Chapter 319 Winning and Losing
If Li Cunxiao heard Li Keyong’s words, he would vomit blood from anger. He hadn’t lost a lot of battles for many years, and he hadn’t dropped the ball at critical times. But the situation was obviously different now.
When Li Cunxiao led his troops here to support, he saw that the opposing side had taken the position vantage point. They had tens of thousands of Pinglu troops form defensive barriers. Liu Dazheng had the attitude that he wasn’t looking for merits, and he only didn’t want to be blamed. And when Li Cunxiao saw the situation he snorted out of disdain.
All of Liu Dazheng’s troops were Pinglu Army’s elites, and there were 50,000 of them. They outnumbered Li Cuxiao’s Yizhou reinforcements by 10,000. Plus, they were in a defensive formation, which was very difficult for Li Cunxiao to breakthrough head on.
But things in the world were mostly relative. Things that were considered difficult were easy for Li Cunxiao. He ordered the army to attack, and in just one day, Pinglu Army’s defense line was torn and a gap opened up, plus Liu Dazheng was injured.
Li Cunxiao didn’t adopt any otherworldly strategy. He just entered the battle and headed the charge. He murdered like drinking water, broke through the barrier like walking and forced Liu Dazheng to confront him. After confronting Liu Dazheng, he defeated the opponent together with their Militarism Formation.
Liu Dazheng was not a worthy opponent for Li Cunxiao’s, although both of them were generals of Militarism. This was not surprising. Realm was not the only criterion of measuring strength, especially for geniuses who had been around for several hundreds.
After Li Cunxiao defeated Liu Dazheng, the Pinglu army was in chaos. If they were not experienced in war and that they were absolutely elites, they would have already fled.
But even so, Pinglu Army could only resist for fifteen minutes.
A quarter an hour, for some upper-class people, was not even enough to finish a cup of tea.
There was not much that could be done on the battlefield in such a short time.
But just this quarter of an hour was enough for Liu Dazheng not to die in front of Li Cunxiao’s horse, and the Pinglu Army was not totally defeated by the Hedong Army.
Because someone had arrived with troops in time during this time and stopped Li Cunxiao.
Anyone that could stop Li Cunxiao was, naturally, not ordinary.
It was Shangguan Qingcheng.
After smashing Li Cunjin’s brother, Li Cunxin, in the west, Shangguan Qingcheng took only three thousand Wolf-tooth Troop elites, and rushed to the city without stopping.
She was of course obeying orders. Li Ye clearly knew that Li Cunxiao was not easy to deal with. This was a plan that Li Ye had made earlier, to let Shangguan Qingcheng defeat the brothers Li Cunjin and Li Cunxin first, and then turn around to support Liu Dazheng to deal with Li Cunxiao.
Shangguan Qingcheng’s realm was lower than Liu Dazheng. Under normal circumstances, Li Cunxiao, whom not even Liu Dazheng could beat, was naturally not going to be stopped by Shangguan Qingcheng.
But Liu Dazheng was not chopped liver. Li Cunxiao led the army Charging Formation. Although he was brave and intrepid, directly broke the defense line of the middle troops, and then came to Liu Dazheng and hurt him, Li Cunxiao himself had also paid a hefty price.
Although those Military Formation defense lines laid out by Liu Dazheng did not stop Li Cunxiao, they cost him a lot. Liu Dazheng knew that Li Cunxiao was very powerful. When he laid out the defense formation, he thought that Li Cunxiao would use a brute strength to fight against ten at a time and forcibly charged the Formation. Therefore, he made the middle troops’ defense front very thick.
Liu Dazheng’s plan was very simple. He used the defensive front to consume Li Cunxiao’s Spiritual Qi. When they had a frontal confrontation, he was rested and ready to face the attack of the fatigued enemy. Thus even if he did not win, he would not lose.
He underestimated Li Cunxiao.
In other words, Li Cunxiao was too outrageous. Liu Dazheng was defeated by the opponent, and this battle was almost lost. But in fact Li Cunxiao didn’t have much energy left.
