Chapter 1086: Civil and Military Affairs Reversed (Fifteen) [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
Gu Chi was increasingly on the verge of collapse.
Ever since he acquired this scholar's way, he had only ever passively eavesdropped on the thoughts of others. Furthermore, the scholar's way also allowed him to actively resist others prying into his thoughts, so Gu Chi's cultivation regarding his inner thoughts was entirely left to fate. To put it simply, he barely cared; he kept his mouth shut and let his heart roam freely. He lived like this for years; who would have thought that one day he would tarnish his reputation?
Since he couldn't control it, he had to find another way.
Fill all the gaps with useless shouts of killing.
[Kill! Kill ...
Surely this won't go wrong, right?
Compared to Gu Chi's cautious use of the "Military General Experience Card," his colleagues were making waves, adapting to their roles incredibly quickly, with Chu Yao being a prime example. Anyone unfamiliar with Chu Yao, judging solely from his performance today, would likely assume he was a skilled and courageous martial artist. Chu Yao's performance astonished not only the enemy but also his own allies.
The battlefield is fraught with danger.
As Wei Shou continued fighting, he forgot that he was now a literary scholar.
"This is bad!"
The powerful blast of air exploded almost right next to my ears.
Wei Shou instinctively protected his ears, focusing on his head while neglecting his surroundings, and was inadvertently swept away by the erupting turbulence, leaving the safe zone. Once he regained his balance, a chilling buzzing sound filled the sky! Countless rapidly enlarging black shadows devoured the light overhead.
He gritted his teeth and used his not-so-skilled literati language for defense.
Unfortunately, these arrows were fired from heavy bows, and each arrow could easily pierce the bodies of three or four burly men stacked on top of each other! One can imagine how terrifying the destructive power of a volley of arrows was! Wei Shou's clumsy incantation could at most stop a small portion!
"My life is over!"
Wei Shou never dreamed he would suffer such a defeat.
He was clearly one of the top five warriors in Kangguo, possessing immense strength and an impressive record. His iron palms could cut through gold and jade, and he could easily crush a living person's head with his bare hands... The reason for his death was not that he was defeated in a duel with a general, but that he died from a stray arrow!
It's so embarrassing to tell anyone!
In a flash, Wei Shou saved himself.
He was prepared to trade his injuries for his life, but before he could make a move, Chu Yao had already grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back, and slashed straight up at the sky with his blade, instantly neutralizing and swallowing the tidal wave of arrows that had not yet fallen.
Wei Shou still retained his ability to sense danger.
He warned, "Watch out, behind you!"
Chu Yao reacted before Wei Shou could even speak, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, his wrist flashing with a flourish of his blade. With a clang, he intercepted the enemy general's sneak attack, which had vanished into the shadows. Using the opposing force, Chu Yao dragged Wei Shou back with him, his eyes fixed on the empty space ahead. He wielded his sword with one hand, unleashing a dense barrage of blade shadows, which sparked countless fires and produced a series of piercing, crisp sounds.
Ding ding ding ding ding—
It perfectly matches Gu Chi's inner voice of "kill, kill, kill".
Wei Shou, held up by his feet and unable to touch the ground, was disoriented by Chu Yao's movements and had no time to warn Chu Yao which direction the danger was coming from. In a short while, he realized that Chu Yao's judgment of the crisis and the enemy's actions was three times more astute than his own.
Wei Shou: "..."
It's unreasonable for the literary scholars to have such high combat skills, isn't it?
If the enemy were a living person, many military generals could determine the enemy's location and direction of movement based on their aura, heartbeat, scent, and even changes in the surrounding atmosphere. But the enemy before them was merely a skeleton! A completely invisible, inanimate skeleton! Even a seasoned veteran, seasoned in battle, could be caught off guard and suffer injuries if he made a careless mistake. Yet Chu Yao, a scholar with a refined and cultured nature, made zero errors!
Is this... a beaver?
Not a beaver at all.
Wei Shou felt a sense of frustration, as if his decades of martial arts training had been in vain.
Chu Yao didn't linger in the fight, using his elusive and unpredictable movements to return to his main force. Except for Wei Shou, whose face paled slightly from the disorientation, everything went smoothly: "Chu Liangliang, you—"
He's such a good fighter, I really underestimated him.
Chu Yao said, "It is the will of a martial artist."
As long as you can predict the enemy's movements in advance and your speed and reaction time are fast enough, avoiding them is effortless. Chu Yao spoke casually, but others might not be able to do the same with such ease; the enemy is not made of wood.
To maximize the use of this martial artist's intent, Chu Yao had to prevent the enemy from changing their mind, and every move had to be perfectly timed. He said to Wei Shou, "I used up a lot of my martial energy to save you just now, you know what I mean."
