Am I the only one who didn't ascend?

Chapter 534 Convergence
The entry of the Immortal Alliance coalition forces was certainly no secret to Gan Fengxian, who was in charge of the front-line fighting. Long before he personally led the army to fight, he had already had a secret talk with Wang Luo in the high palace. At that time, the two of them roughly determined that at the critical moment there would be a scene of "the Immortal Alliance coalition forces descending from the sky to turn the tide."

But this scene will not and should not happen in the early or middle stages.

On the one hand, the harsh environment of Ming and Mo states was far beyond expectations, which slowed down the progress of the Immortal Alliance's Tongming Road. Every time a Dinghuang fortress was built, the pioneers had to spend several times more energy than expected to cut through the thorns and open a path. To date, the progress of the Tongming Road has not yet passed halfway, and the Immortal Alliance and Xinhengyuan are not bordering each other. In this case, if the Immortal Alliance coalition forces want to forcibly cross the wasteland and come to the Xinheng border front, they will suffer huge risks.

On the other hand, Xinheng's wild beast rebellion is an excellent opportunity for Gan Fengxian to express himself. As an airborne member of the royal family and the next emperor, he must take this opportunity to lay a solid political foundation and win enough base, and this process always takes time.

However, no one expected that the Immortal Alliance would arrive faster than expected.

Gan Fengxian suddenly looked solemn and sat up from the lotus platform, as if the wounds under his armor had healed in an instant.

"Sir, has the Immortal Alliance changed?"

Wang Luo said, "There is a change in Tongming Road. The strength of this beast tide not only exceeded our expectations, but also exceeded the expectations of the Immortal Alliance. The day after you failed to surprise attack the Beast King, a group of beasts separated from the mother nest and attacked an Immortal Alliance engineering unit that was laying a tree eye network, causing very serious casualties."

Gan Fengxian was stunned at first, then he said gloomily: "Diversion attack, could it be..."

"Yes, that's right. Could it be that the tactics you designed to surprise attack the Beast King have been learned by the other side and used to deal with the Immortal Alliance? And the effect is even better than yours."

"...Shame on you." Gan Fengxian almost gnashed his teeth as he spoke, because in the surprise attack three days ago, he was actually 80% sure that he could kill the beast king in one fell swoop - if he had tried his best to win. Unfortunately, based on political considerations, he left a flaw in the overall strategy, luring the Xiang army's front-line general Yu Qi to hesitate before the battle, leaving the beast king with space to break out, so that the effort failed. The backlash of the beasts caused heavy casualties in the Xinheng army, and many generals who had a bad relationship with Gan Fengxian died in the backlash. Gan Fengxian won the respect of the entire army by his heroic feat of personally going to the front line and fighting bravely.

At that time, Gan Fengxian thought he had a good plan - although the price he paid was indeed high, it was negligible compared to the gains. Moreover, although the beast tide was temporarily in power and established a stable frontline mother nest, in his opinion it was ultimately just a futile struggle. Compared to human civilization, the temporarily united wild beasts were nothing more than a mob.

But now looking back, he really underestimated this mob, and underestimated the intelligence of the beast king... It only needed to experience the battle methods of the human regular army once to imitate it, and even used it to severely damage the Immortal Alliance! Obviously, it really learned the essence and used it to its full potential.

In comparison, a powerful but unmobile human army is more like a mob!
Wang Luo said: "There is no point in regretting the past. The key point is what's next... This is the first time that the Immortal Alliance has suffered such heavy casualties in the wilderness. The voices of the radical faction within the alliance naturally took the initiative. It has been decided to send a field force of more than 30,000 people to go deep into the wilderness along the paved road and destroy the mother nest of the beasts..."

Gan Fengxian immediately said, "It's too dangerous! If we use brute force to attack from the front in an area already occupied by wild beasts, even the Immortal Alliance will find it difficult to break through the endless sea of ​​beasts..."

Wang Luo said: "So, this is also your chance to leave a good impression on the Immortal Alliance. When the field army was in crisis, you personally went into battle with injuries and led the troops to fight off the beast tide... I can guarantee that in half a year, the mirage about you will be a hit in the hundreds of countries of the Immortal Alliance."

Gan Fengxian was silent for a while, then gritted his teeth and said, "I understand. This is indeed a rare opportunity. If we can join forces with the Immortal Alliance, defeat the beast tide's mother nest head-on, and drive them out of the Fenghu area completely, it should be the best result for both sides... There have been many unexpected and strange things since the wild beasts started to cause trouble, and we can't apply past experience. Their evolution speed is too fast! If we really drag it into a long-term war, the consequences are really unpredictable!"

