A broken dragon-shaped flag hangs from the top of the city.
A little monster climbed up to the top of the city sneakily, sniffing here and there, as if looking for suitable food.
The smell of blood here has not yet dissipated, and there are corpses, weapons, and stomachs everywhere on the city top...
The strong smell of blood is the most familiar hunting ground for this monster.
Having lost its direction among the large army, it is a little less violent and a little more spiritual.
Suddenly, it showed a panicked expression.
Directly in the sky, two streams of light suddenly flew over.
The two streams of light were extremely fast and reached the city wall in the blink of an eye.
A light cry came from one of the streams of light.
"Roar!"
The little demonic beast bared its teeth and roared.
However, his body was caught in the air uncontrollably, and his thick short legs kicked wildly in the air, struggling endlessly.
"A bloodthirsty beast?"
"Did the demon clan pull this thing down? Or did they deliberately leave it on the battlefield to let it grow quickly?" The light dispersed, and two Qi refiners wearing Taoist robes revealed their true appearance.
One of them is a female Taoist priest.
The female Taoist priest's eyes were cold, she raised her hand, and a sword energy flew out.
Before the little demonic beast had time to scream, it was exploded by the sword energy on the spot, turning into blood mist and floating in the air.
"Junior sister Zhou, you..."
The male Taoist priest moved a little slower, and the little monster died.
He suddenly felt regretful and felt great pain in his body.
"This is a rare 'bloodthirsty beast'. When it grows up, it will at least reach the level of a great demon, and it can be killed at will? If it were put on the market, it would sell for at least a hundred spiritual stones."
Zhou Wei had no intention of chatting with her senior brother.
"Brother, it's getting late. Check quickly and find traces of the demonic tide."
"Okay, I know."
The male Taoist priest shook his head and reluctantly took out a Bagua disk from the sleeve of his Taoist robe.
This iron Bagua plate looks like an old thing and is very inconspicuous.
The male Taoist priest walked up to the top of the city, muttering words in his mouth, and a faint Taoist rhyme floated around his body.
"Buzz——"
The Bagua Disk shook violently, and a huge Bagua Diagram appeared, spreading like a spiritual light to half of the city wall.
The aura of Bagua envelopes the inside and outside.
The male Taoist priest's eyes suddenly emitted two dazzling lights.
Two rays of light fell into the Bagua Spiritual Light Disk and circled around in all directions, rotating crazily. The speed of one of the lights became faster and faster, and finally caught up with the previous light, and the two lights turned into one light.
The spiritual light suddenly shrank, and the Bagua disk disappeared.
The male Taoist priest's face paled slightly, but the spiritual light did not disappear, but hovered in the air.
Finally it fell into his eyebrows.
The spiritual light dissipated, and the Taoist robes blown by the wind returned to calm.
The male Taoist opened his eyes.
"Senior brother, how is it?"
Zhou Wei asked coldly.
The senior brother frowned, shook his head and said, "No, I still can't find it."
"How come I can't find it?"
Zhou Wei raised her voice and showed dissatisfaction.
The male Taoist thought that he couldn't find it, but he couldn't find it. Could it be that you thought I was lying to you?
"Cao Zhaowu said that the demon tide should have gone to Liangnan. Senior brother, have you carefully looked for Li Gua?"
"If it doesn't work, check again."
The male Taoist priest looked embarrassed: "Junior sister Zhou, I have looked for it, but it really doesn't exist."
"This Bagua Chart to search for spirits consumes quite a lot of mana. I can only use it once a day..."
"The Cao Zhaowu you mentioned may not be right. Maybe he guessed wrong?"
Could Cao Su guess wrong? Impossible!
Zhou Wei absolutely trusts Cao Su. People who don't know how powerful Cao Su are are because they don't understand Cao Su.
Zhou Wei has worked with Cao Su for a long time and has long known how powerful Cao Su is.
Her current strength is inseparable from Cao Su.
Therefore, Zhou Wei trusted Cao Su more.
She felt that her senior brother's teachings were not profound enough.
"What should I do?"
"If the trace of the demonic tide cannot be found, how should Liangzhou deal with it?"
Zhou Wei felt deeply that the matter was difficult.
Three days ago, Xiping City was attacked by a demon tide.
Tens of thousands of monsters carrying hundreds of thousands of beasts overcame the obstacles of the imperial army and destroyed the entire Xiping into ruins.
Now Xiping City has become a ghost town, with no one inside.
There are still many corpses inside and outside the ghost town.
No matter whether they are monster corpses, animal corpses or human corpses, they haven't had time to clean up yet.
The entire battlefield was in a mess.
One hundred thousand imperial troops and border troops were all buried in Xiping.
Feng Yuchan, the leader of Xizhou's quelling the rebellion, disappeared on the battlefield and his whereabouts are unknown. He was suspected to have died in battle.
