Chapter 94: Call for Heavy Artillery Bombardment

Dozens of kilometers away,

A simple listening device shaped like a trumpet flower, camouflaged with branches and foliage, had its wiring extending down into a thirteen-meter-deep hole.

This depth was sufficient to shield against first-tier infantry radar scans; as long as it didn’t encounter second-tier infantry spiritual-particle radar or Foundation Establishment cultivators, it would rarely be detected from afar.

Two seventh-middle-school Qi Refining students carefully listened at one end of the device for a while, then relaxed.

“No tank engine noise.”

One short student, still shaken, said: “I saw how Zhou Liuchuan and the other guy died—no intact piece of flesh left, blown to pieces by anti-aircraft machine guns.”

“Assholes from first-middle-school! No Daoist sect ethics!”

Another student cursed.

Above the pit, Jiang Ding silently listened for a while, recorded the coordinate, and lightly tapped his toe to depart.

This was the third seventh-middle-school reconnaissance position he had discovered.

Whether there were more, he didn’t know.

There probably were—scattered across the vast battlefield, layering ambushes against first-middle-school tank units until the camp completed its first-tier electromagnetic induction array, establishing massive superiority within radar range.

Top-grade special magic artifact reconnaissance camouflage, Great Completion-level Minor Concealment Technique, and the mobility advantage from Great Completion of the “Young Eagle Soaring Sword Art.”

His figure moved soundlessly through the forest, not a single leaf or blade of grass swaying, not even the most sensitive small animals like birds sensing a thing.

Suddenly, Jiang Ding’s breath paused slightly; with his peripheral vision, he watched a tank rumble past a kilometer away.

A moment later, another appeared, then a third, then a sixth—this was a standard Daoist tank squad, their mission mobility and artillery strikes based on reconnaissance coordinates.

Jiang Ding hesitated.

If he requested artillery fire now, he’d likely score a hit—but it would expose that seventh-middle-school reconnaissance units were nearby; their vigilance would rise, making future reconnaissance far harder.

He recorded the coordinate, tapped his foot, and left, continuing deeper into reconnaissance and search.

As he advanced dozens of kilometers, nearing within forty kilometers of seventh-middle-school’s camp, Jiang Ding spotted more seventh-middle-school Inner Qi cultivators—they no longer hid underground but had set up heavy machine guns and constructed thick defensive fortifications, with the remaining forty Dao-soldiers of seventh-middle-school casting spells to assist.

Jiang Ding frowned as he recorded the coordinates of each fortification.

These were built on thick layers of earth and stone, reinforced with first-tier earth-element spells, housing three to five heavy machine gunners each—extremely threatening; high-explosive shells could barely penetrate; only armor-piercing rounds could pierce through.

He circled widely, thoroughly reconnoitering and mapping the entire surrounding area in detail.

Boom! Boom-boom!

Again came the roar of engines; Jiang Ding’s spirits lifted—he gazed far off and indeed saw six tanks returning toward seventh-middle-school’s camp, spaced five hundred meters apart—likely a flank reconnaissance unit returning.

“That’s enough.”

Jiang Ding made up his mind.

If he went deeper, he feared encountering Li Tie—this twin-spirit-root genius might have already reached Minor Completion in the “Electromagnetic Sensing Wave Technique”; stepping within thirty kilometers, he feared being blown to bits by a stray high-explosive shell from who-knew-where.

“Command Post, this is First Reconnaissance Platoon—target: six Type-62 tanks, coordinates as follows… constantly moving… requesting artillery strike!”

Fifty to sixty kilometers away,

Hua Bing perked up, thrilled, and shouted in the group chat: “Brothers and sisters, action time! Get on your tanks—every single one!”

“Jiang Ding found seventh-middle-school’s tanks!”

“Awesome!”

“Recon infantry, forever the god!”

Gong Sun Ling and others rejoiced; forty-three tanks scattered across the battlefield raised their cannons, adjusted positions according to coordinates, and predicted the targets’ movement trajectories.

This was precisely what they had studied for years—they needed no reminder from Jiang Ding.

He only needed to report battlefield conditions.

"One to twenty-two, armor-piercing rounds, coordinates..."

"Twenty-three to forty-three, armor-piercing rounds, coordinates..."

Gong Sun Ling and Hua Bing each took charge of one target’s firing, Ding Qi assisting with predictive calculations.

“Ready!”

“Fire!”

Boom!

Forty-three tank cannons roared, their muzzles blazing hot; dozens of blasts merged into one deafening thunderclap, perfectly synchronized, not a single discordant note.

Shhh-shhh-shhh!

Dozens of armor-piercing rounds tore through the air, leaving white streaks that vanished from sight.

…

Jiang Ding lightly stepped, following the moving seventh-middle-school tank column, silently watching.

The squad leader of this tank unit was the class monitor of Class 2, Grade 3 at seventh-middle-school; he was now chatting with his classmates over internal comms, complaining: “Li Tie is such a coward—making us huddle in ditches, while he doesn’t care at all; no matter what, his command combat score won’t be low, but we’re different—this way, our scores stay low, and we learn nothing but digging holes.”

“What can you do? He’s the principal’s grandson, twin-spirit-root, Qi Refining Level Eight…”

His teammates shared the same resentment.

Suddenly, radar alarms blared urgently.

Dense white streaks appeared on the horizon.

“High-speed object approaching… it’s artillery shells!” the Class 2 monitor’s face turned pale; he roared: “Maneuver! Evasive maneuver—it’s targeting us!”

The six tanks began erratic movement, twisting in S-shapes—the standard procedure for evading artillery outside the interference zone.

But twenty-plus armor-piercing rounds were aimed directly at them!

“F***! Bastards!”

The seventh-middle-school Class 2 monitor cursed loudly as armor-piercing rounds rained from the sky; each impact on the ground triggered massive explosions, carving deep craters into the hills and forests.

He dodged one after another—until quantity became quality: one round pierced his soul, entering through the turret roof, blasting him and his tank into oblivion.

Another tank, miraculously evading all rounds, panicked, floored the accelerator, and fled with all its might toward the camp.

Jiang Ding observed for a moment, then continued reporting in the combat group.

“Report artillery results: Target One destroyed, Target Two escaped, coordinates changing… request continued artillery strike…”

Shhh-shhh-shhh!

After a brief wait, dozens more white streaks appeared in the sky, screaming with death.

Boom-boom!

This time, neither of the two tanks was lucky again—both were obliterated in deep craters, vehicles and men gone.

“Targets Two and Three successfully destroyed, coordinates changing… request continued artillery strike…”

The sound of death came again.

“F***! Someone’s feeding them coordinates!” three seventh-middle-school Qi Refining students on the remaining tanks cursed: “Kill him first, or we’re all dead!”

Boom!

Taptaptap!

Three tank cannons roared, launching random high-explosive shells in all directions, uprooting swathes of forest; dual-purpose artillery machine guns fired nonstop, felling row after row of trees.

Jiang Ding immediately dropped to the ground, waiting until the aerial armor-piercing barrage passed before climbing back up the treetops to observe.

“Target Four destroyed, Target Five escaped… request continued artillery strike…”

After swiftly reporting the coordinate change, he turned and fled without looking back.

Sure enough, seconds later, over a dozen high-explosive shells launched from seventh-middle-school’s camp and other locations drowned the entire several-kilometer stretch of forest in fire and debris.