Longzang

Chapter 83 Flesh Millstone

A swirling yellow aura filled the surroundings, and the Liao cavalry seemed poised to appear from any direction at any moment. Wei Yuan constantly heard the whistling of heavy arrows, interspersed with occasional strange, sharp whistles. These were new, deadly arrows, specifically designed to be launched from high above. As they fell, they could slightly alter their trajectory, automatically targeting human warriors—making them virtually impossible to defend against. Many people were killed right before Wei Yuan's eyes by these falling arrows.

These arrows have an extremely long range; at least Wei Yuan hasn't seen where the archer is yet.

Wei Yuan rode his horse through a cloud of yellow mist, instinctively taking a breath. He immediately felt as if he had inhaled a cloud of sand; his mouth and nose burned, an indescribable discomfort. This wasn't because the yellow mist actually contained sand or dust, but simply because it was irritating and harmful to the body. This yellow mist originated from the Liao region, accompanying the Northern Liao knights. Now, with numerous Liao cavalry on the battlefield, the yellow mist permeated everything, making it almost indistinguishable from the Liao region itself.

A battlefield appeared to Wei Yuan's side, where a dozen Liao cavalrymen were hacking and slashing at several people. Corpses were scattered all around, and the men were clearly at their last gasp.

"No! I don't want to die!" One of them suddenly took to the air and flew away into the distance.

"Idiot!" Wei Yuan couldn't stop him in time and could only curse under his breath.

He had only flown a few dozen feet when a series of whistling sounds rang out in the air, and at least twenty arrows pierced through the sky, riddling him with holes.

One of the rules in the manual issued by Taichu Palace before the battle was: those who are not at the late stage of Dao Foundation are not allowed to take off in the Northern Liao battlefield.

Suddenly, yellow mist surged around Wei Yuan, and a centurion from the Northern Liao flew into the air to survey the battlefield.

Wei Yuan instinctively waved his hand, unleashing a Sandstorm Technique to meet the centurion's attack head-on. A whirlwind suddenly appeared around the centurion, and fist-sized sand and gravel rained down on him, instantly making his breath unsteady and almost causing him to lose his footing. The increased presence of the Liao Region's yellow aura wasn't entirely without its advantages; at least the power of the Sandstorm Technique had increased by 50%, and it had now become Wei Yuan's most frequently used Daoist technique.

Before the centurion could recover from the barrage of flying sand, a golden sword shadow suddenly flew through the air and pierced through his body! Then, a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck him, finally knocking the centurion down. Before he even hit the ground, Wei Yuan's short spear pierced through the air and penetrated his body.

In an instant, the centurion was dead. The rule against taking to the air also applied to the Liao cavalry.

Unbeknownst to them, Wei Yuan had been fighting for more than half an hour. He had already switched to the sixth box of javelins, and all his arrows were long gone. Now he was using arrows picked up from the corpses of the Liao cavalry.

After fighting for so long, they had actually advanced less than ten miles. Wei Yuan had mostly been charging back and forth, focusing on killing and wounding the enemy. Not long ago, Bao Yun fired her third signal arrow, conveying the message that the city's defenses were secure and reinforcements had arrived.

Upon receiving this information, the reinforcements changed their strategy, no longer blindly approaching the besieged city of Baoyun, but instead focusing more on engaging the Liao cavalry in battle. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Liao cavalry would also alleviate the pressure on the city's defenses.

Wei Yuan was the same. After charging forward for a few more miles, Wei Yuan suddenly saw a bright light in his eyes, and saw a thick beam of clear light rising in the distance, shooting straight into the sky! The yellow aura around Wei Yuan rapidly thinned and dissolved under the illumination of the clear light.

Where the clear light rose, lay Bao Yun's city. As the yellow aura of the Liao region dissipated, Wei Yuan's vision suddenly broadened, quickly expanding to about a hundred miles. He exerted a little effort, leaped up, and stood on his horse, gazing into the distance.

Below the clear air lay Bao Yun's city. Bao Yun could have garrisoned a county town, but she chose to be stationed further forward, her defense zone being a fortified village, just like Wei Yuan's. However, the fortified village that Wei Yuan saw was more than ten times larger than Shayang Village, practically half a county town.

Outside the fortified village, thousands of Northern Liao cavalrymen swirled around it like a giant vortex, unleashing a barrage of arrows. Every moment, numerous Liao cavalrymen attempted to charge the walls. To the north, thousands more Liao cavalrymen galloped back and forth, using their momentum to hurl waves of arrows thousands of feet away at the fortified village.

