Outside the encampment, signs of disturbed earth appeared more and more frequently.
Beneath a watchtower, the ground suddenly collapsed, opening a hole half a person wide.
A shadow slipped silently out of the hole, moving so fast that the sentry atop the tower never noticed.
The shadow crawled along the ground and climbed the wooden ladder. One hand clamped over the sentry's mouth while the dagger in the other slashed across his neck.
The sentry's body jerked twice, then crumpled limply.
The shadow gently propped the corpse against a tower post. From a distance, it looked as though the sentry had simply fallen asleep standing up.
The same scene played out at more than a dozen watchtowers around the encampment.
Some sentries had their throats slit, others had their necks broken, and still others were pricked in the back of the head with a silver needle. Not one made a sound before losing consciousness.
The encampment's outer sentries had been eliminated.
On the ground, the collapsed holes grew larger and larger.
First they were fist-sized, then as wide as bowls, and finally big enough for a person to crawl through.
One shadow after another emerged from the holes and slipped soundlessly into the encampment.
They had different targets.
Some headed straight for the camp gates, intending to open them from within and let the Heavenly Strategy Army in.
Others made for the food and supplies, preparing to set them ablaze.
Most drew their weapons and crept toward the central command tent.
Their targets were the Allied Army's senior officers.
The meeting inside the central command tent had not yet ended.
"How long will the provisions last?" Helge asked.
"More than half a month," Kundera replied. "Balaque brought ample supplies, enough to feed an army of four hundred and fifty thousand for twenty days."
Helge nodded. "That will do. Heaven Dou City will fall within half a month."
Before the words had left his mouth—
A muffled thud suddenly sounded outside the tent.
It wasn't loud, but it was heavy, like something rolling beneath the earth.
Then the ground began to tremble faintly. The teacups on the table rattled, clinking softly against one another.
Helge's face changed. "Underground—!"
He shot to his feet, unleashing the full power of his Soul Power as an eighty-third-level Soul Douluo. His Martial Soul appeared behind him.
But he was still half a beat too slow.
The ground in the very center of the command tent exploded.
Stones, dirt, and scraps of tent cloth flew in every direction.
A gigantic black steel beast burst up from beneath the earth.
Its body unfolded in midair, its curled form instantly stretching into a massive steel drill wheel more than ten meters across.
The spiral drill spun at tremendous speed. Its gale-force pressure shredded the tables, maps, and candlesticks around it.
Boom—!
The tremendous crash shook the entire Allied Army encampment.
The command tent vanished in an instant. Shattered canvas and wooden supports blasted outward, crashing into the surrounding tents.
The officers inside were hurled to the ground by the shock wave. Several were struck in the head by flying stones, blood pouring from their wounds.
Earth-Breaking Three landed firmly, its pitch-black scales glinting with a cold, eerie sheen in the firelight.
Its drill slowly came to a stop. Its eight sections reassembled, restoring the steel beast that had once made the city's defenses tremble.
Xiaomeng leaped from its back, Qiuli Sword drawn.
A cold gleam traced a silver-white arc through the night sky.
An ink-wash domain surged outward from her—Colorless World.
Within a hundred meters, the speed of everything dropped by ninety percent.
Helge's face twisted in alarm.
His Martial Soul had only just appeared, but the domain suppressed it until it was almost frozen in place.
He frantically circulated his Soul Power, trying to break free, but it was useless.
The domain was like an invisible mountain pressing down on him. Even lifting an arm took all his strength.
He didn't even see Xiaomeng move.
A flash of swordlight struck the back of his head.
Helge's vision went black, and he collapsed unconscious.
The guards around him could barely move within the Colorless World domain. All they could do was watch their commander fall.
Earth-Breaking Three didn't stay idle.
It spun violently in place, its eight sections transforming once more as it curled into a rolling wheel of slaughter.
Its blades whirled at high speed, shredding the officers and guards who hadn't managed to flee.
The encampment around the command tent became a battlefield straight out of hell.
As Colorless World faded, the nobles in the tent shrieked and scattered.
Prince Xue Ye was escorted toward the tent entrance by his guards, while Kundera stumbled backward amid a cluster of bodyguards.
Then an even more horrifying turn of events unfolded—
"Ah—!"
A scream rang out from one side of the tent.
A certain earl had drawn his sword and was directing the defense when his own personal guard stabbed him through the lower back.
The earl's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked back and saw an expressionless face.
"You... you..."
The guard pulled out his blade and struck again, hacking into his neck.
The earl fell, blood spraying three feet into the air.
"The guards have turned on us—!"
"Watch the people around you!"
The tent erupted into chaos.
The nobles couldn't tell friend from foe. Some drew their swords and attacked their comrades, some fought to escape, and others fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
In the confusion, two more nobles had their throats slit from behind by their own guards.
Xue Ye was shoved out of the tent by his guards. Looking back, he saw a guard chasing Kundera with a raised blade.
Only because his personal guards fought to block the blow did Kundera escape in a desperate rush.
"Go! Hurry!" Kundera's face was ashen as he sprinted for the edge of the encampment, surrounded by his guards.
