Under the command of Princess Xiao Yinghao, the White Dragon Army had a total strength of four hundred thousand, stationed respectively across Autumn Peace Road, Yumen Road, and Pingyang Road.
The troops on Autumn Peace Road were personally led by Xiao Yinghao herself, while Yumen Road and Pingyang Road were guarded by her two trusted generals.
The force of one hundred and fifty thousand on Autumn Peace Road included thirty thousand heavy cavalry, ten thousand cultivators who had entered the ranks, one thousand elite cultivators above the eighth grade, and five formation cultivators of the seventh grade.
This number of ranked cultivators seemed exaggerated, almost equal to the total population of disciples in some great immortal sects.
However, in reality, the vast majority of them were loyal soldiers whose cultivation had been forcibly raised through secret arts. The price of this enhancement was that they could never advance further in their lifetime, and their lifespan would not exceed fifty years.
In terms of quality, they could not compare to the cultivators of immortal sects.
Even so, these soldiers had once been ordinary civilians. Now that they were cultivators and received the court's military rations, their shortened lifespan seemed a small price to pay.
Only the remaining thousand or so were genuine cultivators who voluntarily joined to assist the White Dragon Army in resisting the Qingman.
For example, the Jade Void Sect cultivator whose robes had been stripped by Gu Fangchen.
The forces stationed on the other two roads were not weak either, but they still could not compare to those of Autumn Peace Road.
This was because Autumn Peace Road possessed not only the natural stronghold of Han River Gorge, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also a high-quality Fire Essence Ore mine.
Fire Essence Ore was the main material used in crafting Cloud-Piercing Arrows of tremendous power and was also a key medium for many destructive formations.
The Qingman were skilled at controlling demonic beasts, massive, thick-skinned creatures whose greatest strength lay in their immense defense. Ordinary martial cultivators could scarcely pierce their hides.
Cloud-Piercing Arrows were weapons created specifically to counter such beasts.
Therefore, Autumn Peace Road held extraordinary strategic importance, which was why Xiao Yinghao personally guarded it.
Compared to losing that Fire Essence Ore mine, even the loss of a hundred thousand soldiers would not be considered a major problem for the White Dragon Army.
Thus, after Autumn Peace Road fell, Gu Yuye's reinforcements became critical.
"Quick! Quick! Cui Hu! Yin Cheng! You two cover Master Huadu while he activates the formation, I'll hold off that red-haired demon!"
Deputy General Shi Le shouted, his eyes wide with fury.
"Die, all of you!"
He roared, activating the Vajra Mantra. Golden light burst from his body as his figure swelled to more than twice its size, his special armor stretching tight over his bulging muscles. Reaching out, he grabbed the heads of two Qingman soldiers and crushed them like melons.
He then seized a long halberd, tied the White Dragon Army banner to it, mounted his horse, and charged forward.
The towering flag waved high above, and the roar of a fifth-grade Refined-Heart Realm martial cultivator shook the battlefield, directly rupturing the lungs of nearby Qingman soldiers.
He carved a temporary path of blood straight through the enemy ranks!
The dramatic display greatly boosted the morale of the White Dragon Army soldiers.
The chaos caused by the enemy's ambush began to stabilize as they regrouped and reformed their lines, preventing a total collapse.
Shi Le raised the banner high and spurred his horse onward.
His halberd swept in great arcs, harvesting heads as he charged, yet his heart remained heavy.
After seeing that ominous pillar of blood in the distance, they had immediately sent messengers to contact the princess.
But even now, there was still no response from her!
The White Dragon Army had been forced to fight in separate contingents, relying only on him and Yao Jin, the two deputy generals, to command.
But neither of them practiced the Way of War, so they lacked the support of military formations. Without the instant communication of formation intelligence, even divine cultivators relaying messages were of little use. Facing a sudden onslaught of demonic beasts and Qingman cavalry, their defenses were on the verge of collapsing.
