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Chapter 516: Retreat
🕑 Added 2024-04-01 05:07:07 +0000 UTCImmortal Path Space : Table of Content/Chapter List
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As Wang Hong indulged in feasting and drinking, preparing to break through to Nascent Soul, high atop a mountain peak within a Spiritual Site, He Yuan stood with his white hair billowing in the wind. He gazed down at the Beast Tide receding like a tide below, his heart heavy with sorrow. This marked the thirteenth time they had repelled the Beast Tide.
They had just taken control of this place from the Demon Clan, with no time to establish defensive formations before enduring wave after wave of attacks.
Furthermore, they had only a dozen or so Golden Core Cultivators and over a hundred Foundation Building Cultivators defending this location. Some Golden Core Cultivators had come to assist from the Immortal Way Trading Company.
As for the Demon Subduing Army, with over twenty thousand people, they were stationed in Azure Void City due to their inability to fly and their poor mobility.
Despite being elite, their small force was overwhelmed by the seemingly endless low-tier Demon Clan, making it difficult for them to gain the upper hand.
He knew that the enemy intentionally used low-tier Demonic Beasts to deplete their strength. When their resources were exhausted, and they were exhausted themselves, that would be the time for the enemy's final assault.
Previously, two teams had been captured by the Demon Clan in this manner, resulting in significant losses.
At this moment, an Immortal Way Trading Company Black-robed cultivator approached.
"Captain He, Captain Zhang has a message for you!"
Apart from those directly involved in combat, the cultivators from the Immortal Way Trading Company were responsible for intelligence gathering and information dissemination, playing a crucial role.
The Immortal Way Trading Company's actions had garnered the respect of the participating cultivators, as they saw the company as considering the bigger picture and wholeheartedly supporting the fight against the Demon Clan in critical times.
He Yuan received a Jade Scroll and imprinted a special rune, breaking the seal on the scroll. After reading its contents, he felt a mixture of confusion and joy.
The message from Zhang Chunfeng was concise: they were to abandon this Spiritual Site and retreat eight hundred miles to join the other teams.
For He Yuan's group, this was undoubtedly a good thing. Their current location was exposed, making them vulnerable to Demon Clan attacks, and reinforcements from elsewhere were inconvenient.
However, He Yuan was somewhat reluctant to directly abandon a Spiritual Site. This place held three medium-grade Spirit Veins and a vein of Black-Shining Gold Ore.
More importantly, their presence here was necessary to prevent an unauthorized retreat by their team members, which would lead to a complete collapse of their line.
Now that Zhang Chunfeng had given the order, He Yuan naturally had to comply.
"Spread the order, prepare to retreat. Also, leave half of the Devouring Spirit vials we brought this time for the Demon Clan."
At this point, Wang Hong's formulated Devouring Spirit poison had become a strategic resource, with each combat team receiving a supply.
Being able to eliminate low-tier Demonic Beasts on a large scale without much effort made it a valuable asset.
There were several advantages to using this poison on a large scale. Firstly, it was cost-effective, and although no one knew the exact formula, producing it in such quantities shouldn't be prohibitively expensive.
Secondly, it was invisible and had a slow onset, causing Demonic Beasts to be poisoned without them noticing.
He Yuan, accompanied by several cultivators, had already taken an antidote in advance. They began scattering the Devouring Spirit poison densely along the edges of the peak, effectively creating a barrier with the poison.
Then they spread the poison behind them and joined the other teams.
Two hours after their retreat, the Demonic Beasts organized another attack. A three-tier Ironclad Centipede led a group of smaller demons, charging toward the peak with a fearless attitude. However, when they reached the peak, they found it eerily silent and devoid of any presence.
It was like exerting all your strength to throw a punch into a pile of cotton, with no resistance and a feeling of emptiness, loneliness, and coldness in your heart.
As they felt frustrated, weaker Demonic Beasts began falling, followed by some stronger ones. The leading Ironclad Centipede was bewildered, unable to comprehend what was happening.
After inspecting the corpse of a fallen Demonic Beast, it realized that they had all died from poisoning. It examined a couple more and found the same situation. It had no idea where the source of the poison was or when they had been poisoned. Even though it was inherently toxic and immune to most poisons, it had been completely unaware.
Seeing more Demonic Beasts approaching from a distance, and with the risk of all of them being poisoned, the Ironclad Centipede hastily ordered a retreat.
Unable to identify the source of the poison immediately, many low-tier Demonic Beasts fell victim.
After retreating a considerable distance, the Ironclad Centipede looked back at the pile of corpses left behind, feeling that the Human Clan was truly cunning.
After He Yuan's team retreated eight hundred miles, several other teams had also withdrawn to this location.
After waiting for a day, all the defending cultivators from various strongholds had returned.
At this point, Zhang Chunfeng gathered all the squad leaders inside a tent.
"Captain Zhang, are we just going to abandon all the strongholds and hand them over to the Demon Clan like this?" a stubbled squad leader asked, his tone filled with bitterness. They had just motivated their entire team to swear that they would defend the Spiritual Site at all costs when they received the order to retreat.
"Yeah! We seized these Spiritual Sites from the Qing Fox Clan, and we paid a great price to defend them," it was clear that more than one person had reservations about the sudden retreat.
"Everyone, calm down!" Zhang Chunfeng raised his hands in a placating gesture, and the room fell silent, awaiting his words.
"Listen to me, everyone! First, East Master has ordered me to take full command of the Revival Battle Team and adapt our strategies according to the battlefield situation. If there are any command mistakes, I will take full responsibility and report to East Master.
The reason I ordered you to retreat is that the Demon Clan, under the command of the Purple Flame Scorpion King, is swarming in with an overall strength superior to our Revival Battle Team. If we continue to disperse and defend multiple Spiritual Sites, we are at risk of being overwhelmed by the Demonic Beasts individually.
Before this, we lost several Spiritual Sites to the Demon Clan, resulting in significant casualties. I believe none of you want to see a repeat of such incidents."
"In order to avoid being defeated and suffering heavy casualties, we decided to retreat."
The stubbled squad leader muttered softly, "So we retreated just to come back later." Zhang Chunfeng gave him a stern look, and he shrunk back, not daring to speak further.
"I ordered everyone to retreat to preserve our strength. As long as we're alive, we can always reclaim the Spiritual Sites from the Demon Clan. If we sustain heavy casualties in our efforts to hold onto these sites, what good would it do us?"
Upon hearing this, the group nodded in agreement.
"We are temporarily relinquishing some of the Spiritual Sites, but we'll take advantage of our strengths to regroup and launch concentrated attacks."
All the cultivators in their campaign were Foundation Building or higher, capable of flying with their magic artifacts. They were agile and could engage the Demon Clan at will, striking and retreating as they pleased.
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Next Chapter >>Chapter 517: Ambush
