Chapter 187: Jiang Ming's shock, his Volcano Technique is actually so terrifying

"Jiang Ming of the Town Sea Army is a martial general of the Sixth-Rank Lower; he is stationed in East Mulberry City and is eager to make contributions. Now that Commandant Liao has greeted him, he will certainly cooperate with us," Chen Shijie introduced to Zhao Xing in the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship in the gale layer.

"Now that dead volcano is surrounded by Jiang Ming, just waiting for us to go."

"Sounds a bit like fawning," Zhao Xing asked. "For such a small matter, a Commandant even went to sit in charge personally?"

Chen Shijie smiled lightly: "You don't know, the Town Sea Army is mostly water troops; the main force is fighting upstream along the Canglan River."

"The Canglan River battlefield is also one of the main battlefields, and the Town Sea Army's current performance is just average."

"Compared to other armies, it can even be said to be a bit poor."

"In the Pacifying Barbarian Legion, the Town Sea Army's total battle merits are currently at the bottom."

"The upper reaches are controlled by the Southern Wilderness, and it's hard for them to take any advantage; it's only thanks to the advancement of the battle lines in other battlefields, with the four great Royal Courts fighting and retreating, that the Town Sea Army has had some progress."

Zhao Xing suddenly realized; taming the Canglan River is not that easy, not to mention there are Water Shamans making trouble upstream.

Cloud City was built by the water; back then, he was almost set up in Cloud City, and it was also thanks to a group of geniuses—Xia Jing, Wang Ji, Cao Shuang, and others—working together that there were no mishaps.

That time was just an insect shaman carrying out a small natural disaster strike on Cloud City, an Eighth-Rank insect shaman making a move, equivalent to testing the waters.

Since the battle merit list opened, the intensity of natural disaster strikes has been more than a hundred times stronger.

The Town Sea Army gets some merit here today, but has to deduct it back tomorrow.

They followed the battle line for thousands of li, but didn't gain many battle merits, far lower than the average level.

"Seeing that the rest of the friendly armies are eating meat, the Town Sea General 'Lan Hongming' can't sit still."

"After much persuasion, he finally fought for an opportunity for his subordinates at the military council of the Nine-Heaven Yingyuan Prefecture, letting an army of 80,000 people go ashore, one of which is the unit commanded by Jiang Ming."

"The other one is Li Que, oh, that is the superior of Chen Lu, whom you saved last time."

Zhao Xing laughed: "The Wolf God tribe has been almost finished off by the Shenwei Army and the Fierce Sun Army. Now the only places left to fight are Fire Dragon Pass in the southeast and the Fengming Mountain Range in the southwest."

"This brother really has no good luck."

The Town Sea Army is a partial army of 30,000 people; it's impossible to drill into the Fengming Mountain Range, because there are no friendly troops there, and drilling into the vast mountains with so few people is equivalent to sending them to die.

Continuing southwest from the Fengming Mountain Range, that is the toughest bone among the four great Royal Courts—the Yanguang Royal Court.

Baboke's sand insects are an existence that even Old Master Zhao would have nightmares about.

Whoever fights in that direction will be beaten into a sand-bitch.

"Can't say it's bad luck," Chen Shijie said. "The Town Sea Army went ashore relatively late, and the attack routes and combat sequences of the battle zone were already divided."

"Before finding a good way, they could only watch and wait for opportunities in the back."

Before finding the Earth Fire Lotus method, Fire Dragon Pass could only be fought hard.

Jiang Ming could only rely on the noses of the rest of the large armies, because the division of the battle zone was not up to him, and even if there were tasks, he couldn't pass through other people's defensive zones.

Now it's a tailwind battle; you want to eat merit? I want to eat it too! How could I let you.

Zhao Xing finally understood why Jiang Ming, a dignified Commandant, was so humble.

Liao Rulong says a word, and he goes to guard the volcano personally.

Earning battle merits, it's not shameful.

"Almost there," Chen Shijie took a look at the string window of the tower ship, then quickly walked to the command cabin to give orders.

First, raise the Shenwei Army's military flag to indicate their identity to the small flying boats surrounding them.

Then Chen Shijie sent a small flying boat to negotiate, and after repeatedly confirming their identity.

Under the guidance of fifty small flying boats, they landed within the territory of East Mulberry City.

During this period, the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship's defensive array was always required to be opened, and twenty small flying boats had their crossbow ports aimed at the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship.

"Jiang Ming's army management is also quite strict," Zhao Xing also came down from the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship and followed Chen Shijie on a Swordfish flying boat.

