Longzang

Chapter 849 The Great Curse Descends Suddenly
Liu Lan stared at the overflowing, almost bursting, blood-red light on the altar, hardly believing her eyes. She was leading only a mere vanguard legion; how could they be receiving so much sacrificial power? The blood-red light was at least five times the normal level.

Liu Lan immediately sensed something was wrong and summoned all the generals to the central army camp to await orders.

Sure enough, not long after, a full moon shone in the center of the camp. The full moon emitted a hazy moonlight, which solidified into a sheet of silver frost. The moonlight surged, as if something was being conceived, and everyone held their breath, lowering their eyes to wait.

First came the outline of several finger bones, so large they could obscure a third of the night sky, slowly emerging from the broken moonlight. A cold, silvery sheen flowed across the skin, and the nails were so black they seemed to devour light. Every tiny movement silently tore through the moonlight, casting suffocating, mountain-toppling shadows.

A massive fingertip hung down, an invisible pressure bearing down on their very being. Many members of the witch clan couldn't withstand it and collapsed to their knees. In the moonlight, a finger slowly rose, stirring the moonlight, and pointed at Liu Lan, saying, "Before my army arrives, I want to see sufficient results. I don't care what methods you use—use up all the sacrificial power I've given you, wipe out all the warriors in your legion—I want to see results! If you can't do that, then go and fight your way out yourself."

Liu Lan lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to even breathe. He could clearly feel Kaguya's rage; if he didn't handle it properly, everyone in the tent would die.

As the moonlight faded, Liu Lan immediately stood up and roared, "Prepare the main altar! I will personally cast the spell!"

Across from the Witch Clan's main camp, Qingming was utterly silent. Strange low walls, fortresses, and small strongholds stretched across the land. As far as the Witch Clan could see, they could only see cold buildings; hardly any people were in sight.

Suddenly, a mournful, somber horn sounded, and all the Wu tribe warriors leaped to their feet and rushed out of their tents. This horn signaled the assembly of the entire army and was usually only sounded before a major battle. But the orders just issued clearly stated that the battle wouldn't begin until tomorrow, so why were the horns sounding now?
Countless witch warriors began to assemble in a chaotic frenzy; the sudden order inevitably caused confusion. It took most of the day to finally complete the assembly.

At this moment, the sky behind the army was already stained with a deep crimson color, and the great incantation was ready.

Then a row of strongmen, each two zhang tall, ascended the front-line altar and beat a war drum several zhang long. With each drumbeat, the witch warriors felt their blood boil, and their killing desire gradually overwhelmed their reason.

Squads of Wu tribe warriors marched out of their camp and headed towards Qingming, and the great battle finally began.

Wei Yuan stood at the front line, gazing at the rolling, dense green military might approaching from afar, and said with slight surprise, "Why is the Wu Clan fighting so desperately right from the start?"

But there was no answer to this question. At this time, Wei Yuan received news from the border that Li Zhi, having heard that the Wu tribe was launching a large-scale attack, was personally leading 150,000 elite troops and was on his way to Qingming. The army would arrive in three days.

Wei Yuan was overjoyed and ordered his men to prepare all the necessary military supplies. At the same time, he designated a flank area for Li Zhi to defend.

At this time, there was still some time before the arrival of the Wu tribe army. Wei Yuan received news that General Wei Boyang of the Great Tang Dynasty had arrived late and missed the Dao Foundation Ceremony, but had encountered the attack of the Wu tribe.

Wei Boyang stated that as a general of the Great Tang Dynasty, he could not stand idly by while foreign invaders attacked. Therefore, he planned to stay behind for a while. During this time, he would remain hidden away, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

In addition, Wei Boyang also brought three thousand elite soldiers from the Great Tang Army, which were then handed over to Wei Yuan for training.

The envoy's mention of drills puzzled Wei Yuan, but these officials were all shrewd and meticulous in their speech, never using the wrong words.

