Chapter 729: Counter-Ambush (Part 2) [Two-in-One]
Although they said they didn't need to worry about Wei Shou, Wei Shou was one of their few high-level combatants, and his rarity made him valuable.
He still managed to get preferential treatment from Chu Yao because of this.
Thus, the garrison commander watched helplessly as five colored incantations—wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage, and discipline—were injected into Wei Shou's body one by one. The two wrestled, almost touching face to face. Looking at Wei Shou's grinning back teeth, the commander uttered, "You little bastard, you better die!"
The friction of martial energy against the air created a sonic boom that struck the defending general directly in the face. Wei Shou's rose gold-rimmed pink axe suddenly unleashed tremendous force. Although the general managed to dodge, it still grazed his earlobe, causing a ringing in his ears and drowning out his battle cries.
The enemy soldiers nearby were extremely unlucky.
The nearest soldier, along with his morale shield and physical body, exploded from the inside out. With several loud bangs, he transformed into fine, dense clouds of blood mist. The mist was so fine it was impossible to piece together a complete organ. The next instant, he was violently blasted away by the shockwave.
A soldier was caught off guard and was hit in the face.
When I reached out and touched it, it was a viscous liquid.
Before the thought of "what is this?" could even form in his mind, a giant boulder crashed down from above, shattering the morale shield and crushing his body. He only had time to feel the pain briefly before his consciousness faded and he breathed his last.
Boiling oil, flaming arrows, rolling stones...
It poured down on them continuously from above.
However, the three thousand ambushers brought by the garrison commander were all seasoned veterans. After the initial panic, they quickly regained their footing and, under the command of their deputy, erected defensive lines one after another. The brave warriors under the command took action one after another, and several of them even made a fierce move, using their feet to push off and leaping forward, slashing out light blades that shattered the huge rocks above their heads.
The boulder exploded in mid-air, sending fragments flying everywhere.
The martial artist who made the move did not pause for a moment.
They charged straight toward the direction from which the rolling stones were coming.
Eliminating the ambush above would alleviate the pressure below and buy valuable time for retreat. The space here is cramped; a large military formation simply cannot be deployed, only small formations of a few men are possible. The morale of such a small force is insufficient to handle the current situation, and our side dares not act rashly.
If we act recklessly, we'll only hurt our own people.
The enemy general Wei Shou, who had just charged down, took advantage of his high ground and attacked from below without any restraint. Anyone who got even slightly close would be swept away, either falling to the ground or dying on the spot.
Just as he was halfway through his charge, an arrow flew straight at him, aimed directly at his eye beneath the mask. The valiant warrior tried to deflect the arrow, but it carried immense force. Unable to knock it away, he was instead pulled towards the ground at an accelerated pace.
call out--
The same second arrow came again.
Then came the third arrow, and then the fourth.
Each arrow followed the same path and had the same force, targeting the same spot. From a distance, they looked as if they were a series of arrows connected in a line.
The warrior, exhausted from the struggle, had his tiger's mouth cracked and bleeding from the impact, and the muscles in his right arm were swollen and numb. The arrow's owner seemed to have finally given up, shifting his target, and the fifth arrow was fired elsewhere. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the sixth arrow, though fired later, accelerated and caught up with the fifth, narrowly missing it. The fifth arrow's path suddenly changed, and the arrowhead pierced diagonally into the eye of the visor.
Intense pain accompanied the approach of night.
The loss of vision in his right eye caught him completely off guard.
High above, Bai Su remained expressionless as she raised her hand and fired a full-moon arrow.
With a whoosh, the arrow left the bowstring and flew away.
The arrow, imbued with martial energy, pierced the helmet of the valiant warrior with unstoppable force, blood gushing from his brow bone beneath the helmet. As life was extinguished, the armor protecting his body shattered, and he fell to the ground, trampled underfoot.
"Beautiful archery!"
Shen Tang, who was overseeing the battle, gave Bai Su a thumbs up.
Bai Su looked down at Wei Shou with a hint of envy and longing, but this emotion vanished in an instant, quickly suppressed. She raised her hand, conjuring an arrow and aiming at a new target. The mid-level officers under the general's command were few in number and not particularly strong, but they were crucial in maintaining morale. Eliminating them would severely damage the enemy's morale. With this in mind, Bai Su acted with even greater decisiveness.
Shen Tang narrowed her eyes slightly: "Hurry up, they're trying to escape."
The defending general was forced into a sorry state by Wei Shou, but a hint of smugness remained in his eyes. He slashed a solid blade of light, several dozen feet long, towards Wei Shou's face. The blade missed its target, leaving a deep, ten-foot-wide crack in the stone wall. He directly challenged Wei Shou: "Wei Yuanyuan, you think you can stop my troops with just a few of you? When I was fighting, you weren't even out of your mother's skirt yet!"
