Chapter 914: Holy God Protection Army

In the range of overlapping hills, a troop was marching.

This troop was massive in number, with both people and horses, and in the middle were several war chariots of extraordinary design. Moving in a grand, sweeping fashion, they traversed the valley of the hills like a winding centipede.

Viewed from afar, this troop was quite spectacular, but if one drew closer, one could see the lack of uniformity within:

There was no other reason; the members of this troop could be described as diverse, with varying heights. The several hundred people at the very front were relatively uniform, all roughly seven feet to one zhang in height—though there was a discrepancy of about three feet, it was not so conspicuous from a distance, and the six knights at the very front were riding mounts of the same height, making them appear almost equal in stature.

But for the main force starting from the back, the troop was uneven to a certain degree; those tall warriors inserted into the ranks like markers stood several zhang tall, like moving mountains, while in front of them were little runts less than three feet tall. It looked as if those tall Great Heavenly Demons only had to lift their feet a little higher to easily step on them.

Although the composition of this troop was so mixed, they were arranged in a fairly orderly manner, and their marching speed was neither fast nor slow. Seeing these tall and short Great Heavenly Demons moving forward at a constant speed showed that their discipline was remarkable, and they were by no means a common rabble.

The members of the troop, whether knights, infantry, or chariot soldiers standing on the vehicles, were dressed with their own unique characteristics; some wore armor, some wore robes, and others had nothing on their upper bodies or even their thighs. But their attire had one thing in common: they all had large elements of green.

Even that Great Heavenly Demon who was almost naked had a green scarf wrapped around his neck, making it look as if he had a green neck. The knights at the very front had their armor draped with a layer of green, and they wore bright green cloaks on their backs, looking as if they had just sprouted from a vegetable patch.

A banner was erected on the horse's head at the very front, which was also primarily green, with only a large "Holy" character written in white.

That was the symbol of the Holy God.

This slightly strange-looking army was precisely one division of the "Holy God Protection Army," which was currently feared and renowned throughout the Lingjie.

This troop had distinguished battle achievements. Just a month ago, as one of the three main divisions, they had ambushed the base of the Lingjie traitor, the Haotian Priest, almost completely annihilating the Leftover God Remnants, and finally retreated unscathed when Haotian indignantly launched a counterattack, suffering almost no damage to their strength. Now, after a month of replenishment, their numbers had expanded to three thousand, and their strength was even better than that day.

But today they were not going to conquer; on the contrary, they had received an unprecedented mission—a rescue!

A rescue of the Holy God's Shendian, Tian Jiang Dao!

It sounded absurd; the Holy God was so imposing, and these days it had always been them attacking others, never others attacking them. They had chased those remnants around like dogs chasing rabbits, hiding in holes and not daring to come out. Yet, just as they saw the dawn of completely eliminating the opponent, they received a distress signal from the island.

Those remnants actually dared to ambush Tian Jiang Dao?

How could that be possible? Where would they have the extra strength?

The Great Heavenly Demons of the Protection Army simply could not believe it, even questioning if it were fake, a scheme released by the opponent to escape while they returned. But the general of this army, "Wise Sage," had investigated the news through his own means and told everyone:

"This is not fake news; it is true. Haotian and those disgraces of the Lingjie used despicable means, betrayed the interests of the Lingjie, exchanged for an army from the Human World, and took advantage of the emptiness at the center of Tian Jiang Dao to launch an ambush, killing several priests. Now they have surrounded the docks and islands around Tian Jiang Dao, sealing all the priests and divine officials on the island."

The Great Heavenly Demons were furious upon hearing this, one after another accusing Haotian of being shameless, daring to resist, refusing to believe in the Holy God yet unwilling to die—it was simply too abominable.

A knight did ask: "Even if they summoned the power of the Earth Barbarians, so what? What are the Earth Barbarians? They were our defeated enemies back then. With several Great Priests and Holy God Knights on our island, we don't even need to take action; they would have been wiped out long ago. At the very least, there is still the Holy God! The Holy God only needs to blow a breath, and they would be blown to pieces. Do we really need to travel thousands of miles to reinforce them?"

Before the other Great Heavenly Demons could echo this, Wise Sage had already sternly rebuked: "This is not something you should be thinking about! What kind of power the priests have, whether they will take action, and what strategy they arrange, all have their reasons. Since they called us back, it is naturally required by the battle situation; how is it your place to think this and that? Do you want to disobey orders? As for the Holy God, of course, the Holy God can act without any effort, but then what would we be for? Our duty is to protect the religion, to protect the Holy God and the Shendian. Only when we fall does it become the Holy God's turn to act. If the Holy God had to handle everything personally, what use would we be? Turn around and go back!"

Thus, the army turned around and headed straight for Tian Jiang Dao.

They were originally operating near Haotian's base, which was deep in the hinterland of the Wanshendian forces and very far from Tian Jiang Dao. If the several Shendian Knights had rushed back at their fastest speed, it would have taken only a day or half a day, but since they were bringing the main force back, they had to consider the marching speed.

Thus, they set off three days ago, traveling day and night to maintain their combat effectiveness at full speed, and in just three days, they saw the "Coral Hill Region" on the side of the Holy Sea where Tian Jiang Dao was located.

