Longzang

Chapter 302 Collision
In the southern part of the territory, a large army of the Western Jin Dynasty had already formed its battle formation, its military appearance orderly and imposing, confronting an opposing force that was only half its own size.

Several generals and captains stood in the center of the army, gazing at the ragged troops opposite them, their expressions varied. One captain couldn't help but say, "General Xu, is this the Qingming garrison that has repelled the Wu tribe several times? Are they really not a bunch of beggars?"

General Xu narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly, "Wei Yuan doesn't think highly of us!"

Facing off on opposite sides, the Western Jin army, led by General Xu, was well-disciplined and numbered 15,000, equipped with both infantry and archers, as well as several hundred cavalry. The main force of this army consisted of his loyal followers, with only 5,000 local troops transferred from the military camp.

The opposing force that came from within the border region numbered only eight thousand. They were all dressed in tattered clothes and carried a variety of weapons. Many of them carried steel rods with long knives tied to one end and had steel rods hanging from their waists.

They were arranged in three rows, with a group of archers in red robes and armor standing on one side. There were about seven or eight hundred of them, and they were quite conspicuous. The archers were scattered, and although it was a loose formation, many of them stood in a loose posture, which showed that their military discipline was not very good.

Other armies try to make their archers less conspicuous, but Qingming does the opposite. No one knows what's wrong with their commander.

Wei Yuan stood in the center of the army, quite exasperated by the state of his troops. The most scarce resource in the region wasn't food, but textiles. The residents had no replacements for their torn clothes, so they had to mend them. Currently, the only cloth available in the region was hemp cloth made from natural hemp and tree bark, which produced garments barely better than fishing nets.

This unit consists of veterans from within the region, most of whom have experienced several major battles. While their absolute strength may not be exceptional, they are highly experienced and possess extremely unwavering fighting spirit. There are precedents of these men fighting to the death even after suffering over 60% casualties. Now, with a complete upgrade to new weapons and armor, their combat effectiveness has been further enhanced.

In the face of countless beings, they are the scythes that reap lives.

In the Western Jin army, General Xu reached out and sensed the surrounding world, saying, "The Pure Realm of the Mortal World is much more comfortable. Standing here is much better than in Quliu Town. At least we feel dry, not like we're constantly soaking in water. We're fighting in their territory now, but perhaps they've forgotten that we're also human. The Pure Realm of the Mortal World also provides us with a boost."

If we lose this battle, I, Xu Li, can retire and return to my hometown!

Wei Yuan and Cui Yu looked at the Western Jin army, and Wei Yuan suddenly said, "They dare to fight deep into our territory. It seems they don't take the power of our territory seriously!"

Cui Yu said, "The Pure Realm of the Human World treats us all the same; that's probably what he thinks."

Wei Yuan let out a soft breath. The mortal realm was the same, but the beings in that instant were different, and the effects of the Heavenly Madman were amplified within the realm. Ordinary boundary stones did not have these functions, but the one standing here was the Immortal Stone Azure Nether.

As the bugle sounded, the Western Jin army marched forward. Archers drew their bows and nocked arrows, and thousands of arrows pierced the sky, flying towards a group of extremely conspicuous targets ahead.

There was no way around it; the enemy archers were just too conspicuous. In this green landscape, that patch of red was so sharp that even a blind person could see it.

This Western Jin army brought three thousand archers, all of whom were well-trained. This volley of arrows was accurate and ruthless, covering the entire enemy archer corps.

In the Azure Archer Squad, one of the archers, staring at the incoming rain of arrows, loudly counted down: "Three, two, one!"

In an instant, all the archers felt themselves burning up. Countless forces surged in from the void and appeared out of thin air from within their bodies. Their vision was farther and their reactions were faster. The rain of arrows seemed to be three beats slower!
This was the result of the combined might of all living beings and the madmen of heaven and earth in an instant. The Cui family members in the archery team had already experienced this power beforehand, but their battlefield experience was almost zero. At this moment, they were all staring intently at the rain of arrows in the air, preparing to dodge or block. The veterans in the team who had participated in many battles were unusually calm. They first returned two arrows to the other side, and then deflected or avoided the falling rain of arrows.

