Volume 1, Chapter 63 – Wave After Wave

After this herd of demonic beasts was dragged into the city, less than an hour passed before yet another herd came from the south, charging straight for the south gate.

This herd was nearly twice as large as the previous one, almost four thousand strong. What was worse, several among them had auras that clearly exceeded the scope of the Body Tempering Realm—they were Innate Realm demonic beasts!

A few Innate Realm martial artists immediately rose into the air on their artifacts to intercept the herd.

They had barely reached the sky above the beasts when blades of wind, bolts of lightning, and tongues of flame erupted from within the herd, crashing toward them.

Just like the human race, demonic beasts underwent a qualitative change upon stepping into the Innate Realm. Their bodies would develop demon power, which strengthened their flesh and could also be used as an attack—spitting wind, fire, and lightning, with terrifying might.

The martial artists, however, did not panic in the slightest; they had clearly anticipated this. Controlling their artifacts, they weaved and dodged through the barrage, then unleashed several dazzling arcs of qi that exploded into sprays of blood within the herd.

Their teamwork was extremely smooth. In less than half a quarter of an hour, the few Innate Realm demonic beasts in the herd had all lost their heads.

After they finished off the Innate Realm beasts, the martial artists returned to the city wall.

Once the herd of demonic beasts charged within a hundred zhang of the gate, the steel arrows once again leapt from their strings.

This herd of nearly four thousand demonic beasts was likewise completely wiped out more than twenty zhang from the city gate.

Before anyone could even breathe a sigh of relief, another herd appeared at the north gate of Twin Moon City.

Huangfu Yun did not have everyone rush to the north. Instead, he followed the manpower allocations they’d arranged the day before, assigning people to hold each side of the walls so that if more herds appeared, their formation wouldn’t fall into chaos.

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Once the orders were given, Huangfu Yun led a group of Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers to the north wall.

The herd of demonic beasts at the north gate was no weaker than the one at the south. There were also several Innate Realm beasts among them.

Everyone felt a bit of pressure. A moment ago, nearly a thousand people had been defending the city together; now there were only just over two hundred, plus three hundred Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers.

Huangfu Yun looked at the herd that was now less than three li from Twin Moon City. Together with several centurions, he rose into the air on his artifact and flew straight toward the beasts.

Huangfu Yun’s strength had already reached the peak of the ninth stage of the Innate Realm, and the other centurions were far stronger than the Innate Realm martial artists who had acted earlier.

In just the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the centurions had slaughtered every Innate Realm demonic beast in the herd, and in the process cut down several hundred Body Tempering Realm beasts as well.

After Huangfu Yun and the others returned to the city tower, they immediately drew the Nine-Bow Bed Crossbows and aimed them at the herd still about a li from the gate.

The three bed crossbows were drawn back, twenty-seven Cloud-Piercing Bolts set to the strings.

“Thrum!”

A massive wave of force swept out. A few Mortals standing near the Nine-Bow Bed Crossbows were lifted off their feet by the gale, tumbling head over heels.

Twenty-seven thick torrents of air tore across the li of open ground in an instant, slamming head-on into the onrushing herd. Any demonic beast touched by the shockwaves was instantly churned into a cloud of blood.

The Cloud-Piercing Bolts, wrapped in unmatched sharpness, punched straight through the entire herd, gouging out a wide empty swath.

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Nearly two thousand demonic beasts died to those twenty-seven Cloud-Piercing Bolts, with most of the rest wounded or crippled!

The remaining thousand-odd beasts were easily finished off by the Demon-Suppressing Crossbows. Once the herd was cleared, two centurions left the wall to search for the bolts that had just been loosed.

Given the blacksmiths’ skills in Twin Moon City, they could barely manage to forge a few replacement steel arrows, but Cloud-Piercing Bolts were absolutely beyond them.

Just the arrowheads alone were made from materials capable of piercing the scales of Earth Fiend Realm demonic beasts—materials that simply could not be found in Twin Moon City.

