Volume One: The Turmoil of Yan and Yun Chapter 103: For the Sake of the Lord (Part One)

Upon hearing Yang Wanli’s words, the tribal chiefs, priests, and Duosi (a special title for generals among the barbarian tribes) present all nodded in agreement.

In past years, Yanbei’s ability to repel the barbarians was largely due to the mutual checks and balances between these tribes. Now that they were united against a common enemy, bolstered by powerful reinforcements, how could they not prevail?

Even Feng Muyun, the most formidable warrior in Yanbei, had been forced to cower in Yanyun with his forty thousand troops under their onslaught. What difference could a few reinforcements make now?

Furthermore, since the campaign began, when had Mr. Yang ever been wrong? When had he ever made a faulty judgment?

The power of the Candle Shadow might have been an issue, but that was only due to the negligence and carelessness of the Kuhala people who guarded the Candle Shadow Witch. Had they listened to the Master back then and entrusted the guarding of the Candle Shadow Witch to the Manyin tribe, that defeat would never have occurred.

As for these so-called reinforcements, they were merely adding to the number of skulls hanging from their belts or necks.

"Sir, I need only lead my own men to annihilate these Yanbei reinforcements in the northeast," a dark-skinned woman declared.

Hearing someone volunteer, other tribes, unwilling to be outdone, began to follow suit.

Duomagan frowned and barked a command: "Enough! Mr. Yang has his own judgment on how to proceed. You do not need to clamor and disturb his thoughts."

Duomagan was the High Priest of the barbarians. Prior to this, his status was second only to the Great Ming Duke of the barbarians and a few Void-Dao realm chiefs. His words naturally carried great weight; the clamor in the room gradually subsided and finally vanished.

Many looked at Duomagan with varying expressions. The barbarians were unruly, and Duomagan was no exception. Why was he so convinced by Yang Wanli?

Yang Wanli glanced at Duomagan, aware of his inner schemes, but he had no intention of exposing them. After this campaign, the barbarians would be of no use to him; why bother arguing over it?

The grasslands that Duomagan obsessed over were merely one link in his chess game. Since the goal had been achieved, there was no need to ruin such a useful pawn because of a few people’s petty schemes.

"Pay them no mind. Their goal is not to strike our rear or attack our flanks. If I am not mistaken, their objective is to enter the city. Pass the order down: all barbarian forces along their path may intercept them, but there is no need to specifically alter our troop deployments for their sake."

"Enter the city?" the chief of the Giant Tribe asked. "At this time, wouldn't them entering the city just help us open the gates of Yanyun?"

The current focus of the barbarians was to breach the city. The reason the Giant Tribe was sent to the front was to use their innate divine strength and height to minimize the damage inflicted by the city's defensive weapons on the ordinary barbarian soldiers. If someone could assist them in opening the gates, would that not be a blessing from the heavens?

"The four city gates all have self-destruct mechanisms. If we attempt to force them open, these mechanisms will trigger. Since this is already a guaranteed victory, why endure needless casualties?" Yang Wanli explained gently.

"Then why let the reinforcements pass?" the woman who had volunteered earlier asked.

"I am not letting them pass; I am merely weakening the opponent as much as possible while preserving our own strength to the greatest extent. As for the few thousand coming from the northeast, it is questionable whether they can even reach the base of the city walls," Yang Wanli replied.

Everyone in the room felt something was amiss, but unable to voice it directly, they all turned their gazes toward Duomagan.

Duomagan was silent for a moment before asking, "Could it be that you, Sir, already knew that reinforcements would come from the northeast?"

Yang Wanli thought that the barbarians weren't entirely idiots. He smiled without a word, seemingly acknowledging the fact.

Duomagan said, "I have fought Feng Muyun for many years; such a ruse could not possibly deceive him."

Yang Wanli remained silent. Seeing this, Duomagan said no more and waved his hand, signaling the others to remain calm.

"If that is the case, then we shall look forward to Master Yang’s brilliant plan."

...

Yanyun West Gate.

The number of people on the West Gate battlefield was the smallest, yet it was undoubtedly the most intense and tragic.

Feng Muyun’s assessment of Xu Hai was correct. Their individual strength was formidable; even the weakest heretical sect disciple possessed the strength of the Middle Hunyuan realm. Supplemented by their heretical techniques, it was not unusual for them to handle three to five Yanbei soldiers of the Upper Hunyuan or even the Huixin realm.

However, the number of Xu Hai’s disciples invading was small, barely over five thousand. Furthermore, they fought as individual camps with virtually no coordination or joint formation. After a bout of fighting, although the casualties at the West Gate were tragic, they had ultimately failed to let a single heretical disciple set foot on the ramparts.

The battle had been deadlocked, and even the Void-Dao realm experts from Xu Hai’s side could not break the combined defensive formation of the Iron Guards and Iron Defenders in a short time.

With the arrival of reinforcements from the northwest, the battle situation changed silently.

Xu Hai’s disciples were already like scattered sand; even their slight advantage now left them miserable. Over the past two days, they had voiced countless harsh words and complaints. Such words were signs of exhaustion, both physical and mental.

Having reached this point, they were utterly drained. If they could, they would rather head south to besiege larger cities with weaker defenses but larger populations; it would be lower risk and lead to faster growth in their power.

Unlike now, even after killing several Yanbei soldiers, the Wind-Sand Grand Formation trapped their flesh, blood, and souls, preventing them from gaining even the slightest benefit.

Even more infuriating was that the defenders on the walls, showing no regard for their comrades, had burned all the corpses to ashes the previous night! Not a drop of blood or a piece of bone was left for them.

