Chapter 2304: Bone-Attached Carbuncle

For years, mountain demons and wild monsters have surged in number, and immortal monsters have repeatedly emerged from seclusion, threatening human settlements. As civilians abandoned the countryside and gathered in mid-sized cities, the mountain patrol troops also became active and expanded. They organized flexibly, mainly in squads, equipped with all kinds of strange and unusual special weapons and medicines, and were rich in experience fighting monsters and bandits.

The Qingxia Sect originally looked down on human armies, considering them merely having numerical advantages and utterly useless in battles of this level. Over a hundred years ago, they dealt with the army of Julu State as if playing.

But when they clashed with the army of Cangyan, they immediately sensed something was wrong!

As soon as the Cangyan army took the field, they instantly split into over thirty squads, basically assigning two squads to each Qingxia Sect member.

One squad harassed the front, one squad flanked the rear; one squad led the assault, one squad provided support, striking with vicious precision, always seeking openings.

And the two groups of roles switched at any time.

Yuan Xilin's disciple Qinghuan Daoist was entangled in combat with a crane demon when, unexpectedly, a long spear thrust from the side pierced his ribs. It was precisely Weng Su, who had recently served as acting leader of the Weiheng City mountain patrol, who spotted the good opportunity.

Qinghuan Daoist was about to injure the crane demon, but didn't want to bother with him; however, the red light attached to the spear tip made his hair stand on end, and he instinctively felt this was unlike the mortal weapons he had faced before, and being stabbed would surely bring no good outcome.

Before he could jump back, three crossbow bolts shot in from behind, front and rear coordinating seamlessly, truly giving him no breathing space. Qinghuan Daoist was just about to bend down to dodge when the crane demon seized the chance and pecked—its beak sharper than a hoe blade. If truly pecked, his arm would burst open.

Helpless, his illusory spirit had no choice but to turn and leap back to save his master.

This illusory spirit is a giant, whose appearance somewhat resembles the giants of Mao Ridge, except it lacks a second head. It directly flew to block Qinghuan Daoist's rear, swinging its axe to knock two arrows flying, yet the third arrow struck its abdomen.

Dealing with physical attacks is usually easy—normally the illusory spirit just needs to become illusory. However, this illusory spirit giant, having shifted from solid to illusory, still had the arrowhead embedded in its abdomen, and it did not clatter to the ground.

The arrowhead had a rope hooked behind it; once it hit the target, the soldiers would pull hard.

The giant's illusory image was actually dragged! Qinghuan Daoist turned back, both startled and angry, and flung out a Heaven-Covering Seal with his backhand.

This thing, when released, was only the size of a seal, but upon seeing wind it immediately grew, and by the time it flew above the crowd it was already larger than Zhu Xiuer's bulk, then accelerated downward. The soldiers only felt a large shadow press down from above, and hurriedly dodged.

The Cangyan army has always openly taught and tested cultivation techniques and combat skills; soldiers possess cultivation, and are also required to compulsorily learn one or two movement techniques. On the battlefield, when evading enemies and fleeing for their lives, their true abilities show. Some may not have practiced extremely well, but at this moment, empowered by primordial force, they truly moved as light as swallows—leaping or rolling, a swoop and they were several zhang away.

This Heaven-Covering Seal crashed down, yet somehow did not hit anyone.

Although cultivators fighting each other usually would not use this clumsy, bulky thing, these Cangyan soldiers, each more agile than rabbits, still made Qinghuan Daoist feel utterly bewildered. With their cultivation, they should not have such agility—how did they make their feet feel as if smeared with oil?

Could it truly be, as Liu Qingdao said, that the laws of the mortal world have already become vastly different from before?

At this moment, his doppelgänger's arm ached, having been chopped on the shoulder by Weng Su's blade.

Weng Su mercilessly mocked him: "Stupid bird, fighting while spacing out!"

Qinghuan Daoist grimaced and countered: this guy clearly isn't an immortal, yet possesses the strength of nine oxen and two tigers, his moves are grand and forceful, every strike never missing his vital points, and coordinating with the crane demon forced him to be constantly on guard.

After great effort he created distance, Qinghuan Daoist pinched a seal with one hand and swiftly unleashed his flying sword.

This is the orthodox immortal method: the flying sword, upon leaving the hand, begins to divide—one becomes two, two become four, and in their collisions they become thirty-two blades, coming from all directions to greet Weng Su.

Besides the ground, every direction has swords, aiming for a no-blind-spot assault.

If this hit him, Weng Su could rename himself Hedgehog.

Dozens of swords fired together, in an instant dust flew up, and the victim could no longer be seen clearly.

But after only two or three breaths, the dust and smoke stirred, two sleeve darts shot out first, then a figure flew and lunged at Qinghuan Daoist.

Weng Su emerged, his body surrounded by a faint light; looking closely, there was also a cauldron-like shape.

"Just you know magic, just you can launch swords?" Weng Su this time switched to a large hammer, preparing to swing and knock back the flying opponent.

To counter the flying sword, he had just used the outward release of the Golden Bell Shield, infusing the magical implement not only with true force but also with primordial force!

At this moment, Qinghuan Daoist's illusory spirit giant also followed up by attacking and smashing the Cangyan soldiers, reducing his master's burden. Its movements were very agile, it actually knocked flying four or five soldiers with solid blows, and even caught a squad leader, raising both hands to unleash a frenzy of pounding and smashing!

Let alone a living person, even an iron post would be smashed into an iron pancake by it. If He Lingchuan from thirteen years ago had not used a magical artifact and taken the blow head-on, he would also have suffered internal injuries.

This squad leader had no time to dodge, could only raise his shield to block.

The remaining soldiers only heard, within three or five breaths, a dozen or so booming sounds—this man had already been smashed to the ground.

Other soldiers rushed to rescue him, working together to pull the illusory spirit giant away, while two others went to save the squad leader.

What astonished the Qingxia Sect members was that this person actually crawled up from the ground by himself!

Although he swayed and staggered, hadn't stabilized before vomiting blood, although he had broken an arm, yet he was still alive, appearing not to face imminent life-threatening danger for a while, and then was swiftly sent to the rear.

This is unreasonable—Qinghuan Daoist's illusory spirit had once beaten a powerful enemy to death alive using this very combo, and that was a renowned great ability!

Now a nameless minor soldier could actually withstand such a beating?

They of course didn't know that Cangyan's primordial force greatly enhances individual soldiers' strength, speed, endurance, and agility, greatly weakens enemy attacks, and has many marvelous uses—for example, during group combat it enables "damage distribution."

Earlier, the illusory spirit giant's assault on Weng Su looked ferocious, but in fact the damage had already been largely leveled by primordial force, and the remainder was distributed among over forty team members, so only a tiny fraction landed on the squad leader.

He himself had protective gangqi, divine abilities, and a shield; after all deductions, although he had two ribs and his right wrist broken, his life was not in serious danger.

Of course his teammates, though sharing the damage, were not comfortable either—feeling as if they had been brutally beaten all over—two of them couldn't hold back and vomited on the spot—but at least no casualties occurred.

Most terrifying of all, this is not an isolated case. Looking across the entire battlefield, dozens of squads went all-in, yet casualties remained limited. The army no longer resembles what the Qingxia Sect remembers—individuals fragile as to break at a pinch. They have become the Qingxia Sect's bone-attached carbuncle, serving not merely to assist and support the great abilities in battle.