area51novel Page 59
Page 59
"Okay! I agree."
After thinking for a moment, Liu Hong agreed to Yang Zhi's request without hesitation. The two fought for another five rounds, and Yang Zhi indeed turned his horse and ran away. Liu Hong flapped his wings and flew into the sky to chase after him. As the two quickly left the battlefield, Liu Hong immediately ordered the entire army to launch a surprise attack!
Chapter 132: A Hero Against a Thousand on the Bloodstained Ground
The Liangshan soldiers didn't react immediately, but after all, they had been trained for half a year by two instructors from the 800,000 Imperial Guards, so they still had basic combat skills. As soon as Liu Hong gave the order, the six captains, each commanding a hundred men, almost subconsciously issued the marching order.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!!"
The war drums suddenly exploded with three thunderous booms. The musicians swung their muscular arms in a wide arc, smashing the drumsticks against the small drum at their waists, playing a stirring marching melody. The cowhide drumheads vibrated, producing terrifying waves of sound carrying the stench of blood.
Six twelve-foot-tall apricot-yellow battle flags unfurled like splashed ink, their iron tips tearing through the smoke of gunpowder. The four dark characters "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" fluttered in the wind, like clouds rolling and unrolling.
Six hundred boots thundered to the ground, forming a torrent of flesh and blood of Liangshan soldiers, advancing in perfect unison along the direction of the banner!
"Prepare for the enemy! Prepare for the enemy!!!"
"No! The Great Sage of Chaos is the most important right now! Instructor Li! Instructor Wang! Quickly go and help Yang Zhi capture Liu Hong!"
On the other hand, the allied forces of the wealthy landowners were caught off guard and didn't react for a while. In fact, different landowners gave completely opposite orders, creating a chaotic mess.
After Yang Zhi and Liu Hong had run far away, and the Liangshan soldiers had gone fifty meters, they finally reacted in a chaotic manner. The seven wealthy men dispatched seven martial arts instructors from their manors to ride their horses to chase after Liu Hong and, incidentally, rescue Yang Zhi.
The main battlefield is irrelevant; the most troublesome thing for Liangshan is Liu Hong, the Great Sage of Chaos! As long as this guy is alive, even if we kill these 600 people, he can still pull out another 600, or even 6,000 people from the nearby villages.
However, as long as we can kill Liu Hong, even if we fail to defeat 600 men on the main battlefield, we will turn them into headless flies and a disorganized mess, making them nothing to fear!
Lin Chong frowned, gazing at the seven instructors. After her ascension to the Demon Prince, her demonic eyes, now transformed into those of a tiger or leopard, could see more and stranger things, such as their professions, attributes, and abilities…
She glanced at the three instructors and saw that none of them were above level five. She breathed a sigh of relief. "My brother can handle them. I'll defeat the allied forces here first, and when he returns, I'll bring him good news!"
"Scatter the Liangshan bandits! Capture Liu Xianzhong alive!!!"
At this moment, the two thousand wealthy men, unsurprisingly, took advantage of their numbers to form a formation. The seven wealthy men were divided into four teams, and three of them led two hundred personal guards. A large conscript of one thousand soldiers advanced from the center to meet the main force of Liangshan.
The four wealthy men each led 150 personal guards and 500 conscripted soldiers to flank the Liangshan army from both sides, preparing to surround them and devour them in one bite!
Seeing two thousand soldiers charging towards him across the mountains, Lin Chong remained calm and quickly changed formation. One hundred Liangshan guards defended the left flank, and another hundred defended the right flank. The front row used long spears and shields to hold the line, while the rear row used archers to fire upwards. They would hold out for as long as they could.
He himself gathered four hundred musketeers, all of whom were aimed at the central army in front.
The instant the flames ignited, a hundred burning matchlocks simultaneously licked at the medicine chamber. The first rank of musketeers knelt on the ground, wooden musket shafts braced against their shoulders; the second and third ranks stood upright, staggered like an iron wall, already in firing position.
