Chapter 68: Complete Fire Crow Formation

"Marquis Lieyang, this old man has been somewhat worried. If those few had simply beheaded you in the surging waters, I would have missed the opportunity to exchange pointers on the art of war with a military marquis of the Central Plains."

The Military Immortal Sun Jinbiao was not alone.

On the western hillside, it was densely packed with soldiers and generals in full armor.

The number exceeded five hundred.

It was unknown how the Eight Immortals of the West had sent them over.

Moreover, they were just like the Fire Crow Army at this moment, organized into a military formation, with everyone's Qi connected, making the formation a single entity.

The Fire Crow Army charged in a wedge formation; from the outside, it looked like a four-clawed fire dragon—a fire dragon missing half its body, with only two claws remaining.

And on the western hillside, there lay a dark red one-horned rhinoceros.

They were all infantry; not a single person was riding a horse.

Even Sun Jinbiao, who was at the very front of the formation wearing black mysterious iron armor, stood on the ground holding a Guan blade.

Marquis Lieyang responded to the challenge, taking back control of the "Fire Dragon" from Seeing Xiao Yu Yu.

The Fire Dragon changed direction and quickly "swam" toward the western hillside—Bao Shengshui maintained the Water-Avoiding Technique and Water-Control Technique, allowing the Fire Crow Army cavalry to gallop on the water's surface.

"If you want to compete with me in military formations, you could have set up your formation outside the city gates before I leveled the Chechi Kingdom, and fought me fair and square.

Even if you lost, I would still respect you as a battlefield general, rather than an assassin who cannot stand on the grand stage."

Marquis Lieyang stopped before the hillside, not immediately launching a charge.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" Sun Jinbiao raised his voice, his tone filled with resentment and unwillingness. "My army to save the king had just left Shounan Prefecture when the news of the child Mao Tian stripping himself and surrendering arrived.

I still wanted to continue saving the king, but was stopped by thirteen golden plaques issued by the child Mao Tian.

In the end, he even slandered the righteous people of the seventy-two fortresses of Shounan Mountain, calling them roving bandits, unworthy of speaking of 'protecting the country and guarding the throne'."

Mao Tian was the monarch of the Chechi Kingdom; he was before, and he still is now.

Because he surrendered fast enough.

Marquis Lieyang only stripped off his clothes and hung him outside the Noon Gate, whipping him thirty times, which counted as punishment for defying the Central Plains.

Sun Jinbiao's seventy-two fortresses of Shounan Mountain, however, were not the regular army of the Chechi Kingdom.

Sun Jinbiao was ninety-seven years old this year; forty years ago, he had served as a Pillar-of-State General in the Chechi Kingdom, but due to discord with the new kingdom, he retired to his hometown at the age of 57.

Although he retired, he did not return to his hometown to enjoy a peaceful life, but wandered around the western countries.

When passing through Shounan Mountain, he encountered mountain bandits robbing the road, but unexpectedly, the bandit leader was his fan.

General Sun first stayed temporarily in Shounan Mountain, then gradually incorporated nearby roving bandits, persuading them to turn over a new leaf, and gradually established the seventy-two fortresses.

Although he had never eaten a single copper coin of military pay from the Chechi monarch, upon learning that the Central Plains intended to destroy the Chechi Kingdom, the seventy-two fortresses still scraped together an army of eighty thousand who brought their own rations.

The entire Shounan Mountain region only had a registered population of over three hundred thousand.

The soldiers neatly lined up behind Sun Jinbiao at this moment were all warriors from the seventy-two fortresses of Shounan Mountain.

"So that's how it is. I only knew you joined the Eight Immortals Alliance, not about the affairs of the Chechi Kingdom."

Marquis Lieyang nodded slightly and asked again: "Since the Chechi monarch does not appreciate you and even humiliated you, why do you mix with Dou Yilin and the others?"

In fact, he knew that Sun Jinbiao and the five hundred elites of the seventy-two fortresses were going to ambush him at Feixian Ferry.

Five hundred soldiers, many mouths, could not be hidden; it had long been scouted out by Gao Xianjue of the Shunfeng Ear.

Of course, the Eight Immortals of the West also knew that Marquis Lieyang knew of Sun Jinbiao's ambush plan; this was their arrangement to begin with.

Marquis Lieyang regarded Gao Xianjue as a hidden trump card, but the Eight Immortals knew of Gao Xianjue's existence.

The "Shoot the Sun Plan" had bright and dark parts; the bright part was for Gao Xianjue to know, to make Marquis Lieyang feel at ease, while the arrangement hidden in the dark was the true killing move.

