The beast horde and the caravan were separated by only about two li. Even though the Demon Beasts leading the charge were thick-skinned and slow, they were still cultivators.
Driven by spiritual power at full sprint, they could cover such a short distance and enter the Spirit Crossbows' range within twenty breaths.
The caravan cultivators all held Spirit Crossbows, aiming at the charging beast horde, poised to strike. More than ten breaths passed, and the beast horde was only a hundred zhang from the wagon formation.
The gray-robed cultivator shouted, "Fire!"
More than eighty cultivators activated their Spirit Crossbows at once. The Spirit Stones mounted on the crossbows flashed, and arrows of spiritual energy shot forth.
More than eighty arrows of spiritual energy were hardly enough against several hundred Demon Beasts. Besides, these Demon Beasts were all thick-skinned and tough-furred.
The first volley brought down only five or six Demon Beasts. All were merely injured; none had died.
However, these Spirit Crossbows could fire in succession. Half a breath after the first rain of arrows, the second volley fell. This time, the Demon Beasts had no time to dodge, and more were wounded, yet none died.
The third volley, then the fourth—while the distance between the two sides steadily shrank, the rain of arrows grew ever more powerful.
When the fifth volley fell, more than twenty Demon Beasts went down. A black bear was struck in the eye by an arrow; the spiritual arrow pierced through its eye socket and sank into the back of its skull, killing it on the spot.
The sixth volley brought down more than thirty Demon Beasts, five of them dead.
By then, some Demon Beasts that had comprehended innate spells began retaliating with spells of their own. Yet when their spells struck the wagon formation, they did little more than make a noise, utterly ineffective.
Using spells slowed their charge, making it a terrible bargain. The Demon Beasts stopped their spell attacks and lowered their heads as they charged forward.
After another three volleys of arrows, more than a hundred Demon Beasts had fallen across the battlefield, over thirty of them dead. The remaining three hundred-odd Demon Beasts that could still charge were all wounded.
The Demon Beasts leading the assault had already lost all will to fight, scattering in panic like rats fleeing with their heads in their paws.
The tenth volley fell. Since the Demon Beasts were fleeing in utter disorder, it brought down only a little over fifty.
After the tenth volley, the Spirit Stones on the Spirit Crossbows had run dry and needed to be replaced. Replacing the Spirit Stones and reactivating the crossbows required three breaths.
The Demon Beasts made full use of that brief window, fleeing beyond the Spirit Crossbows' lethal range even faster than they had charged, while also taking away some of their wounded, fallen kin.
After replacing their Spirit Stones, the caravan cultivators continued firing, killing the severely wounded Demon Beasts lying on the ground. After three more volleys, every severely wounded Demon Beast had been dealt with.
Of the five or six hundred Demon Beasts, fewer than half managed to retreat.
The four Second-Order Demonic Beasts flew into a rage and dispatched another three hundred or so swift Demon Beasts, including leopards and wolves.
Having learned from the previous failure, this assault did not charge forward in a single swarm. Instead, they spread out and attacked from multiple directions.
As a result, the caravan cultivators could no longer fire their Spirit Crossbows in volleys. They could only spread out and deal with different enemies individually.
Although these Demon Beasts were nimble and agile, and the Spirit Crossbows could no longer fire in volleys, leaving few of them hit, they lacked scales and tough hides. Once struck, they would either be wounded and fall or perish outright.
The moment the Demon Beasts entered the Spirit Crossbows' range, casualties began appearing, though only a scant few lost their ability to fight.
The inability to fire in volleys severely weakened the Spirit Crossbows' killing power. Ten breaths later, the Demon Beasts reached the wagon formation, having lost fewer than a hundred.
The swift and nimble Demon Beasts easily leaped over the outer wagons and charged into the cultivators' midst.
All the Demon Beasts roared excitedly. More than two hundred had entered the wagon formation, while the caravan had only around eighty cultivators.
The space inside the wagon formation was cramped, leaving no room to dodge or maneuver. They could only rely on close-quarters combat.
Demon Beasts' Physical Bodies were far more formidable than those of human cultivators of the same rank. Combined with their overwhelming numerical advantage, under normal circumstances, the human cultivators would be wiped out in less than a quarter of an hour.
The Lineage cultivators lying in ambush near the small hill could no longer sit still. Wang Daoxing even prepared to shout and rush out to help.
But old ginger was still the spiciest. Wang Shouye had long been prepared; he pressed Wang Daoxing down with one hand. The gap between their cultivation and combat ability was enormous, leaving Wang Daoxing unable to move even an inch.
Wang Daoyuan immediately covered his mouth as well, lest he cry out.
Seeing the disturbance among them, Yang Zhiyuan sent another voice transmission. "Those who act rashly will die!"
At that moment, within the wagon formation in the valley, explosive booms from colliding spells rose and fell without end; flashes of every color flickered one after another.
Sand, dust, and smoke blotted out the sky and sun, leaving everyone outside the wagon formation unable to see what was happening inside. The Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the air also kept attacking the Demon Beasts, but with little effect.
A quarter of an hour passed, and the battle continued, though Demon Beasts constantly fled from the formation.
Another half-quarter of an hour passed. The battle was basically over, and as the sand, dust, and smoke dispersed, everyone finally saw the state of the battle.
Within that tiny wagon formation, Demon Beast corpses carpeted the ground. A rough glance showed more than a hundred bodies.
The caravan's side had not fared well either. Of its eighty-odd cultivators, thirty had died and twenty were injured. Ten of those were severely wounded and had lost the ability to fight again.
Neither the Demon Beasts nor the people lying in ambush around them had expected such an outcome.
Wang Daoyuan understood a little. The ground around the wagon formation was covered in scraps of paper. With his professional eye, they should all have been shattered Talisman Paper. Some cultivators still had Golden Armor Talismans stuck to their bodies, with phantom golden armor surrounding them.
By conservative estimate, that fierce battle had consumed more than five thousand Talismans. On average, each cultivator had used over sixty Talismans.
More than sixty Talismans were nothing to Wang Daoyuan. But he was a Talisman Master, so it was only natural for him to carry many Talismans. Cultivators who could not make Talismans generally carried no more than twenty.
First, every person had a Spirit Crossbow. Then there were several thousand Talismans, along with specially reinforced, impregnable wagons. This caravan's equipment was far too luxurious.
Wang Daoyuan found it strange. Every aspect of the battle before him reeked of something uncanny:
The caravan in the valley was clearly bait meant to lure the Demon Beasts in. Bait existed only to catch fish; once the fish bit, the bait had no value left.
Why would the Netherworld Sect spend such a tremendous price to arm this bait? The Netherworld Sect was an evil sect, not a charity hall. It could not possibly spend such an enormous price protecting bait that no longer had any value.
Furthermore, the Demon Beasts' behavior was exceedingly strange. First, they used a black gale to conceal their spells and extend their spells' killing range; then they sent thick-skinned Demon Beasts to launch a probing attack. After the probing attack failed, they accurately identified the weakness of concentrated Spirit Crossbow volleys, changed tactics, and successfully turned a battle of assaulting fortifications into a melee.
That entire series of maneuvers completely exceeded the intelligence level of Demon Beasts. It had even reached the level of an outstanding human commander.
Demon Beasts of the Second Order and above all possessed innate spells, whether to strengthen their bodies or attack from afar, among other varieties. But this black gale was so vast in force, reached so far, and could extend the killing range of spells. It was absolutely not something an ordinary Demon Beast could possess.
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