Chapter 202: Each Has Its Own Mission

When the ambushers attacked, the Ba Ling defenders of Wei City also opened the city gates and charged out, sandwiching the Great Wind Army from two directions.

The fight in the night was exceptionally fierce.

Captain Sun, Xiao Maoliang, and others were surprised, as the number of Ba Ling ambushers deployed in the wilderness reached an astonishing total of over thirty thousand!

Including the nearly ten thousand who intercepted General Nanke, this time the Ba Ling people actually deployed over forty thousand troops. Their conviction to achieve victory in a single battle was truly extraordinarily firm.

This aggressive and fierce fighting style was something the Ba Ling people had never used before.

Was it entirely due to the change in command?

After a few exchanges, the Great Wind Army split into two teams, led respectively by Captain Sun and Captain Liu, retreating from the south and north directions. The enemy numbers were too great, and Wei City was already Ba Ling territory. The Great Wind Army did not want to become trapped, so they had to withdraw before being surrounded.

This was when the quality of the army became evident. In the chaotic night battle, facing ambushers six times their own number, and with the retreat order coming suddenly, the Great Wind Army remained busy but not chaotic, swift but not disorganized. They managed to slip away from the gap.

Watching the "Red" banner fiercely unfurling in the evening wind and drawing hatred, the Ba Ling army naturally rallied their remaining courage to pursue the retreating enemy. The Great Wind Army was the most elite unit of Panlong City. Although widely renowned, their numbers were actually limited. If these over five thousand troops were annihilated, Panlong City would suffer a great loss of vitality.

What's more, General Hong was also here!

General Hong had risen to prominence and, with his courageous battle achievements, stood alongside Zhong Shengguang as the pillars of Panlong City.

If General Hong could be defeated, then how far would it be for the Ba Ling Kingdom to capture all of Panlong City?

One fleeing, one pursuing, clouds of dust rolled eastward.

The battlefield quieted down. Amidst the widespread chaos, only the wounded were moaning.

Since the Great Wind Army had retreated, the Ba Ling defenders of Wei City quickly came out to clear the battlefield.

These logistics teams were called Dushanying and had a specific uniform. They were not responsible for fighting, and enemy forces rarely attacked them.

When the battle ended, their task was to collect prisoners of war and transport the wounded.

There were not many Panlong prisoners, only twenty or thirty. But because of the Great Wind Army's two rapid volleys just now, over four hundred Ba Ling ambushers had been hit by arrows, seventy to eighty had lost mobility, and over thirty were seriously wounded, not counting the dead.

All of these needed to be brought into the city for treatment as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Wei City was very close. Dushanying soldiers, carrying stretchers, made several trips back and forth and transported most of the wounded back.

In addition to Wei City's original Huamu Cuo army, parts of the Ba Ling army brought by the new commander also joined the Dushanying logistics teams, temporarily expanding their personnel.

This led to the Dushanying being filled with new faces, and many soldiers in the same camp did not know each other.

A dozen or so logistics soldiers had just brought the wounded and prisoners into the city when they suddenly pulled glass bottles from their chests and threw them backward against the city wall!

Embedded in Wei City's inner wall were nine massive bronze talismans, more than ten feet above the ground. These were large defensive arrays specially set up by the Ba Ling people after they captured Wei City, briefly referred to as "battle arrays."

As is well known, primeval energy can weaken or negate an opponent's supernatural abilities. It can also be used to enhance one's own abilities. However, if both armies use primeval energy to enhance their own abilities to attack the enemy during a battle, then the battle becomes intricate and full of variables.

The battle had just ended, and these nine bronze talismans were naturally infused with primeval energy, emitting a faint green light, with runes detaching and flying from the talismans, slowly circling the bronze plates. They ensured the city wall was harder and more resistant to damage and had another wonderful use:

Broadcasting the "Heart-Cleansing Spell"!

Centered around the nine talismans, Ba Ling people within a three-li radius could maintain clear minds and would not be deluded by malevolent spirits.

It had only been three years since General Hong emerged. The Ba Ling Kingdom still did not understand the wondrous uses of the Grand Square Gourd, nor could they see the existence of the Three Corpse Worms. But they knew that their soldiers suddenly going berserk and defecting on the battlefield must have been due to an enemy mind-control spell.

The Heart-Cleansing Spell itself was not easy to cast. To make it into an array artifact for large-scale, long-term use, it required large talisman plates to accommodate the complex array lines.

The Ba Ling Kingdom's array masters also painstakingly worked. Although the nine bronze talismans were a set, in reality, it could still function normally even if two or three were missing, but outsiders did not know this. After all, anything could happen on the battlefield; in case some bronze talismans were damaged, the remaining ones could still defend against the enemy.

However, these dozen or so logistics soldiers acted in unison right now, and at least six of the talisman arrays were hit.

The glass bottles shattered, and the colorless liquid inside splashed onto the bronze talismans. The latter immediately sizzled, emitting a plume of green smoke, and the delicate array lines began to distort, as if wax was melting from a burning candle.

The green light on the bronze talismans immediately extinguished. There were Ba Ling soldiers standing nearby who were unfortunately splashed and immediately clutched their faces, wailing and rolling on the ground.

The logistics soldier closest to the city gate silently climbed onto the city ladder. Ba Ling city guards stepped forward to intercept him, but somehow he dodged past them.

This logistics soldier swiftly reached the intact bronze talismans without slowing down, while the city guards' movements froze. Then they either collapsed or fell from the city ladder.

