I established the Eternal Immortal Clan by taming beasts.

The next day, before dawn, the dull thud of hooves echoed once again across the plains outside Chuyang City.

The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and those dark gray figures appeared and disappeared in the mist, like a dark water surface that was rising, spreading inch by inch from the edge of the horizon toward the city wall.

The air still carried the smoky smell of yesterday's burning corpses, mixed with the dampness of soil and dew, creating an indescribable, battlefield-specific odor in the morning light.

This time, the Iron-Armed Ape King once again led the main force, pressing towards the city wall from the south.

However, the difference was that the Gale Ape tribe made the first move.

They swept across the plain like a whirlwind, splitting into dozens of thin streams that moved swiftly along the outer perimeter of the city walls.

Instead of rushing to attack, they kept circling around the edge of the city wall, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes near, sometimes far, like invisible water probing every crevice around the rocks.

Every movement left a new afterimage in the sight of the city wall defenders, and every turn forced the archers to readjust their aim.

Their objective was simple: to confuse the defenders, making them unable to determine from which position the attack would come from, forcing them to divert their attention, and giving the main force more opportunities to take advantage of the situation.

However, these deceptions were of no use to the defenders of Chuyang City.

The scouts from the Lin family and the detailed intelligence from the Green-Faced Fox King have informed the garrison of the Iron-Armed Ape King's siege plans and intentions.

Even the location of the hidden detachment preparing to attack the eastern wall was discovered by the scouts.

Scouts lurked in the ditches and hills on the outskirts of the battlefield, recording every division and turn of the enemy forces. These records were then transmitted via communication arrays to deliver precise commands to every section of the city wall in advance.

Lin Xuanjing, atop the city wall, narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the east and north directions. His voice, short and clear, came from the communication array: "Notify all units to prepare for engagement!"

At this moment, the first long-range battalion of cultivators in the garrison had already taken their positions on three sides of the city wall.

Most are on the east and south sides, and less on the west side.

The archers had been crouching in their positions for nearly an hour, their fingers on the triggers, their breathing steady, their eyes calm, like rows of fully drawn bowstrings, waiting for the order to fire.

The other two long-range battalions remained in the camp to provide support to the garrison on the city wall at any time. They were fully armored, their crossbows were cocked, and three layers of arrows were stacked at their feet.

To the west, the outer forces led by the Green-Faced Fox King are also slowly advancing.

The Lava Lizard King, the Iron-Backed Bear King, and the Azure-Eyed Toad King stood on three sides. Although their tribes were not as elite as the Red Ape Territory's direct line, they had been reorganized last night, and their formation was much more orderly than before.

The originally scattered herd of beasts was regrouped according to species, with each small square formation having just enough space between them for a charge.

They stopped a thousand feet from the city wall, not rushing to attack, but hiding behind a slope, like hunters lurking in the grass, waiting for the main attack to begin before coordinating their advance.

The Blue-Faced Fox King stood at the highest point of the slope, his gaze piercing through the morning mist and landing on the distant southern city wall. His amber pupils reflected the surging dark gray beast tide, and a faint smile played on his lips.

The first wave of attack landed on the southern city wall.

This time, instead of letting the Bone-Crushing Apes probe the enemy formation first, the Iron-Armed Ape King directly ordered the Fire-Mane Apes and Iron-Armed Apes to charge together.

The Firemane Ape spewed out a continuous barrage of fireballs from a distance. Hundreds of crimson fireballs rose into the air simultaneously, like an inverted meteor shower, blasting crimson ripples across the surface of the Xuanwu Formation's barrier.

Flames soared into the sky, and waves of heat surged, distorting the air in front of the city wall. Even from dozens of feet away, one could feel the scorching heat hitting their face.

Iron-armed apes followed closely behind, taking advantage of the explosion caused by the burst of fire elemental energy to quickly advance forward. Their figures appeared and disappeared in the firelight and smoke, like dark gray blades that pierced through the curtain of fire, leaving deep claw marks on the ground with each stomp.

At the same time, a signal was also sent westward.

It was a deep roar, like the cracking of animal bones, that pierced through the morning mist and landed precisely in the ears of the Blue-Faced Fox King.

The Blue-Faced Fox King's subordinates began to advance rapidly towards the city.

They surged out from behind the slope, like dark water flowing from a dam that had been opened, spreading out in a wide fan shape along the western city wall and rapidly advancing towards the foot of the wall.

