Chapter 2022 - 2021: Sky-reaching Sword Formation

Chapter 2022: Chapter 2021: Sky-reaching Sword Formation

The Demon Clan warriors of the fourth array quickly charged into the battlefield. Though the rain of arrows and crossbow bolts had cost them dearly, the Ming Guang Camp beneath First Line Pass had already been worn down by repeated battles and could no longer fight with the same fresh vigor as at the beginning.

After slaughtering the Demons who had rushed in, Tang Lin’s eyes were already blurred by the mix of sweat and blood. He shook his head, lifted his gaze, and looked again at the incoming Demons.

The Ming Guang Camp, having fought three battles in a row, was nearing its limit. They had killed many, but if they continued their own numbers would start to be cut down as well. After all, the cultivators under his command were far from all being at the Golden Core level.

Fortunately, as the fourth horn sounded, the third wave of Demon warriors no longer had the heart to cling on and fight to the death. They had already completed their mission; so long as they could retreat alive, that was another kind of heaven. There was no need to keep gambling their lives.

Tang Lin likewise had no intention of giving chase, simply watching as the sizable number of Demons withdrew.

"Re-form the ranks, prepare the Sword Array."

Tang Lin finally took out his trump card. If they kept grinding away like this, it would turn into a pure war of attrition, and he wasn’t stupid enough to disregard lives just for the sake of merit.

The Ming Guang Camp was the Tang Family’s foundation; he could not afford overly heavy losses.

"Yes."

Then, the five hundred of the Ming Guang Camp seized the moment during the fourth wave of Demon charges to rapidly re-form their array, while simultaneously directly sending out the Flying Swords in their hands.

"Sword Control Technique."

At Tang Lin’s command, all five hundred men chanted the Sword Control Technique in unison, and the Flying Swords before them instantly rang out with waves of sword cries.

This time, the Ming Guang Camp crossbowmen on the walls did not loose arrows to obstruct, letting the Demon warriors cross the thousand-meter distance. The remaining several hundred meters were, for the physically powerful Demons, nothing more than a matter of mere moments.

"Sky-reaching Sword Formation."

Tang Lin listened to the tremors coming from the ground—those were the vibrations of the Demon warriors’ charge. Even from over a hundred meters away, one could feel that surging murderous aura.

"Rise."

Tang Lin roared, and at once the tips of all five hundred Flying Swords pointed to the sky, then shot straight up toward the heavens.

Five hundred Flying Swords rose into the air; cold light crisscrossed, and even Li Feng several miles away could see them clearly.

Sword Array.

Li Feng narrowed his eyes, watching those rising swords, and in a moment the Flying Swords reached a certain height.

"Go."

With a flick of Tang Lin’s hand, the hundreds of Flying Swords in midair merged into a colossal sword, then cleaved down toward the Demons’ formation.

The sword pressure from that single strike instantly swept across over a thousand meters. The Demon warriors enveloped within it were directly crushed into explosions by the sword pressure, and the ground itself was split open into a sword mark more than a thousand meters long.

In an instant, half of the two thousand five hundred Demon warriors were wiped out.

And that was not the end. As the sword pressure from that strike spread out, the hundreds of Flying Swords that constituted that great sword instantly scattered, and within the range of Tang Lin’s control they moved like flood-dragon serpents overturning the sea. Sword light swept through the air; blood sprayed everywhere.

But the Sword Array’s power had also reached its limit. The hundreds of Ming Guang Camp cultivators had almost exhausted all their essence, energy, and spirit, turning feeble in an instant.

"Withdraw."

The several hundred members of the Ming Guang Camp immediately turned around and headed back toward First Line Pass. At this moment the Gate of the pass stood wide open, but the Ming Guang Camp cultivators outside the pass were already too drained to leap back up onto the wall on their own.

Though the Ming Guang Camp had withdrawn, the fourth wave of Demons had completely collapsed as well. Those still alive were only a scant few; they were almost annihilated to the last.

"Sound the horn."

After that, the fifth array launched its charge. Only this time, no garrison from atop the walls rushed out of the pass to fight in the field.

That day, Li Feng directly deployed five camps, ten arrays to assault First Line Pass. The twenty-five thousand Demons took grievous losses; in the end barely three thousand survived. One could say that fewer than one in ten remained.

