Dragon's Soul
Chapter 142
Once Yuying’s army moved into the city they proceeded to cut everyone down without discrimination, no matter if the person was trying to surrender or was without a weapon. Of course, not everyone will be killed on sight because Yuying had commanded her men to bring a single survivor so she could extract information from them once the information was extracted the person would be released and allowed to leave. By leaving a single survivor, Yuying would send fear into the hearts of all those who will face her in the future, possibly enough fear for them to surrender without putting up a fight.
By the end of the day corpses were piled up so high that formed a small mountain that rose over the city walls, or well what’s left of the city walls. After the mountain of corpses was burned and their bones added to Yuying’s a.r.s.enal, the Purple Rock city was sacked and burned to the ground.
Although sacking and burning cities would prove to be counter effective after a.s.suming control of the province, by doing so she would by sending a message to all of the other cities in the province.
“Surrender or everyone dies.”
There was also the fact that if she took prisoners she would have to keep them fed and have some of her soldiers keep watch over them, which would only serve to slow down the progress of her army.
While Yuying would soon be viewed as evil reincarnated, Ling’s reputation would not be any better.
Just like Yuying, Ling’s army had also surrounded a fortified enemy city. Thousands of barrels filled to the rim with water had been transported by Ling’s soldiers and placed behind Ling as her gaze was focused on the city in front of her.
With a thought essence enveloped Ling’s entire body and the barrels of water, causing countless gallons of water to form a pillar underneath her feet and lifting her into the air. Using her strongest technique, Ling made thousands upon thousands of droplets of water dance around her and began bending the sun’s rays to her will.
Without any other cultivators to interrupt her, Ling was like an angel of death who brought down light to expel those who went against heaven’s will. It did not take long for the light show of death to begin as dozens of rays of light scorched the ground and melted the city walls. Any unlucky soul who just so happened to be touched by the rays of light were instantly set ablaze, had their limbs severed or burned to ashes. Wooden buildings could catch fire while stone buildings were cut to pieces as the rays of death moved from place to place.
Aided by the power of the sun itself, Ling’s soldiers easily made their way into the city that they surrounded with weapons drawn and bloodthirsty eyes. Much like Yuying’s soldiers, Ling’s soldiers were given the order to cut down everyone and not no prisoners. Once everyone in the city was slain and the city was sacked of its food, weapons, and wealth, it would be burned to the ground.
While Yuying and Ling were leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them, Zhang and Ai were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Dark Legion. After Zhang broke out of their spell formation and returned to the fort, the hundreds of thousands of men of the Dark Legion proceeded to set up a ma.s.sive spell formation that projected a barrier over a vast area of land.
But due to their previous failure with the Heaven’s Chaser Formation, the Dark Legion chose to not attack. Hei Ang figured that he would wait until Zhang’s army ran out of provisions and were weakened by hunger before he would move in.
With the Dark Legion’s barrier in place and nowhere to go, Zhang, Ai and their army could only wait within the fort as hours turned into days.
As the number of days that Zhang and Ai were trapped in the barrier went on, Lingqi had managed to locate a fortified enemy city to siege like the Yuying and Ling. However, unlike the other two who were deemed as demons, Lingqi’s method of conquest would be viewed as benevolent.
After her army surround, the city Lingqi converted her soldiers into an orchestra, the likes no one has ever seen before. With a few of her soldiers burning a hallucinogenic plant that Lingqi had found in the air and the wind carrying it into the city, her orchestra began playing a tone of defeat and surrender.
Once the hallucinogenic smoke kicked in and the saddening tone seeped into their hearts, the soldiers within the city began to toss down their weapons and fall into a state of despair allowing Lingqi to capture the city without having to kill a single person or destroy a single building.
With the city under her control, Lingqi had her soldier disperse her medical pills to all of her new captives before adding them to her own army. Through the use of addictive drugs, she was able to gain undying loyalty and bolster her army. Of course, she did mention giving them the antidote after the Rainbow Rock Province was completely taken over, but even if she didn’t use drugs, compared to the others Lingqi could be considered a saint.
While Yuying, Ling, and Lingqi were making amazing progress through the Rainbow Rock Province, the other forces of Aurora were also on the move.
For the most part, the other forces of Aurora had been running into one obstacle after the other as they headed deeper into the southern territories because the southern alliance was not simply sitting around and waiting for the soldiers of Aurora to march in front of their doorsteps.
Many soldiers from the provinces that were further south were sent to the front lines to repel Aurora’s forces, at first it was not much of an issue but over time as the Southern Alliance’s numbers continued to swell while Aurora’s armies began to shrink.
With that being said, not all of the armies under Aurora’s banner shrank. The army that was led by Zhuge Liang and Gan Ning had actually increased in size by twenty-five percent due to many of Zhuge Liang’s spies leading men to join them as they headed down south.
So of course victory and defeat were still yet to be decided because the scale of this war was simply too big to completely comprehend and there were too many factors at play. While one of Aurora’s armies may have suffered defeated, another one would achieve victory as the same went for the Southern Alliance.
Although most of the forces of Aurora were facing a disadvantage because the southern provinces had put together a united front, there was a hidden blessing that would fall into their laps. If they managed to crush the armies of the Southern Alliance, then they would be able to march south undeterred.
This is obviously because all of the soldiers that could be spared in the south had been sent to the front lines, leaving many of the southern provinces with little to no manpower.
