Chapter 330

Roar!

The giant ape that had just climbed onto the city wall roared as it leapt out of the mist and smashed toward the soldiers before it.

Die!

The Wei family army's elite, tempered through a thousand hammerings, naturally lowered their stance at this moment, adopting the posture best suited for blocking and parrying, to meet the giant ape's smash.

Thud!

A muffled explosion rang out; the elite soldiers were completely overpowered in the clash of strength, but their perfect block and deflection let them avoid most of the force. Even so, without more teammates buffering with shields, the soldiers who first engaged would definitely have been blown away.

Without needing orders, the Wei family army's elite, having quickly adjusted their positions, immediately raised their large shields and moved to surround the giant ape. In the mist they could not see far, but within the city walls Mu Yi's Reincarnation Barrier enveloped everything, giving them a clear view, unaffected by the mist.

This also proves that Mu Yi is gradually mastering this mist divine ability; he can now reshape the mist's effect according to his will.

Bang!

The fierce impact of the large shield unleashed pure force at this moment, disregarding self‑damage; the vigorous force, transmitted through the shield at the instant of exertion, caused the air to emit an explosive sound.

The heavy force in an instant made the giant ape stagger.

"Stab!" Mu Yi gave the order just right.

Relying on the convergence of divine will, he could accurately transmit the command into every soldier's mind.

The soldiers hiding behind the Wei family army immediately thrust forward with their spears.

The giant ape, its movements distorted by the impact, had no way to block or dodge; it vainly reached out its palm to grab the spears.

Although it managed to block a few spears, more spears then thrust past.

With no extra movements, this stiff and clumsy way of fighting means simple and efficient.

In a duel, such a stiff attack would be digging one's own grave, but in large‑scale army combat it is easier to coordinate.

Past training had etched the simple thrust into the body's instinct, easily blocking all directions of the giant ape; if not for the legendary creature's tenacious vitality, this counterattack would have been enough to take it down.

The giant ape, pushed off the city wall by the spears, wailed as it fell into the mist.

Although the mist's suppressive effect plays a role, it is the soldiers' elite level and perfect command coordination that are the fundamental cause of the killing blow.

The Wei family army's soldiers almost all possess the trait of condensed inner qi, having reached level 19, the peak of the Transcendent, and have also refined three or more layers of the Tenfold Omnipotence.

Under the mist's suppression, they need only over a hundred people to pose a lethal threat to a creature at the Inner Qi Separation (Legendary) level.

However, speaking of it, the average level of each individual soldier is not only below the Transcendent of the Net, but even below that of a normal disciple of the Hundred Schools.

They count as part of the Military Strategists, yet they are the foundation forming the bottom layer of the Military Strategists' pyramid.

These elite soldiers of the Wei family army are worthy of being called the elite of the Imperial Guard; above them exist only the legendary Army Soul soldiers and Miracle soldiers.

According to legend, the former is standard equipment for all war gods, while the latter is held only by some military‑formation army gods of the Military Strategists; it is said that each soldier, under the mist, equals an Inner Qi Separation (Legendary) being.

According to legend, the former is standard equipment for all war gods, while the latter is held only by some military‑formation army gods of the Military Strategists; it is said that each soldier, under the mist, equals an Inner Qi Separation (Legendary) being.

In the surging beast tide, legendary creatures are few, only a handful; the pressure they exert on the city wall defense is even less than that of the numerous Transcendent magic beasts.

"Strong crossbows, fire!"

Mu Yi, his face somewhat grim, gave the order; a large batch of crossbow bolts poured down from the city wall, temporarily easing the defensive pressure.

He now also realizes the seriousness of the problem; these Buddhist Sect bastards don't know how many beasts they have stirred up in the mountains.

Originally, even with a secret law pillar, beasts gathering would be a trickle, and defensive pressure would be much smaller.

But now, these beasts have been gathered in advance, forming a terrifying beast tide; their defensive pressure is truly too great.

Especially when the beast tide begins to spread from the front toward both sides, the defensive pressure they face becomes even greater.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Accompanied by earth‑shaking tremors, a huge legendary beast charged toward the city wall; wherever it passed, beasts suffered heavy casualties.

