Chapter 424

just sound effect.

The sound of rain striking lotus leaves was densely astonishing; the warship whose defensive barrier had been shattered by a boom, on its hull armor plate several feet thick, a dense layer of arrows was stuck into it, then another layer of arrows whistling pierced in, and then yet another layer.

The first wave of arrows was shattered by the second wave, and then new arrows densely pierced into the hull armor plate.

The heavy armor plate's surface continually flashed with flowing light, then continually shattered; layers of metal fragments kept peeling off; the warship violently shook; occasionally large areas of the barrier were breached, and then large patches of fire burst out on the hull armor plate.

In just a few breaths, the hull armor plate of that warship was forcibly pierced by arrows to a depth of over a foot.

Wu Tie appears.

These Great Jin military-standard tower ships are made of excellent materials, basically meeting the material standards for forging spirit weapons. Only spirit-weapon-grade materials can forge the tower ships to such immense size, lest they collapse under their own enormous weight.

The defensive wards and formations set up on the tower ships are even stronger; because the ships are huge, the formations and wards that can be installed are large-scale, amazingly powerful behemoths.

Even the weakest defensive power among these tower ships rivals that of a third-grade spirit weapon; slightly larger flagship-class tower ships have defenses comparable to immortal weapons, while those extra-large giant flagships possess defenses akin to a large city, impervious to anything less than an immortal weapon of third grade or higher.

The few tower ships leading the charge are merely smaller, speed-focused scout-type tower ships; even so, their defensive power is still very strong.

These arrows actually breached the tower ships' defenses in such a short time, and like mice gnawing wood, a few swishes sliced off a layer of the thickest hull armor plates…

Wu Tie finally understood why the Black Phoenix Army had suffered bloody defeats in the territory of the wood sprites.

The wood sprites' arrows are terrifying, and before joining forces with Wu Tie, the Black Phoenix Army's logistical supply was in disarray; many soldiers wore only the most rudimentary basic-soldier armor, offering no defense whatsoever against such fierce, domineering arrows.

"Wind!" a commander in the Secretariat Hall's army stepped forward, waving a blue command flag and shouting loudly.

Hundreds of armored Secretariat Hall cultivator-officers swung their hands in unison; hundreds of blue banners rose into the air, and from them emerged countless azure wind dragons, each dozens of zhang long, swaying heads and tails as they surged forth, instantly whipping the high winds into a frenzy.

Dozens of tornadoes tens of zhang in diameter sprang up out of nowhere, the icy gales swiftly enveloping all of the Secretariat Hall's tower ships; moreover, dozens of wind pillars flexibly plunged downward, wrapping around the three tower ships under arrow fire from below.

The raging winds blanketed the hulls of the three tower ships; the dense arrows shooting up from the ground, upon entering the wind‑shrouded zone, were immediately thrown off course by the turbulent, chaotic gusts, causing them to flutter and lose more than half of their force out of thin air.

"Ting-ting-ting," the arrows that could still hit the tower ships immediately dropped in number by seventy to eighty percent; moreover, even if such weakened arrows struck the hull, they could no longer pierce the thick armor plates, merely scattering sparks on the deck before falling helplessly to the ground.

Another Secretariat Hall commander stepped forward, waving a large flag entwined in yellow and red, and shouted loudly: "Fall!"

Hundreds of Secretariat Hall cultivator-officers stood on the prows of several tower ships, reached into their waist‑hung silk pouches, and grabbed handfuls of round pellets the size of soybeans, then hurled them violently into the sky.

These tiny pellets emitted a sharp tearing sound as they shook in the wind and shot straight up, rapidly reaching altitudes of tens of thousands of zhang above the ground. Thereafter the pellets began frantically drawing in the surrounding heavenly-earthly essence; visible to the naked eye, rings of essence swirled inward at breakneck speed.

The tiny pellets began to expand rapidly, swelling to a diameter of a dozen or so zhang in the blink of an eye.

Now it is clear that these pellets are in fact neatly polished giant stone balls, densely carved with numerous runes. As the heavenly-earthly essence continually flows in, the stone balls "puff‑puff" out bursts of firelight.

A muffled roar came from high above as tens of thousands of stone balls, each a dozen or so zhang in diameter, spewed flames, wrapped in scorching heat, and came crashing down in wild abandon from tens of thousands of zhang up onto the forests below.

Wu Tie and Pei Feng exhaled at the same time.

As expected, the Secretariat Hall's finances are staggering; each of those seemingly insignificant stone balls costs at least as much to produce as a third-grade spirit weapon.

This barrage was equivalent to tens of thousands of third-grade spirit weapons being hurled down.

Filled with wealth, using gold to strike men—Wu Tie had never before seen such an extravagant way of waging war.

After all, the Secretariat Hall is the Secretariat Hall; its manner of conduct differs greatly from that of the other halls and offices of the military.

Each blazing stone ball fell like a meteor, smashing heavily into the forests. Every impact thundered, sending up a heavy black smoke column hundreds of zhang high, after which vast sheets of fire swept out, quickly engulfing dozens of mu of surrounding woodland.

The intense heat instantly evaporated the moisture in the ancient trees and vines; in the crimson blaze, those massive trees and thick vines ignited in an instant, blinking into towering torches.

Countless great and small fierce birds and beasts wailed, their fur set ablaze by the flames; huge beasts struggled desperately in the sea of fire, jumping and scrambling, trying to break out—but nowhere could they escape.

An unfortunate beast had barely taken a few steps when a massive stone ball plummeted onto it, instantly smashing it to pieces.

Innumerable birds shrieked as they rose into the air, their feathers burning; they struggled to trace long and short lines of fire in the sky, then plunged headfirst into the inferno, vanishing without a trace.

