Chapter 314 A Person’s Name
“In terms of strength, we’re well-matched with the monks of Land Buddhism in Qinzhou City. We have a similar number of cultivators of the Spiritual Master Realm, Ground Immortal Realm, and Sky Immortal Realm. Prince An is so strong that experts of the Ground Immortal Realm are no match for him. Under the current situation, we can break the balance.” Holy Child finished Li Ye’s words.
The Son of God muttered to himself, “The only one to look out for is Feihong Bodhisattva. As a special person and a well-known Great Power in Land Buddhism, one cannot rely on common sense only to gauge her next move. Although she’s injured now and is not battle worthy, no one knows what will happen if she gets angry and decides to start a fight at all costs. Eighteen arhats have already suffered serious injuries. If Prince An continues to slaughter the monks of Land Buddhism of the Ground Immortal Realm, Feihong Bodhisattva will not remain indifferent.”
Nangong Diyi frowned and said, “Feihong Bodhisattva is so powerful. If she recovers from her injury, we are going to die. Let’s find a chance to kill her now, while she is still recovering, in case anything bad happens.”
Nangong Diyi’s proposal did not get a lot of support. Although he was right and everyone agreed with it, no one was confident in facing Feihong Bodhisattva, who would surely go all out to fight in desperation. Li Ye remained silent, as if deep in thought.
Seeing that all the people were indecisive, Nangong Diyi could not help feeling irritated, “It’s useless to be afraid. If we don’t get rid of Feihong Bodhisattva, we can’t defeat Li Keyong, conquer Taiyuan City, and seize the opportunity! What we did before, and what we do now will fail, due to lack of a final effort!”
Holy Child scratched his head, and could not figure out a method. After thinking for a moment, the Son of God said, “We’d better not let Feihong Bodhisattva start a fight. In the battle against Qinzhou, we should let Feihong Bodhisattva realize that the Hedong Army can’t win. And, she can’t decide the trend of the war situation, even if she spares no effort to fight.”
Nangong Diyi curled his lip, “It’s easy for you to say that. Feihong Bodhisattva won’t adopt a “wait-and-see” attitude.”
The Son of God opened his mouth to speak. He said irritably, “She will also not show utter indifference. So, we need to figure out a method.”
The Son of God had no idea which would be the best strategy. The goal was too difficult to achieve, so it would not be easy to find a way out. They looked at each other and kept silent for a moment.
While everyone was in a blue mood, Li Ye suddenly said with confidence, “I have an idea.”
...
The next day, the army continued to attack Qinzhou City. The battle seemed no different from the days before, but the game between the two sides had become more detailed.
Yesterday when the army attacked the city, both sides had not sent out experts of the Sky Immortal Realm, due to mutual restriction between Holy Child and Feihong Bodhisattva. Today, the two armies had not sent out experts of the Ground Immortal Realm, due to a tacit agreement.
Li Ye’s combat power exceeded that of an ordinary expert of the Ground Immortal Realm. Meanwhile, more than half of the 18 arhats had either been killed or wounded. In this situation, once Land Buddhism sent out arhats to fight, they would face Li Ye’s one-sided slaughter. It was like handing them out to him on a silver platter, so Feihong Bodhisattva would not do that.
Standing on the ramparts, Sudhana felt worried. “Bodhisattva, the number of experts in the Sky Immortal Realm on both sides is almost the same. They have a one-to-one restraint with each other. If Li Ye starts to fight today, will you stop him personally?”
Feihong Bodhisattva said lightly, “Can’t I stop him?”
Sudhana realized that there was something wrong with his words, and immediately corrected himself. “How can Li Ye match your skills...” As soon as he said these words, Sudhana felt a little awkward. Feihong Bodhisattva’s status and cultivation were prominent, while Li Ye was only a Yang Spiritual Master. They were too far apart from each other... But several days ago, this Yang Spiritual Master managed to injure Feihong Bodhisattva.
To hide his confusion, Sudhana immediately said, “They have the Holy-child King, whose True-fire of Samadhi was imparted by Lord Lao Zi. We should not take it lightly. If he joins forces with Li Ye, it will create problems for us!”
