Longzang

Chapter 777 Because it's good-looking
The heavily armored warriors of Qingming advanced house by house, steadily and resolutely expanding their gains. The battle on the two flanks of the city wall progressed relatively quickly, and before long, half of the wall was in Qingming's hands.

Standing atop the West Gate, Wei Yuan had a panoramic view of the entire battle. With him in the air, none of the Zhao army's Dharma Images dared to ascend.

Wei Yuan's reputation and achievements have spread far and wide. Well-informed Dharma Aspect cultivators all know that if one or two people go up to fight Wei Yuan, they're just asking for trouble.

Even the lightly armed infantry of the Qingming army were equipped with breastplates, helmets, and groin protectors, giving them a significant advantage in close combat. Even if they were shot in the front, most of them would only be wounded but not killed. In contrast, most of the Zhao army wore leather armor, which was very vulnerable to both buckshot and ordinary musket bullets, and many soldiers were even pierced through by bullets.

At the eastern city of Hanyang Pass, several Zhao army generals surrounded a woman in fiery red armor, pleading, "Retreat! If you don't retreat now, it will be too late!"

Seeing that they had lost half of the pass in less than half an hour, the woman gritted her teeth in anger, flames rising from her head, and said, "Hold on a little longer! As long as we hold the east gate, we can always retreat back to Zhao through the east gate by taking a long detour!"

One of the generals muttered under his breath, "What if Wei Yuan sends troops to block the east gate..."

The woman turned around abruptly, stared at him, and asked, "Where did Wei Yuan get his soldiers?"

The general hurriedly replied, "In my humble opinion, if I were to lead the troops, I would certainly need to allocate a portion of them to ambush outside the East Gate."

The woman sneered, "Since you're so capable, then I'll just give you the army! I'll let you sit here!"

The general immediately knelt down and said, "This humble general dares not!"

At this moment, two senior generals who were of higher rank stepped forward and said, "General Su, the princess had clearly decided on the strategy when she left. Why did she suddenly change it? It's too late to retreat now. If we don't retreat now, we're afraid the whole army will be wiped out!"

The woman said coldly, "The princess went ahead to give me instructions and handed over the command to me, giving me full command authority! What, are you all dissatisfied and planning to seize power?"

The two veteran generals exchanged a glance and said helplessly, "We dare not! Since the princess has given her orders, we will certainly obey. However, does the princess have any written edict or letter left behind? May we take a look?"

The female general raised her voice eight octaves and roared, "You dare disobey the princess's orders?! Guards, behead these two old bastards!"

The guards around them dared not utter a sound. These two veteran generals were highly respected in the army, and no one dared to make a move for the time being.

The female general was even more enraged upon seeing this. She drew her longsword and shouted, "Are you trying to force me to take action? If you disobey me again, I will treat you all as mutiniesers and kill you all!"

The two old generals sighed, removed their helmets, and said, "General, please calm down. We have offended you and will return to apologize. Now, we urge you to reconsider, as the lives of these hundreds of thousands of soldiers are in your hands!"

The female general was engulfed in flames, the intense heat forcing all the generals to take a step back. In terms of cultivation, none of the generals present were a match for her.

At this moment, she became even more furious and shouted, "If we don't withdraw our troops as you wish, will we be completely annihilated and utterly defeated? Issue my order: all troops, fight to the death! Anyone who dares to retreat will be executed!"

At this moment, in Wei Yuan's eyes, the morale of the Zhao army was once again condensed and surged.

He was also somewhat puzzled. He had thought it would be an easy battle, and that the Zhao army would retreat when they saw the situation was unfavorable. Wei Yuan, however, planned to relentlessly pursue them, forcing them to abandon their supplies. Once he had driven them all back to Zhao, Wei Yuan would then withdraw.

This way, Wei Yuan gained an advantage, dealt a blow to the arrogance of Li Chengfeng's political enemies, avoided deep enmity, and also recovered lost territory and gained great fame. It was a win-win situation.

