Chapter 404: Tang Army Main Camp

Mu Yi flies above the sky, heading straight toward the Tang Army main camp.

Looking down at the ground, Mu Yi feels uneasy; the situation seems more troublesome than he imagined.

The Literary Star shielding the Tang realm is beyond reproach, but the Martial Star stationed at the rear is problematic; from high above, the Thousand-Mile Eye Divine Ability can clearly see the land's mottled aura, mingled with countless demons and monsters.

The air is foul and stifling; Mu Yi can only describe it with that phrase.

Or rather, that description is rather conservative.

These demons and monsters are entrenched along the Tang border; it seems that any movement of the Martial Star will prompt them to launch an immediate attack on the border.

Even most of those creatures could be snapped dead with a flick of Mu Yi's hand.

But once the Martial Star acts, it will likely give the great demons and evil gods an opening.

These low‑grade demons are probably just bait; even if they all die, the behind‑the‑scenes great demons won't mourn them at all.

Yet the Tang populace suffers hundreds to thousands of casualties, which is a heavy loss for both the Literary and Martial Stars.

The main army goes on campaigns while the true gods guard the border.

To Mu Yi, this delicate balance seems stable, though it lacks a bit of initiative.

These demons both pressure the border and diligently ambush passing caravans, sabotaging the army's supplies…

No wonder the Tang forces suffer repeated setbacks, to the point where Zongwang Players intervene.

Mu Yi does not act to disrupt this balance; that is a task for those uneven‑ranked Zongwang Players, and he has no need to waste time over such petty profit.

For him, the truly tricky part remains with the main army.

If no one restrains the army, those demons would merely become wreckage swept away by the army's advance.

Across the vast lands, this war between Zongwang Players and demons will drag on—a war of attrition and a patient tug‑of‑war.

Only after more than half a day does Mu Yi traverse the distance and reach the front‑line Tang Army camp.

Near the western kingdoms, conditions are a hundred times harsher than beyond Yumen Pass; the wilderness outside the camp teems with lurking demons.

Inside the camp it is relatively stable; the accompanying monks fully secure the site, with Buddhist light and Daoist resonance each covering half the camp, leaving demons with almost nowhere to hide.

But outside the camp it is far less comfortable.

Tang soldiers still need to sweep the area, or the demons will gather and become a disaster.

Suddenly, Mu Yi's attention falls to his own feet.

A small squad of Tang soldiers is battling a single one‑horned evil spirit.

The one‑horned evil spirit is ferociously grotesque, its surrounding resentment like a rising flame that never ceases to flicker.

"Roar!" The massive one‑horned spirit can repel a shield‑bearing Tang soldier with a single strike.

But the squad coordinates smoothly; when one soldier is knocked back, another instantly fills the gap.

The spirit rages wildly, its resentment boiling, warping the very air around it.

"Careful, this thing is about to go berserk!"

The squad leader low‑chants and pulls a talisman from his chest, hurling it at the spirit.

The talisman bursts with bright light, a clear aura enveloping the spirit; its boiling resentment nearly solidifies, but soon the talisman ignites on its own.

"Do not retreat; retreat means death. Follow me, strike it down!"

The squad leader growls low and steps forward, originally planning to expend energy first then use the talisman to control the spirit, but the one‑horned demon proves more troublesome than expected.

Now the talisman hasn't fully worked, yet it has weakened the spirit; at this point he can only grit his teeth and press on.

"Roar!" The spirit snarls, lunging at the squad leader; its claws scrape the shield, sparking a shower of fiery sparks like metal grinding.

Seizing the chance, the squad leader swings his blade, only to have the spirit fling its gaping maw shut, teeth snapping the steel blade as easily as breaking chocolate.

"Damn!"

The squad leader senses trouble, yet his retreat is still a beat too slow.

The one‑horned spirit charges straight at him.

"Zzz~"

The spirit's horn pierces the shield, and a searing pain erupts in the lower abdomen.

The squad leader stares in disbelief at the horn on the spirit's forehead; now it has elongated severalfold, like a spear, piercing his gut, with resentment flowing in along the horn.

In an instant he feels a naked, bone‑chilling cold as if standing bare in a frozen wasteland.

The other soldiers jointly pull the squad leader to safety, but the resentment has entered his body; his abdominal wounds are too severe, leaving him completely out of combat.

Without the squad leader, the remaining soldiers fight valiantly yet are driven back step by step.

They can barely maintain formation.

"I will eat you all!"

The spirit licks its claws, blood from a soldier dripping down them.

Just as the spirit flashes a cruel grin, ready for a feast,

a sword beam descends from the heavens; the spirit has no time to react before it is cleaved in two.

The upper half lands on the ground, its face still bearing that cruel smile.

The next moment, nether fire erupts, instantly igniting the demon; both halves are engulfed in raging flames.

In the blink of an eye the demon is reduced to ash, drifting to the ground.

With the demon's death, the nether flame rushes toward the Tang squad; the soldiers' souls are terrified, yet they cannot dodge.

The next instant, everyone feels unprecedented relief; the wounds from battle seem completely healed.

Even the squad leader, whose abdomen was pierced, climbs up; the glaring hole in his leather armor testifies to what just occurred.

"The demon's gone?"

The squad leader can't quite believe it, as if dreaming, having walked beyond the ghost gate and now feeling grateful.

After regaining composure, they all simultaneously look up at the sky.

A figure hovered in mid‑air; though not tall, it somehow gave an overwhelming sense of grandeur, and they could feel a solemn and vast aura emanating from it.

They recalled that aura—it was the divine might they sensed from the statue while praying at the Wǔqǔ Temple after passing through Yumen Pass to the west.

"A celestial deity has descended?"

