Book 13: Chapter 45: Biological Crisis
More than ten carriages that Shentu Nian had not used in this battle yet rushed out from Great Mang’s rear army. This Great Mang rear army mainly consisted of mobile cavalry troops. When most officers saw these carriages, their hearts immediately became filled with an extremely strange atmosphere.
The army provisions and other goods, especially military equipment and some cultivators, were military secrets. Only some of the highest level officers knew these secrets.
The mid level high ranking officers in the military definitely wouldn’t tend to things that weren’t their responsibility.
When they saw these carriages covered in black rain tarp, all of these Great Mang officers naturally thought they were some powerful military equipment, just that they hadn’t been used during the city siege battle yet, now making an appearance in the streets and alleys of this rainy night. Moreover, in the opinion of all of the Great Mang officers, the ones who urged these dozen or so carriages were all dressed in red Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator robes… This made all of these carriages covered under black rain tarp appear exceptionally mysterious and strange.
The carriages moved along the street and alley ruins, approaching the point where Great Mang’s military faced Yunqin. Only when there was already debris falling around them from time to time, did they stop behind a Great Mang rear archery army.
This fleet of several hundred Great Mang soldiers, under the effects of medication, didn’t appear tired at all, all of them extremely stimulated, moreover without much fear. However, when they saw the divine robes and the tall hats of Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicators, one after another, these stimulated Great Mang soldiers still all suddenly became nervous.
These Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicators gave the soldiers up ahead a look, and then they removed the black rain tarp, entering the carriages.
Within a carriage at the very front was a young Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator with a snow-white face. He slowly undid the lock on the only rectangular scarlet red metal chest. Then, with a flick of his finger, some medicinal powder was thrown in.
These scarlet red metal chests were originally extremely quiet, but the instant this medicinal powder was thrown in, there were immediately sounds of heavy breathing.
In just two or three breaths of time, the entire heavy crimson red metal chest rumbled with noise. Two black beast heads reached out from within, their terrifying snow-white teeth directly biting towards this Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator’s leg.
This Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator didn’t make any movements.
However, these two beast heads instead seemed to have smelled some type of aura they didn’t dare touch, suddenly going rigid. Then, with a bang noise, a black shadow passed by this Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator’s side, smashing into the rain cloth outside the carriage’s curtains, releasing a loud noise, charging out.
…
None of the Great Mang soldiers in front of the dozen or so carriages knew what happened in the carriages.
They only saw these Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicators move aside the rain tarp, and then after they entered the carriage, some heart trembling and heavy breathing noises sounded.
Then, boom boom boom noises continuously sounded. Extremely powerful figures rushed out from these carriages like lightning one after another!
A Great Mang officer immediately released a cry of alarm.
He saw that these black figures were all black hounds whose fur was black like flowing oil.
These black hounds’ bodies were only half the size of an ordinary dog, but the muscles on their bodies bulged in streaks like steel bars. The most crucial part was that every single black hound had two heads… two extremely sinister heads whose fangs were like snow-white sawtooth, their eyes blood red!
Just the long streaks of saliva dripping from those snow-white sawtooth fangs and the blood red eyes already made this Great Mang officer feel indescribable fear.
In this instant, the twin headed black hound closest to him already passed by his body. He only felt his body sway, his leg going numb, and almost fell to the ground. When he lowered his head, he only saw that a chunk of the leather armor on his left leg was chewed through, his leg badly mangled, already having a chunk of flesh ripped out.
Under continuous cries of horror, more than ten sinister black hounds passed through this Great Mang archery army like lightning, releasing growls as they disappeared into the night surrounded streets up ahead. Even further ahead, there were quickly sounds of alarm that continuously sounded.
“Pass down my order… pass it onto the entire army. All those who have been bit in my army are to immediately retreat, come back here as quickly as possible, come to where I am to receive medicine and treatment, or else they will inevitably die.”
That snow-white faced young Purgatory Mountain Divine Adjudicator in the front looked at this alarmed and chaotic archery army, at the dozens of soldiers whose legs or arms were dripping with blood, coldly saying this to the Great Mang high ranking officers at his side who were always waiting calmly.
…
The rainy night was extremely cold.
Time continuously flowed on.
Several dozen Yunqin soldiers dressed in black armors hid within a shop. When they heard that the outside became more and more quiet, a grim faced middle-aged soldier with thick brows frowned deeply, unable to help but say with a low voice, “Why did these Great Mang soldiers withdraw?”
“I’ll go out and take a look.” A Yunqin soldier said with a low voice.
The thick browed middle-aged soldier shook his head. “Wait a bit longer.”
After waiting a bit longer, the rear door of this shop opened. A Yunqin soldier nimbly entered this shop that already seemed a bit crammed.
“The enemy army has suddenly withdrawn.” This Yunqin soldier was breathing heavily, but he still quickly said this.
The thick-browed middle-aged soldiers’ brows still didn’t loosen. He looked at this scouting soldier who was in charge of transmitting military intelligence. “Do you know the reason?”
This scouting soldier shook his head. “The reason is unclear… but there is precise information that less than an hour ago, by Chirping Alley, our side killed two enemy Sacred Experts, moreover heavily injured an enemy Night Devil Heavy Armor Army!”
Hong!
Since the enemy army already withdrew, the soldiers hidden here didn’t need to hide their voices. This cramped room immediately erupted with noise.