"It's the shadow left by fighting water battles," Chen Shijie whispered. "If you were often ambushed, you would be like this too."

"Someone is coming; that three-leaf flying boat has raised the main general's Sea Moon flag."

Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie hadn't landed yet.

Jiang Ming took the initiative to fly into mid-air to greet them.

The Town Sea Army's military flag is a bright moon hanging over the sea.

The Shenwei Army's is a picture of a blue dragon rising into the clouds, surrounded by a sword array.

"Brother Chen, sorry for the lack of welcome, sorry for the lack of welcome."

Jiang Ming was sturdy, with a typical general's belly; he estimated he couldn't see his feet when looking down.

His head was also a bit fat and round, looking quite wealthy.

Zhao Xing saw at a glance that this person was good at the "Gluttonous Food Technique" and had already reached the fourth layer or above, in a critical period.

The vital energy in his body was much more abundant than ordinary Sixth-Rankers, and both his endurance and defensive power exceeded the Sixth-Rank line.

It's just that flexibility might be affected.

If he couldn't break through, his body shape would always be like this.

"Commandant Jiang is too polite," Chen Shijie said. "It's us coming to add trouble to Commandant Jiang."

"No trouble, no trouble!" Jiang Ming laughed, the fat on his face squeezing together. "Shenwei Army's business is my Town Sea Army's business! We are one family, no need to talk about two families."

"Brother Chen, have you eaten? Why not rest for a while first."

Jiang Ming's attitude was enthusiastic, even a bit humble.

Clearly he was a rank higher than Chen Shijie, yet he didn't mention rank at all, directly calling Chen Shijie brother.

That would be fine, but even Zhao Xing, who was standing next to Chen Shijie, was called "Brother Zhao" by him.

However, the two didn't look down on Jiang Ming because of this.

Because Zhao Xing understood Jiang Ming too well; in his previous life, he was also mixing for food with a group of brothers.

In order to take tasks and earn battle merits, he was even more humble than Jiang Ming; as long as there were benefits, a Seventh-Rank calling a Sixth-Rank "adoptive father" was fine!

"The subordinate has military duties, still want to see the volcano first," Chen Shijie said.

"Should, should," Jiang Ming laughed. "I will lead the two brothers there."

His flying boat opened the way in front, while Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie returned to the Cloud-Rain Tower Ship.

Soon they arrived at the south of East Mulberry City.

There was a volcano about six hundred meters high here.

There was snow on the top of the mountain, but a patch of peach blossoms bloomed on the mountainside, and the foot of the mountain was very desolate, with no grass growing.

Five li from the foot of the mountain, a circle of camps was set up, and Jiang Ming's Covering-Sea Tower Ship had also stopped over.

Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie requested that the flying boat circle the volcano.

Then they rode the clouds down to watch at close range.

Jiang Ming accompanied them the whole time, like a bodyguard; whatever the two requested, he did.

"How is it?" Chen Shijie asked Zhao Xing.

"Can open," Zhao Xing said. "But people must be evacuated first."

"How far? Is twenty li enough?"

"Thirty li, no, forty li."

Chen Shijie was a bit surprised: "So terrifying?"

"My Volcano Technique carries a bit of metaphysics, don't know to what extent it will open," Zhao Xing pointed to the camps below. "But this distance now is definitely not enough."

Jiang Ming was listening on the side and was also a bit surprised.

He didn't expect Zhao Xing to be the main force this time, not Chen Shijie.

Jiang Ming had also heard of the Volcano Technique; didn't expect Zhao Xing to be the one to open this volcano.

And listening to him say this, it seemed the power would be particularly great?

Twenty li wasn't enough, was it a bit of bragging?

"Commandant Jiang, please evacuate the people at the foot of the mountain to thirty li away," Chen Shijie said.

"Fine," Jiang Ming's main point was service in place.

He immediately gave the order, letting the army under his feet pack up and leave.

According to the instructions of Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie, they retreated directly to the wilderness area thirty li away and stopped.

"Commandant, the warships in the sky, those below the Fifth Rank, evacuate them too."

Jiang Ming felt a bit strange.

My ships are parked in the thousand-meter gale layer, and this needs to be evacuated too?

He didn't take it to heart in his heart, but still followed suit.

Only his own Covering-Sea warship was left.

"What to do next?" Jiang Ming asked.

"Just wait for Zhao Xing to cast the spell," Chen Shijie said.

He and Jiang Ming had already returned to the deck of the warship in the sky.

Zhao Xing flew down toward the volcano.

