Chapter 306: Defeated Longyou Army, Xia army cannot escape, Sacred Tripod

As the two armies pulled apart, the underground main area also fell into silence.

Hive main area, north side of the building complex

Longyou Army camp, beside the campfire, Li Ying Xuan Ling always had a dark face. Seeing Meng Ying, who was responsible for counting casualties, return, she immediately asked:

"How are the soldiers' casualties?"

Meng Ying answered with an incomparably solemn expression: "572 dead in battle, 32 seriously wounded, total casualties 604. Minor injuries were not counted. The remaining combat-ready soldiers are 2365."

Slap...

Li Ying Xuan Ling directly slapped the temporary table in front of her to pieces, stood up, looked around at the group of Cold-Resisting Realm experts, and scolded: "How could so many people be lost? Just now when retreating, I had already observed that Great Xia's casualties were at most just over 2000. How did you fight to get this result?"

Just now on the battlefield, including when leading the main army to retreat, she was focused on Great Xia's casualties. Li Ying Xuan Ling really had no concept of her own side's casualties. This casualty number of 604 clearly exceeded her psychological endurance range.

Not only Li Ying Xuan Ling, but the group of Longshan Cold-Resisting Realm experts around the campfire almost all showed shock, and even a few people looked at Meng Ying, their expressions clearly somewhat unbelievable.

604 against over 2000, the battle loss ratio was about over 1 to 3.

If they were fighting a normal main army with equivalent strength and similar numbers, the crowd naturally wouldn't have this reaction.

But they were fighting against a garrison composed of Great Xia's ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts.

Just failing to break through the main building was already a failure.

The battle loss ratio didn't even reach 1 to 5. How is this possible!

"The Xia army's fighting will seems to be much stronger than ours."

"It's not fighting will, it's pills. Great Xia not only has better healing pills than ours, but it seems there is also a pill that can shield the body from pain. The person I fought against had his abdomen pierced three times, yet he could still counterattack me."

"The Xia army in the front row is all equipped with hundred-forged battle armor. Although our soldiers have a cultivation advantage, they can't kill the enemy with one blow, which is why the progress is so slow."

"More than half of the soldiers in the rear row were suppressed by the arrow array of the main building and couldn't come forward to help. Only a thousand or so people actually attacked under the main building."

"That white smoke is produced by Tengjiao toxin after being catalyzed by high temperature. It can directly poison the Woodcutting Realm to death. Although Earth-Digging Realm limit experts inhaling it won't be fatal, they will also have severe dizziness. We have also hunted Tengjiao in Longshan before, why didn't we think that this thing could also be used on the battlefield?"

"All shut up for me!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling directly interrupted the crowd, her face gloomy like blood.

She wasn't blind. These factors mentioned by the crowd, she had seen clearly on the battlefield just now. But even with so many objective reasons, she still couldn't accept that the Longyou Army had fought into such a state.

She stared fiercely at the main building on the south side and asked Meng Ying angrily.

"How are the soldiers' situations?"

After the Tengjiao poisonous mist spread just now, the coverage was too wide, and almost all soldiers inhaled a little, so everyone was poisoned.

Longshan was no stranger to Tengjiao poisonous mist. Li Ying Xuan Ling knew very well that the intensity of this poisonous mist was not too great. Ordinary people and Woodcutting Realm experts would die if they inhaled it; Earth-Digging Realm experts could persist for a while as long as they covered their faces with wet cloth; Earth-Digging Realm limit soldiers who had begun to reshape their skin membranes would only be dizzy no matter how much they inhaled, and it wouldn't be fatal.

Meng Ying immediately answered: "There's no major problem. Cheng Guang took people to the tunnel to take wet soil and squeeze out water. Some soldiers with lighter poisoning have already recovered. There are more than six hundred who are more serious, and it is expected that they will recover in another hour."

In this area of the Hive base, there were too many tunnels dug underground, so the underground soil layer was not as dry as other places. As long as enough wet soil was taken, water could be squeezed out. Clear water was the best weapon against Tengjiao toxin.

Another hour!

Li Ying Xuan Ling's brows furrowed tightly. She looked up at the tunnel entrance of the iron wall above and discovered that there was no light outside, so she immediately clenched her fists.

When the Gnawing Rats broke the wall and the Longyou Army all successfully came down to the underground, it was the second half of the night on June 25th. After coming down, the dispersed soldiers assembled on the north side, then marched toward the building area after assembling, and finally the bloody battle in the main building area. These all required time.

Just now beside the main building, when she was fighting Xia Chuan and Chen Yingyuan, she noticed light entering from outside those tunnel entrances halfway through, but now there was none at all.

