CHAPTER 551: CHAPTER 551. AETHERIA’S SURVIVAL

"General...!!" Liu Xun called. They can’t afford to continue being in this uncertain state. The first clash gave the enemy the advantage. If they didn’t do something, their entire army would be overwhelmed.

Jiang Tong understood the issue. He gritted his teeth, pumped aether into his voice, and shouted, "No mercy! They are all enemies. Do not be distracted by their appearance! Kill everyone in sight! Bowmen, release your arrows...!!"

The bowmen at the backline immediately followed the command. Soon, the arrows flew in an arc over their comrades and landed on the enemy mass. Some arrows killed their targets because they hit fatal parts like the heads, but most only wounded their targets. The wounded ones continued charging forward without slowing down. They didn’t even utter a painful cry.

Fighting these people was like fighting battle puppets. They didn’t seem alive. Echos Soldiers preferred fighting actual battle puppets rather than this mob. With battle puppets, at least they knew they were fighting inanimate enemies. This mob, however, was humans, ones who were even possibly their countrymen. This unrattled them and caused their fighting efficiency to drop.

Jiang Tong noticed this and shouted a second time, "Kill them all! They are enemies! Do not be deceived! Show no mercy...!!!"

The second instruction finally helped them regain their fighting spirit. The frontline soldiers uttered a loud yell and lunged at their opponents. They no longer held back. They unleashed their martial and arcane arts.

Once Echos Soldiers showed their resolve, a clear difference in power was shown. While the Khode Mob had a larger number, their fighting capacity was that of civilians. Civilian cultivators possessed fewer arts and weaker weapons. Many were even unarmed. They couldn’t be compared with soldiers who had proper training and were equipped with better weapons and armor.

Before long, Echos Soldiers cut down many enemies before them. Then, they learned the enemies still had another trick up their sleeves.

The backpacks on the backs of the enemies who fell on the frontline started glowing. While this drew the attention of some Echos Soldiers, they didn’t understand what it meant. The glow lasted only a while before the backpack exploded.

The explosion was not too big, so it only hit people in the immediate vicinity. However, following the explosions were many sharp fragments that flew in all directions. These sharp fragments came from inside the backpack. The explosion turned the fallen enemies into an effective booby trap.

To make matters worse, the explosions from the enemies who died also killed their nearby comrades, who then exploded as well. This caused a chain reaction on the frontline that took down many combatants, both from Echos and Khode alike.

Jiang Tong was shocked by this turn of events. The enemy outnumbered them. With such a suicide tactic that killed both sides, they would eventually run out of soldiers first.

"It’s their backpacks! Try to cut that thing off their backs!" Liu Xun advised.

A soldier who heard the instruction immediately put it into practice. He first incapacitated the enemy by breaking their legs before using his sword to cut the straps that bound the backpack. However, he soon found the backpack was joined to the enemy by more than straps when he tried to pull it.

A cable from the backpack entered the enemy’s back from what seemed like a surgical hole. When he tried cutting this cable, the backpack started glowing.

"Oh, shit...!" He uttered, and the backpack exploded, killing him.

Several other soldiers experienced the same thing. Seeing his suggestion didn’t work, Liu Xun issued a different order, "Use ranged attacks to kill the enemies! Do not kill them at close range...!!"

While his order made sense, it was difficult to put it into practice. Both sides were already clashing. To put a distance meant they had to retreat. The enemies would just follow. All the frontline soldiers could do was keep the enemies at bay without killing them. This put them into the previous passive state and greatly reduced their fighting prowess.

"Bloody hell! Those who can fly, follow me...!" Jiang Tong exclaimed and rushed forward.

While advancing, his bronze skin turned glistening silver. He charged into the midst of Khode’s puppet mob and started tearing people apart using his bare hands. Those who died exploded. Yet, he moved as if nothing had happened. Neither the explosions nor the sharp fragments could wound him.

His special constitution, Bronze Body, already made him much sturdier than a normal cultivator. Added his Peak Spirit Stage constitution and the arcane art that turned his skin into metallic silver, he was like a walking tank.