Its height is at least twelve meters; its massive body is like a moving fortress wall; through the mist, one can see that this long‑haired monster, resembling a mammoth elephant, has a pair of huge tusks and a strong trunk.

The earth trembled at the beast's arrival.

Boom!

The charging beast burst out of the mist and slammed into the city wall.

The city wall, reinforced with the First One's Earth Vein Power, withstood this tremendous impact, yet even so, the wall itself underwent violent shaking.

Some soldiers lost their footing and fell straight down beneath the wall, surrounded by the beast tide, losing their lives amid horrifying wails.

"Damn it! How could such a huge legendary beast appear!"

Yang Tiancheng looked angrily at the elephant; earlier, when they scouted, they had completely missed seeing this kind of beast, and if they had spotted it earlier they would surely have strangled it in its cradle.

For the city's defense, such a beast is simply too dangerous.

"Prepare the legion attack; I want this big guy blown to pieces!"

Mu Yi's order quelled the chaos among the soldiers; the mist blocked too much, and most soldiers were frightened by the sudden appearance of the elephant, causing a little disturbance, but they did not break formation.

Under Mu Yi's command, five legion attacks instantly blasted toward the elephant's direction.

Afterward, wave after wave of bombardment struck at the elephant's position; without equivalent mist entanglement, the legion attacks were not restricted and became a burst‑type output method.

Wave after wave, stream after stream of the legion attacks' bombardment killed the elephant outright; the remaining legion attacks exploded like bombing amidst the beast tide.

Faced with this frenzied‑like attack, the beast tide was cleared of a large area in an instant.

Although they gained a decent result, Mu Yi's expression was not very good.

After all, legion attacks always directly consume the soldiers' essence, energy, and spirit in every aspect; one or two shots, three or four shots are still okay, but using such large‑scale legion attacks continuously to quickly kill a target makes the overall combat power decline extremely fast.

In just a short while, the decline was at least ten percent or more; heaven and earth's essence qi will replenish the mist, but the soldiers' expended essence, energy, and spirit cannot be quickly restored.

Even if the flames of the Hell Path ceaselessly burn the corpses of beasts on the ground, turning them into pure essence‑energy‑spirit power, and replenish the soldiers through a five‑fold offering.

Such massive bombardment's consumption still cannot be fully compensated.

And the elephant's appearance was like sounding an alarm; the defensive pressure more than doubled.

All kinds of previously prepared city defenses were deployed, and huge numbers of beasts died under them.

However, the beast tide showed no sign of retreat; they ignored the casualties of their 'companions'.

Opening their claws, drooling foul saliva, they charged at the city wall, using claws as weapons, crawling upward bit by bit, then assaulted the defending soldiers.

Those behind followed in the footsteps of those ahead, advancing without the slightest hesitation.

By this time Mu Yi already sensed something amiss; the so-called secret law pillars were definitely problematic, and they had even begun to be subtly rejected by this heaven and earth.

Even a frenzied ordinary beast tide would not be this reckless, sacrificing lives; to the uninformed it would seem like some natural disaster rather than a beast tide.

Ordinary beasts batter the wall with their bodies, but these Transcendent magic beasts gather their power and spew forth spells that bombard the fortress wall.

Although Chuyi was constantly repairing nonstop, the wall still inevitably began to suffer damage from the repeated shocks of the bombardments.

Smoke and dust rose, and shattered stones fell.

When Mu Yi personally saw several soldiers fall and crash to the ground due to the collapsing wall, he finally resolved to abandon the wall and retreat into the city.

"All units, listen! Prepare for the legion's bombardment attack!"

Mu Yi's stern command rang out across the battlefield, cutting through the clamor and chaos.

"Legion attack, blanket assault!"

After a few seconds, various lights sliced through the sky and vanished, howling as they converged upon the teeming, rolling beast horde beneath the wall, causing great chaos and casualties.

"Let the beast‑men slaves hold the wall as a rearguard; all soldiers withdraw to the city, and the reserves take position in the second‑line sector to prepare for battle!"

As the battlefront grew ever larger, the defense became increasingly untenable, so Mu Yi had no choice but to abandon the wall and begin contracting the line.

Fortunately, Mu Yi had already contemplated the possibility of having to abandon the wall; now the plan fit perfectly.

