Chapter 305: The Tide Turns: The Battlefield Becomes a Testing Ground

Although it was only Zhu Zhuqing's speculation, Zhuqing knew very well that this speculation of hers was highly likely to be correct.

That day, Zhuqing personally came to the Spirit Hall to report the news of Tang San to the Spirit Hall.

After all, the arrest warrant for Tang San had been issued by Jerry himself.

With no news for so many years, many people had originally lost hope of capturing Tang San, but now, news of Tang San had appeared once again.

This undoubtedly caused a glimmer of hope to rise in many people's hearts.

Even if Jerry offered no additional reward, the bounty from when Jerry had previously issued the warrant for Tang San was a significant resource in itself.

Because Zhuqing only speculated that Tang San was in the Bala Kingdom, and the Gourmet Appreciation Association had intervened.

She suggested that the Spirit Hall closely monitor the situation of the Gourmet Appreciation Association; after all, the scale of this association was now very large, spreading across almost every city.

As for whether Tang San was truly in the Bala Kingdom, Zhuqing stated that once confirmed, she would immediately report it to the Spirit Hall.

After finishing her report, Zhuqing returned to the front lines.

Through reports from her subordinates, she learned that the Bala Kingdom's army displayed a different emotion today—they were much less anxious.

Clearly, the black-robed Spirit Masters who appeared yesterday were not there to fight, but were responsible for transporting supplies.

That was fine; she had originally felt it wouldn't be very good if the war ended too quickly.

Due to the black-robed Spirit Masters' delivery of supplies, the Bala Kingdom received substantial support; with sufficient supplies, their resistance capability would be improved, and perhaps they would be able to hold out for a longer period of time.

Two weeks passed quickly.

That night, the moon seemed a bit shy, hiding behind the clouds and only occasionally revealing a bashful outline.

Suddenly, a sentry hurried over to report that a mysterious army was violently charging toward them from the periphery, and at the same time, the Bala Kingdom had urgently mobilized troops internally, seemingly preparing for action.

Zhuqing's pupils constricted instantly; she quickly scanned the surroundings and then decisively ordered, "Pass the word down: give it your all, and try your best not to let these two forces link up!"

At the same time, she quickly assigned others to investigate the origin and identity of this peripheral army.

Zhuqing waved her hand, and the reporting soldier went down.

After the report, Zhuqing turned to face Xue Ke and said in a deep voice, "It seems we really underestimated the Clear Sky Sect; they were actually able to mobilize an army from the outside to support them at a time like this."

Xue Ke set down the teacup in her hand, her expression remaining calm, and she said coolly, "It seems the plan has already succeeded more than halfway. We didn't know where this army that was exposed this time had been hiding before; this time, we must wipe them all out and see what other trump cards the Clear Sky Sect has left."

This night was destined to be a night that could not be peaceful.

After four hours of intense fighting, a guard came to report nervously.

"Report! Emperor, our defensive line has been breached, and the enemy has now linked up!" His nervous tone echoed in the air, bringing shock and terror.

"What?" Zhuqing and Xue Ke exclaimed at the same time, their eyes filled with disbelief.

"Emperor, our defense was originally very successful, and it looked like we were about to block the enemy forces from linking up. At that moment, the enemy's army breaking through from the outside suddenly took out a flag and waved it in the air a few times, and then many soldiers in our army began to mutiny and attack those around them."

"Because the situation was too sudden, and there were many mutineers around, appearing in the soldiers of both Empires, we were ultimately defeated. After they broke through and linked up to launch a joint attack, we could only fight while retreating, until the main force arrived to support us, and the enemy did not dare to pursue."

"A small portion of soldiers successfully retreated, but most of the soldiers were killed on the spot after being caught up to."

After the soldier finished his report, sweat had soaked his back, and his body was still trembling slightly.

This terrifying night brought them unimaginable shock and pain.

Zhuqing and Xue Ke looked at each other; beyond the shock, they quickly calmed down and began to think about the next countermeasures.

Clearly, the Clear Sky Sect's plan was far more profound and complex than they had imagined.

Now, they had to readjust their strategy.

As the night deepened, Zhuqing and Xue Ke's decisions became increasingly clear.

They ordered the remaining soldiers to prepare, while simultaneously sending out men to investigate the identity and origin of this mysterious army.

They knew that only by understanding this information could they find the opponent's weaknesses and thus find an opportunity for victory.

The news of the defeat reached the Spirit Hall the next day, and an atmosphere of shock permeated the entire Spirit Hall.

For the people of the Spirit Hall, the matter of the Bala Kingdom was originally just a small affair; relying on the power of the Two Great Empires, they could have easily suppressed the opponent.

However, the facts exceeded their expectations, and an accident had actually occurred at a critical moment.

Furthermore, there was an unknown army providing support, and they were also able to make many soldiers of the Two Great Empires mutiny.