Feihong Bodhisattva did not answer and looked calm.
Li Keyong glanced at the two men, who were deep in conversation. After thinking for a while, he did not come over to ask. He had no other thoughts now, and did not dare to have a good laugh at Land Buddhism. In the face of Li Ye, whose cultivation had advanced at high speed, he was thinking about how he could protect Qinzhou.
Li Keyong was grateful that Li Ye would not be coming out to fight. As the commander in chief, he certainly knew that he could not take any chances in this battle. In the case that Land Buddhism could not defeat Li Ye, he had to rely on himself.
While Li Keyong’s mind was in a whirl, Feihong Bodhisattva came over. “In the next battle, I’ll try not to let both sides send out cultivators above the Spiritual Master Realm. In other words, how we can hold on to Qinzhou City depends on the battle between the two armies!”
Li Keyong gritted his teeth secretly. After all these days of fighting, he realized that the Hedong Army was weaker than the Pinglu Army in terms of combat strength. Pinglu Army had demon clan soldiers who had been reorganized by Li Ye. They significantly improved the power of cultivators in the whole army. After capturing the battle of Huang Chao, Li Yan’s open supply, and Pinglu Workshop’s day and night manufacturing, its soldiers in armor were vastly superior to that of the Hedong Army. With assistance from Henghai, Tianping, Zhaoyi Armies, Pinglu Army’s strength was great in impetus and their morale were high, which swept through, like a flood. Hedong Army’s odds were not good.
Li Keyong knew the hardship in competing with Li Ye, based on combat strength.
However, Li Keyong was a generation pendragon, and Hedong was the strongest vassal state in the north, so he would not get stage fright before a fight and yield to Li Ye without protest. Moreover, Li Keyong had already deployed forces to besiege Qinzhou City.
Li Keyong asked Feihong Bodhisattva in a low voice, “Bodhisattva, can you guarantee that Li Ye will not fight?”
Facing this problem, Feihong Bodhisattva could not prevent his eyes from drooping and having a dejected look, even with his mental state and cultivation.
Li Ye was only a Yin Spiritual Master. Apart from Feihong Bodhisattva, the 18 arhats could kill him easily. She never expected that Li Ye had once been a Yang Spiritual Master after she descended into the world. Due to him, she, as a Daluo Golden Immortal, suffered a great deal in front of onlookers, and had to run away.
Even so, Li Ye was only a Yang Spiritual Master, and his combat strength could only compare favorably with that of experts of the Ground Immortal Realm at most. However, in the face of dozens of experts of the Ground Immortal Realm, and several experts of the Sky Immortal Realm, his combat strength was not worth mentioning, and it would not affect the war situation.
Nobody could imagine that Li Ye was able to kill experts of the Ground Immortal Realm after Dragon Qi advanced. Moreover, he killed ten experts of the Ground Immortal Realm within one day.
As a result, the situation in Land Buddhism and Hedong took a turn for the worse. Initially, they were sure of success. Feihong Bodhisattva, who had unpredictable magic powers managed to crush the cultivators from the Demon Clan.
Li Ye had slaughtered more than half of cultivators of the Ground Immortal Realm. Moreover, Feihong Bodhisattva had been severely injured by him, and could not display her skills. So now, Li Ye could break the balance and control the war situation.
If one of these got better, Li Ye would not put so much pressure on Hedong. Land Buddhism Immortals led by Feihong Bodhisattva would not lose their godhood and bring disgrace to the immortals.
Feihong Bodhisattva had a dejected look on her face and said, “Mind your own business!”
Li Keyong looked pale and said nothing more.
...
Beyond Hedong’s expectation, the Pinglu Army quickly suppressed Weibo and Zhaoyi and invaded Qinzhou. Even though Qinzhou’s defense was all ready, when the city came under siege, there were only a few defenders in Qinzhou, which was not enough to turn the tide and repel the Pinglu Army and others.
Li Keyong deployed forces from Yizhou in the northeast and Fenzhou in the northwest to the south, to rush and rescue Qinzhou City.
