Chapter 203: Each Has Their Own Mission

When the ambushers arrived, the Baling defenders of Weicheng also opened the city gates and rushed out, attacking the Dafeng Army from both sides. The slaughter in the night was particularly intense.

Captain Sun, Xiao Maoliang, and others were moved, because the number of ambushers the Baling people had set in the wilderness reached a staggering 30,000!

Counting the nearly 10,000 people who intercepted General Nanke, the Baling people had actually dispatched over 40,000 troops this time; their belief in achieving success in one battle was truly exceptionally firm.

This radical and fierce fighting style had never been used by the Baling people before.

Was it all because of the change of commander?

After a few rounds, the Dafeng Army split into two teams, led by Captain Sun and Captain Liu respectively, retreating from the south and north directions. There were too many enemies, and Weicheng was already the Baling people's territory; the Dafeng Army didn't want to become a turtle in a jar, so they had to pull away before being surrounded.

This was when the quality of the army showed. Facing an ambush force six times their size in a chaotic night battle, and with the retreat order coming suddenly, the Dafeng Army still remained busy but not chaotic, fast but not leaking, and forcefully slipped away from the gap.

Looking at the "Hong" flag fluttering in the evening wind, the Baling army naturally had to muster their remaining courage to pursue the fleeing enemy. The Dafeng Army was the most elite team in Panlongcheng; although famous, their numbers were actually limited. If they could wipe out these 5,000-plus people, Panlongcheng would suffer a great loss of vitality.

Moreover, General Hong was also here! General Hong had risen to prominence in the past three years and, by virtue of his heroic combat record, was on par with Zhong Shengguang as the backbone of Panlongcheng.

If they could defeat General Hong, then how far would the Baling Kingdom be from taking the entire Panlongcheng? One fleeing and one pursuing, rolling smoke and dust headed east.

The battlefield quieted down, and only the wounded were moaning in the mess.

Since the Dafeng Army had retreated, the Baling defenders of Weicheng had to hurry out to clean up the battlefield.

This kind of logistics team was called the Du Shan Battalion and had a special uniform. They were not responsible for fighting, and enemy armies rarely attacked them.

The battle ended, and their mission was to collect prisoners of war and transport the wounded.

There weren't many Panlong prisoners of war, only twenty or thirty. But because of the Dafeng Army's two rounds of rapid volleys earlier, more than 400 Baling ambushers were hit by arrows, seventy or eighty lost their mobility, and more than thirty were seriously injured, not counting the dead.

These all needed to be transported back to the city for treatment as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Weicheng was close at hand, and the Du Shan Battalion soldiers carried stretchers back and forth a few times, transporting most of the wounded back.

In addition to the original Huamucuo army in Weicheng, some logistics teams brought by the new commander also joined the Du Shan Battalion, temporarily expanding the manpower.

This led to the Du Shan Battalion being filled with unfamiliar faces, and many soldiers in the same battalion didn't know each other.

A dozen logistics soldiers had just sent the wounded and prisoners into the city when they suddenly took out glass bottles from their bosoms and smashed them back toward the city wall!

Nine huge copper talismans were embedded in the inner wall of Weicheng, more than a zhang above the ground; this was a large defensive magic array laid out by the Baling people after they captured Weicheng, referred to as the battle array.

As everyone knew, Yuan power could weaken or offset the opponent's magical powers, and could also be used to strengthen one's own magical powers. But if both armies used Yuan power to strengthen their own magical powers to attack the enemy during the battle, then this battle would be intricate and full of variables.

The battle had just ended, so these nine copper talismans were of course infused with Yuan power, emitting a faint cyan light, and there were talisman scripts flying off the copper plates, slowly rotating around the copper plates. They could ensure the city wall was harder and more durable, and had another wonderful use: broadcasting the "Cleansing Heart Mantra"! With the nine talismans as the center, Baling people within a three-mile radius could keep their minds clear and not be confused by ghosts and monsters.

The Cleansing Heart Mantra itself was not easy to cast, and making it into a large-scale, long-term array device required huge talisman plates to accommodate the complex array lines.

The Baling Kingdom's array masters also racked their brains. Although the nine copper talismans were a group, they could actually function normally even with two or three missing, but outsiders didn't know this. After all, any accident could happen on the battlefield, and if a few copper talismans were damaged, the remaining ones could continue to defend against the enemy.

However, now that these dozen logistics soldiers moved at the same time, at least six talisman arrays were hit.

The glass bottles were smashed, and the colorless liquid inside splashed onto the copper talismans, which immediately hissed and emitted a patch of cyan smoke, and the fine array lines began to deform, just like a candle being melted.

The cyan light on the copper talismans immediately extinguished. Baling soldiers standing on the side were also unfortunately splashed and immediately rolled on the ground holding their faces and wailing.

The logistics soldier closest to the city gate climbed up the city ladder without a sound. Baling city guards stepped forward to intercept, but somehow he swayed past them.

This logistics soldier stood at the edge of the intact copper talisman without slowing down. The city guards' figures stagnated, and then they either fell softly or fell off the city ladder.

Those who saw this scene gasped, thinking they had suddenly seen a ghost in the night.

The logistics soldier drew his knife and slashed the talisman in one go.

By the time he sheathed his knife, there was already a huge "X" on the copper talisman plate.

