Twilight Boundary-Chapter 833 -

"Sect Hierarch, the Food Protection Army has reached the city gates, but they've been blocked."

Hu Ma and Calculation rested on the low hills outside Huzhou City. The terrain here was already considered high, and looking down, they could clearly see the standoff between the Food Protection Army and the Huzhou Prefecture's Three-headed Flood Dragon troops.

Moreover, with the No-Eating Beef Disciples constantly coming to report on the situation, they could be fully informed of the situation as if they were on the battlefield, seeing everything clearly without being at the front line.

This time, it was a disciple of the Color Character Sect under the No-Eating Beef Eight Gates who came to report on the situation.

The Golden Character Sect under the No-Eating Beef involves disciples specializing in making weapons and arrows, building bridges and boats, setting up formations, and waging war.

The think tank, Iron Mouth, is a disciple from this sect, and the big senior brother in the sect has a Dharma name, called Jin Chenzi.

The Skin Character Sect often masquerades as medicine men, traveling to places hit by disaster and poverty, selling Power Pills and Golden Spear Undying Pills, treating calluses, and trimming eyebrows when there's nothing else to do.

But in times of hardship, they rob the rich to help the poor under the guise of distributing life-saving talismans, cooking meat porridge to aid disaster victims, and from these victims, they select suitable disciples to teach them writing, magic, and skills, integrating them into the Not Eating Beef Taoist School.

The Gua Character Sect traverses the jianghu, performing martial arts and selling their skills, collecting unique talents to pass on to destined individuals.

The Color Character Sect focuses on gathering intelligence and infiltrating the enemy. During crucial moments, they are tasked with betrayal and assassination.

The Ping Character Sect poses as storytellers and drum artists, spreading various reputations to build fame. The fame of Yang Gong as the King of Mingzhou is their handiwork.

Of course, besides creating fame, they excel in ruining reputations. If you catch their attention, even if you're a highly respected benevolent person, rumors of you climbing widows' walls at night would spread throughout the streets by the next day.

The Tuanzi Sect mainly manages various forces in the jianghu, earning considerable prestige there.

Many Martial Arts Alliance Hierarchs and prominent figures are supported by them, often starting as their people. Once their influence rises, they often become ready armies.

The Diaozi Sect is focused on incense-burning, inquiries, honoring gods, and worshipping ghosts—they even bully ghosts and deceive gods sometimes.

Overall, they handle ghostly gods matters, and the No-Eating Beef's mission to return gods among the people is mainly carried out by them.

Lastly, the Liu Character Sect is responsible for spreading rumors, inciting nobles to rebel in various places. It's said the ten surnames were constantly selecting Emperor Seeds, and so was No-Eating Beef always searching for rebellious seeds.

As it turns out, Yang Gong's father-in-law was one of the seeds scattered by No-Eating Beef, and later, this seed took root and grew, with opportunities leading to Yang Gong's success.

It is also because of these talented eight gates that Hu Ma felt more reassured about many things.

Now, with the Food Protection Army attacking Huzhou City, they had already cast various nets and made preparations in secret. The troops of Huzhou City were unaware that, besides the spies from the Food Protection Army, No-Eating Beef had their own guards, and even the Daluo Dharma Sect had eyes on various paths long ago.

The Food Protection Army and the Jiao Demon Army of the Huzhou Three-headed Flood Dragon have just clashed, but skirmishes have already unfolded everywhere.

"Blocked?"

Even Hu Ma was a bit surprised: "The Food Protection Army, especially the ten thousand elites returning from Shangjing, are particularly fierce. The army has no shortage of fierce generals. The Huzhou Three-headed Flood Dragon's command, which I've observed these past few days, is merely a ragtag group."

"What skills do they have to block the Food Protection Army?"

"..."

"They used dirty tactics!"

The disciple from the Color Sect bitterly smiled: "That Three-headed Flood Dragon might have realized the power of the Food Protection Army and knew that their troops were inferior. In recent days, as the Food Protection Army advanced, the people, frightened, fled towards Huzhou Prefecture City."

"Thus, the Huzhou forces drove these people to the front as human shields. Should the Food Protection Army attack forcefully, the first to die would be these people."

"Now the Huzhou troops are threatening to engage in a duel with the Food Protection Army, mandating a one-day limit. If they lose, they retreat; if they win, they enter the city."

"..."

"Using people as human shields?"

Upon hearing this, Hu Ma frowned deeply, asking in a grave tone: "And then?"

"The Food Protection Army has already lost several battles."

That disciple said: "Under the Three-headed Flood Dragon's command, the fierce general seems to possess advanced skills, with weapons weighing at least several hundred pounds, swinging them such that the Food Protection Army is no match."

Hearing this, Hu Ma understood.

Advanced skills signifying at least an Entering the Mansion level, even pushing the three mansion gates.

The current backbone of the Food Protection Army consists of the batch of jianghu people from the Red Lantern Lady's Club and the fierce villagers from the mountains. In terms of martial arts, they are mostly at the Ascension level. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

When it comes to real fierce generals in this army, they might not even match the White Armor Army in Shima Town or the Iron Threshold Army in Guazhou.

Even if the three great generals haven't made a move, and even if they did, they might not be able to overpower the enemy.

The abilities in this army can't be faked.

Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu are considered good; their progress has been swift since they joined the army, but if they want to Enter the Mansion, they still need to work hard!

The current advantage of the Food Protection Army lies in its strong and deep-rooted foundation, but they're short on skilled and prominent generals. If they're at a disadvantage in a duel, should they transfer the White Armor Army and Iron Threshold Army as well?

Hu Ma thought to himself, holding more than just the Food Protection Army as his bargaining chip. The White Armor Army was carefully built up over years by Immortal Miaoshan in Shima Town, and in the army are Old Master Sun and Altar Master Tang, two Shousui experts providing support.