Chapter 144: Sacrificed for the Cause (Seeking Monthly Votes)

As soon as the calligraphy copy was finished, Fifth Aunt fell as if she had suffered a severe illness, her entire body growing weak.

The calligraphy copy flew into the air, reached above the Black-Huangnihe, suddenly rolled into a scroll, and with a "Thwack!" plunged down, embedding itself deep into the mud river.

Boom-boom-boom...

Surging righteous Qi condensed into a hundred-foot-tall giant stone pillar, firmly fixed in the center of the river!

The surging, turbulent muddy waves immediately subsided.

Countless ghost soldiers stirring restlessly in the river also roared, forced by some power straight down into the mud, never to surface again.

On the hundred-foot black cliff, the Old Master roared, his pitch-black snake tongue flicking rapidly: "Let's see how long you can hold out!"

The hundred-foot black cliff slowly moved, crashing toward the stone pillar.

Without the push of the Black-Huangnihe, the black cliff's speed was slow, but no one could stop it!

Fifth Aunt sighed helplessly, "I have done my utmost."

"If I truly cannot block this evil spirit, I will take a few of the young ones and flee as soon as possible."

Suddenly, the sound of hooves approached, and Zhou Leizi shouted from his horse: "The Mother-and-Child Iron Cannons are here!"

He rode a horse, with two horse-drawn carts behind him, galloping all the way.

One cart held a Mother-and-Child Iron Cannon locked with iron chains.

The other carried several crates of cannonballs.

These Mother-and-Child Iron Cannons were not large; the mother cannon weighed about a hundred jin, the child cannon eight jin. They were forged by the Northern Capital Artisan Workshop, having learned the rapid cannons of the Red-Haired Barbarians and improved them using new artisan techniques.

With the ghost soldiers on the riverbank nearly killed, the Captain led men down to support Zhou Leizi; a Wu Xiu Captain hoisted the mother cannon, while several others together dragged the cart loaded with child cannons up the riverbank.

"Mount the cannons! Fire at it!"

An Artisan Wu Xiu Captain, his face full of disdain, but with no one else available, stepped forward personally to operate it, adjusted the angle, loaded a child cannon, and ignited it—

Boom!

One shot hit.

With a target as large as the hundred-foot black cliff, it would be hard to miss.

An explosion tore open a section of the black cliff; as the gunpowder smoke cleared, a shallow crater remained on the cliff.

The Old Master chuckled "Heh-heh-heh": "A bit ticklish. Hit it a few more times."

The Captains were stunned.

The power of the Mother-and-Child Iron Cannon was still too weak; if it were replaced with a bronze artisan-made cannon, it might truly pose a threat to the black cliff.

Xu Yuan, however, glanced at the several crates of child cannons, his eyes lighting up. He quietly pulled two crates over.

Ten human-skin sails were already inflated; Xu Yuan was ready to act, but seeing the child cannons gave him even more confidence.

Zhu Sili stood personally beside the Mother-and-Child Iron Cannon, using a spiked mace as a baton, shouting: "Just keep firing!"

The Captains regrouped their confidence and loaded child cannons again.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

After several consecutive shots, a Captain unfastened the water skin at his waist and poured it onto the iron cannon; with a "Hiss!", a cloud of white steam rose.

This cooled and damaged the cannon, but there was no time to worry about that now.

"Let me do it." Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind everyone; Lin Zi stepped forward.

Including Zhu Sili, everyone in the Zhan Cheng Office fell silent.

Since Lin Zi's "Law" had been broken, no one had spoken a single word to this Lord of Laws.

The "Law" could have firmly suppressed the Old Master.

It was the most suitable method for dealing with such evil spirits.

But once the Law was broken, the Zhan Cheng Office immediately fell into extreme passivity.

The pursuit of evil spirits even turned into a desperate struggle against them just to survive.

Why would a sixth-rank Law Cultivator have his Law broken by an evil spirit? Everyone knew the reason clearly.

