Chapter 2257 - 2242: Laiyang’s Bloody Battle

Chapter 2257: Chapter 2242: Laiyang’s Bloody Battle

Southern War Zone of the Human Demon Battlefield, inside and outside the Laiyang Fortress, the sound of killing echoed to the heavens!

A massive army of the Demon Clan, like ants, continuously surged upwards despite the various arrows being rained down from the city walls, and in just half a day, the first major battle of this prolonged confrontation erupted into an intense white-hot state.

The attacking Demon Clan army accidentally discovered that the Marshal of Guangqing Black Armored Army, Zhou Cen, only brought his trusted aides to inspect the Laiyang Fortress belonging to Chengling Fortress.

Immediately, they divided their forces into two routes. One route launched a feigned attack towards Chengling Fortress, distracting the main army of 260,000 stationed there.

While the 300,000-strong main army of the Demon Clan headed straight for Laiyang Fortress, joining forces to besiege the 100,000-strong army attacking Laiyang Fortress, a total of 400,000 troops intending to encircle and annihilate Marshal Zhou Ling of Guangqing Black Armored Army, who had come lightly to inspect Laiyang Fortress.

It must be known that the garrison of Laiyang Fortress is only 80,000 at full capacity.

Although it had been reinforced, frequent battles recently left them with fewer than 70,000 combat-ready soldiers, quickly falling into a disadvantage when faced with the full assault of 400,000 elite Demon Clan troops!

Marshal of the Black Armored Army, Zhou Cen, was now bathed in blood, fighting fiercely atop the city wall, occasionally glancing towards the direction of Chengling Fortress.

Reinforcements were still on the way!

Moreover, they were constantly being harassed and intercepted by enemy forces along the route, greatly slowing their progress.

But the enemy had already assaulted the city walls multiple times!

Left with no choice, Zhou Cen ordered all 20,000 civilians within Laiyang Fortress to defend the city atop the walls.

These civilians varied in strength and had undergone no training; many, upon witnessing the ferocious appearance of the Demon Clan, weakened in fear before engaging.

Essentially, they were using their lives to buy time.

The Marshal of the Black Armored Army clenched his lips tightly, showing no intention to change his military order.

Laiyang Fortress could not be lost.

If Laiyang Fortress fell, the entire defensive line of Chengling Fortress would collapse.

Secretly, Zhou Cen regretted being overly confident and underestimating the enemy.

He had brought only 3,000 trusted aides to inspect Laiyang Fortress and his movements were detected by the enemy, which was his greatest misstep this time.

Unfortunately, there were no remedies for regret in this world!

All he could do now was delay, delay until the reinforcements arrived at the final moment!

Seeing more and more Demon Clan troops scaling the walls and the casualties mounting, Zhou Cen’s lips twitched slightly before he roared, "Personal Guard, prepare the Beast Soul Pill!"

Upon hearing this command, all the struggling aides’ lips twitched slightly.

This Beast Soul Pill was their Black Armored Army’s last resort, capable of exponentially increasing their combat power, but the side effects were extremely troublesome.

Once the Beast Soul Pill was consumed, their combat power would instantly double, and they would become fearless and exceptionally brave, minimizing the pain from injuries.

Even the damage from severed limbs could not hinder their ability to continue fighting.

However, under such circumstances, the mortality and death rates from consuming the Beast Soul Pill reached as high as seventy percent.

Importantly, the side effects were extremely severe.

There was an antidote for the Beast Soul Pill; if taken within one hour, these aides could mostly recover, though their minds would be slightly affected, leading to emotional instability and uncontrollable anger, but these were considered overcomable flaws.

If more than one hour passed without taking the antidote, the person would start to undergo partial beast transformation, and even if they took the antidote afterward, they could not fully revert.

If they consumed the Beast Soul Pill and still ate no antidote after two hours, their Divine Soul would be thoroughly infiltrated by the Beast Soul within, and they would become humanoid beasts driven only by killing instincts.

It could be said that the Beast Soul Pill was the forbidden drug of the Black Armored Army’s elite, and under conditions where battles could be swiftly ended, it offered a chance for recovery.