No matter how powerful a heretical technique might be, it could not absorb ashes.

Thinking of this, the disciples’ offensive today was weak, and even the elders personally supervising the battle could do nothing.

This defeatist sentiment reached its peak with the arrival of Yan Fan. The Iron-Blood Battalion of Hanhai was renowned for its tyrannical combat style. Under Yan Fan’s control, their formation transformed into a blood tiger, charging into Xu Hai’s ranks like a dragon entering the sea. Even as the heretical disciples unleashed their most powerful techniques or artifacts, they suffered heavy casualties under the blood tiger’s assault.

Some Hunyuan-realm disciples were devoured by the blood tiger before they could even react.

Several heretical elders of the Yinhui realm rushed over with angry roars, only to flee in panic after meeting the gaze of the blood tiger.

"Die, you beast!" Finally, a Void-Dao realm expert could no longer sit idly by and personally blocked the blood tiger’s path.

"You are the one who should die!" The blood tiger roared at the heavens and lunged forward.

The Void-Dao expert, likely from the Soul-Sucking Pavilion, did not change his expression in the face of the blood tiger’s overwhelming momentum. He sneered, "Brandishing an axe before a master of the craft! Break for me!"

The techniques of the Soul-Sucking Pavilion were uniquely effective against such battle formations. Yan Fan, who controlled the formation, felt a sharp, piercing aura penetrate the blood tiger and stab directly into his sea of consciousness, causing him to let out a roar of rage.

It was a roar, and also a "Yan Return."

His body suddenly retreated several feet, then reappeared in its original place.

The two first-rank lieutenants who had been by his side died instantly, as if their souls had been extracted. Despite having no external wounds, they turned pale and collapsed on the spot, eyes tightly shut.

Yan Fan felt a lingering fear. Had he not performed the "Yan Return" at the critical moment, he would have met the same fate. Fortunately, the Void-Dao expert had condensed his spiritual sense to penetrate the formation; otherwise, no matter how much he used the "Yan Return," he would surely have been left without a burial place.

Beyond the fear, there was deep-seated anger. On his way to reinforce the city, he had passed several large cities and witnessed the tragic state of those places. Many had died in exactly this manner, likely at the hands of the Soul-Sucking Pavilion’s techniques.

Having learned his lesson, he guarded his sea of consciousness and controlled the battle formation to charge at the Void-Dao expert.

The Void-Dao expert from the Soul-Sucking Pavilion frowned and said coldly, "Death-seeking fool!"

From his wide, deep-black Daoist robe, a pale hand emerged, wreathed in dozens of gloomy black gas clusters. The clusters flew rapidly, attacking the blood tiger.

Although he had full confidence in the Iron-Blood Battalion’s formation, Yan Fan did not intend to take these gas clusters head-on. Even if he could withstand them, how many soldiers would die? These men were all born of mothers and fathers, personally entrusted to his hands; how could they die in vain like this?

The blood tiger dodged several gas clusters in succession.

The clusters landed on the white snow, erupting like volcanic explosions and blasting several large craters with a radius of a full zhang. The blood tiger suffered some grazes, and instantly, hundreds of soldiers were lost, as if evaporated, leaving not even a corpse behind.

Such casualties made Yan Fan’s eyes redden.

"Are you insane?! Do you not want the lives of these disciples?" At this moment, other Void-Dao realm experts blocked the one from the Soul-Sucking Pavilion.

The expert from the Soul-Sucking Pavilion frowned and ultimately held back. The dignity of a Dao-realm heavyweight could not be challenged; he hadn't been treated with such hostility in a long time, and for a moment, he had struck too hard.

Seeing the expert from the Soul-Sucking Pavilion calm down, the one who had intervened said, "Young friend, I am Xue Jianhan, the Great Elder of the Qixue Pavilion. I observe that your battle formation resembles that of our Qixue Pavilion. Would you have any interest in joining us?"

Yan Fan looked at him coldly, saying nothing. The old man, who called himself Xue Jianhan, had no intention of attacking, and Yan Fan was happy to oblige. His cultivation was still low, and some lethal techniques required time to prepare.

Receiving no response, Xue Jianhan was not discouraged and continued, "Yanbei is doomed; why bother being buried with it? It would be better to join my Qixue Pavilion. With your aptitude, I believe you could break through to the next realm before long and become our peer."

Yan Fan’s brows furrowed slightly. He already had a square face, and now, with his brows knit, he looked even more imposing.

"Since when did you rats, who only dare to hide in Xu Hai, have the qualifications to tell this General what to do?" Yan Fan said, his face cold. "Besides, do you truly think that in my vast Yanbei, we cannot find a few Void-Dao realm experts?"

Hearing Yan Fan insult the Qixue Pavilion, Xue Jianhan also frowned slightly and said coldly, "The Void-Dao experts you speak of, young friend, have already been slaughtered by us at Fengcang City!"

To reduce the imperial court’s suspicion, most peak Yinhui-realm experts in Yanbei suppressed their cultivation. Some missed the opportunity to break through and could never pursue the Great Dao again; others, unable to find an opening despite all their efforts, were forced to leave their homes. Thus, Dao-realm experts were truly rare in Yanbei.

But they were not nonexistent.

The two Deputy Fort Masters of Shenwei Fortress were both in the Void-Dao realm. They had died at Fengcang City. They had died at the hands of the two old men before him.

Yan Fan was silent for a moment, then spoke with a sense of release, "In that case, then you all can go to hell!"