Chapter 489: The Decisive Battle Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It was not that Ling Xue, Xiao Longw.a.n.g, and the other groups didn"t want to take any action. They understood that if the lips were gone, the teeth would be cold. However, there wasn"t much they would do.
Ling Xue called for the Martial Arts Hall Branch Master in the Stellarsky City and requested to meet with the Martial Arts Chief Hall Master. Soon, the Martial Arts Hall responded that the Chief Hall Master wasn"t around and couldn"t have any visitors.
No one knew where the Martial Arts Main Hall was. Even if they wanted to go there, they couldn"t find the way. At this moment, they didn"t really know what to do next.
Ling Xue called for Xiao Longw.a.n.g, Sha Di, and the King of the Saint Spirit Kingdom; and she asked them for news on Jiang Xiaonu. However, all three denied any involvement with Jiang Xiaonu. Instead, they suspected Ling Xue for planning to destroy their kingdoms with the help of Jiang Yi.
Ling Xue ran out of options and asked the Water Moon Observatory and the Great Zen Monastery for help. She asked them to stop Jiang Yi"s atrocities. Outside the Summer Rain City, the old monk of the Great Zen Monastery once promised to kill Jiang Yi if he was an ominous man.
As expected, Shui Youlan had no response. After remaining silent for three days, the old monk sent message to Ling Xue, saying that the attack by the five major fractions on the Great Xia Kingdom some time ago was already an infringement of the deal outside the Summer Rain City. The Great Zen Monastery would not be involved in this matter.
Though Jiang Yi slaughtered 400,000 troops of the Divine Martial Kingdom and proved himself an ominous man, he didn"t step out of the line in the eyes the old monk. The men Jiang Yi killed were soldiers. From the information the old monk gathered all over the cities—when Jiang Yi"s troops swept off the Divine Martial Kingdom, only less than a thousand civilians died. In contrast, when the alliance army attacked the Great Xia Kingdom, there were almost one million civilian casualties.
Judging on the moral ground, both sides were evil. The Great Zen Monastery had always upheld itself to the best interests of the populace. However, wasn"t it always like this?
How many died in the ceaseless battles in history? Every time a Kingdom War broke out, countless men died. Fights were always happening on the continent. Every minute, people died. How many could the Great Zen Monastery save everyone even if it wanted to?
Therefore, the Great Zen Monastery had a faith of benevolence, but it never confined itself to the hypocrisy. What kind of a person was Jiang Yi? He was a wicked and merciless man who killed 400,000 men. If the Great Zen Monastery stepped in, Jiang Yi absolutely didn"t mind razing the Great Zen Monastery to the ground.
The Patriarch was nowhere to be found. No one heard from him in such a long time; he was probably dead by now. The old monk"s strength was alright, but he was definitely not at the same level as Ling Clan Patriarch.
Ling Xue and the group were at their wits" end. The Saint Spirit Kingdom King was even more stressed and asked for their help to find Jiang Xiaonu and her group for several times. He was sending a clear message: "if you had Jiang Xiaonu and her group, please let them out immediately; otherwise, the Saint Spirit Kingdom would perish."
Ling Xue, Xiao Longw.a.n.g, and the rest didn"t take any action. When the five days were due, Jiang Yi commanded one million troops to march to the Saint Spirit Kingdom. When the troops entered the Saint Spirit Kingdom, the Ghost Flame City—a major city in the east—was conquered. After ma.s.sacring all the Lan Clansmen and more than 100,000 soldiers in the city, the entire Saint Spirit Kingdom fell into turmoil.
Jiang Yi wasn"t joking!
This killing G.o.d didn"t even care about how many people he killed. Anyone who dared to disobey his order only had death waiting for them.
Therefore, the army in the cities at the east of the Saint Spirit Kingdom started to deflect on a small scale. Jiang Yi once said that he only slaughtered the troops. After their deflection, they became civilians again. Jiang Yi naturally would not kill them, right?
Only a handful of civilians in the Ghost Flame City lost their lives. This proved one thing: in the next few days, the army swept across several cities in the east. As long as one was not in army uniform, didn"t have any weapons with them, and bent the knees to the troops the moment they arrived, they would be fine. Jiang Yi"s army really didn"t kill anyone. When this news was spread, the soldiers in all the eastern cities started to deflect on a large scale. Soon, the whole Saint Spirit Kingdom soldiers joined them.
n.o.body wanted to die. When facing the invincible opponent, they had to die if resisted.
The old Supreme Marshal of the Saint Spirit Kingdom was dead; who else could stop Jiang Yi?
