Battle Royale of the Sinners

= Lujiang =

Diaochan and Liu Yang were recuperating in their room, but their immortal sight was observing the battle at Jiujiang Fort.

Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang, and the Sun Clan were doing well against the undead army. However, the two 8-wing girls were worried about the casualties, which was likely to happen soon.

The skeletons had proved that they had intelligence. Also, these 50,000 undead soldiers couldn't be killed by normal means. Only weapons, enhanced by strong cultivators, could damage or kill them.

Medusa used to control many skeleton warriors in hell, and she trained Tong by using them. She knew that these skeleton soldiers could get stronger over time, and they were ideal for being vanguards of any army.

"Should we give the clan's lifespan to Hua Shi? Her homing arrows can deal with this army," Asked Liu Yang.

Diaochan summoned a clan menu and check the remaining lifespan they had in the clan pool.

200,000 Years.

Diaochan sighed in regret. The battle against Gan Ji consumed the majority of their clan asset, and most of the contributed officers didn't have enough lifespan to spare anymore.

"We don't have enough lifespan for Hua Shi. We have 200,000 years left. It is wiser to give them to Lu Xun or other generals, so they can empower their cannons and guns."

Hua Shi's skills wasted a lot of lifespans. Summoning a batch of 50 magic arrows with her soul required 200 years, but enhancing several arrows at once with wing aura cost only 10-20 years for cultivators.

Her fighting style was not efficient in terms of lifespan usage, but it was more effective against cultivators because of the homing utility.

Diaochan distributed the lifespan to Lu Xun anyway. She also messaged him, Lu Xun, Lu Meng, and other generals.

Diaochan: "Enhance your cannons and guns with these. Those skeletons have physical damage immunity, so use magic and your force."

…

Lu Xun read Diaochan's message and got an inspiration. He reorganized all troops in the fort.

"Lu Meng, I need you to lead a unit of 30,000 infantry to the north flank. Take a detour and position your troops behind the second wall. I want you to block their escape route."

"Senior Han, take all 30,000 men from the front trenches into the fort. Then, exit through the north gate. Encircle the north flank, and stop them from slipping through the net. You can take the enhanced cannons from the fort with you."

"Senior Cheng, bring 30,000 men and block our enemies at the south. Take all our hwachas with you."

"Your highness, please give sniper rifles to our elite cultivators. Be sure to teach them how to enhance weaponry with our power. Senior Huang, I need you to guard the fortress with our remaining troops, but I'm sure they won't attack us head-on."

"My lady, please act as a scout for us. I need you to fly over the undead army and keep dropping bombs at them. You don't need to destroy all of them. Just harass them to the point that they have to move around."

Series of commands came from Lu Xun in succession. Yet, nobody rebuked or protested against his order even though Lu Xun had no authority to do so. Everyone trusted Lu Xun's insight since he was once a successful grand commander, who had repelled Liu Bei Army at the Battle of Yiling in the other timeline. This man also inherited Zhou Yu's duties after the Battle of Chibi, so his talent was trustworthy.

The group returned to their perspective units for the upcoming invasion of skeletons.

.

.

.

50,000 skeleton soldiers crossed the burning moat. They brought their bone weapons forward and stopped before the trenches, the last line of defense of Jiujiang Fort.

The trenches this time were not a single long and deep moat. Instead, it was a small maze underground.

A dozen of two-meters-depth passages intersected, while bunkers, several lines of wooden palisades, and wooden spike traps on the ground blocked the skeleton army's vision from getting an accurate maze layout.

Behind the trenches, a giant star-shaped fortress stood tall. A combination of a V-shaped mud wall, wooden fences, and archer towers formed another sophisticated array.

This fortress was an upgraded version of Tong's fortress in Anping, where Tong had fought against Han Fu and other forces during his early days. Lu Xun and Lu Meng copied Tong's idea and improved it.

It was no longer a small fort for a few thousand people, but a massive fortress city that could house over 100,000 men.

The skeletons glared at the trenches and the fortress, analyzing the structures. A hundred bone soldiers marched forward to probe the traps.

When they got close to the outer layer of trenches…

*BANG*

*BANG*

Gunshot sound came from the top of the fortress as snipers did their job. Five yellow light went through five skulls, shattering them to pieces.

Those were empowered bullets from the snipers!

The bone soldiers collapsed, and the soldiers on the wall cheered. They had found another way to defeat the undead army.

"Clack! Clack!"

The rest of the skeletons clattered their jaws as if they were communicating. They pointed their fingers at the general direction of the shooters.

However, their reaction was pointless. 

*BANG* *BANG*

*BANG* *BANG*

More bullets hailed at the probing group. Within a few seconds, all of them collapsed on the ground after their skulls had been destroyed.

Behind the scout unit, the rest of the bone soldiers observed the situation. Seeing that their friends died after they went to check the trenches, the army reacted.

Instead of trying to cross the trenches, they splitted their forces into two units. One moved north, and the other went south. The skeletons avoided a direct confrontation and tried to find another waypoint to the fort.

But then…

*PU* *PU* *PU*

An angel with 7 wings dropped a glowing sack of gunpowder into the middle of their army.

The skeletons looked at Sun Shangxiang in the sky, and then, they gazed at the sack.