The talisman array engraved on it was considered completely destroyed.

The two torches beside the copper talisman were also cut off, and darkness immediately shrouded the place.

At the same time, his companions also threw out two signal arrows into the sky, and two dazzling lights, one cyan and one red, exploded in the pitch-black night sky.

The incident happened suddenly, and the Baling defenders hadn't reacted yet when someone on the inner street shouted: "Close the city gate, close the city gate quickly!"

To facilitate the entry and exit of logistics teams, the Weicheng city gate had always been wide open.

The Baling defenders hurriedly wanted to close the city gate, but the dozen logistics soldiers and Panlongcheng prisoners rushed back to stop them, one of whom pulled out a bow and arrow from his back and shot down four Baling soldiers with three consecutive arrows.

One shot hit two people in a row.

The torch lit up his face; it was He Lingchuan's old acquaintance, Hu Min! The logistics soldier at the edge of the copper talisman also took out a small blue pot and uncovered the lid.

The pot had two handles and was very exquisite, with a ruby embedded in the center of the pot body.

Others couldn't see it, but hundreds of three-corpse worms poured out of the pot and pounced toward the nearest Baling people! ￥￥￥￥￥

He Lingchuan jumped into the cave entrance and was immediately bounced up by the spider web.

That feeling was just like playing on a trampoline.

He used the force to roll, layer by layer downward, careful not to let his head or face touch the spider web.

Although the world was spinning, he could still see many discordant figures on the brocade—those were big spider monsters, chasing him relentlessly.

If it weren't for his rolling speed being too fast, he would have been caught up by them long ago.

As soon as He Lingchuan came down, he discovered that the space inside the nest seemed terrifyingly large.

Rolling to the second-to-last layer of spider web, he barely stabilized his figure, but the mud on his hands was also scraped off almost completely.

Looking around, huge stalactites grew larger and larger over endless years, connecting top and bottom, finally forming stone pillars capable of supporting the underground world.

There were at least dozens of such stone pillars, long or short, perhaps still growing, with no discernible pattern, but they had a beauty of craftsmanship that made the cave extremely layered.

And the space supported by the stone pillars was like the inside of a honeycomb cake, with one stone chamber after another, large or small, semi-open, connected, with dense stalactites hanging from the top, and a thick layer of black colonial rot soil on the ground, piled with dead branches and fallen leaves.

The soil was also covered with moss-like plants, green or purple, dense and firm, as if a thick carpet had been laid for the stone chamber.

Simply put, he was facing a giant, three-dimensional, magnificent underground maze of at least thirty or forty layers!

Even if there were no spiders chasing him from behind, He Lingchuan didn't feel he could figure out this maze.

Of course, fluorescent spores were everywhere on the rock walls and in the stone chambers, illuminating the huge spider queen's nest brightly.

So He Lingchuan could clearly see that directly below him, and only directly below him, he had to face a terrifying abyss!

This huge cave was only empty in the center.

Because there were spores glowing at the bottom of the abyss, it looked as far away as the stars in the sky. He Lingchuan roughly estimated that he was about... fifty or seventy zhang (between 160 and 200 meters) from the bottom of the abyss? Falling straight down like this would definitely turn him into meat paste, right? Clearly, this was also one of the spider queen's defensive measures, so that invaders couldn't easily invade her maze, especially when spider guards were arriving from all directions.

From the moment He Lingchuan rolled down, he fell into the spider guards' encirclement.

They arrived so timely, probably because they had been angered by Sun Jiayuan earlier.

He Lingchuan also discovered a severed arm on the spider web under his feet. Judging from the remaining fabric, this should be Sun Jiayuan's remains. He thought that he had probably fallen to this position earlier, and before he could even draw his bow, he was pressed down by the spider swarm.

He Lingchuan looked around and found that there were fragments of blood-stained remains everywhere on the spider web; clearly, the explosion earlier had significant power.

Worst of all, the spider guards were coming again.

In this world of spider webs, He Lingchuan couldn't be more agile than spiders. By the time he stabilized his figure and half-squatted, the web lines leading to the rock wall were all occupied by spider guards.

He couldn't get past.

And in ten breaths at most, the spider guards would pounce in front of him.

He certainly couldn't withstand the anger of more than a hundred elite monsters. An ordinary person facing such an eight-legged torrent would probably have their legs go soft.

Zhu Erniang's nest was truly a pit! He Lingchuan didn't have time to complain, bent his bow and set an arrow, aimed at several of the largest and closest stone chambers, and fired four consecutive arrows!

Although the cave was spacious, the temperature wasn't very pleasant, with a musty smell.

To be more precise, there was a fermented smell.

At this time, He Lingchuan welcomed all combustion aids.

All four signal arrows hit the target accurately.

Bang, bang, bang, bang—four loud explosions, and fire soared into the sky!

This constant-temperature, quiet, and orderly space ushered in its first commotion.

The stone chambers contained both plants and dead leaves, all things that would ignite at a touch. After the gunpowder carried by the signal arrows exploded, sparks flew and danced, burning wherever they fell.

Four signal arrows could have such an effect; He Lingchuan hadn't expected it.

But he wasn't too happy, because the spider guards had already pounced.

The two in front could actually jump, and one jump was three zhang! It was his first time seeing a spider that could jump, and it was in such an unfavorable environment.