Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1757: Chapter 558: The Great Rout, the Player Becomes the Piece (Part 2)

At this moment Cai Qiuhu finally reacted, but it was already far, far too late…

“Turn back and meet the enemy, the Xia Army has arrived!”

“Meet the enemy? Nearly half our men have already gone down into the ravine, how do we meet the enemy? Hurry and rush down the ravine—once we’re on the North Shore we’ll be fine!”

“What about the brothers in the rear ranks? The mouth of the valley is too narrow, they can’t get through that fast!”

………

The Xia Army’s arrow curtain came sweeping in like a sky‑covering storm, and Cai Qiu’s commanders immediately lost their heads. Some insisted they had to keep going down the ravine to break through to the North Shore, others argued they should turn back and meet the attack—their opinions actually couldn’t be unified.

In ordinary times, if they couldn’t reach a consensus, at worst they could just keep discussing.

But right now, what kind of critical juncture was this?

The Xia Army was already pressing up to their faces—at this juncture their opinions couldn’t be unified, did the enemy intend to wait for them?

“Rear army loose arrows, shoot down the enemy in the pit! Vanguard, charge and kill!”

This time, it was Xia Hong himself who spoke.

His voice carried thick, seething killing intent. The hundred thousand Xia Army Soldiers who heard it all instantly seemed injected with high‑grade stimulants; the vanguard surged forward like a tidal wave, while the rear ranks either drew Bow and Arrow or worked the Crossbows, both arms whirling in a blur.

In the first half of the night, the great battle on the southern side of Bone‑Eroding Path, though the Xia Army had won a resounding victory, their casualties were by no means light. Looking back over Great Xia’s past campaigns, such large‑scale losses had never occurred before.

The lives of the Xia people are precious—this had never been just empty talk!

Since Great Xia implemented the integrated soldiery‑and‑hunters system, apart from their rest periods, Soldiers always eat and lodge together; same squad, same camp—their bonds are even tighter than between blood brothers. Some Soldiers who had lost their comrades in the first half of the night now had a chance for revenge; one could well imagine the ferocity of their charge.

Of course, most crucial of all was that victory lay right before their eyes!

The Southern Slope had already been secured; this campaign of the Xia Army already counted as an expedition.

For an army, victory is the best stimulant. A string of victories on the Southern Slope, plus last night’s frontal defeat of Cai Qiu at the southern exit—by now the Xia Army’s morale had soared to a level beyond all measure.

Cai Qiu’s total force of one hundred fifty thousand routed troops—fewer than twenty thousand had broken through to the North Shore; nearly half were still down in the ravine, and those remaining within the valley mouth added up to less than seventy thousand.

Seventy thousand against a hundred thousand—strictly speaking, that was still a fightable matchup. Taking into account that Cai Qiu bore the title of a Feudal Town, in the past these seventy thousand might not even have put the hundred thousand Xia Army in their eyes.

But the crushing defeat at the southern exit had happened less than half a night ago. A single lost battle wasn’t enough to make all Cai Qiu’s Soldiers develop a psychological shadow toward the Xia Army, yet it had stripped them of their previous confidence. At the very least, facing the Xia Army right now, they had no advantage at all in terms of mindset.

With no edge in mentality, the water level in the ravine to the north was rising ever higher, already over many Soldiers’ chests; their commander Cai Qiuhu was tightly pinned within the ravine by five Beast Emperor Puppets, and a number of Xianyang Level experts were entangled by Xia Army elites.

Soldiers all have eyes; they too judge the future based on the situation on the field. At this moment Cai Qiu clearly showed every sign of utter defeat—anyone could see it, and they were no exception.

The Soldiers of Cai Qiu, in an instant, fell into the depths of despair.

With one side waning and the other waxing, the outcome of the clash between the two armies hardly needed to be said.

Earlier, to increase their speed, Cai Qiu’s army had abandoned its baggage; the Xia Army coming up from behind had not. Bow and Arrow, Divine Machine Crossbow, Spirit Pill—everything was in full supply; their weapons and Armor had also been temporarily swapped out for the least damaged sets.

“Puff…”

Dozens of the Xia Army’s Flag Commanders plunged straight into the belly of Cai Qiu Army’s formation like Longswords, more than ten Xianyang Level masters dropping from midair, driving the banners firmly into the earth.

Once the banners were planted, the Xia Army Soldiers had a direction. They instantly charged straight in like sharp blades, cutting toward the very rear ranks of Cai Qiu’s Soldiers.

This was no heavenly thunder igniting earthly fire—in almost no time it became one‑sided slaughter and crushing. The Xia Army poured into the valley mouth like ravenous wolves, driving Cai Qiu’s forces to scatter in retreat to both sides; the ground was stained red with blood in an instant.

The despairing Soldiers of Cai Qiu began to resist desperately, but in numbers, in strength, in morale—on every front, the gap between them and the Xia Army was immeasurably vast.

“Roar!”

Six Beast Emperor Puppets suddenly leapt down from the slopes on both sides of the valley mouth. They did not rush toward Cai Qiuhu in the ravine, but instead charged straight into Cai Qiu’s formation inside the valley.

This feast of slaughter had only now truly begun.

