Chapter 1085: Civil and Military Affairs Reversed (Fourteen) [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
"Just how many corpses are buried in this pit?"
Tu Rong, now a frail and helpless scholar, used his utterly inept scholarly words to amplify Lin Feng's power while hiding behind his junior sister, Lin Feng. For the first time in his life, he had the strange thought, "My junior sister is so strong and powerful; she makes me feel so safe." Despite this overwhelming sense of security, the sight of the endless, seemingly inexhaustible army of white bones still sent chills down his spine.
These bones are absolutely horrifying.
Lin Feng shattered a dozen skeletons in a single stroke, a bloody gash appearing on his cheek. The stench of blood filled the air, causing the nearby bones to stir. Her brow furrowed, and she replied in a low voice, "How would I know?"
"Ahhhh—"
Tu Rong let out a series of high-pitched shouts.
Lin Feng, thinking he'd been ambushed by a stealthy enemy, instinctively drew his sword and stabbed, almost grazing Tu Rong's shield as he pierced the skull whose eye sockets were writhing with ghostly flames. Watching the skull explode on the spot, Lin Feng's face turned cold: "Tu Xianrong, what's your name?"
Tu Rong was almost startled.
"Give yourself a pep talk."
Although he had transformed into a scholar and lost the power boost from martial arts, Tu Rong still possessed excellent physical attributes and great strength. The heavy shields that ordinary adults couldn't lift were just right in his hands. He could wield the shield with both hands and charge at the enemy in one go.
Not every skeleton was hard.
A single blow from his shield could shatter several osteoporotic individuals, and those who weren't shattered couldn't withstand the force of his burst of power, being propelled backward by the shield and crashing into the ever-growing horde of his comrades.
Lin Feng: "..."
Tu Rong whispered, "It's easier to exert force when you roar."
This is how a martial artist without the literary aura boost works: by focusing their energy in their dantian and letting out a roar, their strength will significantly increase. In addition, suddenly making a noise can also frighten and disrupt opponents, giving one an advantage in seizing the opportunity to strike.
The usually elegant and refined scholar was not very familiar with the quirks of martial artists, but Lin Feng, eager to learn, asked, "Is it really useful?"
Tu Rong said, "It's useful."
Lin Feng looked somewhat troubled.
She simply couldn't get over that mental hurdle. She couldn't imagine herself fighting while shouting and yelling wildly; she rarely even spoke loudly in everyday life. While repelling the skeletons, Lin Feng took deep breaths to mentally prepare herself, steeled herself, and, like Tu Rong, let loose with her voice. She even learned, without being taught, to concentrate her martial energy into her sound, using sonic booms to shatter large sections of the skeletons.
Lin Feng's cheeks were flushed with embarrassment after he finished yelling.
Tu Rong was so startled by the sound that his heart skipped a beat.
"Junior Sister..."
Lin Feng's dark eyes shone brightly, and as if he had discovered something, he preemptively gave the order: "At your command, form a shield!"
Dozens of rays of light split off from the clouds above the Great Banner Camp.
The light fell to the ground and transformed into thick shields.
At this point, the advantages of ordinary soldiers become apparent.
The warriors who had cultivated martial energy were transformed into scholars with weak literary energy, while the ordinary soldiers who lacked martial energy but possessed strong physiques remained unaffected. These ordinary soldiers retained their usual strength, and even displayed more dazzling performances due to the amplification from their comrades' words of wisdom. They raised thick shields in groups of four—Lin Feng, considering the change in the overall quality of the soldiers, specifically abandoned the two-person long shields commonly used in daily training, replacing them with shields that were as wide as four people, and only one-third the length of the usual shields.
Through Lin Feng's observation, he discovered that these skeletal soldiers varied greatly in skill level. Some were brave and skilled in combat, adept at using martial energy, while others were timid and hesitant, relying entirely on the pushing and shoving of those behind them to charge. Furthermore, the skeletal army lacked a unified commander, relying primarily on a "bone swarm" tactic for attack. They neither understood nor knew how to organize specialized units, such as using curved, long-handled scimitars to sever the leg bones of their own soldiers. Based on this, Lin Feng boldly reduced the height of the thick shields to lessen the burden on the soldiers.
Heavy shields formed an impenetrable city wall.
Unable to budge the army of bones, they resorted to a human pyramid tactic. Tu Rong said, "Junior sister, it's not working, the height isn't enough!"
Lin Feng leaped over the shield wall.
Beyond the shield wall lay an endless expanse of white bones.
"Big Shield, charge!"
Just before landing, she conjured a giant shield over ten feet long in her right hand.
A powerful, explosive force plummeted towards the ground, the bones beneath the shields cracking and snapping. The soldiers of the Great Banner Camp obeyed orders, simultaneously unleashing their full strength to surge forward, those that managed to breach the shield wall being cut down by soldiers behind.
"Press!!!"
Lin Feng's voice was no longer the refined and elegant one he once was.
