Chapter 1338: Combat Ability of the Ancient People!
The two troops fighting in the forest were, of course, neither in the Nascent Soul Stage nor the Divinity Transformation Stage.
It was not even a fight of pure Cultivators but a battle between ordinary people led by a few Cultivators.
However, when Li Yao adjusted Neltharion to a perfect angle and observed the battle, he was still deeply awed by the toughness of the locals and the fineness of their blades.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Although both parties were mostly using 'cold weapons', sparks were bursting out. Giant pits almost two meters deep were smashed on the group. The trees that one could barely hold were also shaking and bordering on collapse in the airwaves.
It was almost a battle where crystal cannons and crystal bombs were employed. They were equally fiery and sparkling.
Li Yao focused his attention on the 'emperor's army' that was under the great banner of 'Appeasing Ambassador'.
The army was perhaps a representative of the highest government on the planet, which was the main target that Li Yao was to deal with later.
The 'court' was not something that he could bypass either if he wanted to ally with them, be neutral, or even declare war on the civilization.
The emperor's army deserved to be the emperor's army. Although most of the soldiers in the ancient troop that had tiger-like stripes on their breastplates were ordinary people, they were mostly tall, muscular experts with bulging temples and glittering eyes.
Ripples were spreading out whenever they kicked or punched.
Judging from the sound when they waved their heavy sabers, the weapons weighed at least fifty kilograms!
It was not a historical fiction, where the heroes could easily exert a force of four hundred Newtons with their arms.
In the real world, those who could wave sabers weighing fifty Newtons easily were certainly experts among experts.
This is rather awesome! Li Yao secretly commented. The average capability of the troop was almost at the peak of ordinary fighters.
In the standard of the Star Glory Federation, it was almost equal to a Spiritual Actualization Quotient of ninety percent!
Li Yao recalled a few elite special forces in the Star Glory Federation and discovered that the ordinary soldiers on his side, if using pure cold weapons such as chainswords instead of the hot weapons such as crystal cannons, were absolutely no match for the soldiers here!
It was quite normal.
In the modern society, while the magical equipment found its way into all households making everyone's life easier, they somewhat diminished people's instincts and wildness.
During certain periods in history, it was quite normal that the ancient people were better at wilderness survival and close-distance battles.
Besides, the oxygen percentage of this world was very high, and the spiritual energy was rather abundant. It was not strange at all that a large batch of top fighters distinguished themselves.
The average build of the soldiers here is even better than anybody else on Iron Plateau other than the 'qi-trainers'! Li Yao pondered to himself. If such a magnificent army joined the federation, they would certainly make a powerful assault team after they were equipped with modern chainswords, vibration sabers, and crystal cannons. Even if they were engaged with the Immortal Cultivators, they would be still be able to have a head-on clash with the enemy.
On the other hand, if they were to join the Imperium of True Human Beings' side as the cannon fodder, it would certainly be a disaster for the federation.
Moreover, other than the ordinary soldiers who were all top fighters, there were also some Refinement Stage Cultivators in the 'emperor's army'.
They mostly wore armor that was even more fresh and glamorous. Other than the tiger stripes on their chest, their shoulder armor was also shaped into a roaring tiger.
Their sabers were even more daunting than the weapons of the ordinary soldiers, like tiger's teeth magnified dozens of times. Spiritual energy was vaguely circling around the edge of the saber.
After every slash, a blade aura several meters long would be unleashed, which would be condensed into the appearance of rushing tigers after ripping apart the air.
Even the enemy more than ten meters away might be torn into pieces by the rushing tigers!
The vanguards and the captains in the army are all Cultivators in the Refinement Stage. It appears that the world of Cultivators and the mortal world on this planet are deeply involved with each other.
The ancient Cultivators had many different social forms.
For some of the worlds where spiritual energy was not abundant, only the natural paradises such as mountains and forests might boast a reserve of spiritual energy. Therefore, the number of Cultivators was few.
Such Cultivators were not necessarily related to the mortal world. They were often the deities in the groundless folklores.
In some other worlds, the Cultivators established their own system and acted under different 'sects'.
The so-called 'dynasties' were merely the puppets of such 'sects'. There might be few Cultivators in the court or in the army.
Most of the Cultivators would stay in the headquarters of their sects and occasionally go down the mountains to remote control the puppets.
However, in some of the worlds of ancient Cultivators, the local dynasties were established by the Cultivators, and the Cultivators were integrated into the mortal world in every aspect. The emperor was a Cultivator, and the major ministers and generals were Cultivators, too. Such cases were not rare, either.
It seemed that the world here was an excellent example. Because of the overly-abundant spiritual energy in the world, the number of Cultivators was likely very high. It was impossible for them to live in seclusion. They had to go into the world of mortals and construct a relatively stable social system together with the ordinary people for the sake of the benefits of both parties.
