Battle

The scene became chaotic, with both sides glaring at each other, their eyes locked in a staring contest before the battle even began.

"Ding"

Congratulations to the host for obtaining 5000 Shock Points from Wang Ba, the Branch Master of the Hall of Souls.

Congratulations to the host for obtaining 7000 Shock Points from Zhou Tong, the Vice Master.

"Hmm?"

"Are people from the Hall of Souls nearby?"

Upon hearing the system notification, Ye Qianqian immediately understood the true purpose behind the Heavenly Snake Mansion's sudden and unprovoked provocation.

So, it was the underhanded tactics of the Hall of Souls, intending to pit the Heavenly Snake Mansion and the Misty Cloud Empire against each other and then reap the benefits?

It seemed her worries were valid. On the Northwestern Continent, certain powers simply could not tolerate the strength of the Misty Cloud Sect, as it would disrupt their interests.

Even if she treated everyone kindly, she would still be mistaken for being easy to bully. Since that was the case, she would carve out her own path.

"Sect Master, what should we do now?" A Heavenly Snake Mansion elder asked in a panic. The Misty Cloud Sect's strength was also astonishing. If they fought head-on, even if they won, the Heavenly Snake Mansion would be severely weakened. After a moment of hesitation, the elder gritted his teeth and said, "Perhaps we should retreat!"

"Nonsense!" She Xiuyue's eyebrows shot up. She pointed at the old woman before her and cursed, "My Heavenly Snake Mansion is full of talented individuals, and we have several times more powerful experts than them. Why should we fear these ragtag curs? If you dare to speak nonsense again and shake our morale, I will execute you without mercy!"

"Yes, yes, yes, your subordinate wouldn't dare," the elder quickly lowered his head in agreement, not daring to make another sound.

The Misty Cloud Sect began to designate their battle plans.

"Twenty Dou Ancestor experts, I should be able to hold off five," Saber said in a deep voice.

"This sect can hold off... four, I suppose!" Yan Luotian said with a wry smile. After the Yan Luo Empire was annexed, the Golden Goose Sect had moved its entire family to Misty Cloud Mountain. He still felt a sense of unwillingness in his heart, but it was a done deal. What else could he say!

Xie Biyan said, "This old man will take three."

Yun Shan said, "My realm is still a bit lacking, but as the Sect Master, for the sake of the Misty Cloud Sect, I will still give it my all. I will hold off three."

The Mu Lan Three Elders said awkwardly, "One."

Medusa said, "Three."

Xiao Yi Xian glared at Medusa, annoyed that she had taken three slots. She said, "The remaining one is mine. After I kill one of them, I will go kill those Dou Emperors and Dou Kings to ease Jia Xingtian's burden, and then I will come to assist you."

"Good, it's settled," Saber said, looking at the enemy force, which outnumbered them several times. His expression was grave. He said to Xiao Yi Xian, "The enemy has more numbers than us. When the fight starts, it will inevitably be a crushing charge, so we must end it quickly. The key to this battle lies with you. You must kill a Dou Ancestor quickly to keep our upper-tier combat power on par."

"Don't worry!" Xiao Yi Xian nodded.

With this distribution, the Heavenly Snake Mansion's experts were divided up like common vegetables, enraging She Xiuyue to no end.

"A bunch of ants, still spouting such arrogant words when death is upon you. Today, this sect will annihilate all of you here!"

"Who's annihilating whom is yet to be determined!" Ye Qianqian extended her small hand and clenched it fiercely towards the Heavenly Snake Mansion experts in the sky.

In an instant, the surrounding world began to twist rapidly. Some Dou Emperors and Dou Kings did not have time to dodge and were engulfed by spatial turbulence.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..."

Many Dou Kings and Dou Emperors' bodies exploded into mist of blood. The survivors, who had narrowly escaped, were filled with terror.

"Hahaha, I'll do it again!" Ye Qianqian laughed heartily, her movements not stopping.

