Chapter 84: Settlement of military merit

Roars suddenly came from the south, and two flying boats appeared one after another, flying toward the battlefield. These two immortal boats were about thirty zhang long, and their shape was different from the immortal boats Wei Yuan had seen before. They were covered in faint green light, short and thick overall, revealing a murderous intent.

The flying boats came one after another, heading straight for the dock fortress. With such an obvious target, the Liao cavalry naturally couldn't let them approach the battlefield, so ten thousand arrows were fired, and countless gale arrows and magic-tool armor-piercing arrows, dragging brilliance, shot toward the leading flying boat. However, as soon as the rain of arrows touched the green light on the surface of the flying boat, they fell to the ground one after another, and the flying boat also shot out many sharp arrows, shooting down the approaching Liao cavalry in pieces.

Seeing that the Liao cavalry's rain of arrows couldn't stop the flying boat, a yellow Qi suddenly rose into the sky in the north, and the rolling yellow dust was like a sandstorm destroying everything in the apocalypse, instantly rushing into the sky of several hundred zhang!

Someone snorted heavily, containing anger, making the entire battlefield tremble. Immediately after, a vast and murderous eagle cry sounded, and a huge white goshawk rushed out of the yellow dust, instantly crossing ten thousand zhang and slamming into the flying boat!

With Wei Yuan's vision, he could see that the huge goshawk was actually a giant arrow a zhang long. The giant arrow tore through the flying boat's green light, and almost the entire arrow plunged in! The flying boat immediately swayed and fell like a drunkard, finally crashing outside the dock fortress, smashing to death more than a dozen Liao cavalry who couldn't dodge in time.

"Bold!" An angry shout sounded from the south, and then a hundred-zhang lightning bolt appeared out of thin air in the sky, slashing toward the yellow Qi in the north.

The yellow Qi of several hundred zhang was struck by the lightning and instantly dissipated a hundred zhang. However, three goshawks flew out of the yellow Qi one after another. Every time one appeared, the yellow Qi would drop by a hundred zhang. The three goshawks were almost in a line, spanning the ten thousand zhang sky in an instant, and plunged into the empty sky in the south.

A sharp sword light suddenly appeared in the void, drawing a hundred-zhang zigzag trajectory in the sky like lightning, slashing two goshawks into nothingness! But the third goshawk passed through the sword light, plunged into the void, and disappeared.

The mountain-like yellow Qi in the north disappeared, and the south seemed to have no movement at all, but Wei Yuan clearly felt that the human clear Qi on the battlefield had weakened a bit.

The few strikes just now had the power of heaven and earth. Was this a True Person fighting?

The Northern Liao Dharma Form shot a total of four arrows, one arrow shot down an immortal boat, and one arrow seemed to hit the human Dharma Form. He himself suffered a lightning strike, and the three arrows behind seemed to have moved his vitality. Judging from the results of the battle, both sides seemed to be hurt, but Wei Yuan's vision was insufficient, and he couldn't clearly know.

However, the second flying boat had no obstacles, so it simply flew over the dock fortress and finally landed close to the back door of the dock fortress. As soon as the flying boat landed, the cabin door opened wide, and teams of soldiers with full heavy armor and powerful crossbows rushed out from inside. As soon as they got off the flying boat, they lined up in neat rows, taking turns to advance. After the front row finished shooting, the next row immediately rushed up, and after a wave of crossbow arrows was shot, the next row followed. Like this, row after row rolled forward, and the Liao cavalry within a hundred zhang in front fell in pieces, and no one could approach.

The encirclement of the dock fortress was thus cut open. The Liao cavalry couldn't circle and gallop, and for a while, they were somewhat at a loss. In the blink of an eye, they suffered heavy casualties under the rain of crossbow arrows from the dock fortress and the flying boat's armored soldiers.

Two more flying boats appeared in the south, this time directly crossing the dock fortress and coming between the cavalry in front of the Liao cavalry and the arrow formation in the back. First, a wave of arrow rain in the air disrupted the arrow formation, and then they forcibly landed between the Liao cavalry and the arrow formation, livingly cutting the two units apart. Heavy armored crossbow soldiers kept rushing out from the flying boats, and soon used the rain of arrows to create a death dividing line.

The Liao cavalry who originally besieged the dock fortress couldn't charge through the blockade, and under the attack of several waves of arrow rain, casualties increased sharply, so they had to bypass the two flying boats and retreat from both sides. The Mobile Corps Commander cavalry intercepting reinforcements also had no intention of fighting and fled to the north one after another.

Although the Liao cavalry were defeated, they were not in chaos. The large group of Liao cavalry seemed scattered, but in fact, they were all maintaining a constant speed, constantly shooting arrows at the rear and left and right while retreating. The small teams of Liao cavalry fled at full speed and did not get entangled with the human race. The reinforcements that came down from the flying boats were all heavy armored crossbow soldiers, with invincible defense, and their mobility was equal to none. After harvesting the last wave, they could only watch the Liao cavalry retreat to the Liao domain.

Wei Yuan threw out a short spear, collected the last record, and there were no more enemies around.

The warhorse under him suddenly let out a long neigh, collapsed to the ground, and died. This warhorse had fought with Wei Yuan throughout the whole process and had long been exhausted. Now that the luck was recovered, it immediately couldn't hold on.

