Chapter 618

Over a hundred long poles swayed in the wind, with over a hundred naked Xiang family youths hanging from them.

The area around Demon‑Suppressing City was nothing but Gobi desert, with hardly a blade of grass; daytime sun was scorching, nighttime cold enough to kill. Though the Xiang family youths were thick‑skinned and sturdy, hanging on those poles for seven or eight days left them exhausted and wretched.

The pain in their flesh was tolerable; this group of the Xiang family could endure it, the sun baking them, the Cold Qi permeating them—actually they could bear it.

The damned Li Er Gouzi, Wu Tie's most sycophantic lackey, hearing that these Xiang family youths were still hanging in midair and cursing Wu Tie with full vigor, he selected a bunch of newly purchased, filthiest bovine tribesmen and bought the animal‑skin short skirts off their bodies.

These ox tribesmen… who never bathe all year round—in the subterranean world, how precious is a water source? Even drinking water is barely enough; aside from the chieftains of great clans and noble houses, who among ordinary people could afford to waste water on bathing?

So, you can imagine the stench clinging to their bodies.

Moreover, the ox tribesmen are hulking with thick body hair, naturally strong bodily odor, and adding the years‑long lack of washing, the stench—just thinking about it is horrifying.

Li Er Gouzi shoved those ox‑tribe short skirts straight into the mouths of the Xiang family youths.

Poor things, with that clump of stinking animal hide stuffed in their mouths, furry and prickly, the short hairs irritating lips and nostrils; each day the sun baked the years‑unwashed hides, making the odor grow even richer…

Poor Xiang family youths—if their mouths weren't stuffed shut, they would have long since vomited their guts out.

Li Er Gouzi was a bit unruly, while Wu Tie chuckled, letting him carry out these petty tricks. As for these Xiang family people, Wu Tie looked down on them; as a commander, protecting the lives of his subordinates during marches and battles is a leader's duty.

Although the saying goes 'one general's triumph, ten thousand bones withered,' normal losses are unavoidable, but treating your own troops as expendable and throwing them away as cannon fodder shows a lack of character.

Moreover, these Xiang family people are so arrogant and overbearing; if they aren't properly disciplined, Wu Tie feels uneasy inside.

For seven or eight days straight, Wu Tie, accompanied by his personal guard, made the rounds of the Demon‑Suppressing City defenses; each day some precisely aimed bricks and tiles struck his head, and consequently he personally signed documents each day dismissing large numbers of the Demon‑Suppressing Army's elite troops.

In just a few days, over twenty thousand mid‑ and low‑rank officers and many veteran elite soldiers of the Demon‑Suppressing Army had been poached, most of whom had already taken up stations aboard Wu Tie's warships.

As for the Demon‑Suppressing City defenses, over eighty or ninety percent of the captives accumulated over the past year or more had been crammed into the transport ships Wu Tie brought; once the final few are delivered, he can achieve perfect merit and withdraw his troops back to camp.

At dawn, Wu Tie's auxiliary troops had just lit their stoves and were beginning to simmer a big bone‑soup when, in the distance, the space gate shimmered with light, and an extremely slender, smoothly lined skiff shot out of it at high speed.

Whoosh—, strong high‑altitude gales blew; as the wind tossed the narrow skiff that had just burst from the space gate, a huge blood‑red battle flag rose upon it, the wind whipping the flag into wild flapping and producing a piercing noise.

At the center of the blood‑red banner, a ferociously clawed 'Xiang' character stood out glaringly.

The skiff shot straight toward Demon‑Suppressing First City; Xiang Tuo, nearly two zhang tall, clad in heavy armor with a bald pate, stood grim‑faced at the prow, narrowing his eyes and glowering at the massive fleet anchored outside Demon‑Suppressing City.

Tianwu Prefecture, lost.

The assault forces of the Great Martial God Kingdom, wearing the stripped uniforms and armor of fallen Azure Hill Divine Kingdom soldiers, piloting captured Azure Hill Divine Kingdom standard warships, rushed through the space gate near the Xiang family army camp and abruptly stormed into Tianwu Prefecture.

Caught off guard, Tianwu Prefecture saw several reserve‑army camps still being reorganized shattered in a single blow; mountain‑like piles of supplies were looted clean by the Great Martial God Kingdom's troops, and countless civilians were slain or plundered, losses utterly devastating.

Azure Forest Prefecture lost more than half its territory, Tianwu Prefecture was nearly completely overrun, and the newly stabilized southwestern front of the Azure Hill Divine Kingdom was suddenly torn open by a great breach from the Great Martial God Kingdom.

Zhao and Sun clan commanders simultaneously lodged complaints with the military headquarters against the Xiang family.

The Xiang family patriarch and a host of elders are now engaged in a war of words with the Zhao and Sun clans in the imperial court.

But it's easy to imagine that the Zhao and Sun clans hold heap after heap of evidence of the Xiang family's poor battlefield performance; the loss of Azure Forest and Tianwu prefectures is basically inseparable from Xiang Tuo and his ilk.

