Chapter 66: Crossing the River

As the demon race poured in endlessly, the well-prepared lesser demons began to unleash various sorceries, while the human race responded from high ground with a barrage of covering fire. A continuous rain of arrows battered the lesser demons descending from the golden tortoises. Neither side employed complex tactical maneuvers; instead, they continually fed their troops into this colossal meat grinder, grinding living bodies into a pulpy mess of flesh.

The soldiers on both sides acted like single-celled organisms—as long as they drew breath, they rose to continue fighting. Drinking crimson blood, the humans and lesser demons possessed astonishingly similar and formidable vitality. Many soldiers had broken hands and shattered feet, or even pierced guts and spilling intestines, yet they still charged fearlessly toward their opponents. When brought down, they used their teeth, their hands, or simply wrapped their exposed intestines around their enemy's neck, choking them to death!

A tremendous roar suddenly erupted from within the demon ranks. Looking into the distance, a group of exceptionally towering demon beasts was trampling across the golden tortoise pontoon bridges, charging forward rapidly. These demons stood over two zhang tall, clad in crude bronze plate armor. As they ran, even the massive golden tortoises beneath them sank slightly under the immense weight.

This was a cohort of elephant demons, their gigantic frames and long, curled trunks revealing their identity.

Ji Yu instantly realized the danger. The deployment of such a force might soon turn the tide. He finally summoned the few cavalry commanders under his command through his deputy, turning to one of them and saying:

"Dou Pan, though the Gale Cavalry you lead are horsemen, I now order you to dismount and intercept the elephant demons in the mudflats. Are you confident?"

The commander addressed as Dou Pan chuckled twice, puffed out his chest, and declared, "Young General, rest assured! As long as a single man of the Gale Cavalry remains, we shall not let the elephant demons set foot ashore!"

"Beat the war drums to boost our morale!"

The drumbeats shook the heavens, and the Great Zhou human forces launched a full-scale assault. Every single Gale Cavalry soldier dismounted, leaping splash by splash into the waist-deep water. They waded toward the center of the muddy shallows, surging like a torrential tide to meet the oncoming elephant demons.

Then, the two sides violently collided, spraying countless gouts of crimson blood!

The elephant demons were colossal in stature, their long trunks swinging like giant whips. With the full force of their might, they could snap a human body cleanly in two, sending the upper torso flying into the air while the lower half collapsed to the ground trailing entrails and guts. Forget about attacking; merely approaching an elephant demon was a monumental task!

Dou Pan understood the Young General's purpose in sending them into battle, and he immediately issued an order. Repeated loudly by the men of the Gale Cavalry, it quickly echoed across the entire battlefield:

"Circulate the horses, hunt the wolves! Circulate the horses, hunt the wolves!"

Though they lacked warhorses, the Gale Cavalry swiftly split into numerous small squads. Each soldier drew a small, arm-length bow from his back, notching arrows and letting fly in a furious barrage. Tiny arrows rained toward the faces and eyes of the elephant demons, catching them off guard and causing many to be blinded, howling in piercing agony.

"Circulate the horses, hunt the wolves" was a tactic of the Eastern Frontier cavalry—circling the enemy, loosing arrows to drive them into a tight formation, and then charging. Those arm-length small bows could only prove useful at such a moment; useless for long-range sniping, they achieved devastating, unexpected results in close combat, capable of felling soldiers and slaying commanders alike.

Yet this advantage was only temporary. Soon, the elephant demons began shifting into their true forms. Countless giant elephants suddenly materialized in the mud, trampling wildly through the slush and water, plowing directly into the midst of the Gale Cavalry. Swinging their long trunks to strike and trampling everything in their path, they slaughtered countless cavalrymen in an instant!

Once forced to reveal their true forms, the "circulate the horses, hunt the wolves" tactic lost its utility. However, compared to before, the massive bodies of the elephant demons exposed vulnerabilities behind them!

Dou Pan roared like a tiger and lunged forward first.

