Chapter 403.3 - Army of Spirits
Bi Ji was lost. She could only command her kinsmen as she unleashed healing soul skills one after another so that she could save as many of her compatriots’ lives as possible.
The undead army was still fighting. Their battle against the soul beasts was like the soul beasts’ battle against Shrek City’s warriors; the army of undead suffered massive losses, and ten undead had to die to kill one soul beast. But so what?
Huo Yuhao had relied on his formidable spiritual power and the demiplane that the Calamity Necromancer Electrolux had left behind for him, and summoned a hundred thousand low-tier undead creatures.
If these undead clashed with the army of soul beasts in a frontal battlefield, those undead would be rapidly overrun.
However, the soul beast army had been fighting for two days and two nights, while the top-tier soul beasts were currently preoccupied in battles with Shrek Academy’s elites on the other side. Under such circumstances, what could the other soul beasts do? A hundred thousand undead charging through their ranks and the disturbance they caused was enough to affect the tide of battle.
Furthermore, even though those undead didn’t know how to cooperate, injuries didn’t really affect their fighting strength. Their point of entry was excellent, and the army of soul beasts on the western and northern fronts descended into chaos. Their assault on Shrek City was now conspicuously weaker than before.
Reinforcements… reinforcements were here! Shrek’s warriors on the city walls didn’t know that an army of undead was their reinforcements, but the soul beasts’ slowing charge reinvigorated their spirits. The soul beasts who had climbed to the top of these two sides were forced back down, and some soul masters who were no longer preoccupied took this temporary break to recover their soul power.
A furious and deafening roar echoed high up in the sky. Golden-yellow clouds rolled in the sky, and an enormous figure could be faintly seen struggling in the clouds.
Di Tian couldn’t participate in the battle below, but his formidable strength meant he still had a connection to the army of soul beasts, and he could still feel their situation. He had discovered that things were going wrong, and he redoubled his efforts to break through the Taotie Seal that Elder Xuan and Elder Mu were using together to hold him down.
The army of undead began to dwindle in number, and new ones no longer charged in from the distance. There were fewer and fewer undead, but the army of soul beasts that they were attacking was also dwindling!
Time continued to pass as the soul beasts attacking on the northern and western fronts had their fighting strength greatly weakened.
Boom, boom, boom…
Black lighting detonated throughout the glowing clouds high up in the sky. Cracks began to appear in the sky; Di Tian was finally about to break out from his seal!
Elder Mu and Elder Xuan had restrained Di Tian for three days with the Golden Tree’s support. However, the Golden Tree had consumed a lot of energy when it had healed the city’s soldiers, and when it forcibly repelled the soul beasts which were flooding in. Furthermore, Di Tian could feel the dire situation that his kinsmen were in, and he couldn’t be bothered with his own injuries as he tried to break out of the seal at any cost. The seal was about to crumble!
The soul beasts were galvanized a little when they heard Di Tian’s roar.
The Emerald Swan communicated with the other three Savage Beasts across the battlefield, and finally gave the order to temporarily retreat.
——
The swarming beast tide gradually retreated, but they circled around Shrek City to the northwest as they retreated.
They would have to resolve the problems behind them if they wanted to exert any pressure in front of them. Even though they didn’t know where the army of undead had come from, these things were far too irritating. Their assault on Shrek City could stop for now, but they had to exterminate these unwelcome guests, no matter what!
What happened afterwards proved the gap between the undead army and the soul beast army. When the army of soul beasts from all four fronts surrounded them, it didn’t take more than fifteen minutes for them to overrun the army of undead, until there wasn’t a single unliving creature left. Even now, not many people could see who their reinforcements were from the top of Shrek City’s walls.
——
The soul beasts had retreated, but they didn’t move too far away. They began to eat the carcasses of the soul beasts that had died to replenish themselves.
The four Savage Beasts finally rendezvoused with one another. They didn’t speak at all, and their faces looked as black as could be. They had lost this battle, and the immense losses they had sustained were heavy blows to the Great Star Dou Forest’s vitality. This was especially true since the Auspicious Emperor Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, had passed away.
They were all waiting for Di Tian to break out of his seal. Only the Beast God could make the final decision about whether they should attack or retreat.
——
The top of Shrek’s city walls were wretched and in tatters.
In the same moment that the army of soul beasts retreated, everyone slumped to the ground on the city walls. This included soldiers, soul masters, and even Shrek Academy’s students and teachers from the inner courtyard.
They had been locked in bitter combat for a day and a night, and they had consumed far too much energy in both mind and body.
At this moment, there was hardly anyone who could still stand on Shrek’s city walls.
The boost to morale brought about by the arrival of reinforcements vanished with the soul beasts’ retreat, and only surging exhaustion and fatigue were left behind.
The four Savage Beasts didn’t know this, but if they had continued with another assault at this moment, they would probably have achieved impressive results!
Everyone from the Tang Sect was also slumped limply on the ground. This group included Nan Shuishui, Nan Qiuqiu, and Ye Guyi. Everyone’s clothes were stained with the blood of soul beasts.
