Chapter 536: The Demon and Aberrant Troops! Golden Toads, Wild Boars, Illegitimate gods Assaulting the Military Camps!

“We’ll withdraw tomorrow. Qingfeng Ridge may be treacherous terrain, but it can’t stop those demon clans and cultivators. There’s no need to fight a bloody battle here.” General Wei made a decisive call.

Large-scale participation of cultivators in warfare was exceedingly rare, and it left him feeling deeply constrained.

At this moment, a slightly plump young monk beside him suddenly stood up.

“Master Wuse, is something the matter?” someone asked.

This monk was none other than Wuse, the abbot of Jinguang Temple.

He had not appeared during the battle that destroyed Jinguang Temple, because at the time his inner demon had manifested and was on the verge of breaking free. Yet, thanks to the final heavenly lightning bolt back then, the inner demon within him had been suppressed and never resurfaced.

This time, after Prince Qing’s Mansion killed officials, seized military authority, rebelled in Donglin Prefecture, colluded with Demonic Daos, and massacred Huaiyang City, Master Wuse had only just arrived at the army and was now serving as General Wei Pingchuan’s personal guard.

He was a third realm Yang Spirit expert; alone, he could match thousands upon thousands of soldiers. However, the opposing army also had a Yang Spirit powerhouse. To strike rashly might trigger unforeseeable consequences. Thus, Wuse had not acted directly.

“Someone is coming. The one approaching is extremely strong, no weaker than this poor monk,” Wuse said in a low voice, his brows knitting as he carefully sensed the disturbance.

Wei Pingchuan’s expression changed. Master Wuse was a Yang Spirit expert capable of subduing dragons and tigers. Could it be that Daoist Spiritual Master Jiugong on the other side had made his move?

Wei Pingchuan reacted swiftly, picking up a white horn from the desk before him before he poured his true qi into it.

Suddenly, long, resonant horn calls instantly echoed throughout the entire military camp. This was a magical artifact refined by the court’s master artificers, one that could be activated even with a martial artist’s true qi.

In just a short while, more than a dozen military camps deployed along Qingfeng Ridge all went on full alert; fire-lightning cannons, firearms, and massive ballistae were all readied.

The soldiers within the camps formed military formations, their blood qi and killing aura merging into one, giving rise to powerful formations. This was a special kind of military formation, one that drew upon the blood qi and killing aura of the troops to establish a formidable field of power. To cultivators, it exerted tremendous suppressive force.

Warriors and weapons were the nation’s most deadly instruments, and their authority was sanctioned by Heaven. When cultivators rashly involved themselves in mortal warfare, they incurred profound karmic entanglements. Such military formations could, to a certain extent, suppress them.

Even if the troops were slaughtered to the last man, they would still inflict immeasurable karmic obstacles upon the attackers’ cultivation!

Thud, thud, thud!

Just then, an army of thousands charged forward, causing the ground to tremble without pause.

It was Prince Qing’s forces. At the front were elite cavalry, followed by various demon creatures. There were towering brutes over a zhang tall, bare-chested and carrying grotesquely oversized sabers. There were also house-sized wild boars charging ahead with sharp tusks and hides that were thick and tough. There were human-bodied, bird-headed demons, gigantic golden toads, demon soldiers of the White Marsh Demon Kingdom. It was precisely these demon creatures that had caused Donglin’s army to suffer so greatly!

Mixed among them were various strange individuals and eccentrics: some specialized in rearing ghosts, others in nurturing corpses, some in poisoning and gu arts, and even Yin Spirit cultivators of the second realm who arrived while manifesting their Dharma forms.

There were also illegitimate gods with three heads and six arms, fox spirits with half-human faces, rakshasa ghosts wielding skinning knives. The moment these figures appeared, they exerted enormous pressure on the Donglin Prefecture forces.

On the battlefield, lone wandering ghosts didn’t hold much of an advantage. The blood qi and killing aura here were simply too intense. Even corpses and

jiangshi

gained no great edge when facing the imperial cavalry.