This time, she clapped her small hands together from a distance, and the spatial barriers on both sides collapsed with a roar, like the two pieces of bread in a hamburger, about to crush the Heavenly Snake Mansion members into a meat patty.

"Villain, how dare you be so presumptuous!" She Xiuyue roared in fury. She held a silver-white crescent moon saber in her hand. Fierce killing intent surged from the saber, and ice-elemental Dou Qi coiled around its blade, emitting waves of cold light. She slashed horizontally at the two spatial barriers.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

The spatial barriers were shattered, and the saber energy transformed into thousands of silver-white ice snakes, chilling the surroundings.

She Xiuyue immediately engaged Ye Qianqian in battle, and the two fought fiercely, neither gaining an advantage.

This action by the two immediately triggered a full-scale war between the two factions.

The ice snakes that She Xiuyue had just released began to sweep across the land madly. Upon falling to the ground, they directly froze many Misty Cloud Sect disciples into lifelike ice sculptures, which then shattered into powder. The Jia Ma Imperial Family's military formation suffered the most severe damage.

"Good opportunity! While their formation is in disarray, follow this old man and slaughter all the Misty Cloud Sect disciples!" A white-haired Dou Spirit elder from the Heavenly Snake Mansion called out from a high vantage point. Countless disciples behind him responded to the call and charged towards the opposing Jia Ma legion.

"Reform the formation, quickly!" Seeing the sea of enemies concentrated in one spot and surging towards them, Jia Ma Yaoye's expression was one of great alarm.

"Kaka!"

The shield-bearers raised their shields again, and a general behind them shouted orders.

"Hold steady, 300 meters left!"

"200 meters left!"

"100 meters left!"

"50 meters!"

"Prepare to receive the impact!"

"Kill!" The Heavenly Snake Mansion disciples, brandishing their long sabers with ferocious expressions, arrived before the shield-bearers and began hacking wildly without any formation.

These people slammed their sabers against the shields in front of them, unleashing various Dou Techniques upon them, shaking the Jia Ma soldiers behind the shields until they spat blood, but they still withstood the impact.

These shields were third-tier defensive weapons forged by artifact refiners. Due to their high cost, only ten thousand were equipped by the Jia Ma Imperial Family's Imperial Guards. It was impossible for the Dou Grandmaster experts charging at the front to shatter them easily.

"Spearmen, advance!"

The general behind the shields shouted again. The spearmen behind the shield-bearers began to thrust fiercely at the enemy ahead.

"Ah! My eye!" A Dou Grandmaster wasn't paying attention and had his eye stabbed out by a spear from behind the shields. But he was quite lucky, as all the Heavenly Snake Mansion disciples charging at the very front with him had fallen. Some who had leaped high into the air were directly pierced in the groin, writhing on the ground in agony, wishing they were dead.

"Qi Breaking Crossbows, fire!"

"Swish, swish, swish..."

The Jia Ma Imperial Family didn't hold back. The crossbowmen behind the spearmen unleashed their bolts, causing another wave of Heavenly Snake Mansion disciples to fall.

"Prepare the catapults." Seeing the situation was overwhelmingly favorable, the Jia Ma Imperial Family decided to press their advantage and use the immensely powerful iron-hearted stone balls to break the enemy's attacking formation.

"A mere troop formation, watch how this old man breaks it."

At this very moment, numerous Dou Spirit powerhouses from the Heavenly Snake Mansion charged forward ferociously, their bodies surging with Dou Qi. They unleashed a palm strike towards the Jia Ma Imperial Family's military formation.

"Boom!"

A gap was blasted open in the shield formation, and a large number of Heavenly Snake Mansion disciples poured into the formation, hacking and killing anyone they saw, causing heavy casualties among the Jia Ma Imperial Family's soldiers.

Jia Ma Yaoye hastily drew the sword at her waist, scanning her surroundings vigilantly.

"Princess Yaoye, do not panic. I, Hu Xing, have come to your aid!"

