Chapter 1234: Xuan Lu Makes a Move

As for the cave entrance, the Pi Xia army continued their assault. After paying the price of over a dozen lives, the thorny, hardened stakes were finally cleared away, but enemy troops poured out of the cave in an endless stream, engaging the Pi Xia soldiers in a chaotic melee.

The more the Xuan Lu Ghost King watched these enemies, the tighter his brow furrowed.

Commandant Shi asked for guidance: "Are these also ghosts and monsters?"

"They don't count as ghosts; at best, they are spiritual constructs. They are attached to iron-skinned men, fighting against your army." The Ghost King's avatar had red light flashing in its eyes; it could see through the opponents' true forms.

"Iron-skinned men?" Commandant Shi was startled. He scrutinized the enemies carefully but could discern nothing unusual.

The Ghost King's avatar suddenly extended two fingers and tapped lightly on his eyelids.

Commandant Shi felt a chill pierce through his eyelids, straight to his heart. He couldn't help but shiver. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked: the figures opposite them were not living people at all, but iron-skinned automatons leaping and maneuvering. They were fighting the Pi Xia soldiers with great seriousness, and they would even shriek and collapse when struck by blades or spears.

This scene was both grotesque and terrifying.

What worried Commandant Shi even more was, how was this battle to be fought? No commander wanted to use the flesh and blood of his own men to trade lives with these iron-skinned monsters.

In just this short while, the scouts he had sent out earlier returned, reporting yet another piece of bad news:

The forest path that had clearly been only a few hundred paces long earlier had now become an endless stretch, even after running for thousands of paces! "A ghost wall?" Commandant Shi immediately asked the Xuan Lu Ghost King's avatar, "What should we do?"

In his heart, he was thinking: isn't there a Ghost King's avatar right here beside me? How could it fail to see through a "ghost wall"? "Hold your ground, and find another way out."

The Xuan Lu Ghost King knew the quality of the Pi Xia army all too well. If he suddenly ordered a retreat, the Pi Xia soldiers would likely trample over each other to flee under the rain of arrows from the rear. At that point, everyone would be terrified of being left behind to take an arrow, and there would be no talk of fighting while retreating.

Their quality was too poor! If this were his former army, he wouldn't need the enemy to act; he would have chopped off dozens of heads himself first.

But iron-skinned men kept jumping out of the cave. Their exteriors were not human, but their weapons were the real deal; a strike on a person meant real blood and the loss of life.

Therefore, the cave still had to be guarded. Occupy the favorable terrain and kill them one by one as they emerge, kill them squad by squad, to avoid excessive casualties on their own side.

"These kinds of spiritual constructs usually only appear in places with special rules, self-contained entities like small worlds or illusions." The Xuan Lu Ghost King's avatar waved his hand, and over a dozen evil ghosts drifted outward, "Find the exit, and we can get out."

"A small world? When did we enter a small world?!" Commandant Shi also knew they were in trouble. For the opponent to trick them into a small world right under the Ghost King's nose, their mastery of magic was not low at all.

Tonight's battle was going to be troublesome.

The Xuan Lu Ghost King's avatar spoke dismissively, but inside, he was furious. Because his connection with his true self had suddenly been severed! In other words, this place had been temporarily sealed off.

"Whether it's an array or a small world, no matter how tightly sealed, there is always a glimmer of a way out." The key was, where was this flaw hidden? They didn't know how large this small world was, nor did they know what its fundamental rules were. While having to deal with the iron-skinned men emerging from the cave, how easy would it be to find the flaw?...

The Xuan Lu Ghost King's true self led 1,300 men to attack Cotton Village.

His tactics were also brutal: a full round of fire arrows from a distance, then ordering the Pi Xia soldiers to charge toward Cotton Village, and having the archers fire a second volley mid-way.

The buildings in Cotton Village were also built from local materials, constructed with wood from the valley, unlike Stone Village, which was entirely made of stone houses.

The Pi Xia soldiers' arrowheads were coated with oil, igniting upon piercing the wood.

The enemy inside the wooden hut was startled and, sure enough, kicked the door open and charged out.

A dense, black mass: a large group of the Boss Situ family's soldiers.

He Lingchuan was feasting guests at Stone Village, while they had been guarding here in the dark for half the night, just waiting to ambush the Pi Xia soldiers and the Xuan Lu Ghost King.

The result was that the enemy had attacked their door first.

Fortunately, they were also fully armored and ready, able to start fighting the moment they grabbed their weapons.

The valley floor was not spacious, and it was difficult for cavalry to charge here, so the Pi Xia cavalry could not leverage their advantage.

The Xuan Lu Ghost King scanned the field and discovered that the number of Boss Situ troops in Cotton Village was about what he had estimated: around 1,000 men.

If Ju City could have spared another 500 men for him to command, he would have had the confidence to defeat these enemies faster.

But they refused to budge.

Two thousand versus two thousand five hundred, how much difference did it really make? In his view, since Commandant Shi had already defied military orders, why not be more thorough? Sigh, the Pi Xia people were petty and short-sighted; it would be hard for them to achieve great things in the future.

Once this battle ended, he had best scout for new partners.

Thinking this, he pointed forward, and dozens of corpse puppets behind him charged up.

These corpse puppets were different from the small animal puppets that had sneaked into the village to gather intelligence earlier. The largest was a giant elephant that actually had six long tusks, all uneven and protruding in different directions. It looked like a clay figurine molded by a child—either the maker wasn't careful, or they just weren't good at molding.

But the power of these six long tusks was truly astonishing. As long as it lowered its head and plowed forward, combined with its massive size, it was like a bulldozer. Enemies who couldn't dodge in time were either skewered or trampled into meat paste.

Numerous Pi Xia soldiers followed behind it, charging forward.

The other corpse puppets were also bizarrely shaped. One monster, resembling both a centipede and a house centipede, was three zhang long, with hard, blade-like plates along its sides like a mantis shrimp. When it grabbed a person, it would rotate and coil around them. Those unfortunate enough to be bound by it would have their bodies sliced open amidst their screams, their guts and intestines spilling out.

That feeling was not much different from being sliced by a thousand knives.

There was another corpse puppet that barely maintained a human shape, but it stood one zhang tall, covered in seven hands and eight feet, as fat and sturdy as a mountain. The Boss Situ soldiers' blades and spears struck it, but were all blocked by the thick fat on its body, unable to reach its internal organs at all. This thing also felt no pain, and it would backhand the opponent to death.

These dozens of corpse puppets had explosive combat power and were invincible. According to their previous tactics, they only needed to charge back and forth twice, and the opponent's army would basically collapse. Then the Ghost King and his allies would appear leisurely to finish the harvest.

Not to mention, the Xuan Lu Ghost King's signature skill was controlling his soldiers to fight to the death.

His ability was far greater than that of his avatar. Hundreds of yin threads emerged simultaneously, taking full control of the Gaopu people who had signed contracts, forcing them to swing their blades at their own countrymen.

The Xuan Lu Ghost King also saw several key commanders of the Boss Situ family.

It seemed Boss Situ Yu valued the one surnamed He highly, actually sending his own confidants to serve as reinforcements. It was just his bad luck that these people were destined to die here.

With these few moves, the Boss Situ army's formation was indeed broken. The Xuan Lu Ghost King immediately used his corpse puppets and Gaopu puppets to cut the enemy army into several sections, surrounding and annihilating them one by one.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1235 =====