The archer captain gave the order, and the archers fired a five-shot volley before the second wave of arrows arrived!

The Cui family members were in a flurry of activity, but Cui Yu's rigorous training had paid off, and they managed to keep up with the veteran's pace and fire all five arrows.

The second volley of arrows rained down, and more than a dozen screams rang out from within the ranks. Some of the Cui family members panicked, scrambling to dodge as the arrows approached, resulting in casualties. Two unfortunate fellows were struck through the helmets by heavy arrows and died instantly.

In this battle, the veteran archers and the Cui family members were matched in a one-to-one ratio. The deaths of two Cui family members did not affect the veterans at all; they remained calm and unhurried, unleashing another five-shot burst before calmly dealing with the third wave of arrows.

After three volleys of arrows, the Western Jin vanguard infantry had approached the enemy, but without any archer cover. When the captains looked back, they found their own archers in disarray, with five or six hundred men fallen. Even a captain at the Foundation Establishment stage had been hit by several arrows and was standing there dead.

Suddenly, continuous thunder rumbled in front of the battle lines, and billowing dust filled the air. The Western Jin soldiers in the front ranks were cut down like wheat.

A moment later, outside the boundary, Xu Li watched somewhat blankly as the routed soldiers returned to his surroundings. Of the 15,000 who came, only 6,000 remained, and there were probably a few thousand more who had gotten separated during the retreat, bringing the total to about 10,000.

A crushing defeat, a swift defeat, and they didn't even know how they lost.

At this moment, Xu Li only remembered the last moment when his most elite warriors successfully broke through the enemy's mysterious weapon and rushed to the front of the enemy's lines.

However, in that instant, the warriors of Qingming seemed to be possessed by gods and demons. The first rank of warriors who charged forward were almost instantly killed. At that moment, their morale collapsed and the army retreated.

Fortunately, the other party did not pursue them.

At this moment, Wei Yuan had arrived in the eastern part of the realm, where 30,000 youths were waiting in full battle array.

They wore gleaming breastplates, carried long spears shaped like steel pipes, and had five short sticks wrapped in oiled paper hanging from their waists.

A tremendous tremor shook the earth, and on the distant horizon, countless iron cavalry clad in light gray armor appeared, slowly approaching. At the center of the column, a large banner fluttered in the wind, the character "Yue" on it as heavy as a mountain. This was the iron cavalry that Yue Jinshan relied on to dominate the northern border!

Both sides were filled with overwhelming military spirit.

The renowned Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry, with its imposing presence like a gray mountain range, towering dozens of feet high, advanced slowly, its momentum as solid as a mountain!

On one side of the realm, wisps of black energy rose, dimming the surrounding world and making it seem as if it were not of this world.

From the southwest, nearly a thousand warriors in red robes and armor rushed over in a scattered formation. They were archers who had just finished fighting in the south and were urgently transferred to the east.

At the heart of the Northern Frontier cavalry, a general with a murderous aura coldly observed the distant military formation, nodded slightly, and said, "Not bad, the military spirit is decent. But to only display five ranks of troops in front of me, Luo Bingtian, are they trying to hasten their demise?"

A general with a ferocious expression said, "Commander Yue gave us 10,000 cavalry. Isn't that giving them too much credit? In my opinion, even 5,000 would be too much, and even 3,000 would be too much."

Beside Wei Yuan, Cui Yu also seemed uneasy, saying, "Won't five ranks be too few? We still have troops; let's add a few more ranks of spearmen! The enemy has ten thousand Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry; we can't stop them without fifty thousand men!"

Wei Yuan said calmly, "All our steel and gunpowder for this month are here. Don't worry, we can't lose."

Cui Yu, however, couldn't shake his unease. He had read all the materials Xu Wenwu had written. But could he really trust the writings of such an ignorant and incompetent fellow?
Behind the army formation, Zhang Sheng, Ji Liuli, and Chuhe Zhenren watched the battlefield from afar. The old Taoist was in full force, displaying the aura of a Dharma Image Zhenren, but he had no intention of joining the battle for the time being.