Since there was no hope at all and n.o.body wished to die—when one person started to deflect, naturally, people followed. In some small cities, thousands of soldiers fled in one night. No one was left except for the City Lord.
Jiang Rentu was in the vanguard of the one million troops. Many martial experts from the Zhan Clan joined the forces and led the army. The Qian Clansmen were in charge of the army provisions. General Lu was the dispatcher. Grandma Silver Flower and the Yazi Beast patrolled. Whenever the army was met with strong resistance, they could come over and kill the Soul Travel Realm Experts so that the troops could break into the city easily.
Jiang Yi presided at the headquarters. There were no more Vajra Realm martial experts in the Saint Spirit Kingdom, and so he didn"t even have to fight personally. With him in the base, the troops would attack without reservation. Which Vajra Realm martial expert dared to come forward if he was around?
In fifteen days—!
It took Jiang Yi more than twenty days to conquer the Divine Martial Kingdom. Right now, he only took half a month to take over the Saint Spirit Kingdom. Of course… it had a lot to do with the fact that two-thirds of the Saint Spirit Kingdom"s army deflected. Many cities didn"t have any soldiers left; Jiang Yi"s troops could just take over upon arrival.
On the seventeenth day, the troops besieged the capital of the Saint Spirit Kingdom. Before Jiang Yi gave the order to attack, Sheng Tia—the King of the Saint Spirit Kingdom—led all the officials and generals out of the city, to surrender to Jiang Yi, together with the remaining 300,000 soldiers.
Jiang Yi once said that he would not accept surrender.
He was going to kill them all, but Zhan Yiming and Qian Gui advised him to take all these men in. He could exile the King of the Saint Spirit Kingdom together with his clansmen and incorporate the soldiers into his own forces. Grandma Silver Flower also urged him: without the army, he couldn"t control all the land that he just conquered.
Jiang Yi didn"t think that far. He didn"t even consider uniting the continent. Whereas Zhan Yiming, Qian Gui, and Grandma Silver Flower had such thoughts. After all, their power would also grow if Jiang Yi became the King of the continent.
Jiang Yi couldn"t reject their advice and agreed to accept the surrender of the Saint Spirit Kingdom"s King. He took the 300,000 soldiers in. The Saint Spirit Kingdom was officially a fallen nation.
Soon, Jiang Yi announced to attack the Northern Mang Kingdom in five days. Again, he would not accept any surrender. If the soldiers wanted to live, now it was their last chance to deflect.
The news was spread to the Northern Mang Kingdom and created mayhem in the Northern Mang Kingdom. However, three days later, the Northern Mang Kingdom cooperated with the Azure Dragon Empire and the Northern Liang Kingdom. Together, they issued an announcement, which gave a trace of hope to the citizens of the Northern Mang Kingdom.
Rather than an announcement, it would be more apt to describe it as a letter of challenge!
The Azure Dragon Empire joined forces with the other two kingdoms and challenged Jiang Yi. The battle was scheduled outside the Stellarsky City. The armies of the two kingdoms quickly gathered to the Stellarsky City. It was clear that they were going to fight with Jiang Yi to the death.
The continent was in pandemonium when the news broke.
Everyone understood that this might be the decisive battle. If Jiang Yi won, the continent would be united. If Jiang Yi lost, the situation of the continent would, once again, become complicated and confusing.
Was the historical moment finally coming?
"Regent, you can"t accept the challenge. Even if there is going to be a decisive battle, it can"t be at Stellarsky City. We should stick to the original plan of attacking the Northern Mang Kingdom and see whether Xiao Longw.a.n.g and the Northern Mang Kingdom troops would come back."
"Yes, the Azure Dragon Empire and the other two kingdoms remained silent in the past, but they challenge you to fight all of a sudden. Probably, there is a catch. We can"t go along with them. We need to let them play by our rules."
"Commanding is about attacking the opponent by surprise. It better safe than sorry."
When the letter of challenge was sent to Jiang Yi"s battalion headquarter, Jiang Rentu, Zhan Yiming, and Qian Gui, etc. were voicing out their opinions. Something was definitely fishy when the Azure Dragon Empire and the two kingdoms suddenly became tough. They might be spreading dragnet in the Stellarsky City right now, waiting for Jiang Yi to walk into the trap.
"Hehe."
Jiang Yi smiled faintly and shook his head. "With our combat strength, any tricks will be ineffective to us. If they can kill me, I will die regardless, even if I run to the ends of the earth. Since there is going to be a decisive battle sooner or later, then the location won"t matter. You don"t have to say more. Pa.s.s down my order—all the troops set out towards the Stellarsky City now."