But under the current circumstances, it did not appear that even two hours would suffice to end the battle!

With a single slash, Zhou Cen split an Iron-armored Demon that had climbed the wall into two halves, its blood streaming down the city wall in an instant. He glanced back at the aides who had just taken out the Beast Soul Pills, a grin like a vengeful ghost appearing at the corner of his mouth.

Then, he slowly took out two blood-red pills the size of Dragon Eyes.

He gestured towards the aides, "Brothers, I’m first!"

Tilted his head back, Zhou Cen swallowed the two blood-red Beast Soul Pills directly. "Brothers, would you fight alongside me to the very end!"

"Grand Marshal!"

"Marshal!"

Seeing Marshal Zhou Cen swallow two Beast Soul Pills in one go, the aides exclaimed in shock.

Swallowing one Beast Soul Pill offered a chance of recovery with the antidote within an hour.

Swallowing two Beast Soul Pills, while dramatically boosting combat power, meant that no matter how many Beast Soul Pills were consumed, recovery was impossible.

They would die in battle, but if they survived, they would only become humanoid beasts driven solely by killing instincts!

In other words, Zhou Cen, who swallowed two blood-red Beast Soul Pills, had resolved to die!

Remaining less than 3,000 elite aides saw this, and silently took out a blood-red Beast Soul Pill from their storage rings, tilted their heads back, and swallowed it.

In an instant, sinister blood-red began to appear in the eyes of Zhou Cen and these aides.

"Brothers, if there is an opportunity, let us fight side by side in another life, kill!"

The final shout of ’kill’ turned into a twisted, Beast-like roar as the Black Armored Army’s Marshal Zhou Cen charged forth like a raging tiger.

Just now, Zhou Cen had received urgent news from the reinforcements, stating it would take three more hours for them to arrive at the fastest.

Given the current situation, even enduring another one hour seemed challenging!

Sword Gang surged with a trace of blood, sweeping across a kilometer, slicing over thirty Demon Clan members in half and sending flying more than ten Ninth Stage Peak and Early Stage Dao Realm Demon Clan powerhouses.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

Amidst the twisted beast-like roars, nearly 3,000 blood-eyed aides rampaged like beasts on the city wall.

Their fighting style was extremely gruesome and direct.

Either they sliced their opponents into pieces or tore them into fragments.

In less than half an hour, the entire city wall had become a river of blood.

The blood flowed like streams over the city walls, accumulating into layers of thick blood plasma on the ground below, with countless fresh corpses piled in the blood plasma.

The number of corpses continued to rise.

No one noticed that one by one, these corpses soaked in the blood plasma seemed to breathe, continuously absorbing the blood surrounding them.

It appeared indistinct, like a sponge absorbing water, yet they kept absorbing.

More bizarrely, these bodies showed no swelling despite absorbing the blood plasma, instead slowly shrinking.

Underground, it seemed as if a monster that consumed blood was continuously devouring the blood plasma.

The bloodshed persisted!

An hour later, the civilians atop the city wall were all dead!

An hour and a half later, even more Demon Clan members had scaled the city wall, the garrison of Great Zhou continually contracting their defenses.

Only the over 2,000 warriors led by Marshal Zhou Cen, who had concurrently swallowed the Beast Soul Pills, slaughtered undeviatedly on the city wall, even if the Demon Clan did not attack them, their will compelled them to actively hunt the Demon Clan’s Qi and attack.

Two hours later, part of the city wall had fallen, the Demon Clan had breached the interior of Laiyang Fortress, and the defending army had no choice but to engage in the most brutal urban warfare!

By this time, both the Great Zhou garrison and the Demon Clan were bloodthirsty.

One had no avenue of retreat, while the other was on the verge of victory, both no longer caring about the strength beneath them.

The thick blood plasma now directly covered the feet in the city.

And three hours later, the reinforcements breaking through Chengling Fortress finally arrived!

The newly arrived reinforcements from Chengling Fortress did not notice the transformative changes in the corpses soaked in blood plasma within the city.

The blood plasma previously covering the feet was now reduced to a thin layer.

The reinforcements from Chengling Fortress also witnessed a scene so shocking they would never forget it for the rest of their lives!