Chapter 48: Heavenly Thunder Defense

It still wanted to attack another enemy, but Zeng Feixiong raised his hand and brought his blade down, hacking off half its head, and only then did this heroic spirit turn into fly ash. Facing such a fierce enemy, the Heishuicheng army lost their fighting spirit and retreated rapidly. After all, they were here on orders to explore, not to fight to the death.

He Chunhua did the math; even if he could win, it would be a pyrrhic victory, and that was not to mention that the enemy leader still looked as vigorous as a dragon or tiger, seemingly capable of taking on another twenty or thirty people in single combat without any issue!

Sun Fu seemed to see through his inner worries: "Rest assured, as long as you use the national fortune, you can hold out for a long time."

By this time, Zeng Feixiong had already led the remaining troops back into the formation. His left arm had been slashed, and though the entire limb was nearly severed, he seemed not to notice, only caring to raise his blade to the sky and shout: "Unite our strength and hearts, protect our Great Yuan!"

Everyone roared together: "Unite our strength and hearts, protect our Great Yuan!"

The beast head on the staff suddenly shone with brilliant light.

It was a pale green color tinged with a hint of gold, yet it forced the surrounding vengeful spirits to stop their pursuit and raise their hands to shield their eyes, as if the light were blindingly intense. Their mounts also shook their heads and tails uneasily, stamping their hooves on the ground.

This was the national fortune attached to He Chunhua’s Yuan coins, catalyzed by the State Preceptor! It was the confidence and consensus condensed from the vitality of all living people in Qiansong Prefecture, further fused and reinforced by the morale of Zeng Feixiong and the other prefectural soldiers, immediately transforming into a majestic and vast righteous energy!

If those dozen or so opponents were not heroic spirits who had fought a hundred battles in life, but merely ordinary vengeful spirits, they would have been instantly annihilated upon being touched by the light.

Zeng Feixiong, however, turned his head and barked at Situ Han: "Why aren't you shouting?"

Situ Han was startled: "W-we have to as well?"

"You have been incorporated into the Heishuicheng Defense Force; you are one with us, no longer desert bandits or marauders!"

So their incorporation was for real? Since it was a time to share life and death, Situ Han turned and gave an order, and his subordinates followed the main force in shouting the slogan.

With these dozens of people added, the quantitative change finally triggered a qualitative change.

The light from the monster on the staff dimmed, and it suddenly let out a roar toward the sky.

A cyan, glowing orb flew out from its mouth, and as it met the wind, it grew into a cyan bird over five zhang tall, with a high crest, magnificent tail feathers, and a graceful posture.

It circled above the crowd once before diving upward into the clouds.

This was the guardian divine beast for which Great Yuan was named.

Of course, the true Cyan Yuan remained guarding the capital; what appeared here was merely a manifestation of national fortune.

When it disappeared into the clouds, the dense gray clouds in the sky were immediately stirred into a vortex, where electric snakes danced wildly, and no one knew how much cyan and purple light was hidden within the cloud mass.

At this moment, many vengeful spirits were still wandering in mid-air, but seeing this, they scattered and fled like a school of fish pursued by a white shark.

After only a few breaths, a thick bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting the eye of the talisman formation with precision.

The electric snakes slithered along the formation Sun Fu had drawn. If one looked down from the sky, the entire formation was glowing with a bright silver light.

This series of changes took a lot of effort to describe, but in reality, it only took a few dozen breaths of time.

Facing such a display, the soldiers of the Dafeng Army who had turned into heroic spirits finally showed fear and retreated repeatedly.

They had seen countless strange abilities and arts in their lifetimes, but in death, they respected the might of heaven above all.

After all, they were now ghost bodies.

That commander tilted his head, and immediately one rider charged forward.

The moment the horse's hooves stepped onto the talisman formation, a flash of lightning struck, and the rider, along with his horse, vanished into smoke.

