Chapter 201: The Second Wave Of Willow People
On the human cluster’s side, after ending the battle with the Bamboo People, they used the precious time to catch their breath; meanwhile, the Tree People group’s second wave was integrating their troops.
Compared to the first wave of Bamboo People who charged with spears for stabbing, the second wave of Willow People used yielding to overcome the rigid.
A “pop” sound like firecrackers exploded in the Willow People’s marching formation; they were clearing out the Bamboo People blocking their path.
Four-to-five-meter-tall Willow People lashed out branches, these branches extending greatly like lizard tongues, reaching up to over ten meters when flung, with the tip capable of creating a sonic boom when swung.
The Willow People’s first wave of whip strikes was not aimed at Xuan Chong’s troops, but instead encountered the retreating Bamboo People.
Those Bamboo People had just gone through a scorching battle and were extremely parched; they only wanted to root down to properly absorb moisture from the soil and catch their breath. But now they were blocking the irritable Willow People’s path and were directly snapped in half (snapped, not broken; Xuan Chong paid special attention to this detail).
On the expeditionary army’s side, the Wu Family Army non-commissioned officers, seeing this, discussed the Willow People’s combat power. Willow People four to five meters tall could lash out ten-meter willow whips; wouldn’t those several ten-meter-tall ones behind be able to lash out whips twenty to thirty meters long?
In response, the non-commissioned officers quickly ordered the frontline halberd soldiers to withdraw; the hook scythe spear wielders had already switched to large sickles with half-meter-long blades. With such long blades, when the willow whips lashed over, the branches could be wrapped around the blades. A slight pull would cut the flexible branches like mowing grass, preventing the blades from being entangled.
This method was thought up by the non-commissioned officers.
Nowadays, thinking for the army was no longer solely Xuan Chong’s responsibility; through reasonable delegation of military authority, the non-commissioned officers bore the responsibility of thinking during combat.
While the willow tree people were “clearing the household,” the Wu Family Army’s long weapon blades had already been replaced, everything going smoothly just like a repairman swapping a screwdriver.
About the time of one incense stick later, the Willow People formed a two-kilometer battle line. Soon, the willows formed up with immense oppressive presence, like an upside-down bowl pressing toward the Wu Family Army position! The foremost Willow People, like cowboys roping horses, were already whirling their branches ferociously overhead from fifty paces away, like helicopter rotors.
These willows were clearly intimidating the short human troops. This variety of willows was called Yellow Springs Willow, possessing the skill to strike ghosts. There were no ghosts in the main army now, but they could still soul-capture.
Meanwhile, the human troops faced this wave of seventeen corps of Willow People cluster.
The frontline infantry, after clashing with the Willow People, clearly faced immense pressure; the long willow whips lashed over with huge impact force, splitting the weapon-gripping tiger mouths of many soldiers, and in wave after wave of lashes, if no one relieved them within ten strikes, the soldiers staggered unsteadily, and a single misstep would mean they couldn’t block, easily injuring internal organs even with armor.
Those struck stood dazed in place, taking a breath to recover. “Don’t space out, you bastard!” the non-commissioned officers constantly roared urgently, urging the struck soldiers to recover quickly, even using scabbard knocks for a wake-up call.
Of course, after twenty minutes of combat, Xuan Chong ordered the airborne Dragon Horse Cavalry to deploy, with three riders per group dangling long bamboo strips, dropping into the Willow People group.
As early as determining the second wave was willow tree people, Xuan Chong had seized the time to process these enemies’ “discarded materials” with chopping knives.
These harvested bamboos had notches cut into them, specifically like the cuts made along a starch sausage when grilling.
Uniformly slant-cut in one direction on a bamboo stick, then stroked reverse with the hand, and one would feel the wondrous sensation of fine thorns piercing the hand.
Wen Si Ting: Tsk tsk, boys, when young, always fight over a nice-looking stick.
Wen Si Ting had a neighbor who was burly from childhood, bullying with physical advantage to snatch things; while Wen Si liked playing dirty tricks, and finally one day, after Wen Si Ting advanced further to learn strategy, he obtained a bamboo and viciously left a burr with a knife, just waiting for the neighbor with maxed-out “Pang Hu” traits to come snatch it. He deliberately gripped the other end, “accidentally” letting the neighbor grab the reverse-burr side.
Wen Si Ting vaguely recalled: “That stick was ultimately snatched away by the neighbor with brute force; but for the next half day, this stick-snatching ‘Pang Hu’ was secretly digging at his hand, trying to pick out the wood splinters inside.”
Back to the present, this carved bamboo material would be extremely “sticky,” reference the common “cat tongue” structure on clothes.
Moreover, these bamboo materials had “/////” on one side and cut marks “\\\\\\” on the other—why do this? To make the bamboo rotate under the lashing of branches due to force differential. The rotation would make the branches wrap tighter.
When the whip lashed over, it would catch on these burrs; the bamboo wouldn’t rebound with counterforce but would instead twist and tangle the branch.
The barbed bamboo forcibly increased with “physical stickiness” was dropped from the air by the cavalry.
