I was chased at the beginning, and I got the first quick sword

Chapter 559 The Battle to the South
Heading towards the south!
With Chu Qing absent, all matters were left to Liu Zhaonian, Tianfengzi, and others to discuss and handle.

Although Emperor Xuan, Shang Qiuyu, is still stationed here, he is only staying to assist Chu Qing because of Mu Tong'er and Mu Xuanbing...

Of course, while it's called a support role, it actually acts as a powerful attacker.

Therefore, I will not participate in any decisions regarding the southern part of the city.

In fact, when Chu Qing first set foot in Zhongzhou, a secret letter had already been delivered to Liu Zhaonian and the others.

They knew that there were unusual movements in various cities and places in the Western Regions at this very moment.

Two days later, they learned that these people were heading towards the south of the city.

Moreover, the number of people is large.

The spies made several trips back and forth, and the information became increasingly clear.

He is a general under the command of the Chief of War, stationed in various cities by the Heavenly Evil Cult. He leads the Heavenly Evil Cult disciples from all over the country, as well as various sects, factions, gangs, and people from all walks of life who have already submitted to the Heavenly Evil Cult.

A rough estimate suggests that if they were to gather all these people together, the number would be at least 200,000.

Two hundred thousand!
This number doesn't seem like a big deal.

But in reality, it's not like that...

Once you have a thousand people, you can't see the end; once you have ten thousand, it's endless.

Two hundred thousand people placed on a plain, when viewed from a high vantage point, would not be able to see the horizon at all; all that could be seen were people.

This is an extremely terrifying number!

Once they arrive in Xiangnan City, they could easily flatten the city without even needing to use any special methods.

After Liu Zhaonian and the others gathered all this information, they didn't pay attention to why the Heavenly Evil Sect had suddenly made such a big fuss, or whether it was related to Chu Qing's sudden departure from Xiangnan City.

As the saying goes, when soldiers come, generals will block them; when water comes, earth will dam it. Faced with this situation, the only thing to do is to accept the challenge.

To address this matter, the group met several times and devised three strategies.

The first strategy is to turn them to defect.

Two hundred thousand might sound like a large and powerful force, but the vast majority of them were actually members of the Western Regions' martial arts world.

There aren't many experts among them, at most 30%, while the remaining 70% are small families from various places, or even gangs organized by local thugs.

Although the number of people is large, most of them are just ordinary folks.

The defection was mainly targeted at top experts, primarily the five great masters of the Western Regions. By leveraging their prestige in the martial arts world, they aimed to win over the 200,000-strong army from within.

The second strategy is to double-team.

Once the defection is successful, the matter can be arranged.

They were told not to leave immediately, but to wait until the 200,000 troops were at the city gates, and then, together with the experts from the Southern Region Jianghu Dao within the city, they could launch a coordinated attack from within and without.

It seems that the enemy is at the gates and a crisis has arrived.

In fact, the decisive battleground was just south of the city.

The third option is decapitation!
According to reports from scouts, the Western Regions Heavenly Evil Cult is currently in a state of leaderlessness.

Because those who could make decisions had already been killed by Chu Qing at Jue Tian Pass.

In the beginning, the Pavilion Master of Wenxin Pavilion and the Earth Slaughter Soldier Master gathered 50,000 members of the Heavenly Evil Cult, but dared not confront Chu Qing directly.

Instead, they wanted to use the holy monk Jiashe and others from the Great Sumeru Zen Temple to plot the assassination of Chu Qing.

The result was a failure... Not only were they all killed by Chu Qing, but the battle at Jue Tian Pass also wiped out the more than 50,000 members of the Heavenly Evil Cult, except for those who had already abandoned the darkness and turned to the light in the city, the courtyard, the pavilion, and the manor.

The people gathered here today are mainly led by the generals under the command of the Earth Slaughtering Army.

If these generals are killed, they will inevitably be leaderless.

However, the timing of the decapitation strike needs to be carefully considered...

Should they strike ahead of time, launch a long-distance raid, and scatter these people in advance?
Should we wipe them all out before heading south to the city, on the eve of the battle between the two sides?
Choosing the former would be relatively safer.

There's probably no problem heading south into the city... but it might alert other generals, causing them to hesitate and not dare to come back.

Conversely, choosing the latter would be quite risky.

However, it can wipe out the remaining forces of the Western Regions Heavenly Evil Cult in one fell swoop, saving a lot of time in conquering the martial arts world of the Western Regions.

But for Liu Zhaonian and others, this wasn't really a choice.

When they decided on the two options above, there was no need to choose anymore... They directly chose the latter, which meant that the group of people gathered by the Heavenly Evil Sect would carry out the decapitation plan when they arrived in Xiangnan City.

Let their morale collapse, then encircle them from both sides and finish them off in one battle.

If Chu Qing were here at this juncture, it would be even better, as he alone could be worth a million soldiers.