The three wealthy men in the middle, who were directing the operation, caught a glimpse of this scene from their horseback riding. Suddenly, they felt that those dark gun muzzles were like the pupils of evil spirits in a temple, radiating endless killing intent and malice.
"Quick! Rush to within sixty meters and then release the arrow!"
Although they didn't quite understand what a fire lance was, the wealthy men clearly sensed something was wrong and urged their soldiers to advance quickly. The normal training standard for the Song army was to fire arrows from 80 meters away, but they were, after all, local militias, and their equipment was not as good as that of the Song army. The arrows lost their power after flying 80 meters.
However, to their surprise, when the two armies were 150 meters apart, the Liangshan musketeers launched their attack first! One hundred muskets, accompanied by a deafening roar, unleashed their first volley, a hail of iron projectiles tearing through the air with piercing whistles. The shields and leather armor of the elite front-line soldiers were instantly blasted into a shower of sparks, and soldiers, their chests riddled with holes, were sent flying like kites with broken strings! Severed limbs, flesh, and crimson blood splattered everywhere.
Before the smoke had even cleared, the first rank of musketeers had already unloaded their guns and loaded their weapons, while the second rank of one hundred musketeers seamlessly took their place. The sound of flames burning the matchlocks blended together, like the rustling of the King of Hell turning the pages of the Book of Life and Death.
"boom!!!"
Another volley of fire followed, a hundred iron bullets slicing through the crowd like the Grim Reaper's scythe, causing the front-line militiamen to fall like weeds, their blood flying everywhere like scarlet willow catkins blown by a gale.
The third rank of gunners deliberately lowered their firing angle, and the third volley covered the enemy's rear in a fan shape, causing the enemy archers to fall in droves like haystacks before they even reached their effective firing range of sixty meters!
In an instant, the sounds of gunpowder explosions, war drums beating, and soldiers' screams rose and fell. The pungent smell of blood, gunpowder, sulfur, and the stench of entrails filled the air. Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, mountains of severed limbs and broken bones, and billowing smoke that blotted out the sun! It was a terrifying scene, like the end of the world!
"Cough! Cough!"
A servant of a wealthy family trembled as he crawled out of the pool of blood, only to find himself covered in the blood and bits of flesh of his companions, looking like a horrifying blood-soaked figure. His ears were ringing from the explosion, and no matter how much he patted them, he could only hear a series of terrifying buzzing sounds.
Overwhelmed by the pungent smell of blood, he knelt down and gagged, spitting out two teeth—the remains of his comrades who had been shot in the head and whose heads had been blown off.
Before he could recover from his fear and unease, he suddenly saw a series of figures in front of him. A female general in a red robe and a female general in a white robe, along with a hundred heavily armored soldiers wearing infantry armor, charged out like thunder!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"
Lü Fang and Guo Sheng led a hundred heavily armored musketeers forward. The armor of these men was so good that they were even wearing the infantry armor of the Imperial Guard. The arrows fired by the servants could not penetrate such heavy armor at all, and they landed on it with sparks and clangs.
Their fire lances, loaded with terrifying shotgun shells, exploded in a fan shape after they reached a distance of thirty meters. The swordsmen and shieldmen at the forefront were instantly turned into blood mist by the hail of iron shot. Their shields, embedded with iron shot, shattered with a crash, and, along with burning wood chips, pierced the eye sockets of the spearmen behind them. The tall bodies under their leather armor were instantly riddled with bullet holes, becoming bloody sacs.
Lin Chong cautiously observed the current battle situation. Even someone as strong as Lin Chong, who had ascended to demonic power, could not challenge a dense battle formation of a thousand men by himself. Once surrounded, he would be worn down and killed.
However, if he were to take the head of a general from among a thousand scattered soldiers, Lin Chong would not be so tired.