There were over five thousand cavalrymen besieging the fortified village alone, and countless guerrilla squads in the surrounding vast area were intercepting and killing any troops that came to its aid.

Bao Yun's fortified village had been completely transformed, now surrounded by pits a foot wide and three feet deep. Slightly different from the earthen pits dug by Fang Hetong, these pits were reinforced with iron plates; even the mighty Liao horses would surely break a leg if they stepped into one. Between the pits were countless iron spikes, each a foot long, guaranteed to injure a hoof. These layers of barriers prevented the Liao cavalry from galloping freely within a hundred feet; even if the riders weren't afraid, the horses would instinctively avoid them.

The fortified city walls were three zhang high, far exceeding those of ordinary fortified cities, and even higher than the walls of a county town. The walls gleamed with a bluish light, as if treated with some kind of Taoist magic; heavy arrows only penetrated a small portion of the wall. The crenellations were entirely covered with iron plates, which even armor-piercing arrows could barely penetrate, posing no threat to the defenders hiding behind them. This fortified city, like Bao Yun's courtyard in the Taichu Palace, had likely undergone a complete renovation.

The defenders on the wall were all dressed in blue armor adorned with gold patterns. Each of them held a powerful crossbow and fired at the Liao cavalry. After one group finished firing, the next group would immediately take their place, also leaning forward to fire. After they finished firing, the next group would take their place, in an orderly and efficient manner, without any panic.

Waves of crossbow bolts rained down on the besieging Liao cavalry, seemingly without end. Any Liao cavalryman who got even slightly close to the fortified village was shot down, and those who dared to charge at it were invariably riddled with bullets.

The enormous column of pure energy was several meters thick, within which a precious tree faintly appeared. Each time the precious tree swayed, the column of pure energy would emit a ring of pure light, empowering the defending soldiers and simultaneously repelling the yellow aura of the Liao region. Without the yellow aura protecting them, the Liao cavalry were naturally weakened, while the defending soldiers, empowered by the pure energy, were full of energy and felt no fatigue whatsoever.

With just a glance from afar, Wei Yuan felt as if he were looking at a giant steel hedgehog. Thousands of elite guards, endless barrage of powerful bows and crossbows, and the support of large-scale formations—who could possibly take it down?
Wei Yuan suddenly sensed danger, his body lurching forward as he lay prone on his horse's back. Several arrows flew overhead, two of them even sinking slightly as he crouched, revealing a degree of tracking ability. Fortunately, these two arrows were of low quality, barely qualifying as magical artifacts, and lacked agility in turning; otherwise, Wei Yuan would have been hit by one. While being hit by an arrow wouldn't have been a significant blow to Wei Yuan, it would have somewhat impaired his movement.

Before Wei Yuan could even take off, he was already a head taller than the others while standing on his horse when he was shot at by a barrage of arrows.

Wei Yuan raised his hand and unleashed a sand-flying spell, trapping a nearby galloping Liao cavalryman. However, the spell was surprisingly weak, failing to knock the rider off his horse or cause it to stumble. Wei Yuan then remembered that the yellow aura of the Liao region had been dispelled, and the battlefield was now filled with pure human energy, changing the battlefield's five elements from fire, metal, and earth to wood, metal, and water.

Wei Yuan waved his hand again, this time unleashing a water blade technique imbued with Dao power. This water blade technique was indeed much more powerful, instantly slicing the Liao cavalryman and his horse, leaving them covered in wounds and causing them to fall to the ground. Then Wei Yuan finished him off with a flying spear, ending his life.

By this point in the bloody battle, Wei Yuan had developed a fighting strategy: use Daoist techniques to injure or hinder the Liao cavalry, then finish them off with short spears. This strategy was surprisingly efficient, but it also relied on a strong physique and immense Daoist power. If it were an ordinary cultivator, they would have exhausted their Daoist power and collapsed after throwing a quiver of short spears.

At this moment, a massive battlefield had formed around Bao Yun's fortified village, teeming with tens of thousands of Liao cavalry. Human reinforcements continued to pour into the battlefield, engaging the outer guerrilla forces in fierce combat. The entire battlefield was now enveloped by the human domain, the Liao domain's yellow aura almost completely vanished, transforming it into a giant trap that pinned the tens of thousands of Liao cavalry to the human domain. The once ferocious Liao cavalry gradually weakened, and the tide of battle began to turn little by little.

(End of this chapter)