It was after these two fierce battles broke out that another army, split off from the Iron-Armed Ape King under the eastern city wall, began to launch a rapid attack on the area below the city wall.

They emerged from the shadows of the woods, leaped over the back of the hills, like a long-hidden arrow suddenly piercing the flank of the city wall.

The ape warriors roared as they ran, their footsteps forming a dense, muffled sound, like thunder before a storm, growing clearer and clearer as they approached.

Soon, the Iron-Armed Ape King discovered that everything was indeed as the Blue-Faced Fox King had said: the city's defenses were diminishing.

The number of arrows shot down from the city wall was one-third less than before, and the originally dense rain of arrows became much sparser, which was incomparable to the first day.

The frequency of movement of the defenders on the city wall also decreased significantly, and the distance between the orders was twice as long as before.

The pressure from the southern city wall did indeed attract the attention of most of the defenders, while the breach on the east side was being widened little by little.

"Very good, everyone, give it your all! We must break this damned defensive formation today!" The Iron-Armed Ape King's voice boomed like thunder behind the southern beast horde, causing the pebbles on the ground to tremble slightly.

Hearing the roar of the Iron-Armed Ape King, the tribes' attacks became even more ferocious.

The Firemane Ape's fireballs became more concentrated, the Ironarm Ape's impacts became more violent, and the Gale Ape's harassment became more frequent.

As the battle lines advanced, the monsters still suffered casualties, but the number of casualties was far less than yesterday.

The arrows were no longer as accurate as they had been yesterday, and the counterattacks from the array patterns were no longer as intense.

Everything was proceeding as the Iron-Armed Ape King had anticipated. The spiritual light of the formations was fading at a visible rate, and the arrows from the defenders were falling at an increasingly slower pace.

The situation was different on the western battlefield, however.

To the west, the main force of the Green-Faced Fox King was still lingering eight hundred feet away.

The small groups of tribes scattered ahead were just there to make an appearance.

They symbolically advanced several dozen feet forward, then symbolically retreated several dozen feet back, occasionally roaring a few times in the direction of the city wall and launching a few attacks, but they were unwilling to actually press forward.

The hundred archers on the city wall didn't bother with them, maintaining only basic vigilance and occasionally firing a few arrows to scare them, never wasting their spiritual energy.

The arrows were embedded in the ground several feet away from them, like punctuation marks deliberately written, marking a line that must not be crossed.

The Lava Lizard King lay on the ground, its tail swishing impatiently, leaving scorched marks on the ground behind it.

He glanced at the battlefield ahead, then at the composed Blue-Faced Fox King beside him, and finally couldn't help but whisper, "Old fox, are we just going to wait here like this?"

"What's the rush?" The Blue-Faced Fox King's gaze remained fixed on the south, his voice unhurried. "The current battle is about filling in the gaps, depleting Chuyang City's defensive resources, and breaking through the defensive barrier. Charging in now is no different from suicide."

He paused, his amber pupils reflecting the surging flames in the distance.

"We'll attack after they've exhausted the power of the formation. Don't forget, we're not here to die. Our main objective is to protect our tribe, not to be cannon fodder for the Iron-Armed Ape King."

After a pause, the Blue-Faced Fox King added, his voice filled with certainty: "And I think we won't be able to break through this time."

The situation was exactly as the Green-Faced Fox King had predicted.

The battle raged from the first light of dawn until midday, and from midday until dusk. The dark defensive barrier remained as immovable as if it were an indestructible fortress, fixed fifty feet in front of the city wall. No matter how the fireballs and iron fists attacked, it remained completely still.

The fireballs from the fire-maned apes exploded into hundreds of crimson spots on the barrier, but those spots never spread into cracks.

The iron-armed apes' fists struck the barrier countless times with dull thuds, but those impacts never caused the barrier to retreat an inch.

But the monsters also needed to rest, so the Iron-Armed Ape King chose to withdraw his troops.

The siege continued early the next morning.

The same charges, the same bombardments, the same casualties were repeated.

Firemane Ape's fireballs exploded on the barrier for a whole day, Ironarm Ape's fists landed on the barrier for a whole day, and Gale Ape's figure roamed along the edge of the city wall for a whole day.

For three days in a row, the defensive barrier remained unbroken.

The corpses of the apes piled up another layer beneath the city wall. The charred fur and shattered bones gradually cooled in the light of the array patterns, yet the barrier remained as intact as it had been on the first day, without cracks, without dents, and not even the spiritual light on its surface had dimmed in the slightest.

