Longzang

Chapter 976 Tiger Crouching, Dragon Coiling
Ten thousand rebels besieging a small town defended by five hundred men should be a piece of cake. But if the town is also equipped with four infantry cannons and six rotary-barreled flying sword guns, that's a different story.

The rebels were exceptionally fierce, charging forward a hundred zhang despite unprecedented firepower suppression, only to leave behind more than two thousand corpses. They were completely routed, and on their way back, they left behind another two thousand corpses.

One charge and half of the ten-thousand-strong army was gone.

Liu Heihu, filled with doubt and surprise, asked, "What kind of magical artifact is this? Does it have a name?"

Wei Yuan naturally didn't answer, simply standing there without leaving the city, giving the impression that he could come and go as he pleased. Liu Heihu's expression shifted, then he took out a bow and arrow, fixed his gaze on Wei Yuan, and at the same time waved his hand, ordering the Right Army of 50,000 to move out like a tidal wave towards Guantun County!

Liu Heihu, with his sharp eyes, saw that the city was too sparsely populated and the firepower density was insufficient, so he dispatched a force a hundred times larger to besiege it. As for himself, he stood a thousand feet away, refusing to approach the county town under any circumstances.

The two generals faced each other from a distance, neither approaching nor leaving the city.

Seeing that Liu Heihu wouldn't take the bait, Wei Yuan didn't care and ordered his troops to open fire at full force, charging towards the oncoming troops. Among the 50,000 rebels were dozens of Dao Foundation officers and two Dharma Aspect generals. At this moment, they didn't charge either, but instead mingled with the infantry, advancing with their main force, not giving Wei Yuan a chance to kill them.

Just as the focus of the troops' firepower began to shift, Liu Heihu suddenly waved his hand, and a fierce tiger appeared in the air, roaring to the sky!

In an instant, a faint bloody aura appeared on all the rebel soldiers, their eyes turned red, and they charged towards the county town with howls—it was a full-scale attack! This time, Liu Heihu brought a total of 150,000 men, clearly not just for Guantun County, but intending to wipe out the eleven surrounding counties in one fell swoop.

At this point, the rebels' speed increased significantly, and some of them were noticeably larger. A large number of rebels rushed towards a small county town. The number of living people in the county town combined was less than one-tenth of the number of rebels. The outcome was already decided.

Just then, more than ten beams of red light suddenly rose from the county town, revealing pieces of desolate rocks beneath them. Then, one by one, tall Five Elements Dao soldiers stood up from the ground, those desolate rocks becoming their cores.

These dozen or so Dao soldiers all possessed the strength of a Dharma Aspect, with flames faintly rising around them. Several of them suddenly changed their aura; some were agile, some were profound, and some were ordinary, each different from the others.

The two Dao soldiers glanced at each other, looking at each other's appearance with a slight smile, and then looked around at the world around them, curious about everything.

Soon, more Dao soldiers developed their own expressions, and the auras of the last few Dao soldiers even rose steadily. One Dao soldier even began to have layers of crimson sword energy appear on his body.

The other Dao soldier twisted his body and let out a free-flowing low roar. His aura suddenly surged, and the flames around him turned from red to blue. His aura had already climbed to the perfect state of Dharma form!

Wei Yuan secretly praised it. As expected of a celestial plant from the Desolate Realm, the compatibility between the Flame God Flower and the Dao Soldier was ridiculously high, directly raising his cultivation to the top!

Immediately afterwards, a large amount of green light rose up, and Dao soldiers with obvious wood element power emerged one after another. Wei Yuan's Dao power only gradually decreased, making him feel as if he had no use for it.

These Dao soldiers were all formed from specially crafted spiritual wood strips, each about the length of a palm, as the core material for casting spells, and each possessed a Dao Foundation cultivation level. Some of these Dao soldiers were descended and controlled by Dao Foundation cultivators from the Battle Saint Hall, some were controlled by mirage demons, and there were still over a thousand uncontrolled ones.

All the empty Dao soldiers suddenly shuddered and opened their eyes at the same time!
In the county government office in the center of the county town, Feng Tingyu was asleep, simultaneously controlling all the Dao soldiers without any riders through the smoke and fire of the human world. Finally, countless pixelated Dao soldiers, resembling stacks of small cubes, appeared. This time, Wei Yuan finally felt the strain; his Dao power was rapidly decreasing. After all, each pixelated Dao soldier could be summoned in a wave, with each wave consisting of thousands of them.

In Liu Heihu's distant eyes, the city first burst into flames, then a vast expanse of blue mist. Before he could figure out what those were, a swarm of strange, three-foot-tall figures leaped out from within the city walls and charged towards the massive rebel army!