These Yellow Springs Willows didn’t take such bamboo seriously, because earlier they had already snapped the fleeing Bamboo People.
This time, they still snapped them; one after another, the bamboos were lashed mid-air into three or four sections, but bamboo has toughness—snapped but not broken.
The previously snapped bamboos had collapsed directly, but now these lashed bamboos couldn’t be flung off; the branches didn’t notice and continued swinging, dragging the wrapped bamboo, which then rotated and tangled even more willow branches.
In no time, several willows were like several poor girls’ long hair stuck together by a bratty kid with a piece of bubble gum.
During the process of retracting the branches, they too were dragged back; the burr clusters on both sides of this bamboo were in opposite order; the bamboo pole received opposite forces from both sides and still rotated on the way back. (Like tank tracks, if one turns forward and one backward, it spins in place.)
The rotating bamboo pole tangled other willow branches. Soon several branches were involved, twisting together. The more violently the branches struggled, the more willow branches the bamboo tangled.
The frontline sickle soldiers holding the line had greatly reduced pressure; originally enduring four or five branch lashes every ten breaths.
Now not even one lash per breath, and as these branches started “combing hair” like shaking off filth, swinging sickles could easily cut off large swaths of branches.
The Yellow Springs Willow’s frequency dropped not just by a few tenths, but had a qualitative change effect.
Refer to some game bosses, often designed with high damage but low frequency. Players can execute techniques in the breath intervals, solo no-damage clears, slowly grinding down the health bar without losing their own; but if damage is lowered and attack frequency raised, even if theoretically “DPS unchanged,” players will absolutely curse.
The previously majestic frontline Willow People were quickly pruned clean. Large amounts of branches fell to the ground, like the scene of twenty-first-century park willow trimming.
The warriors, grouped in twenties as combat units, initially feared the lashes and held back.
Now the quite experienced Wu Family Army soldiers, encountering lashing branches, directly had two to three cooperate, using halberds to prop up a fallen ground bamboo pole, proactively offering it to the branch, waiting for the branch to retract with the pole.
The other soldiers, seeing this, would chase the willow branches like harvesters pruning them, securing military merit firmly.
Thus, everyone’s faces lit up with joy.
Except for the unlucky ones previously knocked down, these guys now dragged to the rear battlefield for body checks, leaning on stretchers slapping their heads: “Why was I so dumb?” “Why didn’t I look carefully, wait a bit before striking!”
Of course, they soon received reassuring reports from the command post! The command post would award merit from 0.05 to 0.7 based on each individual’s injury severity. Follow-up recuperation treatment would be provided.
At the foremost four century squads overseeing, Shen Wanqing saw the Willow People directly stripped bare and muttered: “It can be done like this?”
As a cultivator, during magic battles, for tree spirits like elms and willows, he had only thought of ignition runes and such; yet the military strategists just needed a small “using local materials” to turn disadvantage into advantage?
…Soldier against soldier, general against general…
In the rear Willow People group, the Yellow Springs Willow leader, a thirty-meter-tall Yang Chui Pu, saw clan members first go bald then hooked and toppled; this tree spirit lord who had lived several hundred years fell into rage.
Originally behind the position, it began raising millions of branches, then green light emanated. This green mist was actually a cloud of fine tree seeds it sprayed.
Those mists contacting the green branches seemed to suddenly receive energy injection, with large new buds growing from the willows’ wood scars, attempting to grow more branches.
Of course, such a “heal” skill was overly arrogant in the battle situation.
Xuan Chong: Playing magic, huh.
Xuan Chong flung a flame beam into the sky, then Nine Phoenix appeared in the sky, but soon Nine Phoenix’s head was clawed back by peacock claws, and Great Peacock took the stage.
The peacock dove down, its brilliant tail feathers like fairy sleeves’ silk ribbons descending from heaven. This divine object landed just beside Xuan Chong, who then grabbed the tail feathers and, carried by them, ascended into the air.
Along with it, Xuan Chong carried a three-meter-long steel cannon barrel. Boarding the peacock back’s fluff-constructed simulated cockpit, Xuan Chong’s nano combat suit ejected mechanical tool hands, loading egg-sized projectiles into the cannon barrel.
Glowing hot runes appeared on the sniper cannon barrel. Xuan Chong donned goggles, locking onto the willow tree making trouble nine hundred paces ahead.
At first, Xuan Chong couldn’t distinguish the willow commander, as there were eight giant willows of the same size.
They were spread across the plains battlefield, roots plunged underground; root hairs communicating information mutually. On the surface, these eight identically tall willows were always “shadow flow masters,” all yang willow branches swaying in sync.
Now this Yang Chui Pu began casting. In Xuan Chong’s sharp perception, this third giant yang willow from the east had all willow clusters centering on it to convey plant energy, thus confirming it.
A searing firelight erupted from the cannon barrel. The end directly hit Yang Chui Pu.
This three-man-embrace towering tree was instantly acupoint-struck; the powerful projectile burrowed into its center, but then unquenchable firelight erupted.
