"The Moon Guard is finished, another elite army of the Winged God Clan has perished. 11* However, Lei Dong, your Five Thousand Hidden Dragon Army, you are likely to lose at least two thousand men? You don't feel the sting of that?" When the Arbitrator King saw the two armies locked in slaughter, her expression twisted in pain. But she understood this war was staged for the Bright King, perhaps even the Lord of the Abyss; Lei Dong could not afford to show mercy to the Moon Guard.

"Two thousand?" A smile played on Lei Dong's lips. "I admit the Moon Guard is formidable, but to think they could bleed two thousand of my Hidden Dragons is simply a joke."

The Arbitrator King, however, was unmoved by Lei Dong's arrogance. The Hidden Dragon Army was indeed formidable, its overall strength far surpassing the Moon Guard. Yet, the Moon Guard's might was evident to all. It would be normal for them to inflict heavy casualties on the Hidden Dragons while fighting desperately. (Shu Shu Wu)

Thousands simultaneously unleashed the Nether Arts. The battlefield, spanning tens of miles, was plunged into absolute blackness, as if sinking into thick ink. But the Moon Guards were not to be outdone; they burst forth with milky white radiance, driving back the dense black fog. Their white armor, empowered by formations and strength, radiated waves of dazzling holy light.

However, this action turned them into conspicuous beacons in the darkness, drawing extreme attention. Simultaneously, even before these many 'light bulbs' could locate targets for counterattack, they suddenly perceived in their divine senses that the enemy's numbers seemed to have exploded. Amidst wails and howls, countless fierce and shrill entities surged forward like a tide.

"What is happening?" Even the Arbitrator King's immense divine sense vaguely perceived the problem, asking in alarm.

"The Ghost Tide Tactic," Lei Dong replied calmly. "It's one of the mass-combat strategies devised for the Hidden Dragon Army: the Ghost Tide."

"Ghost Tide?" The Arbitrator King's face darkened considerably. "Could it be something like the Ghost Controlling Banner? Heavens, you have every soldier in the Hidden Dragon Army cultivate the Ghost Controlling Banner? Several thousand men, with more than a third being at the Nascent Soul level... Just how many fierce spirits can they command?"

"I haven't calculated it, but with their uneven quality, I estimate it could be well over a hundred million, perhaps even more." As he spoke, even Lei Dong felt the chill run down his spine. The Ghost Tide—this was the endless Ghost Tide tactic. The version he typically practiced alone seemed like child's play compared to what an army could unleash.

The entire battleground spanned only several dozen miles. Within this radius, over a hundred million ghosts were flooding the space... What did that concept imply? Of course, it wasn't possible to be exactly one hundred million, but an inexhaustible stream of ghosts had thoroughly saturated the entire area within the tens of miles. {http: .. Uploaded by Reader} Supported by endless Nether Ghost Qi, these fierce spirits, serving as mere cannon fodder, lunged with bared claws and fangs at the shining beacons.

Yet, the members of the Moon Guard were no ordinary fighters. Though besieged, they fought back with all their might. Each burst of white light radiating from their bodies annihilated hundreds, even thousands, of the cannon fodder spirits into ash. Though impressive, this kind of wide-area destructive move consumed immense power. Grinding down the relentless tide of fierce spirits in a short time would be nearly impossible.

Each member of the Moon Guard was like a person trapped in an ocean formed by fierce spirits. Aside from constantly expending energy to slay the innumerable cannon fodder, even moving became incredibly difficult, as the space was completely saturated with those hideous and ferocious ghost entities.

Perhaps, given enough time, sacrificing some lives, and expending the majority of their energy, these few thousand Moon Guards might eventually clear the field. However, one must remember that within this battlefield were not only the cannon fodder spirits that dissolved upon contact.

Nor were there only the Hidden Dragon soldiers. Because every Hidden Dragon soldier cultivated the Nether Arts and the Ghost Controlling Art sequence, they had all tempered their divine sense since childhood, making them stronger than ordinary cultivators. With such potent divine senses, it would be a terrible waste not to command ghost servants.

Most terrifyingly, their master, Lei Dong, seemed to possess an inexhaustible supply of Spirit Ghosts—countless numbers of them. The quality of these Spirit Ghosts, if revealed, would scare people to death; they were all top-tier Spirit Ghosts. With sufficient resources, these supreme Spirit Ghosts could easily mature into Ghost Generals or Ghost Kings. Even if their intelligence was low due to insufficient time, they could slaughter enemies with ease amidst the chaos of battle.

Under the psychic control of the Hidden Dragon soldiers, those formidable Ghost Generals and Ghost Kings began targeting the Moon Guards specifically and strategically.

In moments, those bright, brilliant lights were extinguished one by one within the endless ghost sea, struck down by the Ghost Generals, Ghost Kings, or even preemptive strikes from the Hidden Dragon soldiers themselves. Their souls could not escape the endless ghost tide, only to be seized by the fierce spirits. Just as they were about to revel in consuming the souls, the Hidden Dragon soldiers sealed them into Soul Sealing Spheres.

