Realizing that Qin army had activated their formation, Wu Qi moved backward for several hundred feet based on his instinct, and had prepared to run away anytime.
The first strike came from the outermost layer defensive formation above the campsite. A cloud of countless black runes was released, emerging out of nowhere while twisting, bringing forth a biting cold air that swept across the land. A great amount of dark snowflakes began falling from the sky, and suddenly, a dark snowstorm rolled up and pushed into all directions, covering an area of nearly one hundred miles. The entire valley was enveloped by the dark snowstorm. Wherever the biting cold air was blown, rocks turned into ice, then shattered into sparkling and translucent ice crystals that filled the surface of the ground.
The raging tidal waves brought up by the countless aquatic demons slammed heavily onto this first layer of the black defensive formation. The cold wind caressed into the waves and then pushed into all directions, completely freezing it in a blink of an eye. It was turned into a layer of dark ice with the thickness of several dozens of miles, cupping over the entire Qin army"s campsite. There were tens of thousands of venomous snakes, piranhas, water spiders, and various aquatic poisonous bugs and savage creatures that came together with the tidal wave, and were frozen by the intense cold temperature, losing their lives in an instant. Nearly ten thousand aquatic demons who charged at the forefront had also been frozen within the ice. Apart from a few demon beasts who had formed their Demon Cores and could barely struggle, all the other demon beasts had lost their lives.
Wu Qi narrowed his eyes while looking at the scene. It was a rune that he had studied in the Script of Ancient Law before. Not only was the cold black wind brought by it extremely cold and piercing to the bone, it also contained a thread of Nether Energy. According to the legend, it was an energy came from the Netherworld, used specifically in wiping out the life force of any living being. Also, in the Dao of Primordial Talisman, the meaning of this rune was "bitter cold" and "still quiescence". As a defensive formation constructed using several hundred thousands of such runes, its power was formidable and vast beyond imagination.
The waves that came from behind kept slapping onto the barrier made from dark ice. However, the endless cold air kept flowing through the frozen tidal wave and kept spreading further out. In a blink of an eye, all the tidal waves that rushed into the valley were turned into large ice cubes, and the entire valley was now frozen. More than one hundred thousand large-sized demon beasts were frozen inside these ice cubes. Some of those with stronger cultivation base could still struggle inside the ice, yet any demon beasts below the Demon Core realm had had their lives claimed by the intense coldness.
The old dragon king, Wanying, was watching the whole scenario with his eyebrows twitching violently. He waved his hands in the air and roared, "Don"t panic, my children! Charge up, charge up! We, the clan of Longyuan River, have countless demon beasts. How could we have fear facing an army of merely one hundred thousand men? Attack using long-ranged magic spells, use magic spells! You bunch of fools who are ten times more stupid than a wild boar, why are you charging up to such a close distance?"
Feeling amazed, Wu Qi gave the old demon dragon a gaze, who kept waving his hands and had his lips covered in white bubbles. He hesitatingly pulled the catfish-flood-dragon"s sleeve and asked, "Did the Old Dragon King ever learn the knowledge of battle tactics? Has he ever commanded an army in a battle?"
The catfish-flood-dragon turned her large catfish head over, staring at Wu Qi with her pair of sparkling, golden eyes. Then, she asked in a rather surprised voice, "Battle tactics? What is that? Commanding an army in a battle? Aye, Old Dragon King has lived in Longyuan River for several tens of thousands of years, and never once had anybody tried challenging him. So, what is the need of commanding an army in a battle?"
Wu Qi let her sleeve loose and rolled his eyes. Once again, he had his mind getting ready so he could run away immediately once things went south. Apparently, apart from possessing a formidable cultivation base, this Old Dragon King did not possess any other talents. However, Wu Qi liked his character. Although he was rather cunning and treacherous, he was nice and friendly to Wu Qi. Would Wu Qi just keep watching how he lost the battle and suffer a great loss without doing anything?
While he was hesitating, a group of tens of thousands of demon beasts consisting of carps, black carps, gra.s.s carps, snakeheads fishes, suddenly shot into the sky at the same time, opened their mouths and inhaled while facing the direction where the river flowed. A large amount of river water rolled and rocked, rus.h.i.+ng towards their directions and was sucked into their stomachs. All of these demons had the body length of about one hundred feet, and their cultivation base was at Xiantian realm. Their stomachs bloated, their bodies expanded and stretched to the length of three hundred to five hundred feet. Their skin was glinting brightly and became nearly translucent, their stomachs filled with rolling water.
