Chapter 357: The Steel Torrent Sweeps Over the Earth

Meet a mountain, carve it; meet a river, build a bridge.

From time to time, ambushers from the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace sect burst forth, causing death and injury; groups of Qi Condensation cultivators had their bodies explode and perish.

Yet these were nothing before an army stretching hundreds of kilometers, which continued to advance, unstoppable.

A few days later, nine array foundations of the Brother Xuanwu Four Poles Stabilizing Array appeared on the horizon, built within the mountains relying on spiritual vein nodes, nowhere else.

Even if the Immortal Sects retook the area, they would rebuild the Star Stabilizing Array here; nothing could be hidden.

"It's coming."

Jiang Ding thought silently.

The cultivators of the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace would never dare to let the array foundations collapse like this.

Otherwise, the high-level cultivators within the Sky Palace would make them know what it means to wish for death but not find it, showing no mercy, for those high-level cultivators had also fought their way out of such experiences.

"Kill!"

At the army's edge, mountain ranges collapsed like flowing sand, swallowing a tank division in an instant; over ten thousand casualties, while more than a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators burst from extremely deep underground holes scattered everywhere, positioning themselves wildly and slaughtering all around.

One by one, Immortal Sect Qi Condensation cultivators, unable to react, had their heads explode and perish, blood covering the ground.

In a short time, a terrifying casualty count of over two hundred thousand appeared; nearly half a group army was rendered useless.

Jiang Ding's face twitched.

Whoosh, whoosh-whoosh!

At the same time, armor-piercing shells from other directions roared in, covering the sky and earth; aimed and locked, they blasted a layer of magical shields, causing piles of supreme-grade magical tools to dim and fall.

The corpses of Foundation Establishment cultivators were shattered everywhere; the forests and mountains were plowed over again and again.

Three waves of armor-piercing shells covering the sky and earth flew over, clearing away the last resisting Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The battlefield fell silent once more.

"This won't work."

Jiang Ding frowned and said, "Qi Condensation cultivators are too fragile before Foundation Establishment cultivators."

Do not look at the casualties reaching two hundred thousand; in reality, among the over thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, on average each one only killed over two hundred Immortal Sect Qi Condensation cultivators in a suicide attack.

If this happens a few more times, the four group armies will be rendered useless.

"Suspend the march."

"Yes!"

Jin Jin Lingfeng and other group army commanders answered in a heavy voice.

Jiang Ding concealed his form, flying close to the ground, carefully scanning the surface with his spiritual sense and sword intent, especially scanning any place with traces of human magic spells multiple times.

Using an extremely fast escape technique, he screened the area of hundreds of kilometers along the army's march route.

The harvest was substantial.

No matter how these Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace Foundation Establishment cultivators hid, even if they were in the soil layer thousands of meters underground, as long as they left one entrance and exit channel and did not bury themselves to death directly, they would be revealed under the sword intent.

Within a short range of several hundred kilometers, another thousand or so Foundation Establishment cultivators were scattered and deployed.

If they suddenly attacked when the tank division passed, tens of thousands of casualties would occur instantly; the threat was extremely great.

"These are them; continue the march."

Jiang Ding returned and transmitted the enemy coordinates he discovered to the corps commanders.

"Received!"

Jin Jin Lingfeng said excitedly, immediately decomposing the coordinates for subordinate officers, each assigning a section of artillery coordinates.

The tanks rumbled forward nearly a hundred kilometers; under the unfavorable gaze of the observing Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace Foundation Establishment cultivators, they slightly adjusted their gun barrels, and fire and smoke rose.

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!

One by one, armor-piercing shells fell; the light of the Earth-Splitting Technique of the first rank above them flickered, tearing open the soil layer amidst huge kinetic energy, killing into the underground along the pre-existing channels; dull explosions rang out one after another, the ground rising and then sinking.

Finally, it fell silent, turning up some blood-stained deep soil.

"Continue the attack!"

The steel torrent continued to advance; once within the thirty-kilometer artillery interference range, precise and relentless bombardment was launched immediately; the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace Foundation Establishment cultivators, unable to display their full power, died miserably in underground holes, their bodies buried there.

