Longzang

Chapter 485 Preparing for Battle (Thanks to the Alliance Leader for ignoring the alt account 1)

In the city lord's mansion of Ding'an, Wei Yuan and Bao Yun stood side by side, their view of the vast green world stretching out before them.

The sky was covered with dark clouds. Although it was noon, the light was as dim as dusk, and wisps of green mist hung down from the clouds from time to time, making the world seem even more profound.

Having dealt with the Witch Clan for so long, Wei Yuan knew that the vision of most Witch Clan members was different from that of humans. The pervasive greenery was an obstacle to the vision of humans, but the Witch Clan members could see much farther.

A military aura, as imposing as mountains, slowly emerged. Beneath this aura lay an endless army of witches, causing the very ground beneath their feet to tremble.

Two hundred thousand Wu tribe members appeared outside Ding'an City. This force, which in the past would have been enough to flatten the entire Qingming region, was now not even considered the vanguard. Based solely on what Wei Yuan had personally witnessed and analyzed from the human world, the number of Wu tribe members who had arrived exceeded ten million, while the number of soldiers was a full one million eight hundred thousand.

On the walls of Ding'an, seeing the formidable military might of the Wu tribe, some soldiers turned pale and began to tremble slightly.

Bao Yun said, "It seems they want to test the waters first and see how effective our defense system is."

Wei Yuan nodded, then said, "Prepare for battle."

Bao Yun returned to the main building of the city lord's mansion. In front of her was a huge sand table map, with groups of officers standing on both sides.

Behind Bao Yun stood two inconspicuous Foundation Establishment warriors, but everyone subconsciously glanced at them from time to time. Higher-ranking officers now knew that the presence of such Foundation Establishment warriors meant that the Realm Lord could hear and see everything.

Bao Yun walked onto the terrace and leaned on the railing to gaze into the distance. The city walls of Ding'an were not high; from her height, she could clearly see outside the city.

As the Wu Clan army drew near, the power of the boundary suddenly descended, and the people in the city instantly felt lighter, their fear vanished, and they even gained more strength. The green aura outside the city began to fade and recede, and their vision extended, but the aura of the Wu Clan army in the distance remained unshaken.

Only in major battles of this magnitude can the true power of military might be revealed.

The aura of an elite army is as solid as a mountain, unshakable by the power of its domain, and significantly weakens large-scale spells. Relying on this aura, one can conquer thousands of miles of enemy territory. The most effective way to weaken the enemy's aura is through direct combat between army formations and infantry.

The central army of the Wu tribe pushed out an altar, then stopped dozens of miles away, where dozens of shaman priests ascended the altar to begin the ceremony. Following this, dozens of giant beasts appeared from the central army and slowly approached Ding'an City.

Bao Yun silently calculated the situation, then ordered: "Withdraw from the position!"

The defenders on the city wall immediately left the formation. Some ran towards the center of the city, while others hid below the city tower, all entering their designated shelters.

The defense and siege of Ding'an City are now entirely under Bao Yun's command, which will allow for the rapid accumulation of Qi. With the assistance of the Dao Foundation warriors he left behind, Bao Yun's military orders can be instantly transmitted throughout the city. Moreover, Bao Yun's leadership skills are quite good; even Wei Yuan himself wouldn't have reached this level in the city defense battle.

As a beam of blood-red light shot straight into the sky from the Wu Clan altar, a large patch of blood-red clouds suddenly appeared above Ding'an City, followed by a fine rain of blood.

Blood curses are the most common offensive tactic used by the Witch Clan, and ordinary defensive fortifications cannot stop such curses. Even hiding underground is useless; one can only rely on the power of the realm, the city's protective array, and one's own magical power to resist them.

Therefore, Bao Yun specifically set up nodes of the city's defensive array in every area of ​​the city's defensive position. These nodes only covered the shelters, thus greatly enhancing the defensive capabilities and significantly weakening the power of the blood curse. The shelters at the nodes were also equipped with necessary wound medicines and various purification pills for seriously wounded soldiers to rest and recuperate.

Qingming now has a new strategy for dealing with the Blood Curse. At the beginning of the war, before the Blood Curse descends, all frontline warriors must hide in shelters, not only to avoid the first wave of the Blood Curse, but also to take pills there that can resist the erosion of the curse.

Although these pills were hastily refined by Xu Henshui, and were a scaled-down version with many precious medicinal herbs removed for mass production, they were still enough to greatly increase the user's resistance for the next hour, effectively resisting the blood curse. Moreover, after adjusting the formula, Xu Henshui could produce over a thousand pills per batch, and his fellow disciples could produce six or seven hundred.

Wei Yuan also tried refining two batches. The first batch only yielded a little over eight hundred pills, which helped Xu Henshui rebuild his confidence.

However, with the full optimization of human resources, Wei Yuan's second batch produced over 1,900 pieces, once again enraging Xu Henshui. Even when she was angry, Xu Henshui was more beautiful than most women.

Whenever Wei Yuan saw Xu Henshui get angry, he would think of Zhang Sheng. His master must have been extremely beautiful when he was furious, but unfortunately Zhang Sheng had a good temper and rarely got angry. When he did get angry, he would just use his sword to strike.

The blood rain continued relentlessly, and a hazy curtain of light appeared above the city, beginning to intercept the blood rain. This marked the official activation of Ding'an City's protective formation.

The drops of blood, passing through the light barrier, transformed into a faint red mist. At this moment, led by their officers, the soldiers rushed out from their cover and returned to their positions. Each soldier emanated a hazy, clear light; as the blood mist landed on them, the light dimmed slightly. Only when the light completely disappeared did the soldiers fall to the ground, dying in agony.

