The entire battle was completely entangled! Every minute and every second, countless lives were lost, among them members of the Foreign Race, the Heaven's Punishment warriors, and the members of the Evil Monarch’s Residence...
The whole battlefield had now transformed into the ultimate meat grinder, colossal in scale! Everyone was locked in a desperate, life-risking struggle! If this single strike failed to fell the enemy, then it would be their own turn to be cut down! Even if one strike succeeded in felling an enemy, in the very next moment, they themselves would be felled by another foe—it was the same for the Foreign Race as it was for the Heaven's Punishment warriors!
The sheer number of the Foreign Race troops was staggering, yet the Heaven's Punishment forces possessed superior combat prowess!
The sacrifice of the Three Great Sacred Lands had depleted nearly ninety percent of the Foreign Race’s high-end fighting strength!
Should victory be achieved in this war, the Three Great Sacred Lands would be credited immeasurably, perhaps even holding the greatest merit!
While fighting desperately to cleave through the enemy, Jun Mo Xie mused in his heart. It was a pity that the stubbornness and pride of the Three Great Sacred Lands surpassed even his expectations. This entire campaign had been initiated at the request of the Sacred Lands, urging Heaven's Punishment and the Evil Monarch’s Residence to join the fight. Jun Mo Xie had initially believed that everyone would surely unite wholeheartedly.
But only when the crisis arrived did he realize that such unity was merely his own one-sided, wistful fantasy! Right up until the final moment, the people of the Sacred Lands chose death over truly joining forces with Heaven's Punishment!
As Mo Wu Dao had said: Some things, once done, are wrong. But if given the chance to repeat them, even knowing the outcome, they would still make the same choice!
The heroic sacrifice of all personnel from the Three Great Sacred Lands, achieving righteousness through death, undoubtedly struck a fatal blow to the Foreign Race. Yet, many among them should never have died! They ultimately chose to give up! Take Gu Han, for instance; if he had wished, he could have survived, perhaps even continuing his journey toward true enlightenment...
Perhaps, the moment the Celestial Pillar Mountain collapsed, these members of the Sacred Lands, with their lineages spanning ten millennia, had already lost all desire to live! This battle might just have served as their final release!
Jun Mo Xie let out a sigh of regret. What a shame!
The battle remained deadlocked, with fighting erupting everywhere. Even looking down from the high heavens, the view stretched endlessly; the scope of this battlefield was simply too vast! Under such conditions, even Jun Mo Xie, who possessed means capable of overturning heaven and earth, found his power rendered ineffective, unable to exert his full force!
Human strength has its limits, and Jun Mo Xie was no exception! Now, he could only allow the battle to run its course. The only thing left to do was to slay as many enemies as possible; every life taken might increase the chance for someone on their side to survive!
The Foreign Race’s strategy of launching human wave attacks, regardless of cost, had achieved a distinct advantage—the first strategic upper hand the Foreign Race had gained since the conflict began!
The high command of the Foreign Race clearly grasped this point: as long as they maintained this strategy, they didn't need to completely annihilate the Heaven's Punishment warriors. Merely having a portion of their kin breach the interior of the Xuanxuan Continent would equate to a grand strategic victory!
With the strategy set, the Foreign Race resorted to their old tactics: using overwhelmingly superior numbers to pin down the remaining less than ten thousand Heaven's Punishment warriors led by Mei Xueyan, while a smaller contingent of Foreign Race members advanced toward the inner lands.
If any Foreign Race members genuinely managed to infiltrate the depths of the Xuanxuan Continent, the consequences would be unendingly toxic and far-reaching!
Mei Xueyan understood this better than anyone, but the Heaven's Punishment force she personally led was the weakest echelon—a logistics unit. Facing the Foreign Race with their absolute numerical superiority, they could barely maintain a defensive posture, possessing the will but lacking the ability to stop them!
As for the other scattered teams, they were either too far away or similarly besieged by massive numbers of enemies, leaving them helpless!
The only ones who might attempt an interception were Jun Mo Xie and the Blood of Yan Huang, but even if just the two of them rushed over, could they truly halt such a large enemy force?
The perilous crisis of Xuanxuan had fully erupted!
Just at this critical juncture, a squadron of figures suddenly sped towards them like lightning—a blur of motion, every face etched with unstoppable urgency! They were overwhelmingly anxious, terrified they would arrive a moment too late only to hear the news of utter defeat!
"Mo Xie! Mind your safety! This old woman comes to aid you in slaughtering the fiends!" A clear, sharp cry rang out. Jun Mo Xie was initially startled, then filled with joy. He immediately leaped up and scanned the skies, hearing a sudden burst of heaven-shaking war cries erupting from one flank... A contingent charged out, slicing through the air! The leader, her robes fluttering and her long sword brighter than snow, could be none other than Old Madam Dongfang!
Jun Mo Xie's three maternal uncles, leading their clansmen, split into three groups and charged fiercely into the fray without so much as a word of greeting!
The first wave of reinforcements had arrived.
The Dongfang Family was here!
Battle flags fluttered at their rear, and another voice boomed, "Lord Jun! I, Sikong An Ye, have arrived!" These were the experts from the Sikong Family, who also reached the scene at this critical juncture!
The reinforcements from the Xuanxuan Continent were arriving in succession!
"Everyone, be careful! Take care of yourselves! Do not underestimate the strength of these Foreign Race bastards!" Jun Mo Xie roared out loud.
