Chapter 639

Linghu Jiu had no choice but to retreat.

Several thousand Xiang family officers with boundless strength, whose power rises the more severely they are wounded, formed a death-defying unit, which was like a dagger thrust into the abdomen, forcing Linghu Jiu to mobilize his army to encircle and annihilate the death-defying unit.

And Wu Tie's army came with the momentum, the wood spirits among the five elemental spirits laid down a sky-covering arrow formation, the water spirits stirred up torrential floods, the earth spirits freely altered the terrain within a small area, the metal spirits, aided by various weapons and armor, struck down unseen and unpredictable, and the fire spirits' terrifying wide-range slaughter.

Moreover, there was the invincible army forming proper, honorable battle formations to slaughter.

Also, there were giant divine soldiers surging in like a tide, a blanket bombardment of chaos fire-crossbows covering the sky and earth, and scorching rays of astonishing destructive power sweeping across the battlefield.

Linghu Jiu felt like a giant being madly beaten by the enemy; originally he could have freed his hands to grapple properly with the foe, but a stab to his vital abdomen left him able to exert only three-tenths of his full strength.

Yet the attacking enemy was so strong that Linghu Jiu lost.

However, Linghu Jiu was never the type to persist in a futile effort knowing it was impossible; moreover, the army he now commanded was not his own private troops, so he acted decisively.

He left a rearguard army, ordering them to delay as long as possible no matter what, while Linghu Jiu led the main force, abandoned all baggage, simply set a large fire in the camp, and fled at top speed.

Wu Tie immediately ordered, detaching a flank force to cooperate with a fleet, encircling this rear guard Wei army completely.

Afterward, Wu Tie, holding the imperial edict, opened Li Moyou's military city, directly bringing under his command the over one million soldiers inside.

Although these one million soldiers had just suffered a defeat and, after prolonged lack of food and water, were physically exhausted to the extreme, Wu Tie had brought sufficient supplies; after they took medicine, replenished food and water, and rested a little, each soldier became vigorous and energetic.

Wu Tie did not linger long on the Qinglang Plain; he led his army and kept a distant pursuit behind Linghu Jiu.

Afterward, Linghu Jiu experienced what it meant to face numerous shocks in a single day, and what it meant to be vile and shameless.

Wu Tie's army followed behind him at a distance neither far nor near—about two ke's journey—an awkward and uncomfortable distance for Linghu Jiu.

At such a short distance, Linghu Jiu, having abandoned all his baggage, dared not set up camp; he could only order his troops to march at full speed, moving as fast as possible toward the nearest allied force.

However, having lost their transport warships, the vast majority of Linghu Jiu's troops were cultivators of the Chonglou Realm; many of them could sustain flight for only two or three thousand li before needing to stop to recover their magical power.

Officers of the Mingchi Realm and commanders of the Taicang Realm, however, could endure much longer; Taicang Realm commanders could fly tens of thousands of li without fear of exhausting their magical power.

But as an army, officers and commanders could not possibly abandon their subordinates.

Thus the soldiers halted to recover their power, and Linghu Jiu and the others could only follow suit and stop.

Moreover, about half of these soldiers were cultivators around the tenth layer of the Chonglou Realm; with such strength, their flight speed was comparable only to that of a somewhat superior horse, so the marching speed of Linghu Jiu's entire army was likewise on par with a galloping horse.

Such speed, compared to the lightning-fast pace when riding warships, could barely be called slower than a snail.

As Linghu Jiu led his people in flight, the soldiers' first ground rest was immediately followed by Wu Tie's strike.

Having rested just a little under half an hour, the soldiers took their pills and had barely recovered a bit of power when three Four-Spirit warships came flying in; thousands of Xiang family officers, clad in heavy armor, landed heavily from the warships. They zeroed in on the army's banner on the ground and descended directly onto a spot where flags were flying.

Under Linghu Jiu's command, a unit's officer was slain on the spot by the wailing Xiang family officers; the dense arrows from the Four-Spirit warships wailed down and immediately killed many mid-level officers mixed among the troops.

That unit immediately erupted into chaos; deprived of command and suppression, the soldiers ran wildly across the ground, directly throwing the neighboring allied formation into utter disorder.

Before Linghu Jiu could issue an order to suppress, Wu Tie's massive, dark-filled fleet came slowly flying from the rear sky.

Seeing the gleaming main gun barrels on tens of thousands of warships, Linghu Jiu immediately ordered all troops to leap into the air and continue fleeing toward the nearest allied force.