At this moment, the thousand troops in the center had been disrupted by the three-line volley of muskets, the face-to-face bombardment of shotguns, and the charge of a hundred heavily armored musketeers, making it the perfect time for them to charge into battle!
Chapter 133: The Demon Prince Takes Down the Enemy
"Reorganize the defenses! Only a hundred of them have charged forward! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!!"
A wealthy man, riding on horseback, raised his long whip and roared anxiously, trying to reorganize the scattered formation. But at that moment, Lin Chong's eighteen-foot spear suddenly tore through the blood and smoke of the battlefield, and he launched a devastating charge in the chaos of battle, as if in a nightmare!
His lone charge carved horrifying waves of blood through the mountains of corpses and seas of carnage. His left claw crushed the faces of fleeing soldiers blasted apart by shrapnel, while his right claw tore open the intestines of the corpses hanging from their gun barrels. He surged forward like a storm.
All the conscripted soldiers were terrified when they saw Lin Chong. Some fled in terror, while others fell into pools of blood. A few brave men tried to attack, but their arrows and spears all missed their mark. They were deceived by Lin Chong's changing light and shadow, and their formation, already disrupted by the volley of musket fire, was thrown into even greater chaos by Lin Chong's charge.
Several elite servants clad in leather armor also fled hastily amidst the rout, howling as they ran toward their master. But before they could take more than a few steps, Lin Chong knocked them flying!
The wealthy man looked up in utter astonishment, only to see the battlefield raging with storms, with everyone in disarray and fleeing in defeat; figures flying wildly in the sky, blood splattering everywhere; a dark shadow crashing down, screaming, howling, and crying, knocking the wealthy man off his horse!
"Protect me! Protect me!"
The wealthy man fell hard and couldn't get up for a while. He cried out for help, filled with regret—I sent my most powerful instructor to capture Liu Hong, who would have thought there was such a fierce man in the Liangshan army!
"Roar!!!"
At that very moment, a furious roar that rolled deep in Lin Chong's throat suddenly tore through the battlefield. The sound was like a thousand pounds of pig iron boiling in a bronze cauldron, a terrifying roar that even turned into a tangible sonic shockwave, causing everyone to scramble for their feet, lose their will to defend themselves, and fall into complete chaos!
Lin Chong himself, in a half-human, half-demon state, charged left and right as if entering an empty field, and really stormed through the chaotic army of thousands all the way to the rich man's place, where he pierced him through the heart with a spear!
Then, with a twist of her wrist, the wealthy man's chest cavity burst open like a wine jar being opened, amidst the screeching sound of the spear blade scraping against his ribs. As the spear blade pierced half a lung and flung into the air, the wealthy man was still breathing, the blood foam spurting from his throat scalding the spear shaft.
Having struck successfully, Lin Chong immediately turned around amidst the chaos and charged towards the second wealthy man! He ignored everyone else, letting them scream, cry, and wail.
In a panic, the second wealthy man raised his silver shield, only to see Lin Chong suddenly spin and leap up, his spear bringing down with the force of a tiger or leopard charging. The steel shield cracked like a biscuit, and the spear, still powerful, pierced through the wealthy man's skull, exiting through his jawbone, even taking half his tongue and a handful of teeth with it. The spear had sliced off half of his head in one fell swoop.
In extreme terror, the third wealthy man pulled on the reins to escape, but Lin Chong threw his spear backhand, which transformed into a blood-red meteor. The ancient weapon pierced through the shield held high by a servant, impaling the target and his horse together, pinning them to death on the scorched earth!
Three kills!
Lin Chong smiled confidently, chopped off the heads of three wealthy men, and stuck them onto his eighteen-foot spear like candied hawthorns, then raised it high.
The thousand men facing them were already somewhat dazed by the musket fire, and when they discovered that their leader had been instantly killed by the enemy single-handedly, it shattered their courage.
