Battle Formations

At this moment, the Chu Army was still at a disadvantage in the overall battle. Though the Chu Army held the advantage of terrain, its total numbers were inferior to the Qin Army's. There were also far too many recruits among the Chu soldiers, many of whom were fighting for the first time today.

How could recruits have ever seen such a scene? Seeing the enemy's spears standing like a forest and stabbing toward them, the grand ambitions of earning merit and building a career that they had held before battle had long been flung beyond the nine heavens.

If the military officers had not been watching from behind, plenty of them would likely have thrown down their weapons and fled. The Qin Army, meanwhile, had spent years campaigning east and west. They were all battle-hardened veterans, and their individual strength naturally surpassed that of the Chu Army by a fair margin.

Wang Hong's side only held a tiny local advantage. In a battle involving tens of thousands, no matter how strong an individual was, it was difficult to alter the overall situation.

The most important thing in a wedge formation was a powerful vanguard. Now that Wang Hong had been blocked, the Qin Army swiftly surrounded them and launched fierce attacks on the flanks. Though the two wings resisted with all their might, this formation would certainly suffer if things continued. It would not hold out for long.

Although this centurion possessed brute strength, his overall abilities were still far beneath those of a Xiantian Stage expert like Wang Hong.

What was more, Wang Hong had yet to use Internal Energy. Once Internal Energy was poured into a spear, it would emit a spear aura over a foot long—far too conspicuous.

Wang Hong did not want to reveal that he had reached the Xiantian Realm. Reaching the Xiantian Realm at only sixteen was too likely to make people connect the dots.

Wang Hong had always relied on physical strength in battle. Once he used Internal Energy, people would easily notice it. Otherwise, an ordinary Houtian Realm Martial Artist would never last three moves before him.

After more than a dozen exchanges, the burly man unleashed a sweeping move that could sweep away a thousand armies. Wang Hong deftly evaded it, then, when the man's momentum had run its course, unleashed a Dragon Leaping from the Water and pierced his throat with one thrust.

After killing the centurion, Wang Hong faced no further obstruction. Like a hot knife through butter, he swiftly tore through the small square formation. Then Wang Hong and the centurion each led a squad to continue pursuing the remaining enemy soldiers.

The Qin Army truly deserved its reputation as a battle-tested elite. Split into two and with their centurion slain, they still organized resistance rather than collapsing.

Wang Hong had not killed many Qin soldiers before he saw another square formation emerge from the Qin Army's rear and charge toward them.

Wang Hong swiftly led his men to join up with the centurion, reorganizing their ranks into a small square formation.

If they continued pursuing the Qin Army remnants now, they would have no suitable formation to defend against them. They would likely be quickly routed by this newly arrived force themselves.

The Qin Army's original remnants seized the chance to regroup, then joined the fresh troops in charging at the Chu Army once more.

Before they could even catch their breath, the Qin Army opposite them came charging in. After the fierce fighting just now, everyone was exhausted, and many were wounded. This Qin force, however, was clearly fresh, every one of them brimming with the vigor of dragons and tigers.

The enemy formed a dense formation, countless spears thrust forward like a wall pressing down upon them. The Chu Army's front-row sword-and-shield soldiers raised their shields, while the spears behind them likewise pointed forward.

Such a confrontation put immense pressure on the soldiers' minds. Every strike drew blood; the moment they met, life and death were decided. Without great courage, no one could face it.

Fortunately, their usual formation drills had been extremely strict. At this moment, they all remembered the key points of their training, their movements uniformly precise. Row after row of spearheads met the enemy like another wall.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" they roared in unison.

"Pssh! Pssh! Pssh!" The sounds of spears piercing flesh rang out from both camps. Yet as long as their vital points were not struck, even those who should have died on the spot continued fighting to the bitter end. They all knew that falling on this battlefield meant being trampled to death. There was even less any notion of leaving the battlefield to treat one's wounds.

