the time the military formations were completed and cracks appeared on the city walls, and key points of the yet-to-be-activated Protective City Formation were shattered, the soldiers stationed on the walls finally came to a stark realization—

The war had truly begun.

"Quick, go... inform the supervisor, someone inside is attacking the city!!"

"Don’t run! Nobody run! There’s no one outside to receive us, block those bastards inside!"

"Formation! Quickly activate the Protective City Formation!!"

Shaking roars of panic resounded one after another on the city walls as they came under attack.

It was all too sudden.

So sudden that the Sects’ secretly transported elite forces didn’t even have time to reach the battle location.

Most of the army responsible for Wanxiang City’s regular defense consisted of martial students from schools under the Myriad Manifestation Sect, not elite disciples trained from a young age.

Once chaos erupted, not only were the ordinary civilians on the streets shocked, but the soldiers guarding the city were also in complete disarray.

And at that moment,

a powerful shout echoed atop the city walls,

"Whoever flees and disturbs the army’s morale shall be executed without mercy!"

A middle-aged man stood suspended in midair, casually releasing several strands of Sword Qi, decapitating more than a dozen soldiers who were attempting to flee amidst the chaos.

"It’s the Seventh Elder!"

"A Third Grade Great Master has arrived!"

Seeing the appearance of the middle-aged man, the chaos on the city walls managed to calm down somewhat. To the ordinary soldiers, a Third Grade Great Master was almost an existence akin to a deity.

Seeing the turmoil subside,

The middle-aged man swiftly glided along the lengthy city wall, his deep and powerful voice reaching the ears of every defending soldier:

"The Sect’s elite are already on the way to reinforce. The Formation will be activated, hold the fort with the Protective City Formation!"

As if to confirm his words, some of the Formation Patterns along the towering city walls gradually lit up, and above in the sky, a half-transparent shield began to take shape.

Although the Wanxiang City’s Protective City Formation was slow to start, it was finally being activated!

...

...

...

The middle-aged man’s appearance temporarily stabilized the army’s morale, but only in certain areas.

At the location where cracks had formed in the city wall, the troops that came into contact with the Black Scale Army were almost instantly routed.

Because they had no time to form up properly.

A young officer hurriedly searched atop the city walls for his superior, who was responsible for five hundred men, as the armorless traitors had already started scaling the wall, attempting to seize control over the East City wall.

And the two regiments standing before the traitors were nearly annihilated.

The young officer, panting heavily, sprinted along, his gaze scanning tensely across the faces of the soldiers to either side, until at last, atop one of the towers, he found the middle-aged man leisurely puffing away on a rolled cigarette.

Seeing the man,

Cheng Yu hurried over without a moment’s delay, exclaiming loudly,

"General, what are you doing smoking at a time like this?!"

The regiment commander glanced at him and smiled subtly, speaking in an unhurried tone:

"Cheng Yu, come, sit."

As he spoke,

he took a wooden box from his chest, carefully extracting a cigarette with a tinge of reluctance in his eyes and offered it to the young officer:

"Here, want one?"

The young officer stared blankly at the commander.

These cigarettes were precious, and the commander would usually take a puff and then snuff it out, but now he was actually offering a whole one.

Coming back to his senses, the young officer did not accept it but instead urgently said in frustration,

"General, please organize the military situation quickly! Those treacherous subjects have already reached our defense area!"

The regiment commander let out a sigh, not withdrawing the cigarette, taking a deep drag instead.

The glowing ember of the tobacco lit up, and he slowly exhaled the smoke before he muttered,

"I know."

The young officer grew even more exasperated:

"You know and still you do nothing—if the Elder arrives and sees that you are inactive, he will surely execute you!"

The regiment commander chuckled, flicking his fingers to send the lit stub spinning down from the towering wall, and then leisurely reached for his tinderbox to light another.

At this moment,

the young officer could no longer contain himself and snatched the tinderbox and cigarette from the man’s hands:

"General!! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Shut up!!"

The regiment commander suddenly snapped in a low growl.

The young officer was stunned.

Snatching back his belongings, the commander lit another cigarette for himself, took a puff, and laughed again, slowly exhaling as he spoke,

"Cheng Yu, it’s no use."

Then, looking softly at the young man before him, he continued,

"The enemy’s formations have been established, the Elder dares not come here. Cheng Yu, you’re still young, better run while you can. With your cultivation, once you leave this army, you’ll surely find a decent path."

The young officer spoke urgently:

"Why run? The formation is already activated..."

"It’s useless."

Qu Chang repeated once more, pointing to the crevice in the city wall while puffing on his cigarette, he sighed and said:

"There... is the formation eye of this section of the wall, the formation here is already ruined."

After a pause,

Qu Chang’s resigned gaze moved past the young officer, looking behind him at the sky, he said with a laugh:

"Besides,

"You can take a look behind."