With a major battle imminent, Wei Yuan didn't have the time to waste with three thousand Imperial Guards, so he entrusted them all to Xu Yi. In Wei Yuan's view, Xu Yi was a veteran of many battles and now a Dharma Aspect cultivator; leading three thousand Imperial Guards was already an overestimation of his abilities.

In the dead of night, the vanguard of the Wu tribe finally came into range, and then the Qingming cannons fired in unison, shells whistling as they fell on the Wu army. In the blink of an eye, the front line was a sea of ​​fire, and the first wave of Wu troops that charged were almost completely wiped out.

"Good! Keep it up! Fire hard! After three more rounds of shelling, the artillery fire will extend two hundred feet!" The results made Cui Yu very excited, and he then adjusted the deployment of the artillery.

At this moment, Wei Yuan, who was standing next to Cui Yu, suddenly said, "Cease fire!"

Cui Yu was taken aback: "Why? The Witch Clan is already charging!"

Wei Yuan had no time to explain and continued to issue orders to the front-line corps commanders, this time directly down to the captain level. The order was to withdraw half of the soldiers from the front-line trenches, and if the remaining soldiers could not hold out, they could retreat into the various fortresses and strongholds.

After a long period of construction, the underground tunnels are now as dense as a spider web. Each fortress is connected by underground passages, so the days when all the soldiers guarding each fortress were killed in battle are gone forever.

The Wu tribe committed a full 900,000 troops to the first wave of attack, launching a full-scale assault along a hundred-mile-long front. The Wu tribe was now charging at full speed, covering several miles in the blink of an eye. The Qingming warriors in the front-line trenches, whose individual firepower was already not very concentrated, were suddenly reduced by half their forces and unable to suppress the Wu tribe's charge. In the blink of an eye, the Wu army was upon them.

Seeing that their firepower was failing to suppress the enemy, the troops in the trenches immediately retreated into the fortress. From there, they used the fortifications to relentlessly slaughter the Wu tribe with rotary cannons. Suddenly, patches of bright green appeared in the sky—the great curse had finally descended!
The night sky was tinged green by the bright green clouds, and thick fog descended from the heavens, landing on the battlefield. Although the fog was thin, those enveloped, whether human or shaman, immediately appeared to be in excruciating pain, collapsing and writhing on the ground, before falling silent shortly afterward.

The fog descended over an extremely wide area, covering a distance of fifty miles in length and two miles in width. Its power was also far greater than that of previous blood curses. Even reinforced concrete was stained black by the fog, and its surface constantly bulged and rose.

Wei Yuan's expression was grave. Had he not just withdrawn half of his warriors, they would have already suffered heavy losses. He hadn't expected the Witch Clan to be so ruthless, even cursing and killing their own soldiers. Within the green poisonous fog, the Witch Clan couldn't hold out much longer than the Human Clan; they too collapsed in the blink of an eye.

Over 100,000 of Wei Yuan's aura vanished instantly. His sudden order to retreat was initially due to the overwhelming artillery fire, which he feared would frighten the Wu Clan into abandoning their massed assaults.

The real carnage in positional warfare doesn't happen on the front lines, but when the enemy charges into the front lines. At that point, the Wu tribe will face fire from all directions, and that's when the massacre begins.

Furthermore, Wei Yuan had prepared artillery fire. All the fortresses were constructed of concrete with steel plates, impervious to shell fragments; they wouldn't be destroyed unless hit directly on the head. By then, the humans would all be hiding inside the fortifications, and after a round of artillery fire, there shouldn't be any living creatures left on the ground.

However, Wei Yuan did not expect the Witch Clan to unleash a powerful curse right away. Moreover, the Witch Clan themselves did not expect their vanguard to rush in so quickly, and the Human Clan did not offer much resistance. They actually penetrated deep into the formation in one go, and as a result, the powerful curse fell on their own heads.

The poisonous fog became a natural barrier; as long as it didn't dissipate, the Wu tribe couldn't attack, and Wei Yuan couldn't retake the position. Fortunately, the warriors in the front-line fortresses used their magical power to seal the firing ports in time, and the fortresses' ventilation relied not only on the top but also on underground ventilation ducts, so they were temporarily unharmed.

