Martial Ascent to Divinity-Chapter 479 - 463: Feigned Rout

Zhou Leng found himself as if he had returned to the Mammoth Tribe, crushing ordinary fierce beasts back and forth with absolute superiority.

Before long, the second wave of human battalions charged into the mine, still in a semi-defensive, semi-offensive state.

As the human army continuously joined in, once the numbers exceeded ten thousand, the great battle erupted.

The demons had no retreat, invoking their fierce and brave nature, fighting desperately against the humans.

The human momentum was as vigorous as a rainbow, clad in united strength.

Zhou Leng and three Great Innates specifically targeted ordinary innates.

After slaughtering all the innate demons, the innates slaughtered the demons like chickens.

The ordinary demons, having lost their spiritual support, quickly collapsed.

In just one hour, the twenty thousand demons in the third mine field were completely annihilated.

Most were giant insect and beastman miners.

After the great victory, the command center proceeded with defensive preparations.

Zhou Leng reviewed the intelligence; the task was completed, and now he needed to return to Huqiu Fortress, as he was no longer needed here.

Ten minutes later, the alarm sounded, intelligence arrived.

The batch of demons escorting resources returned from Demon Purgatory, swiftly approaching from the rear of the third mine field.

Seeing this, Zhou Leng couldn’t leave and was ready to defend when he suddenly recalled a tactic the fierce beasts had refused to use before.

Zhou Leng found Gao Yunbo and said, "Commander Gao, demons rely on their average individual strength being higher than humans, so their strategic tactics have always been crude. If the team were led personally by a Celestial Calamity Envoy, we’d be helpless, but since it’s an ordinary demon team, we can completely fake a rout to deceive them."

"Some of us will pretend to be fleeing beastmen and run towards them. After all, green-skinned fleeing troops are famous in the Ten Realms; the enemy will only disdain them, not suspect them. At the rear, send a large army to pursue. Once both sides engage, we suddenly ambush, disturb their main force, and cooperate with our army’s attack; there’s a great possibility of breaking them."

Gao Yunbo hesitated for a moment and said, "The risk is a bit high."

"How is it high? Even if discovered, whether we retreat or confront them head-on, we’re innates, what’s there to fear?"

Gao Yunbo was momentarily stunned, staring at Zhou Leng, and said, "I roughly understand now. Whether it’s disguising ourselves to enter the third mine field or this fake rout plan, it’s a fairly ordinary tactic, nothing brilliant. The issue is that normal advisors wouldn’t dare use it, but you do."

"Many in our army are actually intimidated by the power of demons. Strategically fine, but once it comes to tactics, they’re tied up."

"In our battles, we consider all possibilities, especially avoiding taking sharp turns. You’re different from our cautious regular army and different from the fearsome Pioneer Company; it seems, deep down, you’ve never been afraid of demons."

"I’m a bit curious, you’re quite a calm person, how can you be so brave?"

Zhou Leng didn’t answer, thinking if it were a fierce beast army, I’d be calmer than any of you.

What’s there to fear in demons?

Can they compare to a giant dragon cluster, or align with a giant camp?

Gao Yunbo said, "Wait, we’ll discuss it immediately."

Shortly after, the commanders and advisors agreed.

It wasn’t that they had become radical, but because Huqiu Fortress had fallen, now Shuizhou Demon City urgently needed a landmark victory to boost morale.

Even if defeated, they had first seized a bridge and then attacked camps, securing continuous victories.

If victorious, that would mean a sequential triumph of seizing bridges, attacking camps, and breaking the army—a feat rarely seen throughout history.

"Let’s do it!"

Most of the innates in the entire army gathered together.

A total of 139, equipped with demon spirit rings, transformed into beastmen with demon spirit bombs ready. Even if discovered, they could safely retreat.

The innates posed as fleeing beastmen, escaping blindly at dawn.

At the rear, the finest five thousand martial artists loosely dispersed, pursuing them.

Over twenty kilometers away, they encountered the returning demon army transporting resources.

Seeing the familiar green-skinned fleeing troops, the demon leaders cursed, ordering them to immediately get back into the beastman ranks.

A hundred or so fake beastmen slunk to the rear of the ranks.

Then, the five thousand elite humans regrouped their formation, slowly retreating.

This demon army numbered nearly twenty thousand. Although they had trekked a long way, seeing such a small count of human enemies, they had no other thought but to attack immediately.

The human martial artists seemed cornered and turned to fight back.

In the blue-black dawn, both sides collided like two waves.

Suddenly, among the demon army’s ranks, numerous supersonic demonized long spears appeared behind many of the innate demons’ casters.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The human innate martial artists sprang up, launching a deadly assault.

In just an instant, more than fifty innate demons perished, and an equal number of innate demons were severely injured.

"Fake!"

"These beastmen are disguised humans!"

Having been exposed, the innate martial artists scattered to act independently.

The other innate martial artists grouped in small teams, different from Zhou Leng and a few Great Innates.

Initially, they killed the innates using their beastman guise, then, when pursued, they hid among obstacles and transformed into demons.

A few individuals posed as demons to slay again, then transformed back into giant insects.

Zhou Leng and a few others, quick and skilled in lightweight technique, fled while killing, leaving the innate demons helpless.

Over a hundred innate martial artists turned the demon army into a chaotic mess.

The demon army had no choice but to concentrate their innates to pursue and kill the human innates.

Zhou Leng and other Innate Martial Artists gathered as well and didn’t tangle with the Innate Demons, instead, they rampaged through the Demon army.

