Chapter 980: Chapter 974: Marshal Of The Shadowfell Prefecture Border Pass
“Brother Shihu, regarding the battle of Shadowfell Prefecture, I am endlessly grateful for the letter you sent three months in advance, which allowed me to anticipate the enemy’s moves and evacuate in the face of danger to preserve the lives of everyone at Silver Wolf Lake.
Now, the Azure Cloud Li Clan is pestering us relentlessly and determined to see us destroyed.
I heard that the Li Clan has brought three Void Refinement experts this time; I kindly ask Brother Shihu to meet and discuss…”
At the border pass, a hundred thousand cultivators could be seen—riding swords, commanding spirits, and activating array formations.
Bi Shihu wore armor, trailed by ten puppets, looking incredibly imposing. However, at this moment, holding the letter sent from the Yun Clan, he frowned slightly.
Behind him stood a general with a youthful appearance, carrying a long spear on his back.
At a single glance, one could tell he was the kind of expert adept at taking enemy heads on the battlefield.
Bi Shihu was the former Marshal of the Shadowfell Prefecture Border Pass.
Under his command were four great generals: Blood-Robed Li Tianyue, Pagoda Ge Li, Divine Archer Guan Mingxuan, and Tracker Cai Yongzhen.
They respectively commanded the four great armies of Offense, Defense, Long-range Archery, and Array Formations.
This spear-wielding general was Pagoda Ge Li.
Bi Shihu opened the letter without avoiding anyone’s gaze. Ge Li caught a glimpse of it, and a look of disdain appeared on his face.
“Marshal, what kind of thing is Yun Manlou? How dare he call you brother? He really doesn’t know his own weight.”
Taking a few more looks, Ge Li frowned slightly.
“The Marshal’s letters have always passed through my hands.
Regarding the battle of Shadowfell Prefecture, our army knew absolutely nothing about the Wu tribe’s invasion three months prior.
Where did this matter of sending him a letter to evacuate come from?”
Hearing this, Bi Shihu looked puzzled, his deep voice carrying a hint of bewilderment.
“I do not know either. It seems someone is playing tricks in the shadows. Patriarch Yun believed I was the one who sent the letter.
Now that the Azure Cloud Li Clan has come knocking at his door, I’m afraid they’ve already made a sinister move against the Yun Clan.”
“The Azure Cloud Li Clan? General Blood-Robe’s clan?” Ge Li’s eyes widened.
“In the grand scheme of the battlefield, where are there no casualties?
General Blood-Robe sacrificed her life for the Dynasty and made a great contribution to the evacuation of our Shadowfell Prefecture from top to bottom.
Instead of taking pride in this, the Li Clan is stirring up unreasonable trouble. If so, why did the Li Clan allow Li Tianyue to serve as a general in the first place?”
As he spoke, Ge Li even carried a bit of arrogance.
Back when the Shadowfell Prefecture was fleeing, the Commander of the Four Armies, Bi Shihu, was once regarded as a deserter.
That was because the people of the world were blind.
They had bided their time and acted when the opportunity arose. Upon arriving in Deston Prefecture and winning a victorious battle, the eyes of the world brightened once more.
How were they still deserters now?
The Marshal commanded the army properly, allowing the soldiers and civilians of Shadowfell Prefecture to flee from top to bottom, followed by victory after victory in Deston Prefecture.
This also made the people of the world understand that it was Li Tianyue who had erred in her military strategy, while Marshal Bi Shihu turned the tide, minimizing losses to the greatest extent.
Now in Deston Prefecture, even though the Marshal had been demoted, they were still an indispensable army in Deston Prefecture.
“There is no need to pay attention to the Azure Cloud Li Clan. They are merely an immortal clan of the Azure Cloud Prefecture; what do the affairs of our army have to do with the Li Clan?”
Bi Shihu tossed the letter aside, yet the frown in his eyes did not unfurl.
“The most urgent matter is still to deal with the eighty thousand Wu tribesmen who have intruded into Deston Prefecture.
Go and tell Guan Mingxuan and Cai Yongzhen to deploy their troops immediately, encircle them with my main force, and annihilate the enemy swiftly!”
“Yes, sir!”
…….
Two months later.
Deston Prefecture, Cloudsummit City. A massive army clashed.