So, by this point in the battle, no one approached Lin Zi to say, "My Lord, please act."

Every person in the Zhan Cheng Office was utterly disappointed.

Lin Zi walked up to Xu Yuan's side, only to be stunned to find Xu Yuan hiding behind Fu Jingyu and Song Lu, greedily devouring the child cannons!

"Inspector Xu..."

As soon as Lin Zi opened his mouth, Xu Yuan waved his hand directly, signaling him to go away.

Go do whatever you want to do.

Don't put on a posture of "remorse and redemption" in front of me; if you knew then, why act as you did? At your age, do you still need a youth like me to teach you these principles?

And don't expect that by speaking two so-called heartfelt words and doing some "reparations," I will forgive you; my forgiveness is not that cheap!

Lin Zi's face was bitter, but he had no right to blame the other for anything.

He walked to the edge of the Black-Huangnihe, took a deep breath, waved the magical object in his hand, and countless black threads spread out, seemingly endless, completely covering the sky above the mud river, then fell downward, sinking into the mud river.

On the hundred-foot black cliff, the Old Master's face instantly twisted: "Utterly shallow and arrogant!"

"Relying solely on a seventh-rank 'Female Weaving Art,' you actually think you can control this Old Master?"

In the Black-Huangnihe, the mud and the black threads constantly dissolved and tangled with each other.

Although the Old Master was full of confidence, his main focus was indeed on the magical duel with Lin Zi, and the hundred-foot black cliff came to a halt.

"Dissolve Lin Zi first!"

"After all, he was once a sixth-rank cultivator, and the highest official of the Zhan Cheng Office!"

"He is a great medicine, delivered right to this Old Master for nourishment."

Lin Zijin suddenly took a sub-cannon from a nearby carriage, shoved it into his bosom, and leapt into the Muddy River!

"My lord!" Zhu Sili finally couldn't hold back and cried out. Lin Zijin turned back in surprise through the mud, glanced at Zhu Sili, and nodded slightly: "Lao Lü wasn't killed by me."

This was said specifically for Zhu Sili; the Seventh-Rank Wu Xiu nearly wept.

He had been lifted up by Lin Zijin in his youth, and that was how he reached today.

Lin Zijin's favor was a debt he could never repay in this life, so when he sensed certain secrets, he wrestled within himself again and again… and ultimately chose to pretend ignorance.

Lin Zijin calmed down, ceased pressing for more, and sank halfway into the mud. He waved the ox-horn mosquito-net hook artifact, pulling a ghost soldier from the sludge.

With a pinch of his left hand, the ghost soldier dissolved into a tangle of ghost silk.

Lin Zijin began weaving the ghost gauze again using the "Female Weaving Method."

The black-yellow Muddy River constantly melted the ghost gauze, but ghost soldiers in the river were as countless as hairs—Lin Zijin could pluck any one as raw material.

Let's see whether you melt faster, or I spin faster.

Xu Yuan fed the sub-cannon while injecting all newly acquired internal core traits into the sword pellet.

This process must be handled with extreme care!

Xu Yuan was already a Seventh-Rank Dan Xiu; his internal fire was fierce—if he slipped even slightly, he would explode first.

Fortunately, his internal fire had been greatly depleted just now.

He used the sword pellet directly because his other stored golden pellets were of inferior quality and could not contain so many internal core traits.

After fifteen minutes, Lin Zijin's spinning speed slowed by a third.

After thirty minutes, Lin Zijin's lower body was entirely dissolved by the Muddy River; his body sank—each inch down, the mud melted an inch of him.

But Lin Zijin's face showed no trace of pain; he continued spinning with all his strength, buying every extra moment he could.

Finally, his body sank to his chest. He bit the sub-cannon in his mouth; just as his arms were about to vanish into the sludge, he suddenly rubbed his hands together, summoning a flame to ignite the sub-cannon!

Boom!

Lin Zijin's head was blown to fragments!

(End of Chapter)