"Excellent," commented Wang Wei as he observed these soldiers from above. Although it might look like these troops would become useless after proving the Dao, it was far from the truth. After proving the Dao, his strength will be very close to the Empyrean level if he achieves Ten Extremity along with his other boosters. And the only reason he believes he cannot have Empyrean strength is because of the overwhelming transformation cultivators undergo from 69% of the Grand Dao Source to 70%; the transformation is more incomprehensible from Great Emperor and Dao Ancestor with 4.99%.
With such strength, he will be severely restricted in the lower dimension. So, he will need the help of others for many things–including these troops.
On the ground, Li Jun looked at the troops surrounding him. He detected two people on horses with unique auras. Furthermore, the troops revolved around these four.
'Generals?' He squinted his eyes. He held his spear in the middle and checked the balance before throwing it with immense force.
Boom! The spear turned into a red light as it cut the air due to its sheer speed.
"Array 1," roared Sloth General 1, leading the northern troops. Immediately, his soldiers reacted and formed a formation. Then, in front of everyone's eyes, Li Jun's speed which was numerous times faster than light, slowed down, traveling as it was navigating through water and working against a lot of resistance.
By the time the spear reached its destination, it had lost most of its power. So Sloth General 1 used his axe to send it flying away, forcing Li Jun to recall the spear to his side.
'What a strange array? Is it the power of time? Or something else?' He focused on the battle as the enemy's cavalry ran towards him from the north and west side.
"Archers," yelled Li Jun, and arrows flew from the middle. Unfortunately, the enemy troops also had archers, and they were more skilled than the city troops. Although not as good as Li Jun's troops, they held their own with little loss until the cavalry reached the enemy.
Bang!
The western cavalry clashed head-on with the western protective shield. And no matter what they did, they could not pass these men's shields. Meanwhile, the northern side began a slaughter.
These soldiers from the Undying Legion had no fear, so they attacked with unmatched ferocity. They stabbed their opponents and used elemental, spiritual, and brute force to kill as many people as possible. A pile of bodies and dead horses stood before them, but they did not care.
Push!
A devil stabbed a soldier in the heart, destroying the organ into oblivion. But to his horror, the man did not die or falter. After bleeding a little and the latter responded and cut off his head. Before dying, the devil could not understand what was going on.
That same soldier used the connected life force of his comrade to build another heart. And without even looking at his body or wasting time, he proceeded to kill more devils.
The soldier beside him had half of his body burned by a Flame Devil on a Flame Horse. However, he smashed the devil's head before continuing to kill his enemy. He sustained even more elemental injuries but never stopped fighting. And when he reached his body's limit, he used the connected life force to heal himself before continuing the battle.
Slash!
Another soldier sacrificed his arm to kill a mighty opponent. Then, with skills that indicated he had practiced before, he used his Divine Sense to levitate his arm from the ground and used the shared life force to reconnect it. During the entire process, he never stopped fighting and killing.
Sloth General 1 frowned as he watched his enemy rapidly decimate his army. While the cavalry was being slaughtered, his infantry also approached the human troops.
"Go for the head," he ordered before communicating with Sloth Generals 2 to 4, which troops had now arrived on the east and south sides. The east side was another iron wall, but the south side also had to deal with the Undying Legion.
The Undying Legion trained to protect their heads, so this tactic was less effective than the devils would wish. Nevertheless, it only worked to some extent.
Slash!
A soldier had their heads cut off, and this should have been his end, but to these devils' horror, a white light came from his separated neck and reattached his head to his body, even drawing the spilled blood back onto his body. The devils became more aggressive and smashed these soldiers' heads.
But it also regrew back. Regrettably, not all of them succeeded in regrowing their head. Tie Gang's Innate Talent allowed them to share life force to heal, but there was a limited amount that each soldier could access and control based on their individual talent.
"Haaaaaaaaa," roared a devil as he slammed his halberd on the ground, smashing a soldier to the ground; blood splatted over the surrounding people and on his body. But this was not the end.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
The devil continued to smash the heavy weapon with unmatched rage, turning all the soldier's body parts into meat sauce with chunks; he did not want to give the latter a chance to regenerate.
"Hahaha," he laughed victorious before he felt a pain in his chest. He looked down to see a big hole. And with shock, he raised his head to see the same soldier before him.
'Primordial Spirit?' The last thing the devil saw before entering samsara was a condescending smirk. The Undying soldier looked at his fallen opponent before rushing to his comrade next to him.
According to his training, if he lost his body on the battlefield, he could continue to battle or find a place to hold his Primordial Spirit; the sect would create a body for him later. The soldier entered his comrade's weapon according to the rules, waiting for his return in the future.
"Here," said Yan Liling, handing Tie Gang numerous pills. The latter did not hesitate to swallow them. His life energy drastically increased, and he used his power to share it with his soldiers, increasing the pool of life force they had to heal. These soldiers immediately became more intense, entering a semi-berserk state since they had no fear of death.
Sloth General 1 noticed the change and Yan Liling's action in the center. He knew the best way to deal with this army was to find the source of their ability. And he could already identify what it was, no, who it was. Unfortunately, he could not immediately take care of the problem.
"Use soul attack," he ordered. This method was once again not as successful as he wished. Tie Gang developed his talent to reach the soul, meaning the soldiers can heal certain soul injuries–even if it's not all.
Furthermore, knowing this was one of the weaknesses of the Undying Legion, he trained the soldiers to prepare. They had to learn soul-defense techniques and have a Soul Protecting Artifact; the Dao Opening Sect went above and beyond to nurture these soldiers, providing them with enough resources to make some declining Emperor Lineage wince in pain.
And this was not the end. Li Jun also helped this legion protect their souls by creating a technique that allowed them to absorb baleful auras and use them as a shield to save their souls.
Swish!
An arrow pieced through the sky–leaving hundreds of afterimages in its path–heading straight toward Tie Gang. He calmly raised his hand to catch it, but to everyone's surprise, the arrow divided into two, with the second one headed for Yan Liling.
'Checkmate,' thought Sloth General 1. Unfortunately, before he could celebrate, purple flame manifested around Yan Liling and burned the arrow into oblivion.
"Did they think I was a damsel in distress because I'm an Advisor," commented Yan Liling.
"I think they do," replied Tie Gang.
"I feel offended." Yan Liling suddenly felt like many people in the world thought she was a useless group member. "If it were not for the rules, I would burn all of them to ash."
Tie Gang swallowed his saliva; he knew the horror of a talented Pill Master. These monsters have some of the weirdest pills. More importantly, they are all masters of poison.
Wang Wei tasked Yan Liling to create poison for him to temper his body once he finished with his Black Holes, and Tie Gang once experienced some of her experiments. His body trembled as he remembered the horrid poisons he saw her testing.
"I guess it's my turn to move," commented Li Jun as he checked on his Slaughter Legion, who was responsible for the defensive maneuver of this war. If they failed, the group would fight on four fronts instead of two.
He jumped on the shoulders of one of the soldiers and used them as foot holders to rush toward the enemy's general. Sloth General 1 immediately ran in the opposite direction, which surprised Li Jun a little. However, he sensed three more people coming from behind him.
'You want to fight me 4 vs. 1? Not a problem.'
He did not hesitate to follow. However, in his way, he communicated something to the group.
Happy New Year. I know for some, it's not time yet. Nevertheless, I will say it again in tomorrow's chapters.
Please take some time to read the author's note.
