Archfiend

Chapter 293: The Godseal Spark (3)

“Defend!” A hundred rays of qi took aim and rushed the coming steel flood! Frenzied power completely dispersed the heavy surrounding fog! But at the same time, the foremost charging rider spat out heated words. In a twinkling, white talismans suddenly shined on the Screaming Wind Legion’s armor.

Swoosh! In the wake of these glowing talismans, the white light over their bodies flourished! Not even blinking, the cavalry rushed straight into the mad wave formed by a hundred qi beams!

Boom! The first explosion rang out. Soon, the hundred beams detonated at the same time, like resplendent fireworks in the night sky! The first rider’s light veil wildly shook, and his charging power slowed. But after the qi beam passed, his light still hadn’t fractured, merely a few shades dimmer.

“They have supreme-grade defensive artifacts!” Xu Yangyi quickly realized. Still, he’d looked down on the so-called elite legion. The warriors of each elite legion were armed to the teeth. The Spirit Accumulation Cannon’s might was impressive, but it wasn’t enough to fell the opponent.

“Volley! Focus fire on one person!” Killing intent and anxiety weaved together in his heart, but he didn’t stomp his feet in confusion. Instead, he continued to issue commands. Xu Yangyi clearly understood that this was the opposition’s weakest assault wave! The crown had passed and next… was their time!

Even if the Linghu Clan had made prior preparations, the other clans would undoubtedly pay attention to the qi fluctuations here. At that time… the Linghu Clan, who lacked a fifth or sixth of their primary force, would face the tide-like attack of the three other clans!

As the young branch master had said, perhaps the first to be kicked out… would not the Xingtian Legion, the weakest power on paper!

The jet-black steel flood was silent, yet they carried a deathly oppressive might. As the ground rumbled, they took the line and charged together. When they reached fifty meters away from Mo Yeyu’s wall, the leading rider shouted, and a single gold chain suddenly brightened from in between each cavalryman! 

Complex talismans circled each chain. With a mere glance, Xu Yangyi understood what the Screaming Wind Legion wanted to accomplish. These chains were like the reaper’s sickle; they would cut the Xingtian Legion’s entire faction into two groups!

But at the same time, within the wall of chastetree thorns, the Spirit Accumulation Cannons of dozens of soldiers sparked again! Pitch-black cannon muzzles took direct aim at the black wave ahead!

In this moment, the moonlight seemed washed in the sky, and the rising dust and smoke from the ground appeared to weave. A hundred riders came together into a black scythe to chop straight through the Xingtian Legion’s assembled front! But behind this front, Xu Yangyi’s tens of cultivators formed three echelons. They were garbed in monotone camouflage, the talismans on their cannons forming with extreme speed. At the mouths of these cannons, white light converged for the second time!

“How much longer?!” Xu Yangyi turned his head and roared behind him. Different… The situation was completely different! This battle was different from any fight he had ever participated in! Since the beginning that “arcane combat” ascended to war! Uniform and methodically arranged, firm and decisive in their attack, the storming black was the Linghu Clan, but also death and silence.

“At most, once!” The one who answered him was not Chu Zhaonan, but instead Fang Cheng. The half-demon’s eyes were also fairly reddened. “We have at most one more opportunity to fire, before they hit the barrier!”

“Go… take down the center squadron!” Xu Yangyi gritted his teeth as he watched the ever-nearing black tide. “Hear my command!”

His eyes reflected the rider right in the very middle. Armor covered the rider’s face, but the black tiger he was saddled on was no less than six meters tall! Almost twenty meters long! The rider’s armor was also silver! Completely different from the other cavalrymen!

To capture a thief was to first capture the king! If the commanding general was taken down, everything else would be easily resolved!

Rumble! 400 meters!

Schrip! On the ground, a blood-red lance sent traces of flying rubble through the air. White, red, and black weaved into a painting scroll of fire and blood. 400 meters… The Screaming Wind Legion sped up again!

“ROAR!!!” A thunderous snarl quaked the heavens! Following this increase in speed, the black tigers surprisingly left afterimages! Slender cracks unexpectedly appeared with the fall of each of their steps!