Bi Shihu was the former Marshal of the Shadowfell Prefecture Border Pass, and as the descendant of a famous general who had once served beside the Human Emperor, he certainly did not disgrace his ancestors’ reputation.
With the assistance of cultivators from all over Deston Prefecture, they slaughtered the Wu tribe members who had intruded into Cloudsummit City, sending them fleeing in panic.
Bi Shihu, at the peak of the Void Refinement realm, fought his way out of the Void Refinement space alongside a Wu tribe elder.
Full of high spirits, he lifted the severed head of the Wu tribe elder. Covered in blood, he hovered in the air, looking down proudly at the battlefield below.
“The battle of Shadowfell Prefecture was not my fault; the outcome was uncertain, so why should I have fought?
From now on, the world will know that I, Bi Shihu, emerge victorious in every battle!”
With Bi Shihu slaying the enemy elder, the human cultivators on the Cloudsummit City battlefield raised their heads and cheered.
Bi Shihu listened to his subordinates’ praises with intoxication. “In the end, I did not tarnish the glory of my ancestors.”
Ge Li, who had also emerged from the Void Refinement space, looked disdainfully at the fleeing enemy elders and laughed loudly.
“Marshal, with another recognition from the dynasty this time, even if you haven’t reached the Body Integration realm, your status will likely be no lower than the three Body Integration mighty figures of the Imperial Protectors Guard!”
Just at this moment, a cultivator arrived on a flying sword, shouting loudly,
“Report! Reporting to the Marshal, the Divine Archer General has won! We lost three thousand men, but annihilated thirty thousand enemies!”
Hearing this, Bi Shihu and Ge Li both nodded slightly and left it at that.
This kind of battle had long been calculated by multiple parties; it was a guaranteed victory.
But the subordinate hesitated to leave.
Seeing the evasive look in his subordinate’s eyes, Bi Shihu frowned. “What else is there?”
“General… The Divine Archer General has gotten into a dispute with someone.” The subordinate wiped cold sweat from his forehead.
“General Guan has never argued or fought with anyone. How could he get into a dispute?”
Ge Li’s eyes widened. “Who provoked him? Could it be our own soldiers?”
Before the subordinate could answer, another scout flew over.
“Report! Reporting to the Marshal, the Tracker General set up array formations and trapped and killed tens of thousands of Wu tribe soldiers. We won! However…”
This scout also looked grim.
Bi Shihu and Ge Li immediately exchanged a glance.
The scout continued,
“A dynasty army, coming from nowhere, charged into the enemy troops defeated by our army right after General Cai had exhausted himself killing the enemy!
They… they even brought high-ranking officials from the Ministry of War to testify that they were the ones who took down the Wu tribe!”
The previous subordinate looked indignant.
“The situation is exactly the same on General Guan’s side.
Our Divine Archer Army fought with all our might to kill the enemies. But in the end, twenty thousand men charged out, led by experts above the Golden Core realm, surrounding the battlefield and confronting our army.
They arrived in less than half an hour. They occupied our battlefield, smeared blood from the corpses onto themselves, and pretended they had suffered heavy casualties after a massive battle.”
“Then… then the high-ranking officials from the Military Inspectorate arrived.
The officials only saw them supporting each other off the battlefield, detaining the enemy troops, and completely ignoring us.
When General Guan went to reason with them, the other party was shamelessly brazen. A man named Li Tianqi pulled out a dagger right in front of the General and stabbed it into his own chest. He…”
“He played the victim and accused General Guan of violently attacking him to steal the fruits of his victory.
Now… now General Guan was injured by a woman and fled in panic, fearing accountability from the Ministry of War.”
The scout spoke with such sorrow that, reaching the depth of his emotions, tears streamed down his face.
“Li Tianqi? Li, surnamed Li?!!”
Ge Li’s face turned ugly.
“Shameless, absolutely shameless! I will go find them, I will go find those blind fools from the Ministry of War…”
But while Bi Shihu was still frowning and Ge Li was burning with rage…
The expressions of the crowd suddenly changed.
Just as Cloudsummit City had been breached and the remnants of the Wu tribe were fleeing, streaks of array formations suddenly closed in on the battlefield from all directions.
Arrows rained from the sky, piercing the bodies of the fleeing Wu tribesmen.
The ground began to rumble as cultivators encircled them from all sides.
In the cloudy sky, there were spirit ships, flying swords, and talismans.