At this point, all tactics became useless. Every human soldier fought desperately to evade the trunks and giant legs of the elephant demons, closing in to plunge their blades into the soft spots on the beasts' bodies, frantically widening their wounds. Meanwhile, the elephant demons struggled to swivel their massive frames, lashing out repeatedly to beat nearby attackers to death.

In the mud, blood surged wildly. Battle cries, dying screams, and the trumpeting of beasts merged into a chaotic din, resembling a boiling cauldron. In such desperate close-quarters combat, there were no clever tricks left; they relied entirely on endurance and courage. Only the brave could salvage their lives from this chaos, while any hesitation or recklessness meant certain death.

Humans and demons had become inextricably intermingled. Soldiers constantly fell beneath the onslaught of the elephant demons and other fiends. Severed limbs and mangled corpses floated in the muddy water, occasionally crushed deep into the muck by a trampling beast, only to be churned back to the surface later. Blood splattered high into the air, staining the mud entirely crimson. Among the carnage, the massive bodies of countless elephant demons finally crashed down, unable to struggle further, prompting human soldiers to swarm forward and plunge daggers into their eye sockets.

The roles of killer and killed constantly exchanged hands; both sides suffered rapid casualties. The smaller sorceries no longer served much purpose. The only certainty was that the troop numbers on both sides were dwindling fast, while reinforcements continued to pour into the fray from the rear.

For a moment, the two sides fell into a stalemate. Yet this was merely the center of the battlefield. Out on the Cang River, a Great Drill Wind personally led his elite forces charging directly into the human mudflat battleground. This was the Fiend of Centric Eyes, the bee demon Lu Li.

The appearance of the bee demons threw the human ranks into immediate disarray. Refusing to land for ground combat, the bee demons soared through the air, periodically unleashing dense volleys of stingers. Those struck fell backward instantly, upon which the following lesser demons rushed up and hacked them to pieces. The battle line rapidly pushed eastward toward the riverbank.

Dou Pan did not hesitate. With a thunderous roar, he cried, "Follow me!" A cluster of soldiers instantly rallied around him, charging straight toward the demons. Yet before they could even close the distance, a flurry of stingers swept across, dropping every last one of them. Even Dou Pan did not escape, his head swiftly severed by a lesser demon.

Ji Yu took in the scene clearly. Before he could give the order, cultivators had already stepped upon floating reeds and surged forward, engaging the enemy in mid-air. The strength of a Great Drill Wind was at least at the mid-stage of a monstrous fiend, wielding formidable demonic power, yet the human cultivators held their ground without losing the upper hand, relying on a diverse array of spiritual artifacts and treasures.

In terms of raw power alone, the bee demons might have been stronger, but the cultivators from the Eastern Frontier border army were all battle-tested veterans with bizarre and inexhaustible techniques. For a time, the two sides fought to a ferocious standstill. Eventually, after being pushed back dozens of丈, a newly deployed squad of soldiers managed to halt the retreat, entangling themselves with the demon forces once more.

Above head, a ceaseless barrage of magical sorceries and Daoist arts exploded; across the river surface, countless lesser demons galloped; the mudflats were bathed in blood, flashes of swords and sabers intertwining endlessly. Battle cries shook the heavens, mixed with roars of beasts, howls, screams, and dying wails. The human war drums thundered across the firmament while the demons roared, causing the very heavens and earth to change hue.

General Hundred-Eyes waved his arms, driving wave after wave of demons onto the tortoise backs to advance toward the opposite shore. Simultaneously, Ji Yu frantically deployed his troops to various sectors, striving desperately to stem the enemy's advance.

The battlefield had descended into absolute chaos. Not only the mudflats, but even the river embankments witnessed sporadic skirmishes. Relying on their massive size, the elephant demons ultimately breached the riverbank, only to be slaughtered there. Dou Pan ultimately kept his vow—the entire Gale Cavalry perished upon these mudflats without a single survivor; even their corpses were torn apart and washed away, leaving less than ten percent recoverable after the battle.