However, since Chu Qing is unavailable, Shang Qiuyu can be used instead.

Liu Zhaonian and Tianfengzi went to Shang Qiuyu specifically to discuss this matter, and eventually received the approval of this contemporary Xuan Emperor.

There was nothing I could do; my wife had this idea, and my daughter felt the same way.

As the saying goes, "One's life is filled with debts to one's children and half a lifetime with one's wife." Shang Qiuyu is a family-oriented man, so it's only natural that he would agree to help him.

In fact, at this point, the game is considered secure.

With Emperor Xuan, Shang Qiuyu, taking action, let alone the generals under the Lord of War, even if the Lord of Earthly Slaughter himself were to take action, they would all be doomed.

Next, we await the massive attack from the Heavenly Evil Cult.

In fact, according to the strategy of Liu Zhaonian and others, the possibility of a great victory in this battle is extremely high.

However, as the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes, and besides, the opponent is, after all, a human being... not a herd of cattle and sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Standing under the butcher's knife, they can still foolishly eat grass.

So when that day actually came, the situation still went awry.

One problem is the lack of unity among the people.

Although most people seemed to agree to the defection, the whole process went smoothly.

But in fact, the prestige of the five great masters of the Western Regions had already declined significantly since they submitted to the Heavenly Evil Cult... Furthermore, these generals were well aware of the current situation in the Western Regions and knew the prestige of these five great masters, yet they still dared to use them, which meant they had grasped their lifeline.

Many people's families are under their control.

Therefore, even on the day the enemy was at the gates, some people were still willing to cooperate in the encirclement.

But the number was far less than expected...

Of these experts, only half followed the plan, while the other half continued to collude with the Heavenly Evil Cult.

Even worse, the plan had already been leaked beforehand, causing the entire process to go extremely wrong.

Before the war even began, the Western Region experts who had been turned had already suffered heavy losses.

As a result, the first two strategies devised by Liu Zhaonian and others were almost entirely in vain.

Shang Qiuyu's decapitation plan also failed...

These warriors of the Heavenly Evil Sect were well aware of their situation.

They also knew that their advantage in this battle lay in their numerical superiority!
But when it comes to top-tier combat power, they don't have a single one.

Even though Chu Qing isn't here in the southern part of the city, there is still the current Xuan Emperor, Shang Qiuyu.

Once our group rises to prominence, who can withstand even a single blow from the current Xuan Emperor?
not a single one!

So they deliberately created a diversion, setting up dozens of "central command tents," making it impossible for Shang Qiuyu to escape from one or the other...

After he swept through these dozens of 'central command tents,' he discovered that the generals were not actually in the central command tents. Although he could rampage through hundreds of thousands of troops, and no one could stop him wherever he went.

But to kill so many people... even as the current Xuan Emperor, he would find it difficult.

I'm afraid my hands will go numb from killing, even if my inner energy never runs dry.

Killing so many people is not something that can be done in a short time.

So he could only continue searching for those hidden generals.

Judging from the slightest clues, we can determine the location of this group.

All three strategies have now been in vain...

As expected, the Heavenly Evil Cult did not follow the usual path. Their method of attacking Xiangnan City was to use an advance force composed of the elderly, women, and children, making the people inside Xiangnan City hesitant to attack.

After all, they are all heroes of the martial arts world. If they were to point their sharp blades at the old, young, women and children, how could they be worthy of the title of "hero"?
This is the difference between a江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry) person and a true iron-blooded soldier.

Warfare is based on deception; sometimes, one can resort to any means to win.

Although there are many villains and wicked people among those who roam the martial world, and their methods are despicable and cruel, most of them came here on the orders of the leader of the alliance, wanting to do something for the common people. How could they bear to harm those women and children?

Therefore, their passive situation in this battle far exceeded their expectations.

Fortunately, during this time, Liu Zhaonian and others, with the help of Chu Qing's alliance leader's order, crossed the Jue Tian Pass and gathered many experts from the Southern Region to guard Xiang Nan City together.

Otherwise, the southern city would likely fall in a single encounter.

Even so, this battle was fierce and chaotic...

The reason why it wasn't easily overwhelmed by the Heavenly Evil Cult was because of those 200,000 people.

Among the members of the Zhongtian Cult, there were only a few true masters; the large number of people consisted of all sorts of people from various schools of thought.

To those stationed in Xiangnan City, these people were no different from chickens and dogs.

The only difficulty is that there are too many people.

If these people hadn't seen the situation as so favorable, as if they could easily capture Xiangnan City with just a little effort, they would have been terrified and fled long ago in the face of such an opponent.

Thus, the battle remained in an extremely delicate balance.

All the experts from the southern region of Xiangnan City participated in the battle.

Whether it was Liu Zhaonian, Tian Fengzi, or Wu Qianhuan, Wenrou, Hua Jinnian, Mu Tong'er, or anyone else who made the decisions, they all showed up to fight.

