Chapter 2940: Deliberately Besieged

"Maintain the status quo, hold out as long as possible!"

Ye Liuyun's order to the army was to hold their ground in place.

Heishan, after receiving the order, immediately had the army carry it out. He knows Ye Liuyun's temperament and understands military protocol, and dares not delay.

Yet he himself did not understand at all; after the deployment he asked Ye Liuyun: "Master, with our more than one hundred thousand troops, if we move we could still maneuver against them a bit. But holding our ground, I'm afraid we can't last long!"

Ye Liuyun smiled at him and said satisfactorily: "You did well. You have doubts in your heart yet can execute my order. Rest assured, since I'm doing this, I clearly have a way. My own army will not let them die in vain."

I will lure them all in, use a massive killing weapon to wipe them out in one stroke. Now I need you to hold until those ancient demons fully surround us.

The number of ancient demons is not small, and their strength is not weak; you just hold as best you can, and I won't push you too hard!

"Yes!"

Heishan didn't know what the massive killing weapon was, but seeing Ye Liuyun so confident, he stopped doubting. He has followed Ye Liuyun for so long and has never seen him lose a battle.

So after returning, he also solidified his confidence and commanded the army to hold their ground.

Facing the full onslaught of five hundred thousand ancient demon cannon fodder, the Demon Race army's defensive pressure was also great. Spirit Cat warships, battle tanks, and Puppet Beasts were dwindling. Although Heishan had the Energy Cannon fully covering those units, the sheer number of ancient demons sometimes left them unattended.

Ye Liuyun had already taken out all the equipment. Apart from a few ordinary artificers who could help replenish some battle tanks and Energy Cannons, the other senior artificers were fully devoted to forging those large spheres, so few pieces of equipment could be supplied to the army.

He also monitored the construction of the large spheres and the pilot training of another squad. Seeing the new sphere not yet finished, he let the trainees enter that prototype to prepare for battle, using combat as training.

The clone, cloaked in the Invisibility Cloak, had already seen in Xingkong that several other columns of the ancient demon army were beginning to flank them. This information was continuously transmitted to Ye Liuyun so he could judge when to release the large …

… sphere's timing.

Suddenly, a Spirit Cat warship patrolling the outskirts of Xingqiu spotted a very fast Flying Boat, bombarded it once, yet failed to breach its defenses.

The clone immediately used Golden Pupil to look over and discovered it was another squad of guards from Black Star. A Spirit Cat warship continued chasing the Flying Boat, firing incessantly.

The clone promptly ordered that Spirit Cat warship to flee. But from the Flying Boat emerged five Unified Triple guards, striking at the Energy Beam fired by the Spirit Cat warship.

The Spirit Cat warship, after receiving the order, immediately changed course to flee. Yet those five ancient demon guards surged forward with Spatial Power, surrounded the warship and attacked together; within a few blows they shattered the Spirit Cat warship, and the crew had no chance to escape.

Other Spirit Cat warships also noticed the fight here and rushed over to intercept the Flying Boat.

"All retreat, let them come in!"

The clone hurriedly ordered them not to let the Spirit Cat warships die.

Those five ancient demon guards did not pursue; seeing the Spirit Cat warships turn and flee, their Flying Boats only landed in an area far from the battlefield.

"Keep your eyes on them!"

Ye Liuyun immediately sent the Second Clone, cloaked in the Invisibility Cloak, into the sky to watch those ancient demon elite guards.

After those ancient demon elite guards disembarked from their Flying Boats, they were not in a hurry. Before landing, they had already seen the battle situation and knew it wasn't at its most critical yet, so they slowly approached the battlefield, waiting to act when the fight reached a fever pitch.

At this moment, the ancient demon army had already surged ahead of the Demon Race army.

Heishan again deployed several squads bearing Energy Cannons, letting them bombard without restraint to suppress the ancient demon army's assault. As soon as battle tanks and other gear arrived, he sent them in to rush into the ancient demon ranks and kill more demons.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of ancient demon corpses and fragments, and no one could spare the time to clean the battlefield.

Ye Liuyun unleashed Magic Vine and the Sealing Demon Tablet, sending the tablet into the fight, while the Magic Vine silently absorbed the ancient demons' core elixirs and energy underground, steadily enhancing its strength.

"These two fellows have absorbed quite a bit; it's time to advance their realm, right!"

Ye Liuyun mentally estimated that even raising a level in the Unified Realm was relatively difficult, but for these two, as long as energy was sufficient, there was virtually no bottleneck.

Once the Sealing Demon Tablet entered combat, some Unified Triple ancient demons attacked it. Yet it was unfazed, pounding down repeatedly, fully absorbing energy.

Now the ground is all ancient demons, dead or alive; each strike can absorb a large swath of their energy.

At this time Ye Liuyun also received information from the clone: "Both wings are more than half surrounded! The ancient demon army already has 1.5 million troops in position, another 500,000 rushing to our rear, and 500,000 heading to the flanks."

"I think they are waiting for the encirclement to finish before launching a main assault. I estimate they will attack us from all four sides with full force."

Heishan at this moment had already arrived at the front of the Demon Race army. The Energy Cannon was failing to suppress the ancient demon army's onslaught, and he was now beginning to prepare for close combat with the ancient demon army.

"We may have to sacrifice ten to twenty thousand soldiers!" Ye Liuyun immediately sent Transmission Voice to Heishan, informing him of the ancient demon army's movements and the approximate time they needed to hold.

"Yes!" Heishan answered firmly, then commanded the Demon Race melee troops to advance, while the Energy Cannon retreated.

"Yes!" Heishan also answered firmly, then he commanded the close-combat Demon Race soldiers to go into battle, while the Energy Cannon retreated to the rear.

Ancient demons and the Demon Race both let out roars as they charged at each other, the battlefield echoing with deafening howls. Ye Liuyun even felt the entire Xingqiu tremble from their shouts.

The whole battlefield was suffused with pitch‑black Demon Qi, especially at the front lines where both sides clashed; the Demon Qi was so dense that without Golden Pupil he could not see what was happening inside.

The ancient demon army's commander was secretly glad that Ye Liuyun's forces hadn't fled, mocking the Demon Race army as a death march, while urging his own troops to seize the time to complete the encirclement.

The frontal assault of the ancient demon army had already eliminated over a hundred thousand. After the melee, casualties accelerated. If his army didn't speed up the encirclement a bit, when the full assault came the front could develop a gap.

Once both sides engaged in melee, after an hour the Demon Race front led by Heishan had lost over ten thousand soldiers. At that moment the second wave of troops rotated in, letting the first wave rest.

"Almost there, hold on a little longer!" Ye Liuyun told Heishan through the Slave Seal.

"Yes!" Heishan replied, continuing to command the soldiers in battle.

"Yes!" Hei Shan replied, continuing to direct the soldiers in battle.