“Get ready!” Xu Yangyi raised his hand, the black tide already drawing closer and closer in his eyes!

The hands of some cultivators behind were already trembling somewhat, unable to possibly aim their Spirit Accumulation Cannons. The enemy’s momentum was too terrible… If this was a time of peace, Xu Yangyi would’ve already fled earlier. However, this was a battle formation! Although a dog placed in a pride of lions couldn’t immediately gain great courage and valor, he absolutely had to force himself to hold on!

Dread and apprehension spread, but oddly supported each other. No one fled. Even though their hands were now shaking like sifting chaff, or cold sweat rendered them unable to grip their cannons… they still didn’t run away!

300 meters!

Below his snow-white mask, a cold grin had already emerged at the crook of the leading rider’s mouth. Since the beginning of the age of cold weaponry, the wide charge of calvary was a peerless killing tool for breaking through infantry. As long as the infantry were cleaved through, anyone was then fish on the chopping board! Furthermore… this attack of theirs wasn’t to break the Xingtian Legion’s formation, but rather their will to fight!

The reason why Xu Yangyi’s forces didn’t flee now… was because they hadn’t seen the might of the Linghu Clan’s charge. But once they felt that power bring them to despair, they were bound to turn back and flee! The leading rider was 100% certain!

200 meters!

“Junior Brother!” Fang Cheng’s eyes were red, and he yelled at Xu Yangyi, “Fire the cannons!!!”

Xu Yangyi and Chu Zhaonan glanced at each other but didn’t relay the order to fire.

Both of them just happened to look behind. At their backs, three flights of cultivators, a camouflaged rampart, was about to welcome the wild black tide. Some remained firm, and some were clammy with sweat. Rough and heavy breathing reverberated throughout the battlefield. Some had already sunk into the indescribable fear of their first battle… Xu Yangyi’s gaze dimmed. If such a mindset crumbled apart upon the first strike, what they would be met with next was total collapse!

“You must not move.” Xu Yangyi said, his voice chopping nails and slicing iron. “This step is ours to guard. As long as we hold on, the formation won’t collapse. We WILL win! A fifth or sixth of the Linghu Clan’s elites absolutely won’t risk staying out for too long! Because in Nanzhou… there are another three great clans watching!”

Their opponents wanted to charge and scatter them in one blow, but they were going to bite down on their teeth and withstand this surge!

“Take care of yourselves.” Xu Yangyi looked at Fang Cheng and Chu Zhaonan. These were the two people he trusted the most, besides Mao Ba’er and Li Zongyuan. He had already told them the plan while they were in the car. Now was the time for them to exit the formation!

Chu Zhaonan stuck out his hand and fist-bumped with him. Afterwards, the gunslinger turned around and shouted behind him, “Hidden Dragon Legion! Left wing, get ready!!!”

Following his shout, twenty people stood out without uttering a word. To the right was Fang Cheng’s soldiers, likewise standing at the right wing. Jun Man, Qin Xueluan, and Mo Yeyu were shockingly included.

At this instant, the Xingtian Legion was spread out like a crescent. The recessed section was directly facing the Screaming Wind Legion’s vanguard! Chu Zhaonan’s and Fang Cheng’s respective wings circled around on stand-by as if they were waiting for the enemy to charge in!

A hundred meters!

“Courting death!” The Xingtian Legion’s formation changes quickly surfaced in the white-armored cultivator’s spiritual sense. In his heart, great joy bloomed! 

Too little… The Xingtian Legion’s battle experience was too little!

How was a cultivator able to leave Danxia Temple an easily handled person? In terms of one-on-one, he would gracefully take a bow and step down, especially since there were several other cultivators who had also made it out of Danxia Temple. However, this was a battlefield!

Here… was the ocean he was most familiar with! The environment he excelled the most in! Here… he had the courage to compete against the Hero of Danxia Temple!

“Change formation!” The white rider pulled his head back and howled madly. “White Tiger Battle Formation! Cone formation!!!”

