208: Zijin's tactics

Mo Xujiang looked at the information sent by the scout, a smile playing on his lips, as if he didn't care at all that the enemy's strength was five times their own.

"Hehe! The fish have taken the bait." Mo Xujiang smiled faintly, looking in the direction they had come from, and spoke to his younger sister, Mo Xuyan.

Hearing her brother's voice, Mo Xuyan also looked up the road, her eyes filled with excitement.

She tightened her grip on the longsword and said fiercely, "Being trapped in that canyon yesterday almost suffocated me! Today, no matter what, I'm going to let them taste this old lady's power!"

Mo Xujiang affectionately patted Mo Xuyan's head. After they returned yesterday, Tie Shengnan had sent someone to notify them that they were being promoted to core members, and furthermore, both of them were directly promoted to Captain and Vice-Captain, and each received a Thunder Sub-Dragon Wyvern egg.

Mo Xujiang still hadn't figured out why they were suddenly promoted, but since he couldn't figure it out, he didn't dwell on it.

After returning, he discussed it with his sister and took out nearly half of his savings—a full ten million gold coins—to purchase large quantities of five-flower jade dew, Great Strength Pills, and other supplies, which he then distributed to his team members.

When they were about to run out of medicine yesterday, he truly thought they were going to die there. If they died, having money was useless, so it was better to use the money they had to buy more supplies.

Mo Xujiang brought up the command panel.

[All Wood Elementals activate Swift Step, circle around to the enemy's rear. As soon as the battle begins, take out their Water Element users first. Retreat immediately after one strike; do not linger in combat.]

[All Dragon Riders ascend. If the enemy formation is dense later, you will bomb them from the center first.]

[Metal Element Users take the front line. Water Element users must not stop healing. At the start of the battle, all other elements should throw their area-of-effect skills 30 meters in front of the Metal Element Users.]

...As Mo Xujiang's orders were issued one by one, the over 2,000 members of the Forbidden City Legion instantly moved into position.

Ten minutes later, the vanguard of the ten-thousand-strong Allied Army arrived at the Poisonous Miasma Swamp.

As soon as they saw the Forbidden City personnel, the Allied Army quickly split into two arcs, blocking the exit. They then compressed the semi-circle, quickly "surrounding" Mo Xujiang's team.

"Hahaha! Forbidden City brats, didn't expect this, did you?!" The Allied Army Captain sneered, looking at his completely surrounded opponents.

It is currently known that the Allied Army dispatched 100 teams of ten thousand men each to suppress 100 Forbidden City teams.

But there is only one Huang Chen. As long as they move fast enough, the probability of encountering him is at most one percent.

Using a one percent chance of death to gamble for over 2,000 sets of high-level equipment right in front of them was a gain no matter how they calculated it.

However, the expected panic did not occur.

Not only was there no fear on the faces of the surrounded Forbidden City personnel, but they even showed a hint of... mockery?

Mo Xujiang walked to the front of the formation, smiling as he looked at the opposing captain, "You didn't expect this, did you? I didn't expect it either..."

The Captain looked at Mo Xujiang's smile and suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Shouldn't the opponents be panicking?

Could it be... Huang Chen is here?

Thinking of this, the Captain immediately shivered and carefully searched the skies above the opposing formation. Only when he saw nothing did he slowly exhale.

Huang Chen usually appears suspended in the air. Since he isn't here now, he has likely gone elsewhere.

After all, he deliberately delayed his departure, so battles must have started earlier elsewhere.

With this thought, the Captain slowly raised his left hand, preparing to order a full-scale attack.

Just as his hand was raised, Mo Xujiang suddenly dropped his smile and shouted loudly, "Attack!!"

"Awooo~"

Immediately afterward, five massive dragon roars came from above, and the shadows of the Wyverns slowly grew larger in the pupils of the Allied Army soldiers.

"Damn it! It's a trap... It's the Dragon Rider Army! Scatter! Use your strongest single-target attacks and shoot them down!" The Allied Army Captain was instantly terrified out of his wits.

The Dragon Rider Army consists of Earth and Fire Element users, and combined with the Wyverns, a simple combined attack can essentially wipe out a large area.

A Forbidden City Legion possessing the Dragon Rider Army would definitely increase its strength by several levels.

But according to the scout's feedback, the opposing force shouldn't have been accompanied by the Dragon Rider Army.

Could it be... the Dragon Rider Army had been ambushing them high in the sky?