Passing through these hills, one could see the Shendian!

Of course, this hill region was also very vast, the road was difficult to walk, and they had to guard against ambushes. After the army entered, they walked for another full day without seeing the exit, becoming doubly exhausted instead.

Seeing this situation, Wise Sage knew they could not blindly force-march. They had to maintain their combat effectiveness; when they reached the battlefield, they could not be like a spent arrow, but rather should launch a charge like a tiger descending a mountain, preferably being able to directly scatter the opponent and secure the victory. So he decided:

"We will rest for half a day when we reach the Shengya Valley ahead."

The order was passed down, and the three armies cheered; even their steps became a little lighter.

At this time, Wise Sage's deputy, Tubu, stepped forward and asked in a low voice: "There should be a teleportation array in that valley, right? Can we teleport back directly? Although it is a small teleportation array, it can reach directly into the Hall. Even if we just teleport a few people back to report? We haven't had communication with headquarters recently, and I've been feeling a bit uneasy."

Wise Sage said helplessly: "That array, it's broken."

"Ah? How so? It was fine when we left, wasn't it?"

Wise Sage frowned and said: "Actually, I am also puzzled, but there was a message from the Hall saying that the teleportation array suddenly broke a few days ago. Our Shendian lacks the technical foundation in this area, and we couldn't find anyone to rush repairs for a while. Now, recruiting those skilled commoners and technical officials among the Hundred Races has made some progress, but it will still take a few days to fix."

Tubu said "Oh," and asked: "This... is it too coincidental? Could there be any problem?"

Wise Sage said: "Do you suspect those remnants are playing tricks?"

Tubu sighed: "I can't help but suspect. The information from the past two days has been coming one after another, each more urgent than the last, yet several are contradictory and very strange, as if several heads and several hands were sending messages at the same time, still fighting each other. Yet the way of sending messages and the secret codes are all secrets known only internally; there shouldn't be any mistakes. I think the situation at the Shendian is probably..."

Yes, the soldiers in the troop were high-spirited, wishing they could go back immediately to eliminate the enemy in a few strokes and achieve great merit. However, the high-level officials of the army were not so optimistic; just looking at the release of the news, they knew that the Shendian must have suffered something.

Moreover, these high-level officials knew more information, knowing that the Holy God not coming out to suppress was not just out of disdain to act, but because the Holy God had been sleeping and only occasionally issued orders. It should be that the injuries from the last Wanshen Assembly had not fully healed; even if the Holy God could act, the strength would be discounted, and it would affect the subsequent recovery of the injuries. Now was truly the weakest time for the Holy God Hall.

If the home base was hollowed out, that would be the end.

Wise Sage was silent; actually, he was not without suspicion, but he always felt it wouldn't go that far. The Coral Hill was actually already the territory of their own Shendian. Daring to build a teleportation array there meant it was absolutely safe. If it were ambushed, it would mean the Coral Hill had completely fallen, and in fact, even the news of the destruction shouldn't have been able to be sent out.

"If it was really destroyed, doesn't that mean we are already surrounded by the enemy?"

Wise Sage gave a start and immediately said: "Send someone to scout. Send someone sharp!"

Tubu stood up and said: "Why send someone? I will go. Only if I go can I be at ease."

Wise Sage nodded; he indeed trusted this old partner the most. They were partners even before they believed in the Holy God. He said: "Good. You go personally. If you encounter danger, don't take risks; quietly withdraw, and I will personally cover you."

Tubu nodded and turned to leave.

He was gone for the better part of the day, and the troop was still moving forward neither fast nor slow. Except for the highest level, no one knew what they might encounter ahead.

Wise Sage's heart was hanging, his eyes looking forward. After a long time, he saw his old partner's mount running over.

"How is it?"

Tubu, who had rushed back, first smiled and said easily: "I was too careful. It's nothing; they are still rushing repairs over there. It's just that when they heard our main force was going over, they were a bit unhappy, saying they were working hard and our arrival would be too much of a disturbance, asking us to take a detour and go back directly."

Wise Sage was very dissatisfied upon hearing this and shouted: "Why is their work hard, and our long-distance trek not hard? A bunch of idiots can't fix a teleportation array in a few days and still have merit? It's not their place anyway. We are going over, and we will camp right in front of them, regardless of what they say! Go pass my order: speed up to reach Shengya Valley! Eat at the valley!"

The troop increased their speed a bit more. Seeing the valley right in front of them, the entrance was very narrow and winding, like a tender sprout.

The troop entered the valley, and Wise Sage saw a group of people surrounding a place in the distance, possibly rushing to repair the teleportation array, and was about to go over and snap at them.

Suddenly—

He just felt something was wrong and stopped his steps. The people surrounding the area also turned around at the same time, staring at him.

All of them seven or eight feet tall, black hair and black eyes, that was a group of... Earth Barbarians?

"Dong dong dong—"

Drums sounded all around, and countless figures suddenly sprang out from the surrounding hills, looking down at the Great Heavenly Demons in the valley from the mountains.

Wise Sage suddenly turned his head, staring at Tubu, and said: "This is what you called 'nothing's wrong'?!"