Wei Shou's response was merely a cold laugh.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
Having served under Zheng Qiao for so many years, how many times had he encountered workplace ostracism? He knew the situation of each of his opponents.
therefore--
Your pride is worthless.
The literati, who was crouching above and overseeing the whole situation, would give this roughneck a harsh lesson, his last lesson in life!
The enemy soldiers who had not yet entered the "trumpet mouth" retreated in an orderly manner under command. Although their formation was not neat, they had not yet fallen into disarray. Once they were allowed to withdraw, Shen Tang's ambush advantage would be lost, and he would instead be put on the defensive.
Luan Xin said calmly, "No rush, we can't escape."
Having said that, he raised his hand and unleashed a spell towards the "trumpet mouth".
However, two of the incantations were effective, and the other one was Jiang Sheng! The two looked at each other and spoke in unison.
"Please step into the trap!"
Two powerful streams of literary energy surged from the "trumpet mouth," drawing uncontrollable flow of chaotic celestial energy from the surrounding area. Two barriers shot into the sky, rising to a certain height before shooting off in two completely opposite directions, resembling two giant earthenware urns bottom to bottom when viewed from above. Not yet secure enough, Luan Xin and his companion reinforced the seal at the "bottom of the urns."
It was as if a single blade had sliced through the worm-like formation of three thousand ambushers. At this point, the front and rear were completely unable to support each other. Those already in the ambush couldn't retreat, and those not yet in the ambush couldn't provide support.
Seeing this, the defending general's eyes widened in fury. Ignoring Wei Shou's onslaught, he roared, temporarily forcing back the increasingly fierce Wei Shou, and charged towards the "trumpet mouth" position. He gathered his strength, preparing to break through this obstructing scholar's incantation: "Break!"
But how could Shen Tang sit idly by?
The general's attack, before it could even break through the scholar's incantation, was shattered halfway by an arrow from nowhere. Before the general could retract his force, that disgusting pink figure swarmed back like a ghost. Wei Shou sneered, "Can't you even break through this?"
The garrison commander then heard Wei Shou's devilish whispers.
"This isn't over yet."
The commander quickly understood what Wei Shou meant; the elite troops, intercepted outside the ambush, heard shouts of battle coming from behind. They were completely surrounded! The commander never imagined that he, who spent his days hunting eagles, would one day have his eyes pecked out by an eagle.
Wei Shou brought far more troops than his own forces.
Blocked from both sides, it seems unlikely we'll make it out alive today.
Hot oil, rockets, rolling stones... these are all indiscriminate objects; whoever gets hit is doomed. In an instant, within the ambush "funnel mouth," countless enemy soldiers were killed by arrows and crushed by rolling stones, their bodies reduced to minced flesh and blood.
Wei Shou was now completely relieved.
He remained calm and composed, like a guardian deity, guarding the general attempting to break through, much like a lazy pink cat teasing a disoriented rat. The more panicked the latter became, the more pleased Wei Shou was. The rose-gold pink axe was gradually covered in crimson.
"Useless trash, do you want to come and submit to the new master with me?" Wei Shou not only harmed his body and conquered his mind, but also ruthlessly stimulated his nerves. "I think you haven't lived enough yet, have you? If you die here, everything in this mortal world will be over for you. Who knows if you'll have that kind of luck in your next life? Hehe, what do you think, old man?"
While they were talking, the defending general sustained another new wound.
Although Wei Shou's cultivation level was suppressed, this suppression was not constant. His strength fluctuated depending on the morale of the two armies. The defending general's side was already in dire straits and had no chance of turning the tide. With the other side gaining strength, Wei Shou's morale soared. Moreover, his true strength was that of a fifteenth-rank Lesser Upper Realm cultivator who was about to reach his limit, far surpassing that of an ordinary fourteenth-rank Right Upper Realm cultivator. How could he not be sure of winning against the defending general?
Wei Shou deliberately slowed down his attack, deflecting a fatal blow and giving the defending general a chance to catch his breath. Even so, the general still felt a lingering fear, as if he had been spared death. Covered in blood, he heard these words, and hope ignited in his despairing eyes.
yes--
He is not necessarily going to die.
He still has a glimmer of hope, and there is still a way out!
Based on his understanding of the military strongholds he was stationed in, if he surrendered to the new master, he might not be given a high position, but at least he could save his life.
He hasn't lived enough yet, how could he be willing to die?
In a flash, the commander, driven by the threat of death and the will to survive, made his decision. But before he could even agree, he saw the cold mockery deep within Wei Shou's eyes beneath his mask. His mind instantly cleared—
Wei Shou's mockery followed.
"Hehehe, you really want to submit?"
To have the thought of retreating during a fierce battle is tantamount to courting death.
