Chapter 324

"Chang Haoran, crush them!" Mu Yi shouted the command.

"Yes!"

Chang Haoran raised his weapon, without the slightest hesitation roaring as he charged ahead out of the human realm's barrier.

Without any probing, they launched a death-defying charge, with no hint of hesitation; the moment they appeared, they were already prepared.

Roaring a mad slogan, they directly ignored all attacks and slammed straight into the beastmen.

No archery cavalry, no opportunistic flanking—only a life‑risking charge impact, trampling the shockwave as they launched a fierce assault on the beastmen.

"Kill!" some soldier bellowed; the death‑defying cavalry gripped their weapons tight and surged forward without slowing.

At this moment men and horses overturned, flesh and blood flying; the beastmen never expected a crack elite cavalry to launch a suicide charge, and all their battle experience became useless—only the clash of iron will and determination remained.

"Thud!" the dull impact sound kept ringing.

The front‑rank beastmen were flung backward, knocking over those behind; the shockwave cavalry then swept over, everything under their hooves turning to minced meat.

Horse necks snapped, lances broke, riders were flung; Chang Haoran had no intention of retreating from the moment he charged, vowing to fight to the death, he launched a frenzied, bloody battle.

"Guan Linglong, break the center! Ao Mo, bring men to guard! Tear a gap in the enemy formation for me!"

Having received the order, Guan Linglong hesitated not, launching an assault straight into the beastmen's thickest ranks, following Mu Yi's command to rip a hole where they were most concentrated.

"Those who block me die!"

Guan Linglong held the crescent blade upside down; at the moment of contact with the beastmen's main formation, he roared like a spring released at its limit, his accumulated momentum surging suddenly.

Only a few hundred sword‑hand troops at this moment directly overwhelmed the enemy; though the beastmen were far larger, they now seemed as fragile as children.

The crescent blade, its edge extended with light, swept horizontally across the front beastman warriors, shredding their armor and flinging their broken bodies.

Blood spattered over Guan Linglong's body, yet it made him appear like a god or demon.

The sword‑hand troops silently followed behind Guan Linglong, madly hacking at the beastmen before them; though the beastmen's bodies, bolstered by divine arts, were as tough as steel, before these troops they were as flimsy as paper, offering no defense at all.

One slash, and the beastmen were instantly cut in two; in that moment nearly a hundred beastmen fell.

Yet neither Guan Linglong nor the sword‑hand soldiers showed the slightest flicker.

War is like that: killing the enemy is victory, there is no right or wrong, only strength; the strong survive, the weak are eliminated—war has always been thus.

When the two sides meet on a narrow path, it's either break through or hold back—it's that simple; no matter what foe stands ahead, just kill them.

The beastmen are not without resistance; their bodies truly cannot withstand the brilliant blade light, yet the sword‑hand troops' focus on offense is a genuine weakness in defense.

However, illusory flames burn on every soldier, fueling their continued fight.

A sword‑hand soldier riddled with wounds, while shouting and charging, was pierced again by a beastman's weapon; illusory flames flared at the wound, and the unyielding fire in his eyes surged.

Though his wounds were beyond healing, burning with that unyielding will, the sword‑hand soldier felt as if he'd gained new strength, swinging his horse‑cutting sword forward with an unstoppable momentum.

Where the blade passed, blood sprayed; several beastmen were cut in half at the waist, while the gravely wounded sword‑hand soldier's fierce flames gradually died out, he sighed lightly, fell from his mount, and was ground to powder.

On this battlefield, falling from one's horse means being trampled into meat paste.

"Carry my will, kill on!" the fallen sword‑hand soldier whispered.

The fallen sword‑hand soldier turned to powder, but his unyielding will became fuel for the illusory flames, spreading to other warriors; even if he fell, he still fought alongside his comrades.

Mu Yi surveyed the battlefield; time was still too short. His troops had just undergone a fresh refinement of Elite Talent, beginning training according to the orthodox dual talent, yet so far only a few had completed the first-stage smelting.

If they were like the triple‑smelted elite troops under Huo Qubing, perhaps they would have already broken through by now.

