Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 699: Chapter 699. Urgent Message

At Haotts Steppe, the three country sovereigns continued battling the Holy Mother. They hadn’t managed to land any hits even after an hour of battle. It was already difficult without Mu Qin using any arts. It was even more so when she displayed her movement art.

Her movement art left an afterimage every time she moved. Yet, unlike other arts, her afterimage didn’t disappear. It lingered like a mirage. In a short while, there were more than ten Mu Qin all over the place. To make matters worse, each image could move and exude the same aura as the original. This confused the three sovereigns. They couldn’t tell which one was the real one.

”Damn you! Do you enjoy playing tricks so much?” Hou Huang cursed. Her flying metal blades spread out and hit as many of these images as possible, but the blades just passed through the images like they didn’t exist.

Three identical images of Mu Qin suddenly surrounded Hou Huang. The mouth of all three images moved as her voice seemed to come from all three. ”Can you blame a woman who hasn’t fought any decent battle to enjoy this fight a little?”

All three Mu Qin thrust their palms.

Aside from the flying metal blades, Hou Huang’s arcane art also created flying metal shields that floated around her. These flying metal shields immediately positioned themselves to protect her, but the palms passed through them as if they were projections.

”Hou Huang, above!”

Hou Huang heard Huang Ti’s warning and looked up, just as a palm descended on her. A wall of earth appeared to block the palm, but it shattered upon contact.

Even though the earth wall wasn’t effective, it still halted Mu Qin’s palm by a fraction of a second. Hou Huang managed to bring her metal shield up and block the palm strike in that fraction. The impact sent her flying.

An arrow of light shot at Mu Qin before she could perform a follow-up attack on Hou Huang. The arrow only hit an afterimage.

Huang Ti caught Hou Huang and stopped her from flying too far. ”Are you okay?” He asked.

”I’m fine,” Hou Huang replied with gritted teeth. ”She is toying with us.”

”I prefer she stays that way. I can’t imagine if she gets serious,” Huang Ti said.

”King Huang Ti is right,” Dim Loog approached them. ”We have been too reckless to face her ourselves. We should have retreated.”

”It’s too late now. I don’t think she will let us leave even if we want to,” Huang Ti said.

Mu Qin saw that her three opponents went into a discussion. She didn’t disturb them. She stayed still and watched them with an amused gaze.

Her three opponents weren’t in a hurry to engage her again. When she thought she had given them enough reprieve and was about to advance again, she was puzzled as she sensed one of her followers approaching her. She turned and looked at the incoming warrior priest.

The warrior priest gave an apologetic bow upon seeing Mu Qin’s frown. He said, ”I’m sorry to disrupt Your Holiness, but I bring an urgent message.”

”What urgent message?” Mu Qin asked.

”I received a talisman containing a message that the Kazhan and Echos Armies have attacked Saint’s Rest. The city’s barrier has gone down because they used Khode’s cannons. The defenders rushed out to meet the enemy, but they didn’t fare well. We have lost a lot of believers.”

Mu Qin’s frown turned deeper. She thought that with the three main countries that formed the alliance gathering here, nothing would threaten Saint’s Rest. Apparently, she was wrong.

”Did the message mention anything about the Hierophant?” She asked.

”It says that the Hierophant remained inside the temple. He has something urgent that needs attending, so he cannot deal with the enemy.”

”What urgency is more important than saving the lives of our followers?” Mu Qin asked with dissatisfaction. She would demand an explanation from the Hierophant once she returned. For now, it seemed she couldn’t stay here long.

An arrow of light came, intending to steal a hit when Mu Qin and her priest were talking. Mu Qin didn’t lift her hand this time. It was her hair that moved. Her long hair, which was as long as her entire body, swayed and slapped the arrow of light. The arrow shattered upon impact.

Mu Qin didn’t even look at the arrow when she did that. She told the priest, ”Sound the horn for everyone to retreat. We will return to Saint’s Rest. I will wrap up here before joining you.”

”Yes, Your Holiness,” the warrior priest bowed and left. He blew a horn while leaving. The sound reverberated throughout the battlefield.

Mu Qin turned her attention back to her three opponents. ”Play time is over,” she said.

She left multiple afterimages as she advanced. Dim Loog fired repeated arrows of light, but none hit the real Mu Qin.

