Chapter 217 - War

Over the past hour or so, Xia Wenlin, who had been handed command in the midst of the crisis, had raced against time to relay his orders to the troops defending the walls. He had also anticipated that enemy agents might already have infiltrated Myriad and made a point of stressing that danger in his orders.

But foreseeing a problem did not mean he had time to solve it. The mid-ranking officers had only managed to pass the warning down to the junior officers. There had been no time to inform every common soldier. All they had managed was to clear the caravans away from several town gates and seal those gates shut.

Besides, peace had lasted too long. When war truly arrived, many people’s first instinct was to assume it had to be some kind of joke.

So, when crowds began gathering inside the town and forming military formations, only a handful of the defenders realized what was happening. Most simply watched with doubtful, bewildered expressions.

It was not until the formations had taken shape, cracks appeared in the walls, and several vital nodes of the still-dormant grand array were blasted apart that the soldiers on duty finally woke to the truth.

The war had truly begun.

“Quick! Go... go inform the Director! Someone inside the town is attacking the walls!”

“Don’t run! Nobody runs! They have no reinforcements outside. Block those bastards in!”

“The formation! Activate the grand defensive formation!”

...

Panicked shouts, trembling with fear, erupted above and below the walls the moment the first attack struck.

It had all happened too suddenly, so suddenly that the Myriad Manifestations Sect’s combat forces, who had been secretly transported into the town, had not even reached their assigned positions.

Most of the troops responsible for Myriad’s ordinary defenses were martial apprentices trained in schools under the sect’s banner. They were not elite disciples raised and trained by the sect from childhood.

Once chaos broke out, the common people in the streets descended into panic, and even the soldiers defending the walls erupted into an uproar.

Then, at that very moment, a stern shout rolled across the battlements. “Anyone who flees and spreads panic among the ranks will be executed without mercy!”

A middle-aged man stood suspended in midair. With a casual sweep of his hand, he unleashed several streaks of sword qi and beheaded more than a dozen defenders who had tried to slip away amid the confusion.

“It’s the Seventh Elder!”

“A third rank Grandmaster is here!”

The chaos on the walls finally began to settle at the sight of him.

To ordinary soldiers, a third rank Grandmaster was little different from a god. Once order had been restored, the middle-aged man sped low over the immense stretch of wall. His deep, forceful voice carried clearly into the ears of every defender.

“The sect’s elites are already on their way! The grand formation will soon activate. Hold your positions and rely on the town defense formation!”

As though to prove his words, formation patterns began to light up across the towering walls.

High above the town, a vast translucent barrier slowly condensed into existence.

Myriad’s grand defensive formation had been slow to respond, but it was finally beginning to activate.

The middle-aged man’s arrival had temporarily steadied the troops, though only along his section of the wall.

Near the breach, the soldiers who came into contact with the Blackscale Army collapsed almost the instant they met.

They had not even had time to form ranks.

A young officer raced along the battlements, searching for his battalion commander, the man responsible for 500 troops. The unarmored rebels had already begun scaling the walls and seizing control of the eastern defenses.

The two battalions standing in their way had nearly been wiped out.

The young officer sprinted until he was gasping for breath, his eyes sweeping across the tense faces of the soldiers on either side. At last, he found the middle-aged commander atop one of the gate towers, calmly puffing away on a hand-rolled cigarette.

The moment he saw him, Cheng Yu rushed over and shouted, “Commander, how can you still be smoking at a time like this?!”

The Commander glanced sideways at him, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips. “Cheng Yu. Come, sit down.”

As he spoke, he drew a small wooden case from inside his robes. He carefully took out a cigarette, looking visibly pained to part with it, and offered it to the young officer. “Here. Have one?”

Cheng Yu stared blankly at him. Those cigarettes were precious. The Commander usually took a single puff before snuffing one out to save the rest. Yet now he was offering Cheng Yu an entire cigarette.

Coming back to his senses, Cheng Yu refused it and blurted out anxiously, “Commander, you need to organize the defense! Those traitorous bastards have already reached our sector!”

The Commander sighed, but did not withdraw the hand holding the cigarette. Instead, he took a deep drag from the one between his lips. The tip glowed bright red. Smoke drifted slowly from his mouth.

“I know,” he said quietly.

Cheng Yu grew even more frantic. “If you know, then hurry! When the elder gets here and sees you doing nothing, he’ll have your head!”

The Commander chuckled and flicked the burning butt away. It spun through the air before falling from the towering wall.

Then, still in no particular hurry, he took out a fire striker and prepared to light the cigarette he had offered Cheng Yu.

That was the last straw.

Cheng Yu stepped forward and snatched both the cigarette and the fire striker from his hands. “Commander! What are you doing?!”

“Shut up!” The Commander’s sudden bark froze him in place.

Cheng Yu stared. The Commander snatched both items back, lit the cigarette himself, and took a long drag. Then he smiled again.

“Cheng Yu, it’s no use.” His expression softened as he looked at the young man before him. “Their formation is already complete. The elder won’t dare come anywhere near this side of the wall.”

He paused, smoke curling from his lips. “You’re still young, Cheng Yu. Run while you can. Your cultivation isn’t bad. Even without the army, you should be able to carve out a decent future for yourself.”

