Chapter 1774 - Path of Corpses
If their chances of winning were bleak, the five million ascendants wouldn't be able to go down into the fight, as giving up on the advantage of their formation to serve as reinforcements would be incredibly risky. But their participation under the current circumstances shook the balance on the battlefield once more, sealing the confidence in their win in stone. They all gave even more of a fight as a result.
Corpses littered the ground. So much for the celestial orderians mocking beastmasters to be weak, when in fact, all of them were elite mounted knights while totemancers were mere infantrymen. There was nothing that could beat the charge of beastmasters. Tianming, for instance, mounted Lan Huang as he led the charge of millions of beastmasters. And the five million reserves behind them were cleaning up the remnants left behind from the charge, ganging up upon them.
As Lan Huang and the Prime Mountain swept through, Ying Huo and Meow Meow blasted a few abilities out for good measure. Tianming was at the center of the formation and slew anyone he pleased. There were some hundred thousand swords above him that he could move about like his own fingers spilling countless rivers of blood.
The Azurecloud warriors also didn't give the enemy many chances to surround him, allowing him to continue his charge unabated as he recreated the miracle of the Myriaddragon Mountains. Tianming's totem swords pierced through countless flaming totems. Their totems were like tofu before him, given that they were seventh-level constelliers on average. Not even their totemic calamities could pierce the defense of the prime wonder. The magnificent charge opened a path forward, smashing apart the formations of the celestial orderians and reducing their strategic advantage to nothing. Even though their forces hadn’t completely collapsed, they could no longer see any hope of winning. Without commanders, their formations grew messier by the moment and they fell like flies. Bloody corpses burst apart one after another, dropping their weapons in the pools of blood, scattering divine hazards within that stained the blood rainbow colors.
"Li Tianming!" Around ten million people were chanting his name nonstop. After a little more resistance, the celestial orderians finally crumbled, especially when even more people descended from the Azuresoul Sword Mountain.
Even if the celestial orderians could still turn things around, they would have to lose at least two million or more of their own, and that was nothing short of a nightmare they didn't even want to consider. As such, Li Xuanyang finally gave the order. "Full retreat! Xuanyang Army, retreat from their formation!" At the end of the day, fighting within an enemy's formation was a huge disadvantage.
The celestial orderians turned tail without hesitation. They probably badly wanted to leave even before the order was given. They had been struggling for quite some time, and finally found sweet release. While it came at the cost of humiliation, it was better than losing their lives. They consoled themselves by believing they would come back to win another day. The order to retreat quickly spread. People didn't care much whether it was real or not. The Xuanyang Army had taken so much punishment that most of them stopped resisting, dematerialized their totems, and fled.
A proper army should be just as good at fleeing as they were at charging, but in this case it was different. As Li Xuanyang had ordered the capable commanders to fight Tianming, the normal troops were left without a chain of command. The charge of millions of beastmasters caused the retreating army to chaotically scatter.
"Kill them all! If they're allowed to reorganize, they'll come back to kill us!" Tianming roared. His voice wasn't that loud, so he had Lan Huang repeat his words using its Primordial Soundwave.
"Exterminate them!"
"Sweep them clean!"
It was always a mistake to run with one's back facing the cavalry. Tianming knew his strengths, and Li Xuanyang also knew about this pressing witness, though he was already a few steps behind. His last few moves had been complete blunders. As the pressure mounted, Li Xuanyang chose to retreat despite knowing the consequences. He felt true fear and was no longer confident in taking the Azuresoul Palace. Since he could no longer advance, there could be only retreat. Even if that meant losing men to the pursuers behind them, Li Xuanyang and the rest believed that, with their superior army, the losses wouldn't be too huge, but relying on vague notions of luck on the battlefield would prove fatal. They had forgotten that they were invaders fighting on foreign ground against crazed defenders who had nothing to lose but their homes.
The beastmasters gave chase alongside Tianming and the battle came to its most chaotic crescendo. While the celestial orderians were agile, they still fell from the barrage of abilities from the lifebound beasts. Many of them even turned into piles of melted flesh. No mercy was to be shown to people who could well return to kill their families the next time.
"We won't let them escape! Let them remember for the rest of their lives that even celestial orderians can fall!"
The retreating celestial orderians continued dying, having given up resisting. The Azurecloud warriors suffered little to no casualties as a result. Tianming led the furious charge to the border of the Azuresky Myriadsword Formation. Yin Chen had already scouted out the surroundings and was sure that there would be no reinforcements, so Tianming kept going, intent on crushing the enemy's soul for good.
More and more celestial orderians fell as they tried scattering in multiple directions in hopes that it would split Tianming's cavalry up. The celestial orderians who had known nothing but ultimate dominance ran away like terrified flocks of sheep, abandoning their pride and dignity to the stampede of the Azurecloud warriors. Tianming's charge had paved a bloody path with celestial orderian corpses.