I run a casino in the immortal realm.

The Spirit Finger technique is extremely powerful, but its consumption is equally terrifying.

Once used, at least 30% of his spiritual energy will be drained.

This is Cangshan County, the garrison of a hundred thousand orcs. If the commotion just now had attracted other orc commanders equivalent to the Void Refinement Realm, or even the legendary King Zuo Guli himself, he would have had a hard time escaping unscathed given his greatly depleted spiritual power.

We can't afford to fight this battle to the death here.

Just as Zheng Yifei was weighing the pros and cons, a series of rapid whooshing sounds suddenly came from below.

A jet-black blade of light, like a bolt of lightning, slashed upwards from below, aiming straight for the giant eagle's belly.

Tyrone was startled and suddenly pulled on the leather reins around the giant eagle's neck.

The giant eagle twisted its massive body in mid-air, barely avoiding the blade, but its abdomen was still grazed by the blade's edge, causing a large patch of dark blue feathers to fall off and oozing crimson blood.

"grown ups!"

The figure of the night owl appeared beside Zheng Yifei like a ghost.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of anti-smuggling officers in the mid-to-late stages of the Nascent Soul realm also took to the air, subtly surrounding Tyrone and the giant eagle.

Tyrone steadied himself, glanced at the suddenly appearing Night Owl, and then scanned the hundreds of human cultivators around him who exuded powerful auras. His expression turned extremely ugly.

He may be arrogant, but he's not stupid.

Zheng Yifei alone was already a headache for him, and now there's a Void Refining Realm expert and so many Nascent Soul Realm masters. If they really fight, he'll definitely die here today.

"General Pengcheng, you wait! We, the Prince Zuo Guli, will settle this score with you personally!"

Tyrone roared and swung his bronze rod, forcing back several customs officers who tried to approach. Then, he squeezed the giant eagle's back with his legs.

The giant eagle let out a painful cry, its wings flapping wildly, and it transformed into a streak of iron-blue light, fleeing rapidly towards the camp in Cangshan County.

"Trying to run away?"

A cold glint flashed in the owl's eyes, and he drew his knife to give chase.

"Let's follow and see."

Zheng Yifei did not stop him; he also wanted to see the specific situation at the camp in Cangshan County.

The two transformed into two long rainbows, closely following Tailong, and chased him all the way to the skies above Cangshan County.

As soon as they approached the airspace above the county town, Zheng Yifei and Night Owl stopped simultaneously, their eyes showing serious expressions.

Below, Cangshan County was completely shrouded in a thick layer of black fog.

This mist and the malevolent aura emanating from the wolf soldiers of Wanhun Valley share the same origin, but their concentration and scale are incomparable.

The army of 100,000 gathered together, and their soaring blood and murderous aura condensed in mid-air into a black sea of ​​clouds covering a radius of several miles, churning and surging like an ancient behemoth ready to devour its prey.

Countless phantoms of orcs roared faintly in the sea of ​​clouds, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.

Riding his giant eagle, Tyrone plunged into the black, malevolent clouds and vanished instantly.

"My lord, this malevolent aura is rather strange."

Night Owl gripped his longsword tightly, sensing the terrifying defensive power contained within the black sea of ​​clouds.

"Give it a try."

Zheng Yifei stared down.

Night Owl nodded, his spiritual power surging wildly into his longsword. He gripped the sword with both hands and unleashed a ten-zhang-long black blade of light at the sea of ​​malevolent energy below.

The blade's edge, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the air, slashed fiercely at the sea of ​​malevolent energy.

There was no deafening explosion as I had imagined.

The blade's edge slashed into the sea of ​​malevolent energy, as if cutting into an extremely viscous swamp.

The originally sharp blade light gradually slowed down and dimmed under the constant erosion and wear of the baleful aura.

When the blade's edge finally pierced through the baleful aura and landed in the camp below, its power had been reduced to less than one-tenth.

"Pfft pfft."

Two muffled sounds rang out, and only two unlucky ordinary orcs were killed by the remaining blade light.

The fissure of malevolent energy that had been cut open by the blade's edge closed up again in the blink of an eye amidst the surging of endless malevolent energy around it, as if nothing had ever happened.

Night Owl gasped. He was at the early stage of the Void Refinement Realm, and a full-force strike could split a small mountain in two, yet he could only kill two ordinary soldiers under this baleful aura defense.

"Walk."

Zheng Yifei decisively issued the order.

The sheer aura defense was beyond his expectations.

The baleful aura array formed by an army of 100,000 is definitely not something that can be forcibly broken by a few high-level cultivators.

