Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 469 Victory or Loss
Erzhu Rong was also extremely fierce. Seeing that the arm could not be reattached, he simply crushed it and turned it into three thousand blood pills, which he threw into the Gouchen Formation to feed his subordinates!

The three thousand Qihu soldiers sensed the divine emperor's intention and leaped high from the crowd, opening their mouths to receive the blood pills bestowed by Erzhu Rong.

Soon, excruciating pain shot through their backs. In an instant, their shoulder blades bulged high, and bone wings sprouted from them! The bone wings grew longer and longer, eventually spreading out to a full ten feet wide!
Countless bone spurs also grew on their bodies, making them completely unrecognizable as human beings, and turning them into the Bloodwing Guards of the Heavenly Slaughter God!
The Bloodwing Guards were unaffected by the Blood Dome, which gave them an aerial advantage.

One by one, they soared into the air, searching for the white-robed army in the array maze. Once they spotted them, they swooped down, clawing and biting, as if they were ready to perish together with them!
The Bloodwing Guards' consciousness originated from Erzhu Rong. Clearly, in his view, no matter how precious his Bloodwing Guards were, exchanging them one-for-one with the White Robe Army was still a huge gain.

Upon seeing this, Chen Zhao, who commanded the white-robed army, shouted, "Heavenly Cover Formation!"

The crossbowmen immediately formed the "Sky-Covering Formation," drawing their bows and nocking arrows at the Bloodwing Guards swooping down from the sky. The arrows transformed into a silver net as they left the bow, enveloping the Bloodwing Guards. Covered in spikes, the Bloodwing Guards, once bound, could not escape and would be instantly killed by the white-robed soldiers upon landing.

The Bloodwing Guards were already few in number, and now they dared not charge down recklessly anymore.

Taking advantage of the delay caused by the 'Heavenly Cover Formation', the white-robed soldiers quickly retreated, leading the Bloodwing Guards into a canyon.

The canyon was likely modeled after the Longmen Grottoes, with Buddhist statues carved all over the stone walls on both sides. The Bloodwing Guards, upon flying in, were thrown about, falling to the ground like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

When they realized they were going the wrong way and tried to take flight again to escape the ground, chains shot up from the ground like venomous snakes, binding their ankles and dragging them back to the ground. The white-robed soldiers immediately swarmed forward, hacking and stabbing with swords and spears, finishing them off…

~~
Erzhu Rong watched as his most elite Bloodwing Guards darted around the canyon like headless flies, only to be skillfully dragged to the ground and killed one by one by the White-Robed Army. He couldn't help but roar in anger!
He finally realized that challenging the White-Robed Army within the Gouchen Formation was like challenging the God of War Chen Qingzhi on the battlefield—there was no chance of victory!
The Heavenly Slaughter Army was Erzhu Rong's last asset, embodying countless efforts and all his hopes. He absolutely could not allow the White Robe Army to devour him piece by piece.

Erzhu Rong was a decisive and clear-headed person, so he decided not to linger in battle.

He roared, and his Dharma form swelled to a hundred feet tall, like a towering Asura god with crimson armor and burning blood. He forced Chen Qingzhi away with a doomed stance and turned to crash headfirst into the Gouchen Formation!

Each collision caused the Yellow River to stop flowing, the great formation to shake violently, and the rocks on the labyrinthine cliffs were reduced to dust in his body of starfire and bloodlust before they even fell to the ground.

Chen Qingzhi had already distributed some of his divine power to his soldiers, so he couldn't manifest a hundred-foot-tall Dharma form like Erzhu Rong. Naturally, he couldn't stop Erzhu Rong from going berserk.

He could only seize the opportunity to fly out his halberd and cut off another of Erzhu Rong's arms.

Erzhu Rong, however, no longer cared about anything else and just frantically rammed into the great formation.

After nine impacts, he finally smashed through the Gouchen Formation constructed by more than six thousand white-robed heavenly soldiers...