After Shangguan Qingcheng arrived, she led the Wolf-tooth Troops to launch the force to “turn tides” and gave Li Cunxiao’s Military Formation a head-on attack. Originally Shangguan Qingcheng planned to take off Li Cunxiao’s head, but after confronting Li Cunxiao directly, she found that he was not exhausted, and he still had some power.
She took the initiative and launched the power of the “mountains”, and changed the offensive formation to the defensive formation, which blocked Li Cunxiao.
Li Cunxiao was blocked, and the Pinglu Army gradually stabilized its position. By dusk, the left and right wings could already launch counterattacks.
Li Cunxiao had no choice but withdrew his troops for the time being.
On the second day, Li Cunxiao continued to attack aggressively after recuperating, and Shangguan Qingcheng and Liu Dazheng defended together. Although Shangguan Qingcheng’s realm was lower than Liu Dazheng, and Liu Dazheng’s strength was also lower than Li Cunxiao. They were after all, two generals of Militarism going against one general of Militarism.
Li Cunxiao was concerned about the situation in Qinzhou. And Li Keyong’s emissary also came over several times, urging Li Cunxiao to quickly break through the obstruction of Liu Dazheng and others, and to support Qinzhou City. Forced by the situation, Li Cunxiao was so anxious that he continuously launched onslaughts against Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng.
Liu Dazheng and Shangguan joined forces to make a two-on-one battle, but the situation was still very difficult. Not only did Li Cunxiao have strong personal strength, he also had a high level of accomplishment in the formation of troops. This had given Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng some trouble. A few times the opponent almost broke through their own barrier. The two were also injured in succession, and their pressure was getting bigger.
On the fourth day, not long after confronting Li Cunxiao, Liu Dazheng was injured by the opponent. As his Military Formation was about to falter being smashed by Li Cunxiao, Liu Dazheng was in despair.
But at this moment, Shangguan Qingcheng, who met Li Cunxiao head-on, suddenly gained momentum. She did not dare to confront Li Cunxiao before, but now she stopped him.
“Did she make a breakthrough just before going into battle?”
Seeing that Shangguan Qingcheng tangled up Li Cunxiao and with her strong Qi like a mountain, she was actually able to hold him up, Liu Dazheng’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t hold back his joy.
In the past two days, Liu Dazheng had noticed that every time Shangguan Qingcheng fought with Li Cunxiao, her temperament would change after the battle. Her mood and cultivation would be elevated. It seemed that the stronger the opponent, the stronger she got. She had now jumped from beginner Militarism general to mid Militarism general. This sort of elevation had shocked Liu Dazheng.
However, the cultivation refinement of Militarism warriors was mostly done on the battlefield. Aside from the speed of cultivation refinement, there was nothing surprising in its essence.
Shangguan Qingcheng had successfully made a breakthrough. Although she was still unable to defeat Li Cunxiao, with the help of Liu Dazheng, she could just hold the opponent. Li Cunxiao was naturally angry, but there was nothing he could do but accept this unfriendly fact.
And just like that, the battle continued to the fifth day.
On this day, Shangguan Qingcheng and Liu Dazheng entered the battle. As soon as they saw Li Cunxiao, they felt a great deal of pressure. After Liu Dazheng repeatedly confirmed, he added, almost losing his voice, “He has reached the realm of general’s Great Completion, and he may break through to be a senior general of Militarism!”
The realm of Militarism warriors was divided into several realms such as ordinary generals, generals, senior generals, and famous generals. Now there were many generals through years of war in the world, but none of them had reached the realm of senior general. If Li Cunxiao could achieve the realm of Militarism senior general of Militarism, no one under the sun could rival him. And no one in the Military Formation could stop him!
Even in history, the number of senior generals of Militarism were few and far in between.
This battle allowed Shangguan Qingcheng to make a breakthrough, but they did not expect Li Cunxiao to do the same.
Shangguan Qingcheng lowered her head and closed her eyes, and asked coldly, “Even if he achieves the Famous General Realm, you and I can’t let him pass! It’s just a matter of putting our lives on the line. What do we have to fear?”
After saying that, she spurred the horse and headed towards Li Cunxiao.
