At the very least, during the recent slaughter, Bai Kongzhao was not carrying that large and cumbersome demon sniper rifle that would hinder her movements. It’s possible she had stashed it in a hidden place beforehand and retrieved it now. Another possibility is that, like Qian Ye, she possesses some kind of spatial item.
This wasn’t good news; at least in battle, the variables would be infinitely multiplied. A sense of unease washed over Qian Ye, for Bai Kongzhao was full of exceptions and surprises.
The remaining Dark Warriors had already fled far away, and Qian Ye returned to the recent battlefield. The surviving leader, limping, approached and bowed deeply to Qian Ye, saying, “Thank you, General, for saving our lives! From now on, whatever you command, our Shouguang Ji clan will follow without question!”
Qian Ye nodded, accepting his gratitude, and asked, “Where are we? How is the battle situation ahead?”
The man with the Ji surname spoke bitterly, “Our family was originally fighting alongside the Zhang Army, and we had successfully built the Dusk City. However, those black-blooded mongrels were just too numerous! They gathered an army of two hundred thousand to besiege us. Our forces dwindled from sixty thousand to forty thousand, then to barely twenty thousand. Just as we were about to lose, the Grand General and the Duke of Wei ordered us, the smaller clans, to disperse and retreat to the Zhao territory. The Grand General himself led the Zhang Army, saying he would choose the right moment to withdraw.”
Qian Ye’s expression changed slightly. Having come from the military, he knew that if a large army was pursued by a superior enemy, the journey back would be exceedingly brutal.
The Grand General mentioned by the Ji man was Zhang Junshu, the second son of the Marquis of Hui, and the current Imperial Great General. In terms of seniority, he was the cousin of Zhang Boqian. While the Zhang Family’s current might relied on the King of Qingyang, the brilliant military achievements over the past thirty years that solidified their position as the top aristocratic family were half due to this Great General.
In the face of the inevitable defeat in Dusk City, Zhang Junshu let the smaller families escape first, personally leading the main army to hold the rear, putting himself in danger. Thus, from the Ji man down, all mentioned the Great General with deep gratitude.
The Shouguang Ji clan was not even a prominent family, but merely a powerful one among the scholar-gentry. In a large-scale battle like the Floating Land War, they could only muster a hundred elite warriors with the entire clan’s effort. If these people all perished, the Ji family would be devastated, and it would take several generations to recover.
Zhang Junshu’s decision spared many smaller scholar-families from total annihilation. However, the cost was entirely borne by the Zhang Family.
Qian Ye fell silent.
Since the founding of the Empire, it had been established that the higher the status, the greater the responsibility. On the battlefield, it was always the high-born families who held the rear, while the humble scholar-families retreated first. But over the millennia, this rule had become more form than substance. Qian Ye had seen plenty of mutual scheming and backstabbing among the noble families, with Blood Wars being a typical example.
The Zhang Family might be domineering and have various issues, but in this critical moment of the fate of the nation, they adhered to the principles of the founding era. This alone was worthy of respect.
Qian Ye inquired about the reason for Bai Kongzhao’s attack. The Ji man’s face contorted with hatred, gritting his teeth, “Who knows what’s wrong with that madwoman! She suddenly appeared and started slaughtering indiscriminately. I’ve heard of several similar incidents, but almost no one survives when she strikes, and that slut, Bai AoTu from the Bai Family, protects her fiercely. It’s always ended in a stalemate. I never thought we’d encounter her today! If it weren’t for our luck in meeting General Qian Ye, we would all be corpses now.”
As he spoke, his expression was a mix of hate, fear, and relief. Surviving an encounter with Bai Kongzhao was like escaping from the jaws of death.
After asking a few more questions, Qian Ye learned that they were currently on the edge of the Zhang and Zhao Families’ battle zones. To the southeast, not far away, was where the Zhao Family was supposed to meet and support the Zhang Family. It was said that the Zhao Family had already begun constructing fortifications in that area, preparing to resist the Dark Armies in stages.
However, the path from Dusk City to the designated rendezvous point with the Zhao Family was left to the Zhang Family alone.
In a moment, Qian Ye made his decision and told the Ji man, “Leave all the ammunition and potions with me, except for your basic defense needs.”
The Ji man was shocked, “You… you mean to…”
Qian Ye didn’t answer but pointed to the northwest, the direction of the Zhang Family’s battle zone.
A surge of hot blood rushed to the Ji man’s head, and he immediately said, “I’ll go with you!”
But Qian Ye shook his head, saying nothing. Even without speaking, the Ji man understood that it was not a place for him.
Moments later, Qian Ye set off alone to the north, heading towards a battlefield of blood and fire.
