Chapter 2669: The Wonderful Uses of Elemental Power

He also mobilized an entire engineering unit from the Panlong Army and summoned over a dozen spellcasters, all proficient in wood or earth divine abilities.

Everyone immediately stood up and followed him as he swiftly retreated, until they were once again hidden in the jungle.

"We came here following the water source earlier." He Lingchuan ran ahead of everyone, moving quickly, "Now we need to go back upstream."

He has an excellent memory and soon found the lake they had passed before.

At the end of the lake is a waterfall, with only thirty percent of the summer water volume.

Worth mentioning is that this is also a tributary of the Womi River, though its flow is not as abundant as the Womi River's.

Seeing it, He Lingchuan felt much more at ease: "It'll do, just takes a bit more time."

The Nine Abyssal Great Emperor carries many magical artifacts and treasures on his person, which He Lingchuan cannot bring in, so he must devise solutions on the spot.

This lake connects to several streams, with water volume decreasing sequentially; by the time it reaches Fululu Gully, it is only knee-deep.

The task He Lingchuan assigned to the spellcasters was to continuously raise the ground using various divine abilities, first blocking all five streams to raise the lake's water level.

He himself then returned along the original route to the tributary of the Womi River, the tributary.

The earlier chaos impact on the Panlong Secret Realm caused a great earthquake, which shattered the mountains along the tributary's banks. They tumbled down, forming a massive delta that severed the originally fairly wide river channel, reducing it to less than one-quarter of its original width.

If the remaining river channel is blocked, the river water will be forced to divert into the fork, pouring in large quantities into the downstream lake.

But the army is here to fight, everyone carries knives, spears, swords, and halberds, and the number of engineers is limited after all; their shovels, sandbags, and all flood-control engineering supplies are also finite.

He Lingchuan then ordered the engineering unit to begin blocking the river channel.

After being blocked by the mountain collapse, the river surface was still over ten zhang wide, and the current had become quite turbulent, making engineering work difficult.

"Fortunately, Chaos has already completed more than half of the work." He Lingchuan silently calculated his own strength, which should still be sufficient.

He walked to the edge of the newly emerged sandbank, unleashed elemental power, and leapt forward.

The Tiger Wing Army soldiers behind him only saw him transform into red light, streaking like a meteor into the river, and then vanish.

After about half an hour, the river surface fell silent.

Where did the general go? Everyone exchanged bewildered glances.

Suddenly, a soldier pointed forward and shouted at the fork eighty zhang away: "There, look there!"

That is the fork leading to the downstream lake; the riverbank suddenly collapsed over a large stretch, as if something underneath had been hollowed out. River water rushed in rapidly, filling the large void.

The inlet of the tributary was thus expanded, and the diverted water flow increased.

Meanwhile, the water flow reaching the blocked river channel naturally decreased, no longer so turbulent.

The engineers were busy filling with earth and sand when they saw two red lights faintly appearing underwater, growing brighter and brighter, clearly approaching the water surface.

Everyone heightened their vigilance, and the soldiers on shore gripped their weapons tightly.

Then, a colossal creature silently emerged from the water.

This is a giant crocodile composed of rock and mud, seven zhang in length, with a broad and thick body; even lying on the ground it resembles a small hill, and the spike-like protrusions on its back alone are five chi high.

He Lingchuan sat steadily on its back, the Floating Life Blade embedded in its back, red light radiating from the blade and permeating the crocodile's entire body.

The soldiers were all startled, then overjoyed, but they could not cheer aloud here.

This mud crocodile was generated and driven by elemental power.

"I've placed the mud crocodile in the gap as a foundation; engineers, prepare!"

To block the tributary's river channel, at least over a hundred people would need to dig nonstop for a long time. He Lingchuan was racing against time and feared that too many people and noise here would attract unwanted attention from enemy sky scouts, so he simply acted himself, sinking to the riverbed and directly using elemental power to "pinch" into existence a giant crocodile.

It rapidly gnawed and eroded the riverbed at the fork, growing larger as it did so; the larger it became, the faster it dug.

Then it dug again, swallowed again, grew again…… repeating this cycle.

As a result, this large section of riverbank and riverbed was successfully collapsed and dug, over ten times faster than conventional manual digging.

The Earth Mother excels at creating various earth-type monsters; the crocodile demon that caused great trouble for the immortals in the Battle of Yujing City was fashioned by her from rock and bone. As her long-term tenant, He Lingchuan has also learned much from her, and creating such monsters poses no difficulty for him.

Constrained by the spiritual energy concentration in the Panlong World, he cannot employ many of his methods, but fortunately, the Panlong Army's elemental power can compensate.

Once the lake inlet widening was complete, he rode the mud crocodile back to the tributary's delta, which is a ready-made large quantity of mud and sand.

He Lingchuan leapt from the mud crocodile, leaving only the Floating Life Blade still embedded in its back, then pointed at the river channel and said: "Go."

The giant crocodile then swayed its head and tail and entered the water, moving much faster than its kind.

Upon reaching the riverbed designated by He Lingchuan, it lay down across the gap, motionless. The ten-zhang-wide riverbed was occupied by it for seven zhang in length, and just its depth alone blocked half of it.

As for why He Lingchuan did not make this mud crocodile larger and thicker, the reason is simple: this is nearly the limit.

In the current Panlong World, the power He Lingchuan can mobilize—whether his own divine abilities or elemental power—is already inferior to that in reality. He can feel the bottleneck's existence. It is not his limit, but rather the upper limit of the power he can draw upon.

Using the sunken river crocodile as a foundation, the engineers quickly filled the river with stones and sand. The mountain collapse debris consisted of large boulders, which people could only move using elemental power and mechanical puppets, making them the ideal choice for filling the river.

In just over two hours, the river channel was completely blocked. The tributary's flow here became a deep, stagnant pool.

He Lingchuan whistled, a red light flashed in the river, and the Floating Life Blade returned on its own.

With the withdrawal of elemental power, the mud crocodile could no longer maintain its form, returning to dust and mud.

But its role as the foundation of the sunken dam had already been fulfilled.

The lake inlet had been widened, water inflow greatly increased, and He Lingchuan's objective was achieved.

Following the tributary downstream, everyone could clearly feel the increase in the river's flow rate.

When He Lingchuan returned to the lakeside, the Tiger Wing Army's spellcasters had also blocked all the small streams.

In the current Panlong World, the spiritual energy concentration still does not support immortals or cultivators using various high-powered divine abilities; their direct lethality on the battlefield is limited, especially when facing warriors with strong elemental power. Thus, at this stage, divine ability techniques are mainly employed to alter battlefield terrain and topography, to assist military offense, defense, or retreat.

The spellcasters of the Tiger Wing Army are all seasoned practitioners, fully aware of what they should do.

He Lingchuan instructed: "Do not create disturbances, leave no one in open areas, beware of the eyes in the sky."

Everyone responded softly: "Yes!"

To win this battle, the key lies entirely in the word "fast."

The earthquake just occurred, and the terrain has just changed. Taking advantage of the enemy's lack of reaction, the Panlong Army must achieve success in one stroke!