If they could hold on until the battle ended, perhaps there would still be hope of survival. Wang Hong punched a hole through a Qin soldier's abdomen with his spear, spilling out the man's intestines. Yet the Qin soldier ignored it all, his face twisted savagely as he swung his blade at the nearest Chu soldier.

This square formation should have been one of the Qin Army's elite units. Every one of them was incomparably valiant and fearless of death. After only a few exchanges, several Chu soldiers had already fallen.

Wang Hong still killed one enemy with every thrust, consecutively skewering several ordinary soldiers. From the corner of his eye, he saw that two soldiers from the squad he led had already fallen as well.

Wang Hong felt somewhat anxious. Once his side's casualties grew too high, the enemy would outnumber them and overwhelm them. Even if Wang Hong were impervious to blades and spears, it would be difficult for him to handle a hundred soldiers fighting in formation at once.

A large crowd of soldiers would not even need weapons. They only had to surround him and squeeze inward together, and they could crush him flat. No matter how high his martial skill was, he could not kill them all at once.

A sword-and-shield soldier who was fighting one of their own sword-and-shield soldiers and held the absolute upper hand was pierced through by Wang Hong's spear, which nailed him directly to the shield in his hand.

Before Wang Hong could withdraw his spear, he saw three spears stabbing toward him. He hurriedly pulled his weapon back and shifted his body slightly. With people packed all around him in the battle formation, there was simply no room for large evasive movements.

One spear swept past his ear, one grazed his shoulder, and the third pierced less than half an inch into his chest before it could go no farther.

With a roar, Wang Hong pierced the nearest soldier through with one thrust. That soldier tried to parry, but had only raised his hand halfway when pain erupted in his chest. He only had time to clutch the spear tightly with both hands and refuse to let go. At that moment, three more spears stabbed toward Wang Hong at once...

Like this, Wang Hong himself did not know how many he had killed. Meanwhile, the enemy occasionally managed to leave small wounds on him as well. People around him frequently fell.

Wang Hong also saw their centurion being seized around the waist by two sword-and-shield soldiers. Though he had stabbed one of them through the back with a slash, the two men still clung to him desperately and refused to let go.

Then an iron-armored man from the enemy thrust his spear straight at the centurion's chest. With one dead man and one living man hanging from his waist, the centurion could only draw his blade to parry, his movements greatly hindered. After merely three exchanges, another wound appeared on his arm. The nearby Chu soldiers wanted to help, but they were all tightly entangled by enemies themselves—willing in heart, yet powerless in strength.

Suddenly, the centurion felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. The soldier hanging from his waist had drawn a short blade and stabbed him in the belly.

The centurion grunted in pain and poured Internal Energy into his legs. With a knee strike, he instantly shattered the Qin soldier's breastbone and crushed his five organs and six viscera, sending his body flying.

At that moment, the iron-armored man's spear had already reached his face. The centurion leaned his upper body back, and the spear tip grazed his forehead, narrowly missing him and leaving a bloody mark. As he leaned back, he twisted sideways, stepped forward, and slashed horizontally at the armored man's armpit. A faint white glow shone from the blade. Wherever it passed, iron armor was sliced open like tofu. The armored man drew back a few inches in time, and the blade aura only carved a wound an inch deep across his chest.

With a horizontal sweep of his spear, Wang Hong cut open the abdomens of two Qin soldiers, even severing their intestines. Two more Qin soldiers immediately took their places, and more and more men were surrounding him.

Lu Jingou, Li Xiaoya, and Zhang Tiemao were still fighting side by side in the same squad. By now, all three of them were wounded.

Wang Hong and Hua Wenjue had both gone to other hundred-man units. Only the three of them remained in their original hundred-man unit.

One of Zhang Tiemao's legs was trembling faintly. A huge hole had been torn through his thigh, and blood was gushing out in streams.

Just moments ago, two spears had stabbed toward Li Xiaoya beside him at the same time. Seeing that Li Xiaoya was about to die beneath the spears, Zhang Tiemao slashed diagonally from the side with his spear, saving Li Xiaoya's life—but his own leg was pierced through by a spear.