Rushing, surging water sounds…

Cai Qiuhu turned his head to see more and more of his Soldiers dying. A gray, bleak look flashed across his face; whether it was the five Beast Emperors pressing him too hard, or his heart having fallen into utter despair, his expression even began to turn dull and vacant.

The immense roar of water came from the east, but Cai Qiuhu had no heart left to look. Locked in combat with the five Beast Emperors, his Fire Tribulation Qi had been burning for so long that he was already near exhaustion.

As his Fire Tribulation Qi weakened, the evaporation of water in the pit slowed at once, and naturally the water level began to rise rapidly.

With the water level climbing, the Soldiers of Cai Qiu who had not yet managed to rush out of the pit—one could easily imagine their fate.

“The water’s coming, the water’s coming, get out, don’t block the way!”

“The Xia Army in the rear is almost at the bank, run, run!”

“The water’s rising so fast—run, hurry and run!”

“Don’t block the way in front, move!”

“Run!”

………

In the Ice Abyss, the waters are more dangerous than the land, and so the vast majority of people are landlubbers, with an instinctive fear of water in their hearts.

Cold Resistance Level cultivators can control Skin Membrane and flesh; they might not drown, but when a raging torrent comes surging in, human instinctive fear is triggered. For Soldiers who had already lost their footing mentally on the battlefield, their minds grew even more chaotic.

In an instant, dejection, curses, and howls filled the entire pit. Driven by their desire to survive, some even began attacking their own comrades.

“When the army is defeated, it collapses like a mountain, collapses like a mountain. My Cai Qiu army has been beaten to this state, to this state—finished, finished, it’s all finished…”

Bang!

Cai Qiuhu was caught in a momentary daze and was swatted down directly by the green‑eyed Fire Suanni. In his despair he no longer remained in the pit, but shot up into the air, hovering there as he watched his own Soldiers flailing in ugly panic amid the waters, murmuring to himself, his voice full of pain and hopelessness.

Only a few days ago, he had been chatting at ease with Xia Hong, his brows full of confidence—that Little Landgrave was now left only with desolation and despair.

Cai Qiuhu’s thoughts turned to the campaign in Lin Chu County; rage attacked his heart, a sweetness rose in his throat, and he almost spat blood.

When the war in Lin Chu County first broke out, he and his father‑Landgrave Cai Qianshan had already guessed that the Xia Army and Chen Cang were, in all likelihood, colluding.

Chen Cang’s hundred‑thousand army had clearly already marched south from the Jiuqu Blood Corridor, yet Great Xia from start to finish only kept its eyes on Cai Qiu; Xia Hong hadn’t left Jinyang by even half a step. That could only mean that Chen Cang’s hundred thousand either hadn’t moved at all, or hadn’t truly moved against Great Xia—merely putting on a show.

Earlier this was still only conjecture, but once they learned that Chen Cang had sent troops into Lin Chu County, that conjecture was completely confirmed.

Given the current situation, Cai Qiu had been jointly used and plotted against by Great Xia and Chen Cang!

As one of the Four Vassals of the Moao River, Cai Qiu had originally been a genuine player at the board. From beginning to end, he and his father‑Landgrave had been thinking only of how to contend more effectively with Chen Cang for the interests of the Southern Slope—to destroy Great Xia and share the Southern Slope with Chen Cang. That was the outcome he and his father had rehearsed.

The scene before his eyes not only slapped him and his father viciously across the face, it also turned Cai Qiu into a complete laughingstock.

Was Cai Qiu any kind of player?

Clearly, they had already become mere pieces, kneaded and toyed with by Great Xia and Chen Cang!

“We’ve lost Evergreen Valley—since then the southern gateway holds only Qinghua City. We’ve lost the Linchu Heights—our western screen is gone. Chen Cang sits above us, striking whenever it wishes. Cai Qiu has no more chance to vie for hegemony; from now on we can only ally with the Foreign Fief just to survive. It’s all over, all over…”

Cai Qiuhu muttered “it’s over” again and again. As his will collapsed, his Golden Body Battle Form could no longer be maintained; his physique slowly shrank back, and he mechanically warded off the Beast Emperor Puppets’ attacks.

After all, these were Beast Emperor‑level Puppets. Though Cai Qiuhu possessed Second Turn Tribulation Body Realm Cultivation, they left him no room for distraction. With his heart in chaos, his body was struck several times in quick succession; slices of flesh were torn away, his figure staggering, and death loomed ever closer.

“Little Landgrave, as long as we keep Qingshan, times will change. The Xia Army is strong today—fall back for now. Once we rebuild our forces, it won’t be too late to fight our way back!”

“My lord, the Landgrave is currently in Lin Chu County holding off Chen Cang. Our Cai Qiu still commands hundreds of thousands of troops—why fear Great Xia? We must not lose heart!”

“Little Landgrave, go! Evergreen Valley is not yet lost. Great Xia’s troop numbers are far below ours. The Qinghua City army will arrive soon—once we reorganize our forces, we can still hold Evergreen Valley!”

…………

The repeated exhortations of several of Cai Qiu’s commanders at last dragged Cai Qiuhu’s mentality back from the brink. His body jolted, and he lifted his head to look at Xia Hong in the sky; within his pupils, a spark of fighting spirit rose once more.