In the chaos, no one paid attention to that unit that had just been ambushed; over 200,000 soldiers fell into a disordered mass and failed to keep up with Linghu Jiu's main force. Xiang Zan, leading a group of Xiang family officers, roared and shouted, causing those 200,000-plus Wei soldiers to lose their formation; they immediately laid down their weapons and knelt to surrender.

Wu Tie had brought plenty of soldiers.

He immediately had them seal the magical power of those over 200,000 Wei soldiers, then left a force mainly of Ganxuan Realm cultivators with only a few Chonglou Realm elite troops, combined with many laborers, to build a prisoner camp on the spot to detain those Wei soldiers.

Capture without killing—this was a decision Wu Tie had made with Old Tie and others before the expedition.

Linghu Jiu's army, in a sorry state, barely maintained its marching formation while flying swiftly at a low altitude of a hundred zhang above ground. After flying forward over a thousand li, the soldiers who had barely recovered any power could no longer endure, so the army landed again to rest.

This time the army halted beside a great river; the Wei soldiers, fleeing desperately by flight, were parched to the point of smoking, and immediately tens of thousands rushed to the riverbank, gulping down the water eagerly.

Upstream on the great river, the Yin-Yang Daoist, whose evasion speed far exceeds that of ordinary warships, chuckled and pointed a finger; large gobs of poisonous liquid from the Heavenly-Endowed Divine Ability of the Demon Chapter King spewed from the Yin-Yang dual-gas vial, instantly merging into the river.

The Demon Chapter King's poison is complex in toxicity; it can kill or paralyze.

What the Yin-Yang Daoist released was a highly concentrated paralytic poison; being produced by a Heavenly-Endowed Divine Ability, it spread rapidly, and within the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, the river downstream of the Daoist was completely filled with toxin.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers gulped down the clear water with gusto; most of the troops were body cultivators, each strong‑built with enormous appetites, drinking water like water buffalo—some could swallow two large vats of river water in one gulp.

Gradually, these soldiers' bodies swayed and they staggered, collapsing to the ground.

Each one turned pallid, lips white, breath weakened to the extreme, looking as if they might expire at any moment.

The Wei officers reacted immediately, shouting hoarsely: 'There's poison in the water, poison!'

Before the words faded, three Four-Spirit warships surged forward; a pack of wolf‑like Xiang family officers descended from the sky, hacking down heavily with their weapons on those shouting officers.

In an instant, the Wei officers lost another thousand or more; the surrounding troops fell into utter chaos, while tens of thousands of poisoned soldiers lay on the ground. Linghu Jiu's troops' morale collapsed to the lowest point, and some soldiers gave a strange cry, turned, and fled aimlessly into the wilderness.

Linghu Jiu let out an angry shout, about to order his troops to form ranks and crush this gang of Xiang family lackeys with a proper battle formation, when on the distant horizon a dark mass of ships came slowly flying.

High above, three Four-Spirit warships hovered overhead; the wood spirits' arrows rained down. This time, the wood spirits did not aim to kill, but shot arrows coated with paralytic toxin, felling one Wei officer after another to the ground.

Linghu Jiu cursed angrily to the heavens, then again ordered the troops to retreat at full speed.

But this time, many soldiers were already exhausted to the limit; having just staggered aloft a few dozen zhang, they collapsed headfirst to the ground.

Thus, this time Linghu Jiu's troops—including those who collapsed from poison, those who lost command and were cut off by Xiang family officers, those utterly spent and unable to flee, and those who scattered in flight with no destination—numbered over one million.

Wu Tie's fleet came slowly, again accompanied by a large contingent of Ganxuan Realm auxiliary troops and a portion of Chonglou Realm regular soldiers, plus many laborers handling logistics, who built a camp on the spot; after sealing the magical power of all captured Wei soldiers, they detained them there.

Linghu Jiu led his army onward in flight; this time they exerted themselves to escape over a thousand li, and the same pattern appeared again.

In the forest where they landed to rest, hordes of rat‑people burst from their burrows, throwing about packets filled with poison powder; instantly a toxic mist spread, and vast numbers of Wei soldiers inhaled it and collapsed.

Before Linghu Jiu could order the extermination of these rash rat‑people, the Xiang family officers, like so many plasters, descended from the sky; dense, precise arrows shot down one commander after another issuing orders, while the Xiang ruffians clashed left and right, throwing the camp into utter chaos.

Thus, Linghu Jiu again left behind a great expanse of fallen soldiers unable to rise, and hastily led his army onward in a sorry flight.

For three straight days and nights, Linghu Jiu could neither eat nor drink nor rest; basically every two or three hours, his army inevitably suffered a bizarre attack, losing large numbers of personnel.