This directly sounded an alarm for them as well: could there also be hidden enemies within the Spirit Hall's army who would directly mutiny at a critical moment?

To eliminate this hidden danger, the Spirit Hall began a strict investigation of all troops, attempting to find those enemies who might exist.

At this time, Elder Guibao of the Information Department took out a document and distributed it to the various Elders.

This document contained detailed records regarding the Light God Sect, as well as the believers of the Light God Sect who had already been identified in Wuhun City.

All the Elders felt extremely shocked after reading this document.

"Elder Guibao, since the Information Department has discovered so many believers of the Light God Sect, why keep them instead of clearing them out immediately to prevent future trouble!"

Elder Jin'e finished reading the document, slammed it onto the table, and angrily questioned Elder Guibao.

Elder Guibao explained helplessly, "It is not that we do not want to clear out these believers; everyone in important positions has been cleared out, and those who remain are all unimportant personnel."

"Moreover, they usually work diligently for the Spirit Hall, and apart from their identity as believers of the Light God Sect, they have not done anything that violates any of the Spirit Hall's regulations."

"There are too many of them; dealing with them all at once would affect the normal operation of Wuhun City."

"This was also something Jerry suggested keeping previously; it's just that we didn't expect there to be so many believers of the Light God Sect among the armies of the Two Great Empires."

Elder Jin'e was silent for a moment after hearing this, then picked up the document and read it carefully again.

Indeed, just as Elder Guibao said, these believers had not failed to make contributions to the Spirit Hall.

However, the threat of the Light God Sect could not be ignored.

After a discussion, the Elders of the Spirit Hall decided to take a series of measures to deal with this situation.

First, they would conduct a more rigorous screening within the Spirit Hall to ensure that no potential enemies were lurking.

Second, they would screen all soldiers in the army to ensure that not a single person was a believer of the Light God Sect.

To prevent these believers of the Light God Sect from making small moves during the war between the Two Great Empires and the Bala Kingdom, those who had already been identified as believers of the Light God Sect were temporarily assigned to work in one place.

Finally, there was the matter of the Gourmet Appreciation Association.

The Gourmet Appreciation Association is too large in scale now; taking direct action is a bit difficult to handle.

If we cannot suppress the entire Gourmet Association at the same time, they will pass the news out, causing many people to go into hiding, which will make things even harder to handle then.

Therefore, after discussing it, everyone decided not to take action against the Gourmet Appreciation Association for the time being; after all, as long as they are out in the open, the Spirit Hall can still monitor them, but if they go into hiding, it will be difficult to deal with.

After the meeting ended, a piece of intelligence regarding the Light God Sect was delivered directly to Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke.

After reading the information, the two were deeply shocked; they had not expected there to be another mysterious and powerful hidden force.

And it had been able to hide within Wuhun City and the Two Great Empires for so many years.

This intelligence detailed the number of Light God Sect believers in the army and their possible methods of operation.

Although it is currently impossible to determine if there are more undiscovered Light God Sect believers in the army, the two understand that they must act cautiously to prevent potential risks.

This incident of Light God Sect believers suddenly betraying them has made Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke more cautious in laying out their battle plans.

In order to expose as many of these potential threats as possible, they began to plan and execute a series of small-scale military operations.

They laid out clever plans on the battlefield, using pre-set traps and ambushes to try to lure out and eliminate these Light God Sect believers.

However, as the war progressed, Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke realized that relying solely on small-scale warfare was not enough to find these believers within the massive army.

Consequently, they began to plan larger-scale operations in the hope of attracting more Light God Sect believers to reveal themselves.

Every time a small-scale or large-scale battle plan is executed, a specialized supervisory unit is responsible for following up to prevent major casualties caused by the appearance of defectors.

With the support of the Gourmet Association and the Light God Sect, the situation in the Bala Kingdom has reversed.

Now, it has the strength to compete with the Two Great Empires.

The war has gradually evolved into a protracted conflict, with both sides going back and forth on the battlefield, fighting for every inch of land and every opportunity.

Amidst the smoke of war, Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke constantly remind themselves and the soldiers: the Light God Sect is a threat that must be completely eradicated.

Only in this way can the peace of the Douluo Continent be guaranteed, and only then can they truly be at ease.

News about the war is sent to Wuhun City every day.

Now, the topic of discussion among the people of Wuhun City has also constantly revolved around this war.

The actions of the Clear Sky Sect in the Bala Kingdom and the fact that the Two Great Empires have been unable to capture it for a long time have ignited the anger of many people.

Many of the commoners in Wuhun City are immigrants from the Two Great Empires.

In the past, they had no choice, but now the situation is different; having spent many years in Wuhun City, if nothing else, their strength alone has improved significantly.

Thus, taking advantage of the moonlight, some people secretly left the Spirit Hall.

