Chapter 142: Final Battle with the Tree Elves (Part 1)

Li Bucai's troops halted there, lingering motionless, while the Tree Elf chief descended from the peak, hauled all the troops onto the winding mountain road above their heads, swung them down with ropes, intending to duel Li Bucai.

The enemy had too many troops; Li Bucai saw them descend but did not engage, having already withdrawn his force when they were moving their troops, circling He Rui Peak from afar to play hide‑and‑seek with them.

Apart from cavalry, Li Bucai's subordinates were Dark Night Elves—units with very high mobility; even the more than 300 infantry were fresh recruits who had just joined the fight, their stamina surpassing that of the Tree Elves who had just endured fierce combat, and if they wanted to block themselves, they had to split their troops.

The Tree Elves initially did not intend to split their forces, but whenever the whole army fell back, Li Bucai would lead his troops to feign a rear ambush, descending several times, which finally enraged their chief; he withdrew most of the troops stationed in Wangyueku, dividing them into two groups—one of 1,500 men plus 1,000 Goblins to pursue from behind, and another of 1,500 men personally led by the chief, flanking from the rear.

Seeing the enemy split their forces, Li Bucai abruptly altered his marching route, leading his troops into a neighboring valley.

That mixed contingent of Tree Elves and Goblins then pursued tightly.

The valley was densely forested; its mouth was a slope over a hundred meters wide and several dozen li long, and the Tree Elves, leveraging their numerical advantage, sealed the valley as soon as they reached the mouth.

Li Bucai halted his troops, with Blade Badge Warrior and **** standing together, turned back and advanced toward the Tree Elf's front formation.

The Tree Elves unleashed a rain of arrows, almost all of which were blocked by the Blade Badge Warriors, until the two formations collided at a point, where the Tree Elves shouldered their longbows and came at them with Light Sword ambushes.

The Blade Badge Warriors formed a circular formation, shielding the Dark Night Elf's **** in the center; the optimal way to fire Crossbow bolts is a straight shot, and with the Blade Badge Warriors' protection they only needed to launch arrows through the gaps between them, so many Tree Elf archers were felled by Crossbow bolts before they could even charge.

Seeing his infantry successfully disrupt the enemy formation, Li Bucai immediately led his cavalry to burst out from the trees; at that moment most of the Tree Elf archers were held back by the infantry, with only a sparse rain of arrows hindering the cavalry, which could not be stopped. The cavalry surged into the formation; the Tree Elves, already slender, could not withstand the charge of warhorses, and under the onslaught of hundreds of cavalry they were trampled by horses, impaled by lances, or shot by mounted archers countless times, and the first wave of the charge scattered the Tree Elf's great array into disarray.

The Tree Elves gritted their teeth and held on for several rounds, having already lost more than half their troops; at this point their chief, having taken a longer route, had not yet caught up, and finally ordered a retreat.

Not retreating would have been better, but this retreat turned them into live targets for the cavalry, which pursued them like killing ants; in the end, after more than 500 Goblins escaped, fewer than 200 Tree Elves remained, scattering and fleeing.

Li Bucai regrouped his troops, leading his cavalry straight to confront their chief in battle; when they reached a point three li from the riverbank, the enemy had just crossed the water, and the two formations met on an open space by the riverbank, forming a circle. The Tree Elf chief brandished his staff, directing the great array into a ling formation. Unlike the previous engagement, this force was not composed solely of archers; of the 1,500 men, 400 were shield troops, 500 spear troops, 500 Dual Knives troops, and the remainder were archers.

Among the shield Blade Badge Warriors there was only one large rectangular shield, positioned around the ling formation, held upright like a city wall, forming a tight enclosure; the remaining troops were arranged from the large ling formation into smaller ling formations, with two groups of archers forming ling formations to protect the flanks. The spear troops and Dual Knives troops were intermingled, placed at the front and rear of the array; spear troops were interspersed with Dual Knives troops, and vice versa, allowing them to counter cavalry as well as to respond flexibly to infantry.

Li Bucai, on the other hand, deployed a square formation, with heavy cavalry and mounted archers arranged in alternating rows.

The Tree Elf's great array remained stationary, not launching an offensive; Li Bucai's forces were few, and seeing the enemy formation tightly packed, they did not rashly attack.

After a prolonged stalemate, the Tree Elves finally could not hold back, commanding the ling formation to slowly advance forward.

Li Bucai, seeing the enemy formation move forward yet still not attacking, ordered his troops to retreat. When the enemy advanced, they fell back; when the enemy retreated, they pressed forward, constantly maintaining a distance of two arrow lengths.

As night fell, the infantry led by Yue Ji together with the Dark Night Elves seized the moment of He Rui Peak's emptiness, turning toward the mountain‑road junction, then suddenly burst out of the darkness; with a rain of arrows from the Dark Night Elves, the Goblins guarding the camp gate were caught off guard and were shot down the walls. Under the cover of the Blade Badge Warrior's ****, they crossed the gate, forced it open, and charged forward, with Yue Ji leading the charge on horseback. The Goblins could not block them, drawing the infantry into a brief melee with the Goblins; seeing their position untenable, the Goblins scrambled down the mountain on ropes, fleeing in haste, and in an instant surged up the second tier of the winding road, continuing the assault up the mountain.

A change at He Rui Peak unsettled the Tree Elf chief opposing Li Bucai, prompting him to order an all‑out assault, hoping to defeat the immediate enemy quickly and then rush back to reinforce He Rui Peak.

Li Bucai did not entangle with them; when they charged forward, he immediately ordered his entire force to retreat, pulling them back at a moderate pace, knowing that at such a speed the Tree Elf formation would eventually become disordered.

Upon reaching the valley mouth, Li Bucai ceased circling He Rui Peak and once again headed toward the valley.

The Tree Elves, eager to rescue He Rui Peak, after covering some distance turned back, ordered a rapid rescue of the summit, and split half their troops to keep watch on Li Bucai.

In fact, their chief, seeing the stalemate untenable, intended to abandon that portion of troops and hold He Rui Peak to the death.

Li Bucai, seeing them split again, immediately charged forward, breaking through the formation, refusing to linger in battle here, and headed straight to chase down the troops returning to the main army.

However, this maneuver by the Tree Elves could achieve two effects: first, if they lingered in battle they could sacrifice a carriage to protect their leader; second, if they intercepted the troops on the mountain, they would become trapped between the two forces, allowing a encirclement. Meanwhile, several hundred troops in Wangyueku were descending from the summit, providing enough time to eliminate this cavalry unit.

The night was now very dark, and when the two armies were within arm's length, they realized the Tree Elves had turned and charged back. Li Bucai no longer evaded, ordering his cavalry to hold back slightly, sending a single rider forward, who happened to encounter the Tree Elf chief positioned at the front of the formation; both sought to eliminate the other's commander first to sow confusion, and the Tree Elf chief, without ordering an arrow volley, met him head‑on in combat.

Among Li Bucai's ranks was a unit of undead cavalry, seeking the enemy commander; initially their purpose was to prevent her from unleashing corpse‑rot poison, and after a few rounds of fighting they fled to the side, while the Tree Elf chief rode a Qingwolf Beast, whose size was comparable to Li Bucai's mount and whose speed was extraordinarily swift.

The two, one ahead and one behind, broke away from the formation.