Everyone who witnessed this gasped, thinking they had suddenly seen ghosts in the night.

The logistics soldier drew his blade and struck the talisman in one swift, continuous motion.

By the time he sheathed his blade, a large "X" had already been carved onto the bronze talisman plate.

The array carved on it was completely destroyed.

The two torches beside the bronze talismans were also cut down, and darkness immediately enveloped the area.

At the same time, his companions launched two signaling arrows into the sky, and the dark night sky immediately burst with two dazzling flashes of light, one green and one red.

The incident happened suddenly. The Ba Ling defenders had not yet reacted when someone on the inner street already shouted, "Close the city gates, quickly close the city gates!"

To facilitate the entry and exit of logistics teams, Wei City's gates had remained open.

The Ba Ling defenders hastily moved to close the city gates, but the dozen or so logistics soldiers and Panlong City prisoners rushed back to stop them. One of them pulled out a bow and arrows from behind his back and shot down four Ba Ling soldiers with three consecutive arrows.

One shot hit two people.

The torchlight illuminated his face: it was none other than He Lingchuan's old acquaintance, Hu Min!

The logistics soldier near the bronze talismans also took out a small blue flask and opened its lid.

The flask had two handles and was very exquisite, with a ruby embedded in the center of its body.

No one else could see, but hundreds of Three Corpse Worms poured out from the flask and lunged at the nearest Ba Ling people!

He Lingchuan jumped into the cavern and was immediately bounced back by a spiderweb.

It felt like playing on a trampoline.

He used the momentum to roll, layer by layer downwards, careful not to let his head or face touch the webs.

Although he was dizzy, he could still see many discordant figures on the silk-like surface—they were large spider-demons, relentlessly pursuing him.

If not for his incredibly fast rolling speed, he would have been caught long ago.

As soon as He Lingchuan descended, he discovered that the space within the lair seemed terrifyingly vast.

Rolling to the second-to-last layer of spiderweb, he barely managed to stop himself, but the mud on his hands was almost entirely scraped off.

Looking around, colossal stalactites had grown larger and larger over countless ages, connecting from top to bottom, eventually forming pillars strong enough to support the underground world.

There were at least dozens of such pillars, some long, some short, perhaps still growing, without discernible pattern, but possessing an uncanny, almost supernatural beauty, making the cavern incredibly layered.

The space supported by these pillars resembled the inside of a honeycomb cake, connecting one semi-open stone chamber after another, some large, some small. All their ceilings were hung with dense stalactites, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of black, decaying soil, piled with dead branches and fallen leaves.

Moss-like plants also grew on the soil, either green or purple, dense and compact, as if laying a thick carpet across the stone chambers.

Simply put, he was facing a colossal, three-dimensional, magnificent underground labyrinth of at least thirty to forty layers!

Even if there weren't spiders chasing him from behind, He Lingchuan didn't believe he could navigate this labyrinth.

Of course, glowing spores were everywhere on the cavern walls and inside the stone chambers, illuminating the vast spider queen's lair.

So He Lingchuan could clearly see that directly below him, and only directly below him, he was about to face a terrifying abyss!

This immense cavern was empty only in its very center.

Because spores were still glowing at the bottom of the abyss, it looked as distant as stars on the horizon. He Lingchuan roughly estimated that he was about fifty or seventy zhang (between 160 and 200 meters) from the bottom of the abyss.

Falling straight down like this, he would surely be splattered into a pulp, wouldn't he?

Clearly, this was also one of the spider queen's defensive measures, to prevent intruders from easily entering its labyrinth, especially with spider guards arriving from all directions.

From the moment He Lingchuan began rolling down, he was enveloped by the spider guards.

They arrived so promptly, probably because they had already been enraged by Sun Jiayuan.

He Lingchuan also found a severed arm on the spiderweb beneath his feet. Judging from the remaining fabric, this must have been Sun Jiayuan's remains. Presumably, he had also fallen to this spot earlier and was overwhelmed by the spiders before he even had time to draw his bow.

He Lingchuan looked around and found blood-stained fragments of remains all over the spiderwebs. Clearly, the recent explosion had been powerful.

The worst part was that more spider guards were coming.

In this world of spiderwebs, He Lingchuan could not be more agile than the spiders. By the time he stabilized himself and half-squatted, the web lines leading to the rock wall were already occupied by spider guards.

He couldn't get past them.

And in at most ten breaths, the spider guards would be upon him.

He certainly couldn't withstand the fury of hundreds of elite demons. An ordinary person facing such an eight-legged torrent would probably have their legs turn to jelly from fear.

Madam Zhu's lair was truly a trap!

He Lingchuan had no time to complain. He drew his bow and nocked an arrow, aimed at the largest stone chambers closest to him, and fired four consecutive arrows!

Although the cavern was spacious, the air didn't smell good; it had a musty odor.

More precisely, it had a fermenting smell.

At a time like this, He Lingchuan welcomed any accelerant.

All four signaling arrows accurately hit their targets.

Bang, bang, bang, bang—four explosions, and flames shot skyward!

This constant-temperature, quiet, and orderly space experienced its first commotion.

Inside the stone chambers, there were both plants and dead leaves, all highly flammable. After the gunpowder carried by the signaling arrows exploded, sparks flew everywhere, igniting wherever they landed.

Four signaling arrows managed to instantly ignite a dozen or so stone chambers!

There were also spiders guarding inside the stone chambers, who were now terrified and scurried around like headless flies.