As free and effortless as the arm moves the finger, the white qi cover around all the riders suddenly switched to shields carved with a white tiger! And yet… their center forces began to wildly pick up speed! Unexpectedly, both sides were still able to slow down in a full-speed assault!

Only a hundred meters remained, but in several seconds the riders had already shifted into a triangular formation!

“No good!” Chu Zhaonan, who had already moved 300 meters to the left, felt this shift with his spiritual sense. In an instant, his forehead became heavy with beads of sweat. In a usual thought process, there was no way a force charging at such speed could slow down. But… that only held true for a war of mortals!

In a war of cultivators, not only could this be done, it was accomplishable as long as there was a two-or-three-second time frame!

It wasn’t the Screaming Wind Legion’s two wings that had slowed down. On the contrary, their central riders sped up for the third time!

Now, the dozen middle riders were already shrouded in the fire of friction! They were like a burning awl about to chisel through the entire crescent formation!

“Junior Brother!” Fang Cheng’s heart went ice-cold. After forces were distributed in a crescent formation, they would be instantly cut in two! And a few return attacks were enough to completely eviscerate their troops! They would be cut open and eaten away at!

In this twinkling, Fang Cheng understood what war was. Here, you could only rise tall if you were a great realm higher. Otherwise… in a war of equal stages, one-versus-one couldn’t be mentioned within the same breath!

It was a grim, iron-blooded, emotionless word.

In the same vein, Xu Yangyi saw all of this. The opponent’s actions went beyond his expectations! He hadn’t even anticipated that the enemy would be able to change formations within a couple seconds!

“Don’t worry about me!” He stretched out his left arm, the first node of light already shining. His mien was incredibly solemn. “Listen to my command! Kill them all!!!”

“As long as the front can withstand this round, our chance to counterattack will be next!”

“How is the front guard going to hold?!” Chu Zhaonan glared daggers at him. “Look at the people behind you! Their hands are shaking! What are you counting on?!”

Xu Yangyi’s eyes were a still expanse, a wisp of determination showing. He took a deep breath. “Me.”

“You?!” Fang Cheng was stunned and almost cried out in surprise, “You want to face over a dozen riders on your own?!”

The riders were so close. Everyone could sense that they were all late-stage Qi Condensation!

Over a dozen late-stage Qi Condensation bearing the force of several thousand meters of impact! Added on with terrible strength that was increased three times in speed! And then armed with supreme magik artifacts! Xu Yangyi wanted to resist them alone? 

The demon slayer was silent, but his figure flickered. He quietly made his way to the final echelon of camouflaged soldiers. Nonetheless, he had no time for considerations. The black tide before his eyes were already drawing closer and closer, filling the sky with yellow sand! Even the armor that the riders wore became clear!

Ten meters!

Eight meters!

Seven meters!

“FIRE!!!” Xu Yangyi finally screamed. 

In the end, Fang Cheng and Chu Zhaonan yelled, “Without my command, anyone who fires without permission will be executed!”

In the face of a great enemy, military orders were like mountains! They HAD to be obeyed!

Following Xu Yangyi’s order, the holes on the wall of thorns exploded again with a tide of qi cannons!

Rumble! Countless explosions detonated. A rider ahead suddenly emerged from the tsunami of qi! But this time, the soldiers’ attacks didn’t scatter. At least several tens of spirit beams had converged together, raking out a deep gorge on the ground. The air shattered and screamed, and a several-meter-wide beam of qi rush straight to the very left!

Boom! A loud noise echoed. Close to ten riders were forcibly sent flying. Whether they were dead or alive was unknown. Thump thump thump! In their wake, even the tigers they had brought with them were blasted away, and their chains immediately collapsed into several pieces. And yet… none of the other riders even batted an eye! They were right in front of the wall of thorns!

One meter!

Zero!

BOOM!!! A sonorous explosion shook the world! The Screaming Wind Legion and the wall of thorns had finally clashed! In the next moment… barbs flew through the air… thistle and thorn covered the earth! Unexpectedly, the seemingly awesome and formidable wall of thorns failed to prove effective! In the blink of an eye, it fell apart!