Chapter 278: Exchange, Glorious Grade (III)
They picked those three pieces of equipment for Long Haochen with complete sincerity. In truth, it was even only after thinking about the items to pick for Long Haochen that they looked for the rest of the equipment for themselves. Every time they met with powerful enemies, Long Haochen was the first to confront them as a Guardian Knight, and his Saint Spiritual Stove would always draw the strongest opponent towards him, regardless of whether he was a match to stop this opponent or not. As his companions, they had always seen this time and time again.
Lin Xin smiled happily, “Boss, quickly take it. I’m going to get some sleep now. I’ll snatch time to make some pills tomorrow, early in the morning. Our current balance of contribution points is closer to 90,000 than 100,000, but I believe that after we come back from this mission, we should at least have gotten this bit back.”
Eyeing his comrades with reddish eyes, Haochen declared, “I cannot help but thank you, otherwise it would be ungrateful of me… Everyone should have an early rest today, do your best to be in top condition when we set off.”
As he said this, Long Haochen recovered the three pieces of equipment displayed in front of him, before heading back to his room with Cai’er in his arms.
The other five smiled at each other, and then happily headed back to their own rooms with their newly obtained items in hand. After today’s huge purchases, although it couldn’t be said that everyone was equipped to the teeth, their purchases were sufficient to raise their team’s strength to a whole new level. In fact, even in a commander grade Demon Hunt Squad, knights who could be clad in an entire Brilliant set like Long Haochen were extremely rare. That was to say nothing of a team that was still at the general grade. Exchanging their contribution points for equipment would greatly increase their survivability on the battlefield.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and early in the morning of the fourth day, the Demon Hunt Squads were gathered at the entrance of their villas, having forty-two carriages waiting for them. The majority of the carriages was numbered. Among them were four soldier grade, nine general grade, twenty-two commander grade, four king grade, and three unnumbered carriages.
A total of forty-two Demon Hunt Squads acting together during this mission was an extremely rarely seen occasion in the Temple Alliance. It were no less than two hundred and fifty-two elites of the Alliance. And they were all powerhouses willing to risk their lives in the fight against demons in the midst of the battlefield. The carriages were placed in accordance to their own numbering. Up until now, they still didn’t know what sort of mission they were called for. All they knew was that they were headed to the Southern Town’s Mountain Pass镇南关, located in the territory under the Priest Temple’s jurisdiction.
Those forty-two Demon Hunt Squads were to act along with a batch of elites directly subordinated to the Alliance, numbering five thousand in total. And since they were dispatched by the Six Great Temples, there was no need to doubt their strength. Among them, the Knight Temple dispatched the greatest assisting army, which included a team of a total of hundred Temple Knights led directly by the Saint Knight Han Qian, and entailing seven Saint Knights. More terrifying, all the Temple Knights of this group were Foundation Mythril Armored Knights, the true core of the elite of the Knight Temple. From this, the scale of the crisis the Southern City’s Mountain Pass faced, could be judged.
The Knight Temple’s Saint Knight head, Han Qian was also the commander of this operation. Forty-two Demon Hunt Squads and an army of five thousand elites of the Six Great Temples were deployed, obeying his orders.
Long Haochen and his comrades were taking seats in the carriage marked with ‘21st general’. The order they received so far was simple: to leave for the Southern City’s Mountain Pass and follow the team leader’s direction. The concrete details of the War Mission would be assigned after arriving at the Southern City’s Mountain Pass.
Because the Holy City was in the center of the Tempe Alliance, the distance to the mountain pass was very small. Rapidly advancing, it didn’t even take a day for the reinforcements to arrive at a distance fifty kilometers away from the Southern City’s Mountain Pass.
However, arriving there, the atmosphere among the whole reinforcements immediately turned serious, because even at a distance of fifty kilometers, they could already see the distant smoke fuming up, coming from the direction of the Southern City’s Mountain Pass.
The Saint Knight Han Qian immediately reacted by transmitting the order to head there at full speed. Meanwhile, the Temple Knight Regiment, as well as the four king grade Demon Hunt Squads, and the three Demon Hunt Squads of unknown grade left their carriages behind and set out at full speed towards the Southern City’s Gate.
From the window, Long Haochen saw about twenty figures leaving the seven carriages at lightning speed. All of them were at the very least at the seventh step of cultivation. From afar, Long Haochen only saw a phantomlike afterimage of the six people from the carriage in the front. Sima Xian clenched his fist with an excited face. Clearly, he was an authentic predisposed war-lover.
Because of the pressed advance, the whole journey was spent with everyone still in their carriages, having difficulty to hold back. This was especially the case for Sima Xian who had just obtained the Energetical Ball of Light and had been holding back for a long time now. He had only tried it out once, against Long Haochen.
Then, Sima Xian had swung it by its chain, completely bringing out the Energetical Ball of Light’s true might while Long Haochen had relied on the Brilliant Holy Shield. Even though he had added Divine Obstruction to the Holy Shield technique, he had barely managed to block it. Still, he had been pushed back six steps, almost falling down, with both of his arms aching from the shock.
