Chapter 631: Six Hundred Twenty-Seven: Consecutive Battles, Consecutive Victories
This combined attack was not really meant to kill enemies, but to clear out the largest obstacle in North Mountain. Thousands of flame dragons plunged into the miserable green poison cloud, causing an intense reaction.
Even the poison cloud that even Buddha could only disperse proved to be defenseless against the transcendent combined strike of “Fiery Python Transform to Flood Dragon.” The poison cloud intended to absorb the gold-series spiritual power as usual, but after absorbing a large amount of fire-series spiritual power, it instead began to swell.
The green poison cloud turned into a dense black fog after swelling up, with a pungent smell. It exploded in mid-air. Every martial ancestor from the allied forces under the cover of the poison fog was affected on the spot.
The poison cloud that turned into black fog had an extremely high temperature and covered a wide range. The muffled explosion sound similar to thunder was continuous.
The poison cloud which absorbed the fire-series spiritual power quickly released its own energy and drifted upwards uncontrollably. In a short while, the miserable green poison cloud that plagued the Tang Clan disappeared completely, and the sky was clear again.
Although they didn’t know why the poison cloud was dispersed by a combined attack, the blackened Tang Clan martial ancestors, who had been simmering with rage, had already begun preparing for a combined attack as soon as they saw the Thousand Flood Dragons Burning Heaven. So, when the martial ancestors of the alliance escaped from the black fog, what they saw was several Buddha’s True Fire – the combined attack of Tathagata.
Martial arts prospered for a thousand years, the reason why families firmly held the control of various city-states was because of this invincible battle method.
The transcendent large squad employed a combined area attack, while the Fierce Realm small team focused on specific targets. The Tang Clan had mastered this tactic, which reaped a bitter result for the Mi Clan’s alliance, who thought they had already won.
When the wave of Tathagata erupted, several figures of the allied martial ancestors disappeared in the light that reached the sky. What’s worse is that some were sent flying far away by the eruption of Tathagata, leaving a blood trail behind.
Because of the participation of the transcendent squad, the west of North Mountain was finally defended. Having heard the explanation of Wind Media, they also came to know the origin of the poison cloud.
But to Tang Zhi’s order to withdraw and defend the Cloud-breaking Peak, the Sect Head, Tang Sen, rejected it without a second thought: “These days, thanks to the martial ancestors of all races, we were able to resist the attack of the Mi Clan’s alliance. Right now, most of their people are in the east, west, and south mountains. We need to buy them ten days of retreat time, then we can give up the outer defence line!”
People are emotional. Although they understood the deep meaning of Tang Zhi’s arrangement for various races to live in different places from the beginning, they had experienced too many unforgettable people and events after fighting side by side for days. Tang Sen knew that the three mountains would not be able to hold on one day, but he always wanted to buy more time for the tribes to retreat.
“Sect Head, if we defend for another ten days, my clan will suffer even more casualties.” Tang Yi, the leader of the Divine Martial Army, immediately advised after hearing Tang Sen’s order: “The clan leader has enlisted the best of all tribes into the retreat sequence. The ones staying behind in North Mountain are nothing more than some women, children, maids, and servants. Is it worth the lives of our warriors for these people?”
Tang Yi’s words were strong and sincere. They made Tang Sen’s face darken: “This is my clan’s war from the beginning.”
After throwing a cold sentence to his subordinate, Tang Sen’s icy gaze swept over the Great Elder and others standing nearby, and said coldly: “And about that retreat sequence, don’t you know about it?”
Perhaps the sect head usually didn’t talk much, but that didn’t mean he was easy to fool. If it hadn’t been for Tang Zhi presenting the plan, he would never have collapsed the three mountains at the mouth of Longjiang River.
He initially thought that this would be enough for the Tang Clan to gain the upper hand, but he didn’t expect Tang Zhi’s appetite to grow. An advantage was not enough; he wanted to further extend it.
But competition between large clans ultimately boils down to a cruel game. The weight off your shoulders does not mean you performed better, but that someone else took the risk for you.
Since the war started, the casualties of the Tang Clan’s martial ancestors had been just over ten, while the number of martial ancestors from all races that had died had already exceeded forty. This wasn’t just because the warriors of the Tang Clan were tougher, it was also because these people knew that as soon as the defence line was breached, their own families behind them would suffer first, so, they all fought for their lives.
“Go back and inform the clan leader that we need to hold the outer line of defence for ten more days. After ten days, I will take the remnants of the defenders back to Cloud-breaking Peak!”
The Wind Media in charge of relaying the orders, hearing Tang Sen’s firm command, was immediately invigorated and hastened to relay the report.
…
Twenty-eighth of December
After several days of intense battle, the Mi Clan finally broke through the defences of the three mountains. All that remained was to wait for the flood to subside to be able to continue advancing. Even though Tang Sen was still defending outside of North Mountain, to Mi Jin, this was nothing more than a dying struggle.
As soon as Mi Clan’s large ships carrying the transcendent fighters landed in North Mountain, the defeat of the Tang Clan would be in full display. Looking at the battle report coming from the front line, Mi Jin showed a rare smile.
“Hold a banquet at the Cloud-reaching Platform, invite the seven clan leaders and all the sect masters to hold a memorial service for the high priest and several martial ancestors!” Mi Jin instructed Mi Zhu.
He had promised the sect head, Mi Hu, that he would break the North Mountain defence line before the end of the year. He hadn’t broken his promise. This was the best time to send people to escort Mi Hu and the others to Kunwu Divine Mountain for treatment.
Twenty-ninth of December
The raging flood that had lasted for several months finally subsided. Longjiang River finally got used to this new route, and the flow of the river water finally returned to normal.
The heavens and earth finally had a set of rules that suited them. The change of course of the Longjiang River resulted in an additional three thousand miles of water bodies in Longzhou West. The originally low-lying Xiling, Shen Ping, and Clear Water have all now become history.
At this time, when the new year was about to arrive, the raging flood finally subsided, as if to allow the disaster-stricken people of Longzhou to have a good year.
In the Tiger Valley of South Ridge, countless workshop artisans pushed the already built ships into the water. Mi Clan’s fleet, carrying a vast number of transcendent warriors, advanced towards North Mountain.
In this cold winter, the situation was even more severe.
1781 in the Longzhou Calendar
The Mi Clan’s alliance’s transcendent large team officially landed in North Mountain, along with the medium teams from seven major respected clans, while the Tang Clan’s defenders on the outer mountains kept retreating.
Time decides all things. As soon as the numbers begin to inflate, it congeals into a force.
The Mi Clan’s alliance, which originally had a numerical advantage on the number of martial ancestors over the Tang Clan, has with the reinforcement of a huge number of transcendent warriors, forced Tang Sen and others to retreat continuously.
The alliance troops led by Cao Xiong indeed guarded against Tang Sen rigorously, resulting in Tang Sen’s several attempts to stealth attack failing and him even being injured.
Under the circumstance of the main general getting injured, the Tang Clan’s defenders staunchly held their ground until the tenth day, only then did they retreat to Cloud-breaking Peak.
Ever since, North Mountain had become a real battlefield. The Mi Clan’s alliance finally used their numerical advantage. They leveled Cloud-breaking Peak in just twenty days.
The Tang Clan’s defenders suffered heavy casualties, and they retreated again to the Prosperous Cloud Valley to defend their position under the Martial Hall’s large array.