Undoubtedly, the five hundred elites of the seventy-two fortresses, whose tracks were already difficult to hide, were most suitable to be placed in the "bright spot."

Therefore, Marquis Lieyang understood even less: Sun Jinbiao was willing to bear the greatest risk, for what?

"Mao Tian humiliated me, but that doesn't mean you can humiliate him! You hung him outside the Noon Gate, stripped naked and whipped, it was he who felt the pain; he had already lost his dignity.

But those humiliated were the past monarchs, the people of Chechi!

As a Pillar-of-State General, how could I endure this?" Sun Jinbiao shouted sternly.

Marquis Lieyang said: "The Emperor of the Central Plains is the lord and father; the king of the lower kingdom is the subject and son.

This is the great etiquette agreed upon by the world.

Hence, there is the saying that envoys of the Central Plains do not bow to the kings of lower kingdoms.

"I am an envoy from a superior state; even if the monarch of Chechi Kingdom is virtuous and wise, I am still his equal."

Now that your monarch has no reputation for virtue and is even rebellious and arrogant, violating the majesty of my Central Plains, my whipping him is entirely in accordance with etiquette and law."

"The Emperor of the Central Plains is the lord and father; the king of the lower kingdom is the subject and son—this is the ultimate truth of heaven and earth, and I have nothing to say. But you could have whipped him in the palace, in the hall, or even on the street while he was wearing clothes.

Stripping him naked and hanging him outside the gate for everyone to see—your purpose was not to punish him at all!

Moreover, the lord and father of the Central Plains should cherish the subjects of the lower kingdom and should be a moral example for the monarchs of all nations.

But you keep talking about 'etiquette' and 'majesty'; does the Great Qin of today still have etiquette or majesty?

My Chechi Kingdom is one hundred thousand miles away from the heartland of the Central Plains; how could it threaten the Central Plains?

Why do you come to our Chechi territory every year to scrape for Dao seedlings, destroy Feng Shui, suppress dragon veins, and plunder luck?

I am ninety-seven years old this year; in the first half of my life, the entire Chechi Kingdom didn't encounter many monster infestations.

As a result, in the few decades of the second half of my life, just in the south, there have been great monsters destroying cities every few days.

Two years ago, an elephant monster descended on Huizhou City, sucking thirty thousand people into its mouth, chewing them up, blood raining down; my escape speed was slow, I couldn't catch up, and could only watch him laugh and walk away.

You, this noble of the Central Plains, probably will never understand that kind of grief, helplessness, and pain, right?"

Sun Jinbiao became more and more agitated as he spoke, finally roaring with tears in his tiger eyes, filled with sorrow.

Marquis Lieyang said calmly: "From the battlefield of Lianghe Beach outside Tianmen Town to today's Feixian Ferry, I have explained countless times that the monster infestations in the western countries in recent years have nothing to do with my Great Qin.

On the contrary, His Majesty the Human Emperor received the reports and long ago had the heart to eliminate monsters and protect the people.

It is just that monster infestations do not only appear in the western countries; other places are more serious and urgent."

"How could it have nothing to do with you!" Dou Yilin said angrily: "If the Dao seedlings could grow up in my West, how many more immortals would the countries have?"

Marquis Lieyang said lightly: "How old are you all yourselves?

With your talent and opportunities, the average age for ascending to Human Immortal is also over 100 years old.

The Great Qin Dao Palace may have the behavior of seeking Dao seedlings, but in just a few decades, can those Dao seedlings naturally grow into Human Immortals?

Even if they become Human Immortals, what is the use against those monster kings that transcend Heavenly Immortals?

Forget it, in this time and place, saying anything is meaningless, and I have no intention of chatting with you.

It is just that I pity General Sun's heart of loyalty and the fact that he set up a grand military formation, so I stopped to wait for the flood to recede, to make it convenient for the infantry to come down the mountain and set up their formation calmly, so that I can send off the old General Sun on his final journey with a fair and square military battle."

Monk Miao was already dead, the flood had no source, and the terrain of Feixian Ferry was high, so after a while, the soil and rocks on the ground were revealed again.

In fact, the Fire Crow Army had already proven with the actual battle just now that they were not afraid of the flood.

But the "righteous army" under Sun Jinbiao certainly did not have extraordinary people who had mastered the Water-Avoiding Technique and Water-Control Technique.

Sun Jinbiao looked at Marquis Lieyang with complex eyes for a long while, then said in a deep voice: "I can only return the Marquis's favor with my strongest killing formation."

Marquis Lieyang nodded and said: "I have the same thought."

After speaking, he raised his right hand and made a gesture to the Fire Crow Army behind him.

Seeing Xiao Yu Yu didn't understand, nor did she need to.