The peacock seemed to understand too; a crimson light descended from heaven hitting this Yellow Springs Willow, flames bursting fire tree silver flowers across its entire body.
The entire Willow People group, previously swaying like a grand orchestra with regenerating branches and rapid healing, stopped like a cluster of lights with total power failure.
The Willow People line, dominant for only three quarters of an hour, collapsed. Human corps and groups, in flat pushing, shattered the willow tree people line, then counter-surrounded these willows into clusters.
After the original two-kilometer willow tree people line became five clusters, human artillery began lobbing red-hot iron balls, immediately setting these Willow People groups ablaze.
And the burning Willow People, the humans formed a circle letting them run back, just head-on colliding with the third wave of charging cypress tree people.
The Feather Tribe queen wanting to hold the situation dispatched her troops to support, but the five hundred rushing Feather Tribe cavalry were lashed flying by indistinguishable enemy Willow People.
Tree People originally couldn’t distinguish Feather Tribe and Xi People. Normally in the forest, Feathered People were accepted by tree people via plant-emitted wood scents from parasitic plants on their bodies. But now, tree people had all been burned once, losing their sense of smell.
At this point to tree people, it was like humans unable to distinguish a kitten emerging from mud versus a venomous snake.
Moreover, Willow People were the most irritable tree people; even if other tree people obstructed them, they would mercilessly lash whips.
…The final hammer…
The cypresses blocked this group of mad willow tree people. But then rumbling sounds came from the sky; a group of Guiche airborne. These six Guiche had bright feathers but deep red abdomens. Their flight was very clumsy, bellies looking bulging.
The reason was simple: the Guiche had been fed quite full by Xuan Chong on the way. The Guiche bodies stored sufficient jet fuel.
Upon their appearance, squad leaders across human lines began sounding the gong to retreat. After confirming rear fireworks signals, squad leaders had people take out cotton, wet with saliva to prepare plugging ears.
From Xuan Chong’s aerial view: after Guiche arrived, most human corps immediately clustered, converted to columns, and began sprinting backward. Xuan Chong tapped the peacock’s back once.
The peacock flung a yellow light turning into a dust wall, blocking the approaching enemy for the Wu Family Army soldiers withdrawing; but just before this dust wall separated the two armies, about four lightweight tree people corps crossed this “two-realm dividing” dust belt.
These one-man-high small tree people chased like mad dogs to the human second barrier. But they were quickly blocked by the Wu Family Army with flag signals changing front team to rear team (collective about-face).
Spears and shields blocked these small tree people (mountain imps) still carrying Feather Tribe and other animal flesh as potted plants; the tree sap flowing after being stabbed still carried bloody stench, disgusting.
The large wings flapping sounds in the sky grew more muffled, each beat like squeezing all hearts. Guiche flew over the first barrier, directly infiltrating to the rear of the tree people campaign area.
The six Guiche began descending to one hundred meters altitude, nine heads aimed at the area mixed with willow tree people and cypress tree people. This was the area where tree people follow-up reinforcements piled up blocking entry to the battlefield. This was fully seven hundred paces from the second barrier.
Each Guiche’s six heads first exhaled. These goat-swallowing bird beaks, like tractor startups, sprayed black smoke at the ground.
This black smoke rich in high carbon black substance instantly shrouded everything, making it impossible to see anything, only black gas flows covering the field. Next, the three heads sprayed white gas flows, these being highly volatile alkane gas flows.
Then came an electric light. Extremely bright firelight burst from the black smoke, with gangwind shockwaves forming around the firelight periphery. Countless cypress and willow broken branches exploded out from within.
As for small tree people under two hundred kilograms, in this massive explosion, those within one hundred meters radius directly turned to charcoal. At the explosion center, there was no charcoal, but tree people death poses imprinted on the ground.
One li outside Wang Feng Mountain, the Feather Tribe queen who hadn’t reached the battlefield witnessed the ground explosion cloud unfold.
When the shockwave hit, a pink-leaved big tree person spread branches like shielding a bird to embrace and protect the queen. But her other Feather Tribe guards dispatched forward weren’t so lucky. Being within the prior black smoke shroud range, they were blasted flying by the shockwave.
View back to the second barrier; the armored soldiers seven hundred paces from the explosion center, due to the shockwave blocked by numerous small/medium tree people plus the peacock-made sand obstacle, only encountered gale winds.
Those small tree people passing the dust obstacle also faced strong gales; like hit from behind by cavalry charge, they staggered and fell dog-eat-dirt in front of the second barrier.
The Wu Family Army gave them no chance. Within ten breaths after the explosion shockwave, human soldiers on the battlefield heard heavy-armor rhinoceros cavalry iron hooves trampling the ground in charge.
Ten breaths after the explosion, on the front line battlefield, remaining tree people weren’t many; most tree people in the explosion lost all direction.
On the direct east side, some mountain imps just recovering from the shockwave, still busy searching for Dripping Waterfall Hermit, encountered a lance charge by eighty impact cavalry; one-third flew off, the other half scattered into mud crushed to dust.
