The frenzied slaughter on the battlefield left the Imperial Guard commander caught between a rock and a hard place. The two armies flanking him on either side were also deeply worried that Ye Liuyun might still have tricks up his sleeve, so none of them dared to make any rash moves.
But if the Imperial Guard couldn’t hold back these crazed soldiers, they would still have to intervene—only to then worry about being ambushed by Ye Liuyun.
If they didn’t act, their entire vanguard would have to retreat first. Being driven back by soldiers of lower cultivation realms right at the start of battle would make both commanders look utterly incompetent.
So now everyone was watching to see if the Imperial Guard could stop these soldiers.
Ye Liuyun’s side also remained completely motionless, simply watching as these seventy thousand soldiers charged into battle.
These seventy thousand lower-realm soldiers actually managed to fight the Imperial Guard to a bloody stalemate through sheer ferocity alone. The Imperial Guard had higher cultivation realms and better equipment, yet gained no advantage—they paid with over twenty thousand lives just to eliminate thirty thousand of Ye Liuyun’s troops.
But the Imperial Guard commander had issued a death order: fight to the death, no retreat. With no way out, the Imperial Guard soldiers gradually began fighting at their true strength. Ye Liuyun’s cannon fodder troops suffered increasingly heavy casualties—it took five or six of them just to bring down one Imperial Guardsman.
However, the Imperial Guard’s formation had already been disrupted, preventing them from utilizing their battle array advantages. With both sides tangled in chaotic melee, otherwise Ye Liuyun’s expendable troops would have suffered even greater losses.
"The gap in cultivation realms is still too vast—madness alone can’t change the outcome!"
After watching a while longer, Ye Liuyun could already foresee how this would end. He brought Wu Qingcheng back to the central command tent. The remaining matters required no further action from them.
In the end, all seventy thousand cannon fodder soldiers were annihilated. Of the hundred thousand golden-armored praetorian, fewer than forty thousand were killed.
Purely by numbers, this counted as a victory for the Imperial Guard in their first battle—but this army had been thoroughly terrified and dared not continue probing any further.
The moment combat ended, Ye Liuyun’s six thousand black-armored elite troops appeared on the battlefield.
Upon seeing this murderous legion approach, the opposing Imperial Guard immediately withdrew to reorganize their forces—not even bothering to clear the battlefield—terrified that they might charge straight at them.
The two flanking armies on either side also tensed up and prepared for battle.
But the black-armored army merely dispatched a squad to clean up the battlefield.
The opposing armies were all baffled, maintaining strict defensive formations while fearing some scheme from Ye Liuyun. Yet after finishing cleanup operations, Ye Liuyun’s forces promptly withdrew without launching any attack.
"What was that about? They really just came to clean up?"
"What’s their game? Sent seventy thousand madmen to die and that’s it?"
"They clearly lost—yet they send people to scavenge our battlefield? How shameless! Are they that desperate?"
The enemy commanders and soldiers all speculated wildly among themselves unable fathom what scheme lay behind these moves
Even those two flanking armies supportingtheImperialGuardwereleftstunned,daringnotventurefurthertestsOnlywhenFiresealEmpire’sfullforcesfinallyassembleddidYaoWanhaobegintoredeploy
Nowbothsides’troopstrengthlayexposedcardsvisibletoallthatremainedwastoseehowYaowouldattack
YeLiunyunsideremainedcompletelymotionless—thelongertheydelayedthemoreitfavoredthemAstimepassedtheywouldhavemorefirepowerchariotscompleted
AfterarrivingYaospentseveraldaysobservinggarrisonpositionsacrossYevariousplanets
HefoundOutpostIslandheld240000permanenttroops:150000DeathLegionsoldiersatfirstorsecondrealm30000CuiDaoransbanditsoldiersandtwo30000strongdemonlegions
Thecentralmostplanethad100000defenders6000blackarmoredelitesand10000CuiDaoransbanditsTheremaining sixplanetseachheld100000garrisonstroops
YeLiunyuhadlaidallhiscardsonthetablewithnohiddenreserveswhatsoever
YetYaoWanhaodarednotbelieveitSeeingthisapparentforcestrengthmadehimevenmorerelectanttoactPreviouslyYehadcapturednumeroussoldiers;hedidn’tknowmosthadbeenkilledastrainingpartnersHeestimatedYestillcommandedleast200000troops
He also felt that the outpost planet and the central planet had the largest number of soldiers, all equipped with Void-grade armor, making them the most difficult targets.
The other six planets were clearly manned by surrendered troops, and their commanders had been temporarily assigned by Ye Liuyun, so they should be easier to attack.
Even if they couldn’t capture them, it would force Ye Liuyun to expose his elite forces or draw soldiers from the outpost planet to reinforce.
So he casually picked two planets garrisoned with a hundred thousand surrendered troops each and sent his vanguard to attack. Two columns of two hundred thousand troops from the vanguard went to assault the planets, while the remaining sixty to seventy thousand praetorian landed on an uninhabited planet between those two.
This was a small-scale probing attack to see how Ye Liuyun would respond.
As soon as his warships moved, commanders like Yu Xiaofeng and Ye Liuyun had already guessed his intentions. They only sent Cui Daoran with ten thousand soldiers to reinforce that uninhabited planet, first deploying those nine large spherical firepower vehicles to deter the praetorian.
When Yao Wanhao learned that all nine large spheres were facing the praetorian and that Ye Liuyun hadn’t sent any troops to reinforce those two planets defended by surrendered soldiers, he became even more confident.
"Since you don’t want to expose your trump cards, I’ll take a few of your planets first and see how you respond!"
Yao Wanhao thought he could easily capture those two planets; only the praetorian would face greater pressure. But with their high cultivation levels, they weren’t completely unable to withstand attacks from those large spheres.
He immediately ordered all three columns of his vanguard to attack with full force.
The Imperial Guard commander was also groaning inwardly. He had thought his position would be the easiest, yet now all nine large spheres were deployed against him. He had heard about how powerful these spheres’ energy cannons were.
His troops had been the ones resisting those crazy soldiers before; now they were still the ones facing heavy firepower attacks.
He cursed Yao Wanhao in his heart for using them as cannon fodder but dared not disobey orders. Before even attacking, he retracted all warships and dispersed his soldiers charging toward that planet.
The other two columns advanced directly with warships for landing. All three columns simultaneously assaulted three planets.
"Open fire!"
Cui Daoran’s nine firepower vehicles fired first. The dense barrage made these praetorian hesitate to advance.
But at this moment Yao Wanhao ordered them to charge without retreating. With no choice left, the Imperial Guard commander could only order full assaults from his soldiers.
These Imperial Guard soldiers were all at Return One Ninth Level cultivation and wore True-grade Ninth Rank armor; thus each soldier required concentrated continuous bombardment from firepower vehicles just to wound or kill them—far less efficient than attacking warships themselves!
Once they charged forward discovering these firepower vehicle bombardments weren’t so terrifying after all—many successfully broke through their blockade landing upon this planet!
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