”I will reveal her true self!” Huang Ti exclaimed. He slapped her two palms forward. Torrents of sand poured out of the long sleeves of his royal garment. The sand turned into a massive sandstorm that washed over a wide area.

The sand blew through Mu Qin’s illusions. As for the original Mu Qin, the sand stopped several inches from her body due to her protective aura.

”Found you!” Hou Huang exclaimed. Her crimson whip became rigid again. She thrust the massive needle forward. A spinning metal cone materialized on the needle’s tip. It drove toward the revealed Mu Qin.

Mu Qin tilted her head, and her long hair shot forward. The already long hair seemed to lengthen even further. The hair wrapped around Hou Huang’s crimson needle, stopping its advance.

Hou Huang pumped her energy to push her weapon forward, but it didn’t budge. Mu Qin tilted her head again. This time, backward. Her hair yanked the crimson needle with extreme force. Hou Huang couldn’t fight the force. She lost grip of her weapon, and it was thrown far away.

Hou Huang wasn’t the only one attacking when Huang Ti used his sand to reveal Mu Qin’s position. Dim Loog performed an arcane art that shot hundreds of tiny arrows that converged on Mu Qin. Mu Qin’s hair spread in all directions and deflected these arrows. It was as if she could control each thread of her hair, and her hair was as strong as when she used her hands. This made it seem like she had a thousand hands.

The tiny arrows weren’t redirected randomly. They were thrown back at her opponents. Hou Huang, who had lost her weapons and was the closest, had the most trouble blocking. When her attention was diverted by the arrows, Mu Qin’s hair came for her. It slapped into her side. She felt like she was hit by a massive club. She jerked from the impact and vomited blood.

Mu Qin’s hair came again. This time, they opened like a net, ready to swallow her.

Huang Ti came to her rescue. Hails of stone battered Mu Qin’s hair. The old king’s longsword also flashed at lightning speed, striking the hair that almost touched Hou Huang.

The hair was as if alive. They changed direction upon the assault and came for Huang Ti instead. Huang Ti conjured a wall of earth to protect him, but the wall was as if nonexistent. The hair easily pierced through the wall. Huang Ti made a desperate move of parrying the hair with his sword, but the hair wrapped around both his sword and arm.

A terrible tearing sound was heard, followed by Huang Ti’s painful cry. The hair ripped his arm apart, and a gush of blood shot out from the wound.

*

When Mu Qin fought the three sovereigns in the sky, the battle between the armies of the three countries against the elite warrior priests of the Temple of Divinity continued to rage down below.

In terms of the average cultivation level, the warrior priests were better. They also possessed long-range healing arts similar to Xin Wuyun. Hence, they scored many kills without suffering as many casualties. However, the three countries had way more numbers, so it was as if they were endless, no matter how many were killed.

While each temple warrior had high kill counts, one soldier from the enemy force rivalled or even surpassed their records. This soldier was Jiang Tong.

Despite being an excellent fighter, Jin Guan couldn’t fight Jiang Tong by himself. He had many comrades aiding him. Even so, they were the ones who kept dropping to the ground.

Jiang Tong completely ignored all the attacks aimed at him. Most of the temple warriors used the flying sword arts. Their swords were like living drones, striking the enemy from afar. Yet, these flying swords were useless against Jiang Tong. Nothing could penetrate his silver skin. He just charged at the enemies while ignoring all the flying swords.

Anyone he came close to didn’t last long. Even if the enemies used close combat arts, he simply let them hit. The success of their hitting him would immediately face a fierce reprisal. And because his weapons kept transforming, no one could adopt an effective response.

They didn’t know what kind of weapon would come at them. When they were expecting to block an agile saber, a heavy axe crushed their blockade. When they wanted to dodge a short sword, it turned into a long spear. When they were parrying a battlestaff, it became a flexible whip that struck their backs. Each hit by his weapons was enough to maim or kill them outright. This rendered their long-range healing arts ineffective.

The most depressing thing was that, even after so many temple warriors had sacrificed their lives, Jiang Tong suffered zero wounds.

The sound of a horn was heard. The temple’s warrior priests started to disengage from the battle. Jiang Tong was confused as to why the enemy retreated. He might be winning, but their army was losing. His attention was then drawn to a terrible cry. He looked up and saw his old king with his arm ripped off.