Under the lead of the 'vanguards' and 'captains' who were in the Refinement Stage, the emperor's army fought back like tigers and wolves. They gradually recovered from the shock of being ambushed and reorganized their battle formation.
However, since the barbarians were bold enough to bite the hard bone that was the 'emperor's army', their teeth were certainly rather tough, too.
In terms of their body figure, born and raised in the hot and damp southern land, they were much more slender than the soldiers from the central land.
However, their bronze-colored skin and their muscles that resembled dried beef indicated their excellent body build.
As natural-born jungle hunters, they were jumping up and down among the branches like slippery monkeys and appeared right behind the emperor's army without a sound like ghosts.
Compared with the fine armor and blades of the emperor's army, their equipment was much more ragged.
However, the venomous fog they spurted out, the vipers on their arms, and the scorpions, centipedes, and other pests hidden inside the bamboo baskets they carried significantly made up for the shortcoming of their gear. The emperor's army was struggling to deal with them.
Even in the head-on clashes...
"Huh?"
Li Yao's eyes were keen enough to notice that a vanguard in the Refinement Stage in the emperor's army was blocked by a short, thin barbarian. The blades of the two parties raised clusters of sparks after collision, but neither of them could defeat the other.
Upon closer inspection, Li Yao discovered that, while the vanguard was summoning his spiritual energy with his face flushing, the barbarian's pupils turned into two narrow slots, and his jaw and his teeth protruded out.
This is a... demon!
Li Yao saw through the changes of the barbarian easily.
When the vanguard of the emperor's army was unleashing the spiritual energy without bothering anything, the barbarian was bombarding his mitochondria, awakening the primeval cells inside his body, and displaying part of the features of demons!
However, the barbarians did not seem pure demons, either.
They were more like hybrids of human beings and demons and only kept part of the features of demons.
But it does make sense.
It should be noted that there was no distinction between 'human beings' and 'demons' in the primeval era. Demons were merely another battle form of human beings. Everybody was a comrade who was enlightened by the Nuwa Clan and who fought side by side.
The serious contradiction between human beings and demons in the outside civilizations is because the 'Ultimate One Sect' forty thousand years was insane enough to transform them into Ultimate One Demons in their pursuit to rule over the entire universe, which led to the thirty thousand years of Great Dark Era. It is the source of the bloody grudge between the two parties.
If the Sector here hasn't reached out to other worlds for tens of thousands of years, naturally, they know neither the Ultimate One Demons nor the 'Great Dark Era'.
Then, it is perfectly normal that the boundary between human beings and demons is ambiguous here, and that some of them were even married and gave birth to hybrid descendants.
Honestly speaking, the weapons, battle techniques, and organization of the emperor's army were all better than those of the barbarians. If the two parties fought on an open plateau, the barbarians would have been beaten to the ground in several minutes.
However, the battlefield was a forest, with smoke, swamps, and pits everywhere.
The terrain was in the barbarians' favor, and they were well-prepared for the ambush. Together with their determination to die together with the enemy, they even managed to fight on par with the emperor's army without losing.
The emperor's army grew somewhat agitated when they failed to defeat the enemy after so long.
After all, they were on an expedition mission. One casualty meant one fewer warrior.
Even if ten barbarians were killed in the meantime, the vacancies would be filled easily from the forest that was as boundless as the ocean.
The black-armored general under the 'Appeasing Ambassador of the Fifth Prefecture of the Southland of Sorcerers' suddenly roared before he bashed the two hammers in his hands hard, raising a deafening noise!
The two hammers were embedded with hundreds of colorful rings respectively. After the violent collision, the bronze rings rotated quickly and unleashed mystic rays, covering the battlefield several square kilometers nearby like an upside-down bowl!
The black-armored general's face was so pale that he nearly fell down from his horse, but he gritted his teeth and smashed the hammers another time!
The second hit was even louder than the first one. The sound echoed around the entire battlefield like a running river.
A weird thing happened!
In the coverage of the soundwaves and the mystic rays, the morale of the emperor's army was significantly boosted. All the ordinary soldiers bulged their eyes, their skin breaking apart and their muscles protruding. The vanguards and the captains were even more rampant, and the auras of their blades were surging out like rainbows.
The barbarians, on the other hand, seemed to panic at the deafening noise and forgot how to resist when the enemy's weapons were slashing toward their faces!
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Dozens of well-tempered sabers slashed down brutally, cutting the barbarians in half with blade auras that were more than ten meters long. The guts of the barbarians were spraying everywhere on the ground. The air was immediately wreathed in burning redness.
The emperor's army took the opportunity to march forward. The battle formation of the barbarians, which had been rather disorganized in the first place, was further shattered apart.
Seeing the devastating wounds of their companions, the fearless barbarians were putting on expressions of fear and horror and roaring like wounded animals.