Ren Tianye cursed inwardly, but his face remained cold and stern.
Fine, launching a brazen assault on the city, are we?
Let's see if you lot can even put a scratch on Yunji City!
He ordered, "Sun Xiang!"
"Here, sir!"
"Go to the military camp and mobilize three thousand men."
"Yes, sir!"
Sun Xiang acknowledged the order and had someone beat the war drums while he personally went to dispatch the troops as needed.
As soon as he arrived at the camp, the seven thousand soldiers of Yunji City had already rushed out of their barracks. They stood bewildered and fearful, feeling the earth-shattering tremors coming from outside the city from time to time.
"Twenty thousand Imperial Guards are attacking the city. By the order of the Great General, I am now deploying forces."
"City Defense Battalion!"
Countless voices roared in unison, "Here!"
"I order two thousand of you to rush to the city walls immediately!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Reserve Battalion!"
"Here!"
"I order you to draw one thousand men to assist the City Defense Battalion. The rest are to remain on high alert, ready to mount the walls at a moment's notice."
"Yes, sir!"
"Logistics Battalion!"
"Here!"
"Prepare all military equipment and supplies. There must be no shortages."
"Yes, sir!"
Sun Xiang issued the orders one by one, and the men responded with high morale. Finally, Sun Xiang shouted, "Everyone, follow me! Mount the walls and defend Yunji City!"
He led the way, and the troops quickly followed.
The inner camp of Yunji City connected directly to the city walls. Since everyone had already been alerted, they moved with extreme speed, surging up onto the walls.
However, their faces were all filled with anger.
"Her Majesty simply refuses to let us go. It was clearly Zhan Shubai who colluded with the barbarians, yet she wants to slaughter us all."
"Damn it, let's fight the imperial court's men to the death! If we fight, there's a sliver of hope to survive. If we don't, we'll truly die here today."
"Thank goodness General Ren is willing to protect us, otherwise our heads would have rolled by now. Since the imperial court dares to attack our Yunji City, even if I die, I'm taking one of them down with me."
...
The soldiers of Yunji City clearly believed that the imperial army this time had been sent by Empress Xiao Mingzhao to exterminate them.
Already indignant, they now grew even more furious.
Their fighting spirit soared higher.
They quickly reached the top of the city walls, taking up their positions in an orderly manner according to their usual training.
Meanwhile, the twenty thousand Imperial Guards were currently constructing pontoon bridges.
They were clearly ill-prepared.
It could even be said they hadn't anticipated fighting this battle at all. As a result, they didn't even have ready-made pontoon bridges. Relying entirely on their sheer numbers, they chopped down trees and threw the logs into the moat.
They hoped to dam the moat with the submerged timber.
After all, there were plenty of trees nearby, making it easy to gather wood.
But they never imagined that before Ren Tianye, there was a defending general who, in order to win the Empress's favor, had spared no effort to widen and deepen the moat.
He had even dug as many as three moats.
This made their actions seem extremely ridiculous.
The floating logs were all washed away; after struggling for a long time, they achieved nothing.
Left with no choice, they had to rebuild the pontoon bridges.
It took a great deal of effort before they finally managed to construct three pontoon bridges.
The twenty thousand Imperial Guards shouted their charge. Armed with strong bows and stiff crossbows, they fired volley after volley of arrows.
Because Yunji City's walls were so high, even the strong bows used by the Imperial Guards rarely reached the top of the walls, posing little threat.
As for the arrows that hit the wall, it was quite comical.
When the arrows struck the cyan-tinted walls, the tremendous impact didn't cause the slightest damage to the wall; instead, the arrows simply slid off one after another.
If this was already frustrating enough for the Imperial Guards, what made them break down even more were the siege ladders they brought.
They had brought them along with the army just in case.
Having been used in Shanhe City, they hadn't even been fully repaired before being dragged out for service again, but these siege ladders...
Were not tall enough!
They simply weren't tall enough!
When the ladders were leaned against the city wall, they couldn't even reach the battlements.
The battlefield was perilous, and the Imperial Guards were fighting for their lives. Many anxiously climbed up the unsteady ladders. After finally dodging the arrows and reaching the top of the ladder, they discovered...
They were still quite a distance away from the top of the wall!
This left the Imperial Guards deeply aggrieved. They were here to siege a city, not to be a laughingstock!
On the other hand, it was a completely different scene for the soldiers of Yunji City.
Their high morale went without saying.
The city defense equipment had long been thoroughly prepared by Zhan Shubai.
Moreover, they held the geographical advantage.
Facing these Imperial Guards, it was practically an overwhelming slaughter!
Basically, by standing up high and shooting arrows downward, they could hear the continuous screams of the Imperial Guards. Those who had crossed the moat became sitting ducks one by one.
From the very beginning, the battlefield presented a completely one-sided situation.
This also greatly boosted the confidence of the Yunji City soldiers.
One must know that war is all about morale.
An inferior army facing elite troops, even with advantages in numbers, equipment, and terrain, would still be extremely fearful psychologically.
This easily gives elite troops the chance to win with fewer numbers.
But the current situation was too advantageous for the Yunji City soldiers. It built up the troops' confidence in one fell swoop and gradually dispelled their fear of the Imperial Guards on the battlefield.
"Great General, these Imperial Guards are nothing special!" Sun Xiang even had the mood to joke, and then advised, "Great General, why don't you leave things here to me."
"Swords and arrows have no eyes, after all. You can just return to the General's Manor and command from there."
Sun Xiang was also considering Ren Tianye's safety.
After all, the Imperial Guards seemed so weak mainly because they were at a severe disadvantage in equipment and terrain. But these twenty thousand Imperial Guards were not bad; some of them could shoot their arrows up here.
In this past hour, although the Yunji City soldiers held the advantages of timing, terrain, and unity, quite a few had still been hit by stray arrows.
But Ren Tianye shook his head.
He naturally knew that as the commander-in-chief and the absolute core of these seven thousand men, his life was very precious. Under normal circumstances, he should return to the General's Manor to command remotely.
But this was not a normal circumstance.
This was the first time he was fighting side by side with his brothers, so he could not retreat—not even a single step.
Prestige was built in critical moments like this.
Ren Tianye understood this all too well and said, "I am fine."
"I shall stand together with my brothers!"
Ren Tianye shouted word by word, his clear voice spreading across the city walls. This made the morale of the Yunji City soldiers surge again, and their arrows rained down even harder.
Those twenty thousand Imperial Guards had to charge to the base of the wall to siege the city. They couldn't spread out at all and could only employ piecemeal tactics.
In less than an hour, they had already suffered hundreds of casualties, and their morale had plummeted. Now, bombarded by such a furious rain of arrows, they could no longer hold out.
The sound of retreating gongs rang out from the Imperial Guards' camp.
The Imperial Guards retreated one after another.
This farce, which lasted for nearly an hour, came to an end after the Imperial Guards left behind hundreds of corpses.
The soldiers of Yunji City immediately erupted into cheers.
"We won! We won!"
"Hahaha, the Empress still wants to kill us? Dream on!"
"Mighty Great General! The Great General led us to defeat the Imperial Guards' charge."
"We survived!"
...
In the instant sea of joy that was stirred up, a scout stumbled over to Ren Tianye, his face full of panic as he said, "Great General, there is another army of Imperial Guards, numbering as many as fifty thousand."
"They are rapidly marching toward our Yunji City!"
...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