Wei Yuanyuan was not a magnanimous person. Recruiting an enemy who had ostracized him in the workplace for the new master was just asking for trouble. The best outcome for the garrison commander was to die here, at his hands, and the two would be even.
The defending general was filled with rage and resentment.
"You barbarian, how dare you play tricks on me—"
Before he could utter the last two words, a gigantic phantom hand formed from martial energy crashed into him, locking onto his aura and slamming him against the mountain wall like a chicken. His martial energy in his dantian was insufficient, and his burst of power was a step too slow. The oncoming rose-gold pink giant axe had already cleaved him down, splitting him in two perfectly.
"Hehe, who told you to be so stupid and believe everything?" Having personally killed his old enemy, Wei Shou was in high spirits, his face glowing.
These ambushers, having lost their leader and top combatant, suffered a complete collapse in morale. Furthermore, with their middle-ranking officers being accurately shot down by Bai Su and her men, their morale plummeted to rock bottom. As some among them began to abandon their armor and weapons and surrender, the practice spread like a plague, and they completely gave up resistance.
Luan Xin and Jiang Sheng then removed the "Invite the King into the Urn" spell. To prevent the spell from being broken, they had been using their own literary energy to maintain the spell, and their faces were slightly pale at this moment.
Shen Tang said, "You've all worked hard."
Jiang Sheng humbly cupped his hands in greeting, while Luan Xin reacted much slower. Shen Tang, with one hand on his hip, looked down at the chaotic battle below and said, "Let's clean up the battlefield first and count the number of prisoners. Strip all the clothes off the corpses that can be stripped off; that's the main event. After we take our target, we can rest properly. Right now, we need to hold on a bit..."
The most important thing right now is time!
A bold idea sprouted in Shen Tang's mind.
"...Take off their clothes? Does the lord mean we should disguise ourselves as enemy soldiers and trick them into opening the city gates?" Jiang Sheng immediately understood Shen Tang's plan. He thought to himself that the plan was feasible, but it carried a certain risk.
If the soldiers guarding the city discover their plan, they might simply turn the tables and trap themselves. However, if this plan succeeds, the rewards will be enormous. Although they have set an ambush to kill the garrison commander, their target is a major town, and regardless of the size of their forces, its defenses will certainly be formidable.
If we choose to launch a direct assault, it will be time-consuming and laborious, and we may not even be able to take it. If we fail to take it quickly, and nearby reinforcements arrive to attack us from both sides, then we'll be in serious trouble.
Luan Xin also said slowly, "This plan is feasible."
The key is to strike unexpectedly and catch the opponent off guard.
Faced with huge returns, risks can be ignored.
Shen Tang chuckled and said, "You're half right. We're going to trick them, but not by pretending to be enemy soldiers. We're going to pretend to be enemy 'prisoners.' Once the city gates are open, we'll coordinate from the inside and outside to capture our target. Then we'll send a letter to the neighboring town to deceive them."
Lure the fat sheep here and kill them!
In layman's terms, this is a serial scam.
Before the enemy could react, they quickly established a foothold and used it as a foundation to become a sharp blade piercing the heart of Zheng Qiao's forces! Without Shen Tang giving the order, Chu Yao and she were of one mind, and Chu Yao had already begun ordering his soldiers to collect enemy soldiers' clothing.
From the start of the battle to its conclusion, Shen Tang's troops fought for no more than fifteen minutes. However, counting the prisoners and packing their clothes took two hours. Shen Tang had some of his troops dress in enemy uniforms and selected another group of people to be "prisoners."
When we were all ready to set off, it was still early.
Shen Tang ordered the rest of the troops to wait in the rear, preparing to depart, but Jiang Sheng stopped him, saying, "My lord, please wait a moment."
She asked, "What brings you here, Xian Deng?"
Jiang Sheng said, "It's still early, let's wait until nightfall before we leave."
Three thousand men left the city and returned in triumph in such a short time; it's hard not to be suspicious. The two armies also have different marching habits and need to adjust. Most importantly, they should wait until dark to go; the darkness can conceal some subtle flaws.
Shen Tang said, "Alright, then let's wait a little longer."
They waited until the third watch of the night.
At this hour, it's dark and windy, and people are tired.
The guards on the city wall watchtower yawned wearily.
He forced himself to stay alert, when he vaguely saw some flickering lights moving in the distance. He instantly snapped awake and shook the man beside him who was also guarding the city: "Look, isn't there someone over there?"
The scattered lights converged into a long dragon in the darkness.
()
I was talking to a friend about retirement today, and Xianggu immediately said she'd write about reaching retirement age. Just imagine, in my fifties or sixties, my female protagonists would probably be either fighting or on their way to a fight… isn't that bad for their health?
(End of this chapter)
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