212: Chapter 212 Tragic

Li Xuanji personally led guards to stand watch at the entrance of the ridge passage, with four Qi Refining Cultivators holding Tier 2 Talismans standing behind him.

When a Cultivator's cultivation reaches the Qi Refining 7th Layer, the Qi within their body can typically activate two Tier 2 Low Grade Talismans; when it reaches Qi Refining Stage 10, they can activate three to five Tier 2 Low Grade Talismans.

Similarly, Li Xuanji currently possesses Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivation, allowing the Qi within his body to continuously activate three Tier 3 Low Grade Talismans.

If he wanted to immediately activate a fourth Tier 3 Talisman, he had to consume Medicinal Pills or Spirit Medicine capable of instantly restoring internal Qi, yet such spiritual items capable of instant recovery were often quite rare.

The demonic Cultivators attempted three assaults, each time being beaten back by the dense volley of Talismans.

Several Qi Refining Stage 10 demonic Cultivators risked flying to the eastern cliff of Eagle Beak Mountain, attempting to launch a surprise attack from the flank.

As a result, the moment they poked their heads out, four Innate Martial Artists lying in ambush at the lookout posts plastered their faces with Talismans; although it was not immediately fatal, they were left in an utterly sorry state.

"What the hell kind of fighting style is this?" a demonic Cultivator cursed in exasperation. "Why does it feel like this group of Righteous Path Cultivators treats Talismans as if they don't cost money?"

As the battle had progressed for nearly an hour, Old Ghost Bone ordered another Foundation Establishment Middle Stage demonic Cultivator to personally lead several Qi Refining demonic Cultivators in a surprise assault from the eastern cliff, while he himself remained in place to pin down Li Xuanji.

This Foundation Establishment demonic Cultivator was still in mid-air when he was ambushed by the Flying Purple Nether Scorpion.

Xiao Hei activated all three of its Innate Divine Abilities simultaneously—Soul Devour, Extreme Speed, and Severe Poison—slaying this Foundation Establishment Middle Stage demonic Cultivator in merely the span of a breath.

Two hours later, the frontal battlefield had passed through its most fiercely tragic phase.

When the final Silver-Armored Corpse Puppet was blasted to pieces, the frontal battlefield of Chimang Ridge was already in utter ruins.

The Formation Restrictions were entirely destroyed, and the rock was covered in charred marks along with the remains of Corpse Puppets and Spirit Beasts, while the corpses of Righteous Path and Demonic Path Cultivators were scattered among them.

Wang Daoyuan leaned on his long sword, standing at the center of the battlefield while trembling all over; the wounds on his body were still oozing blood, and his Qi was nearly exhausted.

Xiao Yuanzheng sat beside him with a pale face, the frost Talisman in his hand having shattered long ago.

The remaining surviving Foundation Establishment Cultivators sat or lay down, every person's face etched with exhaustion and sorrow.

As for the western defense line, the demonic Cultivators still failed to break through the defenses of the three hills.

When the frontal battlefield fell completely silent, Old Ghost Bone seemed to have realized that an unexpected turn of events had occurred there, and summoned the remaining three Foundation Establishment demonic Cultivators from the other two hills to retreat.

They retreated with the remaining Corpse Puppets into the black mist beneath the western cliff, quickly vanishing from sight.

"They retreated?" An elderly Innate Peak Martial Artist from the Li Family lowered the Talisman in his hand in disbelief, his voice carrying unconcealable excitement. "The demonic brats have been beaten back by us!"

A brief cheer erupted across Eagle Beak Mountain.

After three hours of bloody battle among fifty Li Family members, only six clansmen were heavily injured with zero fatalities; this battle outcome left everyone feeling it was utterly unbelievable.

Li Xuanji did not cheer.

He still stood at the entrance of the ridge passage, his withered fingers grasping a spirit sword with a notched blade, his gaze vigilantly scanning the direction where the black mist had receded.

Years of combat experience told him that the retreat of demonic Cultivators was sometimes merely an illusion, as the true fatal blow was often concealed behind the retreat.

Yet this time, the demonic Cultivators seemed to have genuinely retreated.

When the spiritual light in the direction of Chimang Ridge completely subsided, Li Xuanji slowly loosened his grip on the magic sword in his hand.

He turned around and gazed at the clansmen atop the Peak, whose faces bore the smiles of those who had survived a disaster, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Well done." He uttered only those three words before collapsing onto the rock, pulling a Medicinal Pill from his Storage Pouch, tilting his head back, and swallowing it down.

In the battle of Eagle Beak Mountain, the Li Family forged a brand-new tactical model: relying on the terrain, using Talismans as the primary output, taking Foundation Establishment Cultivators as core nodes, and centrally unleashing the long-range firepower of low-tier Cultivators.