Relying on the time bought by the legion's bombardment and the beast‑men slaves' rearguard, the army swiftly shifted under Mu Yi's command.

"Boom—!"

Once all the soldiers had reached their designated positions, the ground near the wall began to collapse, and a flood started flowing along the sunken ground, soon taking the shape of a moat.

The beast‑men's Cold Leaf City had no concept of a moat, so when Mu Yi arranged the defenses he specifically had Chuyi dig a moat to serve as a second line of defense.

Originally intended to delay the enemy's advance, it now became an effective means of resisting the beast tide.

Ordinary river water would be useless against the beast tide, so Mu Yi specially filled the moat with a sea of blood; hungry ghosts from the Realm of Hungry Ghosts flickered within it, awaiting the feast that would come to them.

"Reserves, stand guard; the rest of you, rest in place! Prepare to meet the next battle!" Mu Yi announced grimly to the crowd.

Even after going berserk, the beast‑men slaves still had decent combat strength, and with the added support of the Realm of Hungry Ghosts' blood sea, they did not need to worry about defense for the time being.

But this is no solution, ah; although the mist prevented him from seeing the beast tide's numbers, his vague sense told him that their count was not small.

Human stamina has its limits, while the beast tide seems endless; when their strength is exhausted, the battlefield's balance tilts completely.

Especially, the secret law pillars require fifteen days to build, and it's only the first day—defending for fifteen days will be extremely difficult.

Relying on the current forces, holding out for fifteen days is utterly unrealistic; we must request reinforcements.

"Report! Urgent military intelligence!" a voice filled with despair rang in Mu Yi's ears.

"Speak!"

Mu Yi drew a deep breath, steadied himself, and said, "Now the situation has rotted to this point; I can't believe it could get any worse."

"Our scouts beyond fifty li to the north have spotted a beast‑men army gathering!"

Hearing this, Mu Yi's vision went dark; he never imagined the situation could actually be this bad.

"Do not tell this to a second person!"

Mu Yi calmly instructed the soldier delivering the message, then ran toward the secret law pillars without looking back.

Before, he could have ignored some matters, but now he cannot.

Mu Yi kicked open the gate of the secret law pillars' construction site and seized the person in charge of the artisans.

"Can the secret law pillars be stopped?" Mu Yi demanded, grabbing the artisan's neck.

"No, once started it cannot be stopped unless it is destroyed!" the artisan's supervisor said, his face also helpless.

"What trouble would there be if this thing were destroyed?" Mu Yi's face darkened further at the words, his retreat route now completely blocked.

Must we really endure fifteen days of this bloodbath?

To be honest, after withstanding the beast tide, he actually still had a vague sense of confidence.

The arrival of the Buddhist Sect disciples gave him an idea.

"If in the end we have to ask for help, why bother pleading with a bunch of bald donkeys who are merely behind‑the‑scenes manipulators?"

But the beast tide is probably just an appetizer; the true main force is the beast‑men army that follows.

Compared to the mindless beast tide, an army of beast‑men possessing wisdom and divine arts is truly terrifying.

"The stored heavenly and earthly essence will be released all at once, flattening this city to the ground!" Seeing Mu Yi's ferocious expression, the artisan's supervisor dared not say more and whispered the danger that would follow the destruction of the secret law pillars.

Upon hearing the danger of destroying the secret law pillars, Mu Yi's vision blackened; the situation had worsened to the point it could not get any worse.

Not only was there no retreat, but they now also had to defend this crystal.

If this place were ambushed, even if they held off an external army of millions, it would be meaningless.

A single bursting mushroom cloud would send them all to heaven.

"Yang Tiancheng, order Lin Yi: you may abandon everything, immediately march the beast‑men troops to our position at double speed, and be sure to arrive in the shortest possible time!"

Once Mu Yi figured it out, he immediately began making arrangements.

"Wei Ke, organize a strike team, all elite, to follow me out of the city to carry out the decapitation plan!"

After arranging for Yang Tiancheng, Mu Yi told Wei Ke beside him, "No matter what, we must first kill that outsider who uses wind and sand."

Mu Yi had wanted to take out that opponent before, but the man was extremely cunning, hiding within the beast tide without showing himself.

Before, he had hesitated due to casualties, but now it had come to the point where he had to go all out.