Several times, Linghu Jiu, frustrated and defeated, set up a proper battle formation seeking a life‑or‑death showdown with Wu Tie, but Wu Tie's fleet deliberately hovered hundreds of li away in the high sky—you could see his fleet, yet you could not strike it.

Linghu Jiu even sent Wu Nulei to take the initiative, but Wu Tie's side immediately had Xiang Feiyu go out to meet him.

Seeing Xiang Feiyu, Wu Nulei turned and left at once; no matter how Linghu Jiu urged him, Wu Nulei acted as if he hadn't heard the command.

After all, the losses now are Wei soldiers, not his own Wu Nulei's comrades from the Great Wu youth.

The Wei and Wu forces formed a joint army to attack Qingqiu; their ratio is also interesting. The ordinary troops around Linghu Jiu come from Wei, while the experts responsible for his safety come from Wu, since Wei itself acknowledges that, at equal cultivation levels, Wu's militant fighters possess far greater combat power than its own experts.

Such a strange combination directly means: don't expect Wu Nulei to risk his life for the Wei soldiers.

He's not that stupid.

Even seeing large numbers of Wei soldiers being captured by Wu Tie in large swaths, to say Wu Nu Lei feels no little smugness is impossible.

Linghu Nine was furious and desperate, suppressing the urge to cough up blood, and simply stopped having the troops risk their lives flying, instead marching slowly on the ground.

Wu Tie also slowed the fleet's advance, not using full force to attack Linghu Nine's army.

Every so often, the suicide squad formed by the Xiang family would suddenly pounce, tearing a huge chunk of flesh from Linghu Nine's troops and capturing a large number of soldiers.

Gradually, Linghu Nine became numb, and he simply couldn't be bothered to restrain the troops any longer.

After all, these are all Wei soldiers; he, Linghu Nine, is merely a tool of Wei, a tool used to attack the Qingqiu Divine State—why should he pour his heart and blood for these Wei people?

Anyway, he has the Imperial Guard Treasure Vessel; he can ride it in comfort, so why worry about the lives of these Wei people?

Besides, Wu Tie merely captured them, doing nothing to them.

Linghu Nine began scheming how to gain more military command from the Wei, and how to counter Wu Tie's nearly shameless tactic.

Exactly, it's shameless.

Too shameless—marching and fighting, they even dare to poison the great river?

However, this method seems worth learning a bit… Linghu Nine secretly pondered, then heard the cheers of the Wei officers and soldiers below.

A black line slowly approached ahead; the distress signal Linghu Nine had sent out these past two days finally got a response, and the nearest allied unit finally dispatched reinforcements.

Thousands of warships of various sizes flew in swiftly, and countless ten-thousand-strong formations rose from the ships, their killing intent soaring to the heavens, transforming into towering giants roaring in the sky.

This is a main corps of the Great Martial Divine State; although its ship numbers and troop counts are far fewer than Wu Tie's massive corps, compared to Wu Tie's hordes swept up along the way—recruiting good and bad alike—this Great Martial main force is absolutely battle-hardened elite.

Wu Tie, rushing all the way, had swept clean the state and prefecture troops along the route, even the prisoners in jails; his forces were filled with many low-level Chonglou Realm soldiers, even some Ganxuan Realm miscellaneous troops.

These miscellaneous troops look formidable, but their combat power is nearly zero; they can't even form battle lines, and on the front lines they are nothing but weeds waiting to be slaughtered.

The defeated Wei soldiers let out earth-shaking cheers, waving their weapons enthusiastically at the approaching Great Martial reinforcements.

The Great Martial troops gazed coldly at these ragged, worn-out allies, and the fleet and formations shot straight through the air to meet Wu Tie's fleet.

"Wei's trash, let the Great Martial grandfathers teach you how to fight."

A cold, arrogant voice came from a flagship a thousand zhang long; Wu Nu Lei, sitting beside Linghu Nine, couldn't help bursting into laughter.

"Magnificent, this is truly the mighty sons of my Great Martial, this is the number one heroic military force under heaven..."

Standing up, Wu Nu Lei spat at the Wei soldiers on the ground: "Pah, these weaklings..."

"Mighty!" the Great Martial reinforcements in the air unleashed a earth-shaking battle cry.

Before them, Wu Tie's great fleet was retreating, retreating extremely fast.

For a moment, Wu Nu Lei laughed loudly to the heavens, the Great Martial troops each displayed their might, while the dirty-faced Wei soldiers on the ground stared at each other, speechless, then began to curse loudly.