Only when the Golden Crow sank behind the western mountains did Li Feng finally sound the horn to withdraw the army back to camp.

The three Demon Generals watching from the rear were silent for a long moment. They realized that this brat from the Fire Phoenix Clan was truly cold-blooded, actually using the human First Line Pass as a whetstone.

In a single day, over twenty thousand Demon warriors died beneath First Line Pass. This loss exceeded even that of the previous three or four days combined. Previously, when they attacked the city, though they sent out no small number of Demon warriors, they basically collapsed after a few exchanges of blows.

Counting the dead and wounded, it had only been a few thousand.

The losses had been considerable, but the results were meager.

Mm, at most the number of garrison troops they had taken out probably didn’t even reach three hundred. Of course, what gave the Demon Clan the biggest headache about the humans of Ancestor Dragon City was that endless stream of military spiritual weapons.

Like the Flame Crossbows used today—the value of a single Crossbow Arrow was far from cheap, and today the enemy had expended no fewer than several thousand of them.

And that still didn’t include the final Sword Array. The Sword Array’s power was astonishing, but the Flying Swords used in it, even at the lowest grade, had to be Spiritual Weapons; otherwise it would be impossible to unleash such might. Moreover, that final Blast of the sword was essentially the end of those Flying Swords.

In other words, five hundred Spiritual Weapons vanished in an instant. Converted to value, that too was far from cheap. One could say this battle alone had at least emptied out the foundation of a third-rate Family.

On the Northwest side, in Li Feng’s camp.

"Camp Master, all Demons that have undergone modification have already been reassigned and placed around the main tent."

Lan stepped in from outside the tent and made his report.

"Mm. Having them placed isn’t enough. You still need to learn every piece of information about these Demons and compile it. After that, re-form them into camps and arrays according to race and strength."

"I’m entrusting this task to you."

"Yes, Camp Master."

After Li Feng gave a few more instructions, Lan withdrew from the main tent. In less than a moment, Shadow slipped silently into the tent; only when she stepped into the candlelight did her graceful figure become clear.

"Camp Master."

"Mm. Any stirrings in the camp?"

"Reporting to Camp Master, I’ve made a round of inspection. The atmosphere in the main camp is very stable. In particular, those Demon warriors who survived today are flaunting their strength everywhere, drawing quite a few looks. Everyone’s attention has been pulled over there."

"At the very least, as I moved around, I didn’t hear any complaints. On the contrary, quite a number of Demon warriors are eager to give it a try."

"Mm."

Li Feng nodded. The information Shadow brought back seemed useless on the surface, but it was a link that could not be ignored. Fortunately, these Demons yearned more for power and were much more indifferent toward life and death.

This was also related to the fact that, within the Demon Clan, the law of the jungle had always been the creed.

Li Feng’s methods were cruel, but the benefits he offered were plain to see. So long as their deaths were not meaningless, these Demon warriors did not reject Li Feng’s sort of ruthless, sieve-the-sand tactic.

After all, everyone wants to become powerful, but not everyone gets chosen.

The night passed without incident. The next day.

Before First Line Pass.

Battle erupted once again at the touch of a spark. Five camps, ten arrays, two thousand five hundred Demon soldiers launched ceaseless charges once more.

The fighting remained just as brutal, and the garrison at First Line Pass was just as tenacious. Yet faced with the Demons’ suicidal charges, they were pushed up onto the Gate Wall several times.

The garrison of First Line Pass also began to suffer casualties one after another. Although the defenders held the advantage and their armament was sharp, while the Demons were charging with bare flesh and blood, the exchange ratio was still greatly improved.

After all, not all the garrison at First Line Pass were old, elite troops like those of the Tang Family, and they did not all have vast stores of military equipment to squander.

At least on the second day, besides the normal rain of arrows, the Flame Crossbows did not appear.

Battle losses—the ratio that day directly rose to ten-to-one. On average, ten Demon cannon fodder could take one garrison soldier with them, along with a substantial amount of the garrison’s defensive armament.

Moreover, on the second day, the number of Demon survivors increased dramatically. Only about three thousand had survived the first day, but on the second day more than five thousand made it through. The ratio was no longer fewer than one in ten, but one in five.