Chapter 955

Face-to-face combat broke out just like that.

The power of the siege ram is not that it truly directly destroys the city wall or the protective grand formation; rather, each time the siege ram slams into the city wall, it causes the grand formation protecting the city to undergo violent shaking, thereby weakening the defensive power of the city-defense grand formation.

The eighty siege rams struck in unison; the three platforms trembled violently, and with each impact, the wondrous light emanating from the banner gates and archways on the platforms suddenly dimmed considerably.

Whenever this happens, the nine military formations composed of a million demon troops outside the city seize the opportunity to launch a frenzied attack.

Nine colossal demon-god phantoms hover above the military formations, huge curved blades whistling as they slash downward.

Curved blades condensed from demonic qi can truly pierce the formation's defenses and strike the city walls.

The defenders on the city walls immediately suffered casualties.

Someone was split in half.

Someone had an arm cut off.

Some cried out and fled backward; the huge demonic qi curved blade fell almost against their bodies, striking the city wall, and the blast from the impact shook these cowardly fleeing soldiers into the air, spitting blood as they fell from the wall.

Li Erdogzi screamed hoarsely.

On the tops of the siege ram carriages, level with the city walls, the demon archers drew back a series of pitch-black heavy bows.

Unlike the rag-tag archers under Li Erdogzi, these demon archers are all elite, each possessing boundless strength. The bows they hold, regardless of any formations or talismanic enhancements in the heavy bows, have pure physical strength in the bow arms exceeding a million catties.

Such force, even without activating the formations and talismanic aids in the heavy bows, is enough to launch a hundred-catty exquisite talisman arrow straight out over a hundred li.

Once the heavy bows are triggered, these arrows become unstoppable within three hundred li.

The eighty siege rams slammed down again, accompanied by a tremendous roar; the city walls trembled slightly, the three platforms shook violently, their light suddenly dimmed, and the luminous mass instantly shrank from about a li to just a few zhang thick.

Dozens of huge demonic qi curved blades whistled down.

The auspicious qi and rosy light emanating from the grand formation were split into gaping openings; hundreds of thousands of elite demon archers loosed their arrows simultaneously, and a piercing whistling suddenly rang out in the void.

That sound was like a tsunami skimming the ground as it swept over.

That sound was like a hurricane brushing the scalp as it raced by.

That sound was like the scythe of the death god lightly grazing past your ear, gently pulling away a wisp of your soul.

On the southern wall of Slay-Ghost City 108, masses of soldiers screamed in agony as heavy arrows pierced their bodies; streams of blood jetted backward from their wounds, and their bodies, like leaves in the wind, were flung far back by the arrows' heavy force… far… far…

The arrow force of these elite demon archers is excessively violent.

Some arrows could even pierce straight through a dozen or more soldiers' bodies, leaving streaks of glaring blood on the city wall.

Vast numbers of soldiers were knocked off the rear city wall by the arrows, wailing as they fell into the city.

In the blink of an eye, the eastern and western stretches of wall beside Li Erdogzi were cleared out for a length of over ten li each.

The three platforms trembled violently; streams of rosy light and auspicious qi continually surged forth from dozens of archways, desperately attempting to repair the gaps torn open by the huge demonic qi curved blades.

A sharp whistling sounded; nearly a thousand warriors, each over ten feet tall, clad in heavy armor studded with sharp spikes, wielding heavy spiked clubs, leapt from the tops of the siege ram carriages, taking advantage of the instant when the grand formation's breach had not yet been repaired, and jumped directly onto the city wall.

These stout, square-built demon elites, as solid as iron blocks, roared like beasts. After leaping onto the wall, they glanced at the nearby wall cleared by the arrow rain, then simultaneously turned their gaze to Li Erdogzi, who stood dazed directly above the city gate.

"Seize him!" a death squad leader bellowed hoarsely.

"Where are Dog Grandpa's confidants?" Li Erdogzi trembled all over from fright; clearly, wet marks appeared on both of his trouser legs.

This bastard actually went and pissed his pants right in front of all these people.

Wu Tie, in the underground cell, couldn't help nodding repeatedly, clapping loudly in praise: "Excellent, excellent, I must say, this job—only Li Erdogzi could pull it off. Besides him, none of you could be so utterly shameless."

Beside Wu Tie, the patriarchs of the noble houses and clans all lowered their heads in silence.

What a joke—they've been raised in luxury since childhood, dressed in fine silks and jade food, usually placing utmost importance on dignity, bearing, poise, and grace; how could they possibly piss their pants in public just to confuse the enemy?

