I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 503 - 277: Concealment, The First Battle of the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers_2

Chapter 503: Chapter 277: Concealment, The First Battle of the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers_2

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Gu Shanhai knew that the scholar mentioned it ahead of time to gain his trust and then by assassinating him, his entire state office would be headless. This would allow the Daoist Soldiers to take over smoothly.

From the other party’s objective, what worried them was not how to capture the state office, but how to take over everything afterward.

Therefore, Gu Shanhai had to die.

"Mr. Gu, you asked us to..."

"Provide strategies for the Daoist Soldiers, then have all Daoist Soldiers draw bows and aim at the location..." Gu Shanhai interrupted a commander’s confusion.

Seeing Gu Shanhai’s solemn expression, the commander dared not question further, and this somewhat puzzling order was quickly passed down.

Everyone was very puzzled, as the location Gu Shanhai reported was empty, but out of respect for his status, they complied.

A volley of arrows soared, landing on the specified position.

"Raise shields!" a roar came from the supposedly empty area.

And then, the environment began to warp, and to everyone’s shock, fifty thousand Daoist Soldiers clad in black full-body heavy armor, wielding huge shields and axes, suddenly appeared.

The giant shields were raised, forming a solid barrier, effectively blocking all the incoming arrows.

"Continue firing!" Gu Shanhai ordered calmly.

This round of attack did no harm to the enemy, who were simply too well-protected.

"Charge!!" The leading figure, who seemed to be a commander, roared again and led the fifty thousand Daoist Soldiers in a direct infantry charge.

In that moment, Gu Shanhai could feel the entire state office shudder.

"Mr. Gu, what do we do now? The walls of the state office can’t hold them," a nearby commander said in a panic.

With such a massive number of Daoist Soldiers, only Jiang Lu and his hundred thousand Sun and Moon Daoist Soldiers in the entire Liang State could stop them; no one else had the strength.

"All top-tier Daoist Soldiers, but does anyone recognize them?" Gu Shanhai didn’t address the concern, but showed some curiosity.

Currently, Gu Shanhai didn’t dare claim to know every type of Daoist Soldier, but was familiar with ninety-nine percent of them; yet, this type of Daoist Soldier was something he had never seen before.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. At such a critical moment, was he really concerned with identifying the enemy’s Daoist Soldiers instead of how to solve the problem?

"Breach the city!!!"

Just as they were delayed, the enemy had charged to the base of the walls, on the verge of breaching.

"Fine, let’s get straight to the point," Gu Shanhai spoke, and with a flick of his long sleeve, ten thousand Heart Demon Dao Soldiers were dropped into the enemy ranks.

Everyone was shocked by this development.

"Spare no one except that commander," Gu Shanhai said in a deep voice.

In the next instant, a mana aura enveloped the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, causing their strength to soar, even reaching a level that could match the fifty thousand unknown Daoist Soldiers.

Previously, there were only a thousand Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, but after improvements were made to make them top-tier, Gu Shanhai had increased their number to ten thousand; he surly wouldn’t consider having too many lives to be a bad thing.

With the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers’ entrance, Gu Shanhai also simultaneously employed the "Beauty Trap" from the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

Upon seeing the entrance and the slaughtering manner of the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, everyone involuntarily swallowed hard.

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When they first appeared, the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers were nothing more than Heavy Cavalry clad in full armor, at most equipped more luxuriously with a bow, arrow, spear, and long knife, etc. that looked abundant, yet when the actual fighting began, this group of Heart Demon Dao Soldiers didn’t use weapons at all.

Their armor cracked open, sprouting tentacles like those of demons, while their mounts swelled with flesh, infiltrating into the enemies’ armor.

Some rooted and sprouted, transforming into bizarrely shaped plants sucking blood and flesh, or morphing into some strange and terrifying deformities, flaying their opponents alive.

What’s more absurd was that every attack from these Heart Demon Dao Soldiers came with bizarre powers like wind, fire, lightning, and thunder; the enemy Daoist Soldiers were caught off guard and died in droves.

