Chapter 1177: Yama-Kings Display Their Might
The inner demon scrutinized Resentment intently, and after a long while, he suddenly burst into laughter. "Your pride and vanity are pathetic and laughable. I feel like I"ve chosen the wrong allies."
The four Yama-Kings immediately turned toward it, and Resentment said in a cold voice, "Save your insults for later. If we die, you won"t survive, either."
"That"s why I agree to your unreasonable request," the inner demon replied with a smile. "I didn"t think that the renowned army of Chiyou would be reduced to such a pitiful state after only the opening exchange. You lot are far weaker than even I had imagined..."
As soon as his voice trailed off, l.u.s.t"s hair seemed to have sprung to life, transforming into countless pikes that pierced into the inner demon"s body. However, the inner demon remained completely unharmed, and its Yin energy formed a series of tiny vortexes that slowly pushed l.u.s.t"s hair out of its body.
"I need an hour of preparation time. Don"t tell me that you"re too incompetent to even hold back the enemy for an hour..."
The inner demon abruptly vanished on the spot, and the four Yama-Kings cast their eyes out of Zhuolu. Their brief conversation had lasted no more than 20 seconds, yet the army of h.e.l.l was already upon them.
The vast Yellow Springs had completely surrounded them, and this was originally a patch of high ground in the basin, but it had been completely leveled out by the Yellow Springs. Countless heavy cavalry units had already surrounded the entirety of Zhuolu, and behind them were countless Yin soldiers with bows and arrows at the ready.
In terms of power, the two armies were actually quite evenly matched. However, the difference between them was the thousands of years of experience that h.e.l.l had over Chiyou"s forces. It was this advantage that had allowed them to crush the army of demonic ghostly immortals from the outset of the battle.
Having secured such a significant advantage, h.e.l.l"s army certainly wasn"t going to relent!
All of the heavy cavalry units raised their spears, and the sound of thundering war drums and melodious long horns rang out from behind them. There were over 100 commanders among the heavy cavalry units, and they yelled in unison, "Get into formation!"
The clanging of metal armor rang out incessantly, and in the span of no more than five minutes, all of the heavy cavalry units had arranged themselves into a central-facing triangular formation.
All the troops were ready, and they were only waiting for an order.
The wind seemed to have ceased, and the killing intent in the air also seemed to have congealed in this instant.
This was a formation that had been specifically designed for charging, and upon adopting this formation, it meant that an army was ready to unleash an all-out a.s.sault!
The first hint of daylight appeared in the distant sky. The sun, the moon, and the stars could all be seen at once, and bright red radiance illuminated the earth, peeling back the veil of darkness and revealing the formidable army concealed within the darkness.
The capes worn by all of the heavy cavalry units were flapping incessantly in the fierce wind, much like the raised hackles of wolves, and amid the deathly silence, the sound of a long horn finally rang out.
The order to attack had finally been issued, and the entire earth immediately began to rumble violently.
All of the heavy cavalry units charged forward in unison, and the pounding hooves of their powerful steeds were making Zhuolu tremble and quake. The demonic ghostly immortals could only look on with tightly gritted teeth as the black wave closing in on them was reflected in the netherfire in their eyes. The extreme sense of peril in their hearts instantly caused their adrenalin to spike through the roof!
Even Envy and all of the other Yama-Kings had been stunned into silence upon seeing this.
After several thousand years of development, warfare had already become something that they were completely unfamiliar with...
The entire army was like a well-oiled machine, a single, unified ent.i.ty. This style of warfare was far more advanced than anything that had been seen during their era.
However, they were the remnants of the mighty Chiyou"s forces, and they certainly weren"t just going to roll over and accept their fate!
The earth was quaking violently, and a dust storm had been swept up by the fierce gusts of Yin wind, while the waves of the Yellow Springs crashed and undulated incessantly. Even Envy could feel his own skin crawling, and his body was trembling in sync with the earth.
At this point, the heavy cavalry units of h.e.l.l were only 300 meters away, and they had formed an impenetrable and inescapable wave of destruction as their armor and weapons gleamed under the light of the dawn sun.
At the same time, Envy abruptly swung his arm downward and ordered, "Charge!"
It was as if a pack of ferocious beasts had been released from their cage, and over 1,000 different types of demons and evil ghosts were sent charging toward the heavy cavalry units, while reddish-black Yin energy swelled into a formidable wave.
One of the 73 immortals in the form of an elderly woman slowly drifted forward. She was wearing a white scarf and a set of white linen garments, holding a jade vial with a willow leaf extending out of it. There was a hideous smile on her face as she rushed toward the heavy cavalry units charging at the forefront.
As she advanced, her body swelled in size, and after crossing over around a dozen meters, her body had also risen to roughly a dozen meters in height. At the same time, all of her wrinkles were smoothed out due to the expansion of her body, transforming into a young and beautiful woman.
The two sides were drawing closer and closer, and their eyes were focused solely on one another.
The woman roared as she accelerated even further, and several dozen arms abruptly emerged from her back before thrusting forward with violent force.
Several underworld emissaries were swatted back amid m.u.f.fled groans, but to the woman"s surprise, the wave of heavy cavalry units didn"t stop.
They only had one objective, which was to advance and strike deep into the heart of the enemy.