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After five or six days, the Dark Legion began regularly sending raiding parties toward the fort Zhang and Ai were in. Their goal was to disturb Zhang and his soldiers and wear them down over time, much like what Gan Ning had done when he fought against the Heavenly Sword Army.
Small fires were started to set the fort’s wooden walls ablaze, unruly yelling and screaming disrupted the silence of the night to prevent Zhang and his soldiers from getting sleep while a variety of other methods were also tried.
However, this hara.s.sment did not go unpunished because Ai would occasionally appear on the walls with her black whip in hand and send devastating lashes smashing into the ground or the unlucky souls who were annoying her. There were also times when she did not use her whip and opted to practice her archery, which left many people with arrows sticking out of their knees.
Zhang, of course, would occasionally appear also and practice shooting bolts of red colored lightning at people.
Thanks to Zhang’s rationing his army was well equipped to survive for roughly a month on the supplies they had at hand, so as the days went on Hei Ang’s impatience continued to grow.
At first, he had thought that getting rid of Zhang would be a walk in the park and would serve as a stepping stone for him to rise in fame and power once he returned home. However, his plans initial plans had played out entirely different than from what he had planned and nothing had gone entirely right since, prompting a mixture of unwanted emotions to swirl in his mind.
“Dammit, how can they have so many supplies when we teleported them before their supply unit could enter the for?! Have our forces move in! I’ll have his head today! Argh!” Hei Ang finally bellowed as his patience was expended after waiting roughly ten days and not seeing Zhang nor Ai experience any signs of fatigue or hunger.
Some may wonder how would he know this if he was not inside the fort himself, but the answer was simple. After the seventh day of being stuck inside the fort Zhang and Ai would appear atop the fort walls every day and do what couples did, cuddling, making out and talking.
Watching how the two were doing only further served to infuriate Hei Ang and thinned his patience.
“Hey, brother look I think they’re finally moving in.” Ai said as she saw the Dark Legion begin to mobilize.
“Good, although they outnumber us and our soldiers would be wiped out if we marched outside, if they come to us then instead of fighting their entire army we would only have to fight the ones that make it up the walls.” Zhang said with a smile. For the main reason as to why he had not left the fort in the last few days in an attempt to break out of the enemy encirclement was because if he waited for the enemy to siege the fort, they won’t be able to use their spell formations atop the fort walls, which would, in turn, allow his soldiers a much higher survival rate.
“Everyone! To the walls! Prepare for the enemy siege! Today they’ve come to us to seek death and tomorrow we will live on to celebrate our victory!” Zhang roared to his men below who had been lazing around for the last couple days.
“You heard his highness! Everyone suit up!” Some of Zhang’s soldiers said to their subordinates.
“If they use that spell formation they did the other day, you"re going to have to use the final form of the whip to stop it. Or maybe you can punch it.” Zhang said with a laugh as he turned toward Ai.
With a nod from Ai, the couple watched as the soldiers of the Dark Legion formed ranks and began marching toward them as thousands of banners fluttered in the sky.
Once the Dark Legion neared the fort, hundreds of Zhang’s soldiers who were clad in shiny black armor appeared atop the fort walls with sword and shield in hand, as Zhang’s black banner with a golden dragon head rose into the air.
Although vastly numbered, Zhang’s soldiers did not show fear because the only thing running through their minds was to fight and survive. Much like the mindset of a cornered beast who is left without a way of escape, Zhang’s soldiers bared their fangs and claws and prepared to find a way to salvation through a sea of death.
“ATTACK!!!!!!” The Dark Legion’s various commanders bellowed, initiating a charge consisting of hundreds of thousands of men in black cloaks while dozens of siege ladders and battering rams could be seen in their hands.
Atop the fort walls, Zhang pointed his finger out toward the incoming army and in a flash, a bolt of red lightning shot out from the tips of his fingers.
The red lightning snaked through the air before impaling a soldier who was a part of a group of men who were carrying a battering ram. Once the lighting pa.s.sed through its first victim it proceeded to travel to the next person and the person after that and the person after that, until it’s energy dissipated and dozens of corpses were left charred on the ground.
It did not take long for many more bolts of red lightning to shoot out of Zhang’s hands leaving large gaps in the enemy ranks. But of course, these ranks would be quickly filled in by people moving forward from the rear.
There were simply too many enemies for Zhang defeat by himself so before long many siege ladders were latched onto the sides of the fort walls as many more soldiers began to scale them.
“Pour the hot oil!” One of Zhang’s men yelled as sizzling hot oil soon flowed down the enemy siege ladders or splashed onto the faces of the men climbing up some of the ladders.
Being splashed by the hot oil did not mean death, however, losing grip of the ladder and falling down surely did, either the height would bring about the end or by being trampled to death by men who were swarming in front of the fort walls.
“Unlatch the ladders!!” Another one of Zhang’s soldiers yelled as some of them tried to detach the siege ladders that were hooked to the walls by hacking at them. Once a siege ladder was detached from the wall it would mean death for most of the people who were scaling it and those unlucky enough to be crushed by them as they fell from the sky.
Had Zhang possessed a more sizable force then he would have no problem defending the fort, but since the enemy outnumbered him so much it was only a matter of time before enough of them made it up the walls to overwhelm his soldiers.
But for now, Zhang’s men fought valiantly and making sure the no enemies step foot atop the walls. Systematically they stabbed one enemy after the other without showing any signs of fatigue at all, however, the battle had just begun and would surely be hard fought.