Creating a Terrain Advantage: Building the City Walls
The three elements of war are: favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and Mountain Lord Authority in hand, favorable timing and popular support are on one's side; the key is to create an advantageous terrain.
With the blessing of the Mountain Lord Authority, the Illusory Rock Form-Refining Spell, which could originally only form a mound a few meters long and wide, now stirred up the Earth Vein, and a wall of earth about a mile long, along the edge of the ground about a mile in front of the cave, rapidly rose until it bulged into a wall of earth two zhang high.
Lifting such a large area of earthen wall in one go, even with the added benefit of authority and greatly reduced spell consumption, left Lin Xu with almost all of his magical power depleted.
He took a breath. Through the Dharma Protector Evil Eye, he saw that at the edge of the territory, amidst the sky-covering fog wall, a large group of dungeon monsters had already appeared.
Because they belong to different factions, Lin Xu was now able to directly observe the underground city legion, but the other side could not see Azure Cloud Mountain.
Under the blessing of authority, a massive amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi rapidly converged towards Lin Xu, transforming into pure magical power.
In just a few breaths, the magical power in his empty sea of consciousness had recovered to seventy or eighty percent.
"Frozen Rock!" He dared not delay, and in the blink of an eye, he cast the Illusory Rock Form-Refining Spell again. With the blessing of the Mountain Lord Authority, the grandmaster-level spell displayed its powerful strength.
The soil was reshaped and solidified into hard granite under the spell's effect, which exceeded the original effect of the spell, but it was still not enough for Lin Xu.
"Ordinary rocks can't stop a mid-level professional, let alone a dungeon lord!" Lin Xu was wary. He still remembered the scene in the previous battle of Peach Tree Village when he was ambushed by the Black Warriors and they forcibly broke through the sandstone city wall.
The Spirit Realm Forum, after all, just a gathering place for low-level adventurers. There is very little information about mid-level professionals, and much of it is false information and not credible.
It wasn't until he returned to reality and spent a night talking with the old man of the Jiang Clan that he understood the differences between professionals of different ranks.
"Beginner professionals are merely enhanced Mortal, easily wiped out by firearms like machine guns and artillery. By the intermediate level, the power seed of a professional has matured, and crucially, they have begun to possess extraordinary intuition. Even the most common warriors and martial artists can rely on flexible tactics to contend with mechanized forces."
"And for high-level professionals," Jiang Yelei solemnly warned him, "If you see one, don't hesitate, run!"
With various thoughts swirling in his mind, Lin Xu's gaze fell on the city wall.
With a flickering flame, the Glazed Spirit Lamp in his hand took out materials such as Black Copper Essence and purple gold stored in the warehouse, melted them, and transformed them into metal pieces engraved with seal script. In an instant, these pieces disappeared into the rock city wall.
Metal pieces were embedded into the stone wall in different positions until they formed a complete three-dimensional array.
As a faint aura swirled around, a transparent membrane of light appeared on the entire rock wall, clinging to its shape and disappearing within it.
After more than ten minutes, Lin Xu finally stopped. "We don't have enough materials, this is the best we can do."
Fortunately, given the previous example of the Dark Warrior's raid, this time he built a wall a full ten feet thick. A ten-foot-thick granite wall would be difficult even for a high-level professional to break through!
At this moment, the patrol troops of Azure Cloud Mountain had gathered on the ground of the cave.
Besides Bilusi's Fallen Demon Warband and the Wedding Procession Ghosts, Lin Xu was also pleased with the demon army that Hu Da had just assembled two days ago.
Thanks to the unique geographical features of Azure Cloud Mountain, coupled with the habits of the monsters, the Black Tiger Demon gathered 17 monsters in just two days, forming a considerable fighting force.
With the magical artifacts Lin Xu prepared for the monsters, these demon soldiers, though few in number, were more powerful than the numerous Fallen Demons.
Then there's the largest Wedding Procession Ghosts. This group, centered around the Ghost Bride, has seen its individual strength improved after Lin Xu refined them with Water and Fire Refinement and Deliverance multiple times.
Although the number has not yet recovered to 300, with the help of the tempering of the Precious Radiance Spirit-Tempering Cauldron, more than 20% of the ghosts have already exceeded level 2.
With the added benefit of the paper doll body, the Wedding Procession Ghosts are undoubtedly still his most powerful fighting force.
Then there were the guardians. Because they had only recently joined, these guardians who had just completed their job change were not very strong individually. In fact, most of them had not even accumulated more than 100 units of mana.
"Fortunately, I equipped them with Mystic Fire Bright Light Lamp..." Thinking of this, a sense of relief rose in his heart.
The original intention behind the design of this magical artifact was to provide these guardians with a supplementary source of magical power.
"Quickly! Tiger Sha Army in front, sorcerers and Daoists behind!" Li Yingqiu stood on the wall, busy directing the guards' positions.
This was the first time she had ever seen such a scene, and her heart pounded, but she gritted her teeth and insisted. "The lord has no free time, but I must take on the task of defending the territory!"
Both the Black Tiger Demon and the Ghost Bride were natives of the Spirit Realm, and in terms of experience, she, the adventurer, was far superior. After a simple deployment, the defenders on the city wall were ready for battle.
Lin Xu nodded slightly, took stock of his own combat forces, and then turned his attention back to the attacking dungeon legion. At this time, the monsters had arrived at the foot of the mountain and began to climb the mountain under the urging of the giant city lord.
Meanwhile, in the sky, the battle and probing between the two sides had already begun.
"Roar~"
Thunderous roars echoed across the mountains, and a colossal beast flapped its wings, circling rapidly around Azure Cloud Mountain.
Its sharp gaze fixed on the cave halfway up the mountain, locking onto the group of demon soldiers and ghosts who were preparing.
"What is that?" Li Yingqiu stared dumbfounded at the giant beast in the sky, an overwhelming sense of fear rising within her.
Such a behemoth, once it appears on the battlefield, will directly damage the enemy's morale!
With a flap of its broad bat wings, its massive body plummeted rapidly, like a meteorite crashing down, accompanied by a hissing sound and scattering gusts of wind.
Lin Xu frowned as he watched the giant beast hurtling towards the cave. If this behemoth reached the cave entrance, the defensive battle would be pointless.
"Yingqiu, you're in charge!" he instructed, then rose into the air, facing the oncoming Manticore.
The Glazed Spirit Lamp in his hand flickered with light, and a fiery serpent rushed towards the falling beast, growing longer with the wind and transforming into a fiery dragon tens of meters long in the blink of an eye.
The Manticore, which was Pounce, was startled by the sudden appearance of the fire dragon and instinctively slowed its fierce Pounce.
"Phew~"
The dragon Breath, and a blazing flame scorched towards the attacking Manticore.
The Manticore opened its mouth and spewed out a cloud of green poisonous smoke, causing the red and green colors to collide in mid-air.
The toxic smoke ignited suddenly upon contact with the fire, creating a dark green fireball that swept up the giant beast, accompanied by a wave of heat and a stench.