The heavy cavalry units were connected by countless chains, so the impact of the woman"s attack was spread throughout countless heavy cavalry units. At the same time, countless spears plunged into her body.
She raised her head and let loose an agonized screech, following which the nails on her hands abruptly elongated to over a meter in length before being viciously swept forward.
On this occasion, she was targeting the Yin soldiers on the skeletal horses.
Several Yin soldiers were instantly reduced to netherfire before they even had a chance to cry out, but the woman still felt as if something weren"t quite right.
Why was it that her attacks were only able to kill four or five of these basic Yin soldiers at a time?
"Are you confused?" Right at this moment, a voice rang out beside her ear amid a gust of wind.
The woman reflexively lashed out toward the direction the voice had come from, yet her attack landed on nothing but empty air.
A longsword had already plunged into the back of her neck, following which Yin energy erupted violently like a wave, and the excruciating pain immediately caused her to cry out in agony.
Something"s not right!
Another gust of wind swept past, and the woman gritted her teeth tightly as she repressed the pain with all her might while lashing out once again with three of her arms.
However, in the instant that she reached out toward her a.s.sailant, her three arms were severed at once!
Who"s there?!
An overwhelming sense of horror welled up in her heart, and she frantically retreated, but the gust of Yin wind stuck to her like glue, revolving around her incessantly. Within the span of less than 20 seconds, all of her arms had been severed, and she was completely rooted to the spot as she looked on in shock and horror.
Up to this point, she hadn"t even caught a clear glimpse of her a.s.sailant!
"Yin soldiers may be weak and insignificant on their own, but when enhanced by a military formation of the highest caliber and Yanluo Qin"s Judgment Pen, several thousand Yin soldiers would be capable of killing an Infernal Judge."
The woman"s head turned around 180 degrees in a mechanical manner, and her expression had become completely twisted.
A series of gashes appeared all over her body as she spat through gritted teeth, "Who are you?"
The sound of a sword being returned to its scabbard rang out, and a man who was wearing the same armor as all of the heavy cavalry units turned around to face the woman"s indignant gaze.
He was a slightly short and portly figure, and his face was concealed behind a visor. "I am Han Qinhu. You most likely haven"t heard of me."
Countless Yin soldiers rushed past him, casting admiring glances his way as they did so, but they didn"t pause even for a single moment.
Their purpose was to advance, and they wouldn"t rest until Zhuolu had been razed to the ground!
"Why..." The woman"s body exploded violently, crumbling into giant chunks of flesh that fell onto the ground amid a cloud of Yin energy. Soon, only her head remained, but her gaze was still fixed intently on Han Qinhu. "Why..."
"Why was I able to defeat you so easily?" Han Qinhu jumped onto his steed, then rushed away behind the rest of the heavy cavalry units. "You evil ghosts from the past century really are ignorant. Did you think that you were still ancient ghostly immortals who can reign supreme in this world? You"re nothing in the face of underworld emissaries like myself!"
The woman couldn"t hear his explanation anymore as her body had already disintegrated into Yin energy.
Qin Ye had failed to consider this point, but in reality, h.e.l.l"s army had an advantage when it came to overall power!
This was because the 73 immortals were evil ghosts who had pa.s.sed through h.e.l.l in the past.
The demonic ghostly immortals had existed even before the emergence of h.e.l.l, but that didn"t apply to the 73 immortals!
Thus, the vanguard of the inner demon"s forces was crushed in the blink of an eye!
Given the powers of the 73 immortals, they were only fit to lead the vanguard, and they were well aware of this themselves. Thus, aside from the seven Abyssal Prefects, all of the other Infernal Judges and Anitya h.e.l.lguards had rushed toward the oncoming wave of destruction along with the demonic ghostly immortals.
What they had failed to antic.i.p.ate was that the 73 immortals would be crushed so quickly and comprehensively!
For the army of demonic ghostly immortals, the loss of the 73 immortals wouldn"t be a significant one. In reality, they also looked down on these modern evil ghosts. However, even though the loss wasn"t objectively significant, it was extremely damaging to troop morale.
"How is this possible?" A demonic ghostly immortal that was over five meters tall with three serpentine necks stopped cold in its tracks as it looked ahead with a stunned expression. In the distance, the bodies of three Infernal Judges had just been reduced to ashes in an instant.
They had been burned to a crisp by red lotus karmic fire, which could only be used by Yama-Kings or certain special figures.
At this moment, an ironclad underworld emissary was slowly making his way out of the karmic fire. The red lotus karmic fire around him instantly erupted to over 10 meters height as if they were revering their king, transforming an area with a radius of several dozen meters around him into a fiery h.e.l.l.
The demonic ghostly immortal could barely believe its own eyes!
It was astonished to see that the ironclad figure had just defeated three opponents of the same cultivation rank as himself with such ridiculous ease! How had he done this?
"Who are you?" it asked with a menacing expression as it gritted its teeth tightly and adopted a defensive posture.
"Zhou Gongjin." The ironclad figure had no steed, and he slowly raised a hand, upon which all of the karmic fire around him transformed into countless fiery serpents that pounced directly toward the demonic ghostly immortal. "I"m just a n.o.body, so there"s no need for you to remember my name."
Right at this moment, a burst of extremely fearsome Yin energy swept over the battlefield like a wrecking ball, instantly eradicating over 100 heavy cavalry units and their steeds!