They were a mighty and imposing force, strictly obeying orders and prohibitions, demonstrating exceptional military discipline.
Just looking at these immortal soldiers arriving from all sides, Bi Shihu’s eyes lost their focus.
These soldiers were all clad in black armor, with capes billowing behind them as they galloped across the battlefield like a fire spreading in all directions.
They were fully equipped: everyone carried three long spears on their backs, with a longbow wedged between the spears and their back, a sword slung at their waist, a quiver of arrows, and a gourd for carrying medicine…
“The Blood-Robed Army? Impossible, didn’t they… wasn’t their entire army annihilated at the border pass?”
Ge Li’s expression changed.
Originally, Shadowfell Prefecture only had their three armies. But later, the Blood-Robed Army emerged, completely overshadowing his Pagoda Army, the Divine Archer Army, and the Tracker Army.
The Blood-Robed Army made the Wu tribe tremble at the mere mention of their name, monopolizing all the military merits.
Whenever the Blood-Robed Army arrived, there was not much left for the other three armies to do.
In just a few short years, how could Ge Li have forgotten the Blood-Robed Army?
“No, it’s not them.” Bi Shihu clenched his fists tightly. His face remained calm, but bloodshot veins unconsciously crept into his eyes. “This army… is even stronger!”
Before long.
Bi Shihu and Ge Li witnessed firsthand the exact same thing the other two armies had encountered.
From this solemn and murderous army, experts took the lead, charging into the city, letting their blades be stained with Wu tribe blood.
They coldly raised their heads to look at Bi Shihu’s grand army surrounding them. With just a single glance at each other, they decided who would lie on the ground and who would do the supporting.
Immediately after, the massive army poured into the city. In an orderly fashion, they unleashed Spiritual power and array formations in all directions, eventually collapsing silently onto the ground before struggling to get back up.
“Y-you… don’t come any closer!”
Several experts approached Ge Li’s spirit ship, but his earlier angry tone was gone, leaving only terror in his eyes.
Behind those experts followed the cultivators from the Military Inspectorate; the miserable state of Divine Archer Guan Mingxuan had been horrifying to hear.
Ge Li’s spirit ship hurriedly retreated, activating its protective array formation to avoid being framed as well.
He couldn’t care less about military merits or indignation anymore.
Just seeing the fawning expressions of the military inspectors behind those people, he already knew they were all jackals of the same tribe!
“Azure Cloud Li Clan, you are truly despicable and shameless! Our soldiers risked their lives, yet you come to steal our military merits. Do you have no shame?!!”
In front of the spirit ship.
Old Ancestor Tianye, Wu Yazi, Xuan Ji, Feng Chunlin, and the others were not good with words and could only frown slightly.
The Drunken Madman from the Azure Cloud Li Clan, covered in dirt like a beggar, knocked on his bowl with golden chopsticks and cursed loudly,
“Elders and townsfolk passing by, come take a look, come see!
There are many strange things in the world, and today we witness another.
A dog that fled on the eve of battle has put on a military uniform and is pointing fingers and cursing!
Take a close look. If you strip off this armor, is it a man or a dog? Or is it worse than a pig or a dog?”
“You…”
Ge Li’s face flushed red.
“You what you? If you’re not convinced, make a move against me! If you don’t dare, then you’re a bastard.”
Veins popped all over Ge Li’s body, and his hair stood on end from his surging Spiritual power, but he didn’t dare!
If he stepped out, he wouldn’t even need to strike; the Drunken Madman would probably lie down on his own. And in the cloudy sky, he could feel an old woman staring at him.
Bi Shihu stared deadpan at the people from the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The army on the ground, even stronger than the Blood-Robed Army, must be the Azure Cloud Army!
They had traveled from afar from the Azure Cloud Prefecture, elusive yet highly trained.
Behind the people of Azure Cloud, a heroic and weather-beaten middle-aged man wearing black armor, his cape fluttering in the wind, stepped through the clouds.
He looked directly at Bi Shihu’s spirit ship, locking eyes with Bi Shihu.
The middle-aged man’s voice was deep, yet it made the listeners feel as though they had fallen into an ice cavern.
“I am Jiang Chenghuan, honored to meet the world-renowned Bi Shihu, Marshal Bi.”
“Marshal Bi may not have heard of a lowly figure like myself, but you should know Li Tianyue.”
“She called me Uncle.”
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