Chapter 66: Fearless

Smoke and dust billowed beneath the city gate, and the ground could barely be seen. He Lingchuan was not idle either; he waved a hand at the crowd: "Come, load the second round!"

His eyesight was sharp, and he saw that the previous fire bolts had all been swatted away by Nian Songyu. This fellow was indeed formidable after going berserk, and He Lingchuan believed in seeing a task through to the end.

In any case, the first round had already been fired, which meant they had completely torn off the mask with the Imperial Preceptor. Firing a second or third round would at most tear off their own underpants, so no one had any further objections and all were busy loading.

The second round was also successfully launched.

He Lingchuan then realized that the nail-bombs made the most noise, deafeningly so, but in terms of power, the catapults were perhaps more terrifying. Although they would not explode upon landing, these improved catapults on the city gate actually had a rapid-fire function; once fully loaded, they could continuously hurl twenty-four stone balls! If operated by hand, errors were inevitable; but in Panlongcheng, controlled by the Black Flood Dragon, these twenty-four shots all smashed into almost the exact same spot—the place where Sun Fuping was standing.

He Lingchuan put himself in those shoes; if he were standing in Sun Fuping's position, he would have been beaten into a paper cutout before the fourth fire-stone arrived—well, or crushed into meat paste.

So, had they actually interrupted Sun Fuping's evil spellcasting?

The magic apes and sand leopards made of scorched earth and magma formed once again, rushed up, and began clawing.

Stone balls, nail-bombs, and other miscellaneous things turned this open space into ruins once more, a pile of debris.

Even the Black Flood Dragon lowered its head, wanting to see if the two were dead or alive.

……

Ignoring the gasps of air around him, He Chunhua’s mind raced.

The blood sacrifice array was already in operation and would take effect in the blink of an eye. What should he do? Where was there still a path to survival?

His gaze fell upon the commander of the Great Wind Army ten zhang away.

These vengeful spirits had not gone far; they had only retreated a short distance and stood frozen.

He Chunhua suddenly had an idea and gestured to them again—

Attack!

Attack the Heavenly Thunder Array!

If they were still alive, the Great Wind Army would never have raised their weapons against Zhong Shengguang. But at this moment, one of the residual wills of these heroic spirits was to obey military orders and charge forward!

Thousands of heroic spirits turned their heads in unison, once again gathering the surrounding vengeful spirits to rush toward the Heavenly Thunder Array, following closely behind them.

Soon, nearly a thousand vengeful spirits collided with the array and vanished into ashes.

There were no more wandering vengeful spirits nearby, and the shouts of the Great Wind Army officers and soldiers pierced the firmament.

Then, they raised their sabers, spears, and lances and charged toward the array!

The sound of hooves was like thunder, the horses like dragons.

Facing such a troop was like standing at the head of Guantang Bridge, watching the great tide of the sixteenth day of the eighth month rushing toward one's face.

He Chunhua roared: "Abandon resistance, watch out and dodge!"

Then, the Great Wind Army crashed head-on into the Heavenly Thunder Array.

This time, the tremor of the array was more violent than the previous two times.

The first three rows of heroic spirits did not even have time to let out a roar before they turned into fly ash.

Those behind filled the gaps without the slightest hesitation.

The heavenly thunder rumbled, but the number of heroic spirits being struck down was visibly decreasing.

Finally, when the sixth row of heroic spirits also arrived, He Chunhua’s State Order lost its last glimmer of green light.

The beast-headed staff finally opened its mouth, and the kite-money fell to the ground, but it was drowned out by the sound of horse hooves.

The Heavenly Thunder Array was broken.

This was certainly due to the Black Water City army abandoning resistance and losing their will to fight, but even more so to the excellent and fierce impact of the Great Wind Army.

He Chunhua could not care about anything else and strode toward the outside of the array.

His impatience was the best example; the movements of others were identical to his, even trampling over one another.

Having barely rushed two zhang outside the array, painful screams came from behind.

He Chunhua looked back, and the scene made his hair stand on end:

The red light of the blood sacrifice array shot into the sky, more than ten times more intense than before. Among his hundred or so men, there was always a difference in speed in exiting the array, and when the red light suddenly flared, dozens had not managed to escape in time; they collapsed to the ground at once, as if all their strength had been drained away.

Yet no one dared to enter the array to help, because their skin was rapidly shriveling; after three breaths, they were skin and bone, their fingernails fell off, and their hair turned white, withering like straw.

He Chunhua watched with his own eyes as a trusted aide begged him for help, his hand even reaching outside the array. He had originally had small, triangular eyes, but because his face had shriveled into a skull, his eyeballs bulged out round and large.

He Chunhua had wanted to pull the man out, but when he reached the edge of the circle, he retracted his hand. Finally, the man's eyeballs rolled out of their sockets and landed on the ground.

Situ Han was faster; seeing his brother fall at the edge of the array, he hurriedly used the back of his blade to rake him out. But the man was also crippled from the waist down and wailed incessantly on the ground.

When the red light dissipated, only dozens of skeletons wearing clothes remained in the array, along with hair fluttering in the wind.

And in the array, a ball of white light appeared from nowhere; before anyone could see it clearly, it "whooshed" and dove into the pool! The strange thing was that while vengeful spirits could enter, and humans could enter, this ball of white light could not.

It was bounced back.

The white light seemed unable to believe it, colliding twice in succession, failing each time.

When the blood sacrifice array was activated, the Great Wind Army had also stayed far away, as if they knew its power; it was not until the red light vanished and the Heavenly Thunder Array lost its effectiveness that the Great Wind Army gathered around.

That ball of white light seemed to have caught their attention. As the white light hit the wall of the pool, several Great Wind Army leaders exchanged glances, as if they had a tacit understanding, and were the first to cast out a capture net.

The white light seemed to have eyes and dodged, but the net grew several times larger out of thin air and still caught it in one go.

The Great Wind Army pulled the net, and immediately, sabers, spears, swords, and lances were directed into the mesh, each strike landing solidly on the white light.

Their weapons were not physical, but they shattered after only a few strikes, and even the arms wielding the weapons began to fade bit by bit. Soldiers on the side raised their blades and severed the leaders' upper arms at the shoulder, which finally stopped the transformation of the soul body.

As heroic spirits, such injuries were nothing; they would recover in time.

The Great Wind Army commander who had first clashed with He Chunhua and the others saw this and once again threw the weapon in his hand like a javelin, striking the white light squarely.

The remaining generals followed suit.

Seeing this, Situ Han also threw his long saber, but it passed through the pool and fell inside, causing no damage to the white light at all.

He Chunhua said: "Pure weapons won't work."

Seeing the Great Wind Army about to inflict a second wave of damage on the white light, the latter suddenly flared with brilliance.

That light, let alone humans, even the heroic spirits had to avoid it.

Fortunately, the intense light only lasted for a fleeting moment; by the time everyone came to their senses, the white light had disappeared from the spot.

The Great Wind Army generals stood for a few breaths, as if they had received some news or made some decision, and led their respective troops into the pool.

After all, they had no physical bodies and did not need to scramble; they were as vast as they were when they emerged from the pool, and just as swift when they returned.

In a short dozen breaths, there was not a single heroic spirit left in front of the temple.

The crowd stood at the edge of the array, panting heavily, unable to speak for a long time.

(End of chapter)