A force of ten thousand rebel troops besieging a small town garrisoned by merely five hundred men ought to have taken it effortlessly. But if that town happened to be equipped with four infantry cannons and six rotary flying-sword guns, that was an entirely different story.
The rebels were exceptionally ferocious, braving unprecedented suppressive firepower to press forward a hundred zhang. In the end, they left behind over two thousand corpses, utterly routed, and abandoned another two thousand bodies along their retreat.
In a single charge, a ten-thousand-strong battle formation was halved.
Uncertain and shaken, Liu Heihu called out, "What kind of magical artifacts are those? Do they have a name?"
Wei Yuan naturally did not bother answering. He simply stood there, refusing to leave the town, wearing an indifferent expression that said, Come if you want, leave if you please. Liu Heihu's expression shifted erratically. Drawing a bow and arrow, he fixed his gaze on Wei Yuan, then waved his broad hand. The right army mobilized five divisions, surging toward Guantun County like a tidal wave!
Liu Heihu had a keen eye. Seeing that there were simply too few people in the town and that the firepower density was ultimately insufficient, he dispatched a force a hundred times their number to lay siege. As for himself, he stood far away, a thousand zhang back, refusing to approach the county seat under any circumstances.
The commanding generals of both sides confronted each other from afar—one refusing to draw near, the other refusing to step out of the town.
Seeing that Liu Heihu would not take the bait, Wei Yuan did not care. He commanded his troops to open fire with everything they had against the charging waves. Among the fifty thousand rebels were dozens of Dao Foundation officers and two dharma idol generals. At this moment, they did not lead the charge either; instead, they blended into the ranks of the foot soldiers, advancing alongside their divisions so as not to give Wei Yuan any opening to decapitate them.
Just as the focus of the defensive fire began to shift, Liu Heihu suddenly swung his broad hand. A ferocious tiger manifested in midair, roaring toward the heavens!
Instantly, a faint layer of blood-colored qi surfaced over every rebel soldier. Their eyes flushed red, and howling, they lunged toward the town—an all-out charge! This time, Liu Heihu had brought a total of one hundred and fifty thousand men. Clearly, he had not come merely for a single Guantun County; he intended to sweep through the eleven neighboring counties in one fell swoop.
Now, the rebels' speed increased drastically, and some even grew visibly larger. Such a sea of rebels lunging at a tiny county town, where all the living people capable of moving did not even add up to a tenth of the rebels' numbers—the outcome seemed already decided.
Just then, over a dozen crimson beams of light suddenly surged into the sky within the town. Where the red light rose, blocks of Desolate Realm rock were revealed beneath. Tall Five Elements Dao Soldiers then stood up from the ground one after another, those Desolate Realm rocks serving as their cores.
These dozen-plus Dao soldiers remarkably all possessed the strength of dharma idols, flames faintly billowing around their bodies. Suddenly, the aura of several Dao soldiers shifted; some were agile and spirited, some profound and shadowy, others utterly ordinary, each distinct.
Two of the Dao soldiers exchanged glances, faintly amused by each other's appearance. They then surveyed the surrounding world, filled with curiosity about everything.
Soon, more Dao soldiers took on expressions of their own. The auras of the last few to appear even climbed steadily; layers of sword qi even began manifesting over one of them.
Another Dao soldier twisted its body, letting out a nonchalant low roar. Its aura abruptly surged, and the flames engulfing it turned from red to blue, its aura climbing straight to the pinnacle of dharma idol perfection!
Wei Yuan secretly praised the result. Indeed, it lived up to its status as an immortal flora from the Desolate Realm; the Flame God Flower's compatibility with the Dao soldiers was ridiculously high, pushing their cultivation straight to the peak!
Immediately afterward, a vast expanse of green light rose up. Broods of Dao soldiers radiating obvious Wood Element power surged forth. Wei Yuan's Dao power diminished only slowly, leaving him with an odd sense of having strength to spare with nowhere to expend it.
These Dao soldiers had all been formed using specially crafted strips of spiritual wood, each about a palm's length, as core spellcasting materials, and every one possessed Dao Foundation cultivation. A portion of these Dao soldiers were controlled by Dao Foundation cultivators from the Battle Saint Hall descending into them, another portion was piloted by mirage demons, and over a thousand remained without pilots.
Suddenly, all the unoccupied Dao soldiers jolted, opening their eyes simultaneously!
In the county yamen at the center of town, Feng Tingyu lay fast asleep, controlling all the unoccupied Dao soldiers at once through the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
And finally, countless pixel Dao soldiers resembling stacks of tiny cubes appeared. This time, Wei Yuan finally felt the strain as his Dao power declined rapidly. After all, pixel Dao soldiers were summoned in entire swathes, each swathe numbering a thousand.
In the eyes of Liu Heihu far in the distance, a towering blaze first erupted from the town, followed by a vast spread of azure qi. Before he could make sense of what they were, he saw an endless sea of bizarre, three-foot-tall figurines leaping over the town walls, charging straight into the overwhelming ranks of the rebels!