This proved that a day had already passed.

It was already night on June 26th.

Although she couldn't accurately estimate the time, she could roughly estimate that it had been about four hours since nightfall.

That is to say, the first half of the night was about to pass.

The main army still needed to rest for an hour. After they were fully recovered and reorganized to officially start the battle, it would be at least the second half of the night, and victory would be on June 27th.

Three thousand Longyou soldiers arrived at the Hive on the first half of the night of June 23rd, and were actually dragged for four days by these twenty-seven Cold-Resisting Realm experts and nine thousand ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts of Xia Chuan.

They still hadn't broken it down!

Li Ying Xuan Ling stood up, turned her head to look at the crowd, and said sternly:

"Great Xia's Cold-Resisting Realm experts who went to battle totaled twenty-seven. I have already checked with you just now. Three were killed in battle. Counting Xia Chuan and Chen Yingyuan who fought with me, the total serious injuries are nineteen. It is impossible for them to recover in a short time.

Their total Earth-Digging Realm troop strength is about nine thousand. In the first round just now, at least two thousand died, and there were those who lost combat capability. Estimating at the highest, their combat-ready soldiers are only six thousand.

We only have six seriously wounded Cold-Resisting Realm experts, not one died, and there are still 46 left. There are still 2365 soldiers. As long as we wait for full recovery and reorganize, the second round will definitely break through the main building and wipe out all the Xia army!"

The crowd, whose morale was originally somewhat withered, heard these words, and their expressions finally lifted a bit, especially hearing that three of Great Xia's Cold-Resisting Realm experts were killed and not one of their own was missing, which made the crowd feel a shock in their hearts.

In such a large-scale melee situation, Cold-Resisting Realm experts were actually very difficult to die. After all, no matter how weak a Cold-Resisting Realm expert was, their base strength was more than three times that of the Earth-Digging Realm limit, or even more. Limited by the battlefield situation, perhaps they couldn't exert their full strength, but their skin-membrane strength was there. As long as they didn't stand still and let the soldiers hack, they only needed to resist the attacks of experts of the same level.

Taking a step back, if you can't beat them, can't you run?

As long as you are flexible enough to retreat into the crowd after being seriously injured, it is very easy to survive.

Under such circumstances, Great Xia lost three and nineteen seriously wounded;

While their own side only had six seriously wounded, and not one died.

Clearly, in terms of Cold-Resisting Realm experts, Longshan had a great advantage.

Of course, this was also piled up by numbers.

The total number of Cold-Resisting Realm experts Longshan brought over was as high as 52, while Great Xia only had 27. This was just the quantity;

In terms of strength, the gap was even greater. They had eleven people with strength above nine manes, and one Li Ying Xuan Ling with twenty-one manes; while Great Xia's strongest were Xia Chuan and Chen Yingyuan, who were only nine manes, and the rest were some three manes or so, and there were also a few with one or two manes.

Thinking of this, the crowd's expressions stiffened slightly, and all showed a look of embarrassment.

Seeing the embarrassment on the crowd's faces, Li Ying Xuan Ling didn't feel surprised at all.

Clearly, they also realized, just like her, that with such a large gap in strength between the two sides, fighting into such a state was indeed very shameful.

"Knowing to blush is enough. Know shame and then be brave. Don't be timid in the next round. If you can be like the Xia army, from Cold-Resisting Realm experts to ordinary Earth-Digging Realm soldiers, all holding the mentality of fighting to the death, with just these few people, how could they possibly block us!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling paused after finishing, then continued in a low voice: "If I'm not mistaken, Xia Hong should have taken those 1000 Cloud Dragon Army soldiers to attack Longshan..."

"What?"

"Attack Longshan, is Xia Hong crazy?"

"1000 Cloud Dragon Army soldiers, attacking Longshan?"

"How is it possible!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling's words could be described as a stone causing a thousand waves. Among the forty-plus people, a few directly let out exclamations, and nearly half had expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Of course, there were also a few people, such as Li Ying Xuan Yan, Li Xuantian, Li Xuanping, as well as Meng Ying, Cheng Guang, and Song Kang, whose expressions were very calm, clearly having guessed it long ago.

"1000 Cloud Dragon Army soldiers daring to attack Longshan, Xia Hong is afraid he's gone crazy. No matter how strong he is, it's impossible for him to break down Longshan."

"Longshan has a population of 130,000 and 15,000 Earth-Digging Realm experts. No matter how strong he is alone, what can he do? Daydreaming!"