Lacking the aid of mechanical beasts and various engines of war, the human forces were ultimately far inferior to the demon race. Although the demons had committed fewer than thirty thousand troops, the humans had exerted themselves to the utmost, and their momentum was visibly waning—it was clear they could not hold out much longer.

The mudflat meat grinder had transformed into a pure human slaughterhouse. The number of human soldiers thrown into the fray exceeded one hundred thousand, yet despite this, the thirty thousand demons continued to suppress and push forward. Although Ji Yu had exhausted every possible strategy, defeat seemed imminent...

Yet not a trace of expression lingered on Ji Yu's face. He sat steadily upon the high vantage point, gazing coldly at the carnage on the mudflats, refusing to dispatch his final unit of cavalry. Even though the gathered routed soldiers were nearly depleted, he remained motionless.

Since he did not move, his personal guards naturally stood still.

The final reserve of troops was finally thrown into the furnace. The demons continued their slow advance, their troop strength consistently replenished to around thirty thousand without further increases. Unable to restrain himself any longer in the face of anxious gazes from behind, Ji Yu slowly raised his hand. Another cavalry commander—Wei Lin, commander of the Sealing Wolf Cavalry—instantly appeared before Ji Yu and shouted aloud:

"This subordinate awaits your command!"

Ji Yu stood up, turned around, and faced the Sealing Wolf Cavalry behind him, who stood fully armed and solemn-faced. Suddenly, he shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Hear my command, all soldiers!"

"Hah!" five thousand men roared in unison, their voices shaking the heavens!

"Where is the enemy?!" Ji Yu bellowed with fury.

Almost instinctively, the moment Ji Yu's voice fell, Wei Lin, the personal guards, and the Eastern Frontier cavalry lined up far below roared out with every ounce of physical strength they possessed:

"The enemy is before us!"

"The enemy is before us!!" Each shout grew louder and more resounding than the last. By the third cry, every single soldier had mustered all their strength, pouring the very blood of their veins into that roar of fury!

"The enemy is before us!!!"

The cries pierced the clouds. Every Eastern Frontier soldier knew this was the "Pre-Battle Death Interrogation" originating from the old general. Such a query expressed only a single meaning—

The enemy is ahead, and the commander goes in person!

Ji Yu was going into battle personally to fight alongside them. This combat now held only two possible outcomes: either the enemy retreated and they returned victorious, or they were defeated and perished together with their commander!

Every soldier felt the blood in their veins boil. Not every soldier had the chance to share a uniform in battle with their general, but now, this life-or-death struggle had arrived. Not only must they fight for their lives, but their general would fight for his life alongside them!

Finally, Ji Yu shouted the old general's iconic concluding phrase:

"What is my desire?"

"What is your desire?"

"Forward! Forward! Forward!!!"

Not only the Eastern Frontier cavalry, but even the soldiers still fighting desperately within the mudflats and upon the embankments unleashed a united roar, repeating the cry over and over in deafening, echoing bellows!

"Forward!" Ji Yu drew his long sword, raised it high into the air, and began marching toward the mudflats. He started at a walk, then gradually accelerated until he was running at full speed. Close behind him, lips pressed into firm lines, followed his personal guards, followed in turn by the countless multitudes of the final human garrison.

The demons were on the verge of breaking out of the mudflats when they collided head-on with this fresh army, instantly igniting a ferocious bloodbath. Whether due to fighting a rested force, surging morale and combat prowess, or because Ji Yu served as the arrowhead and truly unleashed extraordinary might, a single charge pushed the demon forces back over ten zhang, plunging them back into a chaotic melee within the mudflats.

Yet no one noticed that on the high ground behind the commander's tent, Ji Yu's deputy was leading several personal guards in forcefully tossing aside a pile of tattered straw, revealing a neatly stacked pile of firewood beneath.

"Light the fires! Release the smoke!"