The primary threats were the demon soldiers of the White Marsh Demon Kingdom, as well as the destructive power wrought by second realm cultivators manifesting their Dharma forms.

Of course, the harm caused by these extraordinary individuals was also considerable, falling into the category of special operations. But more often than not, it took the sacrifice of many soldiers just to kill a single such eccentric.

Among the six northern prefectures, the military strength of Donglin Prefecture ranked at the very bottom. Their firearms and military equipment were also far from complete. On top of that, this was an internal conflict, and many high-ranking officers had rebelled. Others had been placed under spell control, leading to numerous chaotic and uncontrollable situations.

If this had been a force like that of Beifeng Prefecture, which bordered the barbarian tribes, the army would not have been defeated so quickly. In the royal court of the northern frontier, cultivators also took part in battle, and there were various strange ghosts and demon creatures as well.

The Beifeng Prefecture army had cultivators stationed with them year-round and possessed methods for dealing with such demons, making them far more experienced.

“Fire at will! Don’t be afraid of exhausting all our resources!” General Wei Pingchuan roared.

As his order went out, the fire-lightning cannons and firearm units unleashed their attacks.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deafening explosions rang out one after another, and shattered rocks flew everywhere. This terrifying destructive power was no less than that of cultivators. Even massive demon beasts were blown to pieces when faced with fire-lightning cannons!

As for those cultivators who had manifested their Dharma forms, this violent field posed tremendous damage to their manifestations.

Especially under the momentum of formations formed by thousands upon thousands of troops, their strength was already being suppressed.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Under General Wei Pingchuan’s no-holds-barred artillery bombardment, Prince Qing’s cavalry was immediately thrown into chaos, and thousands of riders were killed or wounded in an instant. Those fearsome demon creatures and Dharma forms of illegitimate gods also suffered heavy damage.

Inside the command tent, the generals’ eyes lit up with joy. Since the start of the war, this was the first time they had achieved such a major victory!

They had long been harassed by Prince Qing’s forces, beaten back step by step. This time, they had directly wiped out several thousand of Prince Qing’s cavalry and severely crippled their demon and aberrant units.

But before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, seven or eight streaks of light suddenly shot up from within Prince Qing’s army. They were precisely those Dharma forms of cultivators and the flying great demons among the beasts.

Immediately, they charged straight toward Donglin’s fire-lightning cannons.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Ballistae, military crossbows, and arrows were fired like swarms of locusts. Even primordial spirits and Dharma forms had to avoid their sharp edge when facing arrows empowered by military formations and laden with dense blood-killing qi.

Even so, they continued charging toward Donglin’s forces, while several streaks of light also rose from Donglin Prefecture’s army. They were second realm cultivators manifesting their Dharma forms.

There was a Daoist spiritual master riding a crane, Buddhist guardian Vajras, a fiery humanoid figure, and a Seven-Star Mystic Sword Dharma form. All of them were righteous cultivators of Donglin Prefecture, and they clashed violently with the demonic, heterodox, illegitimate gods, and demon creatures.

Not only that, over a dozen figures also leapt into the air from both armies. There were monks and Daoists, battle-hardened generals, and wandering martial artists and swordsmen. Their movements were swift and fierce, making them strikingly conspicuous.

Experts from both sides were locked in ceaseless melee, weaving in and out amid the sea of thousands upon thousands of troops.

Below, Prince Qing’s forces finally charged up to the front of the military camps, pressing forward under volleys of arrows, burning oil, and rolling stones. Like a surging tide, they rushed at the camps wave after wave, one after another. The camps had been reinforced and were even sturdier than ordinary bluestone city walls.

Taking advantage of the terrain, the Donglin Prefecture troops continuously killed Prince Qing’s soldiers. Originally, the casualty ratio between attackers and defenders was already extremely lopsided, and now Prince Qing’s army was launching a reckless, all-out assault. As a result, their losses were even more severe!