"Heh," even if you are the supreme sovereign of Wuguo… it still wouldn't work!

Hundreds of elite demon troops, like unleashed mad dogs, roared and swung their spiked clubs, charging at Li Erdogzi and the hundreds of his confidant soldiers beside him.

Smash to death these riffraff ruffians beside Li Erdogzi, then capture him alive.

The death squad leader gloated, thinking how wonderful it would be—if he could bring Li Erdogzi back alive, what reward would this merit earn?

Li Erdogzi, like a maiden spied upon while bathing, screamed hoarsely and shouted: "Where are Dog Grandpa's confidants?"

The death squad leader stretched out a big hand and grabbed toward Li Erdogzi: "Little dear, don't shout—shouting till your voice breaks won't help anyone…"

A blood-colored flying sword shot out from the gate tower on the city wall, piercing the heart of this death squad leader, who was at the peak of the seventh heaven of the Divine Clarity Realm. The blood-colored flying sword had no glint of swordlight; a blade over three feet long, swift as lightning, like a ghost, instantly pierced through his body thousands of times back and forth.

Inside and outside the city, countless people watched helplessly as this burly man was reduced to a mist of blood by the blood-colored flying sword in the snap of a finger.

Within the gate tower, three stories high, nine li wide and one li deep, a contingent of men clad in black long robes, their hair bound with scarlet silk into high topknots, waist belts of scarlet, feet in scarlet-soled quick boots, emerged expressionlessly from the tower.

This group of men, their complexions deathly pale like zombies that have never seen sunlight for years, numbered no more than three thousand.

Facing the over a thousand charging elite demon death squad members, only ten men made a move.

Likewise, with a flash of the blood-colored flying sword's light, over a thousand demon death squad members simultaneously spurted blood from their throats; each dropped his heavy spiked club, clutched his throat with both hands, and stared in disbelief at these black-clad men who struck with such merciless ruthlessness.

The death squad that had rushed into the city vanished in a single breath.

A tall, broad-shouldered middle-aged man, whose shoulders were half a foot wider than ordinary, with a imposing presence but an extremely yin and inscrutable aura, walked slowly up to Li Erdogzi and extended a finger: "General, remember the price of our intervention."

Li Erdogzi lifted his head arrogantly: "Old Thief, cut the nonsense—it's just money, right? You help this general kill people, and I'll pay you… the transaction is fair; I'm not someone who defaults on debts."

His face fell, Li Erdogzi lowered his voice and muttered: "Besides, would we dare owe you a single spirit crystal?"

The middle-aged man, Old Thief, slowly nodded; his bloodless, deathly pale lips twitched slightly, revealing what could be called a smile.

"Very good… the general understands the rules, and we of the Thief Sect also understand the rules. As long as the money is sufficient, we will help the general kill anyone."

The attack from outside the city came again.

The siege ram slammed heavily into the city wall; the grand formation, which had just recovered to less than seventy percent, was again greatly weakened, as huge demonic qi curved blades came down, and a vast barrage of arrows fell like a storm, howling as they enveloped everything.

Old Thief grinned, his body flickered, and he and the roughly three thousand men behind him vanished simultaneously.

The next instant, they simultaneously appeared atop the siege ram carriages outside the city. Their forms were ghostlike, flickering unpredictably, appearing and disappearing; each time they manifested, a blood-colored sword light like a meteor was sure to streak across their hands.

Each meteor-like sword light could take the lives of a dozen or even dozens of elite demon archers.

Three thousand meteor-like sword lights ravaged the tops of the siege ram carriages; before the high-ranking officers of the demon formations could react, about seventy percent of the elite archers had already fallen beneath the blades.

Fast, so fast it drives one mad.

The swords of those black-clad people were frenzied and ruthless, their efficiency almost eerily high. Every sword's trajectory pointed straight at a vital spot, with no deviation, no wasted strength; the ultimate purpose of each sword was to take a life!

In the past, the Dao clan of the Great Wei aristocracy, the world's foremost assassin swordsmanship, finally erupted on this open battlefield with a terrifying deterrent force akin to that of ghosts and demons.

Yin Wu Shuang stared blankly at the group of swordsmen running amok in his own army.

"This isn't a military tactic; it's assassins…… a group whose skills are astonishing, masters of the art of killing, and clearly inheritors of an extremely terrifying assassin lineage!"