As the two forces collided, vast swathes of pixel Dao soldiers were annihilated in an instant, but the rebels also suffered disastrous casualties. Countless men, though not killed, had their lower legs hacked off clean. They tumbled across the ground, writhing and shrieking in agony, which instantly threw the charging formation into disarray.
Watching tens of thousands of pixel Dao soldiers battle the rebels, Wei Yuan felt his blood boil. With a twitch of his fingers, Compassion was already in his hand!
Yet he still remembered that he was commander in chief of the armed forces. Moreover, although these rebels were steeped in evil and deserved their deaths, they were ultimately ordinary mortals of the human race, not Flame Demons. Given his current status, it was best not to step onto the field and slaughter them in person.
Above Dao Foundation, however, was another matter entirely.
Wei Yuan swept his gaze across the field, instantly marking every Dao Foundation and dharma idol cultivator among the rebels, watching for the opportune moment to strike with thunderous fury!
Yet at this moment, the Dao Foundation captains and dharma idol generals within the rebel army were filled with terror, some even slowly falling back. They watched as a massive host of Dao Foundation Dao soldiers, shrouded in floating green qi, emerged from the town and leaped over the walls, charging into the rebel ranks!
Only now did Liu Heihu realize that these were Five Elements Dao Soldiers. But when other cultivators summoned Five Elements Dao Soldiers, several hundred was the absolute limit. How could this man's summons start in the thousands, and with Dao Foundation strength no less?
Thousands of Wood Element Dao soldiers plunged into the rebel formation like mountain torrents washing over muddy ground, carving out deep furrows in an instant. The rebels had far fewer Dao Foundation cultivators, and many dared not engage at all. In the blink of an eye, the army of more than a hundred thousand seemed on the verge of being shattered!
Liu Heihu knew things were taking a turn for the worse. The black tiger above his head roared once more, its fur turning pure white. The temperature across the battlefield plummeted rapidly as white snow began to fall; his mindscape world had manifested, gradually overlapping with reality.
Empowered by Liu Heihu's mindscape world, the rebels' combat strength surged again. Those Dao Foundation officers' eyes turned blood-red, fighting like rabid dogs without any regard for their lives. The Wood Element Dao soldiers, meanwhile, were suppressed, their vibrant luster dwindling by nearly half in the blink of an eye.
Taking advantage of the momentum, the rebel dharma idol generals struck immediately, striking down the Wood Element Dao soldiers one by one.
Yet Liu Heihu instantly noticed something amiss. Whenever a Dao soldier was on the verge of being slain, it would employ all sorts of unique methods to save its own life; there was every kind of trick imaginable, bearing none of the uniform, rigid stiffness typical of ordinary Five Elements Dao Soldiers.
In that instant, Liu Heihu felt as though he were watching countless real Dao Foundation cultivators locked in mortal combat!
He then discerned another large group of Dao soldiers that shared a consistent style. Yet these Dao soldiers were all extraordinarily nimble and moved erratically, even dodging many attacks from dharma idols. They did not use Dao arts at all, relying purely on rhythm in battle—sometimes fast, sometimes slow, completely unpredictable—flustering even the dharma idols into disarray.
Liu Heihu attempted to analyze their movement patterns, taking in every single action and breaking it down. Yet after watching for only a short while, his head spun and a wave of nausea washed over him!
Liu Heihu dared not try analyzing them any further, utterly shocked. He had no idea what sacred being was controlling these Wood Element Dao soldiers. To think that as a mighty Scenery Command cultivator, merely trying to analyze their combat patterns had pushed his divine sense to exhaustion!
Fortunately, though the Wood Element Dao soldiers were numerous, their average strength was lower; their absolute prowess fell well short of orthodox Dao Foundation cultivators, and a dharma idol cultivator could eliminate one with a single strike of the palm. If this was the limit of Wei Yuan's tricks, victory in this battle was assured.
Liu Heihu sneered, remarking to his attendants, "That fellow across from us is indeed quite talented, but what a pity he ran into me! If he were slightly stronger and could summon a few more Dao soldiers, I might truly have had some trouble—"
Before the words could fully leave his mouth, a tall Dao soldier blazing with fire appeared atop the town wall, a fiery strange beast crouched menacingly above its head!
Then came a second Dao soldier, a blazing flame sword hovering over its head. Then a third, a fourth...
In the blink of an eye, thirteen dharma idol Dao soldiers stood atop the walls of Guantun! Their dharma idols varied, yet each possessed a profound, commanding presence, each extraordinarily distinct!
Liu Heihu was momentarily dazed. It was as if he were seeing not Dao soldiers, but thirteen genuine dharma idol cultivators! Their cultivation levels varied, yet all overflowed with exceptional talent, every one an elite of the era. Liu Heihu asked himself honestly: back when he was at the Dharma Idol realm, he likely would not even have been qualified to stand beside these thirteen Dao soldiers. These were thirteen full celestial idols!
How could a tiny Guantun County possess such fortune to harbor such crouching tigers and coiling dragons?
Chapter 971