Chapter 2773: Treating Heavenly Gods as Consumables?

"A shadow?"

"This Congenital Deity's divine art is similar to 'Body-Shadow Exchange' — that is, the positions of the true body and the shadow can be swapped. When True Lord Tongming encountered an unavoidable danger, the Congenital Deity directly swapped his physical body with his shadow." He Lingchuan analyzed, "The changed laws of heaven and earth prohibit damage-transfer type divine arts and abilities from taking effect, but this Congenital Deity's divine art exploited a loophole. After True Lord Tongming's shadow and true body exchanged positions, the shadow itself would not be injured. No matter how powerful an attack struck the shadow on the ground, it was as if striking nothing, and thus it did not count as 'damage transfer.'"

"The first two times True Lord Tongming was struck by me, the Congenital Deity's floating lamp flickered. It was clear the one actually pulling the strings was Him, not True Lord Tongming; after knocking down that floating lamp, True Lord Tongming's true body could no longer escape into the ground, and could only await death."

Everyone sighed in admiration — so that was how it was!

Sha Wei wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth: "No wonder. No matter how the General chopped True Lord Tongming this way and that, that Congenital Deity just shrank to one side, unwilling to step forward and protect him. So it turns out He can only scheme against people from the shadows."

This kind of profundity might not be worth much once pierced through, but on a chaotic, complex battlefield, being able to keenly identify it is what makes a master.

He Lingchuan naturally would not explain — what he possessed was not a keen eye, but a Dharma Eye.

He merely saw the karmic threads between the floating lamp, True Lord Tongming, and the shadow, and then analyzed slightly.

The data from Ling Mountain arrived in time; Panlong matched it against the Heavenly Demons' skills on the battlefield, and it was not difficult to find their corresponding true identities, thereby closing in and killing them.

Until the moon passed its zenith, the four Deicide Squads had sniped and killed eleven Bega Immortal Demons, with remarkable effectiveness. Counting also the Fenghe Goddess who fell on the battlefield and so on, the Bega side had a total of fifteen Immortal Demons killed!

He Lingchuan's squad alone had killed five Immortal Demons — a bountiful harvest.

Of course, such needle-point-against-wheat-awn confrontation must have a price; the Panlong side also had four Immortals unfortunately fall, and three injured. More dead than injured — one could see the battle's ferocity.

Besides the Immortals, the other members of the four Deicide Squads had also been almost entirely replaced once over.

This was manpower He Lingchuan had planned in advance; once there were losses, reserves would step up.

These were all top elites from the Great Wind Army and the Tiger Wing Legion, all personally trained by General Hong and He Lingchuan. Placed in any other army outside, they would be figures capable of holding their own independently, yet in this most cruel and ruthless flesh-and-blood grinder, they fell one after another.

Then one after another, replacements filled the gaps.

The commander's heart was like iron and stone, and not a single one of them had a complaint. This was Panlong City's final moment — either you die, or I perish.

Because most of Panlong's Immortals had been transferred to the Deicide Squads, the Panlong Army lost their protective escort. Experienced Immortals on a modern great-nation battlefield might not necessarily cause explosive direct destruction, but they could still use various arts to provide much convenience and support for their own army.

With Immortal Demons assisting, the Bega Army's offensive grew ever more fierce. Under Zhong Shengguang's command, the Panlong Army organized several counterattacks.

He Lingchuan's squad passed the Heisongdi battlefield on their way to hunt the Heavenly Demon Bin Yu, and happened to see a dozen or so Panlong warriors roaring as they charged the enemy army across from them;

By the time they killed Bin Yu and passed here again, the Bega Army had already flooded over Heisongdi like a tide. Those Panlong warriors had already fallen, never to rise again — some missing limbs, some bodies burned to charcoal. Sha Wei couldn't even tell what weapon or divine ability had caused it, and there were even two Panlong warriors who clung tightly to enemies, perishing together.

Though the enemy had pierced through their front and back, they too used their gleaming white teeth to bite through the enemy's carotid arteries and trachea.

The Deicide Squad just stood at a distance and silently watched for two glances, then turned to find the next prey.

Battles like this occurred every minute and every second; the scene before their eyes was merely a microcosm of the cruel battlefield.

The people struggling here each had their own missions, and each their own destinies.

Alas, even though the Panlong Army's will was like iron, unwilling to spare their own bodies in constructing a flesh-and-blood defense line, before this objectively overwhelming combat power, the battlefield front still advanced step by step toward the Mingshalin stockade walls.

This helplessness could not be shifted by anyone's will.

And in the Bega rear camp, Gao Huaiyuan suffered reprimands from Heavenly Demons more than once.

Xi Yu God said to him point-blank: "Your advance is too slow. The Saint Venerable is very dissatisfied with tonight's campaign!"

Facing divine reproach, Gao Huaiyuan also had to be humble: "Steady and solid — this is almost the fastest speed we can advance."

"Steady and solid?" Xi Yu God sneered, "Do you even hear what you're saying?"

"At this rate, before dawn..." we can attack to the front of the Mingshalin stockade walls; at that time, blooming on multiple points, the walls certainly cannot hold.

"It's nearly the latter half of the night, and we still haven't reached the front of the stockade walls." Xi Yu God cut him off, "Why did you previously insist on distributing extraordinary power across each battlefield, instead of concentrating it for an all-out push?"

This commander Gao Huaiyuan before them distributed the Bega Immortal Demons to each battlefield, wanting multiple armies to attack simultaneously; the result instead dispersed the Immortal Demons' power, giving the opponent an opening. Panlong wasn't vegetarian either — they immediately began encircling and hunting isolated Immortal Demons!

Gao Huaiyuan explained: "Whether in troop numbers or Immortal God numbers, our army crushes the opponent. To maximize our advantage, we must disperse and attack on multiple routes, forcing the Panlong Army to exhaust themselves defending, so they will soon reveal flaws. Looking at the Mingshalin terrain, it is also very suitable for multi-route attacks."

The opponent's shortcoming is that their army numbers are far fewer than ours, and their Immortal numbers are only a fraction of the Bega Immortal Demons. To truly win, to force out all the enemy's trump cards, steady step-by-step advance is the most secure method.

Xi Yu challenged: "Over a dozen Heavenly Gods and Immortals have fallen, and you still call it steady and solid?"

"The Saint Venerable has spoken — spare no cost." These past months, the Bega Army has piled into corpse mountains and blood seas on the Panlong Wasteland. Today's battle, merely a dozen or so Immortal Demons dead, and the Lingxu crowd can't take it?

Hearing these words, Xi Yu's face twitched. The Saint Venerable had indeed said so, but!

This commander really dares to treat Heavenly Gods as consumables?

Gao Huaiyuan continued: "For these words, I've also staked the lives and fortunes of the entire Gao clan — how could I dare be negligent? It's just that the Panlong Army is truly tenacious; even now they haven't retreated past Huangshi."

One-third of the way south from the Mingshalin front, there is a massive yellow rock. Both warring sides regard it as a landmark; if the Bega Army advances to Huangshi, it means the distance to the Mingshalin stockade walls is less than two hundred zhang. This is a life-and-death boundary, and both sides have been repeatedly contesting it.

"You've led troops on the Panlong Wasteland for months — how many rounds have you fought with the Panlong Army? Why would you still misjudge the Panlong Army's tenacity?"