Yin Wu Shuang trembled with rage all over: "This bastard, he embezzles military funds and provisions, reducing his troops to the state of beggars…… and he actually keeps…… assassins?"

Yin Wu Shuang's eyebrows suddenly rose, a glint of interested light flashing in his eyes: "No, privately keeping assassins? That might not be assassins, but dead warriors…… tsk tsk, privately raising dead warriors, this kid, does he harbor rebellious intentions?"

"I just don't know whether he wants to dominate his own family or seize the throne of Wuguo."

"Such superb assassins—hiring them would come at a hefty price!"

Yin Wu Shuang praised a few times, then waved his hand forward: "Deploy the seventy-two Hunyuan Earth Fiend Magic Flags to encircle and kill these assassins, have the army surround them…… bring back their heads and set up a skull mound!"

Yin Wu Shuang's order was carried out; the seventy-two massive banners, each a thousand zhang square and shrouded in black qi, shot up into the sky, forming a vast black canopy that fell over the city.

But Lao Dao, leading the Dao clan assassins, boldly slew those demon-army archers outside the city, then turned and left without a hint of reluctance.

Just as the seventy-two Hunyuan Earth Fiend Magic Flags flew out to the city's outskirts, Lao Dao and his men had already returned to the city walls; the three platforms exhaled auspicious light and vapor, and the great formation's breach, just torn open, had been completely repaired.

Li Ergouzi once again swaggered forward and roared toward the outside: "Old Dog's right here—if you've got guts, come fight me! Come on, come fight me!"

Li Ergouzi pounded his chest hard, then extended a little finger toward the outside and flicked it contemptuously: "It's not that Old Dog looks down on you…… you're just a bunch of feathers, get it? Feathers…… what are feathers?"

"Do you understand or not?"

Li Ergouzi mightily waved his hand toward the outside: "Old Dog, with one breath, could blow you all over the sky…… so-called rebels and traitors—no match at all!"

Lao Dao let out a low cough: "General, you've used that word wrong. They aren't subjects of Wuguo, so you can't call them rebels and traitors."

Li Ergouzi gave Lao Dao a sideways glance, then produced a top-grade prime crystal and tossed it up and down.

Lao Dao instantly broke into a smile: "You're the boss, your word is law! They're just a bunch of feathers—rebels and traitors!"

The siege continued.

After an hour, the twenty black light cannons fired again in unison, destroying twenty siege rams outside the city.

But Yin Wu Shuang's demon army had already set up another sufficiently huge teleportation array, from which black magic ships a thousand zhang long and magic puppets a thousand zhang tall slowly flew out.

As his forces kept growing, Yin Wu Shuang sneered: "Just this spoiled good-for-nothing, I, the general, want to see how long he can hold out."

He waved his hand forward forcefully, and Yin Wu Shuang said coldly: "Keep attacking, full-force attack—I truly don't believe this scoundrel has the guts and stamina to last to the end against me."

The siege battle grew ever more fierce.

Li Ergouzi continually drafted wave after wave of tattered-armored troops from inside the city, constantly filling the battlements, only to be knocked down wave after wave by the demon army's attacks.

Li Ergouzi continually produced strange but undoubtedly expensive armaments, which, combined with over three thousand Dao clan assassins, inflicted massive casualties on the demon army outside the city.

One hundred siege rams were completely destroyed, and over ten huge magic ships were shot down from the sky.

Over thirty huge magic puppets were shattered to pieces by a handful of relics thrown by Li Ergouzi, and meanwhile seventy to eighty thousand demon troops were scorched by the Buddha light emitted from the relics, collapsing to the ground in tears and convulsions.

Yin Wu Shuang merely kept urging his demon army forward, relentlessly launching frenzied, hysterical attacks.

Li Ergouzi, meanwhile, was like a piece of rancid cowhide glue, stubbornly sticking to the city walls, always having some strange means to counter Yin Wu Shuang's every offensive.

Finally, after three days and nights of losses with no hope in sight, Yin Wu Shuang had no choice but to order a temporary retreat of the entire army.

Indeed, the demon army he brought had already suffered seventy percent losses in just three days; even though Yin Wu Shuang didn't regard those troops as anything, he felt a bit of trepidation and dread, unwilling to attack further.

Standing blankly on the hilltop, Yin Wu Shuang muttered to himself, somewhat puzzled: "General, when did I fall to the point where I can't even defeat a spoiled brat?"

Just as Yin Wu Shuang sank into deep doubt about life, Wu Tie had already arrived nearby.