This tactic consumed Talismans to an extreme degree, yet it also preserved manpower to the maximum extent—and manpower was precisely the most precious resource in war.

The battles on the other two hills in the western section of Chimang Ridge had also come to an end.

On the main mountain guarded by Yuan Xiuyuan, his left shoulder was injured by the demonic Cultivator's dark thunder, and his right leg was torn open by the sharp claws of a Silver-Armored Corpse Puppet, leaving a wound deep enough to reveal the bone, yet he never retreated a single step throughout.

Ultimately, when the news that the Golden-Armored Corpse Puppet on the frontal battlefield had been destroyed spread across the Chimang Ridge defense line, the demonic Cultivators besieging the eastern section of Chimang Ridge also chose to retreat.

All three hills in the western section were successfully defended—though the Yuan Family's main mountain paid the price of Yuan Xiuwen sustaining minor injuries, along with the deaths of three Qi Refining Cultivators and five Innate Martial Artists in battle.

The hill guarded by Tianxuan Sect's Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator Zhao Feng paid the price of five Qi Refining Cultivators perishing in battle.

On the defensive position at the front pass of Chimang Ridge, the corpses of the defenders were piled as high as mountains.

The final two remaining Foundation Establishment Cultivators of the Broadsword Sect both died in battle, with not a single survivor.

The Xiao Family's Xiao Yuanlie died in battle.

Another Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Huang Family in Qingyang Prefecture died in battle; of the remaining two, one was heavily injured and the other lightly injured, while the Tianxuan Sect side also lost a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Cultivator in battle.

The casualties among Qi Refining Cultivators and Innate Martial Artists were even more startling.

Originally, more than five hundred Qi Refining Cultivators and Martial Artists had been stationed there; after the post-battle tally, fewer than two hundred were still able to stand.

The only fortunate thing was that the Golden-Armored Corpse Puppet had been destroyed.

That behemoth, standing three zhang and six chi tall, had fallen amidst the ruins of the Chimang Ridge pass, turning into a pile of wreckage that could no longer move.

The hole in its chest, which had been repeatedly bombarded, was half a zhang wide; its internal structure was thoroughly destroyed, large patches of dark golden scales peeled away, and its gloomy green soul fire was completely extinguished.

Aside from this Golden-Armored Corpse Puppet, six of the ten Foundation Establishment demonic Cultivators were left forever upon this battlefield, and all fifteen Silver-Armored Corpse Puppets were completely ruined.

Additionally, three Tier 2 Spirit Beasts belonging to the Demonic Path Cultivators were slain.

Furthermore, half of these achievements were wrought by two Tianxuan Sect Foundation Establishment Peak Cultivators.

As the sky gradually brightened, morning light filtered out from behind the ridge on the eastern side of Chimang Ridge, shining down upon the charred, shattered rocks and the corpses that had fallen in their fighting stances, prompting Wang Daoyuan to begin organizing personnel to clear the battlefield.

His orders were exceptionally concise and divided into three tiers: First, search and rescue the wounded, treating all Righteous Path Cultivators equally and prioritizing those with severe injuries; second, tally the fallen, verify their identities, record them in a register, and collect their remains—whether intact bodies or fragmented remains, everything must be gathered; third, harvest the spoils of war.

These three orders were transmitted via communication Talismans to the ears of every Cultivator still able to stand; no one questioned, no one complained, and not a single person asked an extra word as those capable of moving silently set to work.

The wounded were successively carried out from the ruins; the original medical station on the frontal battlefield of Chimang Ridge had long since been reduced to fragments in the shockwave of the Thunderstorm Beads, prompting Wang Daoyuan to order people to set up a temporary treatment post within a reasonably intact stone cave behind the third defense line.

Two Qi Refining Cultivators proficient in medicine were sweating profusely as boxes of hemostatic powder, toxin-avoidance pills, and bone-setting ointment were opened box by box, quickly depleting their supplies.

The severely injured were treated first. The old wound on Xiao Yuanzheng's left arm had torn open once more during the battle, exposing raw flesh where white bone was faintly visible, yet he did not utter a single sound, allowing the medical Cultivator to stitch it up while his gaze remained fixed upon the distant wreckage of the Golden-Armored Corpse Puppet.

When the remains of the Tianxuan Sect Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Disciple who died in battle were recovered, his hand was still tightly clutching a shattered Talisman.

Rows of corpses covered in white cloth lay neatly upon the ground; as the morning wind swept past, the corners of the cloth fluttered slightly, exposing the young or aged faces beneath.