The bone soldiers leaped away from the colorful sack. Even though they didn't understand what kind of radiation the gunpowder was emitting, but they had learned that these sacks were the cause of the explosion.

Sun Shangxiang dropped a torch and fled from the area.

*BOOOOOM*

Skeletons in the explosion radius shattered into pieces. The aura-coated gunpowder completed its job.

Sun Shangxiang flew back to pick up more oil barrels from the fort. She went back and forth all night, harassing the skeletons.

"Clack! Clack!"

The undead soldiers glared at Sun Shangxiang in the sky in frustration. They endured her assault and continued marching.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

For 10 minutes, Sun Shangxiang bombed the two units of bone warriors. A few thousand of them couldn't walk again.

But the harassment didn't last long. One of the injured skeletons suddenly ate its friends and merged their bones together.

Seeing the action of the oddball, several bone soldiers did the same.

The phenomenon shocked Sun Shangxiang. She stopped attacking to see what they were trying to do.

30 Minutes later, the massive army of 50,000 skeleton soldiers transformed into 10,000 green skeletons. Their bones emitted purple aura, which was similar to demon cultivators.

"Well, shit."

Sun Shangxiang could sense that these bone soldiers evolved into demons with 1-wing strength, and their aura was poisonous to the living. The battle might get tougher.

<<Ding>>

Lu Xun: "Your highness. I might sound rude, but I have to ask you for a favor."

Lu Xun: "I need you to support our soldiers. You can stop bombing them now."

Even Lu Xun adjusted his plan after witnessing the evolution of these soldiers.

Sun Shangxiang retreated and regrouped with Cheng Pu, who was commanding a south flank unit.

…

Cheng Pu's 30,000 swift soldiers used the time that Sun Shangxiang had bought, forming a formation 500 meters south of the detached skeleton unit.

This unit also brought 100 hwachas, which was pre-loaded with two hundred arrows each. They pushed the wagons to the front and prepared the fuses. 

Cheng Pu enhanced everything with his aura. He also had taught his cultivators in his unit how they could use their power. As such, the eyes of these men brimmed with self-confidence. Facing the mutated monsters was not as scary as before.

Cheng Pu's battalions stopped marching and set up their formation. Crossbowmen and archers positioned themselves behind the hwacha units.

Sun Shangxiang landed by Cheng Pu's side and reported for her duty.

"The sissy wants me to support you."

Cheng Pu chuckled, finding Lu Xun's nickname funny, "Aye. Please take care of me, princess."

10,000 evolved skeletons fearlessly marched forward. They carried bone shields, which were crafted by using bones of their fallen friends, and placed them in front of themselves.

A fish-scale formation of 10,000 bone warriors slowly advanced. Purple aura enveloped their entire forces.

As their boney feet moved, plants withered, plowed soil rotted, rocks decayed into black goo. Everything was corrupted by the demonic aura.

Seeing the changes in the environment, Cheng Pu and Sun Shangxiang's face sunk. They didn't know that a demon cultivator could corrupt materials and land to this extend.

Still, they didn't falter. Sun Shangxiang nocked an arrow and aimed at the approaching skeletons while Cheng Pu floated in the air, so his soldiers could see and hear his command.

"HWACHA UNITS! LIGHT THE FUSE!!"

A hwacha, aka rocket pods, had a maximum range of one to two kilometers. At the range of 500 meters, they were within the artillery range.

The skeleton army's speed was slow. They ignored what Cheng Pu's troops were doing and advanced with their shields covering their heads and front.

It didn't take long for fuses to ignite rocket arrows.

*FWHOOSH* *FWHOOSH*

*FWHOOSH* *FWHOOSH*

As if hwachas were machine guns, 20,000 rocket-propelled arrows launched in succession.

Enhanced by Cheng Pu's angelic blessing, the randomness flying of these arrows didn't exist. As if their targets were pinpointed or locked-on, 20,000 arrows rained upon the fish-scale-formation unit of 10,000 skeletons.

*PU*

*CLANK*

*PU*

*PU*

*CLANK*

Not all arrows punctured through their defensive aura and their shields. Still, 60% of the arrows managed to destroy bone shields and the evolved skeleton soldiers.

The formation of the skeletons crumbled, but Cheng Pu didn't let his guard down.

"ARCHERS!! FIRE!!"

Over 20,000 soldiers enhanced their repeating crossbows and bolts with their lifespans. Then, they aimed up and pulled the triggers.

Surviving thousands of crippled skeletons gazed at the raining light arrows. Nobody could tell what they were thinking from their red fireball eyes.

…

Cheng Pu's combination of arrow rain and hwachas wiped out the detached army before they could harm them. They passed on the good news to Lu Xun and Sun Quan in the fortress.

As they were informing their colleagues, the thunderous sound of cannons came from the northern front. It seemed that Han Dang used cannons against another separated unit.

Within 5 minutes after the series of cannon sound, Han Dang also reported that the other 10,000 evolved skeletons were vanquished.

Everybody was relieved that this battle was easy since they simply charged directly to their death.

However, they could not celebrate. Lu Meng, who was commanding the flank unit that was supposed to stay behind the skeleton army, sent an urgent message.

Lu Meng: "One of the skeletons has slipped through our net! There's a lurker at the first line watchtower wall! It didn't march along with the others!!"