by Tony Tran
“Tsk… Have our forces move in and encircle them! I was a fool to wait for those stupid beasts to complete our task for us.” Hei Ang said with furrowed brows and a frown on his face. Shortly after he spoke two streams of blood trickled out from the sides of his mouth.
Once the orders were passed down through the ranks the soldiers of the Dark Legion marched through the woods while raising their flags into the sky.
“Ai collect those and let’s get back into the fort, it seems we have some more new friends.” Zhang said as he saw a few thousand flags fluttering in the sky and many more thousands of men slowly emerging from the woods.
Even the path that was created by the Cactus Dragons had been filled in by soldiers with black cloaks draping over their bodies.
“I wonder how many people they brought, there are so many flags.” Ai said as her gaze shifted from one place to the next while she and Zhang sped toward the fort.
While Ai was curiously looking around, a broad smile appeared on Zhang’s face as he found an opportunity to test out the extent of his power after stepping into the eighth level of cultivation. There had been techniques that had been shown to him by Yuying and Xin Tao that he could not use until he had reached the eighth level, that he was itching to try out.
“Change of plans, you head back and keep an eye out on those in the fort, I’ll go stretch my legs a bit and test out their strength so we can plan accordingly.” Zhang said to Ai with a grin as his cap began to emit a dark aura while his shadow extended and a large scaly snake shot out and lifted Zhang into the air.
With a mighty roar, the Abyssal Viper shot toward the soldiers of the Dark Legion with Zhang riding on top of its scale head.
“Hogging all of the fun again…” Ai said while pouting a bit, however since she was asked to keep the soldiers in the fort safe until Zhang had a bit of fun, she did not stop moving and continued heading toward the fort.
“Use the Heaven’s Chaser Formation!” Hei Ang’s voice echoed into the ears of his subordinates as Zhang neared them with weapons drawn.
“Those damn phony dragons might have left but I’ll be showing off your head atop a spike soon enough.” Hei Ang said in a low tone as he watched his men enter formation and readied themselves to fight against Zhang and the massive Abyssal Viper.
The soldiers of the Dark Legion had formed a massive yin and yang shaped formation with their swords drawn as they charged toward Zhang. Like water, they evade the body of the massive Abyssal Viper that would have crushed them to mesh and reformed their formation and sent thousands of rays of light shooting out from their swords.
“So, this is a living spell formation! To think I would see this here!” Zhang said delightfully as dozens of weapons appeared around him and floated in the air.
Usually, spell formations were only practiced by large sects who generally resided in large kingdoms. Since the Warring States Region was comprised entirely of tens of provinces and war was waged without end, large sects avoided building their foundations within it because the last thing they wanted was to be dragged into senseless wars which would only serve to slow down the growth of their sects.
So, since there were no large sects within the Warring States Region, Zhang figured that the spell formation being formed in front of him would not by a high level one, which would make it perfect practice if he happened to find himself caught in a spell formation when traveling outside of the Warring States Region.
“Heaven Chaser Activate!” The cloaked soldiers of the Dark Legion yelled in unison as the rays of light from their swords concentrated into a single point in the air and formed into a giant translucent sword that looked big enough to slice mountains in half.
While jumping off the head of the Abyssal Viper, with a thought Zhang made the massive snake tower into the sky. Upon receiving Zhang’s command, the Abyssal Viper’s jaws unlatched and lashed out at the giant sword that was descending from the skies.
Sadly, the Abyssal Viper was fundamentally not very strong and was disintegrated upon touched by the giant translucent sword.
As his Abyssal Viper disintegrated, Zhang landed onto one of the clocked soldiers of the Dark Legion and his twin blades pierced through the unlucky man’s body.
Once their target landed, the soldiers of the Dark Legion changed the shape of their formation and created three rings comprising of many hundreds of men who were in constant motion with their swords pointed toward Zhang.
They had basically formed a giant bullseye symbol with Zhang in the center. With a thought, Zhang’s weapons that were levitating around him shot in random directions and impaled a dozen or so cloaked men.
“So, to break the formation I have to quickly cut my way out before the giant sword descends and before they can react to my movements.” Zhang thought as he charged through the spell formation
While Zhang was trying to figure out how to break through human spell formations, Ai had made it back to the fort and made countless black vines pierce through the earth and encase the fort.
As Ai’s essence reverberated in the air and the black vines released their aura, the horde of Cactus Dragons that were quite a distance away began to roar loudly before speeding up their pace and fleeing.
Although Zhang was killing one cloaked soldier after another, he could not stop the spell formation because once he killed someone another would fill that person’s place. Of course, he was in no immediate danger but it was only a matter of time before the massive sword impacted the ground and who knows what kind of damage that could do.