Hearing these two sentences from Li Xuanping, the crowd immediately nodded.

Longshan's original population was only seventy thousand, but don't forget, in April, Longshan took the initiative and annexed the three families of Yucheng, Songyuan, and Changning in one fell swoop. Although the number of Cold-Resisting Realm experts didn't change much, the number of Earth-Digging Realm experts increased greatly. Now, excluding these three thousand Longyou soldiers, it had already reached 15,000.

This was also why Longshan could form a new army in early June.

The new army was gone, but the Earth-Digging Realm experts in the camp were all still there!

Not to mention Longshan also had Li Tiancheng, Longshan's strongest, leading five Cold-Resisting Realm experts to stay behind, plus all the combat-ready supplies. What does Xia Hong have to attack with?

However, Li Ying Xuan Ling choosing to say that Xia Hong was attacking Longshan at this time was clearly not to make the crowd feel at ease.

Meng Ying was the first to react. He said to the crowd in a low voice:

"Before attacking the Hive, you also felt that it was foolproof. What about now?"

Hearing this counter-question, the crowd's expressions froze.

That's right, before attacking the Hive, they also felt that there wouldn't be any problems, and as long as the two armies clashed, Longshan would definitely win. Just like now, hearing Xia Hong take people to attack Longshan, none of them felt that he would succeed.

The miserable defeat just now had already slapped their faces;

Then what about the latter...

Is there any possibility that Xia Hong would continue to slap their faces and really break down Longshan?

Thinking along Meng Ying's line of thought, the crowd's expressions immediately changed.

The Hive was just a station for Great Xia.

And Longshan was their home.

Their parents, descendants, relatives, and friends were all in Longshan!

The more the crowd thought from this angle, the more solemn their expressions became. Later, a few people even looked up at Li Ying Xuan Ling, clearly wanting to open their mouths to say something.

"I told you this not to make you worry, but with second uncle leading people to guard, I believe Xia Hong's thousand people absolutely cannot break down Longshan. But you all have to be clear, the more time we waste here in the Hive, the longer Xia Hong will have to attack the base, and the more casualties the base will have..."

Li Ying Xuan Ling paused, her tone became solemn, and she continued: "Therefore, the second round of attacks that will start immediately, only victory is allowed, not defeat. Do you all understand?"

Hearing this question, everyone raised their heads violently, showing an incomparably firm look, and answered in unison: "Understood, leader!"

Seeing the crowd's morale boosted, Li Ying Xuan Ling then showed a satisfied look, pointed out the six commanding captains of the three armies, and ordered: "You go and make it clear to all soldiers, notify them that the march will start in half an hour. The second round of attacks must break the Xia army in one fell swoop."

"Subordinates obey!"

The six commanding captains bowed and replied, then walked toward the direction of the military camp.

"Longyou Army, invincible."

"Break the Xia army in one fell swoop!"

"Longshan is invincible..."

After a while, one roar after another came from the direction of the military camp. The soldiers' spirits were quickly mobilized.

What determines the combat strength of the main army is not just cultivation; morale is equally important.

Xia Hong knew how to withdraw everyone from Wu Shuang, letting them make a wasted trip, thereby reducing the Longyou Army's first wave of morale. Li Ying Xuan Ling naturally also had a way to boost her own side's morale.

The Cold-Resisting Realm experts knew that Longshan was under attack, were worried about their families in the base, and were eager to break through the main building, so their morale was immediately boosted. The Longyou Army soldiers naturally would be no exception.

Watching the main army's morale gradually boost, Li Ying Xuan Ling's mood finally relaxed a bit. Just at this moment, Li Xuandu suddenly spoke to her in a low voice.

"Has the leader ever thought about why Great Xia wants to guard the main building?"

Great Xia, why do they want to guard the main building?

Li Ying Xuan Ling turned her head to stare at the main building for three or four breaths, and quickly realized the real meaning of Li Xuandu's question, and her expression immediately froze.

The main building was indeed the most solid building in the entire building area, but in the end, it was just a building. Under the collision of such a large-scale army, it basically couldn't play any protective role.

Instead, because the main building was located in the center of the entire building area, it was easy for Great Xia to fall into a situation of being attacked from all sides.

The Xia army's cultivation and combat strength were not as good as the Longyou Army's. Their only advantage was the number of people. If they wanted to increase the winning rate, they could only reduce the contact surface between the main army and the Longyou soldiers, making it impossible for the Longyou Army to exert its full combat strength as much as possible.

