Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 69 - 68: Vengeance Fulfilled

Amidst the rise and fall of the sound of bugles, the Three States Alliance Army began to slowly advance forward.

Leading the charge at the forefront were various cavalry units, not only light cavalry but also heavily armored cavalry. They formed a trained arrow formation, and the sound of thousands of hooves caused the entire field to tremble intensely.

Following behind the cavalry was the largest phalanx of pikemen, densely packed, forming rows of spear lines. Even when facing the enemy’s cavalry charge, they were the pillars that could compete against them.

Further behind were the other two states’ troops. Compared to the Royal City’s Vanguard Army, their formations were clearly inferior. Additionally, a pursuing force that seemed to appear from nowhere persistently harassed them, causing casualties of ten or more for every step taken.

As the commander of the entire army, Gong Jiang followed the heavy cavalry and charged to the front line.

He wanted to personally confront Liu Shuyue’s monk troops!

— He wanted to see whether he charged faster or whether they killed faster.

"Not retreating but advancing?" Lin Qing observed the changes on the battlefield and spoke with a light tone into the intercom, "Group B and Group C, maintain pressure, Group A can retreat to the walls. Don’t forget the safe distance."

"Alright." Liu Shuyue swiftly returned to the villagers, "Everyone withdraw, make sure no one falls behind!"

Group A immediately left the previous defensive location and began moving toward Jiufeng City.

But they weren’t simply retreating; they continuously shot in an orderly fashion while staying outside a safe distance!

Even in Chen Xuan’s view, the current scene had a bit of the taste of the art of war, for this might be the first time in history that infantry were used to kite cavalry!

Indeed, the previous concentrated shooting wasn’t the villagers’ only choice. They merely gathered within the Life and Death Eight Gates Array to be safer. Even if Loose Cultivators managed to penetrate the rain of bullets and enter the array, they would be trapped again by the array, drowning in illusions unable to extricate themselves.

This might have deceived the enemy into thinking that they had to remain stationary to efficiently kill those probing units.

Yet the truth was, villagers who had bathed in Dragon Blood and learned the Purifying Heart Technique could run at incredible speeds, even surpassing the full sprint of warhorses. When they entered the mobile shooting phase, an unbelievable situation occurred—

The cavalry continued to fall as if hitting a wall, unable to catch up with the retreating villagers. As soon as they closed the gap, the latter’s shooting frequency would suddenly increase, causing chaos among men and horses and widening the gap again.

The two other forces responsible for flanking were similar.

They were hardly threatened by Loose Cultivators, consistently maintaining a distance of about five hundred meters from the enemy, prioritizing sniping those soldiers who broke away from their ranks. If a small group of enemies fled, they did not pursue but allowed them to escape westwards, thereby weakening the opponent’s will to fight.

This was naturally not controlled by the villagers’ combat awareness to position and coordinate with allied actions—they couldn’t even see the other troops’ movements.

Where to go next, how far to go, when to stop, when to chase—all were orchestrated by Lin Qing. Her command was even predictive, determining enemy movements half a minute in advance, and then issuing targeted directives to the leaders of Group A, Group B, and Group C.

Supporting her in doing this, of course, was the AI-assisted system installed in her mind.

Liu Shuyue and Hot Pepper Village might not realize a fact.

Only Chen Xuan saw this point—that possessing the body of a cultivator and basic sect techniques, equipped with modern weaponry and instant communications gear, plus an all-seeing-eye and AI command, these three thousand people had actually become the most powerful army within the Qi Kingdom.

A multitude of cavalry, in dire straits, finally drove Liu Shuyue and the others to the city walls.

However, this held no significance.

Jiufeng City’s earthen walls were just over two meters high, villagers from Hot Pepper Village could easily jump onto them; conversely, the cavalry couldn’t cross this dirt wall. To avoid crashing head-on, they had to rein in their horses and begin slowing down at one or two hundred meters away. This turned them into sitting targets for rifles, and once Group A jumped onto the walls, they continued counterattacking, leaving the Three States Alliance Army in an extremely embarrassing situation.

Endure the invisible yet deadly "hidden weapons" to continue the siege? A two-meter wall is indeed not high, but merely approaching it would cost countless lives!

And soldiers found whether armor or iron helmets were fragile like paper under the unreasonable attack methods of the enemy.

They’d rather fight Evil Cultivators and Demon Fiends, at least then they could see what tricks the enemy used, dying with understanding.

Unlike now, where brothers were falling in droves, unable to resist or evade, as if the air was filled with killing intent.

"Commander, we can’t hold anymore! Let’s retreat!"

"Leave the green hills, don’t fear running out of wood!"

Personal guards barely controlled the frightened horses, layers shielding Gong Jiang, forming a human shield.

"Inconceivable, in the Gong Family there are defeated generals, but no surrendering generals!" Gong Jiang gritted his teeth, staring at the city wall close at hand, "Just flip over it, over that wall, and we have the chance to turn things around. There are still several tens of thousands of soldiers waiting behind us to join!"

"Wu Zhou, take a team northward, the city gate there shouldn’t be guarded... Wu Zhou!"

Gong Jiang called several times with no response. He sharply turned around, discovering the figure of his cousin had long disappeared.

In a distracted instant, he suddenly felt a shock in his chest!

Then an endless numbness seemed to spread around.

Gong Jiang lowered his head, noticing blood endlessly pouring from the gaps in his armor.

He fell backward, tumbling off the horse onto the ground.

"Commander!"