They could hardly believe it, yet the awe‑inspiring presence on that being was something no demon or monster could imitate.

Moreover, the being had just saved them, so how could they not feel grateful?

The demons and monsters lurking near the Tang army's main camp glared maliciously at Mu Yi in the air, scheming what vile method to kill him; to the Tang camp he was a reassuring presence, but to them he was a formidable enemy that kept them sleepless.

In the next instant they felt endless scorching heat; nether flames ignited their bodies, and the demons wished they had two more legs to flee that dreadful place.

Yet they could not escape the judgment of Hell Path's fire; even the relatively stronger demons lasted only minutes before the Hell Path flames erased all their sins, turning them to ash that vanished into the world.

Li Jing, seated in the main tent of the Tang army's camp, unexpectedly stepped out, looked at Mu Yi in the sky, and smiled faintly.

This Wǔqǔ Star who had greeted him seemed a bit irritable, daring to cleanse all demons within a hundred‑mile radius at once; that temperament suited his taste.

"It seems we won't have to worry about those demons for now; the Wǔqǔ Star has sent me a good helper!"

"Now is the time for the Western Regions nations to witness the Tang army's might!"

Li Jing's expression turned cold; if not for the demons' utter despicability, the armies of the Western Regions would be nothing more than a feeble force.

After burning the area around the camp, malicious gazes, like needles, spanned tens of thousands of miles across mountains and rivers, fixing on Mu Yi.

Countless half‑gods hidden in the shadows were watching Mu Yi, some even divine beings, but they feared the Wǔqǔ Star hanging in the heavens and dared only to spy, not to act, lest they be seized.

"Honored Heavenly Lord!" Li Jing greeted Mu Yi as he descended.

"No need for formalities; I'm not here to fulfill any divine duty—just give orders, Marshal!" Mu Yi replied politely to Li Jing.

Though not a separate entity, he had studied under the war god Li Jing for a time, so the etiquette had to be proper.

"Lord, be swift, and follow me!"

Li Jing laughed twice, grabbed Mu Yi, led him into the tent, and spread a map before him.

"The Western Regions nations are no match; demons are merely a rash of dysentery, yet the two together are rather troublesome!"

Li Jing pointed to three cities on the map.

"Now the Western Regions are consolidated within these three cities, using countless demons as a shield, holding the main army here."

"Please, Lord, eliminate the demon nests along the way and clear a path for the army!"

Li Jing's plan was simple: strike the Yellow Dragon directly!

Move at the shortest speed, launching a lightning war before the enemy can react.

The enemy's three cities support each other, so they will feint along one route and then concentrate heavy troops on the siege.

Previously Li Jing struggled to deal with the demons along the route; although they could not defeat the main army, their control of earth and water veins easily delayed its advance.

The key to a lightning war is speed; if the enemy catches on, they'll trap us.

Now Mu Yi's arrival is the perfect chance to break the stalemate.

Mu Yi knew Li Jing had misunderstood; if he possessed the power of the Wǔqǔ Star, he would have rushed straight into the Western Regions.

Yet after a moment's thought, Mu Yi nodded.

He, too, was a commander; a couple of evil gods or great demons could not stop the main army, and Li Jing's tactic wasn't to capture cities but to force the enemy to concentrate its power.

Not the army's strength, but the power of the evil gods and great demons.

The Western Regions army cannot advance; to block the main army, the enemy can only rely on those evil gods and great demons.

Once the enemy groups together, the Wǔqǔ Star will instantly send a killing general.

Whatever the case, it is an opportunity, and for him it also maximizes his own gains.

After Mu Yi and Li Jing discussed the plan's details, they left the camp, heading toward the cities Li Jing mentioned.

Though they claimed to protect the army, Mu Yi's actual task was to slay every demon occupying the positions of the Mountain God and Water God along the way.

With those obstacles removed, the army's progress would speed up considerably.

It would have been a hassle, but Mu Yi had a good helper: Chu Yi.

The Mountain God's power stems from how great his authority is.

A single demon's earth‑vein or water‑vein authority is minor, but gathered together they become a force not to be ignored.

Mu Yi casually blasted the Mountain God on a hill, then handed the authority to Chu Yi; at first the earth vein resisted, but under Chu Yi's fierce Mountain Water Seal strike it instantly became compliant.

The same method was repeated: first suppress, then assimilate, fully seizing the authority along the way.

Later, Mu Yi no longer needed to act; Chu Yi wielded the earth‑vein authority like a runaway mud‑truck, flattening every obstacle.

Those demons holding scattered authority were no match for Chu Yi; their authority was crushed mercilessly and assimilated.

It resembled a massive flood, as if to drown everything.

After Chu Yi had assimilated half of the authority on the route, the hidden demons grew restless.

"What is this, a fallen angel?"

A naked humanoid bearing a massive, flesh‑scarred set of twelve black wings flew from the horizon toward Mu Yi.

Though humanoid, it bore a Dragon's head, seven heads and ten horns, resembling the legendary Satan.

The twelve black wings, while uniformly colored, varied wildly—some covered in scales, some with tentacles, some even sprouting human faces.

"How western can this Western Region be?"

Mu Yi couldn't help but complain; he had long realized that the distance from the Tang camp to Yumen Pass was absurdly far, taking him half a day of flight.

Though worlds differ and land sizes vary, this was still overly exaggerated.

Under Chu Yi's control, the earth vein transformed into a snarling earth dragon that shot toward the sky‑borne monster; the air rang with a thunderous piercing sound as it crossed dozens of kilometers in an instant, aiming to engulf the newcomer.

At the last moment, a jet‑black great sword slashed the charging earth dragon, a sharp metallic screech echoing; the dragon melted into magma under the searing light, raining down onto the ground.

The twelve‑winged monster only stepped back a single pace.