Song Changqing spontaneously changed his position according to Marquis Lieyang's will.

In less than half a minute, the Fire Crow Army, which still had three hundred people left, changed from a wedge formation to a wild goose formation.

After waiting for another ten minutes or so, Sun Jinbiao brought the "one-horned rhinoceros" down from the hillside.

In fact, General Sun's efficiency was not low.

They had no horses, and more than five hundred people ran down from the hillside, their legs covered in wet mud.

It made Seeing Xiao Yu Yu start to theorize a conspiracy, feeling that Marquis Lieyang did not respect Old Sun's loyalty, but purely to torment people and consume their physical strength and fighting spirit.

This, of course, was her conspiracy theory.

If they were ordinary soldiers, such torment would indeed be unfavorable for battle.

But Sun Jinbiao himself was a Human Immortal, and the righteous people of the seventy-two fortresses under his command were all experts of the True Qi Realm.

Their armor was stained with mud, looking a bit disheveled, but they hadn't consumed much strength.

Setting up a military formation on open, flat ground could indeed better exert the effect of a military formation.

Marquis Lieyang lowered his head slightly, bowed to Sun Jinbiao, then raised his painted halberd high, and roared with unprecedented "passion," "Extreme Yang Jin Wu, Great Sun True Flame, protect my Dharma body!"

"Quack quack~~~"

A phantom of a three-legged divine bird slowly emerged above Marquis Lieyang's head.

The phantom was extremely huge, a hundred zhang high, and its golden wings flowing with firelight spread out, covering half the valley.

The three-legged divine bird let out a long cry, then suddenly exploded, turning into endless molten liquid heavenly fire, descending from the sky, landing on top of the Fire Crow Army, casting the three-hundred-man formation into a huge three-legged divine bird with a physical body.

"Ghost of a Fire Crow Army, it's clearly a Jin Wu Army! I'm afraid the 'Fire Crow Strength' Marquis Lieyang practices is also the 'Jin Wu Great Law'. Is this guy too insidious, or too low-key?"

Shocked, Seeing Xiao Yu Yu, who was standing on the saddle again, still had the mood to complain.

"Boys, let the military marquis of the Central Plains see the spirit of our Chechi men!"

Although the three-legged divine bird was full of momentum, the "Military Immortal" Sun Jinbiao did not lose his spirit.

On the contrary, the fighting spirit in his eyes became even higher.

Powerful True Origin also erupted within his body and connected with every soldier behind him.

"Ang~~ Ang~~~"

The one-horned rhinoceros did not expand in size, but became more solid, raising its head and letting out a roar that shook the valley.

"Kill!" Marquis Lieyang shouted and took the lead in charging.

The three-legged divine bird flapped its wings, its speed so fast it was like flying close to the ground.

"Kill!" Sun Jinbiao roared, dragging his large Guan blade, and charged forward with large strides.

"Kill~~~"

Although the soldiers of the two military formations combined were only eight hundred people, their momentum was like a rainbow, their shouts shaking the sky, giving those around them the illusion of being on a battlefield of thousands of troops.

"Boom!!!"

The three-legged divine bird and the one-horned rhinoceros collided, and the ground that hadn't dried yet shook slightly.

Sun Jinbiao's large Guan blade collided with Marquis Lieyang's painted halberd.

"Bang!" Sun Jinbiao was like a rubber ball hitting a strong man's foot, instantly bounced away.

Xu Huier still in mid-air, the black mysterious iron armor on his body had already been melted by the golden flames, and molten iron flowed all over the ground.

Then, the three-legged divine bird was like a sun crashing into the ground; the sun was stabbed by a knife, and a large amount of golden liquid fire sprayed out from the wound, and the one-horned rhinoceros was submerged by the endless liquid fire.

Military Immortal Sun Jinbiao and the five hundred righteous people of the seventy-two fortresses were completely wiped out!

"How could it be like this, clearly my boys have more conviction than your ragtag army..."

Sun Jinbiao was not dead yet.

He lay on the ground, almost charred into a piece of black charcoal.

The rocky ground beneath him also turned red and soft under the roasting of the Sun True Fire.

The Red Smoke Colt walked as if on flat ground and came to his side.

Marquis Lieyang looked down at the old Chechi general from above, his expression complex, his tone indifferent, and said: "If conviction could decide everything, why cultivate Dao arts?"

——Moreover, the righteous people of the seventy-two fortresses were not necessarily better than the "Western Fire Crow Army" that had completed the "one in ten" selection, whether in conviction or individual combat power.

"That's true..."

Sun Jinbiao died of breath. ===== CHAPTER 69 =====