After that, several tens of thousands of fish mouths turned and aimed right at the Qin army"s campsite. Deafening noises of whistling echoed out as several tens of thousands of water jets, each with the diameter of a water bucket and shooting at a speed not much slower than a sword beam, thrust towards the campsite, forcibly impacting onto the thick ice barrier that sealed off the entire valley. The air was filled with jarring noises of grinding as these rapidly spinning water jets began spinning and drilling in the ice barrier. In a blink of an eye, they had penetrated few miles into the ice barrier.
Crackling noises kept lingering in the air as countless cracks were produced on the thick ice barrier, while the bodies of many aquatic demons trapped inside the ice were ripped and torn into pieces. The group of fish demons had their bodies shrunk quickly while the water in their stomachs drained quickly. In just a brief moment, all the water was gone, leaving them panting while hovering in the air.
Then, from above the campsite, another layer of white runes began to blink. Abruptly, the ice barrier shattered after being impacted by the water jets, turning into countless ice swords and ice blades, each ten feet long and sharp at their edges. The white runes then exploded, and the tremendous explosive forces crushed the ice cubes that covered the land of the valley into broken pieces, turning them into countless ice swords and blades that shot into all directions together with piercing noises. Wherever they went, countless aquatic demons had their bodies cut apart, filling the sky with blood, internal organs, and scales.
Shrill and miserable shrieks of the demons could be heard everywhere. With just one single strike, over three hundred thousand demon beasts of Xiantian realm within the radius of one hundred miles were killed by these ice blades and swords. Broken limbs drifted around as the water flowed. The huge amount of blood stained the water within the radius of one thousand miles crimson. It was the blood of three hundred thousand demon beasts with large bodies, an insane amount of blood. Everything around the battlefield had taken a crimson hue, and even the color of the tall waves looked frighteningly blood red.
Wanying Dragon King"s lips were s.h.i.+vering with anger. He threw his head back and gave a long cry, transforming his head of an old man with gray hair into a ferocious, savage-looking flood dragon"s head. His body also became taller, about thirty feet tall. Scales were seen poking out from his skin, turning into a thick armor that covered his entire body. In addition to that, his hands had transformed into two dragon claws. When he clenched his fist, the sharp nails brushed against his palm and produced bright sparks that flew everywhere.
"Charge up! Charge up! What are you waiting for? Han Zhu, Tan Xue, Le Hai, bring my children and attack the enemies!" cried Wanying Dragon King in a fierce and aggressive voice, as he ordered the three great demons to charge into the enemy straightaway. The giant turtle gave the name of "Han Zhu[1]" to himself as he had been cultivating for over several tens of thousands of years and had produced a total of thirty-six dragon b.a.l.l.s in his back sh.e.l.l. That was the foundation of his Dao, and also the reason for the name. The giant crab named himself "Tan Xue[2]" as he loved digging deep holes everywhere. There were countless caves in Longyuan River which were personally dug out by him, and hence the name. As for the giant starfish, his name was "Le Hai[3]", and although there was an ocean in his name, he actually lived in Longyuan River. Truly a strange species by nature.
Upon hearing the command from the Old Dragon King, three great demons immediately brought countless demon beasts with them and charged toward the campsite. As the ice barrier had broken, the campsite was entirely surrounded by water, and the demon beasts could even clearly see the hairs on the face of those Qin soldiers. They felt that with just one single charge, they could break into the campsite and slaughter every single enemy.
The giant turtle, Han Zhu, raised his head and gave a long cry into the sky, transforming his body to the size of about five miles. He brought up a ma.s.sive wave of one hundred thousand feet tall, using his own body as the weapon and slammed heavily into the southwest corner of the campsite. Han Zhu"s body was extremely tough and huge, and he never liked to use any magical spells or power in his attack. Instead, he always loved hurting his enemies with pure muscle strength. In term of muscle strength, apart from Wanying Dragon King, no one in Longyuan River could be his match.
On the other side, the giant crab, Tan Xue, spun his body and turned into a drill-shaped black wind that spun at high-speed, plunged into the ground and begin drilling deep into the earth. The ground in the Qin army"s camp suddenly shook, as large holes were opened up everywhere one after another. Countless aquatic poisonous bugs shot out from these holes like arrows, thrusting and hitting the bodies of surrounding soldiers, biting and stinging most fiercely.
The giant starfish, Le Hai, was seen flying slowly through the sky, bringing together a clump of five-colored cloud and hovered above the campsite. Slowly, he stretched and spread his body, as tens of thousands of tiny eyes opened up underneath his huge five-pointed stars body suddenly, glimmering with a five-colored glow. After that, countless five colored tiny beams shot out from these eyes, bringing together a great amount of five-colored sand and a faint fragrance as they poured down and swept across the campsite.
