nownovels Chapter 175 The Stolen Supplies
Chapter 175 The Stolen Supplies
Seeing that the initial volley of stones and arrows had failed to break their formation, the evil soldiers immediately poured out from the cracks in the rock face, charging down the slopes and protruding rocks on both sides. The leader of the evil generals flipped and leaped down from the corner of the left cliff, his body surrounded by swirling black mist, a bone knife in his hand with dark red evil patterns inlaid on its back. He landed in the center of the valley, the tip of his blade pointing towards the shield formation, and the evil soldiers behind him followed closely behind, pouring out from their various hidden hiding places and charging towards the youth army's lines.
Just as they burst out of the cave and hadn't even had time to fully deploy their formation at the bottom of the valley, shouts of battle erupted from above the cliff. Leng Feng led the First Battalion, swooping down from behind them. His swords were drawn, the dark red runes on their blades glowing as they landed. The first strike landed on the back of a demon soldier channeling his evil power; the man fell before he could even utter a sound. More than fifty swords simultaneously slashed into the rear ranks of the demon soldiers from above, severing their formation in two from behind within a single breath. The demon soldiers' momentum in clashing head-on with the shield formation in the valley continued, but reinforcements were cut off in half. As the vanguard of demon soldiers turned back, men in the rear were already beginning to retreat.
As Leng Feng launched his surprise attack, Lin Chen bypassed the shield formation. His Star-Stepping Technique nimbly traversed the uneven, gravelly path, his figure weaving through the chaotic edge of the battle, darting forward amidst the dense weapons and flying debris, heading straight for the evil general. The evil general, initially directing his vanguard to charge the shield formation, turned around when the shouts of battle came from behind. He saw Lin Chen closing in to within a dozen paces, and instinctively raised his bone sword to parry. Black mist surged forward along the blade, gathering into a black barrier in front of him.
Lin Chen's sword did not pause. The moment the Star Sword was drawn, its tip carried silvery-white star energy. Upon touching the black barrier, it did not noticeably stop. The barrier split open from the center like a stone wall that had been chiseled through. The ends of the cracks were further disintegrated by the star energy as they spread, leaving no aftershocks. The evil general raised his blade to block. After the first impact, his forearm jolted back half an inch. With the second impact, he took a half step back. Before the third impact even landed, he had already released his bone knife, preparing to dodge to the side. But the sword's edge had already pierced through the gap in his shoulder armor and penetrated his chest cavity. Star energy surged in from the wound, spreading outwards along his meridians. The evil power within his body began to dissipate the moment it came into contact with the star energy, disintegrating layer by layer from his skin to his internal organs. His hand remained in the same position as when he released the bone knife, but he had no strength left. The bone knife slipped from his hand and stuck into the ground. Before the residual heat of the blade dissipated, the dark light on the blade went out first.
After their leader was killed, the remaining evil soldiers began to scatter. Some tried to crawl back to their hiding places through the cracks in the cliff face, only to find that the entrance they had come from had been sealed off from above by Leng Feng's men; others tried to rush out of the valley entrance, but were tripped up by the soundproof array Chu Fan had set up there. The array's patterns made them feel as if they had crashed into an invisible wall, and after several attempts, they were trapped in place. The entire battle lasted for a little over an hour, and all three hundred evil soldiers were wiped out, with not a single one left behind.
While clearing the battlefield, the soldiers found looted provisions in the cave where the evil soldiers had hidden. Several bags of scattered grain and dried meat were left in a corner of the cave, sealed with hemp rope and covered with a thin layer of ash. Several bundles of arrows made by the evil race and two boxes of sealed poison were also piled up inside. Deep inside the cave, under a pile of dry grass, Chu Fan found a sealed black storage bag, the seal not fully tightened. He untied the bag and took out a letter. The paper faintly glowed with the lingering aura of evil power, and the writing was in the blood ink of the evil race, the ink still wet when it was first put down. He read it word by word and walked to Lin Chen's side.
"The evil troops at the Black Wind Valley stronghold will rejoin us along the original route in three days. The plan is to combine forces and then attack the supply route, bypassing the frontal defenses of Tianlang Pass and cutting off the supply lines inside the pass from the flank. The signature is that of the Black Wind Valley's garrison commander, whose cultivation level is marked as early stage of the Fusion Realm."
Lin Chen tucked the letter into his pocket, while Chu Fan turned to examine the topographical map. He stood on a large, weathered, uneven rock at the valley entrance, gazing at the faint outline of hills at the edge of the distant wasteland, his gaze moving from the nearby gravel slope to the thin horizon. Three days later, those evil soldiers would arrive here along this dirt road, and this canyon would once again become a battlefield. Only this time, they would be the ones waiting.
As dusk fell, the troops set up temporary camps on the gentle slopes on either side of the valley entrance. Tents were pitched, fire pits were dug, and patrolling soldiers established night sentries along the valley path. Su Ling'er sat beside the fire, a cloth spread on her lap, upon which were several rows of pills she had carefully arranged. Several soldiers from the youth army who had studied basic pharmacology sat beside her, listening to her explain the combined use of hemostatic powder and antidote pills. The firelight reflected on her profile as her hands never stopped moving. Su Muyue led the array masters in laying out an array on the ground outside the valley entrance. The array patterns meandered along the terrain, extending from the outer perimeter to the inner side of the valley entrance. Each pattern was deeply embedded, almost invisible to the naked eye when covered by a thin layer of soil. Leng Feng led his soldiers in practicing night raid formations on an open area on the other side. His explanations were more concise than during the day, focusing on the details of vigilance, finishing blows, and emergency evacuation. They moved back and forth in the shadows of the canyon, their steps coordinated and precise, each step landing precisely where it should.
Lin Chen stood on the same large rock he had used during the day to observe the terrain, watching the twilight and darkness alternate, watching the remaining light on the horizon fade from deep red to grayish-blue, and then sink into pitch black. The distant wasteland was reduced to a blurry outline in the night, the wind blowing in from outside the valley carrying the dry smell of dust and a faint, almost imperceptible stench of decay. His fingers rested on the scabbard of the Star Sword, his fingertips feeling the slight warmth emanating from the blade. He suddenly understood that the so-called training in the frontier was never simply about leveling up. Every battle, every deployment, every decision on the battlefield ultimately came down to those faces he had never seen before—those who lived behind the walls, surviving on the rice and noodles delivered by the supply lines. His previous understanding of defending the country came mostly from books and battle reports, but today was the first time he had seen with his own eyes the wrecked grain carts, scattered armor fragments, and bones buried by sandstorms; he saw the traces left by fallen soldiers on the wilderness, unburied and unremembered. It was at that moment that he understood that the ultimate meaning of martial arts was never about competing for victory, but about protecting the lights of thousands of homes behind him.