Reality proved that the battle strategies that Bei Bei had arranged were very sensible. They relied on their mutual chemistry and how close they were to each other to maintain themselves as one body even in the toughest of times.
Nan Shuishui was a Soul Douluo, and in addition to Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu, the three of them became effective reinforcements. Even though everyone was injured, everyone managed to survive.
Ji Juechen became the most brilliant celebrity on the southern city wall after this battle. He had killed countless soul beasts with his Judgement Sword, and there were many warriors and soul masters from Shrek’s city defense army who were hollering, “Sword God!”
At this moment, their Sword God couldn’t keep himself together anymore, and he panted heavily as he leaned against the battlement. However, not a single tinge of exhaustion could be seen in his eyes, there was only excitement.
Yes, he had managed to achieve a better understanding of swordplay through this battle, and had achieved some breakthroughs with his own strength.
Ever since he got together with Jing Ziyan, many new things had been added to his life. This time, he had relied on this continuous battle and danger to infuse these new elements into his sword intent. For him, doing so was more important than raising his soul power.
Bei Bei was also panting in similar fashion, but there was a look of anxiety on his face as he stared into the sky. Shrek’s perils hadn’t been completely resolved.
“Look, what’s that?” Xu Sanshi suddenly raised his hand forcibly and pointed into the sky.
Everyone followed the direction his finger was pointing, and could see a shadow soaring through the air in the distance. This shadow came straight for Shrek City, and descended to the city wall. A trail of green flames flickering with strange images followed behind this shadow.
The green flames were the mark of Shrek. It also meant that this person, who was flying back from a distance, was friendly!
“Reinforcements?” Everyone’s eyes sparkled when they thought about Elder Song’s exclamation from before. Shrek’s city walls were swimming with victims who were wounded and exhausted, but the soul beasts had suffered far, far heavier losses than Shrek did. Quite a few soul masters had perished in battle, but there were a lot more who had survived.
The Tang Sect’s members quivered when they felt a wave of peculiar spiritual undulations, and the shadow that was flying through the air landed beside them.
The night was dark, but this shadow carried Shrek’s green signal, so his soaring figure was glaringly clear. This person quickly descended from the sky and landed on top of the city wall. Furthermore, he landed amid the Tang Sect’s members.
“Yuhao!” Everyone from the Tang Sect was mired in extreme exhaustion at this moment, but they couldn’t help but exclaim in pleasant surprise when they saw him.
Yes! Wasn’t that Huo Yuhao who was descending from the sky?
Huo Yuhao had recovered his spiritual power and sensed the changes in Shrek City at the same time. He had managed to escape from under the Evileye Tyrant King’s nose, so it wasn’t hard to imagine how strong his spiritual power was.
When he discovered that the army of soul beasts had temporarily retreated, he flew to Shrek City without hesitation. Of course, he took a long detour to avoid the soul beasts that were concentrated on the northwestern front, and arrived on the southern side of the city. He used Spiritual Detection and quickly found his buddies.
“Eldest senior brother, second senior brother, third senior brother… I’m back.” Tears welled up in Huo Yuhao’s eyes when he saw his buddies strewn all over the ground. However, he didn’t sob out loud. Instead, he swiftly released his spiritual power to check on everyone’s wounds.
He heaved a sigh of relief when he was sure that everyone was more or less fine, and sat down beside Bei Bei.
Bei Bei stared at Huo Yuhao and forced a laugh as he said, “You’re back after all, Yuhao. You’ve really caused quite a disaster this time!”
Huo Yuhao forced a laugh too and said, “I know, and I’m sorry. Eldest senior brother, I…”
Xu Sanshi said, “That’s enough, Bei Bei. How can you blame Yuhao for this disaster? He didn’t know that Qiu’er was the Three-Eyed Golden Lion! Are you saying that our Yuhao was supposed to die instead?”
Bei Bei turned towards Huo Yuhao and sighed faintly. “You shouldn’t have come back.”
Huo Yuhao gazed back at Bei Bei and said, “I had to come back, eldest senior brother.”
Bei Bei glared at him. “The beast tide is still here. Haven’t you considered that you’ll create a spark for Shrek and the Tang Sect?”
Huo Yuhao looked up at the gash in the sky that was becoming larger and larger. “Is that Elder Xuan sealing away Di Tian? This beast tide should be ending soon.”
Excitement flowed in Bei Bei’s eyes. He shook his head and said, “No, Elder Xuan isn’t the only one. Our ancestor is also there.”
“Ancestor?” Huo Yuhao was momentarily stunned before he recovered. His eyes sparkled as he asked, “You… you’re saying, our teacher is there, too?”
Huo Yuhao’s emotions rippled, and everyone from the Tang Sect around him instantly felt a wave of flourishing spiritual pressure radiate from his body, shaking everyone’s hearts.
Bei Bei exclaimed in astonishment, “Yuhao, your spiritual power…!”