Revolt against the Heavens

Among Xin Zhe's army, there remained around thirty soldiers still alive while only a hundred mercenaries had been killed or injured so heavily that they couldn't fight anymore. The number of mercenaries who had fled the fight was very low as well. As a matter of fact, there were almost as many freed slaves as there were mercenaries left. Combined with the Sand Wolves Tribe, the two forces were well balanced. Thanks to their knowledge of the Desolate Dune Desert though, the tribesmen had a small advantage.

Unfortunately, it was about to change as the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation was being attacked from within by the last soldiers trapped alongside Xin Zhe. Now that he had destabilized Xin Zhe's soul, Cao Yun had to use this opportunity to strike her down. For that, he would need to unravel the array formation. But beforehand, he had to take care of the last slaves. Their Slavery Brands were connected to those soldiers. After being in Xin Zhe's sea of consciousness, he knew for a fact that she had nothing to do with those seals. Most likely, she had delegated the management of those slaves to her own soldiers.

If those soldiers were to get killed, the slaves would suffer untold torments until they too died. This was a great way to force them to fight to their death for their commanders. Unfortunately, it was impossible for Cao Yun to get rid of every seal in the slaves. But by altering or even stealing the seals within those soldiers, he could change things. He had not thought about that before. Furthermore, he had been convinced that Xin Zhe would be the one with those master seals. In that case, getting to them would have been extremely difficult and Cao Yun wanted to get things done fast.

Now that he was certain of the situation, he sent his spiritual senses and thus his very soul into the heads of the last soldiers trapped in his array formation. Immediately, he was faced with some defenses, probably set up by Xin Zhe and City Lord Sihe. Breaking down those defenses was a bit complicated but he had amassed a lot of experience to this day. Thus, he was able to get in their seas of consciousness. Unlike Xin Zhe, they mobilized all their will to try and prevent such an entry. But they were not Accomplished Demons and had almost no control over their soul. In the end, Cao Yun was able to steal the seals.

Even for him, breaking them apart while in those soldiers' seas of consciousness was too difficult. Moreover, his soul was exhausted. Against Xin Zhe, he had gone all out and he was starting to feel the aftershock. Just taking the seals away from those soldiers was much easier than destroying them. Furthermore, Cao Yun had thought about leaving his own seals behind but he had strained himself too much for that. He was too weak at the moment to do such a thing. All things considered, he had been right to only attack Xin Zhe at the last moment. Even with all her fatigue, she had been a problem.

Now that the soldiers had lost those seals, Cao Yun sent a telepathic message to General Sha Lang Hu to warn him. Indeed, he was about to break apart the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation. Controlling it would allow him to surprise the soldiers within. Besides, the array formation was about to be destroyed anyway. And he obviously told him that the slaves were now all free. Hearing this, General Sha Lang Hu did not hesitate at all. At the top of his lungs, he shouted for everyone to hear him.

"Brothers, all the master seals have been purged! You're all free! Join us!"

He had filled his voice with the greatest determination. Although he had no understanding of any mental attack, it was close to being one. In fact, it was an application of Order in Chaos from the Six Stratagems. Once again, General Sha Lang Hu had little to no understanding of battle formations in an academic sense. However, he was so used to battles, mostly against demonic beasts, that he had gained a profound, instinctive, knowledge of battle formations. Thanks to that, his voice imbued with the absolute determination he had was enough to convince everyone on the battlefield that he was right.

After his shout, the slaves were all galvanized and joined the fight wholeheartedly. On the other hand, the army was destabilized. Besides, Xin Zhe was still absent so morale was low. At that moment, more and more mercenaries were trying to escape. Knowing that it was very good for them, the tribesmen always made sure to let them leave the battlefield. In fact, they wanted as many of them as possible to leave since it would make their fight easier.

The addition of the slaves to their fight could have been a problem paradoxically. But General Sha Lang Hu was able to maintain cohesion within his forces. The former slaves were inserted into their battle plans without too many problems. After all, they had prepared for that as it was one of the main points of their strategy, turning the enemies' forces against them.

At last, the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation broke apart. The soldiers within were indeed surprised as they had seen no sign that it would happen so soon. Obviously, the array formation had not been destroyed from within, but from without, by Cao Yun himself. When it broke apart, General Sha Lang Hu and his forces were ready. Immediately, they cut off this fresh group of soldiers from the rest of the remaining soldiers. They didn't want the two groups to gather and unleash even stronger battle formations. Divide and conquer was a very sound strategy when dealing with battle formations. Moreover, without Xin Zhe's spiritual senses to send telepathic orders on the battlefield, it would be more difficult for them to coordinate their efforts.

Although they were surprised, the soldiers didn't go into chaos. Unlike the mercenaries, they had been trained to act together. As such, they were able to adapt and react to new situations on the battlefield. In fact, most mercenaries were really just hunters or martial artists who were selling their services. Soldiers were trained for actual wars, and could sometimes be used for other activities such as hunting, or capturing slaves as was the case right now. But at their core, they were trained to thrive on a battlefield.

Without any delay, the two isolated groups of soldiers adopted a new battle formation. Archers quickly took out their bows and fired toward strategic positions. Many Qi Manifestations appeared all over the place while all the demons were pushing their blood cultivation to the limit. Everyone could tell that this was the last moments of the battle. Until this point, they had all tried to save some strength for this very moment. On one side, the tribesmen didn't want to be completely spent when the last reinforcements would enter the fray. On the other hand, Xin Zhe's forces were waiting to be reunited to launch a massive counter-attack.

