Nuclear-powered Sword Immortal

Chapter 258: Chapter 255 Pincer Attack from Front and Rear

Three hundred li from Yuntian City.

Venerable Daoist Elder Zhang Taiping of the Yellow Sky Sect, Sect Master Zhang Lingjian, as well as two other Primordial Spirit True Monarchs, Tao Changle and Zhao Danqing, were leading twenty thousand elite disciples of their Sect at an extremely fast pace toward Yuntian City.

Within these twenty thousand elites, although the proportion of those above the levels of Qi Refinement, Gang Condensation, and Hugging Pill was not high, it still exceeded ten percent.

The remaining ninety percent were almost all cultivators at the stages of refining the organs and blood exchange—fierce warriors and Hundred-man Captains.

They were the elite of the elite within the Yellow Sky Sect, known as the Fighting God Army.

They possessed the best equipment provided by the Yellow Sky Sect, underwent the strictest training, and mastered the most top-notch military formations.

Even though half of them were at the stage of refining the organs, in terms of combat power, a small team of ten still had the ability to slay demons.

At the moment, although Zhang Taiping and others were not using sword control, they could ride fierce beasts that allowed them to cover six hundred li a day, yet by relying on the strength of their mounts, they were still able to closely follow behind without disarray in their formation.

"We can slow down and recover our strength,"

Zhang Lingjian stated, "Judging by the time, the demons should have already started clashing with Lingxiao City."

"It’s not just the beginning of the clash; it must have already escalated to a fierce stage."

Zhang Taiping said, "After all, according to the news from Yuntian City, this time Lingxiao City has deployed a large number of War Spiritual Artifacts named ’sharp swords.’ These War Spiritual Artifacts demonstrated their divine power in the battle of Dragon Roar City, forcing Dragon Sparrow Manor, which was initially planning to hold its ground, to abandon its geographical advantage and gather its elite to fight a bloody battle with Lingxiao City outside the walls. Ultimately, they were blocked by Gu Jinlai. Relying on the trump card obtained from the Aries Star Palace, he managed to exterminate all the elite forces of Dragon Sparrow Manor in one fell swoop."

"Sharp swords..."

Zhang Lingjian had also seen the news about this War Spiritual Artifact.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but sigh with admiration once more: "Gu Jinlai truly is a genius to have so many ingenious ideas."

"Our Dark Sons who probed the Purgatory Sect reported that Gu Jinlai received the legacy of the Tianyuan Dao. It makes sense that, in the later stages of the Tianyuan Dao, to battle the demons, he was inspired to create a series of powerful War Spiritual Artifacts. However, whether it’s the Short Range Defense Cannon or the Sword Heavy Cannon, they can at best deal with thick-skinned demons without any agility. Against us True Monarchs, they’re not worth a scoff."

Zhang Taiping’s expression carried a hint of pride.

This was the pride of being one of the top cultivators—a Primordial Spirit True Monarch.

"Lingxiao City possesses a type of War Spiritual Artifact similar to flying swords—Heavenly Swords, which are also not to be underestimated and have already become a threat to us Primordial Spirit True Monarchs,"

Zhao Danqing said with a solemn expression.

"I have researched these War Spiritual Artifacts carefully; their speed is indeed very fast, but they clearly lack the flexibility of our flying swords. Unless targeted by several Heavenly Swords, they pose no threat,"

Zhang Taiping said with a slight smile, "And from the fact that Lingxiao City hasn’t produced new ’Heavenly Swords’ in this past half a year, we can deduce that these War Spiritual Artifacts must be extraordinarily difficult to produce. Although we need to be cautious, we don’t need to over-fear them or belittle ourselves unnecessarily."

Zhang Lingjian nodded, "External forces are ultimately just that, with all sorts of limitations. Only when one is strong in oneself, concentrating myriad powers into a single entity, is true strength achieved."

"Roar!"

As they conversed, a series of roars seemed to come from the horizon.

"It looks like we’ve already entered the demon-controlled area. Let some of the Elders use sword control to shoot down the demons blocking our way in front, so as not to affect the team’s progress,"

Zhang Taiping instructed.

Zhang Lingjian nodded and quickly transmitted the order through Divine Thought.

Immediately after, several streams of sword light soared into the clouds and swept toward the oncoming demons.

Soon, the roaring demons quieted down.

"Demons are demons. Although they possess wisdom, from the moment they merge with fierce beasts as Demon Spirits to transform into demons, they are destined to be governed by their wild instincts. Just like how even the strongest-willed person can’t help but scream in extreme pain, it’s an innate biological instinct, hard to reverse,"

Zhang Taiping stated indifferently: "Just like now, even though the main forces have been led by the Champsosaurus King to attack the defenders of Lingxiao City, there are still some unruly demons left behind, wreaking havoc and devouring the spiritual."

His words led the other Venerable Daoist Elders to nod in agreement.

Even the Demon Kings had a hard time controlling the other demons completely.

Especially since some Upper-level Demons were Catastrophic-level Demon Spirits by themselves, only subordinate to some larger Demon Spirits evolved into Demon Kings because they emerged later; how could they willingly follow the actions of those larger Demon Spirits?

The procession continued to advance.

At this moment, more roars came from ahead.

The number was actually in the hundreds.

"It seems that the Champsosaurus King has even less control over the Tianhe Demons than I imagined,"

Zhang Taiping told one of the Elders, Yu Fan, "You take a hundred men and deal with these demons."

"Yes."

Yu Fan, having received the order, bowed slightly and promptly led elite disciples to face the demons.

At that moment, another large group of demons appeared from a different direction, although not reaching the scale of a thousand, still numbered three to four hundred.

These demons roared as they charged directly towards their location.