Of course, after such an attack, Sima Xian would have needed time to store more power if he had wanted to launch another blow with the same strength.
The reason why he could display such might was because of the abnormality of the Energetic Ball of Light. It could instantly erupt with great power due to its supplementary ability Crush, which was an inseparable part of it. Inside of the Energetical Ball of Light was a magical array that could absorb the surrounding light essence through a magical crystal. Thus, this Crush ability didn’t even need Sima Xian to use his own spiritual energy to sustain it.
The most terrifying thing was that Crush could actually be combined with Long Haochen’s self-created technique Ripples of Light. Though both sides employed this technique, even Long Haochen was almost unable to resist its combination with Crush.
Since this match, Sima Xian had always been brimming with enthusiasm, wanting to try out this new weapon against demons. He had fallen in deep love with this Energetical Ball of Light. If not for the limited space inside of the carriage, he probably wouldn’t have resisted the urge of holding this metallic swelling golden item in his hands.
Han Yu asked Long Haochen, “Captain Long, what do you believe is the grade of the Demon Hunt Squads that are in those three unnumbered carriages?”
Long Haochen replied, “They should be at the Emperor grade.”
Han Yu then asked with some excitement, “Couldn’t they be at the titled grade? Just like those six almighty elders we previously met in the Exorcist Mountain Pass.”
Long Haochen shook his head, “This is not very probable.”
Lin Xin said on his side, “It’s rather impossible. Titled Demon Hunt Squads don’t receive missions from the Alliance, and are the Alliance’s greatest heroes in terms of contribution. They don’t reside in Holy City either. Titled Demon Hunt Squad’s members have to be at the ninth step of cultivation, but powerhouses of the ninth step won’t necessarily belong to a Titled Demon Hunt squad. From my point of view, the Demon Hunt Squads that were traveling in those three carriages should be at the emperor grade. It’s just that they would be of different strengths. The carriage at the front is very possibly a Demon Hunt Squad constituting of six powerhouses at the ninth step.”
Wang Yuanyuan nodded, “I agree with has-drug-bro. Considering our strength, we shouldn’t be part of the main force, but probably its backup force. We will just kill as much as we can.” This girl’s love for war was not the slightest bit inferior to Sima Xian’s.
An hour later, the reinforcement army finally reached the Southern City’s Mountain Pass, and Long Haochen understood for what sort of emergency the Alliance had dispatched them all.
In the midst of thick smoke, the scent of blood reeked out from all directions, and right after getting off the carriage, Long Haochen was immediately shocked. It was because he saw with horror a total of twelve thick pillars of light in the sky. There were actually twelve of the seventy-two demon gods present on this battlefield.
From inside the thick smoke that rose from the Southern City’s Mountain Pass, ear splitting battle noises resounded. The battle seemed to have already entered this Southern City, whose defense looked like it wouldn’t last for much longer.
Temporarily acting as the commander, Han Qian immediately transmitted the order for all Demon Hunt Squads to join the battle, and the various commanders from the Six Great Temples led their forces, entering the Southern City’s Mountain Pass.
Perhaps this was because Han Qian already led a reinforcement team before this, the city’s gate was wide open. Prepared to enter in the city, Long Haochen was suddenly called out.
“Haochen!” Luc Xi, Lin Xin, and the rest of their 22nd general grade Demon Hunt Squad hurried over, joining Long Haochen’s group.
It wasn’t only them: the 2nd soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad commanded by Yang Wenzhao as well as the 3nd soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad commanded by Duan Yi all came to join them.
Luc Xi was the fastest, immediately addressing Long Haochen, “Haochen, we are already used to working together, how about collaborating this time again? We will fully comply to your command, absolutely carrying out any of your orders.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but extremely firm and resolute. His attitude of clinging to their group was distinct.
Yang Wenzhao and Duan Yi came in large strides, and Yang Wenzhao spoke first, “Haochen, our four groups are newly formed Demon Hunt Squads, and the situation inside the Southern Mountain’s City is not very clear. We will very possibly run into strong enemies. How about acting together?”
Duan Yi also nodded, expressing his agreement with Yang Wenzhao.
As the most talented emerging knights from the Knight Temple, they were naturally intelligent, and although they didn’t clearly understand the nature of the first mission accomplished by Long Haochen’s group, with Yang Wenzhao’s status as the grandson of the chief of the Temple Alliance, it wasn’t hard for him to learn that the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad had followed Long Haochen during the mission they completed.
When they saw the words ‘22nd general’ on their carriage, Yang Wenzhao and Duan Yi were truly shocked.
What was this magic trick? Long Haochen’s group had a great amount of contribution points from the period of test, but what about Luc Xi’s group? Yang Wenzhao even heard that Luc Xi’s group ordered a batch of Holy Spirit Pills to raise their strength.
If Yang Wenzhao and Duan Yi couldn’t guess that this had something to do with Long Haochen’s squad, they would be fools. Now, facing the unclear situation in the Southern City’s Mountain Pass, they remembered Long Haochen’s outstanding performance during the period of test and, after careful consideration, decided to lead their teams to his side.