Behind the Northern Frontier cavalry, a group of generals stood in the air, their bearing imposing. Below them were 20,000 cavalry, but they remained motionless.

At the center of the group of generals, Yue Jinshan stood suspended in mid-air, his eyes seemingly open yet closed, with only a long sword at his waist. The battlefield situation was now clear: ten thousand heavily armored cavalrymen from the Northern Frontier, renowned throughout the land, faced thirty thousand light infantry, one thousand archers, and one thousand knights from the Azure Netherworld.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of military affairs knows that the border region is doomed to defeat.

In the fierce wind, Luo Bingtian slowly lowered his face armor, pointed forward, and his icy voice rang in the ears of every knight: "Leave no one alive!"

A pale gray tide immediately began to surge, the earth trembled and groaned under the iron hooves, and a full ten thousand armored cavalrymen, their bodies fully forged, began to charge.

The gray mountains suddenly surged higher, their military aura crashing down on their opponents like a raging torrent, instantly scattering the deep black mist. Military aura is the most direct reflection of the combat strength of both sides; judging from the comparison of strength, although the realm had more people, its combat power was much weaker.

The red-clad archers immediately began firing, unleashing volleys of arrows upon the Northern Frontier cavalry. However, the knights simply lowered their bodies and accelerated their charge; the heavy arrows were significantly weakened by the military atmosphere, and even those that hit were often deflected by their heavy armor. After a single volley, only a dozen or so riders fell from their horses.

The archer captain was in a great hurry. With a shout, all the archers began to fire twelve rapid shots as if their lives depended on it!

Behind the military formation, hundreds of cultivators sat cross-legged around three long magic arrays. Steel cylinders were placed onto these arrays, propelled at increasing speed, and hurled towards the battlefield dozens of miles away. The massive steel cylinders arrived at the perfect moment, flying over the battlefield just as the iron cavalry was about to reach the center!
Several spear and blade beams rose from the cavalry, striking the steel cylinders and instantly slicing one into pieces, scattering a cloud of grayish-white powder. The other two cylinders, however, exploded in mid-air upon contact with the blade beams. Two deafening thunderous roars echoed above the cavalry, two enormous fireballs appeared out of thin air, and countless deadly fragments rained down, while the gale-force winds sent hundreds of iron-clad cavalrymen below flying, their horses and men thrown to the ground!

The attack came so suddenly that the generals accompanying the charge were caught off guard. Three more steel cannons came hurtling towards them, this time met with a barrage of sword and spear strikes, cleaving them in two hundreds of feet away. However, the charging cavalry was already inevitably thrown into disarray, with hundreds falling in the first two explosions, half of whom never rose again.

Steel cylinders kept flying in, and the cavalry generals were already giving it their all, not daring to let a single explosion occur. Each steel cylinder contained two thousand catties of new-type explosives, enough to seriously injure even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator who got too close.

Despite some chaos, the vast majority of the cavalry remained unaffected and continued their charge, quickly closing the distance to within a hundred feet.

At this moment, black flames ignited on all the youths, and their military spirit soared, reaching the heavens and the earth! In an instant, their strength surged, their thoughts became lightning-fast, their eyesight improved exponentially, and even the iron cavalry that had been flying towards them slowed down.

Most importantly, they are not afraid.

A sudden roar erupted, and a plume of white smoke appeared in front of the Azure Nether Array, stretching into a wall of smoke.

The vanguard of knights suddenly seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, falling backward from their horses. Some were sent flying, spitting out long streams of blood. But the other knights ignored them, their eyes fixed only on the fragile, eggshell-like five-layered military formation dozens of feet away!

For the renowned Northern Frontier Cavalry, a distance of several dozen feet was merely a matter of a few breaths.

After firing their first volley, the boys in the first rank immediately retreated to the rear of the formation. Before they were fully in position, the second rank had already finished firing and continued to move backward, followed by the third and fourth ranks!