Even more terrifying was that Lü Fang and Guo Sheng had already led a hundred heavily armored infantrymen forward, crashing into the enemy ranks like a giant hammer. They were too lazy to reload, so they slung their fire lances on their backs, drew their giant axes, halberds, and maces, and began to wreak havoc!
The fifty-pound infantry armor carved terrifying furrows in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The white breath exhaled from beneath the black iron armor mingled with the blood mist. Lü Fang swung his halberd and smashed it down, splitting a militiaman in two diagonally.
Not to be outdone, a large number of enemies thrust two spears at Lü Fang's brass breastplate, one after the other. Before the sparks had even dissipated, the halberd slashed upwards, splitting his entire body in two like a ripped sack, his steaming organs sliding into the mud with a splash.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Accompanied by earth-shattering war drums, the front-line giant axemen pushed forward in time with the drumbeats, their giant axe soldiers specifically targeting the tops of the head; the halberd soldiers thrust out from the gaps in the shields, their triangular halberds piercing through the intestines and flinging them into the enemy ranks.
Just as an elite servant wielding a mace struck an infantryman, causing him to stumble, two halberds suddenly locked his legs. With a powerful pull, tearing flesh from his legs, they tripped him to the ground, whereupon a third heavily armored infantryman smashed his spine with a mace raised high! The flying vertebrae pierced the eye sockets of his comrades behind him.
A dozen or so militiamen wielding spears tried to get close, but to their despair they found that their spears, which could even pierce a wild boar, were useless against the infantrymen and could not break through their defenses. No matter how they fought, they could not do anything to the infantrymen.
Every swing of the Liangshan heavy infantry's giant axes, halberds, and warhammers could take a life!
In an instant, the surviving militia began to flee and waver. When another three hundred musketeers, together with one hundred heavy infantrymen, charged into the battle, the entire Yuanwai coalition was completely defeated and collapsed!
At this moment, the allied forces of the wealthy landowners, who were attacking the two flanks, still had not defeated the left and right wings of Liangshan.
The two hundred Liangshan guards responsible for protecting the two flanks were defectors from the Damingfu River Guards. These two hundred men stood in neat formation, their shields like walls and their spears like forests. They stood firm on the two flanks, unmoved by the charge of a thousand men.
When the enemy entered within 80 meters, the front-line Liangshan guards raised their shields to withstand the barrage of arrows. The rain of arrows fired by the soldiers sparked and clanged against the two hundred large shields. These small bows, which were of hunting quality, could not penetrate the standard shields of the Song army.
Meanwhile, the Liangshan guards in the rear also drew their bows and unleashed a rain of arrows, weakening and killing the enemy formation. When the enemy charged in front of them, the large shields were like iron walls, standing firm against the onslaught of the crowd. Spears pierced through the gaps between the shields, and arrows rained down from the sky!
This shield and spear formation was extremely sturdy. Even when facing an enemy five times stronger, they could hold out by relying on their formation. They performed their mission exceptionally well: before Lin Chong and all the musketeers could break through the front of the allied forces in one fell swoop, they held firm on the two flanks and remained unyielding.
Chapter 134: The Great Sage of Chaos's Frenzied Slaughter
While Lin Chong led his musketeers to rout the poorly equipped militia, Liu Hong also encountered a formidable foe. The seven most powerful instructors under the command of the seven wealthy landowners rode their steeds from all sides, forming an encirclement against Liu Hong.
"Don't let the Great Sage Evil escape!"
"Commander Yang! Turn around! Join us in capturing him!"
"That's 100,000 strings of cash! 100,000 strings of cash!!!"
Liu Hong turned around and saw that the seven men, blinded by greed, were all level six or seven warriors. After rushing to a distance of 150 meters, they drew their precious bows and arrows and began to try to aim and fire.
Liu Hong snorted coldly. He had only pretended to be chasing Yang Zhi, which was why he was flying a little slower and letting them catch up. Now, the only ones who could match or even surpass his speed were Yue Fei and Lin Chong.