However, his wishful thinking had already failed when Zhao's army retreated into the city to fight a bloody battle.

Wei Yuan couldn't understand it at all. Why fight to the death for a so-called famous pass thousands of miles away, whose protective formation had even been breached?
Cui Yu knew Wei Yuan's thoughts, and said at this moment, "How about we surround them on three sides and let them go?"

Wei Yuan said, "Do you think they're planning to leave?"

Cui Yu was also puzzled: "Could there be some important figure in the Zhao army? Or have they discovered some precious treasure that cannot be moved for the time being?"

Wei Yuan's eyes lit up: "That must be it!"

Bao Yun appeared beside Wei Yuan and said, "What do you mean it must be like that! I only saw the light of a few Imperial Landscape Treasures, and they weren't very bright. If you don't believe me, you might as well call Master Chuhe to come and take a look."

Wei Yuan was not giving up. He immediately sent someone to the camp to invite Master Chuhe. In the blink of an eye, the old Taoist arrived at the front of the battle. A flash of white light appeared in his hand, and the flying sable leaped into the air and disappeared.

But in Wei Yuan's eyes, a faint ripple could be seen rapidly heading towards the Zhao army in the city. This was the trajectory of the Flying Sable; it could traverse the void, invisible to the naked eye. However, disturbing the Great Dao of Space inevitably leaves traces, and now it could not escape Wei Yuan's eyes.

The True Man of the Hoeing Fields' face shifted, his mouth and nose protruding forward, transforming into a giant, black, glistening rat's nose. He sniffed hard, and saw several wisps of precious light fly out from the Zhao army, which he inhaled into his nose.

Then the Dharma image disappeared, and Master Chuhe carefully savored the treasure's aura. After a moment, he said, "There are only three or four Imperial Landscape Treasures, all of them ordinary. I didn't see anything special, nor any rare natural treasures. There are quite a few things in the medicine garden that are better than these."

Wei Yuan still had unwavering faith in Chu He's innate supernatural power. At this moment, his eyes gradually deepened as he said, "If you have no treasures to protect, then you're going to fight me to the death? This army has some backbone!"

When facing a valiant opponent, Wei Yuan always aimed to break their backbone completely to eliminate any future trouble. He immediately ordered the Daoji warriors stationed at the rear artillery corps: Bombard the east gate!

Upon receiving the order, Lu Yu immediately opened the Hanyang Pass city defense map, measured the distance, and then calculated the target location parameters, handing them over to each artillery group. The cultivators in charge of operating the cannons then fine-tuned the parameters according to their group's position before starting test firing.

After a round of artillery fire, the East Gate of Hanyang Pass was engulfed in flames.

The heavy cannons were fired one by one in rotation. The cultivators at the front observed the impact points and relayed the corrected positions to Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation warriors. Once the front-line warriors knew this, the Dao Foundation warriors at the rear would simultaneously provide the corrected positions. After each heavy cannon was adjusted, they were deployed in groups of three, firing in shifts to bombard the east gate continuously. The east gate was engulfed in flames, and the Zhao army inside the city was greatly alarmed, experiencing considerable panic. Several generals then discovered that the cannonballs had come from outside the city to the west, and their faces turned ashen.

The shelling at the east gate was incessant, with powerful shells raining down, turning the area within a hundred feet into a living hell. No one below the Dao Foundation stage could survive.

The shelling continued for quite some time without any sign of stopping. One of the Zhao generals exclaimed, "Wei Yuan is trying to cut off our retreat!"

With their only escape route blocked by artillery fire, the Zhao army inside the city, which had been struggling to hold on, finally collapsed in morale, and some began to flee. The first group to escape were killed by the supervising troops behind them, but as more and more people fled, and the artillery fire at the east gate showed no signs of abating, even the supervising troops joined the ranks of deserters.