The Imperial Guard Department dispatched a large number of people to investigate.
Zhou Wei, as a Qi practitioner from the Demon-Slaying Dao Hall of the Jing Yao Division, was also dispatched to Xizhou.
After meeting up with Cao Su from Xijun, Cao Su pointed out the direction and believed that the demon tide should be active in Liangnan. However, it was not ruled out that the demon tide had crossed the mountains in the south and penetrated into the deep mountains and old forests.
It would be difficult to handle if all these demon clans burrowed into the deep mountains and old forests.
The army couldn't kill them, so there was nothing they could do.
........
........
West County.
Cao Su led the remaining troops of the imperial court to rest and regroup here.
In the past few days, some remaining soldiers have been gathered one after another.
They were all remnant soldiers who had escaped from Xiping, and they looked very miserable.
Xiping was razed to ruins and it was too tragic to see.
Feng Yuchan and other court generals disappeared one after another, and the hearts of the people in the army were dispersed.
With people's hearts scattered and morale plummeting, Cao Su went into the camp every day to prepare for war, strengthen training, and gradually regain some of the morale of his troops.
But in Xijun, the clouds are still thick.
Every day, a large number of people fled to Yongzhou and Xiguan.
The entire Liangzhou was plunged into a quagmire of war.
Forget it if we were fighting the Qiang tribe, now we are fighting demons.
How should we fight this battle if we are not even human beings?
The people lost all confidence and fled towards Yongzhou.
Originally there were only a few people in Liangzhou, but now there are even fewer people left.
The entire Xijun seemed deserted, with only the government troops, border troops and the Forbidden Army cavalry led by Cao Su remaining in the city.
In addition to sending spies everywhere to look for the enemy, Cao Su led his soldiers to defend Xijun.
Among Xijun, Cao Su now has the final say.
In addition to his original three thousand direct descendants, the soldiers of the Changshui and Huqi Second Battalions also obeyed General Cao Su's orders.
Cao Su reorganized and collected the troops whose generals had been killed in the battle, and expanded the number of his troops to 8,000.
Among them, of course, the soldiers of Changshui and Huqi battalions had many complaints.
However, now that Cao Su's power is at its peak, no one dares to disobey him.
In addition, Xiao Yan seemed to have acquiesced in Cao Su's behavior. It was lucky that the two battalions could maintain a certain original organization.
After such adjustments, the two battalions of Changshui Huqi finally had only 12,000 people left. After reorganization, the two battalions had 6,000 people each, and Cao Su's command reached 8,000 people. Shi Yong was officially promoted to the captain.
Wei, becoming Cao Su's fourth general after Zhang Ke, Luo Yi and Li Li.
Ma Chao was promoted to commander of Cao Su's personal cavalry, and his official rank reached centurion.
Zhang Ke, Li Li, and Luo Yi went one step further and became Cao Su's thousands of generals.
After the organizational adjustment, the troops took on a new look and their morale improved steadily every day.
In mid-January, there was another heavy snowfall in Liangzhou.
Heavy snow covered the entire state, and tens of thousands of remaining demon soldiers and generals suddenly disappeared.
Cao Su waited in Xijun for more than ten days but found no trace of the enemy.
Later, Zhou Wei, who went out to investigate the situation, told him that these demon soldiers and generals may have entered the deep mountains and old forests in southern Liangzhou.
In the south of Liangzhou, there is a large area of deep mountains and old forests.
Known as the "Lishan Mountains", it is one of the few large-scale mountains in Liangzhou.
This mountain range stretches for thousands of miles, from Liangzhou south to Tiannan Road, intermittently.
Because the mountains are so high and there are so many wild animals in the woods, there are very few people.
This place is at least several hundred miles away from Xijun. If the demon tide really penetrates into Liangnan, then the crisis in Xijun will be lifted.
Cao Su was already prepared to face another wave of monsters in Xijun, but he didn't expect there would be any follow-up.
In late January, news came from Jincheng that one hundred thousand Qiang cavalry were coming east, aiming directly at Jincheng.
Jincheng guard Jia Tao asked for help from Xijun and the imperial court.
"Is the Qiang army coming again?"
The soldiers of Xijun were all stunned.
Some people feel that they should go, as that is their duty as soldiers of the imperial court.
Some people think that we should not go. The demon in Liangzhou has not yet been quelled. If we lose Xijun, that would be a real crime.
Therefore, everyone is hesitant and no one can make up their mind.
Just when everyone didn't know what to do and were ready to listen to Cao Su's opinion.
The imperial edict arrived suddenly and was conveyed to Xijun.
This edict was finalized by the emperor himself and conveyed specifically to Cao Su.
Everyone was surprised.
Although Cao Su controlled the power of Xijun at this time, after all, he was only General Zhaowu, a military attaché of the fifth rank. His rank was not high when looking at the entire central government. Why did he directly alert the emperor and issue a special edict?