Chapter 281

Boom!

Losing the obstruction, the fifth wave, 365 missiles fell.

The Heishi Sect array collapsed with a roar amidst the flames and explosions, countless spiritual light and array fragments splashing everywhere.

The smoke and dust dispersed, revealing the scene inside the sect.

There was no fleeing of cultivators as imagined, nor did they form battle arrays to kill their way up; it was quiet, not even a single shadow could be seen, not a single moving spiritual beast.

The entire sect was already a dead zone.

Swish, swish, swish!

Aerospace fighters flew over from afar, 360 in total, circling the Heishi Sect mountain gate, communication light prisms intersecting, and ten massive pressure auras spread in all directions.

"The Array Spirit locked him nearby, but it's a bit blurry and not precise; it should be due to the influence of the special terrain combined with the array layout."

Jiang Ding frowned and descended from the sky.

"The Xuanwu Heavenly Palace cultivators are too familiar with our methods; they can find the best response in any situation and did not choose to flee to an open area."

He walked slowly on the obsidian steps of the Heishi Sect.

The surrounding buildings were similar; palaces, pavilions, and tools were all crafted from obsidian spiritual stones. Looking around, there was not a trace of the green vitality that life should have; it was oppressive and gloomy.

It was quiet.

"However, I still found him."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword left its sheath and pierced into the ground. A moment later, it returned, rolling up a monster wearing tattered Daoist robes and constantly roaring within the sword qi.

Its body was as soft as noodles, its whole body emitting a mist like a shadow, its chest pierced by a large hole, revealing a wound like silver-white metal.

But it didn't seem to be a fatal injury; it still opened its sharp teeth polished from obsidian, wanting to pounce over and bite the living.

"It's a Shadow Ghost!"

An Siyan searched her magic treasure embryo database for a moment and said: "A type of zombie-like, yin-ghost monster that the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace Shadow Killing Hall likes to refine. It has a physical body and is good at fighting at night and in dark spaces."

"The people of the entire Heishi Sect should have turned into these things, including their Supreme Elder, True Person Zhenshi."

"Silver-white inside the body... this is not quite the same as what is recorded in the Immortal Sect library; it's a new feature. Can you transport the corpse up? I want to study it."

She asked.

"I can."

The Taiqing Flying Sword split into six wisps of light blue sword qi, pinning its limbs, head, and chest. Destructive sword intent permeated, suppressing its soul, causing its struggling movements to gradually stiffen and become extremely sluggish.

Then, array patterns resembling magnetic field auxiliary virtual lines flashed and vanished, and the Shadow Ghost flew into the sky, captured by an aerospace fighter.

Jiang Ding was not in a hurry, slowly strolling within the Heishi Sect mountain gate.

"It seems to have incorporated special ores..."

An Siyan pulled together a research group, all classmates who usually had good grades in materials science and artifact refining, distributed some samples to each, and quickly launched preliminary research work, arguing from time to time about something.

Several hours later, after consulting various materials, opinions gradually unified.

"It's Mercury Silver Spirit Gold. The Heishi Sect had a Tier 3 Mercury Silver Spirit Gold mine over a thousand years ago, which was abandoned after being mined out.

This Jin Dan late-stage cultivator from the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace must have accidentally discovered a section of the mine that hadn't been explored back then, or it was privately mined by the Heishi Sect."

"In short, he incorporated Mercury Silver Spirit Gold into the refining of the Shadow Ghost, enhancing its body strength and stealthy assassination ability, and it can also be immune to certain spells and physical attacks."

"However, it's just a matter of more missile bombardment."

An Siyan confirmed.

"Okay."

Jiang Ding nodded.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword killed its way underground again; rocks and soil were like nothing before it, causing no resistance.

This was an underground space as empty as a plaza.

Pitch-black, without a trace of light, the surrounding walls had traces of knife and axe carvings; the Heishi Sect was a sect established on a mine cave to begin with.

The Taiqing Flying Sword's sword light flickered slightly.

In the mine cave, dense Shadow Ghost corpses were wandering, pitch-black all over, wearing the Daoist robes of the Heishi Sect, from time to time turning into strips like flowing water, passing through narrow crevices.

Even the elite ones among them directly soaked into the ground like water, not even needing narrow crevices.

"Cleaning up will be very troublesome."

Jiang Ding thought for a moment and controlled the Taiqing Flying Sword to retreat.

"Coordinates (...), 520 meters deep underground, target has tenacious vitality, a small number of Shadow Ghosts can turn into liquid and merge into the ground, yin-ghost type creatures."

"Received."

Jin Lingfeng answered immediately.

Swish, swish, swish!

360 missiles roared down from the sky, spiritual light flashing, half earth-yellow Earth-Splitting Spells, half crimson Flame Spells, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth constantly shaking.

Hundreds of meters of thick black stone earth were separated layer by layer, and the long-lost sunlight shone back into the depths of the mine cave. Many Shadow Ghosts roared, pouncing toward here, moving forward in dense, wriggling masses, which was terrifying.

Boom!

Amidst the searing explosions and flames, the rocks within a radius of several thousand meters were directly shattered, and the pitch-black Shadow Ghost bodies, claimed to be immortal, directly turned into ashes under the Tier 3 spells, with no flesh and blood to be seen.

Drops of silver-white metal liquid fell to the ground.

A moment later, it became quiet here, and all the cold auras were swept away.

Jiang Ding flew down from the skylight opened straight by the missiles, following the sunlight.

Closing his eyes slightly, his spiritual sense and sword intent scanned the area within a ten-kilometer radius bit by bit; the thick rock layers caused great interference.

But it didn't matter; he specifically chose to search where there were mine caves, as these places were unaffected.

"Enemy traces, Shadow Ghost distribution map..."

Soon, a three-dimensional map was sent to the brigade channel.

Curved routes were entangled with each other, often connecting, and scarlet little dots were distributed upon them—tens of thousands of them, actually still moving in real-time.

"Human-shaped radar, the strongest reconnaissance infantry, and can also protect..."

Liu Mei of Beidou University had eyes shining with light, extremely eager.

I want one so bad!

"Cough! The Great Sun Sword Child belongs to our Qingfeng University, don't let your imagination run wild." Jin Lingfeng coughed, interrupting their reverie: "There are too many enemies, and their strength is too weak; just release the machine puppet troops and eliminate them with special breaking-law steel bombs and thermite bombs."

"Classmate Jiang Ding, protect the machine puppet troops; don't let them be destroyed in large numbers."

"Okay."

Every aerospace fighter had a faint spatial fluctuation flash, and thirty six-legged spider-shaped robots flew out from the fighter's storage space.

They were the size of schoolbags, equipped with grenade launchers and light machine guns capable of firing special ammunition, and deployed retractable silver-white parachutes, falling from the sky.

These were reconnaissance and auxiliary units separately issued to aerospace fighters.

Scattered six-legged robots gathered together, numbering in the tens of thousands, forming a steel star-sea torrent, shining in the sunlight, lining up in neat formations, and crawling down from the skylight.

Their speed was fast, and the near-vertical steep terrain could not affect them in the slightest.

After landing, their camera lenses flashed red, self-checking grenade launchers and light machine guns, and each divided into hundreds of small teams, advancing toward the targets.

From time to time, they raised their muzzles and fired continuously, smashing the suddenly appearing Shadow Ghosts to pieces, and then incendiary bombs and thermite were used together to burn the remains of the Shadow Ghosts into thoroughly reduced dead matter.

(End of chapter)