After this, they advanced in echelon like this.

Precise and relentless bombardment for hundreds of kilometers, then stopping for a while, waiting for reconnaissance, followed by earth-shattering bombardment again, repeating endlessly.

"This strategy is useless; have the junior brothers withdraw."

"The Great Sun Sword Disciple of the Eastern Pole Demon Sect lacks the majestic grandeur of a Great Sun Sword Cultivator."

Hundreds of kilometers away from the main army, Xiang Jia, surrounded by numerous Jin Dan battle formations, sighed and led his people to retreat slowly.

The nine array foundations of the Brother Xuanwu Four Poles Stabilizing Array came into everyone's view; they had entered the effective range of the seventy-kilometer tank cannons.

Relying on the spiritual vein, this array formation possessed at least the combat power of the Jin Dan Mid-Stage, a huge defensive advantage.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"..."

Jin Jin Lingfeng, Jin Jin Chengkong, Dong Xue Senior Qian, and other corps commanders paid no mind, commanding the artillery fire again and again.

Millions of cannons firing just one volley shattered the shield of the nine Brother Xuanwu Stabilizing Arrays; they collapsed with wailing sounds, weakening the anchor point of the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace's Outer Heaven Army Array by one degree.

"Continue advancing; no need to split forces elsewhere; simply destroy the core Brother Xuanwu Four Poles Stabilizing Array."

Jiang Ding ordered.

"Additionally, since the Brother Xuanwu Sky Palace broke the Immortal Sect's Southern Stabilizing Array last time, a remaining army is still lurking here; order Army Commander Wu Shujun to take the opportunity, while the enemy main force is distracted by us, to break through the other Brother Xuanwu Stabilizing Array sub-arrays."

"Yes!"

An Siyan quickly wrote down the order, connected with the various levels of staff officers in the General Staff Office, decomposed these two simple orders into detailed battle plans, distributed them to the various units, arranged the march routes, and allocated logistics supplies from storage spaces at all levels.

The steel torrent rumbled forward, flattening everything in its path without any concealment, its target being the nine array foundations at the center of Brother Brother Xuanwu's Four Extremes Boundary-Setting Formation some five thousand-plus kilometers away.

……

"If this goes on, it's not looking good!"

Xiang Jia's face was overcast: "The tank units are too numerous. Once they get within seventy kilometers of the core of the Four Extremes Boundary-Setting Formation, the more than 3.8 million tank guns will fire in unison. Even though the formation is powerful, it cannot move, so it won't be long before it shatters and collapses."

"If it affects the formation beyond the heavens, and once the elders within the Heavenly Palace suffer any losses, when the accountability comes down…"

He said nothing more.

"This won't do, we must change course immediately!"

The surrounding true disciples shivered.

In the eyes of the Heavenly Palace's upper echelon, thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators are worth less than a single elder. If because of them an elder were to fall, not only would they themselves wish they were dead, their clans and kin would be implicated as well.

"It's enough that you all understand."

Xiang Jia snorted coldly: "Then go. Do not spare casualties. The struggle for the Dao is precisely like this — this is the destiny of Heavenly Palace cultivators. As long as you survive, I guarantee you will have hope of forming a Jin Dan."

"Yes, Dao Child!"

The surrounding true disciples took a deep breath and each led their subordinates away.

……

Jiang Ding stood high in the sky, employing a far-seeing spell to gaze into the distance.

Boom!

Under the bombardment of multiple army groups' artillery, although the central-nine Brother Brother Xuanwu Four Extremes Heaven-Stabilizing Formation possessed the offensive and defensive capabilities of late-stage Jin Dan, it still collapsed amid the roaring, and the Brother Brother Xuanwu military formation beyond the heavens weakened by another fraction.

At the same time, two to three hundred kilometers away.

In the rear that the great army had clearly already swept clean, an entirely new flanking force of Foundation Establishment troops appeared. Accompanied by battle cries, one Jin Dan military formation after another rose into being some ten-plus kilometers from the Immortal Gate army, and bearing the sky-filling armor-piercing shells head-on, charged straight over.

(End of this chapter)