However, Guan Linglong and his men were indeed advancing steadily; the Mu family army troops following the sword‑hand troops widened the gap they'd torn, and the beastmen forces were being ripped apart down the middle at a visible pace.

"Chang Haoran, be careful!"

While Mu Yi was focused on directing command, he suddenly noticed something off in the darkness; glancing at the battlefield, he saw that part of the ghost unit slaughtering beastmen slaves had vanished, and he immediately shouted a warning to Chang Haoran.

Following Mu Yi's roar, nearly all of Chang Haoran's troops had their hair stand on end.

The beastman sword saint, previously like a ghost, appeared behind Chang Haoran and company.

The shockwave cavalry, already slowed, now had no room to turn.

The sword blade pierced his chest; Chang Haoran, eyes blood‑red, grabbed the blade at his sternum, turned and lifted his weapon hoping to smash the beastman who ambushed him.

However, the blade twisted; the beastman sword saint easily drew his blade, blocking Chang Haoran's attack, smiling, he flicked away Chang Haoran's hand, vanished in the astonished gaze, and reappeared dozens of paces away.

"Damn it!" Chang Haoran's face turned ashen; the beastman sword saint is a Legend—even in a fair fight he's no match, yet the foe resorted to this sneaky ambush trick.

Like a scorpion hidden in a dark corner, its tail strikes out once, delivering a fatal blow to the enemy.

Except for a few lucky ones, or like Chang Haoran who reacted by intuition at the last moment, his shockwave cavalry collapsed outright the instant the ambush struck.

No matter the talent or race, for any normal creature a stab through the heart is basically a lethal wound; any weapon that pierces the heart is enough to kill.

Not only Chang Haoran's three hundred shockwave cavalry, but also the heavy‑armored Mu family army troops following them went down outright under the ambush.

At that moment Mu Yi realized that the distant beastman sword saint units slaughtering beastmen slaves had turned into illusions and vanished; in this wave of attack the Mu family army lost nearly twelve hundred.

Losing nearly a tenth of his troops made Mu Yi's eyes flash red instantly.

"Yi Yu falls, blanket‑shoot toward the direction the ground spikes spread!"

Chu Yi sensed the earth's shift, directly thrusting ground spikes upward, while the archery units, under Mu Yi's order, madly shot at that area.

Hundreds of archers, guided by the spikes, fired wildly; a dense rain of arrows blanketed the spot Chu Yi perceived.

"You think I haven't noticed your little tricks?" the beastman sword saint mocked Mu Yi with a sneer.

The thick volley of arrows swept past, yet only a handful of beastmen were felled.

Mu Yi glowered at the beastman sword saint's revealed voice; he couldn't fathom how the foe evaded Chu Yi's detection—this was the first time he'd faced such a situation.

But Mu Yi also knew nothing on the battlefield is impossible; since the enemy had a countermeasure, he would switch tactics.

He had considered this long ago: encountering an enemy as invisible as the beastman sword saint unit.

"Ao Mo, bring down rain!"

"Chu Yi, help Ao Mo!"

Mu Yi gave a low shout; Ao Mo, who had been charging, instantly turned into a dragon, letting out a low roar as raindrops began to drift from the sky.

Chu Yi produced the Mountain Water Seal; a water curtain drifted from the seal, gathered in the sky, and right after the heavens seemed to leak, a torrential downpour began.

When the heavy rain poured down almost instantly, the beastman sword saint suddenly realized that almost all of his troops had been washed out by the rain; they had indeed blended into the darkness, but under this torrential downpour, their silhouettes were completely exposed.

Not good!

The instant the beastman sword saint saw his own men washed out by the rain, he knew something was wrong; his troops' abilities focused on suppression and assassination, and the divine technique's blessing only deepened this purely supportive concealment.

They relied entirely on their massive builds to dominate the battlefield, but now their greatest reliance has been shattered, and they are doomed.

Heaven-Man Dao!

Mu Yi gave the beastman sword saint no more time to think, directly deploying a barrier and imbuing the archers completely with the divinity of Heaven-Man Dao.