Wang Luo nodded: "Okay, as long as you know what's going on. I can help you sort out the affairs in Xinheng, but no one can help you with the frontline affairs. You have to handle it yourself."

Gan Fengxian said solemnly: "Xinheng is my country, I will do my best!"

-

Gan Fengxian's so-called doing his best soon produced tangible results.

On the tenth day after the surprise attack on Xinheng, the Immortal Alliance coalition forces assembled at the third Dinghuang Fortress. More than 30,000 troops directly crossed the border set by the Dinghuang Fortress and went deep into the wilderness.

On the twelfth day, the army caught up with the beast group that had attacked the engineering corps earlier, and it took half a day to strangle them, leaving no trace of the beasts. However, half a day later, on the way back, more than a million wild beasts suddenly emerged from the ground, directly blocking the way of the Immortal Alliance and besieging them in a deserted valley. The power of the beast group was far beyond expectations. Even with the heavy firepower support of the distant Dinghuang Fortress, the battle situation was only a stalemate, and it was increasingly unfavorable to the Immortal Alliance.

At this time, Gan Fengxian, despite his injuries, once again led the army in person, leading the main forces of the Star Army and the Fragrance Army, from west to east, and carving out a nearly straight path among the beast tide, a straight path paved with the skeletons of exotic beasts.

The end of the road was a steep mountain that stood out from the vast hilly area west of Liuyan City. Because of its prominence, it was well-known in the border area even though it was not within the borders of Xinheng.

Hundreds of years ago, border residents had a legend that there was an immortal living in seclusion on the "Xianyang Peak", because whenever there was an abnormal celestial phenomenon in the border area, people could see the figure of an immortal on the top of the Xianyang Peak through the clouds. However, Xinheng has always been isolated from the outside world, so people can only imagine the legend but have no chance to explore it. The Xinheng army led by Gan Fengxian is the first group of mortals to climb Xianyang Peak since the founding of Xinheng.

On Xianyang Peak, people have indeed found traces of the immortals' past lives, a thatched cottage that, though abandoned, still contains a strong immortal essence, and a medicinal garden full of immortal grass. There are immortal notes left in the cottage, but unfortunately no one can recognize the words written on it.

The soldiers were very excited about the discovery on Xianyang Peak - not because of the cultural and historical value of Xianyang Peak, but because the immortals who lived here in the past spent hundreds of years to open up the passage between the entire mountain and the underground spiritual veins. This mountain that stands out from the crowd is like a deep well. As long as you are on the top of the mountain, you can easily mobilize the power of the spiritual veins deep in the earth.

This was also the reason why Gan Fengxian went against the majority opinion and personally led the army deep into the country's borders.

Others didn't know what was on the Xianyang Peak, but he knew it - because long before he personally led the expedition, Zhang Jincheng, the imperial teacher on the Qianxing Tower in the Eastern Capital, had clearly told him that a hundred miles east of Liuyan City, there was a mountain that was quite famous in the border area, called Xianyang Peak. And that mountain... was essentially a place for the immortal officials of the heavenly court to rest and relax when they were on duty in the mortal world.

In theory, the immortal officials on duty should be high up in the sky, constantly keeping a close eye on the changes in the test field. But in reality, no immortal is willing to watch a group of ants in the mortal world so attentively. When assigned to take turns in the mortal world, the immortal officials prefer to be completely hands-off and find a place with rich spiritual energy to practice with concentration to make up for the loss of leaving the heavenly palace.

Although the cultivation environment in Mingmo and Mozhou is far from comparable to Jingzhou where the Heavenly Court is located, as long as you are willing to work hard to cultivate, even relatively poor soil can bear fruit. And Xianyang Peak is the fruit cultivated by the immortal officials for hundreds of years. It is located in an ordinary hilly area, but the mountain is tall and straight, reaching the clouds. The top of the mountain is also supplied by the intersection of spiritual veins from deep in the earth, and the rich spiritual energy is comparable to that of the immortal world. Although it has not been enlightened by immortals and has not become immortal essence, it is much better than the turbid air in the mortal world.

Although this unique pattern cannot help mortals become immortals, it is enough for Gan Fengxian to lead his army to set up a large thunder formation here. The formation uses the underground spiritual veins as its source and the towering mountain terrain of Xianyang Peak to send down immortal thunder from above the clouds to any point within hundreds of miles around, and its power is comparable to that of a heavenly calamity.