Seeing the perilous situation at the east gate, many of the strong and able-bodied Zhao soldiers simply climbed over the gate wall and fled. Those who were weaker and more terrified rushed into the east gate. However, under the intense artillery fire, less than 30% were able to cross the line of fire.

Chaos ensued at the rear, and the front lines began to falter. Many Zhao soldiers surrendered on the spot, while even more chose to escape by scaling the walls.

In the blink of an eye, the battle collapsed, and the morale of the Zhao army crumbled, completely dissipated by the aura of the Azure Nether army. Wei Yuan immediately leaped into the air and charged towards the center of the Zhao army. A group of Dragon Guards and Dharma Aspects from the Primordial Palace followed suit, searching for and fighting the Dharma Aspect cultivators of the Zhao army. At this moment, with the aura of the army amplified, the Azure Nether cultivators held an absolute advantage.

Before long, dusk fell, and the gunfire within the fortress finally ceased, returning to silence.

Wei Yuan looked at the woman in red armor covered in blood in front of him and reached out to remove her mask.

Beneath the mask was a face distorted by anger and humiliation. One could see that her features were quite beautiful, making her a great beauty, but she was clearly inferior to Consort Yuan and Ningguo.

Wei Yuan reached out and lifted her chin, moving her face from side to side to examine her closely. The woman struggled desperately, but she was severely injured and captured, her consciousness sealed, and she couldn't muster any magical power, so she was powerless to struggle.

She screamed, "If you touch me again, I'll have the princess kill you!"

Wei Yuan sighed and said, "As expected, you're not a princess. I knew you wouldn't look like that. So who are you?"

The woman spat at Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan didn't dodge or avoid it; the spit curved and landed directly on her face. Then, Wei Yuan raised his hand and slapped her across the face, making half of her cheek swell up.

Wei Yuan first sent her saliva back, then slapped her across the face, resulting in his hands also getting quite a bit of saliva on them. Wei Yuan's stomach churned instantly, and he quickly took out a handkerchief, carefully wiped his palms clean, and then blew on them with real fire to burn them, lest he leave any unclean residue.

"You, you dare hit me?!" the woman exclaimed incredulously.

Wei Yuan didn't answer at all, and said to his men, "Since she's not a princess, she's useless. Take her away and execute her!"

The woman was terrified and screamed, "I grew up with the princess and was her best friend! If you kill me, the princess will never let you get away with it!"

Wei Yuan said calmly, "I'm already thinking of capturing the princess. Do you think I'd be afraid she wouldn't let me go? If you can't speak properly, I might as well cut out your tongue first."

"you dare?!"

Before she could finish speaking, she received another slap on her left cheek. Immediately, Wei Yuan signaled, and a Dragon Guard came over, used his Dao power to pull out her tongue, and swung his knife down!

"No! I'll talk!!" After screaming, the woman realized that Long Wei's knife had just grazed her tongue, leaving only a thin line of blood.

A few moments later.

Wei Yuan's expression was quite interesting. He said, "You mean, the princess originally left a military order for you to test the waters and then withdraw, but you were not satisfied and insisted on fighting me, right?"

“...Yes.” The woman’s face turned pale, and she no longer dared to be arrogant.

"You have a good relationship with the princess?"

“Very good, I am her best confidante, and she trusts me the most.”

Wei Yuan asked thoughtfully, "What's your name?"

"Su, Su Hongmei."

Wei Yuan nodded and said, "You can go now."

Su Hongmei could hardly believe her ears, but Wei Yuan immediately withdrew the Dao power that sealed her sea of ​​consciousness, and then ordered someone to fetch her magic weapon, the spirit sword, and return it to her.

She initially thought Wei Yuan wanted to play cat and mouse, but even after flying several miles away, Wei Yuan remained completely still, simply watching her disappear into the distance.

Su Hongmei stopped and called out from afar, "Why did you let me go?"

Wei Yuan was already thinking about something else when he casually said, "Because... you're good-looking."

Su Hongmei's expression instantly became complicated. She paused for a moment, then turned and walked away.

(End of this chapter)