The guards on the city wall have been rotated more than ten times. The array masters are working through the night to repair the damage incurred during the day, but the barrier is like a sponge that can never be filled, absorbing, neutralizing, and dissipating all attacks.

On the night of the fourth day of the siege, in the Iron-Armed Ape King's camp.

The Iron-Armed Ape King's face was gloomy.

The casualties during these three days of siege were indeed less than on the first day, but the total losses still hurt the city.

More than two thousand Iron-Armed Apes died in battle, and nearly half of the troops sent by the Bone-Shattering Apes to replenish the ranks were also lost. Although the casualties of the Gale Apes and Fire-Maned Apes were within a controllable range, those were all old subordinates who had been with it for many years. It remembered every name and every face that had charged alongside it.

If this continues, they might wipe out the entire tribe, and ultimately they might not be able to break through.

Left with no other choice, the Iron-Armed Ape King had to ask the Demon Emperor for help.

After all, if too many of his tribes were to die, it would be better to face the wrath of the Demon Emperor.

Those tribes were the foundation it had built over hundreds of years, the basis for its foothold on this land. If they all fell beneath this city, even if it eventually conquered the city, the credit for the war would not belong to it.

The Iron-Armed Ape King's fingers tightened.

Dark gray spiritual light surged from his fingertips and flowed into the beast bone talisman. Glowing patterns appeared on the surface of the talisman, like a lit fuse, before shattering into powder and turning into a wisp of extremely fine dark gray spiritual light that merged into the night wind and drifted towards Listening Wind Pass.

The messenger also took a beast bone talisman and began to rush towards Tingfeng Pass.

Inside the tent, several ape leaders watched the direction the messenger had gone, a complex light flashing in their eyes.

The light contained resentment, humiliation, and a hint of relief.

They no longer have to watch their people fall one after another beneath the city walls.

The messenger, carrying fragments of the beast bone talisman, sped away into the night, his figure quickly disappearing at the edge of the wilderness.

……

At the temporary command post in Shattered Star Lake.

"We just received a message from the scouts," Lin Xuanqi's voice came from the communication array, "The Iron-Armed Ape King has sent a request for reinforcements to the Burning Sky Crimson Ape's camp."

"The Blue-Faced Fox King also sent a message confirming this. Their spies saw the messenger leave the camp with the beast bone talisman and head towards Tingfeng Pass. The messenger is very fast and is expected to arrive at the Burning Sky Crimson Ape's central command tent before dawn."

Zhi Hei nodded, got up, and walked to the sand table.

His gaze fell on the small flags marking the troop deployment on the sand table. He tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the table twice, and his voice came from behind the mask, steady and clear: "Good, everything is proceeding according to plan."

Our goal is to eliminate the Burning Sky Crimson Ape Demon Emperor, whose direct forces, along with the tribes of other races in his territory, number approximately 450,000.

But Tingfeng Pass is already in dire straits. If we don't accelerate the depletion of their forces and help contain them, Tingfeng Pass could fall at any time.

We must alleviate their pressure as soon as possible and strive to annihilate more of the demon beast forces.

The Lin family's move was not only to form an alliance with the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox Demon Emperor, but also for their own benefit.

After all, the closest demonic beast force to Chuyang City is the Burning Sky Crimson Ape.

They are stationed in Red Ape Territory, guarding the vital passage from the eastern section of the Fulong Mountains to Chuyang City.

But once they are dealt with and their territory is occupied by the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Demon King, the rear of Chuyang City will have a natural barrier.

The threat of those demonic beasts that would have come from the southeast will be completely cut off, and the Lin family will no longer be attacked from both sides.

Moreover, the resources belonging to the territory of the Burning Sky Crimson Ape, such as spiritual veins, spiritual mines, spiritual herb producing areas, and large areas of meadows and forests suitable for the breeding of spiritual beasts, will not be exclusively enjoyed by the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox Demon Emperor.

One of the clauses in the original alliance agreement stipulated that after jointly conquering the territory of the Burning Sky Crimson Ape, the resources obtained would be distributed according to merits and contributions.

Given the Lin family's investment in this battle, they should be able to secure at least 30% to 40% of the market share.

With that amount of resources, the Lin family could achieve an unprecedented rate of development!

This is also the fundamental reason why the Lin family went from only wanting to defend Chuyang City to now preparing to swallow the entire Burning Sky Crimson Ape army.

It's not just for survival, but also for self-reliance.