Chapter 209: The Ambush
All around the outside of Duan Ren City , the Chi Xie troops were watching the flames as they engulfed the city. After the order was given, they all urged their horses on and galloped towards Duan Ren City at full speed.
In the blink of an eye, the Chi Xie troops arrived in front of Duan Ren City with their bows in hand. The flames were already soaring higher and higher. Amongst the Chi Xie troops, all of them had prepared for this moment beforehand.
The heads of their arrows were already alight with raging fire and immediately after that, they released their arrows from their bows and a fiery rain of arrows fell upon the city.
What seemed like an endless rain of burning arrows continued to rain down on the city. The scene was magnificent and tragic.
Immediately after, the Mo Yue troops looked at the rain of burning arrows filling the sky above them. They were astonished. It seemed like the heavens were punishing them.
After the Chi Xie troops shot the first volley of arrows, they then started to circle the city releasing volley after volley of fiery death. The scene was so bright that it seemed like the sun had risen early.
Shortly after, the entire city of Duan Ren was a sea of flames. At that moment, chaos and disorder struck the Mo Yue troops. That sudden attack had surprised them. They had fallen into a firetrap.
At the same time, inside the city, Lin Feng and the elite soldiers were assassinating the higher ranking commanders who could relay orders to stop the chaos.
If they had been prepared and ready to fight, it would have been difficult, however using these burning arrows it was possible to injure or kill cultivators of the third Ling Qi layer and even the elites of higher cultivation levels. Of course, it was very difficult to injure the stronger cultivators but it was enough to injure and kill the troops around them. That had been enough to create chaos amongst the Mo Yue troops.
That blazing fire made the Mo Yue troops unable to return to formation and organize their army. It was even more chaotic amongst their horses.
At that moment, Mo Jie was inside his room getting dressed.
A burning arrow shot past him him. He was calm yet looked pensive.
“Burning the entire city with flaming arrows, Liu Cang Lan really deserves his nickname “The Divine Arrow”.” said Mo Jie while sounding indifferent. Immediately after, he said: “I order all the troops to move back towards the northern gate. Don’t extinguish the fire and don’t chase those who have entered the city. Just move back to the northern gate and get prepared to welcome them.” when Mo Jie finished talking, his order was relayed to all their troops throughout the burning city.
At that moment, all the Mo Yue troops had stopped trying to extinguish the fire and stopped fighting against the infiltrators. They were all moving towards the northern gate of the city.
Inside the city, a soldier was killed in the blink of an eye. At the same time, Mo Jie’s order had been relayed to all of the troops so they no longer looked for Lin Feng or tried to stop him. Lin Feng could also now ignore them and started to move towards the north gate.
The soldiers who had been chasing Lin Feng were not the only ones to obey the order and stop fighting, all the army without exception followed orders. Nobody dared to call the order into question. They hadn’t felt the slightest bit of hesitation.
“Mo Jie has such a strong influence on his troops.” thought Lin Feng when he saw that scene. The Mo Yue Country had the goal to make Mo Jie their national symbol, to make them worship him as a god amongst men. Mo Jie, obviously enjoyed such a prestigious reputation in Mo Yue.
There was no one who doubted his strength and talent.
Staying in such a chaotic situation and being unable act rationally could have led to heavy losses for their army. Gathering the troops together in one place was the best reaction to counter the enemies strategy. It would enable them to concentrate their strength and break free from the encirclement.
“Now, all we have to do is rely on Uncle Liu.” thought Lin Feng. Immediately after, he sheathed his sword and ran like mad through the flames. He was running shoulder to shoulder with the other troops towards the northern gate.
At that moment, even though the Mo Yue troops were trying to gather altogether, chaos was still present amongst them. Lin Feng was wearing a Mo Yue armor so there was no chance that anybody would find out who he was unless he attacked them.
Besides, it was impossible for hundreds of thousands of troops to know every single face within the army.
At the northern gate, there was an unceasing rain of arrows falling from the sky. The strong cultivators of the Mo Yue Country had gathered there. Some of them could control ice, snow and water. Therefore, they could easily extinguish the fire. In the entire city of Duan Ren, the northern gate was the safest place but it was also covered in darkness.
But in a short time, about a hundred thousand troops had already gathered there and the number of people seemed to be increasing over time.
The crowd was extremely silent. They could distinctly hear the chaos in the distance as well as the people’s steps near them.
At that moment, Mo Jie was standing in front of the crowd looking towards the city gate and said while sounding indifferent: “Open the gate.”
“Open the gate.” shouted a high-ranking soldier. While the gate was being opened, a rumbling noises spread through the air.
