Chapter 584: Chapter 584. One-sided Battle
Echos Army loaded four out of the eight Yuanxu Cannons inside Surly Gate Town onto the special wagons. Two had fired and destroyed Xuang Cheng’s bamboo wall. The other two aimed at the hole in the barrier and opened fire.
Xuang Feng only had the time to put himself in the path of one of the two shots. He swiftly took out another artifact and activated it. An energy shield appeared and blocked the elemental ball. The elemental ball exploded upon contact with the shield. It became a violent torrent of lightning that snaked around the blast zone. Several lightning snakes struck the armies fighting below. Whether soldiers, battle puppets, or human puppets, from Khode or Echos alike, they were fried by the lightning.
The second metal ball traveled far into Khode’s camp. Upon impact, it burst into a large amount of splashing water. Soldiers who were splashed by this water screamed in agony as their flesh melted. The water from the explosion was highly acidic.
Xuang Feng gritted his teeth, seeing their side’s predicament. He took out another talisman, but it split into two. He moved away when he sensed the invisible attack aimed at him. Yong Baili’s threads chased him, not allowing him to use another talisman.
Xuang Chao wanted to help his uncle, but Xuang Feng told him otherwise, "Protect the barrier rods and our Yuanxu Cannons!"
A few more barrier rods were destroyed by then, enlarging the hole in the barrier. Echos’ army continued to pour in.
Seeing the situation, Xuang Chao thought the barrier was lost. It was pointless even if he defended the ones still in place. So, he turned to help the crew who protected the Yuanxu Cannons. While heading over, he witnessed something shocking.
*
Echos’ soldiers forced their way toward the Yuanxu Cannons as they charged in. This caused the crew to become agitated and reload the elemental balls into the cannons more clumsily. Nearby Khode soldiers did their best to prevent the enemies from getting closer.
"The ball is loaded, hurry up and adjust the aim!" One of the soldiers operating the Yuanxu Cannons shouted at his friend, who had his hands on the wheel of the cannon. He then noticed someone approaching. He asked the person, "Lai Guan! What are you doing here? Aren’t you a Mystic Stage cultivator? Hurry up and drive those enemies away!"
Instead of fulfilling the request, Lai Guan rushed toward him.
"What are you...!" He didn’t have the time to finish his speech because Lai Guan’s hand waved past him. He noticed that when Lai Guan’s hand stopped moving, the fingers on that hand possessed long, sharp nails.
He coughed and realized blood was leaking from his mouth and open throat. He collapsed soon.
Before the soldier who held the cannon’s wheel could react, he suffered the same fate. Lai Guan transformed into a beautiful young woman with long, white hair and sharp claws. This woman was Lin Li. She was the spy who had been wreaking havoc inside Khode camp the past few days.
The ambush on the first night was to cover her infiltration. Amon captured one of the sentries and had Lin Li copy his appearance under cover from Yao Bird’s fog. He and the squad he brought then emerged from the fog to clash with the enemy soldiers. Lin Li, already in disguise, pretended to fight one of Echos’ soldiers as Lai Guan. When Echos’ soldiers retreated, she remained behind.
After gaining control of the Yuanxu Cannon, Lin Li turned the wheel and caused the cannon’s nozzle to level with the ground. Her free hand pointed to her side. A spatial distortion appeared there. Out of the distortion emerged a battle puppet. This battle puppet was one of Amon’s five low-tier runic puppets. Amon lent her this battle puppet to use on her mission.
This was not the only battle puppet Amon gave her. After she evolved, the size of the dimensional pocket from her spatial ability also increased. It could still not rival the spatial size of normal space rings, but hers could now hold four regular-sized battle puppets.
She had already released three other battle puppets before the battle started. Those three battle puppets were the puppet sentries salvaged from the border. These puppet sentries had the appearance of Khode’s other battle puppets, so without close inspection, no one could differentiate them.
The three puppet sentries mixed in with Khode’s other battle puppets at the perimeter. These three were the ones that destroyed the barrier rods when Echos’ human puppets were about to collide with the barrier.
"You are the spy...!!" Xuang Chao realized after seeing what Lin Li had done.