The two armies clashed, and the pixelated soldiers were instantly annihilated in large numbers. The rebels also suffered heavy casualties. Countless people, though not dead, had their calves cut off, and they rolled on the ground screaming in agony, instantly disrupting their charging formation.

The rebels and tens of thousands of pixelated soldiers clashed, and Wei Yuan watched with his blood boiling. With a slight movement of his fingers, [Compassion] was already in his hand!

But he remembered that he was the commander-in-chief of the three armies, and although these rebels were all wicked and deserved to die, they were, after all, ordinary human beings, not fire demons. Given his current status, it was best not to personally go down to slaughter them.

However, things beyond the Foundation stage are a different story.

With a single glance, Wei Yuan had already marked all the Dao Foundation and Dharma Aspect cultivators in the rebel army, looking for an opportunity to launch a thunderous attack!
But at this moment, the Dao Foundation Captains and Dharma Aspect Generals in the rebel army were filled with fear, some even slowly retreating. Then, a large number of Dao Foundation soldiers, their bodies shrouded in floating green energy, appeared in the city, leaping over the city walls and charging towards the rebel army!
Only then did Liu Heihu realize that these were all Five Elements Dao Soldiers. But other cultivators could only summon a few hundred Five Elements Dao Soldiers at most, how come this one was summoning thousands of Dao Foundation Establishment Dao Soldiers?
Thousands of wooden warriors charged into the rebel ranks, like mountain streams washing over muddy ground, instantly carving out fine lines. The rebel forces were far outnumbered, and many dared not even engage in battle; it seemed their army of over 100,000 was about to be scattered!
Liu Heihu knew something was wrong. The black tiger on his head roared again, its fur turning pure white. Immediately, the temperature on the battlefield dropped rapidly, and snow appeared. The mental world had emerged and gradually merged with the real world.

With the blessing of Liu Heihu's Mind World, the rebels' combat power increased once again. The Dao Foundation officers were bloodshot, like mad dogs, fighting desperately. The Wood Element Dao Soldiers, on the other hand, were suppressed, and half of their radiance dissipated in the blink of an eye.

The rebel leaders immediately seized the opportunity to strike, killing the wooden soldiers one by one.

However, Liu Heihu immediately noticed something was wrong. The Dao soldiers who were killed each used different methods to save their lives, and they used all sorts of methods, which was completely unlike ordinary Five Elements Dao soldiers who were all the same and rigid.

In an instant, Liu Heihu felt as if he were seeing countless real Dao Foundation cultivators fighting and killing each other!

He immediately discerned that there was indeed a large group of Dao soldiers with the same style, but these Dao soldiers were all extremely agile and moved unpredictably, even dodging many of the attacks from the Dharma Avatar. They did not use Dao techniques at all, but fought entirely by rhythm, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, without any pattern, which resulted in the Dharma Avatar being caught off guard and in disarray.

Liu Heihu tried to analyze all their movement patterns, to take in and analyze all their actions, but after watching for a long time, he felt dizzy and nauseous!
Liu Heihu dared not try to analyze any further, but he was shocked. He wondered who was controlling these wooden soldiers. He, a dignified Yujing, was forced to exhaust his divine sense just to try to analyze their combat patterns.

Fortunately, although the number of Wood-type Dao soldiers was large, their average strength was low, and their absolute strength was much weaker than that of orthodox Dao Foundation cultivators. Furthermore, Dharma Aspect cultivators could be defeated with a single palm strike. If Wei Yuan's skills stopped there, then the outcome of this battle would be certain.

Liu Heihu sneered and said to his men, "This guy over there is indeed a talent, it's just a pity he ran into me! If he were stronger and had summoned more Dao soldiers, I would have been in real trouble..."

Before the words were even finished, a tall Taoist soldier engulfed in flames appeared on the city wall, with a fiery beast crouching above his head!
Then came the second Dao soldier, with a blazing sword above his head. Then came the third, the fourth…

In the blink of an eye, thirteen Dharma Aspect Dao Soldiers appeared on the city wall of Guantun. Each of them had a different Dharma Aspect, but all of them had a profound demeanor and were extraordinary!
Liu Heihu was momentarily dazed, as if he were seeing not Dao soldiers, but thirteen true Dharma Aspect cultivators! Their cultivation levels may vary, but they were all exceptionally talented, each a top-tier individual. Liu Heihu asked himself, even when he was a Dharma Aspect cultivator, he probably wouldn't have been qualified to stand beside these thirteen Dao soldiers. These were a full thirteen Immortal Aspect cultivators!
What merit or ability does a small county like Guantun possess to be so powerful and influential?

(End of this chapter)