Ordinary Demons couldn’t stop the charge of the Innate.

They were like a team of elite full-armored cavalry trampling back and forth in a chicken coop.

The Demons, relying on their numerical advantage, were disrupted but still managed to hold on with difficulty.

When the second wave of the army arrived, most of the Innate Martial Artists changed tactics, running while throwing Demon Spirit Bombs at the densely packed Demons.

More precise than war machines.

Boom... Boom... Boom...

Brilliant fireworks illuminated the morning in Shuizhou Demon City.

Taking advantage of the Demons being bombarded to confusion, the Human army launched an assault.

"Exterminate the Demons!"

"Exterminate the Demons!"

"Exterminate the Demons!"

The Martial Artists shouted loudly, fearlessly charging at the Demons.

Zhou Leng and the Great Innates targeted solitary ordinary Innate Demons, attacking swiftly without any sloppiness.

The fiery arc of the legendary great blade slashed through the night sky.

No Demon could withstand a chop from this legendary great blade.

The Demon army only managed to hold on for ten minutes before retreating step by step.

Thirty minutes later, the morale of the Demon army finally collapsed, scattering and fleeing.

The Human army pursued for a while, returned to the battlefield, and escorted the abundance of Demon supplies back to the third mine.

Three consecutive major victories, hard-won, the command sent the battle report to the higher-ups.

With three successive victories in bridge capture, camp raid, and army breaking, plus the acquisition of a large number of Demon resources, the command held a ten-minute celebratory meeting.

Zhou Leng and the hidden Martial Artists rested for a morning at the third mine, then followed part of the team back outside Huqiu Fortress.

Unlike the last battle by Tai Lake, although many enemies were killed then, the convoy also helped, and it was a rescue battle that didn’t resolve the Sea Sirens.

This time the enemy’s scale was insufficient, but the significance was entirely different, far more valuable.

This was the first time in the Shuizhou campaign that the regular army of the Humanoid Alliance systematically annihilated a Demon army and retook a strategic location.

The first horn of the Humanoid Alliance’s counterattack campaign.

The next day, the Supreme Court and Demon City Army headquarters issued special commendations.

Codename Monkey King officially received "Individual Special Merit" and "First-Class Combat Hero," while the Seventh Division received "Collective First-Class Merit," the Seventh Division’s Hidden Martial Artists Corps received "Collective First-Class Merit," and the main force attacking the third mine received "Collective First-Class Merit."

Such commendations happening the day after a battle are rare, but whenever it happens, it always accompanies the most challenging times.

Every wartime hero is the brightest star, illuminating an era.

When Chen Shouhu and Wang Boxiong received the news, their expressions were extremely complex.

On one hand, both hoped Zhou Leng would continue to hide, waiting for the Grandmaster to exert power, avoiding all interference.

On the other hand, seeing Zhou Leng rising steadily, unable to be stopped even by desperate attempts, they felt genuinely happy.

The Special Merit and Combat Hero are sufficient to protect Zhou Leng for a while.

Wang Boxiong made up his mind to keep Zhou Leng suppressed at the Innate Mountain until he reached the Grandmaster level, forbidding him from going out.

Chen Shouhu calculated Zhou Leng’s age and murmured softly.

"This little bastard has such good luck, achieving Special Merit and First-Class Combat Hero at such a young age. When I had both simultaneously, I was five years older than him."

"Fortunately, I withheld the Hundred Battles Hero application, otherwise if added with the Hundred Battles Hero, the Demon world would go mad."

"To the Demons, no matter how strong the Special Merit and First-Class Combat Hero are, they’re just at a battlefield level, likely achieved through good luck or accidental war merits."

"The Hundred Battles Hero is different, purely from slaying over a hundred Innates, they are the Martial Arts geniuses the Demons fear even more."

"If nothing unexpected happens, after this battle, with a little more effort, he could achieve further to the Special Combat Hero. Further still would be the ’National Medal,’ which is impossible in this campaign. Further still is the highest ’Great Dragon Merit,’ only the Martial Saint might achieve that."

"Moreover, this kid’s True Qi healing ability is so strong, once he advances to Grandmaster, I’ll supplement him with a ’Hua Tuo Medal.’"

Chen Shouhu said while looking at the map on the large screen ahead.

The scarlet Huqiu Fortress stood out like a nail on the Shuizhou map, particularly striking.

"Ten days, at most ten days..."

If Huqiu Fortress isn’t taken within ten days, the Seventh Division and the Martial Arts Brigade would have to press forward with the army.

He would personally go to Huqiu Fortress.

By then, the Shuizhou army would fall into the most difficult times.

"This Celestial Calamity Envoy always seizes the key point of the battlefield. Humph, do you really think we humans will be led by the nose by you?"

Chen Shouhu shouted, "Send the order, whichever team captures Huqiu Fortress, I’ll apply for ’Collective Special Merit’ for that team!"

Zhou Leng returned to the camp outside Huqiu Fortress, only rested for half a day, then volunteered to fight, joining the siege as a Free Martial Artist.

Zhou Leng applied for a large number of refined steel spears, making himself dusty and dirty to minimize visibility.

As the sun tilted westward, under the cover of siege Demonized cannons, he arrived outside the city wall with a siege team.

Looking up, beyond the city head, stood a massive black Celestial Calamity flag.

On the city wall, numerous Casters and spear bowmen launched attacks.

Zhou Leng tightly gripped his steel spear, observing carefully.