Chapter 1765 - Never Getting Up After Kneeling
The million troops that had been waiting for so long passionately watched their general. Li Xuanyang was fully clad in armor that revealed only his eyes, which shot a burning gaze at his soldiers.
"General!" they roared in unison.
"We're mounting a full assault to wipe out Azurecloud!" When Li Xuanyang turned around to lead his troops towards the Azuresky Myriadsword Formation, a flame seemed to spark among the troops. They swarmed toward the mountain like flaming demons, scorching everything they touched.
Li Yunxi couldn't help but marvel at the sight. While Li Xuanyang messed around quite a bit, she had to admit that his bravery was something to be taken seriously on the battlefield. While that same bravery also exposed him to a certain amount of danger, it made him a nightmare for the enemy. He was someone who could kill without mercy, having the true makings of a war hero. "The final million troops will disrupt the balance of power. War isn’t just a battle of brawns, but also of wits."
Had the full army charged in from the very beginning, the defenders of Azurecloud would be fighting with a different mental state. But in this case, the celestial orderians allowed them to feel hopeful before completely crushing that last bit of hope. It was hard to imagine the devastation the crumbling of their morale would cause. Li Yunxi recalled the horrible loss they had suffered at the Myriaddragon Mountains with bloody rage in her eyes.
"Myriad Solar Sects, it's finally time for you to pay the heavy price!" She knew that the celestial orderians had their minds made up. There would no longer be any room for mercy. It wasn't just for the deaths of the tens of millions of their troops, but instead, it was for the death of Li Wushuang, among the most precious people of the sun emperor. Long Wanying just so happened to be fighting here.
"I didn't think you’d be so eager to give up your life. I bet the sun emperor will be pleased with you as an offering." She knew that the sun emperor hadn't smiled for a long time. She charged in with the rest of the troops, looking at the youth with flaming, golden hair. Even though that was just the son of the sun emperor and only had a hundredth of his magnificence, he still seemed rather alluring. Yet she knew that she would never get so much as a single glance from the sun emperor.
"I wonder if he'll look at me at least once if I bring Long Wanying to him...." She didn't find herself to be weird at all. In fact, all female soul tribulators found the sun emperor charming.
Slaughter and blood were omnipresent on the battlefield. The defenders didn't know whether they would have a future. All they knew was that they couldn't afford to fall. Only if they held on would they have a hope of survival, if only for those they cared about. They had already given it their all and were being pushed to their limits. Many of them had lost a limb or two, yet they were still struggling.
"They have many casualties, too! We can hold on!"
"Eventually, they'll have to retreat!"
"Brothers, sisters, don't give up! Never! If we kneel, our descendants will never be able to get up ever again!"
Even though hope seemed like it would be extinguished with the smallest gust of wind, it was the only thing they had left to lose. That was how they were sustained by it. Yet as the flames of hope burned slightly stronger, something completely changed.
Loud battle cries could be heard coming from ahead of them. The battle intensified once more as large numbers of totemancer reinforcements entered the battlefield. They didn't know how many there were, exactly, only that there were more than a million of them. Their sudden heavy assault put out the flame of hope of the defenders once more, many of whom succumbed to despair and cried tears of blood. Everyone had a breaking point, and they had reached theirs. It was only worsened by the fact that they had just gotten their hands on a frail hope, only for it to be crushed. Their efforts thus far had been insufficient and useless; as calculated, many of the fighters seemed to turn soft after seeing the reinforcements and succumbed to the burning flames.
"Kill!"
"Today is the day of Azurecloud's extermination! From now on, this will be our territory! You'll be nothing but our slaves! Surrender and submit! Cry all you want! We’ll make sure you get to vent your fear all you want! Remember that only celestial orderians are the true higher lifeforms on the sun! You’re all merely animals! Hahahaha!" Li Xuanyang did his part to fan the flames with all the arrogance he had. Every word of his was like a hammer blow to the hearts of the defenders. "I, Li Xuanyang, will teach you pathetic animals a lesson! You’ll never be able to stop us! Our legacies will forever be before your lowly souls!"
Li Xuanyang had never been known to hold back when it came to explosive boasts. His mockery seemed to ignite his troops even more. They joined in the laughter like snickering devils. They were the carnivores preying on the weak grass-eaters. Before the lion, sheep could do nothing but run and cry.
The final charge by a million troops worked out as Li Xuanyang had desired. It was almost cruelly sadistic to dangle some hope before the enemy just to intentionally crush it, even if that meant paying a price at the start. He was cold enough to not care about the minor loss of life at first. In fact, the sun emperor's plan with the Veildragon Palace had been drafted because he wanted to limit his losses, only for it to completely backfire at the Myriaddragon Mountains. That was why Li Xuanyang had decided to do what his father didn't. He didn't even bat an eye as he stepped over the corpses of his own comrades to achieve his goals.
"This is bad...." Long Wanying, Yun Tianque, and Gujian Qingshuang understood that their morale was mostly gone. It would only be a short time before their forces completely fell as their morale crumbled like dominos. No matter what Gujian Qingshuang said, it was pointless. His sole voice couldn't rival the battle cries of a million enemy troops. On the battlefield, the power of a single person was always limited. That fact made Long Wanying feel helpless. She was smart enough to realize that even if the Saintdragon Emperor came to help, it wouldn't stop their morale from crumbling.
Li Xuanyang was projecting the message that today was the end of the Azurecloud Continent. Nobody from the Myriad Solar Sects would be able to stop the continent from falling into enemy hands. What followed would be the extermination of tens of millions of others to quench the rage of the celestial orderians. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and even Long Wanying seemed overwhelmed as she shed tears for this land. it was a kind of suffering she had never endured before. She almost started to see visions of her husband, son, and Yang Ce beckoning her over.
"Tianming, looks like we'll have to meet again in the next life. Brother Xuan, Yang Ce, and my dear Tian'er, I’m coming to you...." She flew toward the enemy with her dragon, accepting her impending death. She wanted to go out on her own terms. "Everyone, even though we may die, we should at least do it with no regrets."
Her voice was incredibly weak before the enemy's army. As the Whitedragon Empress, she alone wasn't enough to overcome the domineering presence of the Xuanyang Army. Even then, she wouldn't regret it as long as her death had the slightest bit of effect. Given her status, she was sure to move quite a number of defenders. The tens of thousands of reinforcements from the Ninedragon Army lined up on their dragons together and charged toward the enemy like moths towards flames. The sight was burned into the eyes of the countless denizens of the continent. Even so, it wouldn't change the fact of their eventual defeat. No amount of shed blood could liberate them from the burden of being weak. The best they could even hope to strive for was an emotional victory, and a hollow one at that.
Li Xuanyang merely laughed at Long Wanying's futile effort. "I didn't think I'd get such a huge bonus...." It must be his lucky day. By now, nobody on the sun would be able to stop him from being recognized as the most capable prince. He passionately roared, letting out his long-suppressed feelings and ambitions. One day, he would become a sun emperor that surpassed all who came before him, a true sovereign! At the peak of his roar, Long Wanying was already not far from him. He could smell his prey, like the dead corpse of Azurecloud.
That instant, a flash of black and gold appeared between Long Wanying and Li Xuanyang. Ten gigantic totem swords pierced the air and pointed toward the million celestial orderian troops, shocking the entire battlefield into silence.