Even though Linghu Qingqing had just seized the divine state's altar and was busy courting and pacifying these top‑tier generals, the Xiang family could not escape severe reprimand and punishment; many Xiang family officers serving in the military would inevitably be demoted several ranks.

"A foolish ruler, an immoral foolish ruler!" Xiang Tuo growled in a low voice: "If the military headquarters hadn't refused to reinforce my Xiang family, how could I have abandoned the camp? My defeat is not a crime of battle…… They say I lack fighting prowess, but just how many Great Martial God dogs have I slain in the past six months?"

"A foolish ruler…… and Zhao, Sun, you wait…… don't let this old man find an opening on the battlefield, or else……" Xiang Tuo's teeth clicked as he stomped his foot hard; a huge boom rang out, and this specially made swift skiff shattered completely, exploding into a blaze of fire across the sky.

"Where is Prince An Huo Xiong? Get out here, old man!"

Xiang Tuo roared loudly, transforming into a streak of Blood Light that shot toward Wu Tie's fleet.

Behind him, over three thousand Xiang family officers likewise turned into flowing light and shot out; as for the roughly one hundred soldiers who had just been piloting the skiff, they screamed, vomiting mouthfuls of blood amidst the explosion's fire and shockwaves, their bodies going limp as they plummeted straight down from the heights.

Among the Xiang family clansmen, not a single one turned back to glance.

Those soldiers unable to withstand the fire and shockwave from the skiff's explosion were, to them, mere trash.

And trash is not worth their second glance.

The space gate lay nearly a thousand li from Demon‑Suppressing City; Xiang Tuo and his companions flew at extreme speed, but the outskirts of the city were thickly laid with formation prohibitions specifically aimed at airborne persons and objects.

Originally, these formation bans would not be activated during periods when subterranean peoples were not besieging the city.

But after the recent incident involving Xiang Zhang, Zhao Bao flew into a rage over Xiang Zhang's outrageous remarks, and even more so because Xiang Zhang had brought only a pittance of gold and silver, intending to strong‑arm them into handing over the captives of Demon‑Suppressing City.

Zhao Bao was well aware of the Xiang family's habits and temperament; seeing Wu Tie string up a hundred or so Xiang family youths on wooden poles to bake in the wind and sun, he secretly ordered his subordinates to activate part of Demon‑Suppressing City's great aerial prohibition formation.

Having just burst from the space gate, Xiang Tuo and his fellows had flown only a little over a hundred li when they felt their bodies sink; their evasion technique began to dissipate rapidly, flight speed dropped, and their bodies started to fall steadily toward the ground.

Although the Xiang family's combat prowess is formidable, they are not skilled in this sort of evasion technique or auxiliary divine ability; their evasion relies merely on brute strength, shooting straight ahead at extreme speed, but lacking any wondrous variability, they are greatly affected by the aerial prohibition formation.

As their bodies continually sank toward the ground, Xiang Tuo bellowed angrily, pointing at Demon‑Suppressing City and shouting threats.

"You brats, shut down the formation, or else when I enter the city I'll make you learn what hierarchy means!"

Zhao Bao stood on the gate tower of Demon‑Suppressing City, arms crossed, heh heh sneering: "Hierarchy? You Xiang family still know hierarchy? Pfah, you're not elders of my Zhao clan…… Have the youths be careful; all heavy armaments are ready, all formation bans are set, especially the newly installed Yang‑Purging Evil‑Smashing Thunder Towers—begin stockpiling magical power."

Hmph, you Xiang family dare to cause trouble in my Demon‑Suppressing City—I'll smash every last tooth in your mouths…… though it's uncertain, I don't even need to worry about it.

Zhao Bao, with a hint of schadenfreude, gazed at the fleet of Prince An's manor moored outside the city.

Xiang Tuo and his companions rushed toward Demon‑Suppressing City at high speed, but their velocity and altitude kept dropping. As Xiang Tuo was cursing, the space gate behind them flashed again, and dozens of skiffs no longer than a hundred zhang in length—clearly civilian armed merchant vessels—slid out of the gate.

The manner in which these little skiffs emerged from the space gate imparted an utterly serene and composed feeling, devoid of any hint of smoke or fire.

After they flew out of the space gate, it was as if a flower blossomed in mid‑air, rapidly laying out a defensive formation.

Xiang Tuo and his companions heard the commotion behind them, turned to look, and seeing dozens of those little skiffs acting thus, Xiang Tuo's eyes lit up involuntarily.

He was a veteran of countless battles, naturally possessing his own unique way of judging elite troops and strong armies. He stared straight at this small fleet of civilian armed merchant vessels and praised: "Yo, this formation drill isn't bad…… Which private militia is this? Tsk, these kids, not bad……"

The space gate shimmered, accompanied by a hissing sound of vibrating void, as one large transport ship after another poured out of it.

In just a few breaths, hundreds of large transport ships surged out of the space gate.