Do you really think ordinary horses can keep up with my speed?
Suddenly, Liu Hong's golden wings burst forth with a dazzling golden light, and the hurricane created by his wingspan even uprooted the grass within five meters. He accelerated abruptly, and his body vanished from sight in an instant! Only his ears could hear the terrifying shriek of his wings tearing through the air!
Cold sweat immediately beaded on the forehead of an enemy instructor. The instant the gust of wind blew towards his face, he realized the gravity of the situation. But before he could even raise his spiked club halfway to parry, the gilded body was already upon him. The air in Liu Hong's path of attack was torn apart, and the shadowy maw of the dragon-patterned staff slammed into his breastplate. Twelve pairs of ribs, under the immense pressure of the staff and the bombardment of the Heavenly Gang Slash, emitted mournful cries!
"boom!!!"
With a swift and powerful strike, stars fell, elements exploded, and Liu Hong charged forward, tearing the instructor to shreds and leaving him a bloody mess! Twenty-four ribs were smashed to pieces, and his heart inside his chest had already exploded into a cloud of blood mist! Even his warhorse couldn't withstand Liu Hong's charge; four clouds of blood mist exploded at the joints of its four hooves, and the entire horse was knocked to the ground by the force of the charge.
As the afterimage faded from people's retinas, the instructor's warhorse knelt in the center of the circular crater. The remains on the saddle continued to spray blood, and the entire chest of the man had been blown open by the Panlong Staff.
"later!"
"He's there!"
"Such speed! Commander Yang! Let's attack together!!!"
The other six instructors exclaimed in surprise and quickly regrouped around Liu Hong, but ordinary warhorses were no match for the Golden-Winged Roc. By the time they had regrouped, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven had already charged up behind the second instructor!
The black iron chain of the Panlong Staff rattled as it was swung. Before the short staff even fell, the pebbles on the ground were already being swept up by the supersonic staff flowers, flying everywhere and hitting the second instructor with a whooshing sound, causing bruises all over his body.
As Liu Hong twisted his wrist, the black iron chain at the gilded hilt of the dragon-headed staff suddenly taut. This weapon, which had accompanied Emperor Taizu of Song in his conquest of four hundred prefectures, now cast long, dark shadows in the sunlight. The copper-clad dragon pattern on the staff head, soaked in human blood, seemed to move as if it were alive!
The instructor was quite clever; instead of blocking the long staff, he twirled the staff in his hand, making his front completely impenetrable.
However, he could only barely compete with Liu Hong in terms of skill. When the Panlong Staff, which was wrapped with the Yin Thunder of Jidu, struck him, he was sent flying off his horse! After flying five or six meters, people realized that the staff in his hand had broken in two, a bloody dent had been punched into his chest, and he was bleeding from all seven orifices as he flew backward!
Speed is power. After Liu Hong flew at full speed, the damage of his charge attack was terrifying. Although it was not as great as Lin Chong's, it was still not something an ordinary person could block. Moreover, his strength was already extraordinary. With the added damage from the double Heavenly Gang Slash that did not consume energy, his charge was unstoppable!
"Don't scatter! This guy is too fast! If we spread out and surround him, we'll be picked off one by one!"
"Quickly! Everyone! Assemble here!"
After killing two people, the other instructors were terrified and quickly gathered together. Liu Hong's eyes flashed with spiritual energy as he summoned a demonic tentacle, which suddenly wrapped around the body of a warhorse, causing it to pause and forcibly stop its charge.
The rider on horseback, however, was propelled forward by inertia and flew off the saddle.
Liu Hong flapped his wings and charged forward like a meteor once more. Before the rider could even fall to the ground, he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen and was sent flying by the Panlong Staff! He spun and flew through the air, screaming as he crashed to the ground, maimed!