While Heaven's Punishment and the Evil Monarch’s Residence could use fewer numbers to suppress the Foreign Race warriors, the major families of the Xuanxuan Continent, starting from a lower baseline of strength, might not cope as well. A single misstep could result in catastrophic casualties. These reinforcements were all Jun Mo Xie’s relatives and closest comrades; how could he not issue a warning?
Another stuttering voice simultaneously echoed across the sky: "Jun... Jun that Jun... I I I... Duanmu... Mu Chao... Chao Chao Chao... that rice is here too!"
It turned out that Duanmu Qi Ji, the patriarch of the Duanmu Family, had also arrived.
Amidst the fierce fighting, hearing this halting voice did not provoke laughter among the members of the Continental Alliance; instead, a surge of hot blood rushed through their hearts!
The Continent! People had finally arrived!
Then came another soaring cry that pierced the heavens. A figure in robes as white as snow, sword in hand, soared through the air at breakneck speed: "All the common folk of the Continent are fiercely fighting the invaders; how could my Wind Snow Silver City stand aside!"
It was the Old City Lord of Wind Snow Silver City, the Wind Snow Supreme Han Fengxue, who arrived with his son, daughter-in-law, and hundreds of Silver City experts! These people were clad in uniform attire... only to see their white robes as pure as snow, their long swords like polished silver, as if all the snowflakes from the entire snow mountain had suddenly drifted to this spot...
A biting, sharp wind seemed to sweep along with them, making even the air, which had been extremely hot, suddenly feel refreshed!
Rumbling sounds echoed from afar, and clouds of dust billowed up on the horizon! A voice shouted fiercely, "Mo Xie! You must hold on! Third Uncle is here!"
Jun Mo Xie, Mei Xueyan, and the others felt their spirits instantly lift upon hearing this!
Compared to the voices that came before, the voice of this close relative was especially invigorating!
And the arrival of this voice signaled that Heaven's Punishment's own supporting troops had finally arrived!
Jun Wu Yi, at this extremely perilous moment, had brought the remaining warriors of Heaven's Punishment!
Judging by the momentum, this wave of reinforcements likely numbered no less than one hundred thousand strong! Although the combat capability of these troops could not compare to the Heaven's Punishment warriors currently engaged in the fierce battle, every single one of these soldiers was at least a peak Ninth Grade Profound Beast!
Such combat power was not only a match for the low-level Foreign Race warriors currently on the battlefield but an absolute nightmare to them!
If there was any imperfection, it was only that these people had traveled great distances through harsh conditions, having rushed across tens of thousands of miles. They had no time for rest or even a single breath before throwing themselves into the most intense slaughter. Naturally, their fighting strength could not reach its peak; they were sustained only by sheer impetus and resolve...
However, these unexpected reinforcements resolved the greatest immediate dilemma: not a single Foreign Race member had broken into the interior of the Xuanxuan Continent. It was the arrival of these troops that greatly alleviated the massive pressure on Heaven's Punishment’s side!
The tide of the battle began to shift subtly. As the great banners waved, Third Master Jun Wu Yi led the Heaven's Punishment reserve army in a forceful breakthrough into the battlefield. The Foreign Race army might have held a considerable advantage against the major families, but against the Heaven's Punishment reserve army—which moved with order, attacked and defended with skill, and possessed a combat strength that surpassed their own—they could gain absolutely no leverage!
"Forward units, deploy immediately! Rush to the battlefield at maximum speed! Center and rear armies, halt! Seize every moment to rest. Half an hour from now, the central army will move out fully! The flanks and rear will commence their full assault one hour from now!"
The Blood-Robed General Jun Wu Yi was undeniably a commander of rare talent in this age, with few equals in the world. He clearly recognized that rashly committing everyone at once upon arrival, while it might ease the battlefield situation to a greater degree, would be counterproductive to the overall situation, resulting only in heavy losses for his own soldiers!
In reality, the Continental Alliance forces led by Jun Mo Xie and Mei Xueyan, though surrounded, were not at a disadvantage; given sufficient time, they could reverse the situation and completely shatter the enemy forces!
But the prerequisite for all of this was time. Therefore, the current situation absolutely required the involvement of follow-up reinforcements to buy that time. Otherwise, countless stragglers would inevitably slip into the Continent, causing irreparable damage.
However, buying time also required strategy. Third Master Jun clearly judged that the true purpose of his contingent was not to kill the enemy, but to hold them back—to buy the maximum amount of time possible, striving at all costs to hold out until the moment Jun Mo Xie and the main Heaven's Punishment army could break free!
So, he made an immediate decision: commit the entire vanguard force, accepting the possibility of sacrifice, to stabilize the battle line and further prolong the engagement. Meanwhile, the central and rear armies were ordered to quickly eat, drink water, and reorganize their formations. Half an hour later, their combat strength would recover by at least forty percent, giving them the capital to buy even more time.
Moreover, with this half-hour buffer, Jun Wu Yi was confident he could calmly formulate strategies based on the subtle shifts in the battle, arranging how the army would strike—attacking every weak point of the enemy to inflict the heaviest possible blow with the minimum necessary force!
As for the third echelon, moving out an hour later, their stamina would have recovered to an even greater extent. By then, a full-scale deployment would surely lock in the final victory with overwhelming, thunderous force!
Jun Wu Yi, having just arrived at the battlefield and before even fully surveying the situation, made this decisive final strategic call! This vision was peerless in the contemporary world, and this strategy was the absolute best tactic available under the circumstances!
Yet, even so, when the Blood-Robed General finally looked upon the battlefield and witnessed the intensity of the war, he could not help but gasp sharply!