The other Mystic and Spirit Stage cultivators from his army followed his lead. Those with strong defensive arts utilized their arts to survive the explosions. Those with good movement arts zoomed in for the kill and flew out before the downed enemies exploded, and those with long-range arts or weapons killed their targets from afar.

Liu Xun was among those who used a bow, so he stayed in the air and killed the enemies from a distance. One thing he noticed was that the enemies killed by long-range weapons didn’t explode. Upon further observations, even those killed by Jiang Tong and the ones using defensive arts no longer exploded. It was as if the dead enemies knew the explosion didn’t do any good to those people.

He realized it then. The explosions were not an automated incident. It was triggered remotely. He turned his attention to the Martial Realm enemies flying far back. Several of those enemies were using talismans. Those talismans must be the ones that triggered the explosions from the fallen enemies’ backpacks.

He quickly relayed this information to Jiang Tong.

Jiang Tong left the enemies on the ground and flew up. In the air, he called all his followers who could fly. These followers gathered toward him.

"Forget the mob. Our true enemies are there," he said as he pointed at the flying masses at the back of the enemy’s formation.

"If we take them out, there might be a chance to disable the backpacks of the mob down here," Liu Xun said. "I believe those people are the ones who controlled this mob. If we can free the mob from their control, they should stop being hostile."

"You heard him! Kill all those fuckers! Leave none alive!!" Jiang Tong exclaimed with a rallying cry.

His followers bellowed in response and charged forward. Though most of their army was having trouble due to the enemy’s unconventional strategy, their Martial Realm combatants greatly outnumbered the opponent. They should be able to defeat the enemies at the back in a short time.

As they flew forward, they noticed several soldiers from the enemy group coming forward. These soldiers were holding talismans with sizes larger than usual. These talismans started glowing. A shining line came out from each person holding the large talisman. The lines connected and formed a gigantic formation. This formation ended in the shape of a glowing dome encapsulating the enemy group on the backline.

Jiang Tong arrived first. He crashed into the glowing dome and was surprised to find a powerful force that caused him to bounce back.

If even Jiang Tong was repelled, his followers didn’t fare better. They started hitting the dome with their weapons, but their attacks didn’t seem to have an effect.

Jiang Tong angrily punched at the dome. While he did that, one of the enemies approached him from the other side. This enemy was laughing mockingly, "Hahaha. It is amusing seeing how you apes from an undeveloped country deal with our advanced technique."

"Come out, and we will see how I tear that laugh off your face," Jiang Tong responded.

"Like I will fall for that childish taunt, ape," the enemy returned.

"Have respect, Chao," another enemy approached. He looked much older and appeared to wield more authority than the enemy who first spoke. "The person before you is the supreme commander of the Echos Army, the famous Jiang Tong, the one known as the Immortal God of War."

"Uncle Xuang Feng," the younger person responded to the speaker with a respectful tone. His courteous tone soon turned back to mocking when he spoke about Jiang Tong. "Is uncle sure he is that Jiang Tong? Doesn’t look that impressive to me."

"If he can get past our protective wall, you will have a very different opinion. Unfortunately for him, he can’t," Xuang Feng said. He went past Xuang Chao and floated before Jiang Tong. The two were only separated by a distance that was an arm’s length, but they might as well live in two different worlds due to the energy wall that separated them.

"Xuang Feng? I have heard of you. You are a Khode General from the Xuang Clan, one of the clans that holds a seat at Khode High Council," Jiang Tong said.

"I am flattered the outside world has heard my lowly name," Xuang Feng said.

"So, it is truly Khode who invades us. What is your purpose? Are you trying to start a war?"

"I might as well say it has already started," Xuang Chao remarked.

"Quiet, Chao. It is not your turn to speak," Xuang Feng admonished. He then returned his attention to Jiang Tong and replied, "While I oppose any form of war. This one is necessary for Khode’s survival... No, it is necessary for Aetheria’s survival!"