In the midst of the battle, Wu Qianhuan wielded her hidden sword with incredible speed.

She practiced the Heavenly Bright Sword Technique with Chu Qing every day, and her internal strength was now far beyond what it was at the beginning.

Wherever they went, few could withstand their attacks.

Wenrou followed closely behind, also holding a sword in her hand.

Her left fist and fingers changed accordingly, sometimes forming the "Taiyi Divine Fist" and sometimes the "Nine Heavens Star Finger," while her right hand wielded the long sword with effortless Tai Chi swordplay.

He will eliminate Wu Qianhuan's remaining opponents one by one.

Suddenly, Wu Qianhuan spun her longsword, its light as bright as the moon. As the sword swept across the area, a Tianxie Sect disciple, whose figure appeared like a ghost behind Mu Tong'er, was instantly injured by her sword energy.

The shepherd boy turned around and saw that the cult member had suddenly burst into blood and died.

Only then did he look thoughtfully at Wu Qianhuan.

The two looked at each other, then looked away.

Wu Qianhuan knew that this woman had designs on her fiancé. After the experience by the lake that day, Mu Tong'er also made up his mind. He wanted to humble himself, but he didn't know how.

The relationship between the two is currently at a standstill.

I was saved by Wu Qianhuan in the midst of battle today. Should I take this opportunity to curry favor with her?

Is it worth it for a jerk like him?
"I owe him..."

The shepherd girl gritted her teeth, turning around to show a smile, but at that moment, her expression changed:
"Get out of the way!!"

Her movements were faster than her voice.

She was a disciple of the legendary thief You Zong, and her lightness skill was unparalleled in the world. In the blink of an eye, she was already beside Wu Qianhuan.

He waved his hand to push Wu Qianhuan away, but it was too late.

Then a huge iron hammer, as big as a water vat, was seen swinging down from mid-air.

The speed and power of this clumsy weapon in a sneak attack are far beyond what is usually achieved.

Even Wu Qianhuan didn't expect this move. Hearing the shepherd boy's voice, she turned around, but without thinking, she flicked her sword, lowered her waist, and thrust out her sword.

Then there was a ding!

The sword tip collided with the iron hammer, and the two forces clashed. The iron hammer pressed down heavily, causing Wu Qianhuan's longsword to bend.

At the same time, the ground suddenly loosened, and two figures leaped out from underground. Each of them held a curved sword in their hands, slashing at Wu Qianhuan's vital points behind her back.

But then a sword light shot out from the side, its sharpness drawing two of the four curved blades towards the other two.

With two clanging sounds, the curved swords in the left and right hands of the two men were knocked away by each other.

Wenrou also let out a muffled groan and flew backward... Her internal strength was worlds apart from these people's, and her ability to use Tai Chi swordsmanship to divert the disaster was already an extraordinary performance.

With their internal energies clashing, she naturally found it difficult to maintain her balance.

Just then, a hand landed on her shoulder. Wenrou was startled, looked up, and was immediately taken aback:
"Second senior brother?"

At this moment, his sharpness suddenly surged.

Iron Hammer was knocked back by Wu Qianhuan's sword. In the blink of an eye, two loud bangs were heard.

She had already exchanged a palm strike with each of the two experts wielding curved swords.

The two figures swayed slightly, and Wu Qianhuan flew backward, but as she retreated, she also caught the shepherd boy in her hand.

With this retreat, he found himself beside Wenrou.

Two figures passed by them; one was Cui Bu Nu, the Fist of Unyielding Divine Fist, and the other was Bian Cheng, the second brother.

They were nearby just now, and when Biancheng saw his junior sister being beaten back, he naturally had to come and help.

Regardless of who their opponents were, the master and apprentice attacked together.

Wu Qianhuan's expression changed, and she quickly said:

"You two mustn't!"

Although Cui Bu Nu and Bian Cheng are not ordinary, the three people opposite them are probably generals under the command of the Earthly Slaughter Army Master.

His martial arts skills were far superior... Sure enough, the two sides only exchanged one blow. Cui Bu Nu was alright, but Bian Cheng was already sent flying. If Cui Bu Nu hadn't pulled him away, he would probably have already lost his head.

The power of the Taiyi Divine Fist, once unleashed by Cui Bu Nu, was naturally incomparable to that of others.

However, he was no match for the combined might of the three great generals.

In just a moment, she was already at a great disadvantage. Wu Qianhuan had just exchanged a palm strike with the two great masters, and her blood and qi were churning. Now that she saw Cui Bu Nu in danger, she couldn't care less about anything else and was about to step forward to help.

But at that moment, a sharp edge descended from the sky.

Buzz!
In an instant, the three generals and Cui Bu Nu were separated, and a figure dressed in white, surrounded by sword energy, slowly descended from the sky with his hands behind his back.

Biancheng rubbed his eyes:

"I must be dreaming..."

(End of this chapter)