Xue Ye fled in the opposite direction, his face stricken with fear.
At that moment, the ink-wash domain spread again.
Beneath a flash of swordlight, Xue Ye and Kundera rolled their eyes back and fell unconscious.
The surrounding nobles were slaughtered to the last.
There was no point letting these parasites live.
Outside the tent, the Allied Army's camps erupted in explosions all at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom—
A chain of blasts sent flames soaring, turning half the night sky red.
In the scout camp, an assassin chopped off the deputy general's head, then stood in the tent entrance holding it aloft and shouted:
"The Heavenly Strategy Army has broken in! The commander is dead! Run!"
In the Noble Allied Army's right wing, dozens of assassins hidden in different tents struck at the same time.
Explosions rang out one after another. Fires blazed, and thick smoke billowed into the sky.
The soldiers woke from their sleep and rushed out of their tents, only to find themselves in a living hell.
Flames soared in the direction of the central camp, while the supply depot blazed fiercely.
Someone shouted, "The Heavenly Strategy Army has broken in!"
"The commander is dead!"
"The central command tent has been blown up!"
No one knew which reports were true.
No one knew whether the person beside them was a comrade or an assassin.
Panic spread like a plague.
A flute melody descended from above.
Snow Maiden rode the Ice Crystal Phoenix, flying five hundred meters over the Allied Army encampment.
The fifty-thousand-year-old Ice Crystal Phoenix had a wingspan of more than fifteen meters. Its body was icy blue, and fine ice crystals drifted from its wings, making it look like a goddess of ice and snow descending into the night.
With the Blue Sea Tide-Rising Flute at her lips, she closed her eyes and played the first note.
Low-ranking Soul Masters and ordinary soldiers began to feel dizzy, their hearts racing.
Some clutched their heads and rolled on the ground. Others started babbling incoherently, while still others went mad and attacked the comrades beside them.
False commands were mixed into the melody, whispering in every soldier's ear like a demon's voice.
"Retreat! Head north!"
"The Heavenly Strategy Army is attacking from the south!"
"Xue Ye has already fled!"
The soldiers lost the ability to think clearly.
They didn't know where the enemy was, where to run, or whether the people beside them were friend or foe.
Fear ruled everything.
Long-range fire from the Heavenly Strategy Army followed in rapid succession.
Three kilometers away, more than a hundred Hundred-Battle City-Breaking Crossbows fired at once.
The massive bolts, each carrying a high-explosive warhead, streaked through the night with orange-red tails and struck the Allied Army's flank with deadly accuracy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosions tore the camp palisades to splinters, flames soaring into the sky.
Each high-explosive shell covered dozens of meters, swallowing tents, supply carts, and soldiers alike.
In the woods to the Allied Army's right, twenty thousand heavily armored Horned Scale Horse cavalry stood ready.
The first three thousand cavalrymen charged out, raising their heavy crossbows at a distance of one thousand meters and firing a volley together.
Thrum-thrum-thrum-thrum...
Bolts poured down like a rainstorm.
Before the nobles' private soldiers on the Allied Army's left wing could recover from the explosions, bolts pierced their armor and brought them down in heaps. Their bodies piled up like hills.
The three thousand cavalrymen advanced to within four hundred meters and quickly switched to Zhuge Repeating Crossbows.
Thousands of Zhuge Repeating Crossbows fired together, each unleashing sixteen arrows per volley.
Tens of thousands of arrows wove a net of death through the air, raining down over the fleeing Allied Army soldiers.
In the first volley, the soldiers at the front fell in droves.
In the second, the reserve troops trying to rally were pierced through.
After three volleys, the Allied Army's vanguard had been wiped out.
The ground bristled with bolts. Bodies lay piled high, and blood flowed like a river.
As they neared the enemy, the cavalry put away their crossbows and drew three-meter-long fine-steel halberds.
They formed a wedge and drove straight into the heart of the enemy ranks.
The Horned Scale Horses charged at full speed. Propelled by the horses' momentum, the halberds pierced enemy chests and flung bodies aside.
They charged through without stopping or lingering, wheeled around, and attacked again.
Ordinary cavalry swept around both flanks, dividing the scattered Allied Army into several smaller groups.
Once surrounded, the enemy groups were swiftly slaughtered. The cavalry impaled them with halberds, cut them down with sabers, and crushed them with iron hammers.
It was a one-sided massacre.
When the Allied Army soldiers saw that black flood of steel bearing down on them, even their last shred of courage vanished.
Some threw away their weapons and ran. Others knelt and surrendered, while still others crouched on the ground, clutching their heads and trembling.
The army of four hundred and fifty thousand had been completely routed in less than two hours, caught between attacks from within and without.
The commanders of the main forces were all captured.
A great many nobles were slaughtered!
The flames blazing outside Heaven Dou City also drew the attention of many spies.
They hurried toward the city, full of suspicion, to find out what had happened.
But the Net agents following close behind caught them in turn, like a mantis stalking a cicada while the oriole waited behind.
A single blow to the back of the head knocked them unconscious, and they were carried away.
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