The Information Department of Wuhun City naturally received the news, but this time they did not stop them.

Blind suppression is never the best way to solve a problem.

The people who left the Spirit Hall this time have one after another joined the armies of the Two Great Empires.

Among these people are those from all walks of life, and there are even many students from the Spirit Hall Academy.

Consequently, this war has changed once again.

For example, just as the Bala Kingdom army was about to win a small-scale battle, a soldier suddenly emerged from the Two Great Empires' army; with a wave of his hand, numerous Soul Guidance Devices appeared and fired violently toward the Bala Kingdom army.

Amidst the massive explosions, the Bala army, which was about to achieve victory, instantly disintegrated and became scattered stragglers.

The favorable situation was reversed in an instant.

There were also some people who took out a type of Soul Guidance Device called a gun and unleashed a fierce barrage of fire at the Bala Kingdom army.

Within a few minutes, they were able to tear a gap in the army, causing heavy casualties.

One soldier even took out a Soul Guidance Gun with six rotating barrels; when the barrels started spinning, energy bullets poured out like a rainstorm, firing wildly at the Bala Kingdom army as if they cost nothing.

In just a few minutes, a team of over a thousand people was completely wiped out.

These scenes left the soldiers of the Two Great Empires terrified, their legs trembling; they dared not move from where they stood, watching as the enemies fell one by one.

An even more deranged soldier picked up a giant tube on the city wall and fired it wildly at the enemies outside the city.

Every time it fired, it could blast out a crater fifty meters in diameter.

After firing multiple times in succession, apart from deep craters, no enemies could be seen outside the city anymore.

The enemies were reduced to ashes in the explosions, disappearing without a trace.

This news quickly reached Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke, and with a little thought, they knew these soldiers were students from the Spirit Hall Academy.

These students had definitely snuck out to participate in the war.

What should have been a serious war had now turned into a testing ground for these students' weapons.

Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke clearly realized that these experimental weapons could lead to serious consequences.

They decided that they must take action to stop this situation as soon as possible.

At the mere thought of what things would look like after these weapon tests, Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke did not want to see it.

Thus, the two went to the front lines in person; when they arrived, they happened to see a young soldier running into a corner where he thought no one could see him.

He took a bomb over three meters tall out of his ring.

Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Ke recognized this bomb; Jerry had shown it to them before.

Just as they were about to speak up to stop him, the young soldier directly activated the bomb.

The bomb shot into the sky rapidly, instantly flying to a height of one hundred meters, then changed direction and flew toward the enemy camp a thousand meters away.

Zhu Zhuqing swept her divine sense across; there were at least seventy or eighty thousand people in the enemy camp.

Just as she was about to move to intercept it, the bomb suddenly accelerated, covering the thousand-meter distance in less than two seconds.

"Boom!"

A mushroom cloud shot into the sky, instantly sweeping toward the surroundings.

This mushroom cloud was like a giant vortex, beginning to spread outward and whipping up a violent blast of air.

Even though the army and the enemy were currently a thousand meters apart, the blast wave from the explosion would soon sweep over.

Zhu Zhuqing now wanted to beat this student to death; did he not know the power of the bomb?

To dare to use such a large-scale bomb from this close, does he not want to live anymore?

Zhu Zhuqing was extremely anxious in her heart, but she had no time to ponder; she immediately flew into the sky and used her soul power to condense a defensive barrier to protect the army below.

The moment she finished setting it up, the blast wave from the explosion slammed into it.

The power of this blast wave was incomparably immense, and it lasted for a full ten minutes before gradually weakening.

The entire area became gray and blurred in that instant, and the sky was filled with flying dust.

Zhu Zhuqing retracted the defensive barrier and, with a wave of her hand, suppressed all the dust in the sky to the ground, making the entire area clear once again.

The soldiers on the city wall were now all still shaken with fear.

They were very fortunate that the Nuhuang had acted; otherwise, they definitely would not have been able to withstand that terrifying explosive force. They would all have been finished.

That young soldier who dared to use the bomb was now collapsed on the ground, unable to move.

Zhu Zhuqing waved her hand, and this soldier flew directly in front of Zhu Zhuqing; when Zhu Zhuqing put him down, his legs were still unsteady, his whole body was trembling, and his teeth were chattering—it was clear he was terrified and suffering from extreme shock.

Looking at his trembling legs and pale face, Zhu Zhuqing was filled with anger.

She decided to first take this soldier down and have him properly guarded, and wait until he had undergone Recovery before interrogating him.

After this soldier was taken away, everyone could not help but look toward the enemy's military camp.

However, at this moment, the enemy military camp no longer existed.

In the original location, only a huge deep pit remained; everything else had been completely destroyed.

The smell of scorched earth drifted over with the breeze, and everyone on the city wall smelled it.

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(End of this chapter)