The boys moved with ghostly speed. By the time the fifth rank of soldiers had returned to their positions, the boys in the first rank had already resumed aiming. The boys behind them took out short oiled paper sticks from their waists, inserted them into the gun barrels, and used their magical power to pull them all the way down before re-aiming. The whole process was so fast that it was almost impossible to see.

A knight finally charged to the front of the battle, the tip of his lance already pressed against a boy's chest!

But the boy remained calm, concentrating on aiming his spear. As the spear pierced his body, he unleashed a powerful shot, shattering the warhorse's head.

The knight leaped from his horse, the boy still impaled on his lance, and flew several dozen feet as if riding on clouds before crashing to the ground, killing two boys in the back row. His body, encased in heavy steel armor, slid nearly twenty feet across the ground before coming to a stop.

His body was deformed from the enormous impact, blood was gushing from his mouth and nose, and for the first time, terror appeared in his eyes.

He remembered that when he fell, the two boys only glanced at him out of the corner of their eyes, then continued to concentrate on loading the bullets, their hands remaining perfectly still and undisturbed until the very last moment before they died. Were they human or ghosts?

He died unaware that he was the Northern Frontier Knight with the most victories in this battle.

Amidst the continuous roar, smoke quickly dissipated across the battlefield, and swathes of knights fell, their bodies and the corpses of men and horses lurching forward with inertia, leaving long trails on the ground.

Luo Bingtian forcefully kicked off the horse carcass that was pressing down on him, and all he could see were corpses.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he let out a wild howl as he drew his long sword and charged forward! None of the people opposite him had even reached the Dao Foundation stage; Luo Bingtian was determined to kill them all to avenge his fallen brothers!

His broadsword emitted a strong light, and a terrifying sword aura ten feet long took shape, but at this moment a soft and bright sword light appeared and entangled the broadsword.

The sword light appeared gentle, but each strike was incredibly heavy and omnipresent. Luo Bingtian was instantly plunged into a fierce battle. He was almost driven mad, yet he couldn't do anything to the bouncy, long-sword-wielding girl before him.

The battlefield had quieted down, and the lingering smoke was gradually dissipating in the wind. Before the Azure Nether Army's formation, countless corpses of men and horses lay piled together, resembling a scene from hell.

Ten thousand iron cavalrymen, both men and horses were shattered.

In a few breaths, the fearless youths emptied their five spare rounds, firing a total of 180,000 shots.

In the Northern Army, Yue Jinshan suddenly gripped the hilt of his sword, and a murderous aura soared upwards, dispersing the dark clouds overhead and bringing down a patch of sunlight!
Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine; his worst fears had come true: Yue Jinshan, enraged, wanted him to intervene.

Wei Yuan raised his spear and rode out into battle with composure, a dim light, like that of dusk, gathering at the tip of his spear.

No matter how strong Yue Jinshan is, he may not be stronger than the swordsman Xu Shiqi. Now that the Qingming Pool has accumulated enough water, regardless of whether he can kill him with one strike, this spear will at least kill him two hundred years of his lifespan! After that, we will have to see how solid his Dharma form is and how much foundation he can retain under Zhang Sheng's sword formation.

At this moment, a surge of energy from the southwest broke through the air and locked onto Yue Jinshan from hundreds of miles away! A sweet and gentle voice rang in his ears: "Old Yue, bullying the weak is a bit boring."

The veins on the back of Yue Jinshan's hand throbbed, but he slowly loosened his grip on the knife. He glanced deeply at the battlefield one last time, then turned and left.

On the battlefield, 30,000 young men still stood, their ranks still disciplined. Before them, the gray mountains crumbled, and their morale collapsed.

This is a clash between two eras, and also a clash between two worlds.

Quliu Town, Xu Family Courtyard.

A human face appeared on the old tree trunk, looking at the woman in red sitting by the window. The smile on the old face was indescribably obsequious. "Senior, you're reading the storybook yourself!"

P.S.: This is a monthly pass from Dazhang Loan. I won't split it up and send it out in installments. You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. Give them more benefits at the beginning of the month so they can run away with the money at the end of the month.

(End of this chapter)