The Celestial Army, once arranged in a serpentine formation, had finished assembling on the battlefield. General Shay remained napping in his bamboo palanquin, his eyes barely open in a haze.
Four thousand five hundred Skyward Legionnaires formed up in a square formation. The junior officer now stood at the front of the ranks, delivering the pre-battle address in place of the general.
The scorching sun blazed down upon the earth.
Before the speech was halfway through, General Shay was already impatiently shaking his head and waving his hand to the side.
The junior officer hurried over, almost stumbling: "General."
"Just say a few words and be done with it," he squinted up at the blazing sun, feeling dizzy and faint. "Wrap it up quickly, get everyone in position, so I can find some shade. Got it?"
"Understood..." The junior officer turned back, hastily wrapping up the pre-battle mobilization and began assigning tasks to the other officers.
On the cliff above, the Monkey King narrowed his eyes.
He was too far away to accurately sense the enemy's strength.
But he had another way.
He took out the Spirit Detector gifted by Jade Cauldron and began scanning the silver-clad ranks of Skyward Legionnaires below.
"The leader is at the Spirit-Transformation Realm... but his spiritual power is weak, just barely a Loose Immortal. There's another at Spirit-Transformation, about the same level, both on the Path of Enlightenment. Then there are fifty-three at the Spirit-Refining Realm, three of them at the peak... six on the Traveler's Path, the rest on the Path of Enlightenment. The remaining Skyward Legionnaires are only at the Spirit Assimilation Realm..." Monkey King counted them one by one, sighing deeply.
He had never fought a Skyward General at the Spirit-Transformation Realm, but during his days at Kunlun Mountain and the wandering years that followed, he’d crossed swords with plenty at the Spirit-Refining Realm.
If these Spirit-Refining Generals faced him one-on-one, even a hundred in succession wouldn’t faze him.
But if they all charged at once, backed by countless Skyward Legionnaires at the Spirit Assimilation Realm, their combined might would far surpass the thousands of demon troops—don’t forget, not long ago, without Anna Yang’s help, a thousand demons would’ve been doomed.
Though demon cultivators were forged in blood and fire, and far stronger than human cultivators in single combat, the gap in cultivation was a hard truth.
There was no one at the Spirit-Transformation Realm on his side—aside from himself at the Spirit-Refining Realm, only five or six demon cultivators like Lion King and Serpent King matched that level.
But their Spirit-Refining Realm was not the same; the enemy’s generals had mastered spells, while his own, all on the Traveler’s Path, were bare-bones fighters. He himself had only half-mastered the Cloud Somersault.
As for Anna Yang and Miles Moon, he’d already assigned them elsewhere.
In terms of basic numbers, the enemy had forty-five hundred Skyward Legionnaires at the Spirit Assimilation Realm, while his side, discounting the unreliable lesser demons at the Spirit Focusing Realm, still had at least eight thousand demon cultivators at Spirit Assimilation. In this, they outmatched the forty-five hundred Skyward Legionnaires before them.
But most of them couldn’t fly—a fatal flaw.
With this disparity, a head-on clash with real blades and spears would mean certain death.
"Are we attacking yet?" A bat demon, nerves taut, squeezed up beside Monkey King and asked.
He was a leader too, just not as strong.
Monkey King waved his hand lightly. "Wait a bit longer. If we attack now and they form up, we’ll take heavy losses. If that happens, we won’t have the strength for the next battle."
Maybe... there will be more than just one battle...
He mused inwardly.
Soon, under the command of junior officers, the Skyward Legionnaires split into three to five squads, each heading for their assigned positions.
Two of the squads spread their wings and soared into the air.
Monkey King's hand quietly rose as well.
Behind him, countless little demons drew their bows to full draw.
The lead Skyward Legionnaire in flight leisurely flapped his wings, rising above the cliff.
The moment he looked down, the relaxed expression vanished from his face. His wings seemed to lose all strength, and his whole body shuddered!
Above the cliff, he saw a mass of demons, countless and dark, staring at him coldly.
At this distance, he could even see the mist spraying from their nostrils. In their hands were fully drawn bows, arrows gleaming with cold light!
There was no word for this scene but horror.
"Th-this... what is..." The Skyward Legionnaire stared in terror, mouth agape, trembling all over, his wings the only part still moving.
The spear in his hand slipped quietly to the ground.
Monkey King raised his hand, slowly stood up, and gazed at the Skyward Legionnaire with an expressionless face.
Their eyes met.
The other Skyward Legionnaires caught up.
"What’s wrong with you?" Another Legionnaire flew up, impatient, then followed his gaze—and was instantly stunned!
The fallen spear clanged loudly as it hit the ground, its echo rolling through the mountain.
The first Legionnaire’s face twisted, broke, then he screamed hysterically: "Demons—!"
Monkey King’s hand dropped sharply.
An arrow flew from the bat demon’s bow, piercing straight through the Legionnaire’s gaping mouth.
Blood sprayed.
The screams quickly alerted the Skyward Army still on the ground. As they looked up, trying to figure out what was happening, a cacophony of bowstrings and a sky-darkening rain of arrows descended!
"Enemy attack—! Enemy attack—!" Watching the dense rain of arrows plummeting from the sky, the Legionnaires cried out in panic.
The horn blower fumbled frantically for his ox-horn trumpet, but in an instant was turned into a pincushion.
The first wave of arrows fell like a sudden, wind-driven downpour, pounding the ground. Screams erupted throughout the Skyward Army; unprepared Legionnaires dropped one after another.
Those Legionnaires taking off were shot out of the sky, while countless flying demons beat their wings and swarmed the few Legionnaires who had vaulted over the cliff.
"Form up! Form up! Shield formation—!"
"Idiots! We don’t have shields! Take cover—!"
The Black Tortoise Division’s shields were the heaviest and strongest in the Skyward Army, but hard to carry. Now, all those cumbersome shields had been left back at camp.
General Shay, thrown from his overturned sedan, stared dumbly at the black arrow lodged in his helmet, momentarily stunned.
"General! General! Take cover!" A junior officer dove in to drag him away.
"Who—who can tell me what’s going on—? Weren’t we supposed to ambush them inside?"
At this moment, the entire Eastern Army was completely stunned, and so were the once-timid demon ranks.
The ground was littered with wailing, blood, corpses—faces twisted by pain. Those once-invincible Skyward Legionnaires... could it be their turn now?
After a brief silence, the demon horde erupted!
"The arrow in that general’s helmet was mine—! Did you see it? It was me!"
"I killed a Legionnaire! Damn! Help me remember where he fell—I want to string his finger bones into a necklace!"
"Hey, he took six arrows! One of those was mine—why do you get the credit for the kill?"
"Just dumb luck. Damn, I actually missed my shot."
The Fat Goose King slapped them: "Idiots! Keep shooting! Once the ground troops join in, you’ll be out of work!"
Suddenly, the little demons snapped to attention.
The arrow rain grew even fiercer!
Once prey before the Legionnaires, the weak demon ranks now boiled with hot blood, each one crazed, desperate to empty their quivers in a single volley.
They were all mad now.
In that moment, countless among them were in tears, their laughter thunderous, mixed with heart-wrenching screams.
How many years had they spent fleeing these Legionnaires since the day they were born? And today, at last...
The myth of the Heavenly Army had utterly collapsed in their hearts.