Yet they all knew, they could not yield Autumn Peace Road. This battle could only be fought to the death.
The enemy, clearly well-prepared and relentless, surged forward like an endless tide.
They struck precisely at the weakest point of the line, as if fully aware that no commander was coordinating their forces, and even seemed intimately familiar with the army's formation and deployment!
Shi Le's heart filled with dread. He suspected a traitor among them, otherwise, how could the enemy know their positions in such detail?
That made their situation even more perilous.
"The Princess will return soon..."
Shi Le could only comfort himself with that thought.
But deep down, a strong sense of unease gnawed at him.
In the 125th year of Yong'an, before Commander Ding was demoted, he had camped outside Huangtian City, unable to sleep through the night, plagued by this very same feeling of dread.
At that time, Shi Le, then a lay disciple of the Garan Temple, had not yet reached the level of Grandmaster.
After that disaster, he had watched helplessly as his brothers were scattered. He later joined the White Dragon Army and gradually rose to become Princess Xiao's deputy general.
"No matter what, the Qingman must not break through the Autumn Peace Road line! The Fire Essence Mine must be held!"
His gaze hardened as he stared at the red-haired, green-eyed Qingman man standing atop a giant serpent across the battlefield.
That man's cold eyes, his bare upper body covered in crimson totems and runes, and his bone ornaments exuded an aura of primal savagery and bloodlust.
He was the commander of this Qingman assault, a fourth-grade Divine Path cultivator named Agaro.
Divine Path cultivators generally had one major weakness: their physical bodies.
But the Qingman's mastery of beast-taming offset that flaw.
Their controlled demonic beasts were powerful enough to compensate for their frail physiques.
That serpent beneath Agaro possessed the physical strength of a sixth-grade martial cultivator. Though Shi Le was a Grandmaster, he had little confidence in surviving a battle against both a fourth-grade Divine Path cultivator and a sixth-grade beast simultaneously.
All he could do was stall for time.
Wait!
As long as the princess returned, victory would be theirs!
Shi Le took a deep breath, leapt from his horse, and hurled his halberd toward Agaro with a fierce shout.
"Whizz-"
The massive serpent beneath Agaro surged like a mountain, kicking up dust as its tail swept up to block the halberd.
Shi Le followed immediately, stepping onto the halberd mid-air and launching himself toward Agaro.
He had to end this quickly, to kill the Qingman commander before the battle dragged on.
If he fell into a prolonged fight, he would surely lose, and then the White Dragon Army would truly be leaderless.
"Futile struggle!"
Agaro sneered, clutching a bone ornament that glowed with dense runes.
He shouted, "Break!"
Shi Le's pupils contracted sharply. A searing pain stabbed into his head, and the golden light around him dimmed instantly.
His face twisted in agony as he realized, there were two golden needles hidden inside his helmet, piercing into the acupoints behind his ears!
The Vajra Mantra was indestructible, but its greatest weakness lay behind the ears.
There truly was a traitor!
Shi Le struggled to hold off Agaro and the serpent for a few moments, but in the end, he was overpowered.
"Boom!"
Shi Le was sent flying, crashing down near the front of the camp. Two soldiers who had gone to assist the formation master stumbled toward him, shouting,
"Bad news, General Shi! Master Huadu suddenly vomited blood and died! The Fire Essence Mine formation won't activate!"
Despair flooded his heart.
Shi Le forced himself to sit up. His ears buzzed as he watched, helpless, while the White Dragon Army continued to fall back in defeat.
Could it be... they couldn't even hold Autumn Peace Road?
"Stand up!"
Suddenly, a hand reached out before his eyes.
The hand was pale and slender, almost delicate, more like that of a noblewoman than a warrior.
Shi Le looked up in a daze.
A dust-covered young man, his body spattered with blood, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up, his tone sharp and commanding:
"Gather every soldier still able to fight. I'll activate the White Dragon Army Formation!"