Wei Shou: "..."
If Chu Yao's performance might lead one to believe he was a martial arts prodigy, Kang Shi's performance made one suspect he was on the enemy's side. He clearly only knew the most brute and brutal method—infusing his weapon with martial energy and then swinging it at the enemy with all his might!
This action will cause serious damage, and the air blades will be much less lethal during flight, but there will always be skeletons rushing in.
Yes, they pounced on it.
The skeletons charged at the air blades in groups, moving with incredible speed, as if a moment's hesitation would mean missing a supermarket sale. Kang Shi, realizing this after a while, mustered his courage and led his troops in a charge, only to have even more skeletons die in the process.
Not only were there those who went to their deaths, but there were also those who got into all sorts of trouble.
For example, when a skeleton attacked Kang Shi and threatened him, he either missed or was cut down by other skeletons' attacks. He also tripped and fell flat on his face while running, and one of his armors cracked as he charged, his ribs getting tangled with a skeleton that flew in from nowhere...
Wherever Kang Shi goes, accidents happen frequently.
The skeleton's behavior was so bizarre, it was as if a vast ocean had been unleashed!
Qian Yong looked at the bewildered Kang Shi and said, "Kang Jishou, are you really not the re-creator of these skeletons?"
They look like they're acting together.
Kang Shi was stunned for a moment, but was overjoyed inside.
This is his martial spirit! The scholar's path leads to extreme bad luck, while the martial spirit leads to extreme good luck—they are completely two extremes! Although he only experienced it for a short while, Kang Shi fell in love with the feeling of being favored by Lady Luck.
"What do you know?"
After a lifetime of bad luck, it's time for some good luck to come.
Kang Shi, no longer hesitant, charged into the enemy ranks single-handedly, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, achieving remarkable victories. Qian Yong, witnessing this, exclaimed, "It's unbelievable! I've fought half my life, and I've never seen anything so unbelievable. Damn it, this is just too enviable!"
He actually saw a skeleton not only fall flat on the ground, but also twist its head off in a very bizarre way.
Is this something a human can do?
Could it be a fly reincarnated?
Compared to these godlike feats, Xun Zhen's act of slaying a skeleton and having a small gold ingot appear in his dantian seemed overly modest. Well, actually, it wasn't that modest. This was also part of his martial arts philosophy: slaying an enemy soldier would accumulate a layer of morale, and once the morale reached a hundred layers, he could unleash ten times his own explosive power! The effect was something Chu Jie could only envy.
Chu Jie's martial intent isn't as explosive, but he takes on far greater risks. His advantage lies in the fact that Chu Jie's bursts are faster and more unpredictable, while Xun Zhen needs to accumulate a hundred layers.
In Shen Tang's words, Xun Zhen is suited for long-term strategies.
Scholars are all eccentric.
As a military general, he was second to none.
In contrast, Ning Yan and the others were much more normal.
Ning Yan's martial arts intent was simply to create an avatar on the battlefield that was in harmony with her mind and had the same strength.
If she were to engage in a duel, it would be one-on-one for ordinary generals, but for her, it would be two-on-one, and the enemy couldn't accuse her of ganging up on them.
Wherever the broadsword passed, heads flew everywhere.
Because swords have limited lethality and a small attack range on the battlefield compared to spears and daggers, Ning Yan abandoned her longsword and switched to a long saber. She and Zixu moved across the battlefield like two ghostly figures, focusing on dealing with the more imposing armored skeletons. With her main body in the open and Zixu in the shadows, their combined sabers were as efficient as their eccentric colleagues, but not far behind: "A stalemate like this isn't a solution!"
These skeletons have no idea what fatigue is.
Even if it's smashed to pieces, it will reassemble itself.
On the other hand, the longer the situation drags on, the faster their physical strength and morale will be depleted. After all, flesh and blood cannot compete with inanimate objects in terms of endurance.
We must come up with a solution that will solve the problem once and for all, or at least break free from this war of attrition.
In a flash, a brilliant idea struck Ning Yan.
She whispered, "I have an idea."
A single, violent strike cleared a path.
Ning Yan shouted, "Army, pile up stones!"
They used morale to create stones to suppress the skeletons, while using military formations and city walls to divide the area into a maze-like region. Finally, they used words of power to simulate a war scene, deceiving the skeletons into still being in combat.
These skeleton warriors have no self-awareness; they attack on orders. To facilitate command, the enemy's battle commands will never be too complex. Simple commands mean loopholes can be exploited. Our side can use this to simulate the battlefield with a magical illusion, making the skeleton warriors believe they are still engaged in combat.
Whether it works or not, success or failure hinges on this!
The reversal of civil and military command has led to chaos in the command system.
