Chapter 477: Calculated Strategy

Now that the main battlefields across the northern part of Song Guo had begun to clash with the demon beasts, it was surprising to find that only Jin Shan Market, where Song Qingming was stationed, still held a shred of initiative on the battlefield.

Upon learning this unfavorable news, Song Qingming's expression, which had only just relaxed, grew solemn once more. However, to avoid affecting the overall morale at Jin Shan Market, Song Qingming did not disclose this discouraging news to all the cultivators under his command; only the few dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators were aware of some of the inside information.

After learning that the situation at other locations was poor, Song Qingming also intensified preparations for battle, even though Jin Shan Market had just received reinforcements from Liuyang and Jiangling, and the number of defending cultivators in the market now exceeded two thousand.

Yet, over the last ten days or so, according to information gathered by the law enforcement team, small groups of demon beasts had continued to head south from the north, and the number of demon beasts gathering in Huangling Valley increased daily; the power of the demon beast side was also slowly strengthening.

Faced with this situation, although Jin Shan Market had achieved an initial victory and gained a certain degree of initiative, the threat from the northern demon beasts was far from resolved. Song Qingming could not spare any attention for the situation elsewhere for the time being and could only continue to urge all areas in the rear to accelerate the transport of war supplies to Jin Shan Market.

Before every demon beast chaos, the major cultivation families in northern Song Guo would prepare in advance, storing a batch of spirit talismans, elixirs, magic tools, spirit rice, and other strategic supplies needed for a major war.

Once the war began, these cultivation families would take the initiative to transport the stored spirit items to the front lines to provide support. Besides being able to exchange them for valuable demon beast materials, they could also earn a significant amount of sect merit, which was something all major Foundation Establishment families were very willing to do.

Following the decree issued by Song Qingming, the Golden Core ancestor, the major Foundation Establishment families in Jiangling County all brought out the spirit items accumulated in their own storehouses and began transporting them in batches to the front lines at Jin Shan Market. This strong logistical support from the rear was also a huge reliance for the cultivators on the front lines of Jin Shan Market to continue fighting.

In order to prepare his state to welcome the next major battle that was about to arrive, Song Qingming also intensified his closed-door cultivation.

In the few years since forming his Golden Core, Song Qingming had spent most of his time refining his natal magic treasure, the "Five-Colored Divine Light Mirror." As for his own cultivation method, because he had switched to a new one after forming his Golden Core, Song Qingming had only just cultivated the "Five Elements Profound Gang Art" to the late Foundation Establishment stage; he estimated it would take another two or three years to break through to the Golden Core stage. Currently, when facing enemies, he still used the few spells from the "Jade Profound Scripture" he had been cultivating all along.

However, Jin Shan Market did not have much peace for long. After resting for about a month, the White Lion Demon King reorganized its forces and, leading its demon beast army, arrived aggressively outside Jin Shan Market.

Song Qingming had not expected that after cultivating his "Formless Escape Light Needle" to its peak, covering it on a third-tier magic treasure would actually yield a greatly increased effect. Although he failed to slay the White Lion Demon King in this battle, Song Qingming still gained a great deal from the fight.

After all, a third-tier demon king's intelligence was no different from that of an ordinary person. Using a stratagem like the "Illusion Array" could at most be used once to catch them off guard. A high-tier demon beast of the White Lion Demon King's level would not be stupid enough to easily fall for Song Qingming's trick a second time.

He had not expected that after the "Formless Escape Light Needle" covered the Green Willow Sword, it would not only successfully hide most of the magic treasure's aura as Song Qingming had anticipated, but also significantly increase the Green Willow Sword's power when facing enemies later.

Back when he was still in the Foundation Establishment stage, after Song Qingming refined the "Formless Escape Light Needle," he had actually tried covering it on his own second-tier flying sword. But at that time, after the covering was successful, it failed to enhance the magic tool he was controlling, and even the effect of helping to hide the aura was not very obvious. Later, Song Qingming abandoned this idea.

Precisely because of this, at that time, Song Qingming took advantage of the moment before the White Lion Demon King could fully react, quietly controlled the Green Willow Sword to approach it silently, and immediately launched a surprise attack.

After the situation in Jin Shan Market stabilized, Song Qingming also seized the time to go into closed-door cultivation to practice the coordination between the "Formless Escape Light Needle" and his own magic treasure, the Green Willow Sword. As long as he could further improve his proficiency in this aspect, Song Qingming would have some certainty of defeating the White Lion Demon King head-on in the upcoming battles.

This time, when ambushing the White Lion Demon King, after using the "Illusion Array" to trap the demon king, Song Qingming, while preparing to deliver a fatal blow, suddenly felt a stir in his heart and attempted to attach the "Formless Escape Light Needle," which he had cultivated for many years, directly onto his magic treasure, the Green Willow Sword.

He had not expected that this sword strike would not only successfully shatter the White Lion Demon King's protective gang energy, but even the White Lion Demon King's powerful physical body was finally pierced through easily by the "Green Willow Sword" as if it were tofu. If it hadn't been for the White Lion Demon King timely controlling its natal inner core to block the "Green Willow Sword's" subsequent attack, Song Qingming might have truly had a chance to finish it off.

Next, the demon beasts and the human cultivator side once again unfolded a bloody battle outside Jin Shan Market. Because the strength of the cultivators at Jin Shan Market had increased significantly compared to before, the advantage held by the demon beast side was no longer so obvious; the overall combat power of both sides was basically evenly matched.

Besides the low-tier demon beasts and cultivators below, the White Lion Demon King, whose injuries had mostly recovered, also engaged in another major battle with Song Qingming outside the market this time.

