Yama Rising

There was a magnificent cloud of Yin energy spreading at least a thousand square meters all around. Yet, even then, Qufu’s soldiers could vaguely make out the silhouettes of blurry soldiers marching within its midst.

“Fire!!” The commander behind bellowed at the top of his voice, and thousands of crossbow bolts shot through the air. Unlike arrows, crossbow bolts were far more powerful when fired straight ahead. The crossbow bolts flew straight through the cloud of Yin energy and directly towards the Cloud Devourer. However, there simply wasn’t any tactile response at all. The bolts plunged straight into the Cloud Devourer as though they were just any other object falling straight into quicksand. Although the Cloud Devourer’s movements appeared to be slowing down slightly, Qufu’s soldiers knew that their attacks hadn’t injured their target in the slightest.

But… what are we going to use to defeat our enemies?!

Damn it… DAMN IT!!!

“My lord…” The Yin spirit responded hoarsely, “Without Lord Li’s orders, we have no means of activating the Mechanical Beasts. Furthermore… we require Lord Li’s Tiger Talisman for that…”

Unfortunately, they weren’t able to establish contact with him. In fact, none of them had ever fathomed the possibility that someone could actually fight their way straight into the heart of the Mechanical Beast! This was practically an impossibility in their minds!

The Hellguard commander glanced down. He could see that reinforcements had already arrived, yet were unable to reinforce his army at the top of the city walls as a result of Qufu’s unique terrain. His army was no smaller than the Almanac Army, and they were already formed up in a long snaking formation, eagerly waiting for Hell’s forces to finally charge into their midst and duel to the death.

Unfortunately, Lord Li wasn’t able to hear his cries.

The western walls were where most blood was spilt thus far. The entire section of wall was over twenty kilometers long, yet there was not a single part of the wall where blood hadn’t been spilt. Hell’s forces had begun its siege on Qufu over four hours ago, yet Mu Guiying’s army was still eight kilometers away from the exit of the western walls!

Everyone on the battlefield, both friend and foe, were all hiding underneath the shields of their own forces. There was a tense ceasefire - almost a tacit agreement not to attack each other. A whimpering wind howled across the lonely battlefield. Innumerable large spears were extending from the ground of the city walls like tombstones, meters apart from each other. The city walls were covered in cracks, and the entire place was eerily silent.

The rain of spears had decimated over half of Qufu’s own forces! Over 30,000 Yin spirits had perished, while Hell also lost a fraction of its forces.

Nobody had expected Lord Li to be as ruthless as he was. But it was precisely so that he had actually managed to hold the city walls thus far!

“Men!!” He bellowed with all his might, “Our commander has charged straight for the mouth of the Mechanical Beast! Even if she manages to take it down, there will be a throng of enemies waiting for her below. She’d have no place to run or hide! As her army… what should we do?!!”

There was no room for retreat.

“Kill them.” Another wounded soldier from the Yang Clan gritted his teeth and scrambled to his feet. Although the netherflames in his eyes were already on the verge of flickering out, he still leaned heavily on his spear, signalling his intent to fight until his very last breath.

It was akin to an abyss of endless killing.

This was despite the fact that the city walls were covered with the aftermath of the terrifying rain of spears.

Just like before, they would have to give it their all in order to wrest every inch of the city walls from the hands of their foe!

“For Hell’s glory!!!” Instantly, the remaining forces behind him numbering well over ten thousand roared at the top of their voices, and they followed suit, forging forward along this endless trek on the enemy walls.

The screen revealed that a single Yin spirit of Hell’s forces had breached the seventh level of the Mechanical Beast!

How did she do this?!

Her back was completely covered with a multitude of arrows, and yet she clearly didn’t even deign to remove them from her back. Instead, she would simply forge forward, allowing some of the arrows to fall off on their own from time to time. Her entire body was covered with terrifying wounds. Her cloak was in tatters, and her armor was practically cracked everywhere. But… even then, she continued to forge forward to the entrance of the eighth floor!

They were afraid.

“Make way.” Mu Guiying held her spear horizontally, pointing it at each and every one of the Yin spirits ahead of her. Her voice quivered slightly, “Either make way… or die.”

Back on the ninth floor, Li Linfu stared at the screen of light with bloodshot eyes.

……………………………………………………….

The main street on the south of the city.

There were exquisite palace lanterns brightly illuminating the surroundings with brilliant netherflames. They were surrounded by a circle of humanoid paper effigies holding spirit streamers, prayer flags and other kinds of banners. There were even ten Hellguards kneeling on the ground with no other soldiers around. Just like that, they remained completely still and motionless in the middle of the street, almost as though they were part of a completely different world.

These parts appeared to be completely sequestered from the rest of the city. Nothing could be heard of the chaos breaking out in other parts of the city. That said, Hua Jieyu could clearly hear what her next opponent was saying. The netherflames in her eyes flickered wildly as she stared intently at the veil.

Hua Jieyu stared intently ahead. Her ears were buzzing, while her heart was thumping wildly. Then, she looked down slightly and scanned her surroundings.

Of course, there were still the 50,000 cavalrymen awaiting the enemy forces at the end of the streets leading from the city walls. The murderous intent emanating these forces was palpable and clearly cognizable.

She turned her gaze back to the residence in front of her.

Their final line of defense is finally moving... Given the chaos breaking out everywhere on the battlefield, perhaps not a single other person but herself knew that Qufu was finally tapping on the reserves of their final line of defence!

This meant that Qufu had already deployed over half a million troops by now!

Their armor was completely tattered and broken. Countless Yin soldiers had netherflames in their eyes that were on the verge of going out. But this stood to reason. After all, it was no mean feat for infantrymen to fend off the onslaught of charging cavalrymen, much less a dozen or so waves of them. Each wave of cavalry numbered thousands at once, and the impact was so large that it could send tremors across the grounds of the city. Hell’s forces had managed to massacre the Almanac Army, but the Almanac Army had likewise… been able to deplete most of the energy of Hell’s forces.

They raised their shields high, but there were no spears this time. Instead, the surviving Yin soldiers cast aside their spears and picked up their crossbows instead.

Boom! The terrifying karmic flames instantly ignited the surrounding Yin energy, causing the air to crackle with a burning smell.

It’s still not enough…

And since that is the case… then, with the rest of our Yin soldiers… let’s trade, life for life.

We’ll keep going until the last trace of netherflame finally wickers out! We’ll keep going until we completely unsettle Qufu’s foundation!!!