“Five thousand elite cavalry, open the way and secure the path two kilometres ahead.” said Mo Jie. Some armored cavalry gathered, they urged on their horses and moved towards the exit of the city.
In the middle of the night, they couldn’t see a great deal so they also couldn’t see if they were running into an ambush. However, even in the case of an ambush, it was impossible for the entire army to get killed.
In the middle of the crowd, Lin Feng looked at the soldiers who were remaining calm. Mo Jie was truly terrifying.
Even at that moment, nobody was calling his orders in question. He was a true leader. Even at a moment when the sky seemed to be raining death down onto them, they remained calm and fearless.
If the leader didn’t remain calm, could his army remain calm? With such a huge number of people it was hard to restore calmness to the army.
The northern city gate was far from the Duan Ren Border. Mo Jie was trying to think as if he was Liu Cang Lan and if he had been Liu Cang Lan, he would have set an ambush between Duan Ren City and the Duan Ren Border, but that was the western city gate. That’s why Mo Jie had chosen the northern gate and not the western gate. He did not want to fall into a trap and get killed.
The five thousand cavalry were progressing through the dark. Everything was perfectly calm and tranquil. The only sound was that of their horse hoofs hitting the ground.
At that moment, a few horses neighed loudly. Suddenly there was the feeling that the ground was unsteady beneath their feet. The cavalry and their horses fell down in a deep pit.
When the cavalry behind them heard this, they rushed over thinking it was an enemy attack and fell into the pit. The situation was chaotic.
Those who had just fallen into the pit wanted to move but then they were stopped by the falling soldiers and horses which fell onto them. The situation was chaotic. Arrows started to fill the air emitting whistling sounds as they pierced through the darkness .
Horrible shrieks unceasingly came from the direction in the elite cavalry unit had entered the darkness to clear the way.
The faces of the troops still inside the city turned deathly pale when they heard the horrible shrieks. Their comrades had probably died in an ambush.
“Let’s move, let’s go to the western gate.” said Mo Jie while remaining calm. Immediately after, all his troops moved towards the western gate.
Even though those who had an ice spirit were opening the way, they were still suffering losses as people died as they were burnt to death or struck by the rain of fiery arrows falling from the sky.
However, the number of troops gathered at the western gate hadn’t decreased, on the contrary, there were even more than at the northern gate because there were still parts of the army joining the main force which had not yet arrived.
At that moment, there were more than two hundred thousand soldiers that gathered at the western city gate. But Mo Jie felt cold in his heart. Setting the city on fire was an extremely cruel method. Mo Jie couldn’t help but appreciate the strategy. That tactic was unprecedented in history of the continent and it proved to be extremely efficient. It seemed like his five hundred thousand strong army were prisoners inside the city they had just captured.
“Open the gate, three thousand elite cavalry go and clear a path to the Duan Ren Border.” said Mo Jie while still remaining indifferent. This time, he didn’t send five thousand but three thousand troops.
As before, these troops opened the gate and left without hesitation.
However they ran straight into an ambush and Liu Cang Lan could be seen with his troops on the horizon.
The Mo Yue troops understood that Mo Jie had seen that there was a high possibility of it being a trap. Going to the western city gate was actually falling deeper into their trap. A moment before, outside of the northern gate there might not have been enough traps to stop the entire army, there may have only been a single trap. However they had fallen right into the enemies hands.
“General Liu Cang Lan, you are extremely smart. I am now thoroughly convinced.” said Mo Jie while looking at Liu Cang Lan in a cold and detached way.
At that moment, the Xue Yue troops were still firing arrows. There was an endless rain of fire flying through the sky.
Because the tower blocked their sight, the Mo Yue troops couldn’t see how many people were waiting outside. They could only see an endless stream of fire on the horizon.
“I am not the one who organized this strategy.” said Liu Cang Lan coldly while slowly raising his hand.
“General, if it was not you, who was it?” asked Mo Jie stupefied.
“Lin Feng.”
Liu Cang Lan then waved his hand down. At that moment, a huge volley of arrows turned into a storm that ravaged the two hundred thousand of Mo Yue troops.
Under that storm of burning arrows, a huge number of troops were killed without the chance to fight back. At the same time, the arrows set the corpses and the ground on fire which created a sea of fire which spread and burned even more people alive.
When Mo Jie saw that the Xue Yue troops were about to shoot another volley of arrows, he already knew that it was impossible for him to escape.
“Die.” shouted Mo Jie. The Mo Yue army turned into a fearless war machine and moved towards the city gate to fight the arrows head on.
At that moment, everybody was cursing a single name: Lin Feng.
After that battle, Lin Feng would be famous within Xue Yue as well as in Mo Yue.