"Crush it as flat as possible!"
Every word seemed to burst forth from the depths of his heart!
"Owned by the banner, ram them!"
What Lin Feng needs to do now is to squeeze the skeleton army's space as much as possible. As long as they are close enough, their hollowed-out skeletal joints, which are not covered by flesh and blood, will intertwine with each other.
If you get entangled too much, it will naturally become a mess.
These skeletons aren't living, breathing people. A group of living people crushed together would either trample each other, or be packed tightly together, clothes pressed against clothes, flesh against flesh. But skeletons are different; they overlap. For example, A's thigh might get caught in B's ribs, B's arm might pass through C's pelvis and be bitten by D's mouth, and D's ribs might interlock with A's ribs like two shark claws. Ribs, collarbones, skulls—all broken and disjointed, arm bones, leg bones—are indistinguishable…
This is like untangling a tangled ball of yarn. Once it gets knotted, it only gets more tangled the more you try to untangle it. Even a normal person would get frustrated trying to untangle it, let alone a group of skeletons controlled by murderous thoughts.
Lin Feng's tactic was undoubtedly successful.
Apart from a few elite skeletons who could conjure up martial armor, the other skeletons quickly became entangled and hindered each other.
The shield-bearing soldiers exerted all their strength, single-mindedly following orders and pushing outwards with all their might.
Everyone's calf muscles were taut, as hard as rocks. Simultaneously, they gathered strength, pushed off with their toes, and then transferred the power along their waist and abdomen to their arms, leaning their upper bodies slightly forward, clenching their teeth to exert force. Normally, this level of strength wouldn't last long, but their comrades behind them provided the crucial assistance of clumsy scribe incantations. This assistance wouldn't even reach the threshold of "better than nothing" for a master, but for these low-ranking soldiers, it was a rare and magnificent feast!
The icy coolness seeped into my limbs and bones, a sensation akin to drinking a large ladle of water after a workout in the sweltering summer heat—it felt like my soul soared to the highest heaven. No matter how hard I exerted myself, my muscles felt neither sore nor numb; I felt an inexhaustible surge of energy!
That's awesome, so incredibly awesome!
The exhilarating feeling of having inexhaustible energy is intoxicating.
Although they unleashed less than a third of their usual power, the experience was unprecedentedly better. Their morale was high, and the aura above the army not only didn't weaken but became even more solid. Lin Feng, shield in one hand and sword in the other, led the charge, plunging into the bone army and living up to his name, like a hurricane sweeping through, shattering the bones into countless fragments…
In a corner unnoticed by anyone, the Corpse Vine slammed its fist on the ground in dissatisfaction.
The flesh and blood of living creatures are their favorite food.
The enemy before them clearly did not meet the requirements for foraging.
A vine called "Corpse Vine" couldn't wait to break off a skull, attempting to burrow into the bones and extract a bit of marrow. Naturally, it returned disappointed.
The Corpse Vine and the Corpse Vine are originally from the same root.
One of the Corpse Vine discovered that its prey contained no marrow, and the other Corpse Vine realized this simultaneously. Enraged, they immediately went berserk, expressing their strong dissatisfaction to their master, Lin Feng. "You expect them to work without reward? Even cattle and horses aren't treated like this! We're on strike!"
The strike by the Corpse Vine lasted only a few breaths.
Lin Feng paid for his debt with his own blood: "Go back and I'll catch some prey for you. Stop making trouble now, or I'll wipe you all out!"
The Corpse Vine, though under her command, is no benevolent creature.
You can't control them without being ruthless.
Sensing Lin Feng's fierce threat, the Corpse Vine finally became obedient—sigh, bones it is, bones it may. If we grind the bones into pieces and mix them with mud, we can still extract some nutrients.
With the pressure tactics succeeding, the pressure on the front lines was greatly reduced.
The distance between the front line and the large pit is all tangled bones.
To climb out of the pit, one must either jump or fly; otherwise, one must traverse the piles of bones, and a single misstep could turn one into one of them. The skeletons, entangled by their own kind, desperately try to break free. They shove and push each other, breaking bones and blowing off heads in the process.
It truly achieved a state of "unbreakable entanglement".
Lin Feng was finally able to catch his breath.
With her keen observation, she quickly noticed the differences between the bones.
The first wave of skeletons to emerge fought fiercely, with a very high proportion capable of using martial arts; they were clearly elite soldiers who had died in some battle, all awakened by Wei City. The next wave was General Gongshu's handiwork; this group of skeletons harbored a deep hatred for the previous one. Although their overall combat strength was inferior, their superior numbers made them formidable, and they attacked on sight. If we include the group that besieged Gao Kingdom, the two waves of skeleton armies numbered no less than 50,000, approaching 100,000, demonstrating the ferocity of the battle.
Besides them, there is a third wave.
This also represents a sharp decline in the combat effectiveness of the Skeleton Army.
