Spies had previously reported that Tianyi, the commander of the Tianzui army, was in Xiongfeng City, which the Tianzui army collectively referred to as its First Base.
However, when the coalition forces arrived fifty miles outside Xiongfeng City, they found the vast city unusually quiet, its defenders surprisingly few, and the complete lack of movement despite the overwhelming enemy presence.
"Could it be that Tianyi is no longer in Xiongfeng City?"
Ming Qi wondered, but he couldn't quite figure it out.
The army continued its advance, pressing closer until they were within ten miles of Xiongfeng City. Only then did the Tianzui army show signs of movement within the city, though their numbers were small.
An order was issued from the army, and the coalition forces halted their advance and began to deploy their formation. Ming Qi, still in the air, activated the Supreme Diagram to suppress the Divine Punishment.
Before long, a force of roughly thirty thousand Heavenly Clan warriors appeared a mile ahead. Ming Qi could tell by their aura that they didn't even have many powerful warriors among them. However, he was somewhat surprised to find that the Purple Star Jade Master he had encountered that day was apparently the commander of this force.
The Purple Star Jade Master also spotted Ming Qi standing in the air and immediately let out a silvery laugh.
The Heavenly Sin Army formed up, led by a uniformly large group of vampire war beasts, numbering over a hundred. The warriors behind them were a more mixed bunch, representing various races, but the battle formation remained intact, demonstrating that this army was no ragtag bunch.
"Little darling, are you the leader?"
The Purple Star Jade Master, unconcerned with the powerful Heavenly Clan Martial Gods hovering in the air, addressed Ming Qi directly.
Ming Qi frowned, but made no move to reply. The address was truly infuriating. If he hadn't been controlling the Divine Map to suppress the Divine Punishment on a large scale, he would have charged forward to engage the Purple Star Jade Master in battle.
Seeing Ming Qi remain silent, Purple Star Jade Lord didn't disengage from his formation, simply waving at Ming Qi from afar, as if meeting an old friend.
"Do you recognize her?"
Purple Star Jade Lord's gesture immediately piqued Mo Changli, who was standing beside Ming Qi.
"We fought her that day on the way to the Western Wilds, but unfortunately, we weren't able to kill her."
Ming Qi frowned.
Mo Changli remained silent and remained silent.
In the battle formation ahead, the Tianzui army had already formed up. Suddenly, the bizarre-looking vampire war beasts simultaneously roared, sending piercing waves of sound across the battlefield. The coalition's soldiers, caught off guard, were immediately struck by the sonic waves, their formation instantly thrown into disarray.
Seeing this, Ming Qi was startled. He hadn't expected these vampire war beasts to have such bizarre attack methods.
Powerful Celestials and Savage warriors began to fly out from the coalition's formation, attempting to close in and slay the war beasts emitting strange sonic waves. However, they were unprepared to see that as soon as these warriors appeared, thousands of blood arrows immediately erupted from the rear of the Heavenly Sin army, blanketing the sky like a swarm of locusts.
The blood arrows didn't gather force and fall like ordinary arrows. Instead, after leaving the battle formation, they coalesced into a net in the air, enveloping the Heavenly Sin army below. The entire blood-red net acted like a shield, effectively blocking the attacks of several powerful opponents!
The nature of this blood-red net was unknown, yet even a powerful Martial God couldn't break it with a single blow. And whenever the attacks paused, the damaged areas of the blood net were quickly repaired by a powerful surge of blood energy.
Only then did Ming Qi understand why the Tianzui army, despite not having the numerical advantage, had dared to confront the coalition forces head-on. Their war beasts and the blood-red shield were so bizarre that they left them momentarily helpless.
Protected by the blood-red shield, the Tianzui army began to slowly move forward. Simultaneously, the war beasts in the front row continuously emitted bursts of sonic howls, which spread outward, killing or wounding any coalition soldier they came into contact with.
This battle had become incredibly bizarre. The coalition forces, clearly superior in strength, were being steadily defeated, while the Tianzui army advanced step by step, unstoppable.
Aloft in the air, Ming Qi frowned. The situation before him was already spiraling out of control. Despite the coalition's formidable combat power, they were unable to penetrate the enemy's blood-red shield, making it impossible for them to strike. This was having a significant impact on morale.
After a moment's thought, Ming Qi quickly retreated, approaching Liuli and saying, "Why not retreat for now? The current situation is really damaging to morale!"
Although Liuli was skilled in strategy, she had never known the vampires to possess such a bizarre fighting style. Therefore, she had no plan for the situation at hand, save to retreat and discuss countermeasures.
This situation was so overwhelming that even a Martial God-level warrior couldn't break through. Therefore, Liuli's decision to retreat was met with unanimous opposition from both the Celestial Clan and the Savage Clan. Rather than endure the strange sonic assault, it was better to retreat and consider countermeasures.
Because the vampire war beasts within the Tianzui army were enormous and lacked speed, they didn't pursue the coalition forces after they retreated, instead returning to Xiongfeng City.
Retreating close to the Baili coalition's camp, the battle wasn't particularly arduous. It wasn't that their fighting power was insufficient, but rather that they had no means to fight back. Although the stalemate didn't last long, it still affected morale.
After setting up camp, Liuli didn't summon numerous experts to discuss how to break the vampires' defensive formation. Instead, he remained alone in his tent, refusing to see anyone.
Mingqi, on the other hand, remained in the tent to cultivate. The energy he had gained through the Eight Trigrams Seal a few days ago was immense, requiring time to digest and absorb. He also needed to calm down and seek the path of the Dao. Only by understanding the true meaning of the Dao could one truly become a powerful being.
While both the two Martial God-level experts of the Celestial Clan and the warriors of the Savage Ancient Clan were formidable, Mingqi's covert observations revealed no evidence that they had developed their own Daos. This demonstrates the immense difficulty of the Dao.
As night fell, Liuli's tent contained the two Martial Gods of the Celestial Clan, along with the Ancient God Lord and Tenghui.
"I already know the vampires' battle formation. Its core is located within Xiongfeng City. We must destroy it."
Liuli didn't reveal how she knew the secret of the vampires' battle formation. Instead, she summoned all the powerful members of the coalition forces, her intentions clearly evident.
"Take that kid and his artifact, and let's destroy the battle formation's core."
A powerful Celestial Martial God spoke up. After experiencing the power of the divine punishment lifted, all Celestials could no longer adapt to fighting under its suppression. The thrill of unleashing maximum combat power was irresistible to all Celestials, even those at the Martial God level.
Liuli nodded. The only solution now was a decapitation operation to resolve the current predicament.