But by then, Erzhu Rong only had three hands left...

His expression was listless, his face was as pale as paper, his magical power was greatly reduced, and he could no longer maintain his magical form, so he turned back into his original form.

"Divine Lord!" Upon seeing this, Yuan Tianmu quickly stopped entangled with Ren Yuan and flew to Erzhu Rong's side to protect him.

"Go!" Erzhu Rong shouted in a low voice.

"Quickly, retreat to camp!" Yuan Tianmu immediately shouted the order.

"No, the entire army should retreat!" Erzhu Rong corrected.

"Ah, the war is over?" Yuan Tianmu exclaimed in shock.

"What's the point of fighting! Chen Qingzhi is a military genius. Fighting him on the battlefield is like an old man eating poison—are you tired of living?!" Erzhu Rong said in a muffled voice.

"What about Luoyang?" Yuan Tianmu asked anxiously. "Once we withdraw our troops, Yuan Hao will have a firm foothold, and it will be difficult to eliminate him!" "We can't worry about that now," Erzhu Rong said decisively. "No matter how important Luoyang is, it can't compare to the Tianlu Army."

He lowered his voice and said, "I'm already injured, I'm no match for Chen Qingzhi..."

"Alright, alright." Yuan Tianmu didn't dare to waste any more words and quickly ordered his generals to retreat.

As for the Tianlu Army, they were of one mind with Erzhu Rong, and as soon as their formation was broken, they immediately retreated north.

It's incredibly fast; you can't catch up with it...

~~
As the Heavenly Slaughter Army retreated northward like a tidal wave, the White-Robed Army soldiers cheered wildly. This was the strongest enemy they had encountered since their northern expedition began, and the strongest opponent in the entire north.

Having defeated Erzhu Rong, they would be truly invincible.

Of course, many people are also eager to try and press their advantage.

"Don't chase them," Chen Qingzhi called out to them.

"The Heavenly Slaughter Army is no ordinary army; they don't collapse like a house of cards when defeated. If we pursue them rashly, they could turn around and ambush us at any time, leaving us in deep trouble."

"Yes." The soldiers naturally trusted Chen Qingzhi's judgment without a doubt. Moreover, the current state of the heavenly soldiers was extremely taxing on them, and they were afraid that they would be the first to give up while chasing after them.

"Since the Heavenly Slaughter Army doesn't have the concept of morale, why is Erzhu Rong in such a hurry to retreat?" Hu Longya asked, puzzled. "The main force of the Heavenly Slaughter Army is still intact, and the leaders still have the strength to fight."

“By the time the overall situation is settled, the Heavenly Slaughter Army will probably have lost half its strength. Decisiveness and never doing a losing deal for the sake of face—that’s the true nature of a hero.” Chen Qingzhi exclaimed, “He’s probably the one who will unify the North in the future.”

"Commander Chen..." The generals were saddened upon hearing this, and their joy at defeating the powerful enemy was greatly diminished.

However, they also knew that without domestic support, Marshal Chen could no longer lead the White Robe Army on the Northern Expedition.

The dream of unifying China is, at least for now, impossible to realize.

With that in mind, the generals were eager to return home...

"Now that we've defeated Erzhu Rong, can we retire gracefully?" Ren Yuan voiced the thoughts of everyone present.

"It's difficult..." Chen Qingzhi said with a wry smile, "Once we leave, Erzhu Rong will definitely come back with a vengeance. Do you think Yuan Hao can stop him?"

"No," the generals said in unison.

"Are we supposed to stand guard for him for the rest of our lives?!" Hu Longya grumbled, "I'd rather Erzhu Rong kill me."

"Longya, don't talk nonsense." Chen Qingzhi said calmly, "I'll ask the Emperor for his opinion later."

He paused for a moment, then ordered, "Quickly clean up the battlefield, treat the wounded, and rebuild Beizhong City."

"Yes." The generals naturally obeyed Chen Qingzhi's orders.

(End of this chapter)