None of them possessed martial arts skills in life. They were buried the deepest and emerged the latest. Lin Feng initially judged them to be ordinary commoners. In this era of moral decay and where all conscience was abandoned, some warlords would use commoners as rations when they ran out of ammunition and food. They would eat wherever they fought.
A prime example is Huang Lie's army back then.
After the meal, the bodies were buried together.
Lin Feng's guess was not without reason.
The third wave of skeletons was the smallest, roughly ten thousand strong. None of them used martial or literary energy, their bones were weak, and they were shorter than ordinary people with smaller frames.
If Lin Feng hadn't been able to distinguish between human and monkey bones, he would have thought these ten thousand or so people were all monkeys. Their reactions as they climbed up were amusing. Some skeletons clearly wanted to stay put, but couldn't resist the temptation of their nature and were pushed and shoved by other skeletons. Once they were up, their reactions were all over the place. Some were frantically pacing around, some were clutching their heads and shouting, and some skeletons even hugged the wrong head, holding their neighbor's head to their chests, their mouths opening and closing as they crawled and rolled around on the ground.
Lin Feng seemed to be able to read the other person's panicked state of mind.
Unable to resist their instincts, the skeletons climbed Skull Mountain following the call to slaughter. But as soon as they took a step, they stepped into an empty pillar and got stuck, unable to pull their legs out. They tried to pull their legs out, but failed.
After several unsuccessful attempts, it had no choice but to abandon its original leg, chop off a leg it liked with a chop of its hand, and attach it to itself before continuing to climb. Inspired by this, the other skeletons made similar choices.
If we can't figure it out, then we won't bother.
A group of skeletons chose to disintegrate, then reassemble themselves, installing whatever they could grab, regardless of whether it was original or not.
This scene looks bizarre and terrifying.
Lin Feng naturally wouldn't give them a chance to figure things out.
"Keep crashing!!!"
"Crush them into bone powder!!!"
Lin Feng's voice carried on the wind to a corner of the front line. He single-handedly carved a path through the enemy lines, sending skeletons flying everywhere, leaving only severed limbs and remains on the ground. Several newly emerged skeletons, seeing the enlarged, ferocious figure before them, screamed and sat on their knees, huddled together, heads pressed together, trembling. Lin Feng showed no mercy, truly smashing them into dust.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the bone powder quietly reassembled itself. After recovering, some of them secretly crawled, hissed, and roared on the high pile of bones, while others clasped their hands together and begged for mercy... Seeing them like this, Lin Feng didn't bother with them. He felt a strange sense of guilt for bullying the poor little creatures.
She devoted most of her energy to dealing with those elites.
"Junior sister, we can't kill them all, we simply can't kill them all!" Tu Rong was constrained by her current state and forced to remain in the center of the Great Banner Camp. She could only watch as the enemies kept pouring in, unable to fight her way out. Her anxiety grew. "Isn't there a way to solve this once and for all?"
Lin Feng said coldly, "If I had it, I would have used it long ago."
She forced herself to suppress her anxiety.
He looked towards the central army and said, "I hope the strategists have a solution."
Gu Chi said he had absolutely no way to help.
His scholarly ways... no, his martial spirit are useless. If the enemy is still the Gao Kingdom's army, he can forcibly interfere with their thinking, or even infiltrate the Gao Kingdom's commander to issue incorrect marching and combat orders to the soldiers.
But who is the enemy right now?
He was a former subordinate of the Wu Kingdom whom Wei Cheng had awakened before he went to prison.
These former subordinates of the Wu Kingdom were all skeletons. When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out; under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have any consciousness from their previous life. Their behavior was mostly due to lingering obsessions or resentment from their past lives, and naturally, they had no capacity for thought. Gu Chi couldn't possibly interfere with them by falsely conveying military orders; even if he told them stories or bawdy jokes, they wouldn't pay him any attention.
It's absolutely hateful!
This is definitely the weakest moment of his life!
Gu Chi, clutching his knife, hacked and slashed relentlessly, his mind breaking down.
He can't kill them all; for every skeleton he kills, another one comes rushing towards him.
"Gu Wangchao, control your inner voice!"
The skeleton army is unaffected, but my colleagues are the first to be hit.
Bai Su waved her hand, and a wall of literary energy appeared. However, this wall didn't grow upwards; instead, it shot horizontally, forcefully knocking away the approaching skeleton soldiers. This was a genuine literary energy wall; the force from its weight and acceleration was so great that even a general using their full strength wouldn't be able to push it back. Gu Chi hadn't expected this thing to be used in this way.
Bai Su resisted the urge to sew his mouth shut.
_(:3」∠)_
Sigh, the temperature changes so fast. It's still humid at home these days. The dehumidifier can pump out three large buckets of water a day, and we don't even dare to open the windows.
P.S.: If the battle goes on until dark, the third wave of skeletons will even glow (it feels a bit like a hellish joke...).
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