A moment later, the battle results were presented to Wei Yuan.

In the first round of fierce fighting, Qingming lost 4,000 men, while the Wu Clan suffered 59,000 casualties. However, Qingming's losses were mostly killed in action, with very few wounded. Upon seeing the report, Wei Yuan suddenly realized something and quickly ordered, "Have all troops on the second line of defense take cover in the fortresses!"

The order was immediately passed down, but Wei Yuan was still not at ease. With the help of the Peerless Dao Domain and the Zhou Tian Star Array, he instantly swept his divine sense across the defensive line that stretched for hundreds of miles.

Wei Yuan discovered that many troops had already begun to move and retreated to nearby fortresses, leaving only a few spies in the trenches to keep an eye on the movements of the Wu tribe.

“These guys…” Wei Yuan was both surprised and quite pleased.

The captains of Qingming are mostly trained in military academies and are very familiar with the tactics commonly used by the Wu tribe. Upon seeing the great curse descend, they immediately organize their troops to take cover without waiting for orders, preventing unnecessary casualties. Ordinary captains from the nine kingdoms do not possess this ability, not even deputy generals or adjutant generals.

The fighting eased slightly at this moment, and the second round of the Witch Clan's great curse descended, landing on the second line of defense. However, the Azure Nether Warriors had already taken refuge in the fortress, so the casualties in this round of the great curse were less than a thousand.

It would take a while for the poisonous fog to dissipate, so Wei Yuan seized the opportunity to review the battle reports. The war with the Witch Clan had already begun, and at this point, it was clear who was the enemy and who was the friend.

Besides Li Zhi personally leading an army of 150,000 to provide reinforcements, the Ji, Zhao, and Cui families sent 3 million Qingyuan as aid, the Xu family sent an equal amount, and the Bao family was much more generous, contributing tens of millions. However, none of the three families sent anyone, and they also hurriedly withdrew their disciples who had just completed their Dao foundations.

Wei Yuan was not surprised by this. Aristocratic families generally value people more than treasures and money. Given the current uncertain situation, they would not make any premature bets.

As expected, the State of Zhao remained silent and instead strengthened its border defenses. The King of Jin of the Western Jin Dynasty sent 30,000 imperial guards to aid them, and the King of Ying mobilized 10,000 northern troops; this constituted their entire reinforcement force.

Wei Yuan had no hope for the Western Jin Dynasty, so the fact that they sent tens of thousands of troops was already a pleasant surprise.

At this moment, someone else reported that Cui Chengxiao, the elder of Song Cui of Qinghe, had arrived in Qingming and wanted to talk to Wei Yuan.

This news greatly surprised Wei Yuan. Cui Chengxiao was no ordinary person; in terms of seniority, he was the grand-nephew of Cui Zhengxing, the ancestor of the Cui family in Qinghe. A hundred years ago, his cultivation had already reached the mid-stage of the Imperial Realm, ranking among the top five in the Cui family. His sudden arrival even required Wei Yuan to take him seriously.

With the Zhou Tian Star Array and the Peerless Dao Domain monitoring the entire territory, numerous avatars stationed in key locations, and the presence of human resources to respond instantly to any unexpected events, the location of Wei Yuan's true body was not particularly important. Therefore, Wei Yuan personally welcomed Cui Chengxiao in the Immortal City and also summoned Cui Yu to show his closeness.

Cui Chengxiao had thick eyebrows and phoenix eyes, broad shoulders and a stern back, giving him an extremely imposing appearance. He rarely smiled. Seeing Wei Yuan personally appear and Cui Yu present, he seemed satisfied and nodded slightly.

He got straight to the point, stating the purpose of his trip. Song Cui of Qinghe wanted to erect a boundary stone at a border of Qingming and claim an enclave. In return, Song Cui would provide full support to Qingming.

(End of this chapter)