"Don’t panic, it’s just a group of uncontrolled demons. Among nearly a hundred thousand demons, there will always be some that are uncontrollable,"

Zhang Taiping spoke, waving his hand again.

After a moment of sensing, Zhao Danqing reported, "Among this group of demons, there is one Middle Level Demon and six ordinary Great Demons. To prevent any casualties among our disciples, I will take some elders and three hundred disciples to handle it myself."

"Good,"

Zhang Taiping gave a slight nod, "With Venerable Daoist Zhao personally handling these mere hundreds of demons, we can indeed ensure nothing goes wrong."

Zhao Danqing nominated a group of individuals and quickly set off to exterminate these demons.

Before Zhao Danqing could meet this group of demons,

Zhang Lingjian, as if sensing something, raised his eyes to look around.

After a short while, a succession of dense roars came from ahead.

Then, a massive figure was seen leading well over a thousand demons, racing across the plains at a high speed.

And the twenty thousand-strong army of the Yellow Sky Sect...

Just happened to be in the path of these rampaging demons.

"Thousands of demons..."

Zhang Lingjian furrowed his brows, "Something is not right. Should we avoid them for now, or change our marching direction?"

"Change direction? No need."

Zhang Taiping took a deep breath and said gravely, "Not every demon wishes to follow the Champsosaurus King to attack Yuntian City. Some demons want to take the opportunity to slaughter the surrounding towns to obtain more spiritual essence to accelerate their growth, which is normal."

With that, he turned to Tao Changle and ordered, "Elder Tao, you take a thousand disciples for a run. Have Elder Liu and the others coordinate with you. We cannot let these demons impact our army’s formation."

"Yes."

Tao Changle bowed with his hands clasped.

This time, he didn’t just take four elders, but also a full thousand people from the disciples and stewards.

Swiftly, the numbers of disciples and stewards composed of Qi Refinement, Gang Condensation, and Hugging Pill were reduced to less than half.

"Perhaps the demons have not yet attacked Yuntian City, and we have marched too quickly, catching up to the tail of the demon army?"

Zhang Lingjian was somewhat puzzled.

"That’s possible."

Zhang Taiping added, "It’s just right before battle to let the disciples rest a bit, so let’s order them to set up camp. Although this will put us too far from the battlefield, it can also prevent the demons from sensing our arrival and reduce the intensity of their attack on the Lingxiao City defenders in Yuntian City."

Zhang Lingjian nodded, "I’ll have someone inquire about the situation in Yuntian City through a Spiritual Artifact." _{𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖕𝖚𝖇.𝖈𝔬𝔪}

"Good."

Zhang Taiping nodded in agreement.

At this moment, Zhao Danqing, who was the first to lead the disciples into battle, had just killed the first batch of demons and was preparing to return.

But at this time, he seemed to sense something, suddenly taking to his flying sword and soaring into the sky, looking out into the distance.

The sky was already breaking dawn, and at the far end where a glimmer of white could be seen, thousands, even tens of thousands of demons, were continuously surging forward.

The sheer number and the overwhelming sight made this Primordial Spirit True Monarch’s eyes widen in disbelief.

"Thousands, tens of thousands of demons! How can there be so many!?"

Then, he seemed to discern the direction in which these demons were running. When he looked back, he saw that a few miles away, the Fighting God Army had already begun to set up camp.

Setting up camp on the demons’ charge path!?

This...

"Danger! Danger!"

Zhao Danqing shouted at the top of his lungs, rushing towards Zhang Taiping and the rest as fast as he could: "Demons are attacking! On guard! On guard!"

...

While Zhao Danqing sensed the thousands upon thousands of relentlessly approaching demons, the prompted Zhang Lingjian also received new information from Yuntian City.

For a moment, his expression froze.

"Defeated!? The demons are defeated!? Impossible!"

"The demons are defeated?"

Zhang Taiping heard Zhang Lingjian’s voice and immediately looked over, "What did you just say? The demons are defeated?"

"I’ve asked them to confirm it again..."

Zhang Lingjian replied.

At this time, several other Dark Sons reported back as well.

All the messages pointed to one fact.

The demons...

had truly been defeated by Lingxiao City.

"How is this possible!? Even if those demons were severely damaged by our Yellow Sky Sect, there were still seventy to eighty thousand remaining, especially with the Champsosaurus King still alive. How could Lingxiao City defeat so many demons!?"

Zhang Taiping couldn’t help but exclaim.

"I don’t know. Their message was vague, only mentioning that they saw a burst of bright light. Then, cries of ’Great Sun’s lord is victorious’ followed from outside the city, along with a full-scale pursuit by the Lingxiao City troops..."

Zhang Lingjian said this, suddenly piecing together a possibility.

These demons...

The hundreds, or even thousands, of scattered demons they encountered... could it be that...

Almost simultaneously, the figure of Zhao Danqing cut through the void and flew towards them.

His Divine Thought reached them before he did.

"Demons are attacking! Venerable Daoist Zhang, Sect Master Zhang, at least ten thousand demons are charging at our location with incredible speed! It’s too late for us to retreat now; we must form up and withstand the demonic onslaught, or the entire Fighting God Army will be annihilated!"

"Tens of thousands of demons!"

Zhang Taiping and Zhang Lingjian exchanged a glance.

No matter how much the Champsosaurus King struggled to control his subordinates, he wouldn’t allow such a massive group of demons to break from their ranks.

In other words...

The Tianhe Demon Army’s defeat at Yuntian City was true!

The ones appearing before them right now were...

the retreating demon forces from Yuntian City!

Their presence here with the Yellow Sky Sect was...

akin to assisting Lingxiao City in forming a pincer attack against the demons!?