If they stayed any longer, they would be surrounded by the orcs' army and their spiritual power would be suppressed by the baleful aura. Even those at the Void Refinement Realm would perish on the spot.

Without the slightest hesitation, the two turned and transformed into streaks of light, quickly retreating from the skies above Cangshan County.

Back in Wanhun Valley, Zheng Yifei had Night Owl arrange for a small team of anti-smuggling officers to set up hidden outposts on high ground on both sides of the valley entrance, keeping a close watch on any movements in the direction of Cangshan County.

Once the Western Rong army shows any signs of breaking camp, send a message immediately.

Afterwards, Zheng Yifei, along with Ye Xiao, Wang Changsheng, and others, returned to Pengcheng.

The General's Mansion, White Tiger Hall.

Zheng Yifei sat in the main seat with a furrowed brow, while Gongsun Zhi, Xu Qian, Pang Xun, and others stood below.

"Strategist, what exactly is that ominous aura hanging over Cangshan County?"

Zheng Yifei recounted in detail his encounter over Cangshan County, his gaze fixed on Gongsun Zhi.

Gongsun Zhi took a deep breath and replied solemnly, "My lord, that is the most troublesome aspect of the orcs, and also the source of their confidence in resisting our Heavenly Dragon Dynasty: the baleful aura of their military formation."

He walked to the sand table, pointed to the location of Cangshan County, and explained: "Orcs do not cultivate spiritual power or practice magic. They only cultivate their physical bodies. But heaven is fair. Although they do not have magic, when their army gathers together, the violent blood and killing intent emanating from each orc will resonate and condense into a substantial baleful aura in mid-air."

"This kind of evil energy has a strong repulsive and weakening effect on the spiritual power of cultivators. The more people there are, the thicker the evil energy becomes, and the more abnormal the defensive power becomes."

The murderous aura of ten thousand wolf soldiers could be barely broken through by the elite Nascent Soul stage warriors under your command; but the murderous aura of a hundred thousand soldiers gathered together would require considerable effort even for a typical Integration stage expert to penetrate head-on.

Gongsun Zhi paused, his tone becoming heavy: "Moreover, the reproductive ability of orcs is extremely terrifying. They can give birth to three or four at a time, and they can reach adulthood and join the war in five years."

They are a nation of soldiers, and when they mobilize, it's a large-scale operation. In mountainous or narrow terrain, we can also use the terrain to separate them, preventing their malevolent energy from spreading out.

But once they reach the plains, when hundreds of thousands of troops form ranks, that layer of malevolent aura becomes as solid as an indestructible tortoise shell.

Our spells couldn't penetrate their defenses, yet they charged forward despite the baleful aura. In open field battles, this was practically invincible.

"Is there no way to crack it?"

Night Owl asked coldly, still resentful that his strike had only killed two soldiers.

"have."

Gongsun Zhi nodded. "The only way is to use overwhelming numerical superiority to force a breakthrough. As long as we break up their formation and prevent the orcs from maintaining their dense ranks, the baleful aura formation will naturally dissipate."

In the past, when the imperial court dealt with the Western Rong, it would assemble heavily armored infantry and cavalry several times larger than the enemy, using human lives to tear a gap in their formation.

Upon hearing this answer, the White Tiger Hall fell into a deathly silence.

Charge?

Zheng Yifei glanced at Pang Xun.

Pang Xun shook his head with a wry smile. At the moment, all Pengcheng could muster were the three thousand men he had just reorganized.

Take three thousand infantrymen without heavy armor or cavalry to charge into the army of one hundred thousand orcs.

That's like throwing a meat bun at a dog; it won't even make a splash.

As for hoping that Hu Qi, the governor of Bingzhou, would send troops to reinforce him, that was even more impossible. Hu Qi would rather Zheng Yifei die in Pengcheng than send a large army to help him.

"Insufficient troops, and our magic weakened by the baleful energy..."

Zheng Yifei tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his brain working at a rapid pace.

If conventional methods of cultivation don't work, then unconventional methods are the only option.

To break through that thick layer of malevolent energy, attacks from the outside would be weakened, but what if you attacked from the inside?

Or, tear it apart with a purely physical destructive force that doesn't rely on spiritual power?

A flash of inspiration struck Zheng Yifei.

He suddenly realized a problem: this world is a world of cultivators, where people admire absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, cultivating techniques, and crafting magical treasures.

Everyone's thinking is limited to the framework of "spiritual power".

That is why there is no gunpowder in this world.