"Hoo~" As the clouds and mist under his feet dissipated, Zhao Xing landed on the edge of the crater.

"The diameter of the crater is 359 meters, and the depth is 245 meters."

"Can only be said to be a small volcano."

"To open this volcano, the difficulty is not very high." Zhao Xing pondered.

This one in East Mulberry City can only be said to be a small volcano.

After all, the height is only six or seven hundred meters, and its diameter and depth are not large.

If you really want to talk about a big volcano, the diameter is over a hundred kilometers, and the depth is over five thousand meters.

However, that kind of volcano, Zhao Xing couldn't shake.

Now this small volcano is just within his ability range.

"The Volcano Technique is advanced from the Five-Element Earth-Splitting Technique; although this technique only involves fire-attribute properties, it still retains the characteristic of luck blessing."

That is to say, the Volcano Technique Zhao Xing knows still belongs to the gambler's tactics.

It's just that it has become a High-Rank spell, and the spell has directivity.

"Ssh ssh~"

Zhao Xing jumped onto the gray rock of the crater; at this time, only the 20-meter diameter in the center could see white smoke rising.

Looking with the naked eye, you couldn't even see magma. "Shoo!"

A spell golden light hit one of the places.

"Gurgle~"

The ground cracked open a hole, emitting a wisp of sparks.

High-Rank Volcano Technique, spell casting is a gradual process.

Mountain techniques are all like this; it's not a wave of the hand and immediate effect.

Zhao Xing is changing the mountain structure.

"Shoo shoo shoo shoo shoo shoo shoo!"

One after another, spell golden lights drilled into the ground.

After entering the crater, they went all the way down, deep into the ground.

Every hour, Zhao Xing changed a place.

Sometimes even flying to the mountainside and the foot of the mountain to cast spells.

Either digging off a giant rock or digging down a side of mountain soil.

He was like

Time slipped away during Zhao Xing’s spellcasting, and in the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

Jiang Ming patiently kept him company.

Yet, the volcano still looked no different than it had three days ago.

Could it actually be done?

Jiang Ming muttered to himself.

However, he knew well that an outsider should not direct an expert, so even if he had doubts, he kept them to himself.

Instead, he would occasionally comfort Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing, telling him to rest more.

Zhao Xing also came up to the warship to rest twice.

High-tier spells were simply too draining on his primordial energy; even with his current cultivation at the thirty-eighth stage of Qi Gathering, it was still very difficult to withstand such terrifying consumption.

"How is it?" Chen Shijie ran over to ask. He had already sensed changes in the earth vein power, especially the fire-elemental power, which had gradually grown dense.

"Almost there. One more time down there, and I can activate this volcano." Zhao Xing was frantically eating fruits that replenished primordial energy.

Once his primordial energy had recovered sufficiently, Zhao Xing prepared to fly down again.

Before leaving, he looked at Jiang Ming: "Commandant Jiang, are you certain everyone has been evacuated?"

Jiang Ming said: "Rest assured, within a radius of thirty miles, aside from us in the sky, there isn't even a chicken feather left below."

"That's good."

Zhao Xing jumped down.

Chen Shijie said: "Commandant Jiang, activate the defensive barrier of the Ocean-Covering warship and ascend to fifteen hundred meters."

"Set the spell array's defense to the highest level."

Jiang Ming finally couldn't help but ask: "Is that necessary? Our Ocean-Covering warship is a top-tier fifth-grade vessel; setting it to the second level of defense should be enough."

Chen Shijie nodded: "It is necessary."

Seeing this, Jiang Ming had no choice but to give the order helplessly.

The night of the fourth day.

The tranquil black night was suddenly shattered by a thunderous explosion.

"Boom!"

It was as if a giant boulder had slammed into the ground, causing a collision, but the sound was extremely muffled.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom~"

A continuous series of explosions rang out. The muffled sound made even the Sea-Suppressing Army soldiers thirty miles away feel a tightness in their chests, as if this world were brewing something.

It was not as sharp as a thunderclap, but it made one's heart feel heavy, as if the heavens and earth were about to undergo a drastic change.

"What happened? Is it thundering?" Ouyang Song ran out of his tent and looked toward the horizon.

"It's not thunder." He Yu also ran out. Both were military agricultural officials, so they immediately checked for signs. "It's movement from the volcano."

"No way, we withdrew thirty miles away, and we can still hear it?"

He Yu suddenly lay down, pressing his ear to the ground.

"It's an earthquake."

Before the words had even faded, the ground indeed began to shake slightly.

"Quick, notify the commander, the whole camp must continue to retreat!" He Yu roared.