And across the battlefield, all sorts of emotions and desires took solid form; even standing on the city walls, one could seemingly hear the greedy sneer, the painful wailing, or the screams of overwhelming despair.

They really wanted to ask Gu Shanhai what the hell these Dao Soldiers were, but they found that Gu Shanhai inhaled deeply a dense air of despair, as if savoring a fine wine.

Seeing this, everyone couldn’t help but shudder and dared not voice their question.

"What’s wrong? Do you have a question?" Gu Shanhai also noticed the change in their emotions and asked with some curiosity.

"No... no problem," the Commander closest to Gu Shanhai involuntarily stepped back before hastily speaking.

"If you have a question, just ask," Gu Shanhai calmly replied.

The enemy Daoist Soldiers met an extremely brutal fate. If it were a normal battle, there might be severed limbs and bodies, but now, at least the cleanup after the battle would be easy.

Because Gu Shanhai’s Heart Demon Dao Soldiers had nearly devoured all of the enemy Dao Soldiers, nothing was left behind, not even skin and bones.

There were survivors, though; one Commander who led the troops had been gnawed to a shell of his former self, with half a body and limbs, yet still alive.

But his mental state seemed to be deteriorating, likely a bit too shattered.

Gu Shanhai guessed that his reason had been scared out of him.

"Arrange for someone to drag that young man up here; I’m ready to interrogate him thoroughly," Gu Shanhai ordered.

"Mr. Gu, perhaps you should let your Daoist Soldiers leave first; I’m worried..." A Commander beside him hesitated, not finishing his sentence, but his meaning was clear: he was afraid their own people might also be devoured if they went down.

After finishing off the enemy, these Heart Demon Dao Soldiers reverted back to the appearance of Heavy Cavalry and stood motionless, as straight and immovable as if struck by lightning. If they hadn’t witnessed the battle forms of the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, no one would believe they could clean up so thoroughly.

Those present also pondered about Gu Shanhai’s ten thousand Dao Soldiers – how they could defy conventional wisdom with ten thousand defeating fifty thousand.

Under normal circumstances, in such a dire situation, Gu Shanhai would need at least fifty thousand Dao Soldiers to stand a fifty percent chance of winning; any fewer would not suffice.

Gu Shanhai casually gathered the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers, breaking them down again into Spirit Plants and Guardian Demons. Their abilities as Heart Demon Dao Soldiers were still effective; they just couldn’t be put away without breaking down and sorting them.

’I’ll have to eat the Five Grains meal again tonight. Oh well, I’ll just feed it to Little White later.’ Gu Shanhai glanced at the Five Grains Spiritual Plant, which was undoubtedly still nutritious.

Yes, the bodies of these Heart Demon Dao Soldiers were temporarily cultivated by Gu Shanhai, fresh and reusable; if they could be collected, they could be eaten as food. If not, they would self-destruct since the only situation they could not be retrieved was if Heart Demon Dao Soldiers died in battle.

Mainly because he feared that storing them for too long would cause nutrient loss and affect the strength of the Dao Soldiers, but that was their intended use anyways.

Once the Heart Demon Dao Soldiers disappeared, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They arranged for several Dao Soldiers under their command to go and capture the half-bodied enemy Commander.

"Make sure to treat him so he doesn’t die; I’m going to check the outside of the city," Gu Shanhai said, harboring many doubts in his mind. He couldn’t understand how such a massive number of Dao Soldiers had bypassed the extensive surveillance of Liang State.

This was far from normal.

In other words, with that kind of strength, an outright assault would have been sufficient, rather than taking such a large detour to attack the provincial capital. Even if successful, that would put them deep within enemy territory; a steady approach would have been better.

Moreover, if they possessed such formidable power, why go out of their way to target Liang State when Xiang Province – superior in geography, economy, or even culture – offered a far more tempting choice? It couldn’t be they were picking on the weaker target – that would be wrong, as Liang State was not the weaker one in terms of military strength. On the contrary, the superior Xiang Province was the softer target.