To capture Qinzhou City, Li Ye decided to block off the two reinforcements on the way before dispatching troops to Zhaoyi. In this way, Qinzhou City would not be able get any foreign aid. The battle in Qinzhou was caught in a brief stalemate. Land Buddhism could not break Li Ye’s alliance with the demon clan, so Li Keyong ordered the two military forces to accelerate support.
Whether the southbound troops and horses coming from Yizhou and Fenzhou could arrive in time to Qinzhou City, became the key to the outcome of the war.
On the official road from Fenzhou to Qinzhou, tens of thousands of guards were marching. With steeds and armors, the two leading generals looked robust, muscular as well as extraordinary.
The one on the left was commanding general Li Cunxin, who was a little older, but was steady and mature. The one on the right was the deputy general Li Cunjin, who was a little younger and incisive.
Both of them were Li Keyong’s trusted subordinates, who were brave and resourceful. They were the most outstanding talents among the hundreds of thousands of Hedong soldiers, and ranked among Li Keyong’s Eight God Sons. After Li Keyong was conferred the title Prince of Longxi, he honored his subordinates with “Grand Guardian” and they were known as the Thirteen Grand Guardians. Li Cunxin and Li Cunjin were now among the Thirteen Grand Guardians.
“It’s not far from the border of Qinzhou. Ask all the soldiers to cheer up. Declare my order that rangers advance another 10 miles! Ask Chief Wu to lead Qi-refining cultivators to check the frontline of the army, to ensure that there’s no ambush!” The commanding general Li Cunxin immediately issued orders, after getting the scout’s report.
The orderly accepted the order and left. Li Cunjin did not approve. “Fourth Elder Brother, it’s tens of miles away from Qinzhou City. Are you being too cautious? Even if we’re intercepted by the Pinglu Army, as long as Li Ye doesn’t send the Great Cultivator to assist in fighting, there is nothing to fear!”
Li Cunxin remained calm and stable, and said, “How do you know that Li Ye won’t dispatch the Great Cultivator?”
Li Cunjin smiled and held the ancient helmet, as if he was showing off his abilities, “The situation is in a stalemate in Qinzhou City. The number of cultivators is equal on both sides. Until now, both have learned more about each other. If Li Ye dares to send the Great Cultivator to intercept us, the strength of their camp will be depleted. Won’t Land Buddhism Immortals miss such an opportunity to attack?”
Li Cunxin said, “That’s why the prince did not send someone to meet us. So, we have to be careful.”
Li Cunjin said, “We were promoted to be great commanders of militarism. Among the troops and horses led by Li Ye, only the Pinglu Army has several warriors of militarism. Despite that it’s essential to attack Qinzhou City now, they can’t just guard against Fenzhou and not guard against Yizhou reinforcements? Can they stop us? Only if Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng does not turn up, nobody can stop us!”
He looked sideways and spoke with confidence. He had an air of invincibility about him. As the saying goes, hundreds of thousands of troops make a king. In the Hedong Army, the Thirteen Grand Guardians were the most outstanding figures. All of them were heroes, had a hundred lives, and led the army to defeat thousands of enemy forces.
Even without cultivation, they could not be viewed as ordinary persons.
However, after he finished speaking, Li Cunjin saw a cultivator at the Mid-level Qi-refining rushing back from the official road. He seemed to have hardly recovered from a recent shock. After saluting, he pointed behind his back and said anxiously, “Report! General, it’s not good. She... she is coming!”
Li Cunxin had not yet spoken, but Li Cunjin was already furious. “Why are you so panicky? You’re an expert at the Mid-level Qi-refining! Speak up, who’s here?”
“It’s... It’s her! Shangguan Qingcheng!”
“Shangguan Qingcheng? She... is coming?!”
Li Cunxin and Li Cunjin looked at each other. Both the steady and mature general and the incisive latter general saw the fear that could not be covered up in each other’s eyes, no matter what words and gestures they used.
A person’s name was like the shadow of a tree. Shangguan Qingcheng had gone on military exploits before. When generals blew their own horns, they would belittle her with their noses in the air. But when they saw her, only those who could stabilize their state of minds could be regarded as big shots.
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