In this battle, Song Qingming, who had already proficiently applied the "Formless Escape Light Needle" to augment the power of his magic treasure, was able to gain the upper hand in the head-on clash with the White Lion Demon King. In the end, the White Lion Demon King only managed to fight Song Qingming to a draw with the help of several powerful late Foundation Establishment demon beasts under its command.

Ultimately, with both sides suffering losses, the major battle slowly came to an end, leaving behind several hundred corpses outside Jin Shan Market. Because the human cultivator side was defending on their home turf, relying on the Jin Shan Market's mountain-protecting array, their overall losses were still much lower than those of the demon beast side.

Having witnessed Song Qingming's prowess and the very formidable defensive strength within Jin Shan Market, the White Lion Demon King did not rashly drive the demon beast army to launch a full-scale attack on Jin Shan Market again. Instead, it directed the demon beast army to concentrate on the east side of Jin Shan Market, standing in a standoff with the cultivators of Jin Shan Market.

After the battle, although the demon beast side still held a numerical advantage, the human cultivators relied on the several mountain-protecting arrays of Jin Shan Market and could also utilize the second-tier "Flying Cloud Crossbows" and a steady stream of various spirit items for help. The gap in strength between the two sides was now no longer significant, and there was no longer much possibility for the demon beast side to break through Jin Shan Market head-on.

After standing off with the cultivators at Jin Shan Market for half a month, the White Lion Demon King attacked the market head-on several more times, but in the end, it still could not find an opportunity to bite into the hard bone that was Jin Shan Market.

After several major battles, the demon beast side instead suffered quite a few hidden losses due to forced attacks and lost many low-tier demon beasts; even over a dozen second-tier demon beasts were killed by Jin Shan Market.

Seeing that there was no hope in attacking Jin Shan Market head-on, the White Lion Demon King slowly changed its original strategy of forcing an attack on Jin Shan Market. It began ordering a portion of the demon beasts under its command to secretly bypass Jin Shan Market and enter the territory of Liuyang County, attacking the spirit mountains near Jin Shan Market everywhere.

The White Lion Demon King itself remained outside Jin Shan Market with the demon beast army, beginning to direct these demon beasts to take turns in small-scale harassment attacks on the market, attracting the attention of all the cultivators at Jin Shan Market.

As news of several surrounding spirit mountains being breached by demon beasts reached Jin Shan Market, the numerous Liuyang County cultivators in the market suddenly became somewhat panicked. Although these people were in the market, their relatives and friends were still left at home in Liuyang County to the south, and naturally, they all began to worry about the safety of their own families.

The purpose of the White Lion Demon King's move was to force the cultivators of Jin Shan Market to take the initiative to come out and fight a decisive battle with it. As long as they left the market and lost the protection of the mountain-protecting array and those troublesome "Flying Cloud Crossbows," the cultivators of Jin Shan Market would inevitably be unable to defeat the demon beast army in a wild field battle.

Faced with the White Lion Demon King's calculated strategy, Song Qingming and other high-tier cultivators at Jin Shan Market were well aware of it and did not fall for the trap, immediately leaving the city to fight a decisive battle with the demon beasts.

If they chose to take the initiative to come out of Jin Shan Market to fight a decisive battle with the demon beast army, they would inevitably fall right into the White Lion Demon King's trap, and the human cultivator side would certainly be the ones to suffer.

But if they completely ignored it and let those demon beasts run rampant in Liuyang County, once the majority of Liuyang County fell into the hands of the demon beasts, it would inevitably shake the morale of the army over time.

In order to appease the numerous Liuyang County cultivators within Jin Shan Market, Song Qingming immediately ordered the numerous cultivation families in the north of Liuyang County to firmly execute the scorched-earth tactic, actively abandoning those spirit mountains that were difficult to defend, preserving their strength to assemble at Huoyun Mountain to the south, and organizing forces to jointly resist the demon beast army heading south.

Subsequently, Song Qingming quickly dispatched several Foundation Establishment cultivators led by Cao Rongxue, leading a group of relatively elite Qi Refining cultivators to quickly rush to Huoyun Mountain, splitting forces to support those cultivators remaining in the south of Liuyang County. To facilitate their rapid movement, Song Qingming even lent his own second-tier flying boat to Cao Rongxue for use.

Once Cao Rongxue and the others arrived at Huoyun Mountain a step ahead and joined forces with the numerous cultivators assembled there, the Liuyang County cultivator side quickly utilized the method of luring the enemy deep, dealing a heavy blow to a portion of the demon beast army heading south at the foot of Huoyun Mountain, blocking them in front of Huoyun Mountain.

Although many places in the north of Liuyang County temporarily fell into the hands of the demon beasts, because Song Qingming had issued the retreat order early, except for the first few Qi Refining families that failed to evacuate in time and suffered relatively large losses, the other cultivation families, upon receiving the instructions, quickly abandoned their own spirit mountains one after another and retreated directly to Huoyun Mountain.

During the last demon beast chaos, because the White Lion Demon King appeared and suddenly breached Jin Shan Market, the spirit mountains of the major cultivation families in the north of Liuyang County were all swept through by the demon beast army, causing them huge losses, and many of those cultivation families perished from then on.

After all, once bitten, twice shy. These numerous cultivation families who had suffered losses, in order to be safe, had already sent a portion of their mortals to the south of Liuyang County long before this demon beast turmoil.

Although the demon beast army splitting forces to head south breached many spirit mountains, the losses of the human side, besides a small portion of mortals, were actually not very large in terms of overall cultivators.