At this very moment, the third layer of defensive formation was triggered.
Nine layers of yellow runes emerged at the southwest of the camp, flashed and transformed into a thick and heavy yellow light screen that greeted the giant turtle. A loud boom rang out. As the body of the giant turtle was extremely heavy, the yellow light screen was crushed by it and shattered into pieces, producing a large hole on the defensive formation southwest of the camp. Several thousand Qin soldiers were caught unprepared, and were crushed into meat paste by Han Zhu"s big belly.
As soon as the loud boom rang out, the ground inside of the camp immediately flashed with bronze-colored runes, turning the soil and rocks in the camp from the surface to about ten thousand feet below, many times tougher than pure steel that went through one hundred times of tempering. The holes that kept opening deeper were filled, and the poisonous bugs were killed by Qin soldiers. Apart from several hundred soldiers who were killed by these poisonous bugs, all the other soldiers were safe and sound. Loud booms kept coming from below and the ground was shaking violently, as the giant crab was furiously attacking at the underground energy veins right below the camp.
More and more defensive mechanisms were unleashed which greeted Le Hai. All the pract.i.tioners hovering in midair had focused ninety percent of their attention on this strange demon, who should not be appearing in Longyuan River. They raised the long banners up high and waved them in the air, reciting unknown incantations and unleas.h.i.+ng wisp after wisp of black mist. It then condensed and turned into a troop of tens of thousands of Spirit Soldiers who looked like skeletons, clad in black armor and holding blades in their hand, hovering in midair above the camp.
Tiny five-colored bright beams drizzled down and filled the sky. Amidst the frightening howls, all the Spirit Soldiers who had just taken shape vanished into nothingness due to the ocean of tiny bright beams. Wherever these tiny bright beams went, all runes and formations were crushed and shattered, and before the group of several hundred pract.i.tioners could change the formation to counter the attack, these bright beams had pierced through their bodies. They gave out shrill shrieks as their bodies turned into a wisp of five-colored flame and quickly burned into piles of ashes. Then, Le Hai, the giant starfish, took a deep breath in the sky above, inhaled all of the five-colored smoke that was generated by the burning of those pract.i.tioners and fused into his body. After that was done, his body became even bigger.
Meanwhile, the five-colored sand swept across the entire camp like a sandstorm. Over tens of thousands of Qin soldiers were hit by the sands that had a faint fragrance. Slowly, their bodies turn stiffened, and then collapsed and fell to the ground, disintegrating and turning into new five-colored sand particles, joining the vast and endless sandstorm.
Wu Qi looked at the giant five-colors starfish and was struck dumb with amazement. Le Hai was not a starfish, but instead, an ancient species of midge that could be found in Scroll of Stealing - the Five-colored Venomous Midge. Although this strange species took the shape of a starfish, it was actually a poisonous bug that was born from a thread of vicious energy found in nature. He was an expert in paralyzing someone, and contained a thread of Innate Poison in his body. It was a very efficient weapon that could contaminate magical treasures and soul, and could be used in breaking defensive mechanisms. On top of that, the Five-colored Venomous Midge was witty by nature, and possessed vast knowledge found in the world. Thus, there were rarely any defensive formations that could trap him.
As a result, the defensive formation protecting the Qin army"s camp was easily torn apart before him, like it was made out of paper. It was not because Xu Fu and his fellow pract.i.tioners were incompetent in their skills, but they had met with their natural opponent. The Five-colored Venomous Midge himself did not know anything in the Dao of Formations and Arrays, and he even could not even understand the most basic array - the Array of One. But with just his innate ability, he was able to restrain over seventy percent of defensive formations under the heaven!
That was how brutal and unreasonable a strange species that was given birth by nature could be. Wu Qi could not control himself and laughed out loud. Ying Zheng and his men were going to suffer greatly this time.
Slowly, Le Hai flew deeper into the Qin army"s camp while spreading his body, and kept unleas.h.i.+ng tiny five-colored bright beams and sand that poured down onto the head of Qin soldiers.
Upon looking at how the giant starfish alone shook the formation of the entire Qin army, Bai Qi took out a strangely shaped bugle while hovering above the wooden city and standing beside Ying Zheng.
[1] Han Zhu (含珠) - Literally translated to "Containing Beads/b.a.l.l.s". I used b.a.l.l.s here as "dragon b.a.l.l.s" sounded better.
[2] Tan Xue (探穴) - Literally translated to "Exploring cave".
[3] Le Hai (乐海) - Literally translated to "Happy Ocean".