The army lead by Long Haochen only amounted to fourteen thousand people. That’s right, only fourteen thousand. This was because he had only brought all the people with vocations from the two armies. He did not bring any regular troops.
The composition of the first and second armies of the union were the same. They were composed of four thousand warriors, a thousand knights, five hundred assassins, mages, summoners and priests. Each army was also accompanied with over forty thousand regular soldiers of various types, forming two fifty-thousand-man armies.
As the blade that would penetrate into the demons, regular soldiers would nowhere near enough, and they would heavily hinder the speed of the army. As a result, the people who actually took part in this attack were only around the fourteen thousand people from the temples. These people were all assigned the same mounts regardless of their vocation.
There were not many mages, summors and priests who knew how to ride horses, but they had vocations after all, so their body constitutions was much greater than ordinary people. It only took them a while to learn how to ride horses.
Originally, as this army was the first army created after the founding of the union, the temples had all chosen elites for this army. They included parts of the Brilliant Knight Regiment.
All of the warriors were above the fourth step, while the powerhouses from the five other temples were all above the sixth step. Although they amounted only a little more than ten thousand, with a majority being warriors, these people were the elites of the elites from the six temples.
Night descended. The army left the mountain pass from behind, before looping around. They slowly approached the demon army camps from the south.
The effects of using powerhouses in war was completely demonstrated at a time like that. With over fourteen thousand people all riding horses, it covered up quite a large area, but just Long Hoachen alone managed to envelope them with his powerful mental force. There was no scouting magic that could discover even the slightest trace of their presence under the Long Haochen’s mental force, unless the person who used the scouting magic had mental force greater than Long Haochen’s.
Xiao Huo accompanied Long Haochen. He rode a large, tall horse, while below Long Haochen was the holy unicorn Star King. To Long Haochen’s left was Cai’er and behind him was Yating. In order to conceal her dense spiritual energy as a Fairy Queen of Light, Yating was forced to wear a set of magic robes that could conceal her element.
She was different from Long Haochen. Not only was her personal light element pure, she was also a fairy that was intimate with nature, so the light element would naturally become intimate with her. As a result, no matter when it was, she would automatically shine with golden light. She could not even control that herself. Unless she was in an environment without any light element, she would continue to glow.
The other members of the Bright Glimmer of Light were beside him as well, but every single one of them had an Eternal Hero beside them as well.
Without a doubt, there was a correlation between insight and cultivation. All of the Eternal Heroes who had chosen members of the Bright Glimmer of Hope as their successors had cultivations beyond the fifth rank of the ninth step.
Currently, the happiest was Ling Xin, because beside him was a valiant female knight on a rose unicorn.
When the first and second armies of the union were created, Li Xin had been sent over by the Knight Temple. The two armies had been sent to the front lines, so she obviously came as well. Li Xin was only around thirty years of age, but she seemed more like in her twenties. She was obviously a popular choice among the Eternal Heroes. The person who had chosen her was also a female knight, who currently rode alongside her. She would smile and converse with Li Xin from time to time. If it were not for the prior knowledge, it would be impossible to guess that she was an undead knight.
Ever since the Eternal Heroes returned, Long Haochen felt more and more admiration for these predecessors. None of the issues that the union worried about had happened. As the Eternal Heroes had stated that they wanted to pass along their techniques and choose successors from the six temples, they immediately became closer to the temples. They were assigned to the five other temples with their great strength. Coupled with the fact that they would definitely be choosing their disciples from the group of people prepared by the six temples, the upper echelon of the temples welcomed them warmly as valued guests.
Not a single temple could gather nine powerhouses that had exceeded the third rank of the ninth step! With the presence of these predecessors, it was equivalent to reassuring them completely. As a result, the Eternal Heroes were perfectly integrated into the system of the Temple Union.
“Cai’er,” Shu Yongxiao said to Cai’er from beside her.
“Sister Shu,” Cai’er smiled at her. Compared to Long Haochen, Cai’er was not as constrained and polite before these predecessors. Instead, she acted more natural. Apart from the colour of her eyes and her aura, Shu Yongxiao was a person of great beauty. Even though Cai’er’s power of purification would surge whenever it sensed the aura of undead beside her, her control over her powers had become rather great with the drastic increase in her cultivation in the world of black and red. Shu Yongxiao had also taught her the ability of the Self Incarnating Domain like what Xiao Huo had taught Long Haochen. She was much more skilled in terms of attack than Long Haochen.
