Chapter 503: Worse than a Hell on Earth (part 2)
Rainfield Prefecture was a long and thin prefecture. Its western border with Tidefall Prefecture formed the western front, and its northern border with Tranquility Prefecture formed its northern front. The climate was warm year-round. Because of that, the species in Rainfield Prefecture tended to be larger than those from other prefectures. For example, the Fullspirits that Qingqin had been such a fan of grew to an average height of about fifteen meters.
The prefecture was a very rainy place. There were mountains everywhere, with about one out of every ten being a volcano. That said, they didn’t erupt very frequently. Because of the war, Rainfield Prefecture ended up becoming a staging zone. If supplies weren’t delivered directly to the northern or western front, they would be stored in Rainfield Prefecture for a time.
To some extent, the prefecture was considered part of the war zone, and therefore, the Justice Palace was temporarily in control of it.
The vast majority of Holytides were in the armies being held off on the borders. But because the northern part of the county had lost three prefectures early on, not even the great net created by the combined forces of the county’s taboo treasures could prevent small squads of Holytides from slipping into the interior.
Holytides were very skilled at disguising themselves, and were also equipped with magical treasures that could prevent the taboo treasure net from targeting them. Therefore, unless a lot of effort was put into tracking them down, it would be almost impossible to wipe them out completely. In addition to all that, they had received special training for this operation. The majority of them were from the Black Guard, and most of them had split up to avoid detection. Their main goal was to either divert or destroy the supplies being sent to the front lines.
After all, not all supplies could simply be stuffed into a holding device or dimensional space. And not everything could be sent through teleportation portals. Much of it was transported manually.
At the moment, a few thousand Black Guard cultivators had gathered outside of a large-scale teleportation portal in Rainfield Prefecture, and were launching an unexpected attack. Each one had an extraordinary cultivation base and shocking battle prowess. After all, members of the Black Guard were similar to swordsages; they were all outstanding figures among their people. Although not every single one could fight an enemy from a higher cultivation level, most were considered elites among elites.
Their mission was to destroy this specific teleportation portal. The complex had a total area of about fifty kilometers. From high above, it looked very impressive, and whenever it was activated, it could move tens of thousands of cultivators at a time.
The sounds of fighting already echoed along the edges of the portal.
There were a lot of cultivators stationed around the portal to defend it. However, most were disciples from the Justice Palace who couldn’t even come close to being on the same level as the elite members of the Swordsage Palace. And compared to the Black Guard cultivators, they were just simply deficient.
The upside was that they had the advantage of numbers. Furthermore, there were also members of Rainfield Prefecture’s native species present, plus some swordsages as well.
The portal had been activated, but there were a few hundred Black Guard cultivators in the air using magical devices to interfere with the portal’s operation. As a result, the portal wasn’t working.
Some of the Black Guard cultivators even managed to break through the defensive barriers, reach the portal itself, and self-detonate, causing shock waves to spread out and further disrupt the portal’s operation.
That said, overall, the portal was still in good working order. Most of the assault was being held at bay by the borders.
Much of that was due to the person in charge of the overall defenses of the portal, Yao Yunhui. She was the director of the Justice Palace’s Division 3, and was also a Spirit Trove cultivator. As such, she had personally repelled the Black Guard cultivators multiple times already. She did not seem alluring and seductive like she had back at the county capital. Instead, she wore a suit of armor, and though she was clearly exhausted, she exuded a somber and desolate aura. Thanks to her leadership, the forces under her command had held strong against the Black Guard assault.
The arrival of over a hundred such cultivators caused brightly colored light to flash in heaven and earth, and screaming winds to whip about. The air trembled, and the ground shook so hard it seemed like it might crack.
The cultivators from both the Black Guard and the Justice Palace, plus the allied nonhumans, were all staring in absolute astonishment.
“Th-that... that....”
“That’s not possible!”
“Human relief troops!”
The Black Guard cultivators felt like their scalps were about to explode. All were visibly stunned and began to scramble backward. In contrast, the cultivators from the Justice Palace were all extremely excited.
“Relief troops!”
“The backup troops are here!”
“Reinforcements have finally arrived!”
Though these cultivators had not been stationed on the front lines, the past month had been very difficult for them. They had been forced to continuously suppress their feelings of despair and just endure. In fact, right now, some even wept or let loose piercing cries.
Yao Yunhui was so moved she seemed dazed. She’d long assumed there would be no relief troops, and that the war was a lost cause.
In fact, everyone had thought that. It was easy to imagine how the front line troops would react when seeing backup arrive. Given how long they had been risking their lives on the battlefield, they would probably be ten times as excited as the cultivators here. Maybe even a hundred times.
The patriarchs from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture emerged and spread out in all directions. Some waved their hands, causing heaven and earth to explode. The thousands of Black Guard cultivators were as weak as wet paper, and they exploded into flowering clouds of blood.
The Void Returning cultivators checked the teleportation portal and the surrounding area for safety, and as the excited local cultivators looked on, began another teleportation.
Before long, an army of hundreds of thousands of cultivators appeared. Their combined aura spread out like a tempest, causing rumbling like thunder to fill the sky, and cracking the ground as if from an earthquake.
However, things weren’t over yet! After those hundreds of thousands of cultivators materialized, they made room for another teleportation, and another wave materialized. Heaven shook! The earth quaked! After the over 1,000,000-strong army from two prefectures arrived, including the Captain, the teleportation portal glittered again as one more person arrived.
As this person materialized, everyone was asked to leave the portal, including the Captain.