The battle ended, and Wei Yuan felt a slight soreness all over his body. Several places began to ache at the same time. It turned out that he had been hit by arrows at some point.

There were human corpses and horse corpses everywhere on the battlefield, and pools of blood were like scars scattered on the earth. Harsh breaths permeated everywhere, unavoidable. Many wounded Northern Liao knights were still struggling to crawl toward the north, but were killed one by one by people patrolling the battlefield. These people clearly hated the Liao race extremely, and when they made up the knife, they were particularly cruel. Many times they were unwilling to kill with one knife, but first cut off the limbs, and finally beheaded with one knife. The wounded of the human race were lifted onto the horse's back and sent to the dock fortress for treatment at full speed.

At this time, the four gates of the dock fortress were wide open, and a vigorous voice sounded: "The Liao barbarians have retreated. Please reinforcements and fellow Daoists come to the dock fortress to rest and settle military merit!"

Settle military merit?

Wei Yuan originally thought that all military merits would be settled uniformly after the big exam ended. He didn't expect that this battle could be settled on the spot. Although there should be no difference between early and late settlement, Wei Yuan immediately saw several units in the distance speeding up their pace and rushing to the dock fortress.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Yuan understood. According to convention, disciples of various sects had to return to their own sects to settle military merit and receive rewards, but now that they were settled on the spot, they were all Taichu Palace's military merits, and the rewards they received were Taichu Palace's. This was very attractive to disciples of the other three major Immortal Sects, and disciples of second-rate sects naturally flocked to it.

Wei Yuan found a warhorse without an owner, spurred his horse to run toward the dock fortress, and entered the dock fortress a moment later.

As soon as he entered the gate, in front of him was a flat road that could accommodate two carriages side by side. Although the road surface was earth and mud, it had been treated with Daoist techniques and could be used for warhorses to gallop. The road led directly to the center of the dock fortress, where a four-story building stood, and from the highest point, one could see the dynamics outside the city over the city wall.

The interior of the dock fortress had completely changed. The original civilian houses had all disappeared, replaced by temporary pavilions. At this time, there were still many arrows stuck on the roofs, and some cultivators were pulling arrows out one by one, repairing the roofs.

After entering the gate, Wei Yuan felt as if he had passed through an invisible boundary. The concentration of spiritual energy around him increased linearly, and at the same time, a layer of Daoist power faintly scanned his whole body.

Several cultivators stood inside the gate. One Daoist took the book in his hand and shone it on Wei Yuan, saying: "So it is Junior Brother Wei of the Tianqing Palace. For medical treatment, you can go to the medical center with your identity. For military merit settlement, go to the Merit Hall. The left hall after entering is for Taichu Palace cultivators, and the right hall is for other sects. The medical center is on this road, and the temporary Merit Hall is set up outside by the flying boat."

Wei Yuan originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but there was already a long line behind him, so he entered the dock fortress and went to the medical center first. The medical center was already overcrowded, and Wei Yuan sat for a long time before it was his turn. However, Wei Yuan didn't feel there was anything to complain about, after all, everyone else looked more seriously injured than himself, and several people who were dying were carried in halfway, so it was not good not to let people jump the queue.

When it was finally Wei Yuan's turn, the one responsible for diagnosis and treatment was a middle-aged Daoist. His Daoist robe was covered with blood stains. When standing in front of Wei Yuan, without speaking, just with one look, Wei Yuan took off his outer armor and unbuttoned his robe, revealing the wound.

Seeing the wound, the Daoist was suddenly startled: "Four, no, five arrows! Why didn't you say so earlier! Hurry up and get the Life-Prolonging Pill! And the Qingshi Detoxification Powder! Get a few more bottles!"

The little Daoist beside him flew away and flew back, holding several medicine bottles. Only then did the Daoist calm down and carefully examine the wound, and was startled again: "Junior Brother, your physical body..."

A moment later, five arrowheads were thrown into the waste bin, and the Life-Prolonging Pill and Detoxification Powder were sent back as they were brought. There were only a few pale pink marks on the white cloth used to block the wound and absorb blood, which didn't look like blood stains at all.

Wei Yuan put on his armor and moved his body, feeling that the wound had almost healed.

The Daoist's eyes were strange, and he said: "Junior Brother, if this wound were on someone else, it would be a life-threatening concern, but on you, it should be a minor injury... right? But you can't count the merit of charging and trapping just because your physical body is formidable. How about this, I will still report it as a serious injury and life-threatening, does Junior Brother have any objections?"

Afraid that Wei Yuan would be embarrassed, the Daoist said again: "The disciples of the Mingwang Palace all calculate it this way, otherwise they would make trouble."

Taichu Palace calculates merit and contribution, in addition to traditional killing of enemies and pioneering, hard work such as being injured is also counted as merit. But the disciples of the Mingwang Palace have formidable physical bodies and can suffer the injuries of several people, so they are often sent to the most dangerous front line, so they also have a special way of calculating merit. The evaluation standard is what would happen if this injury fell on an ordinary human-rank cultivator. If an ordinary human-rank cultivator died, it would be counted as a serious injury, and if an ordinary cultivator could die three times, it would be counted as three heads.

Hearing that there was a precedent to follow, Wei Yuan naturally had no objections. So the Daoist recorded eighty merit points for Wei Yuan.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 85 =====