This was a safety measure arranged by the state master long before the expedition - if the battle on the front line was unfavorable, then the Xinheng army only needed to find a way to climb Xianyang Peak and set up a lightning formation, and there would be a chance to turn defeat into victory. Since Xianyang Peak had the aura of immortals, ordinary wilderness beasts were unwilling to approach it, so as long as the Xinheng people could muster the courage to fight all the way, there should always be a way to climb to the top of the peak. However, according to the plan before the expedition, this safety measure would not be activated until at least the middle of the war.

Now the plan is ahead of schedule, and fortunately it is ahead of schedule.

Gan Fengxian clearly felt the resistance far beyond his expectations while leading his army to raid. He gathered the main forces of the Xiang Army and the Xing Army, ignored the mother nest in front of him, and rushed to Xianyang Peak. He should have taken the lead by surprise, and at this time, a considerable number of the main forces of the beast herd were besieging the Xianmeng coalition army... and according to the state teacher, the beast herd should be sparse at the foot of Xianyang Peak, and the resistance should be lighter. But in fact, the closer to Xianyang Peak, the denser the beast herd, and the easier it is to hide powerful individuals in the beast herd. Although no wild beast dared to cross the border of Xianyang Peak, let alone climb to the top, it is obvious that this Xianyang Peak is special, and the beast tide is very clear. So much so that when Gan Fengxian's army rushed to the last few thousand meters, it was almost blocked by several wild beasts with almost combined cultivation.

And according to the speed of evolution of the wild beasts, it might not be long before they can completely wash away their fear of the remaining power of the immortals, surge up the mountain, and occupy this crucial position. At that time, it will be the turn of the Xinheng army to become a living target when the wild beasts look down on them.

Fortunately, his decisiveness allowed Xinheng to gain the upper hand.

Soon, Li Fengxian deployed his army around Xianyang Peak. After ensuring the protection, he used the Thunder Array to roll up the dark clouds in the sky and sent down thunder to the beast tide's nest in the distance that was as majestic as a mountain.

The immortal thunder created by the will of thousands of troops and drawing the spiritual veins of the earth, although still not as powerful as the one performed by the immortal officials themselves, is already enough to destroy the world for the creatures on earth.

After a bolt of lightning struck, a corner of the purple-black flesh mountain that almost covered the sky collapsed... but it was only a corner that collapsed, and after the mother nest was damaged, thousands of wild beasts immediately poured out from inside and outside the nest, using their own flesh and blood to heal the wounds of the nest and resist the next bolt of lightning.

Obviously, for the current beast tide, even the means of immortals can hardly play a decisive role.

Fortunately, Gan Fengxian no longer expected to have the final say. The purpose of bombarding the mother nest with the Thunder Array was not to directly destroy the mother nest itself, but to force the beasts that were besieging the Immortal Alliance to return to the mother nest as soon as possible.

Gan Fengxian's decision was accompanied by great risks. Not to mention whether the beast group besieging the Immortal Alliance had a subordinate relationship with the mother nest beast king, and whether they were willing to give up the prey in front of them and return to their hometown... If the beast king who was recuperating in the nest also chose to attack Wei to save Zhao, mobilized the beast group, and broke into Liuyan City while the main force of Xinheng was far away from the border, and went deep into Liuyan City, then even if Gan Fengxian really destroyed the mother nest of the beast tide and even killed the beast king afterwards, it would be of no use. The heavy casualties in the country would make him lose all political capital. Not to mention being transferred to the throne, he would probably be ruined on the spot...

Fortunately, this risk was a good bet. After the second immortal thunder fell from the Thunder Array and hit the mother nest again, the beast king made a decisive decision. The wild beasts in Ming and Mo states received a unified order and gathered from all directions to jointly defend the mother nest. And tens of millions of wild beasts worked together to support a flesh-and-blood shield around the mother nest, which was difficult to penetrate even with the power of immortal thunder. But at the same time, the siege of the Immortal Alliance was also lifted.

However, the 30,000 field troops did not return to the fortress to rest, but continued to maintain high morale and advance forward, all the way to the foot of Xianyang Peak, and officially joined Xinheng's army.

This decision to merge was completely unreasonable and somewhat beyond Gan Fengxian's expectations, but the results were undoubtedly good. As the Immortal Alliance brought a large number of Immortal Alliance weapons with strange effects to Xianyang Peak, the efficiency of the Thunder-pulling Array doubled immediately. The defense line built by the Beast King with all his strength was broken in an instant, and the mother nest was gradually turned into dust with the falling lightning. At the same time, civil strife broke out within the beast tide... In desperation, the Beast King had to order the beasts to retreat, and retreated to the outside of the attack range of the Thunder-pulling Array, almost completely withdrawing from the Fenghu area, before stopping. As the civil strife of the beast tide intensified, it was obvious that it would no longer pose a threat in the short term.

(End of this chapter)