At that moment, far to the north, the Zhang Army was rolling south. This was a massive steel flood of nearly a thousand war machines and cargo trucks, spewing black smoke and steam, forming a peculiar cloud of black and white that enveloped the entire convoy.
Above the convoy, less than a hundred meters up, dozens of floating warships maintained the same speed, slowly flying along.
Inside the flagship’s bridge, Zhang Junshu stood at the porthole, gazing at the fading silhouette of Dusk City on the horizon.
This super fortress, built jointly by the Zhang Family and other noble clans, capable of accommodating a hundred thousand soldiers, was now engulfed in a sea of fire. The thick plumes of smoke and flames rose to the sky, visible for tens of kilometers.
With Zhang Junshu’s keen eyesight, he could see hundreds of black dots, big and small, flying around the fire, darkling airships doing their best to extinguish the flames.
The terrain of the Zhang Family’s battle zone was complex, with extensive sand dunes near the Misty Forest, relatively flat. As it extended toward the Zhao Family’s battle zone, the elevation sharply increased, with a rugged coastline, gravel beaches, and the Eagle Wing Barrier standing like a barricade across the source of the Glacier River.
Therefore, there was only one passable route to the south, firmly controlled by Dusk City. The rest of the region had a significant drop in elevation, and some areas were still active glacier terrains, unsuitable for the passage of large armies.
This pass looked like it had been carved out by glaciers from the Frost Lands in ancient times. Its sides were hundreds or even thousands of meters high, winding and twisting, stretching for hundreds of kilometers to the south. At its narrowest, it was only a few thousand meters wide, while at its widest, it spanned tens of thousands of meters.
On the vast mainland, such a glacial pass, though impressive, was not unprecedented. However, on the Floating Land, which was only the size of seven provinces, such a massive glacial relic seemed strange, as if the entire Frost Land had tumbled down.
The bottom of the pass was now fairly flat, clearly repaired and fitted with origin arrays. The hurried Zhang Army, under the influence of the arrays, moved faster, increasing their march speed by at least thirty percent.
After passing through the array area, the army’s speed returned to normal, but the segments they had just traversed began to explode violently, creating countless pits and rocks, blocking the pass once again.
On the other side of Dusk City, nearly a hundred thousand Dark Armies were stationed, watching the sea of fire before them, unable to advance.
Hundreds of airships of various types were shuttling above Dusk City, spraying gray powder into the inferno, attempting to control the fire. However, in the face of the blaze that consumed the entire city, these hundred-odd airships seemed powerless. After a long time, the fire showed no signs of diminishing.
On the outskirts of the fire, tens of thousands of Dark Warriors advanced, slowly extinguishing the fire points. But the city seemed to be burning in every stone and beam, making their progress painfully slow. It would take at least two or three days to put out the whole city.
Suddenly, a floating warship appeared on the distant horizon, its eight long drive rods marking it as a Spider Demon vessel.
The ship moved at an astonishing speed, arriving at Dusk City in moments. It descended slowly, accompanied by an overwhelming pressure that the Dark Army below could hardly withstand, causing them to fall in waves and the formation to collapse.
Several long horns sounded, and the Dark Armies scattered to make room for the landing of the floating warship, clearing an area almost half a block in size.
However, the warship halted at a hundred meters above the ground, and a stern voice boomed, “Why have you not advanced yet? You’ve been here for half a day already!”
Dozens of Blood Race members took to the air, with an elderly Blood nobleman at the center, his silver hair contrasting with the deep wrinkles on his face, like mountain ravines.
He could no longer maintain his youthful appearance, clearly nearing the end of his long life. Yet, the dense blood aura around him, like rolling crimson waves, undeniably displayed the terrifying power of a Marquis of Glory. Just one more step, and he would cross the threshold to Duke, the true rulers of the Evernight faction.
But as he approached the floating warship, the old Marquis’s blood aura was suddenly suppressed, contracting until only a thin layer remained, barely covering his body. At several hundred meters from the warship, any closer, and even this last bit of aura would be pushed back into his body.
The Blood nobles surrounding him had already fallen back, unable to enter the kilometer range. Their wobbling forms indicated that further proximity would likely cause them to plummet from the sky under the terrifying pressure.
This was the real disparity, the power gap between the Dreamweaver and the Spider Demon Duke, Aldark.
The old Marquis began, “Lord Aldark, we are trying to extinguish the fire, but—”
Aldark interrupted brusquely, “No excuses. I only see you lot buzzing around like headless flies, leaving a hundred thousand troops waiting. Why not cut a path from the sides or even straight through the middle of the city?”
The old Marquis replied, “We need to preserve Dusk City as intact as possible, so all available airships are involved in firefighting. But the humans are cunning; it seems they were prepared. The city’s foundation is almost entirely made of obsidian, making it extremely difficult to extinguish once it starts burning.”
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