From the situation of the previous round of battle, it could be seen that Xia Chuan knew this very well. Otherwise, he wouldn't have put three thousand people on the main building, letting them fire arrows to suppress the Longyou Army in the rear row, making them unable to rush to the front.

Since he was clear about this, he should have chosen a sufficiently narrow area to garrison. In this way, only making contact with the Longyou Army from one or two directions, the probability of holding on would certainly be greater.

The Hive's building area had a radius of two kilometers, and there were many such areas.

Why didn't Xia Chuan choose them, but chose the main building that would be attacked from all sides?

"The main building has an exit, has a passage connecting to the ground. They want to run!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling suddenly shouted in shock, causing the expressions of Li Xuandu and the others beside her to freeze instantly.

They simultaneously turned to look at the main building on the south side, their faces full of urgency.

Although the Great Xia garrison troops on the outer perimeter of the main building were still there, what the situation was inside the main building, they didn't know at all.

What if Xia Chuan was really leading people to run away?

"Rest assured, they can't run away!"

Li Ying Xuan Ling was already so anxious that she turned her head to look at the military camp, clearly wanting to forcibly organize the Longyou soldiers who hadn't fully recovered, letting them attack in advance.

But just as she was about to open her mouth, a voice suddenly sounded beside her.

The one speaking was Li Xuantian.

As soon as Li Xuantian spoke, the crowd immediately showed a look of relief and all quieted down.

Li Ying Xuan Ling was no exception, but in her eyes, besides relief, there was also some struggle and hesitation. She didn't even turn her head to look at Li Xuantian, just nodded and said softly: "That's good, wait another half an hour. After the soldiers' bodies are recovered, we will attack again."

"What, the ground is full of white mist and cold beasts?"

Hive main building main hall, Xia Chuan, wrapped in cloth strips, turned his head with a pale face, looked at Yue Feng, his face full of disbelief.

In the main hall, the other twenty-six Cold-Resisting Realm experts were all there.

Of course, this was counting the three corpses on the ground covered with black cloth.

Among them, eighteen people were wrapped in cloth strips just like Xia Chuan. Even compared to them, Xia Chuan, who could get up and turn his head, was in a better situation. Eight were lying directly on the ground, unconscious.

There were also the five people at the very front, who were actually injured, but the cloth strips were wrapped less, and their mobility was still considered normal.

And at this moment, Yue Feng, who was questioned by Xia Chuan, was one of the five.

Yue Feng's clothes were stained with a lot of mud, and he looked very miserable. He answered with an ugly face: "It is indeed so. I only poked my head out to observe for a moment. The ground directly above the main area is full of white mist. I don't know how large the range is, but many cold beasts have come. Most are intermediate cold beasts, and there are also advanced cold beasts. There are at least several hundred."

Several hundred, even if they were all intermediate cold beasts, it was very terrifying.

Not to mention, there were also advanced cold beasts mixed in!

Most of the Cold-Resisting Realm experts present had expressions that became somewhat desperate.

After the great battle ended, returning to count the casualties, everyone including Xia Chuan immediately realized one point: as long as the Longyou Army launched a second round of attacks, they almost had no possibility of blocking it.

Cold-Resisting Realm experts, 3 dead in battle. Among the 19 seriously wounded, 8 had completely lost the ability to fight again, and the other 11, even if they could fight, couldn't exert their full strength. The remaining five with minor injuries did not include Xia Chuan and Chen Yingyuan.

Earth-Digging Realm, 2782 dead in battle, 924 seriously wounded. Earth-Digging Realm experts' vitality was not as fierce as Cold-Resisting Realm experts, so serious injuries basically meant no ability to fight again. Therefore, the remaining combat-ready soldiers were only less than 5700.

Xia Chuan saw it very clearly. Sacrificing so many people, the Longyou soldiers they killed might not even be six hundred, which was one-fifth.

This was still under the situation of having advantages in three aspects: Tengjiao toxin, Snow Bamboo, and the number of iron arrows.

The second batch, can't fight.

Or rather, if they really wanted to fight, then be prepared to leave all their lives here.

Xia Chuan realized this point earlier than the crowd, so as soon as he retreated, he immediately let Yue Feng open the tunnel on the top floor of the main building to scout the situation outside in advance, preparing to lead people to retreat out of the underground. In other words, it was to run away.

This itself was also a retreat route he had left in advance. Their mission was just to drag the Longyou Army. Defending the Hive to the death was just a way. Since they couldn't defend it, he naturally wouldn't stay here and fight to the death.

It's a pity that this only retreat route at the moment seemed to have been blocked as well.