Tons of arrow rain poured down directly onto the beastmen's positions; as long as I can find you, I can kill you.

In the blink of an eye, the unit that had just been like ghosts and phantoms suffered a heavy blow instantly.

Their concealment in the falling rain lost all meaning before the beastman sword saint could even think of a counter.

Yi Yuluo's archers, under his command, loosed nearly a dozen waves of arrows in a single breath, directly killing more than half of the ghost beastmen.

But the next moment, those ghost beastmen melted back into their own beastman troops, losing any distinct identity; even Mu Yi could not observe where they had gone.

Mu Yi's face grew somewhat grim, but fortunately the counter was swift; otherwise this wave might have truly suffered heavily.

These fellows, blessed with divine technique, are worthy of the title Dark King; yet it suffices to drag them out of darkness to instantly inflict heavy damage upon them.

I recall that among the Military Strategists there is a similar elite talent called Light and Shadow Control? Perhaps I should also train a unit like this.

Mu Yi watched as the troublesome beastman sword saint unit was cleared from the field; the situation quickly improved, everything progressing toward the direction he had previously anticipated.

Guan Linglong's extreme assault tore apart the integrity of the beastmen's formation.

Although the beastmen's side lacks the tight formations of Mu Yi's forces, the completeness of a formation is still vitally important for any army.

The beastmen have no formal formations, so they do not lose combat bonuses when their formation is torn apart.

But this does not mean that a torn formation is meaningless for the beastmen, since formations exist precisely to support command and dispatch.

Once the formation is torn, the beastmen's contact area expands; under Mu Yi's several brilliant commands, the invading beastman troops are directly sliced into pieces.

Unlike the beastmen, who cannot unleash all their strength, Mu Yi fully exerted his army's power, and everywhere that needed to hold the line he filled with beastman slaves.

Although this tactic causes the beastman slaves' casualties to skyrocket like a rocket, it is indeed the most suitable choice for the battle situation.

Each beastman slave's death brings about an equal number of beastman warriors falling.

In this brutal slaughter, the beastmen's side collapses quickly; even the beastmen cannot bear such heavy losses.

"Withdraw!" the beastman sword saint glared fixedly at Mu Yi, but in the end could only shout the retreat order.

A night raid inherently requires surprise, but the enemy was already prepared, so this raid can be said to have failed.

Moreover, with losses this great and the situation deteriorating badly, although the beastman sword saint is not skilled in formation command, he can still see that the beastmen are at an absolute disadvantage.

They are the defenders; there's no need to lock horns with Mu Yi here.

The beastman army, already on the verge of collapse, disintegrated instantly at the beastman sword saint's retreat order; Mu Yi certainly would not miss this opportunity, immediately pursuing them relentlessly.

But halfway, upon spotting the beastman troops standing firm in the distance, he directly chose to rein in his troops at the cliff's edge and return with his forces to the camp.

He was unsure whether the beastmen were feigning defeat to lure him; after a moment's thought, he still chose the cautious course.

After all, having clashed, he had confirmed that the beastmen are absolutely a tough nut to crack, and he must be more careful.

How are the losses?

After returning to camp, Mu Yi assigned personnel to guard and patrol, preventing the beastmen from launching another retaliatory strike.

Afterward, he wearily inquired about the losses.

The beastman slave army lost 4,672, the auxiliary troops lost 381, and we slew 6,087 beastmen.

"This loss ratio…" Mu Yi fell silent, knowing that this did not yet count the losses of the Humanity Dao Grand Army, yet the result turned out even.

That is to say, if they had not taken advantage of the enemy's rout to pursue them relentlessly, their losses might have been even greater.

However, the beastman slave army was after all just a filler, used as cannon fodder; suffering losses to this extent was not beyond Mu Yi's expectations.

The beastmen's combat strength, however, was somewhat beyond Mu Yi's expectations; he once again marveled at his good fortune, being able to meet the Iron Lion Duke in Qiushuang City and thus design the slaying of the beastman legend.

Otherwise, these beastmen bolstered by divine technique would truly be difficult to deal with.