Without Cloud-Piercing Bolts, the Nine-Bow Bed Crossbows were nothing more than slightly more powerful siege weapons, able at best to injure Innate Realm beasts and utterly unable to threaten Earth Fiend Realm ones.

The loss this time was a bit heavy. Of the twenty-seven Cloud-Piercing Bolts, they recovered only twenty-two. The remaining few had flown too far; the two centurions did not dare go any farther.

The commotion at the north gate had barely died down when beastly roars rose up from the east gate.

The Demon-Suppressing Army had no time to rest, immediately hurrying toward the east gate.

According to yesterday’s deployment, the east gate was under the personal command of City Lord Nie Yangze.

Shi Lan followed behind Huangfu Yun and had only just reached the east gate when she saw Nie Yangze standing motionless in midair.

Not far in front of Nie Yangze hovered a glazed mirror. Streams of light flowed continuously out from its surface, falling down beyond the walls.

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The demonic beasts had already reached the foot of the city, ramming madly against the walls. Even when their heads were smashed bloody or their brains splattered, they did not pause for an instant.

This was madness stripped entirely of reason, a complete ignorance of fear. Even the bluestone at the base of the wall had been cracked open in great chunks from the impacts.

Seeing this, Shi Lan cocked her crossbow and loaded a bolt while casting a somewhat worried glance toward the city gate.

The situation at the gate was much better than she’d imagined. Several layers of chevaux-de-frise bristling with iron spikes had been set up in front of the wooden gate, and the ground before them was already piled high with demonic beast corpses.

Because of the obstruction of those corpses, the beasts in the rear couldn’t threaten the gate behind the barriers at all.

The corpses quickly formed a thick layer. The beasts behind swarmed forward, trampling over the bones of their own kind as they continued to hurl themselves at the walls.

By the time this wave of demonic beasts was completely wiped out, the heap of bodies at the foot of the wall was already more than two zhang high.

Nie Yangze was just about to order the gates opened so they could clear out the corpses when beastly roars sounded again in the distance.

A herd of more than five thousand beasts crowded into Shi Lan’s field of view, hurtling toward the gate at full speed.

Huangfu Yun took one look at the carpet of demonic beast corpses beneath the wall, then strode to the bed crossbow without the slightest hesitation and drew the string back.

Cloud-Piercing Bolts might be precious, but they existed to be used.

If this herd managed to reach the base of the wall, some of the beasts with exceptional jumping ability would be able to use that nearly two-zhang-high pile of corpses as a springboard to leap onto the battlements. The consequences of that would be too awful to imagine.

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Faced with the terrifying power of the Cloud-Piercing Bolts, the herd was instantly torn open, ripped into scattered shreds.

Most of these beasts were wolf-type or tigers and leopards. Their running speed was much faster than that of the earlier herds, and even after two volleys from the bed crossbow, more than a thousand still managed to reach the base of the wall.

Fortunately, with the advantage of the Demon-Suppressing Crossbows, they were ultimately able to kill every last beast, albeit with some thrills along the way. The pile of corpses at the foot of the wall rose yet another level.

After such a long stretch of continuous firing, some of the martial artists were already exhausted. The skin and flesh of most of their hands had been abraded open by the bowstrings, blood flowing nonstop.

Good thing the Flesh-Regrowing Blood-Staunching Powder worked instantly, so there was no serious problem.

The ones in worse shape were actually the Mortals who had been shooting this whole time.

Each shot from a Demon-Suppressing Crossbow produced a substantial recoil. It was nothing to martial artists, but for Mortals whose muscles and bones were not especially tough, it was easy to be shaken and injured. Many had forearms that were swollen red, and if they kept fighting like this much longer, there would definitely be trouble.

As soon as the fighting ended, Nie Yangze immediately ordered the gates opened and had people start clearing the demonic beast corpses beneath the walls.

They had only just finished clearing the bodies at the gate and hadn’t yet had time to deal with those piled along the walls when, in the distance, a great cloud of dust rose once more.

The demonic beasts gave them not the slightest chance to catch their breath as they pressed forward yet again!