"Huh? Is that necessary?" Ouyang Song asked.

"Have you forgotten what happened during the training report at the Ten Suns Cave Heaven?" He Yu said. "Back then, Zhao Xing had just entered the ninth grade, and he opened a dozen-kilometer-long isolation zone on the Earth-Fire Plain."

"Now he is a proper seventh-grade upper!"

"Old brother, you need to learn your lesson! Go notify them quickly!"

Recalling the past, Ouyang Song shuddered; he had nearly died of thirst on the Earth-Fire Plain back then.

If it hadn't been for Wei Chen of the Profound Armor Army giving him a flask of water, he might not have even made it to Yangcheng.

"I'm going right now!"

Such a muffled sound continued for an hour.

Suddenly, it ceased, and everything seemed to become calm.

Yet, in the next moment—

"Bang!"

The black night instantly turned into broad daylight.

A mushroom cloud rose from the volcanic crater!

Amidst the scalding and scorching smoke.

A fire-red beam of light shot straight into the sky, like a fire dragon ascending to heaven!

The world underwent a drastic change!

"Swish!"

Zhao Xing’s figure rose rapidly, flying out from the black smoke.

He jumped onto the deck of the Ocean-Covering warship.

Seeing this, Chen Shijie roared: "Run fast!!"

Jiang Ming’s scalp went numb, because as he stood on the deck looking down, that fire-red beam of light broke through the thousand-meter gale layer in an instant.

The surrounding gale layer was blown open, and with its momentum undiminished, it reached the warship’s hovering altitude of fifteen hundred meters in a split second.

"Hard left rudder, ascend, southeast... damn it!"

Before Jiang Ming could finish his full command, he felt a massive force hit the deck.

The force was so terrifying that he, a sixth-grade martial artist, couldn't even stand steady and was thrown into the air.

Everyone else was also thrown about, crashing into the barrier or the internal walls of the warship.

Boom!

The fifth-grade top-tier warship was quite large, but it was still grazed by the erupting earth-fire beam and was sent spinning away!

It spun in the air like a top, and in the blink of an eye, it was knocked three thousand meters away.

Jiang Ming’s head was dizzy from the impact, the world was spinning, and the warship didn't stabilize until a minute later.

"Oh my god!" Jiang Ming was dumbfounded. "Is this the Volcano Spell?"

Jiang Ming prided himself on being well-traveled; having reached the sixth grade, what kind of scenes hadn't he seen?

But he had truly never seen a scene like this.

The volcanic crater had originally been only three hundred meters in diameter, but now it exceeded a thousand!

The lava emitted a scorching aura, black smoke filled the air, and the entire top of the crater had been completely burned red, refracting a red light that one could not look at directly.

Red volcanic ash danced like layers of pitch-black clouds in a wild frenzy.

The scorching temperature erupted from deep underground, like a roaring beast seeking to intimidate, making all living things tremble before such power.

The sky was shrouded by clouds, and the gale layer could no longer be seen through them.

The ground around the crater trembled constantly, as if the earth were shivering in endless agony.

The volcanic eruption became increasingly violent, and lava flowed across the surrounding wasteland, directly forming a sea of magma and fire.

This moment of violence and madness dealt a massive blow to Jiang Ming’s spirit.

He now understood why Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing had repeatedly urged them to withdraw further away.

The power of heaven and earth, this is the power of heaven and earth!

If they hadn't maximized the defense of the fifth-grade top-tier warship in advance, the ship might have been burned through by now!

At that point, let alone the others on the ship, whether he, Jiang Ming, could survive would be another matter.

A sixth-grade Heaven-Gale Realm expert could survive in the gale layer at an altitude of fifteen hundred meters.

But now, the three-thousand-meter gale layer above this crater had been completely dispersed!

"Is anyone injured?!"

"Military physician, where is the military physician!"

Chen Shijie held onto a mast, and seeing the warship stabilize, he immediately shouted.

Jiang Ming also reacted and immediately began to check the condition of the warship and the casualties.

After a stick of incense, Jiang Ming slumped to the ground, cold sweat breaking out on his body.

Fortunately, he had listened to advice; no one on the warship had died, but many had broken bones from the violent impact.

It was hard to imagine what would have happened if the defensive barrier hadn't been activated.

At this moment, the way Jiang Ming looked at Zhao Xing had completely changed.

His eyes were filled with shock.

"The Volcano Spell is actually this terrifying. If my camp had been pitched at the foot of the mountain, wouldn't the entire army have been wiped out by now?"