These were all rare, high-quality souls, many of them Nascent Souls—the optimal material for Lei Dong to decompose and extract Chaos Spiritual Energy. The Hidden Dragon Army had strict orders regarding this: all high-quality souls must be captured. As for the flesh and blood, it was reserved for the Ghost Generals and Ghost Kings descended from the top-tier Spirit Ghosts.

After all, the Hidden Dragon soldiers had recently advanced too rapidly due to the Chaos Crystals. Many had broken through the peak of Golden Core to achieve early Nascent Soul, resulting in a massive surge in individual power, while their subordinate Ghost Generals had not yet had time to advance. Thus, such ample, high-quality flesh and blood were naturally highly sought after.

Sensing the situation on the utterly tragic battlefield through his divine sense, the Arbitrator King’s face drained of color. She could barely conceive that the Moon Guard, which she considered elite and powerful, was being crushed without any chance to fight back by an equal number of Hidden Dragon soldiers.

And the original claim that they could chew through two thousand Hidden Dragons had become a farce. After this battle, the Hidden Dragon soldiers, aside from minor injuries, would suffer less than two hundred losses. The Moon Guard, however, was utterly annihilated.

Having dispatched the Moon Guard force with remarkable ease, the Hidden Dragon Army extended the battleground's dark ghost mist over a hundred miles. From afar, they launched a strike toward Flowing Moon Main City, which loomed like a gigantic fortress, before beginning their planned withdrawal.

That single blow shattered the Flowing Moon Main City's defensive shield instantly, causing some less sturdy structures to collapse.

Just as the allied forces of the Abyssal natives were seeing their morale surge, believing they could breach the Flowing Moon Main City in one fell swoop and capture the legendary, heavenly-fair Flowing Moon King, the unexpected occurred. Over a thousand miles away, tens of thousands of Light Cruisers were rushing in, resembling a vast, surging meteor shower.

When Lei Dong issued the final withdrawal order, the various units of the Abyssal native allied forces were still reluctant to retreat, choosing to fight on briefly. When they saw the group of meteors approaching on the horizon, they were instantly scared witless and fled in disarray.

This contingent of disobedient native allies was relentlessly pursued by Ajiana, leaving fields littered with cries of agony and misery. It was only because they were natives, intimately familiar with the Abyss Domain's terrain, that they managed to survive by scattering into underground fissures and abyssal caves in their rout.

Subsequently, after Lei Dong tallied the results at the main camp, the figures showed that the native allied forces sent out numbered a staggering million, despite their uneven combat capabilities. Yet, after the battle concluded and remnants were gathered, only six hundred thousand remained.

A small fraction of this loss was due to those who ignored Lei Dong's general withdrawal order and were chased down by Ajiana's reinforcements. Of course, even though this group was routed or destroyed, their actions weren't entirely without benefit; at the very least, they bought ample time for the main force to retreat.

The leaders of the various races and organizations, although forced by the Lord of the Abyss to obey Lei Dong's command, and subsequently coerced by his military might into fighting their hardest, seemed to have suffered losses at Lei Dong's hands. In reality, this debt should be paid to the Lord of the Abyss.

After all, Commander Lei, despite his coercion, at least dispatched his most elite troops to participate, achieving glorious results while supposedly suffering heavy losses.

Rumors, skillfully spun by the ill-intentioned, quickly spread throughout the Abyssal native allied forces. Firstly, Commander Lei's seemingly invincible Hidden Dragon Army supposedly suffered losses reaching almost half its strength. Although the battlefield was obscured by vast amounts of dark ghost qi, preventing anyone from seeing the true climax, the Moon Guard’s strength was common knowledge. Any person with a modicum of intelligence and calculation ability could deduce that Lei Dong's army, after annihilating the enemy, should have lost at least two thousand soldiers.

Furthermore, it was implied that it was only thanks to the Hidden Dragon Army playing a crucial role on the battlefield, destroying some sky-cities and intercepting the Moon Guard, that the native allied forces suffered smaller overall losses.

In truth, for the leaders of the various races, suffering casualties in war was expected. As long as the losses could be recouped during the distribution of spoils after victory, they wouldn't worry about recruiting subordinates or cultivating powerful clansmen. Every commander fighting, regardless of who they served, desired victory and the abundant rewards that came with being the victor.

However, just as victory was within grasp, and countless fortunes beckoned the leaders, the enemy's reinforcements appeared. Not only did these reinforcements completely overturn the near-victory situation, but they also pursued the retreating forces, causing countless elites under the various clans to die, scatter, and break rank.

Logically, in warfare, anything can happen; the appearance of enemy reinforcements was within the realm of possibility.

But the rampant rumors insisted that Commander Lei and the Lord of the Abyss, Udis, had long anticipated the arrival of these reinforcements. And the troops tasked with intercepting and destroying this relief force were supposedly the Blood Kite Army, the Lord of the Abyss's personal guard.

"Damn it, the Blood Kite Army screwed us over!" Countless members of the Abyssal native allied forces began to curse bitterly.

...(To be continued...) Shu Wang