Sacred Experts, Night Devil Heavy Armored Army, these were all powers that could decide this great battle. This was indeed an extremely encouraging piece of good news.
“You’re injured?” While cheering, the thick browed middle-aged soldier saw the thick black bandages wrapped around his leg, this wound still dripping blood.
“It’s not a big deal, I was just bitten by a dog released by Great Mang.” This young scouting soldier didn’t seem to care much. “You all need to be careful though… the black dogs the enemy has released are extremely fast and they have two heads, extremely vicious.”
“Two heads?” The Yunqin soldiers in this room all released shocked voices.
“It indeed runs extremely fast, by the time you wave your blade at it, it’s already nowhere to be seen.” The young scouting soldier laughed and said, “Its teeth are also exceptionally sharp, a single bite will tear off half a tael of flesh… However, they seem quite cowardly as well, only daring to bite once before running. In my opinion, these Great Mang barbarians are too lacking in skill, not daring to fight themselves, instead actually releasing these dogs. They really are humans beneath dogs.”
“Indeed, they actually all ran, playing these types of tricks of releasing dogs.” The thick-browed middle-aged soldier couldn’t help but laugh as well.
“What is going on?” At this time, Lin Xi was currently standing on a street not far from these soldiers. He asked a black chain armored high ranking Yunqin military officer.
Jiang Xiaoyi, Gao Yanan, as well as the Divine Wooden Flying Crane and Li Wu were all behind him. Meanwhile, to the two sides of the street in front of him, there were at least several thousand Yunqin soldiers that were gathered. On some roofs and in some courtyards, there were also signs of crossbow carriages and whirling blade carts, these types of military equipment visible.
This street was precisely East Scenery City’s southwestern main street. This was precisely a weak spot within Yunqin’s military. It was the place where the battle between both sides was most intense, the place where the amount of troops from both sides totaled over thirty thousand.
However, starting from six or seven halts ago, Great Mang suddenly stopped their assault here. Moreover, according to the confirmed information from various scouting soldiers, the military force Great Mang previously invested here all already completely withdrew from this region.
This type of strange situation left Lin Xi and the others without much room for rest, directly heading here.
“These soldiers only seem to be grouping with the rear armies, not showing any signs of being transferred to another location.” The chain armored Yunqin high ranking officer spoke quickly and respectfully, “Only, what isn’t right is that… previously, they released a dozen or so black hounds. Moreover, these black hounds all have two heads, their speed fast like the wind, biting quite a few soldiers.”
“This isn’t the time to make things unnecessarily complicated.” Right at this time, a steady and calm voice sounded from the side.
Under the sounds of armors and weapons touching, as Yunqin soldiers moved out of the way, Tang Chuqing walked out from that narrow alley.
It looked slow, but he arrived before Lin Xi and the others with just a few steps.
In his hand was the corpse of a black twin headed hound.
Even though it was already dead, this black twin headed hound’s steel-like muscles and sawtooth snow-white fangs still gave off a feeling of strength and savageness.
“This definitely has something to do with it.”
Tang Chuqing looked at Lin Xi and said with a grave voice, “Shentu Nian is the only commander from Purgatory Mountain out of the seven armies’ commanders, moreover, he is someone of Shentu Clan’s direct descent. Ignoring his connection with Wenren Cangyue, he can even obtain support beyond Great Mang Imperial Palace. These dogs are Purgatory Mountain’s Twin Headed Jail Hounds. However, Purgatory Mountain’s Twin Headed Jail Hounds are only used to guard the mountains, a warning dog species. Even though they look fierce, normally, they cannot even be considered the lowest level fiend beast. Their strength is inferior to even that of Soul Knights[1].”
Lin Xi’s brows furrowed slightly. He understood what Tang Chuqing was trying to say. He looked at that exceptionally robust and strong small black hound’s corpse, unable to help but ask, “These dogs are stronger than normal?”
“In terms of speed and strength, they are comparable to Soul Masters. Moreover, their figures are smaller than humans, limbs nimble, they fight differently from people. In terms of fighting strength, they are harder to deal with than Soul Masters.” Tang Chuqing looked at Lin Xi, nodding. “These are definitely Jail Hounds that have been modified somewhat, already powerful fiend beasts. Only, these Jail Hounds clearly have the ability to kill ordinary soldiers, so why would they only inflict bite wounds before quickly leaving?”
“This can only be a type of habit that is trained.” Gao Yanan said with a low voice, her voice becoming a bit cold. “Is there poison?”
“I’ve already looked into it. It doesn’t seem to be poisonous, but it is extremely strange in my senses. Even I don’t dare rashly let one of these Jail Hounds bite me.” Tang Chuqing gave her a look and said.
Gao Yanan’s breathing suddenly stopped.
The world of perception of a Sacred Expert was entirely different from that of an ordinary cultivator. Their perception towards some dangers, even if they couldn’t understand what the reason was exactly, there would definitely be no mistake.
Lin Xi’s body also suddenly went rigid at this time.
He thought of a certain possibility, his mouth and lips becoming a bit pale.
He gave Tang Chuqing a look.
Tang Chuqing’s brows jumped. Lin Xi reached out his hand, touching the snow-white teeth of this twin-headed hound. Then, with a bit of force, he allowed the fangs to make several cuts on his finger.
1. First level of cultivation