General Sha Lang Hu was also forced to react as he could see the flow of the battle going in the wrong direction. Even though they had been isolated, the soldiers were able to maintain both discipline and coordination. Most likely, they had other ways of communicating with each other. In fact, the arrows themselves were not just meant to kill, although they did kill a few. They were also serving as ways to share information. Without spiritual senses, there were many options to coordinate armies, such as flags, horns, or even arrows. Some arrows were hidden within the flights, and depending on the way they were shot, the direction in which they shot as well, they meant different things.

While the army was trying to break through the tribesmen's forces, Cao Yun decided to deal with Xin Zhe in a definitive manner. If he had been able to search her soul in order to extract her memories, he would have. Unfortunately, Dian Mo seemed to be utterly useless recently. Admittedly, Cao Yun was a bit harsh, but he was really starting to dislike Dian Mo. Before his injury, he had been really enjoying the spirit's company as well as their discussions. But now, he was mainly putting doubts in his mind. Even then, Cao Yun was wondering whether it meant that Dian Mo had changed, or that he was really going down the wrong path. That being said, Cao Yun was tired of second-guessing himself all the time. What he needed was to act and to assume the consequences of said actions.

Before he could do anything though, Cao Yun sensed something. All around Xin Zhe, the ground shook. Her spiritual senses erupted in every direction. Her skin was pale white as though she was dead. But there were golden and bloody lines and runes here and there on her exposed skin. A form of armor made out of bones appeared as an ethereal manifestation around her body. From her spatial ring, thousands of bony weapons emerged. It almost felt like Xin Zhe had just broken through. She was unleashing all of her strength at once. Up in the sky, Cao Yun could feel her fury.

On the battlefield, it was a shock. Her energy gushed forth and a few tribesmen simply collapsed on the spot. Using this opportunity, the soldiers killed them and were almost about to join. That was when Chieftain Sha Chai Ren reacted!

Suddenly, a massive killing intent descended upon the battlefield. It was even stronger than the killing intent from the two armies combined. Under their feet, the soldiers sensed that the bloodied sand was getting hotter and hotter. Even for them, the atmosphere were overwhelming. This aura of pure rage and blood thirst was pushing against the strength gushing out of Xin Zhe. It wasn't able to push it back but it could contain it. As Chieftain Sha Chai Ren was using all of his cultivation, his daughter was worried about him. The old man had not fought until then in order to save his strength in case Xin Zhe decided to attack his men.

Since Cao Yun was hiding his real cultivation, he had planned for this. He had explained it away saying that he would probably be too weak or too busy to deal with her while maintaining the array formation. Even now, he could simply explain why he was acting against her by saying the array formation had exhausted him.

Chieftain Sha Chai Ren was coughing a lot of blood, even some bright and golden blood. The poor old man was literally dying just to prevent Xin Zhe's rage to submerge the entire battleground. His daughter was at his side with a few others to protect him in case of danger. But she couldn't do anything to protect him from his own exertion. Xixue was also away from the battlefield and could witness everything. Unlike others, she was focusing on Cao Yun, worried for him.

Thankfully for Chieftain Sha Chai Ren, Xin Zhe had no intention of taking part in the war. Now that she had unleashed all of her strength, she looked up. Her eyes were two fiery beads. In an instant, she flew all the way up and found herself staring directly into Hongyu's eyes. The flying demonic beast still only had five demonic cores. Although she was in the process of forming her sixth one, she only had the strength of a middle to late Golden Blood Child. In fact, she was probably a bit weaker than Cao Yun, and she definitely didn't have his aptitude for battle. After all, demonic beasts couldn't used martial arts. However, she was able to sustain Xin Zhe's stare. She wasn't afraid to die.

While she was weaker than Xin Zhe by a margin, she was certain that she could fly faster than her. And she was also convinced that fighting alongside her brother Cao Yun would increase her chances. They might even triumph in the end. After all, they had always prevailed.

On the other hand, Cao Yun was a bit more concerned. Considering what he had just done in her sea of consciousness, her Flying Poison should still be causing havoc in her mind and soul. Although he knew that demons had strong wills, he had not imagined that Xin Zhe's will was so firm. The only explanation he had was that she had pushed her injured Unclean Evil to fight off the influence of the Flying Poison and recover. After that, she had probably broken apart his own seal to get out of her sea of consciousness. She was truly a dangerous opponent. But now, Cao Yun was forced to deal with her. Hopefully she was running on fumes...

"Boy, I told you that helping those ruffians was a mistake! Run away!"

Although he disagreed with the first part, Cao Yun was in perfect agreement with Dian Mo's command. Without speaking, he gave the same command to Hongyu. Suddenly, she was surrounded by bright flames with a few tongues of black fire. Using until her evil core, Hongyu flew as fast as she could, away from the battlefield. Even if Cao Yun couldn't escape, he could draw Xin Zhe away from the Sand Wolves Tribe. Not only would it save them, but it would also help him hide his true cultivation. After all, if he had to fight her, he might have a chance to win, but he would be forced to expose himself.

On the battlefield, General Sha Lang Hu was greatly relieved. On the other hand, Chieftain Sha Chai Ren didn't relent. Even now that she was gone, he was still using his killing intent. But instead of fighting Xin Zhe's influence, it was assaulting the enemy soldiers. His daughter was trying to convince him to stop, but at the same time she didn't want him to lose focus as a backlash could kill him in an instant. Finally, Xixue was probably the only one worried about Cao Yun. All the others were almost certain he would prevail because he was Tie Po. But she had not such blind faith in him.

Weighing down her options, Xixue decided to abandon her post. She ran toward the direction of the flames she could still see in the sky.