Lin Li saw Xuang Chao, who approached from the sky. She shouted at the low-tier runic battle puppet that just emerged from her spatial space, "Turn me in that direction!"
At the same time, she snatched the explosive talismans from the hand of the soldier she killed. Despite being a spirit beast, she had been taught by Amon how to use an explosive talisman. She activated one of the explosive talismans and slapped it on the cannon’s firing plate.
While she did that, her battle puppet lifted the wagon under the Yuanxu Cannon and turned it. After the turn, the nozzle of the Yuanxu Cannon on the wagon ended up facing another Yuanxu Cannon not far away.
The cannon fired. Its shot destroyed the Yuanxu Cannon it aimed at, including the Khode Soldiers within its vicinity.
Lin Li activated the other explosive talisman in her hand and slapped it to the side of the Yuanxu Cannon. She turned into her true form and ran away with her battle puppet. The explosive talisman exploded and destroyed the Yuanxu Cannon.
"Damm you, vile spirit beast...!" Xuang Chao yelled furiously. He charged at the white fox with many tails.
During his charge, he used a talisman that conjured a lightning bolt. The lightning shot at Lin Li. It failed to hit her but hit the ground close to her. The explosion resulted in an impact that discharged a strong electrical current, which stung everyone in the vicinity. Lin Li and her battle puppet were electrocuted. They were both paralyzed and stopped moving.
Xuang Chao brandished her curved saber. He made a slashing motion. The martial arts he performed caused his slash to eject a sharp crescent-shaped energy that flew toward Lin Li.
When the crescent energy was about to hit Lin Li, a double-bladed, large knife came in its path. The crescent energy collided with the knife. It recoiled from the impact, but the crescent energy was destroyed.
Xuang Chao sensed attacks coming at him from different directions. He quickly retreated. His curved saber twirled around him, striking the assaults he sensed. After moving away, he saw that his attackers were five large flying knives, the same as the one that stopped his crescent slash. These five knives, joined by the first one, hovered between him and the white fox.
"Flying sword art...?" Xuang Chao recognized the martial arts that controlled the six knives.
Amon floated above Lin Li, who had recovered from the paralyzation. The battle puppet could also move again, but its movement became clunky. Some of its circuits were fried. Battle puppets were weak against lightning.
"Are you alright?" Amon asked Lin Li. He grabbed the battle puppet and stored it in his black space ring. It could be repaired for reuse.
Lin Li couldn’t speak in her fox form, but she nodded in response to Amon’s question.
"You have done enough. Good job. You can return home," Amon said. Lin Li didn’t refuse. She wanted to help Amon, but was uncomfortable having his true form exposed to such a crowd. She entered the black space ring and vanished.
"Where did that beast go?!" Xuang Chao demanded. He couldn’t sense Lin Li anymore. He was extremely angry at her. They had been through so much the past few days due to her.
"Are you one of the leaders of this army?" Amon asked.
Xuang Chao looked in the direction from where Amon came. Corpses and battle puppets were strewn all over the ground.
The cultivation aura Xuang Chao sensed from Amon put him at only the Mystic Stage, but he didn’t believe a Mystic Stage cultivator could penetrate so far ahead all by himself. Amon must possess a concealment art that lowered his cultivation aura. Furthermore, Amon displayed the ability to control multiple flying weapons simultaneously. That meant Amon had trained the Flying Sword art to its highest peak. He understood Amon was not a normal combatant.
"Colonel, do you need help?" A squad of Mystic Stage soldiers came flying.
Xuang Chao didn’t dare to be careless. "Yes, help me take that man down. He must be an important person in Echos’ army."
*
Despite Khode Army possessing a number that didn’t differ much from Echos Army, the battle was extremely one-sided. The morale between the two forces was like heaven and earth. Each of Echos’ soldiers was highly motivated, while Khode Soldiers were tired both physically and mentally.
Due to the stressful situations that occurred every day, Khode Soldiers almost never had a relaxing sleep. Something happened every night. The most peaceful time they had was during the day. Many of them were preparing to rest this morning after another restless night, but they didn’t expect Echos to choose early morning to attack.
Echos’ soldiers continued to cut down Khode forces while pushing deeper into the enemy camp.