These bulky vessels, resembling big‑bellied whale‑shaped transports, glided out of the space gate unhurriedly, lining up in an orderly, spherical defensive formation behind the dozens of escort skiffs, then, led by those escort skiffs, the whole transport fleet drifted slowly toward Demon‑Suppressing City.

Xiang Tuo activated his evasion light, hovering several hundred zhang above the ground with arms crossed, watching the fleet and chuckling: "Hey, they're in for a dull loss…… heh heh, Demon‑Suppressing City's great aerial prohibition is open—these ships will plummet from ten thousand zhang up, heh heh……"

The Xiang family officers all broke into grinning guffaws, just like Xiang Tuo, they too halted their evasion light, hanging in mid‑air ready to watch the spectacle.

Lately the Xiang family has been a bit unlucky; many troubles have dragged them in, their coffers have been emptied, they were on the verge of losing everything…… The Xiang family youths' money for carousing and revelry is gone, each one feeling a burning resentment inside.

Being able to watch others' misfortune, to see those high‑value warships smashed from the sky, to witness other families' masses killed and hundreds of large transports wrecked, losing a fortune…… tsk tsk, from Xiang Tuo down, every one of these Xiang family fellows is delighted beyond measure.

What does it mean to harm others without benefiting oneself?

This is called harming others without benefiting oneself!

But I'm so happy, so joyful, I'm extremely happy.

Several youngsters of the Xiang family even started humming some vulgar little tune they'd learned from who-knows-where, and Xiang Tuo laughed heartily, his face glowing red as he prepared to watch the fun.

The fleet flew forward for a hundred or so li when suddenly a clear, crisp shout rang out, and the fleet quickly came to a stop high up in the sky, tens of thousands of feet above.

A girl dressed in a white long robe, her appearance absolutely beautiful, pure and lovely like a myriad-year-old snow lotus, slowly walked out from the leading flying boat, stood on the prow, furrowed her brows, and gazed toward the Demon-Suppressing City hundreds of li away.

"Which general is in charge of Demon-Suppressing City? I am the head of the White Egret Merchant Guild, coming to Demon-Suppressing City to discuss a business deal. Could it be that subterranean demons have risen to war again? If not, please order the general to close the Flight-Banning Formation."

Xiang Tuo stared blankly, his eyes like knives, he fiercely glared at the girl: "Damn, this lass has some skill, actually discovering the Flight-Banning Formation this early."

A group of Xiang family youths' faces slightly changed, their gazes like boiling glue, hot and sticky, clung to the girl's face and body.

A Xiang family youth stammered: "Second Uncle, this beauty is really… uh, uh, brothers and sisters, this little lass is mine…"

A Blood Light shot up into the sky, and the youth who had spoken shot forward at high speed toward the white-clad girl.

The Xiang family youths all became anxious, each turning into streaks of light and flying toward the white-clad girl, all the while arguing among themselves.

"Nonsense, such a beauty capable of overturning kingdoms and cities is truly rare; I, brother, have also taken a liking to her."

"Get lost, she's my brother's, don't try to steal her… you all have wives and concubines galore, while I, brother, am still single."

"Brothers, quick hands get it, slow hands don't… hehe… brother, I'll make the first move."

The white-clad girl stood on the prow, her long brows slightly furrowed, her watery eyes filled with intense chill, from her rosy lips she uttered a barely audible voice: "Xiang family? Notorious pests of the state, you're not extinct yet?"

One Xiang family youth rushed forward the fastest, in just a few moves he reached the white-clad girl's face and reached out to grab her slender neck.

"Don't be scared, lass, I am Xiang Bao, a First-Rank Marquis of the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom and a First-Rank General of the Extinguish Martial Army; follow me back and I'll guarantee you fine food and drink, gold and silver attire, and an indescribably carefree bliss."

The white-clad girl gave a cold snort, stepped back one pace, and evaded Xiang Bao's grasp.

Xiang Bao stared blankly…… His strike was extremely fast; even an ordinary military officer at the Fetal Storage Realm could easily be taken down by his grab like a hawk snatching a chick…… How could this seemingly weak and powerless girl dodge his slap?

A clear, loud rebuke came from the cabin: "You blind fool, dare to disrespect the elder sister!"

A blazing, fire-like red light burst from the cabin, throwing a straight punch to the face at Xiang Bao.

Together with that red light rushed out a mass of violent, wild, breath‑blocking gale; a petite figure was wrapped in the gale, and in a flash it surpassed the red light, arriving instantly before Xiang Bao.

That petite figure was a girl of absolute beauty, with a somewhat wild nature.

Her small face, petite frame, her form nimble and lively like a mountain monkey, yet the aura she gave off was like that of a primeval demon dragon; the petite girl wielded a wolf‑tooth club three times her body length and three times her waist thickness, which let out a "whoosh" as it slammed into Xiang Bao's chest.

Xiang Bao's armor shattered, all the bones in his upper torso cracked and shattered, countless bone fragments burst through his muscles and flew out of his body.

He spat out mouthfuls of blood, his vision went black, he fainted outright, then his whole body sprayed blood as he flew backward, blasted by that strike nearly a hundred li, and fell limp to the ground.