"..."

The young officer was slightly startled and turned his head to look, his eyes immediately widening.

It was the afternoon hour, the sunlight was brilliant, and a huge cloud formation on the horizon looked beautiful.

But as his gaze followed, he saw monstrous, huge flying Demonic Beasts breaking through the clouds.

At first, there were just some small black dots,

But gradually,

A countless array of flying Demonic Beasts already began to occupy that large swath of sky, blotting out the sun, pressing towards Wanxiang City’s walls like a swarm of locusts.

"..."

A heavy silence descended, making the ever-nearing battle cries atop the city wall all the more jarring.

Qu Chang continued to smoke his cigarette with a smacking sound,

The young officer instinctively took a step back, looking at those approaching civilians on the city wall and the sky full of Demonic Beasts, his voice shaking slightly:

"Qu... Elder Qu, what is... this?"

The flying Demonic Beast horde in the distance kept roaring, unsettling the minds of every defender on the walls.

Qu Chang sighed deeply, giving the young officer another cigarette from his wooden box:

"Don’t know, it’s my first time seeing this kind of situation, too."

This time, the young officer did not refuse. He shook as he tried to light his cigarette, failing several times, until Qu Chang held his hand to help him light it.

The young officer took a deep breath, regaining some composure, and as the "black clouds" drew closer in the sky, he seemed to suddenly understand something, his voice trembling slightly:

"Elder Qu, those civilians... aren’t they the rebellious traitors?"

By now, Qu Chang had finished smoking, spreading his box to get another but realized there were none left. He casually tossed the box down from the city wall, stood up with a sigh, and forced a smile:

"Given this situation, maybe we’re the rebellious traitors. I suppose the higher-ups in the Sects must have done something."

As he spoke, Qu Chang bent down to pick up the Spiritual Blade that he had set aside, wiping it with an oil cloth and reminding the officer:

"You better run, any later and it’ll be too late."

"But..."

The uncertainty flickered through the eyes of the young officer.

He was young; he did not want to die.

"But what about you, General?"

Qu Chang glanced at him, smiling wryly:

"Even if I’m a traitor, I, Zhang Liang, have fed on Wanxiang City’s provisions for dozens of years. How can I just run away."

"General..." the young officer clenched his fists.

"Stop dawdling, go lead those willing to escape."

"But..."

"Get out!"

"...."

...

...

...

As the sky-darkening flying Demonic Beasts reached Wanxiang City, the formation was activated, sadly the flying Demonic Beasts marked with the Imperial Beast Office were "allied forces."

The urgency of time forced the City Defense Office to hurriedly activate the Protective City Formation, without any time to adjust the formation patterns for indiscriminate attack, they could only resort to manually controlling the formation or using the city defense formation-embedded crossbows to strike.

A few Elders dispatched to oversee the battle also killed many.

One after another, dozens of enormous flying Demonic Beasts howled in agony as they plummeted into the city, kicking up vast clouds of dust.

But sadly, this was all a drop in the bucket.

The first wave of flying Demonic Beasts dropped slime targeting the formation patterns from low altitude, directly causing the entire Protective City Formation of East City to become sluggish and blocked.

As the formation patterns were delayed, the semi-transparent film above in the sky dissipated quickly, like bubbles vanishing.

Without the protection of the Protective City Formation,

The second wave of flying Demonic Beasts approached at low altitudes, jumping down from the wooden buildings behind them, thousands of genuine Seventh Grade elite troops reinforced the besieged traitor forces within the city.

After firmly securing the bridgehead on the city wall created by the traitors, the army formation swiftly moved along the city walls to assault both sides.

And in this slaughter, no, it should be called a massacre, large clouds of dust also appeared on the distant horizon.

The remaining thirty thousand Black Scale Army, formed in formation, advanced towards the city wall in an orderly manner.

The East City defenders collapsed.

Without the real elite of Myriad Manifestation Sect arriving, they quickly disbanded.

Two quarters of an hour into the battle, the Black Scale Army had completely taken East City of Wanxiang.

All became quiet,

The bridgehead of ten thousand elite Black Scale Guards took over the city defense in an orderly fashion, began cleaning the battlefield, and opened the gates to welcome the follow-up reinforcements.

Yuan Hao stood on the city walls with a cold gaze, looking at the retreating Wanxiang defenders.

He did not pursue them; he preferred to issue orders and then charge with the army rather than preside over the Central Army.

And all of this went smoother than he had imagined.

The Black Scale Guards’ overwhelming intelligence on Myriad Manifestation Sect’s defenses made all his plans exceptionally smooth.

With these thoughts,

Yuan Hao glanced at the soldiers tied up like zongzi below the city tower, hesitating in his gaze but, rubbing his hands together, he suddenly grinned and his voice echoed throughout the city again:

"Obstinately clinging to your own course, execute them!"