A young man from Mu Lan Valley, leading the disciples of Mu Lan Valley, arrived to reinforce them.

These individuals had all practiced the first level of the Three Beast Savage Art. They formed groups of three, channeling the power of two into the person in front. Instantly, a tiger head formed from Dou Qi above the leading person's head, continuously bombarding the enemy. With grunts and shouts, many enemies were torn limb from limb.

"Golden Goose warriors, charge with me!" The disciples of the Golden Goose Sect, riding golden geese, swooped down towards the Heavenly Snake Mansion disciples below. With a single slash of their long sabers, bloody heads tumbled to the ground.

The Misty Cloud Sect disciples, led by Na Lan Yan Ran, displayed elegant and agile swordsmanship as they charged into the enemy ranks. They moved like dancing butterflies, making them difficult to track, their targets primarily being the enemy leaders' heads.

The ground forces of both sides clashed, fighting until the sky darkened and blood flowed like a river. The disciples of the Ten Thousand Scorpion Gate, however, had an easier time, casually tossing bottles filled with poison. The poison powder and liquid corroded many, and very few enemy units dared to cause trouble in that direction.

The battle at the lower levels raged fiercely, while the battle at the middle level had just begun. Yun Yun organized the Cloud Smoke Covering Sun Array, with countless cloud swords constantly slashing at Dou Kings and Dou Emperors.

Jia Xingtian, Hai Bo Dong, Xie Shan, and others worked hard to maintain the array's operation, while the Abyssal Sea Flood Dragon Beast and the Four-winged Sky Demon Scorpion guarded their flanks fiercely, intending to trap these Dou Kings and Dou Emperors with this array.

As long as these individuals were trapped, the tide of the battle could turn.

"Trash, trash, all of you are trash! You can't even break a mere sword formation, you've disgraced our Heavenly Snake Mansion completely!"

She Xiuyue, being pushed back by Ye Qianqian, her long hair disheveled, furiously berated her subordinates.

With her scolding, the twenty Dou Ancestor powerhouses who had been held back immediately unleashed their Dou Qi, attacking Yun Shan and the others with all their might.

Facing the opponent's frenzy, Yun Shan, with his lower cultivation, was the first to falter. His strength was barely enough to hold off two opponents. Suddenly, a Heavenly Snake Mansion Dou Ancestor launched a sneak attack from behind, striking him with a palm that made him spit blood and fall.

Medusa and the others' expressions changed drastically, and the pressure intensified.

"This is bad," Ye Qianqian inwardly cursed. With Yun Shan falling, the situation had completely reversed.

What should she do?

"Right, didn't I draw a B-Class Bodyguard Card? I wonder if the bodyguard will appear immediately. I'll use it first."

"Ding!"

Congratulations to the host for successfully using a B-Class Bodyguard Card. Estimated arrival time for the bodyguard is five minutes.

Ye Qianqian rejoiced. It seemed her luck was good. This bodyguard wouldn't take two days to arrive like Saber did initially.

"Hmph, your Misty Cloud Mountain is about to become a mountain of corpses. And you can still smile?" She Xiuyue said coldly, looking at Ye Qianqian.

"None of your business, you old hag," Ye Qianqian sneered.

"Brat, this sect master will kill you!" She Xiuyue was furious. She hated it most when people called her old. Although she was hundreds of years old, she had maintained her youthful appearance and still looked like she was in her thirties. Being called an old hag by Ye Qianqian was unbearable, and she slashed at Ye Qianqian with her saber.

"Pa!"

Ye Qianqian grabbed the opponent's wrist and forcefully snatched the curved saber away. Seeing that the saber was incredibly cold and imbued with a surge of powerful energy, she secretly thought it was no ordinary item.

"Give me back my saber!" She Xiuyue demanded angrily.

"Give it back?" Ye Qianqian smiled, brandishing the curved saber. It felt quite easy to wield. "It's a waste for you to use this saber. Let me teach you how to use a saber!"