The commander seemed unwilling to accept this, and once again threw his eight-foot-long spear like a javelin.

With a "pop" of electricity, the spear pierced less than a foot into the formation before it, too, dissolved silently.

This was the Heavenly Thunder Defense summoned by Sun Fu with the help of the State Order. The stronger the national fortune attached to the State Order, the greater the power of the formation.

Using the strength of a whole prefecture to resist a mere dozen or so heroic spirits should be enough.

"Prefect He, I leave this to you." Sun Fu patted He Chunhua on the shoulder, then turned and walked toward the pool.

"Wait!" He Chunhua saw he was about to slip away, "I will go with you!"

"You cannot go." Sun Fu pointed to the staff standing in the formation, "The State Order loses its effect if it leaves its master by more than a hundred paces. I need every one of you to hold the line here to prevent the vengeful spirits from chasing into the pool."

Only then did everyone notice that this old fellow had just quickly and nimbly included the entire pool within the Heavenly Thunder Defense formation. As long as the formation did not disappear, the vengeful spirits could not return to the pool.

The State Preceptor wanted to go in and seize the treasure himself, yet he made them stand guard at the gate. He Chunhua’s face darkened, but he knew that Sun Fu had brought so many people here precisely for this, but—

"I will look after your son; you and he will be reunited soon, so rest assured!" Sun Fu was in a hurry and, after offering He Chunhua a hasty word of comfort, jumped into the water pool.

"Thump," he too vanished, leaving only the candle thrown by the side of the pool, its flame still burning dimly.

Situ Han said indignantly: "That old fellow is using us!"

The expression on He Chunhua’s face shifted, and he suddenly summoned Zeng Feixiong to his side: "Take a few men to help Chuan'er."

Although He Lingchuan had long been a lucky charm, he was alone in an unpredictable place, and with the Nian and Sun duo harboring ill intentions, as a father, he truly could not rest easy.

Zeng Feixiong acknowledged the order, quickly picked five men, and leaped into the pool.

He Chunhua stared at the pool water, knowing he had been outmaneuvered again. Sun Fu had intentionally left him and the Heishuicheng army outside; this was an open scheme. To defend against the attacks of the Dafeng Army heroic spirits, his hundred-plus men could not enter the blood pool.

However, when he looked back, he was slightly startled: "Why is there one less Dafeng Army spirit?"

Situ Han said: "While you were talking to the State Preceptor, one of them slipped away."

He Chunhua thought to himself that this was bad, but he still had to muster his spirits to encourage everyone: "No matter how powerful the Dafeng Army was in life, they are now ghost bodies, intolerable to heaven and earth, and limited by supernatural arts! As long as we remain calm and steadfast, the Heavenly Thunder Defense will be an impregnable fortress!"

The morale of an army comes from confidence; if he wanted the State Order to remain effective, he had to work hard to boost the soldiers' spirits.

Everyone had witnessed the power of the heavenly thunder and felt greatly reassured, so the light from the beast head grew even brighter.

But just then, Situ Han pointed toward the horizon and exclaimed: "What is that?"

The night was pitch black, and the thunder and lightning in the clouds had already vanished, but the western sky was glowing with an unusual red light.

That light was drawing closer and closer.

He Chunhua also saw it clearly, and his face changed: "It's reinforcements. That spirit from just now went to find reinforcements."

What was going on with these Dafeng Army spirits? They didn't lose their intelligence like other vengeful spirits; not only did they know how to figure out how to wound human bodies, but they also knew how to fetch reinforcements.

This was trouble. He Chunhua couldn't help but gasp; the new batch of Dafeng Army spirits was coming on aggressively!

￥￥￥￥￥

He Lingchuan was also given a huge fright when he fell into the water.

He wanted to swim back, but his body was unable to move, and there was an inexplicable suction force dragging him down with all its might.

The light in the dark red water was dim, and even with his eyes open, he couldn't see very far.

(End of chapter)