Fortunately, Shen Tang had prepared dozens of contingency plans in advance, taking into account almost every aspect, and Ning Yan's orders for the battle were carried out in a timely manner. As the morale clouds in the sky twisted and rolled, one after another, huge rocks with a diameter of nearly ten feet fell from the sky, each landing in the pre-planned location.
Ning Yan silently calculated the points needed to form the formation.
"...97...98...99..."
As the last boulder crashed down, a massive cloud of dust billowed up, crushing the skeletons beneath it, their bones breaking with a sickening thud. Ning Yan activated her martial arts incantation, using each boulder as a support, each responding in its own way.
Rumble, rumble.
Earthen walls, each over ten feet high, rose from the muddy ground beneath their feet.
Ning Yan then commanded the central army soldiers to activate the illusionary spell.
This kind of "word magic" isn't complicated. Its principle is simply to use skills like fanning the air and igniting fire to distort the air, creating the illusion of "human figures" and the sounds of their movement. This is combined with the sounds of battle cries and the clanging of weapons on a battlefield to create the illusion of paranoia and a sense of being surrounded by enemies. Against living soldiers, this is mainly used to demoralize them, intimidate them, and weaken their will to fight… When creating this illusion, a bunch of real soldiers can be mixed in for surprise attacks.
Once the enemy becomes complacent, launch an attack and seize an advantage.
These are all commonly used tactics.
A mix of truth and falsehood, where deception is the ultimate reward.
These were simple-minded skeleton soldiers, and their leader's orders weren't very precise; fooling them wouldn't require much complexity. Ning Yan gripped her sword hilt tightly, holding her breath in tension, large beads of sweat dripping from her forehead, until—
Ning Yan's eyes brightened slightly.
Overjoyed, he exclaimed, "It works!"
After saying that, I felt a little regretful that it was only a temporary solution and not a fundamental cure.
This method can only temporarily trap a portion of the skeleton soldiers; it cannot completely eliminate them. Once their morale is low or their strength is exhausted, these skeleton soldiers will break through the battle formation again. Ning Yan was anxious and could only place her hopes on Ji Moqiu.
To catch the thief, first catch the king.
While it may not be possible to completely wipe out the skeleton soldiers, killing their leader would achieve the same effect!
"Still no news from the front?"
Ning Yan escaped from the front lines and reorganized the troops.
Unsure of the extent of the Imperial Advisor's influence on the scholar's path, Shen Tang preemptively redeployed his scouts from the main battlefield, placing them at the furthest possible distance for reconnaissance. Therefore, they were among the few "normal" troops on his side, capable of functioning even during battle. His scouts were closely monitoring the movements on the Gao Kingdom's side, reporting back in real time.
According to the scouts, the situation in Gao Kingdom was chaotic. Dark clouds hung overhead, so thick that not a single ray of light could penetrate. The sky and earth were so dark it seemed as if it were already past midnight. The scouts' warrior totems were forced to fly at low altitudes, their vision severely impaired.
However, they also brought back some intelligence.
Some skeletons emit an eerie glow.
Shen Tang appeared beside him at some unknown time.
He asked, "A glowing skeleton?"
According to scouts, this group of skeletons was basically the third wave to climb up, and also the ones buried the deepest. After the Gao Kingdom's army was shrouded in darkness, these skeletons began to emit a fluorescent glow.
She then asked, "Does anything unusual happen after they start glowing?"
For example, does it grant explosive combat power and astonishing defensive capabilities after emitting light?
If that's the case, these skeletons must not be spared; they should be eliminated first!
The scout's answer was unexpected.
These glowing skeletons were perfectly normal; aside from their glowing appearance, their combat abilities remained utterly pathetic. They would even squeal in terror at the sight of suddenly severed heads, splattered blood, or broken limbs. They were no braver than mosquitoes.
Ning Yan sighed, "They must have been commoners who were murdered."
It's truly pitiful.
Shen Tang shook her head in denial: "Not necessarily."
She paused for a moment, then added, "A skeleton that glows as soon as it gets dark looks like it's been exposed to excessive radiation..."
According to her estimation, these skeletons were very old.
If it were truly from that era, it would be normal for it to glow.
Ning Yan couldn't understand Shen Tang's mutterings, and now wasn't the time to pry. She just suddenly remembered that her lord's unusual quietness was rather strange. Her lord wasn't the type to be idle; he always went to the front lines and fought every enemy he encountered. How could he be quietly waiting in the central command?
Even though she is now a pure scholar, it doesn't stop her from wielding her sword and killing. Back when she lacked martial courage, didn't she still fight Gongxi Chou to a standstill? The lord is being quiet; he must be up to something.
Shen Tang seemed to see through her thoughts.
"I went to Wangchao and asked him for a copy of the sheet music."
Since we're going to play support, let's go all out.
_(:3」∠)_
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