Shangguan Qingcheng’s stance made Liu Dazheng froze. His face suddenly flushed and then he gritted his teeth fiercely, “When I followed old Prince An to fight on the battlefield, Li Cunxiao was still feeding on his mother’s teat. How could I be afraid of him?”
...
Qinzhou City.
This was the fifth day that a coalition led by the Pinglu Army had attacked the city. And also the final deadline for the city to be breached prescribed by Li Ye. Li Ye was still standing on the watchtower, but this time there was no one behind him. Because everyone was already on the battlefield.
Not only military generals, but the civil servants and advisers who were cultivators were battling. Even the commissioner of Tianping Army, Xue Wei, and the commissioner of Zhaoyi Army, Kang Chengqian, had already personally entered the battle. The Black Office was also sent up by Li Ye.
In this battle, neither side had retained any strength.
Suddenly, a cultivator of the Spiritual Master Realm attacked. You could not tell on which side he belonged. He opened the prelude to the war between the Great Cultivators on both sides.
Soon, not only the Spiritual Master Realm, but also the Ground Immortal Realm and the Sky Immortal Realm masters all flew up high and began to fight and kill. The Son of God and the Holy Child attacked one after another, followed by Nangong Diyi and the nine-tail Demon Fox.
Even Su Emei had attacked.
Li Ye looked at Qinzhou City with his hands clasped behind his back.
This was a three-dimensional war. The iron armored soldiers who flooded the city like a tide, the Qi-refining masters were flying in the air like birds. The Great Cultivators moved like lightning in mid-air, and when they attacked, it was powerful like thunder and lightning. The sky above them looked like burning hell.
The city had changed the colour, and in fact, the world was discolored.
Li Ye looked calm as usual, his eyes were always placid, and his fingers behind his back moved. It was noon on the dot, and a beam of sunlight fell through from the storm-raging sky, just covering him. He narrowed his eyes slightly.
Suddenly, a short and sharp metal grinding sound could be heard.
A stream of light flickered in front of Li Ye, like the fanning wings of a butterfly.
Striking out with a sword.
A rim of turbulent Spiritual Qi frenzy suddenly exploded before Li Ye, and it swept across the range of a thousand feet in an instant. The flagpole of the watchtower was neatly disconnected, and the cut was smooth as a mirror.
Li Ye’s clothes and hair danced backwards, agitating like clouds. However, in an instant, they all fell back again.
In front of the Luke Sword, it was Feihong Bodhisattva with long hair also holding a long sword. At this moment her eyebrows were like a snake, and there seemed to be a flame burning in her eyes.
bang! bang! bang!
Accompanied by the explosive sound like three war drums being smashed, the point where the two swords hit again burst into three rims of Spiritual Qi waves.
The strong winds swept through all things. The watchtower railings above Li Ye’s chest, and those flagpoles that had just broken and had not fallen, were all smashed into powder.
Li Ye stood still.
The wooden watchtower under his feet did not shake at all.
When he looked at the Feihong Bodhisattva in white robes and dress, her eyebrows restored to holy and pure.
There was no trace of color in his eyes.
The Feihong Bodhisattva retracted her sword and glanced at him, then turned around and flew away. Not a word was spoken from beginning to end.
Li Ye put away his Luke Sword and resumed his posture of looking down at the battlefield with his hands clasped behind his back.
The noise of battlefield rose to the sky on the ground in the city. Soldiers from both sides were fighting like a raging fire. And the immortal Great Cultivators came and went with great ease, and the techniques they performed caused constant thunder and lightning surge.
Li Ye’s right hand trembled slightly.
A ray of blood spilled from the sleeve of his right arm. It dripped down the ground along his right hand, and quickly accumulated into a pool on the ground.
A couple of moments later, Li Ye received an emergency military report.
Li Cunxiao broke through the defense line of the Pinglu Army and rushed to Qinzhou City. One of Liu Dazheng’s arms was cut off, and Shangguan Qingcheng was seriously injured and unconscious.
Li Ye’s arm had already stopped bleeding. His face was slightly pale at this moment, but his expression was still calm.
After a moment, his mouth slightly raised, and he smiled slightly.
It was at 13:45 and the Pinglu Army breached Qinzhou City.
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