“Heaven’s Wrath!” Zhang roared as he pointed one of his swords into the sky and sent a large lightning bolt snaking upward.
The Lightning was naturally faster than the translucent sword and ascended into the skies before dispersing into a cloud.
As the cloud began to crackle, streaks of lightning danced through the skies as countless lightning bolts rained down.
It was without a doubt that the lightning bolts lacked the power to destroy the translucent sword but it would cause devastating damage to the Dark Legion’s soldiers below.
“We can have some more fun later” Zhang mumbled as he tried to make his way out of the spell formation while lightning randomly struck the ground around him.
“Maybe it's because they aren't proficient at it or this spell formation is not strong but it's too slow.” Zhang thought. It was obvious the translucent sword that was materialized due to the spell formation was very powerful since it was constructed by the combined might of thousands of people, but no matter how powerful something is if it doesn't hit its target then it's pretty much useless.
“Disperse!” All of the dark legion’s soldiers in the spell formation yelled as the massive translucent sword they conjured broke up into hundreds of thousands of smaller swords and tries to negate the rain of lightning.
“So, it can do things like that too, maybe if I can capture their commander and make him teach it to my men.” Zhang thought as an Abyssal Viper appeared out from his shadow and snaked out of the spell formation.
“Reform ranks! Give me a damage report!” Hei Ang ordered his soldiers who had been showered by lightning moments ago.
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While Zhang was experiencing new things, Yuying’s army had surrounded Purple Rock City.
“Your highness all of our men are in place and are awaiting orders.” A soldier reported to Yuying who was sitting atop of a throne made entirely of bones.
“Good.” She said as her throne rose into the air as a column of bones appeared underneath it. With a thought, Yuying made countless bones rose into the sky and formed a massive bony fist that shot through the air.
The soldiers within Purple Rock City looked in horror as the giant fist smashed into their city wall, however, contrary to their expectations the bone fist did not do very much damage to the wall at all. The only thing it did was leave thousands of bones embedded into the side o
f the wall.
“Tree of Death.” Yuying said in a low tone as the bones that were embedded into the wall began to grow like the roots of a tree. As they grew the bones began to connect and intertwine with one another until a large tree trunk was formed within the city walls.
“Everyone off the walls!” The soldiers atop the walls screamed as bony branches pierced through the stone blocks that the wall was made out of. Tens of minutes later an eerie tree of bones replaced a section of the city walls.
“Move in! Kill everyone!” Yuying commanded with a cold expression in her eyes before her throne made of bones arrived in front of another section of the city wall.
By the time Yuying was done, four trees of bones had spawned out of the city walls and her army had already swarmed into the city.
Chapter 50: The Siege
Once Yuying’s army moved into the city they proceeded to cut everyone down without discrimination, no matter if the person was trying to surrender or was without a weapon. Of course, not everyone will be killed on sight because Yuying had commanded her men to bring a single survivor so she could extract information from them once the information was extracted the person would be released and allowed to leave. By leaving a single survivor, Yuying would send fear into the hearts of all those who will face her in the future, possibly enough fear for them to surrender without putting up a fight.
By the end of the day, corpses were piled up so high that it formed a small mountain that rose over the city walls, or what’s left of the city walls. After the mountain of corpses was burned and their bones added to Yuying’s arsenal, the Purple Rock city was sacked and burned to the ground.
Although sacking and burning cities would prove to be counter effective after assuming control of the province, by doing so she would by sending a message to all of the other cities in the province.
“Surrender or everyone dies.”
There was also the fact that if she took prisoners she would have to keep them fed and have some of her soldiers keep watch over them, which would only serve to slow down the progress of her army.
While Yuying would soon be viewed as evil reincarnated, Ling’s reputation would not be any better.
Just like Yuying, Ling’s army had also surrounded a fortified enemy city. Thousands of barrels filled to the rim with water had been transported by Ling’s soldiers and placed behind Ling as her gaze was focused on the city in front of her.
With a thought essence, enveloped Ling’s entire body and the barrels of water, causing countless gallons of water to form a pillar underneath her feet and lifting her into the air. Using her strongest technique, Ling made thousands upon thousands of droplets of water dance around her and began bending the sun’s rays to her will.
Without any other cultivators to interrupt her, Ling was like an angel of death who brought down light to expel those who went against heaven’s will. It did not take long for the light show of death to begin as dozens of rays of light scorched the ground and melted the city walls. Any unlucky soul who just so happened to be touched by the rays of light were instantly set ablaze, had their limbs severed or burned to ashes. Wooden buildings could catch fire while stone buildings were cut to pieces as the rays of death moved from place to place.