After killing three men, the remaining four captains gathered together, mounted their warhorses, and faced the enemy. Yang Zhi also turned his horse around and strolled forward at a leisurely pace, observing the situation. He watched Liu Hong's battle with the four instructors with curiosity, wanting to learn more about this Great Sage of Chaos.
These four people are neither strong nor weak. Can they force out even a fraction of the Great Sage of Chaos's full strength?
Liu Hong knew Yang Zhi's thoughts, and without hesitation, he flapped his wings and charged forward, showing off his muscles to Yang Zhi.
Liu Hong was incredibly fast. He clearly took off from the front, and the four instructors could still see the afterimage of the gilded wings in their pupils. However, the four of them, with their eight ears, heard the clanging of metal, the sound of flesh exploding, and the screams of the living coming from the right!
The three looked back and saw that Liu Hong had used his flight acceleration to fly to their side at an incredible speed! He unleashed a Sixfold Heavenly Gang Slash! At this moment, the Panlong Staff was not only wrapped with four elemental dragons of fire, ice, lightning, and acid, but also enveloped in the Yin Thunder Divine Power of Jidu, and even dragged out six Demon Lord Star Rivers. The six special effects were superimposed, comparable to light pollution, and directly smashed one of their heads!
His steel helmet was first crushed into an iron disc by the wind from the Heavenly Gang Staff, and his skull cracked radially under the immense force, with the flying bone fragments even igniting molten gold fragments in mid-air!
The last three were taken aback and attacked together. Liu Hong remained calm and composed. His pair of gilded wings, which covered the sky, acted as a shield to block the attacks of the two on his left and right. His Panlong Staff slammed down from the sky, and he actually unleashed another Sixfold Heavenly Gang Slash!
The instructor was terrified and hurriedly raised his long spear to block, but after blocking the dragon-patterned staff, the staff, which seemed to be split but was not, suddenly broke in two. The iron chain in the middle coiled around the spear shaft like a venomous snake.
The moment Liu Hong pulled back, the dragon head of the short stick, carrying four swimming dragons and dragging the six layers of starry river, spun twice in the air before striking the opponent's skull. Skull fragments mixed with brain matter splattered everywhere. The instructor remained in a thrusting posture until his death, his eyeballs blasted out of their sockets, falling to the ground along with thousands of drops of blood.
At this moment, Liu Hong's spiritual energy was severely depleted. He only had 14 points of spiritual energy left. If he wanted to unleash the supreme Sixfold Heavenly Gang Slash, the spiritual energy consumption would be a staggering 4 points, and he could only do it a maximum of three times a day.
Today, I've already unleashed it twice, aiming to eliminate enemy forces with high burst damage, high power, and maximum speed. This will relieve pressure on myself while simultaneously intimidating the enemy—guess how many times I can unleash the Sixfold Heavenly Slash?!
As expected, the last two instructors were already panicking. Was this Great Sage of Chaos human or ghost? First, he used his speed to defeat two of them one by one, then he used his spiritual energy to kill one of them. Finally, he used his speed to launch a destructive charge, used his wings to withstand the damage, and used the Heavenly Gang Slash to unleash an attack that killed two more of them!
It's just the two of us left. Can we still fight? Let's run!
"Don't run! You've seen his speed before! Commander Yang is coming soon! Hold on, we can win!"
One of the instructors, seeing things more clearly, stubbornly refused to run, brandishing his twin swords like scissors. As Liu Hong spun around, the chain of his staff ensnared the horse's leg. In the instant the warhorse neighed and fell, the coiled dragon staff, using centrifugal force, swung out in a full-moon arc, the dragon-carved tip piercing through the eye socket and exiting from the back of the head, carrying a small piece of skull. The corpse, dragged by the iron chain, swung halfway through the air, knocking the last person away as well!
The last instructor's right leg was pinned down by the corpse. Before he could even swing his axe to block, the dragon-patterned staff came crashing down on him again. Blood splattered onto the dragon scale pattern on the staff, producing a sizzling sound like a branding iron being quenched.