"Cold beasts should have been attracted by the white mist. Bai Lu Gui has taken action. Li Xuantian is 80% likely to be controlled. The previous Gnawing Rats were also attracted by the white mist to break open the iron wall!"

Chen Yingyuan was also in a seriously injured state at this moment. He stood beside Xia Chuan and said his guess with a slight gasp.

Before, when Xia Hong scouted the Yang Dew Desperate Land, he brought him and Peng Bo. He saw those white mists in the Yang Dew Desperate Land with his own eyes, so when he saw the white mist invading the tunnel entrance broken open by the Gnawing Rats earlier, he immediately knew what was going on.

After Xia Chuan finished listening, he didn't give any reaction, lowered his head, and fell into thought.

"Can't run away..."

Seeing Xia Chuan's reaction, Zhao Long's expression dimmed slightly, and he couldn't help but let out a light sigh.

Slap!

Yuan Cheng was also one of the seriously injured, but his situation was slightly better. He was sitting on a chair. Hearing Zhao Long's words, he slammed the chair fiercely, stood up with a bang, and said angrily: "Can't run away, then don't run. It's death either way. Grand Coordinator, fight the Longyou Army. I'll risk this life, and I also want to kill a few more Longshan dogs."

As soon as Yuan Cheng spoke, Qiu Peng, Luo Yuan, Lin Kai, Meng Yi, Zhu Yuan, including Zhao Long and others whose expressions were dim, all followed behind and roared angrily.

"That's right, at worst it's death. More than two thousand brothers are gone. I'll die and also want to pull a few more Longshan people to be cushions!"

"Huang Yong, Zhu Ling, Ying Xuan, three Cold-Resisting Realm experts have all been thrown in, it doesn't matter if we have a few more. Grand Coordinator, fight Longshan, I'm not afraid!"

"The leader might have already broken down Longshan. These nine thousand of us can't drag him down. Fight Li Ying Xuan Ling and them!"

"Great Xia has no people who fear death. It's fine to risk this life!"

"Having lived a few good years, it's also time to repay the camp. Grand Coordinator, fight them!"

"No need for you to die, rest assured!"

Seeing the crowd full of death will, Xia Chuan revealed a touch of emotion in his eyes, stood up, and directly interrupted them.

Just as Xia Chuan was about to speak, suddenly, someone rushed in from outside the door.

That person had a panicked expression and said panting:

"Grand Coordinator, lords, corpses... corpses, the corpses on the ground have started to emit a large amount of white dew. It's exactly the same as the dew plague some time ago. The transmission speed is very fast. Many injured brothers have also started to emit it on their bodies."

After hearing this, the one who reacted the most among the crowd was Yuan Cheng.

He clearly remembered something, his pupils suddenly dilated, and he hurriedly turned his head to look at Xia Chuan, but discovered that there was no look of surprise on Xia Chuan's face at all.

Right, Yang Yuan Peak's matter, I had already told the Grand Coordinator long ago.

The rest of the people basically also knew about the dew plague, and at this moment, they all subconsciously took out Condensing Fire Oil from their bodies, including the soldier who reported the news just now, who was also coated with Condensing Fire Oil.

Clearly, facing the dew plague, the Great Xia crowd already had experience.

It's just that the dew plague spread extremely fast, especially in areas with many corpses and wounded, and using Condensing Fire Oil was simply too late.

"Yue Feng, light the fire!"

Just at this moment, Xia Chuan suddenly gave an inexplicable order.

Light the fire, light what fire?

The crowd's expressions were stunned, and then they saw Yue Feng walking toward the side room behind Xia Chuan, which was the back of the main hall.

Zzz, zzz, zzz...

A flame suddenly rose from the side room, and intense warmth immediately radiated from it. Everyone in the main hall almost instantly reacted.

"Sacred Tripod?"

"The leader left the Sacred Tripod for us?"

"The dew plague is fine, no need for Condensing Fire Oil."

"That's not right, the Sacred Tripod's ghost-extinguishing is indiscriminate, right? Once this is lit, the dew on the Longyou Army will also be gone. They will still fight over!"

The appearance of the Sacred Tripod was certainly gratifying.

But the Longyou Army's problem still wasn't solved!

"Don't be in a hurry first. Yue Feng, you go to the ground to see first, and then..."

After Xia Chuan signaled the crowd not to be impatient, he first called Yue Feng to his side and deployed tasks one by one. After finishing, he turned his head to look at Chen Yingyuan:

"Deal with the body first, let's go find Li Ying Xuan Ling to talk!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 307 =====

"Clean yourself up a bit first; let's go talk to Li Ying Xuan Ling together!"

(End of chapter)