"Protect Lord Gong!"

Gong Jiang saw his guards flustering on horseback, wanting to pull him up, yet he exerted the last of his strength, raising his hand to point to the walls, "...Take...down..."

So high.

Clearly, the wall seemed scalable minutes ago with a human ladder, now it appeared to blot out the sky, high enough to evoke despair.

This was the last thought that flashed in Gong Jiang’s mind.

As casualties continued to climb, and the commander leading the charge was shot down, the remaining troops’ morale collapsed suddenly.

"General Gong has fallen!"

"The commander is gone, let’s surrender!"

The soldiers threw down their helmets and armor, either turned to flee or knelt to surrender. This defeat spread like falling dominoes, almost instantly reaching the entire army.

A day ago, the seemingly invincible army had now become a group of scattered soldiers desperate to survive.

As for the surviving loose cultivators, they had long disappeared without a trace.

Immortal Liu naturally wouldn’t let these soldiers escape the boundaries of Jiufeng City, not for any other reason but that unrestrained troops are prone to turning into marauding bandits. Anyway, Yunzhou lacked no food and could afford to feed tens of thousands of prisoners for now, releasing them to return home once the situation stabilized.

The villagers mobilized again, shouting slogans that those who surrender would not be killed, as they began to round up the defeated soldiers.

...

The battlefield cleanup continued until dusk.

When Immortal Liu returned to the Liu Family, everyone bowed their heads to her. Previously, the Liu family’s members looked at her with curiosity and respect, but now there was a deep fear added to their gazes.

"We’ve caught a member of the Gong Family alive," Fu Jiaolu approached and said to her, "He insists on seeing you no matter what."

Immortal Liu nodded and followed the hunter to a secluded courtyard.

Around the courtyard, there were members of the hunting team guarding it.

To prevent prisoners from colluding, the villagers separated ordinary soldiers from officers, with the former gathered in tents outside the city while the latter were imprisoned in the Liu Family.

And that Gong family member knelt in the center of the courtyard.

Immortal Liu immediately recognized him; it was Gong Lingwu.

She suddenly understood why Fu Jiaolu wanted her to come here.

Gong Lingwu also noticed Immortal Liu at this moment, and a flash of fear crossed his face, but it was soon concealed under a forced calm, "Liu... Great Immortal Master Liu, I was wrong last time, I apologize to you!"

Immortal Liu walked up to him, silently watching him.

Seeing that she did not respond, Gong Lingwu hurriedly said, "You can’t kill me, I’m the Grand General’s son, you should know his temperament! If I perish here, my father will definitely wage a war of endless revenge against the Liu Family! But rest assured, as long as I return alive, my father will remember this kindness, perhaps even persuade King of Qi to overlook what happened in Qing State!"

She remained silent.

That indifference again... she’s always been like this! Since being conferred the title of Immortal Master five years ago, she’d never once looked at him directly!

Anger surged within Gong Lingwu, but he dared not show a trace on his face, "What do you lack? Money or food? I can ask my family to send them to you! Disaster victims too, you can take in as many as you want, I can provide them with food to last a lifetime! If you’re not assured, I can write a letter to my family, I beg you, Immortal Master Lord!"

Immortal Liu finally spoke, "Is this all you want to say?"

"No, not just this... any request, just mention it, the Gong Family can meet them all!" Gong Lingwu hastily added.

"I personally bear no grudge against you, nor do I consider offensive words significant." Immortal Liu shook her head, "So you have no need to seek my forgiveness."

His face showed joy, "Then... will you let me go?"

"Who you should truly seek forgiveness from are the people forced to flee from Qing State." After saying this, she turned and walked out of the courtyard.

"Wait... don’t go, I’ve admitted fault, I apologize to them! Immortal Master Liu, listen to me—" Gong Lingwu struggled to stand up, but was pressed back to the ground by the villagers behind him.

"Do you know who we are, General Gong?" Fu Jiaolu squatted before him and said.

"I-I don’t know, how could I know you! Let go of me, my shoulders are breaking!"

"I’m Fu Jiaolu, a hunter, and also one of the disaster victims forced to flee Qing State." He pointed to those behind him, "And there’s Fan Shitou, Wu Zhou, Xue Xiaojin... everyone standing here are disaster victims who escaped from beneath Zhangwei City."

As he called out names, more villagers gathered around, tightly surrounding Gong Lingwu.

"What, what do you want to do? I’m the Grand General’s son, you can’t aaaaahhhhh——!"

Just halfway through his words, Gong Lingwu’s voice suddenly turned into screams!

Blood sprayed from his face, his right ear was nowhere to be seen.

"Pah!" Fu Jiaolu spat out shredded meat from his mouth, "Why wasn’t there disaster relief food?"

"I... I aaaaahhhhhhh——" Gong Lingwu screamed again, as his left ear became a fountain of blood.

"Not only no food supplies, but wanted to send troops to slaughter us!?"

"How dare you disrespect Immortal Master Lord!"

"If the relief grain had been distributed sooner, my child wouldn’t have died!"

"Bring back my father’s life!"

After every retort, they would bite fiercely at his face, first the ears, cheeks, then the eyes and nose.

Gong Lingwu fought desperately at first, screaming continuously, but later his movements gradually ceased, and his groans grew quieter.

By the time everyone finished questioning, his head had become a bald, round bloody sphere, with broken flesh revealing the white bone beneath.

Fu Jiaolu finally released him, stood up slowly and said, "Now... we forgive you."