However, before the Allied Army Captain could think further, over two hundred loud shouts suddenly erupted from the rear of the Allied Army formation,

"Kill!"

All Wood Elementals of the Forbidden City suddenly revealed themselves while the Allied Army was in chaos. Every two people targeted one Water Element user, executing a surprise attack followed by continuous output.

In just one second, before anyone could react, hundreds of Canglan Clan members screamed and vanished, turning into white light.

The Wood Elemental Assassins did not linger in combat; having succeeded in their strike, they all activated Swift Step and retreated.

However, their activation of Swift Step terrified the remaining Water Element users into a stupor.

No one knew whether these Assassins were retreating or sneaking up beside them.

Consequently, the Water Element users forgot to heal and instead continuously released large-scale magic spells in front of them, attempting to prevent the Assassins from approaching.

After all, no one's life was more important than their own.

The attacks by the Dragon Riders and Assassins threw the Allied Army formation into chaos. The Captain continuously shouted, trying to regroup the team, but this ten-thousand-strong Allied Army was composed of at least four different races.

In the face of life and death, who would care about your orders?

Mo Xujiang seized the opportunity and immediately ordered a counterattack.

The two thousand soldiers immediately charged toward the ten thousand enemies with unmatched momentum.

Dragon roars shook the heavens, and Karmic Fire scorched the earth! The golden light of the Soul Severing Stab was like the Grim Reaper's scythe, taking several lives with every flash.

The Five Element formation and coordination that the Allied Army was originally proud of were as fragile as paper in the face of the charge led by the Forbidden City's core members and Dragon Riders.

The battle ended faster than anyone anticipated. In less than twenty minutes, the ten thousand elite Allied Army soldiers had either fled or died. Even their Captain had turned into equipment faintly shimmering with dark gold light on the ground.

After the battle tally, fewer than 50 Forbidden City members out of 2,000 had died, while the opponent lost nearly five thousand men.

Although this result was partially due to careful planning against carelessness, it also indirectly showed how many tiers the equipment of the Forbidden City's current core and inner members must be ahead of the enemy's to achieve such a result, despite their inferior bone structure.

Similar events were happening across various maps, but the battle results were not as good as those achieved by Mo Xujiang's team.

After all, Mo Xujiang's team had privately prepared potions worth nearly ten million gold coins for their members.

After this battle, the old "employees" who had originally been somewhat unconvinced by Mo Xujiang were all impressed.

After all, setting aside the ten million worth of potions, just his fearless on-site command was enough to show how extraordinary this young man was.

Of course, some Forbidden City teams suffered heavy losses due to carelessness and were overwhelmed by the enemy's assault.

But as long as the enemy didn't send dozens of times the number of Forbidden City personnel, Huang Chen generally ignored it.

After all, Forbidden City members had enjoyed benefits for so long; it was time to send them out and let others temper them.

Similar ambushes, counter-kills, and further counter-kills were constantly playing out across the wilderness over the next two days.

Both sides used endless strategies, but overall, the Allied Army was almost always struggling within the schemes of the Forbidden City.

After all, Huaxia possesses divine tools like Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

Occasionally, however, Forbidden City Legions were ambushed and annihilated... but the counterattacks launched by the Forbidden City personnel when facing death always inflicted massive casualties on the Allied Army.

Looking at the intelligence sent by the informant, Hao Tianyang was furious.

"Lunatics! They're all lunatics! Huang Chen is a lunatic! His subordinates are lunatics too!"

After so many days, this was the first time he wondered if taking the path of targeting Huaxia was the right decision!

"Tell me, what are these things in the intelligence reports? Entrapment? Empty Fort Stratagem? Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Sea? Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao? Mutual Destruction?..."

"What are all these damn things? Why can't I understand any of it?"

"Could it be that our Allied Army is losing because of these tricks?"

...Facing defeat, the Allied Army had to invest more manpower into stricter reconnaissance. At the same time, they became paranoid and hesitant toward any size Forbidden City team, severely reducing the efficiency of their encirclement operations.

Huang Chen had been sitting idle in Central City for several days. Several times during these days, he almost couldn't stop himself from intervening, but Tie Shengnan held him back.

Huang Chen actually understood the reasoning behind it. However, seeing some of the old team members who had followed him since Novice Village die still left him feeling a bit emotional.

Seeing that the situation had essentially reached a stalemate, Huang Chen finally turned his attention to the remaining 20 Satellite Cities held by the Ghouls...