“When the battle begins, follow me. Shadow me. You don’t need to fight. You just need to pay attention to my attacks.” Shu Yongxiao said to Cai’er extremely tenderly, such that even the other Eternal Heroes found it rather uncomfortable. With their understanding of the first temple head of the Assassin Temple, they knew Shu Yongxiao took an extremely great liking to Cai’er.
“Alright,” Cai’er immediately agreed to the suggestion without any hesitation. Of course she could sense how much Shu Yongxiao liked her. She also liked this sister Shu very much. Although it had only been seven or eight days since they had met, Shu Yongxiao had already taught her many things, strengthening her battle prowess one step further.
As they drew closer and closer to the camps of the demons, Long Haochen raised his hand to signal the army to stop.
“Follow my command. Dismount and leave five hundred warriors to watch the horses. Everyone else, maintain your formations and attack with me.”
They really were people with vocations. Long Haochen’s command reached the entire army very quickly and aside from the knights, all the other members had dismounted, leaving their horses where they were without creating any noise at all. Aside from the knights, the other vocations were not particularly skilled in battle on horseback. The horses were just for travelling. In actual battle, they would be more familiar with fighting on foot.
Two thousand knights stood at the front, with the priests behind them. The mages and summoners were slightly further back. They were surrounded by warriors to the left, right and back. Assassins moved about outside the army. They slowly advanced while maintaining this perfect formation.
Long Haochen specially had Han Yu stay behind. Of course it was not to watch the horses. Instead, it was to use the mental force of the Demonic Eye Tyrant to disturb the scouting magic from the demons, to prevent these horses and the warriors from being discovered. At the same time, they could avoid any accidents as Han Yu would be there.
There were over two hundred thousand demons stationed outside the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass. During the holy war five years ago, it had even reached as much as a million. However, the environment there was horrible, so in the end, only the defined demons stayed behind. It was very difficult for weaker demons to survive there.
As a result, the demon army outside the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass could be described as the strongest for any of the size forts. They were all above the fourth step.
That demonstrated how powerful the demons were. It would take the entire union to gather two hundred thousand powerhouses above the fourth step. This was also the important reason why the Temple Union had always been afraid of open battles against the demons.
However, with the addition of the Eternal Heroes, the peak strength of the Temple Union no longer paled in comparison to the demons. They were launching a sneak attack as well under the lead of Long Haochen and the other peak powerhouses, which was they they were confident in dealing with a demon army that mounted to two hundred thousand people with just a little more than ten thousand people.
They grew closer and closer to the demon army. They could already see the camps of the army.
They could not get any closer. Although it was cold near the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass and the visibility at night time was very low, the demon watchtowers would be able to spot them getting closer.
Long Haochen said sternly, “Stop. Everyone prepare for battle. Lin Xin.”
“Boss,” Lin Xin arrived next to Long Haochen quickly.
Long Haochen asked, “with the overall strength of the mages, how much closer do we need to get before they can fight?”
Lin Xin answered immediately, “We’re around for kilometers from the demons. We need to be at least one and a half kilometers from them for the mages to use large scale magic. If you want to maximize the damage, then we need to be five hundred meters away.”
Long Haochen nodded, “Alright, I understand. Everyone gather over.”
The Bright Glimmer of Hope were the commanders of this penetration army. They controlled an army of a vocation corresponding to their personal vocation. They quickly gathered near Long Haochen. of course, the eighteen Heroes of Eternity had come too.
Long Haochen whispered, “there’s roughly two hundred thousand enemies. According to the information gathered by the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass, there’s only one demon god stationed here, which is the demon god of the twentieth pillar, Purson. His cultivation definitely don’t be weak to be able to rank twentieth. His Demon God Pillar is present as well. Originally, there were there demon gods stationed here, but according to my Intel, the other two have returned to Modu.”
The Eternal Heroes did not give any opinions. Back at the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass, Shu Yongxiao and Xiao Huo had already made it clear. During the war, they would not take part in any of the decision-making. They would follow their commands and just fight.
Their decision was clearly very clever, because they had slept for several thousand years after all. They did not understand the situation of the outside world. The current war between the humans and demons definitely would not be based off the situation several thousand years ago. Coupled with their seniority, if they really did give their opinion, wouldn’t everyone listen to them?