Aided by the power of the sun itself, Ling’s soldiers easily made their way into the city that they surrounded with weapons drawn and bloodthirsty eyes. Much like Yuying’s soldiers, Ling’s soldiers were given the order to cut down everyone and take no prisoners. Once everyone in the city was slain and the city was sacked of its food, weapons, and wealth, it would be burned to the ground.
While Yuying and Ling were leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them, Zhang and Ai were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Dark Legion. After Zhang broke out of their spell formation and returned to the fort, the hundreds of thousands of men of the Dark Legion proceeded to set up a massive spell formation that projected a barrier over a vast area of land.
But due to their previous failure with the Heaven’s Chaser Formation, the Dark Legion chose to not attack. Hei Ang figured that he would wait until Zhang’s army ran out of provisions and were weakened by hunger before he would move in.
With the Dark Legion’s barrier in place and nowhere to go, Zhang, Ai and their army could only wait within the fort as hours turned into days.
As the number of days that Zhang and Ai were trapped in the barrier went on, Lingqi had managed to locate a fortified enemy city to siege like the Yuying and Ling. However, unlike the other two who were deemed as demons, Lingqi’s method of conquest would be viewed as benevolent.
After her army surround, the city Lingqi converted her soldiers into an orchestra, the likes no one has ever seen before. With a few of her soldiers burning a hallucinogenic plant that Lingqi had found in the air and the wind carrying it into the city, her orchestra began playing a tone of defeat and surrender.
Once the hallucinogenic smoke kicked in and the saddening tone seeped into their hearts, the soldiers within the city began to toss down their weapons and fall into a state of despair allowing Lingqi to capture the city without having to kill a single person or destroy a single building.
With the city under her control, Lingqi had her soldier disperse her medical pills to all of her new captives before adding them to her own army. Through the use of addictive drugs, she was able to gain undying loyalty and bolster her army. Of course, she did mention giving them the antidote after the Rainbow Rock Province was completely taken over, but even if she didn’t use drugs, compared to the others Lingqi could be considered a saint.
While Yuying, Ling, and Lingqi were making amazing progress through the Rainbow Rock Province, the other forces of Aurora were also on the move.
For the most part, the other forces of Aurora had been running into one obstacle after the other as they headed deeper into the southern territories because the southern alliance was not simply sitting around and waiting for the soldiers of Aurora to march in front of their doorsteps.
Many soldiers from the provinces that were further south were sent to the front lines to repel Aurora’s forces, at first it was not much of an issue but over time as the Southern Alliance’s numbers continued to swell while Aurora’s armies began to shrink.
With that being said, not all of the armies under Aurora’s banner shrank. The army that was led by Zhuge Liang and Gan Ning had actually increased in size by twenty-five percent due to many of Zhuge Liang’s spies was leading men to join them as they headed down south.
So of course, victory and defeat were still yet to be decided because the scale of this war was simply too big to completely comprehend and there were too many factors at play. While one of Aurora’s armies may have suffered defeat, another one would achieve victory as the same went for the Southern Alliance.
Although most of the forces of Aurora were facing a disadvantage because the southern provinces had put together a united front, there was a hidden blessing that would fall into their laps. If they managed to crush the armies of the Southern Alliance, then they would be able to march south undeterred.
This is obviously because all of the soldiers that could be spared in the south had been sent to the front lines, leaving many of the southern provinces with little to no manpower.
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After five or six days, the Dark Legion began regularly sending raiding parties toward the fort Zhang and Ai were in. Their goal was to disturb Zhang and his soldiers and wear them down over time, much like what Gan Ning had done when he fought against the Heavenly Sword Army.
Small fires were started to set the fort’s wooden walls ablaze, unruly yelling and screaming disrupted the silence of the night to prevent Zhang and his soldiers from getting sleep while a variety of other methods were also tried.
However, this harassment did not go unpunished because Ai would occasionally appear on the walls with her black whip in hand and send devast
ating lashes smashing into the ground or the unlucky souls who were annoying her. There were also times when she did not use her whip and opted to practice her archery, which left many people with arrows sticking out of their knees.
Zhang, of course, would occasionally appear also and practice shooting bolts of red colored lightning at people.
Thanks to Zhang’s rationing his army was well equipped to survive for roughly a month on the supplies they had at hand, so as the days went on, Hei Ang’s impatience continued to grow.
At first, he had thought that getting rid of Zhang would be a walk in the park and would serve as a stepping stone for him to rise in fame and power once he returned home. However, his initial plans had played out entirely different than from what he had planned and nothing had gone entirely right since, prompting a mixture of unwanted emotions to swirl in his mind.