The young officer said urgently, “Why should I run? The grand formation is already activating—”

“It’s useless.” The Commander repeated himself. Still smoking, he pointed toward the breach in the wall and sighed. “That spot... is the formation nexus for this entire section of the wall. The formation here is already ruined.”

After a brief pause, his helpless gaze drifted past the young officer toward the distant sky. He smiled. “Besides... Take a look behind you.”

The young officer froze for a moment, then turned around. His eyes widened instantly.

It was late afternoon, the sun still shining brightly. A vast bank of clouds stretched beautifully across the horizon.

Then, as he stared, enormous and hideous flying demonic beasts burst through the clouds one after another.

At first, they were nothing more than tiny black specks.

But gradually, countless flying demonic beasts of every shape and color filled an enormous swath of sky. They blotted out the sun as they bore down upon the walls of Myriad like a plague of locusts.

Silence fell between them, making the steadily approaching cries of battle along the walls seem all the more jarring.

The Commander continued puffing gloomily on his cigarette.

The young officer instinctively took a step back. He looked at the plainclothed soldiers drawing closer along the walls, then at the swarm of demonic beasts darkening the sky. His voice began to tremble.

“C-Commander... what is that?”

The flying beasts roared incessantly in the distance, rattling the nerves of every soldier defending the walls.

The Commander sighed and took another cigarette from his wooden case, offering it to the young man. “No idea. This is my first time seeing anything like it too.”

This time, the young officer did not refuse. His hands shook so badly that he failed to light it several times.

In the end, the Commander had to steady his hand before the flame finally caught.

The young officer drew in a deep lungful of smoke and managed to calm himself slightly. As he stared at the approaching “black cloud” on the horizon, realization seemed to dawn on him.

“Commander... those people in plain clothes aren’t rebels, are they?”

The Commander had already finished his cigarette. He opened the case to take out another, only to find it empty. He casually tossed the box from the tower, rose to his feet, and sighed.

“Judging by all this, perhaps we’re the rebels.” A strained smile appeared on his face. Then he shrugged. “I’d wager the sect’s higher-ups did something they shouldn’t have.”

The Commander bent down and picked up the spirit-blade resting beside him. He began wiping it with an oiled cloth. “Run while you still can. Wait any longer, and it’ll be too late.”

“But...” Hesitation flashed through the young officer’s eyes. He was still young. He did not want to die. “But... what about you, Commander?”

“Even if we really are rebels, I, Zhang Liang, have spent decades eating Myriad’s grain and drawing its pay.” The Commander glanced sideways at him and grinned. He tightened his grip on the blade. “I can hardly turn tail and run now, can I?”

“Commander...” The young officer clenched his fists.

“Enough dawdling. Take anyone willing to flee and get out of here.”

“But—”

“Get lost!”

By the time the flying demonic beasts blotted out the sky above Myriad, the grand defensive formation had already activated.

Unfortunately, the beasts bore the insignia of the imperial court’s Department of Exotic Beasts and were therefore recognized as allied forces.

With time pressing, the town’s defense office had activated the grand formation in a panic. There had been no time to alter the formation patterns and switch it to indiscriminate attack mode. They could only target the beasts manually through the formation or fire upon them with the massive formation-powered ballistae mounted along the walls.

The elders dispatched to oversee the battle brought down quite a few as well.

One after another, dozens of enormous flying beasts let out agonized shrieks and crashed into the town, throwing up vast clouds of dust.

Unfortunately, it was little more than a drop in the bucket.

The first wave swooped low and dropped a specially prepared viscous fluid designed to disrupt formation patterns. In one strike, it delayed and obstructed the entire grand defensive formation protecting the eastern district.

As the formation patterns slowed, the translucent barrier overhead rapidly dissolved like a soap bubble.

Once the town lost the protection of its grand formation, the second wave descended to low altitude.

Thousands of true elites, each possessing seventh-rank cultivation, leaped from the wooden compartments mounted on the beasts’ backs and reinforced the infiltrators who were under siege within the town.

Once the bridgehead carved out along the walls had been fully secured, the military formation split and advanced in both directions along the battlements.

Amid the fighting... No. Amid the slaughter... A vast cloud of dust appeared on the distant horizon.

The remaining 30,000 soldiers of the Blackscale Army, already assembled into formation, charged toward the walls in perfect order.

The eastern defenders collapsed. They broke before the Myriad Manifestations Sect’s true elites could even arrive.

Just 30 minutes after the war began, the Blackscale Army had completely seized the eastern district of Myriad.

Everything gradually fell quiet.

The 10,000 Blackscale elites who had served as the bridgehead methodically took control of the town defenses, began clearing the battlefield, and opened the gates to welcome the reinforcements behind them.

Yuan Hao stood atop the wall with cold eyes, watching the routed defenders flee into the distance. He had not remained outside the town. Compared to sitting safely in the central command, he preferred issuing his orders and then charging alongside the military formation.

And everything had gone even more smoothly than he had imagined.

The Blackscale Guard’s overwhelming intelligence advantage over the Myriad Manifestations Sect’s guards had allowed every part of his plan to unfold without a hitch.

At that thought, Yuan Hao turned toward the captured defenders below the tower, all of them bound so tightly they resembled rice dumplings.

A trace of hesitation entered his eyes. But after rubbing his hands together, he suddenly broke into a grin. His voice once again thundered throughout the town. “Those who stubbornly refuse to submit, execute them!”