Officers with Dao Foundation cultivation patrolled the battlefield amidst the blood rain. When they saw a soldier whose protective aura was about to disappear, they ordered him to quickly enter the shelter. Then, a reserve soldier waiting in the shelter would be sent out to replace that soldier and enter the battlefield.

Under this brand-new defense system, the power of the witch clan's blood curse was largely neutralized, and it took a full quarter of an hour for a hundred defenders to fall.

Seeing that the blood curse was ineffective, the vanguard of the Witch Clan began to move out, and their massive army pressed towards Ding'an City. Tens of thousands of cavalrymen circled around to the flanks, attempting to bypass the city and attack deeper into the territory.

However, every ten miles or so, Wei Yuan built a small military fortress. The fortresses resembled blooming flowers, with short-barreled cannons deployed on each of their extended petals.

When the Wu tribe cavalry attempted to pass through the fortified camp, they were immediately met with relentless bombardment from the short-barreled cannons. Now, Qingming's cannonballs had been improved, with increased explosive charge and relatively fewer fragments, but with greater destructive power, instantly sending the Wu tribe cavalry flying.

The vanguard of the Wu tribe cavalry was caught in a shelling storm and found themselves in a dilemma, forced to retreat and leave behind hundreds of corpses.

On the walls of Ding'an, several gunners loaded shells into their short-barreled cannons. After a brief aiming, they fired, and the gunner saw a burst of fire erupt among the Wu tribe troops, blasting more than a dozen Wu warriors into the air. He excitedly rose to his feet, roared, and made an obscene gesture towards the Wu tribe.

"careful!!"

Before the gunner could react to the screams behind him, a heavy arrow suddenly pierced through the air and instantly penetrated his body, even his breastplate couldn't stop it in the slightest!

Ten miles away, a muscular giant with two fangs lowered his massive bow and grinned maliciously from the ranks of the Wu tribe. He was quite satisfied with the arrow that had killed an enemy from ten miles away. He then drew another heavy arrow and calmly nocked it on his bow.

Suddenly, a whooshing sound rang out from the side. He turned his head and saw that dozens of feet away, a snake-headed, four-eyed archer from the Wu tribe had also fired an arrow. The arrow flew like a meteor, just missing a short-barreled cannon and impaling the two men behind it!
The two archers from the witch clan exchanged a glance, their eyes blazing with fighting spirit!

As they drew their bows and began searching for their next target, the human gunners on the city wall suddenly lifted two steel shields and attached them to the cannons.

They refused to believe it and each fired another arrow, but the heavy arrowheads barely pierced the shield, startling the gunners behind. These cannon shields were three fingers thick, making them difficult even for the heavy arrows of the Wu tribe to penetrate.

After the arrow shields were installed, the gunners had no more worries and frantically loaded and fired, bombarding the attacking witch tribe.

Cannonballs exploded continuously within the Wu tribe's ranks, creating gaps in their defenses. Flying swords began firing from the city walls, sweeping across the front ranks of warriors. The flying sword lances were also fitted with arrow shields, but these were not as thick as those for the short-barreled cannons. Therefore, the Wu tribe's sharpshooters abandoned their attacks on the short-barreled cannons and began targeting the flying sword lances.

At this moment, dozens of giant beasts charged out from the witch army's ranks, forcefully hurling balls the size of tabletops at the city walls. Ding'an City had already experienced this type of attack in the previous round, so they had a countermeasure.

The Dharma Aspect cultivators stationed in the city intercepted some of them, the Dao Foundation officers used flying swords and spears to block them, and finally the guards on the city wall fired with muskets.

Under multiple interceptions, most of the dozens of balls were shattered, with only a dozen or so landing on the city walls. However, the city's defenses had now been reinforced again, with steel plates installed on top. The balls landed on the steel plates, shattered, and black liquid flowed out, even corroding the steel plates themselves.

However, it would take a while to corrode the steel plate thoroughly. The captains of each Dao Foundation had already begun to cast various Dao spells, some using water to wash it away, some using wind to blow away the black water, and others using spells to neutralize the poison.

Frontline soldiers were generally issued leather jackets soaked in medicated oil, and they all changed into them. It didn't matter if they were occasionally splashed with some black water.

The Wu tribe, of course, refused to give up, and the giant beasts continued to hurl the ball. They possessed immense strength, able to throw the ball into the city from ten miles away; the short-barreled cannons, with their limited range, couldn't reach the beasts at all. Fortunately, the ball was a large, slow target, allowing well-trained Dao Foundation cultivators to effectively intercept it with their flying swords and spears. Wei Yuan even dispatched his scholar Dharma forms to the city walls, where the barrage of rotating flying sword cannons continuously intercepted hundreds of balls.

Seeing that the enemy's attack had little effect, the officers breathed a sigh of relief, only to suddenly see the witch archers switch to a type of heavy arrow they had never seen before. These arrows had a cylindrical tip, and then hundreds of heavy arrows were launched at them.

Steel plates were installed on top of the city wall fortifications, so the officers and soldiers paid little attention to the heavy arrows being hurled at them. They focused their fire on the approaching witch tribe members, trying to inflict maximum damage on them before they could scale the walls.

The heavy arrows fell and suddenly exploded, and the continuous flames instantly engulfed the city wall. Steel plates could be seen flying through the flames, and the defending soldiers could be seen being blown into the air from time to time!

(End of this chapter)