Observing the expressions of these people along the way, Feng Miaojun understood that the dramatic changes ahead were likely the final straw that would break the camel’s back.
With her swift footwork, she finally reached the frontlines after crossing complex terrain and countless obstacles.
The scene before her suddenly opened up, and Feng Miaojun couldn’t help but gasp at the changed landscape.
All original defensive fortifications had collapsed. Two great armies were locked in a face-to-face slaughter, with the Yan forces pushing forward desperately, trying to seize the bridgehead position. If they crossed this natural barrier, the entire lower city of Ying Gong would be exposed before them.
Did the Xi army not understand what was at stake? But their combat strength, morale, weapons, and armor were far inferior to their enemies. Feng Miaojun, having spent years in the military, could easily see the trend of the battle—the Xi army was being pushed back step by step, leaving a ground covered with corpses.
Honestly, it was already a miracle that this desperate army still had fighting power and hadn’t dispersed. It was said that after relocating the capital to Ying Gong City, the Xi King had handed over all administrative power and military command to the State Preceptor, setting the first precedent of a monarch delegating authority to a State Preceptor. So the person commanding this war now should be Yu Haizhen.
This woman was truly extraordinary, able to keep the Xi people from collapsing despite their defeats. Feng Miaojun’s curiosity about her rose to another level.
Drawing closer, she discovered two special figures within the Xi army who were unstoppable, piercing into the enemy ranks like an awl, tearing open gaps in their formations. The Xi soldiers behind them rushed in to fill these gaps, greatly delaying the Yan army’s advance.
Feng Miaojun narrowed her eyes.
Those weren’t humans.
One had the form of a leopard but was four or five times larger than an ordinary leopard. Its fur was a mixture of red and yellow, with a single horn on its head and three tails behind it. Its movements were fierce and agile, almost too fast for the human eye to follow. A single swipe of its paw could take down four or five men. Ordinary Yan soldiers bitten by it had no chance of survival, and even their thick battle armor was pierced as easily as if made of paper.
This type of monster is rarely seen nowadays. Feng Miaojun had only seen it in book illustrations, called A Zhi. She hadn’t expected the State Preceptor to have one under her command and with such profound cultivation at that.
The other beast was also a monster, its entire body covered with fish-scale-like earthen yellow armor. It had a small head, a long tail, and short limbs. If not for its back arching high like a snail’s, it would look no different from a rat. But this creature was as tall as two stories, and its mode of movement was quite special. While others walked on feet, it contracted its entire body into a ball and simply rolled forward!
Its steel-like hard shell looked so heavy that Feng Miaojun felt burdened just watching it, but once it started rolling, its shocking weight transformed into tremendous kinetic energy, no different from a solid steel ball. Wherever it went, Yan soldiers desperately dodged, immediately creating gaps in their formation. Those who couldn’t avoid it were silently crushed into meat paste.
With these two demonic beasts firmly guarding the bridgehead, the Yan army couldn’t gain the upper hand for the moment. The battle line even showed signs of retreating.
Yu Haizhen, standing on high ground, showed no joy on her face. She just kept observing the battlefield, with anxiety in her eyes: “Still haven’t found Hu Tian?”
People were sent out wave after wave, but all returned with the same reply: “Not yet.”
No matter how unruly that fellow was, surely he would have noticed something with the frontlines in such chaos. Could he have encountered some trouble? Yu Haizhen’s cherry lips pressed slightly together as she quieted her mind and silently recited an incantation.
Though her mouth made no sound, the chain pendant in her hand glowed with a faint golden light.
Just as the black carriage left the camp gates, a thunderous crash came from behind. The following earth-shaking tremor caused the horses pulling the carriage to rear up on their hind legs, whinnying loudly.
People, carriages, and supplies fell into chaos. Chen Dachang busied himself calming the horses while looking into the distance:
What had happened?
Either way, the black carriage’s mission had been completed. With a flash of his eyes, he took advantage of the chaos to abandon the carriage, shed his black robe, and sprint away mixed among the panicking crowd. Before long, he was far from the camp gate.
But at that moment, a cracking sound suddenly came from behind, followed by an earth-shaking roar!
This voice was wild, deep, and majestic—not human. Chen Dachang turned his head amid his flight, and his gaze froze instantly.
The black carriage he had been driving for most of the day had its compartment broken open from within. A monster had emerged and was now beating its chest and roaring to the sky. This creature stood more than three zhang (ten meters) tall, shaped like a giant ape with bulging muscles all over its body. As it roared, it bared a bloody maw with tusks thicker than the carriage shaft.
Such an enormous being naturally weighed no small amount. The black carriage was directly crushed underneath it. The horses struggled frantically until they finally broke free and galloped away. The soldier in charge who had been lying in the carriage compartment was now in an unknown state between life and death. Chen Dachang guessed he had probably been sat to death by the giant ape.
Chen Dachang had sharp eyes and immediately noticed the two armguards worn on the giant ape’s forearms, seemingly made of pure gold. The color and style looked somewhat familiar…
Hadn’t the white-furred little monkey he had kept in the wine jar worn a pair of armguards just like these?
Just then, the giant ape cast a murderous gaze toward the crowd. Chen Dachang quickly turned away, not daring to make eye contact. He had hardly been friendly to the monkey earlier, and if he were caught now, his fate would surely be worse than that of the soldier in the carriage.
Fortunately, this giant ape seemed to be responding to a summons and had no intention of settling scores with him first. Instead, it turned its head toward the south, and then showed a very human-like expression of anxiety on its face.
It huffed twice, then stretched out its four limbs and bounded toward the frontlines. Its body, weighing over a hundred thousand jin, hopped and jumped, making the ground shake as if in a magnitude-seven earthquake. With its excellent jumping ability, it quickly left the camp gate far behind.
Chen Dachang exhaled a cold breath, quietly slipped away from the crowd, and soon disappeared into the night.
Yu Haizhen stood on high ground, holding a small tripod cauldron emitting red smoke. As she directed it, the red smoke dispersed and settled upon every Xi Kingdom cultivator and soldier on the frontlines. The smoke in the cauldron grew less and less, soon reaching the bottom. This was the remaining elemental energy of the Xi Kingdom. With the final battle at hand, she held nothing back.
Empowered by the elemental energy, the Xi people’s spirits lifted, their strength suddenly increasing by two tenths. Their resistance at the frontlines became even more forceful.
For a time, the tide of the Yan army stopped advancing.
The generals watched this with excitement. Even Yu Haizhen’s lips curled into a slight arc, though it was a gloomy smile, her thoughts already sinking.
After the Yan Kingdom captured the old capital, the Xi King had attempted to sue for peace, willing to set the old capital as the boundary, ceding the most fertile lands to the Yan King, and promising to pay large amounts of tribute each year. These conditions already sounded humiliating enough—Yu Haizhen had almost wanted to whip him to death at the time—yet the Yan King had still refused and firmly continued to advance his army westward.
He was determined to uproot the Xi Kingdom completely.