One could see slender, petite figures darting and leaping swiftly through the flames.

The wood sprites employed every sort of wood‑escape and wind‑escape art, fleeing in disarray toward the distance. Above, stone balls kept falling, shaking the surrounding mountains; the tremendous roar shocked a thousand li, as peak after peak was shattered by the impacts. Many wood sprites' escape techniques were violently interrupted, and they howled as the flames swept them away.

Smoke columns shot up to the heavens as tens of thousands of stone balls rained down in succession, turning the forest within a hundred‑li radius ahead of the fleet into a blazing hell.

A Secretariat Hall commander in heavy armor climbed to the highest mast of the flagship where Sima Yu and the others stood, raised a golden token high, and bellowed: "Boom!"

The bow armor plates of a hundred Secretariat Hall tower ships slowly opened, revealing the muzzles of pure‑yang aurora cannons extending from the hulls; accompanied by a low rumble, beams a dozen or so zhang thick shot forth with a low sonic boom, slamming heavily into the ground.

The tower ships' main guns far surpassed the destructive power of those stone balls.

Especially this time, the tower ships' main guns fired a "long shot"; the emitted light pillars persisted for ten breaths before gradually waning. During this process, the total energy released by the hundred main guns was astonishingly immense.

Accordingly, Wu Tie could imagine that in the holds of those hundred tower ships, the essence crystals in the power furnaces were also burning merrily, turning into great heaps of green smoke that dissipated.

A hundred mushroom clouds rose from the mountains ahead; the fire‑clouds tangled together, their light striking and intertwining, the dust within the blaze rubbing violently, and amid the high temperature one could see purple‑red lightning crackling forth with a "hualalala" sound.

The forest spanning nearly two hundred li in diameter was utterly shattered by this strike.

On the ground, countless shallow and deep circular pits overlapped in a dense mesh; the black, vitrified earth contrasted starkly with the surrounding green mountains and clear waters—this region… was hardly of this world.

"These… bastards." Pei Feng slammed her hands against the railing before her, her silver teeth grinding with a "gagaga" sound.

The wood sprites that had given her headaches for years, those pesky forest spirits, the alien race that had inflicted heavy losses on the Black Phoenix Army, were now being crushed by this bunch from the Secretariat Hall using such a utterly tactically devoid method of warfare.

Recalling the years of suffering the Black Phoenix Army had endured here… Pei Feng's teeth itched with hatred.

"Using money to smash people is also a rather brilliant tactic." Wu Tie gazed thoughtfully at the flagship where Sima Yu and the others stood: "But I'm curious—how can they just blast their way all the like this? How much materiel has the Secretariat Hall given them?"

Even if the Secretariat Hall is filthy rich, it couldn't possibly withstand Sima Yu and his ilk squandering military force like this, could it?

Sure enough, after the unified long shot, a small transport craft took off from the flagship bearing Sima Yu and company, speeding toward the flagship where Wu Tie and Pei Feng were.

Sima Yu sent a Secretariat Hall civil official over, who bowed politely to Wu Tie and Pei Feng and stated their request: the Secretariat Hall had already annihilated the enemy's main force below with thunderous might; now it was the turn of the Great Marsh Prefecture Army and the Black Phoenix Army to go on the offensive.

"In this round of attack, our Secretariat Hall has suffered enormous losses, especially those tower‑ship main guns, which must be inspected before we dare commit them to the next round." The official in green robes smiled: "The enemy's main force, if it dared to come, would already have been reduced to ashes in the earlier strike; any remaining stragglers can be dealt with by General Huo Xiong and Commander Pei Feng's troops."

The official chuckled lightly: "Our lord said this is also a chance for our allied forces to earn merit; don't go saying our lord snatched all the credit."

Wu Tie licked his lips, gave a dry laugh: "Please go tell your lord that if they can take all the credit, I, as commander, actually have no objection… I'd be glad to see it succeed; as long as your lord can pull it off, let him be happy."

The official's smile froze.

Wu Tie burst out laughing "haha," reached out and slapped the man's shoulder hard enough to nearly drive his frail little body to the ground: "Just joking, just joking… we're allies, after all; fighting side by side is only natural."

Amid the laughter, Wu Tie's forehead wisdom eye suddenly opened, a five‑colored divine light shooting out and swiftly scanning the forest within a thousand li ahead.

"Ha, found it!" Wu Tie roared, his body flickering as he turned into a golden streak that shot forward.

In the span of a breath he covered over a hundred li; after two breaths, Wu Tie—clad in linked‑mountain pattern armor, a scarlet‑red great cloak draped over his back, emanating a mighty aura—arrived atop a great mountain and slammed a fist downward.

"Give me, get out!" Wu Tie shouted loudly.

Below, a mountain peak a thousand zhang high and several li in radius exploded with a boom; a stone giant five hundred zhang tall, its whole body made of translucent yellow jade, let out a low roar, leapt from the shattered peak, and swung a fist at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie is one zhang tall, the stone giant is five hundred zhang tall, making him five hundred times Wu Tie's height.

Before his huge fist, Wu Tie was like a tiny ant…

Yet Wu Tie's punch landed on the stone giant's fist; hearing only a boom, the soaring stone giant was slammed down by Wu Tie's strike, sinking heavily into the ground, half of its body buried deep in the subterranean stratum.

The immense force from Wu Tie's fist crushed the stone giant; unable to control itself, it bent at the waist, its upper body slammed flat onto the ground with a bang, shattering the vast forest behind it into pieces.

"Break!" Wu Tie glanced at the stone giant, waved his right hand, and a streak of Wu Earth divine light transformed into a huge hand a thousand zhang across, which he slammed down heavily upon the stone giant.

With a tremendous roar, the earth trembled; the yellow Wu Earth divine light hand was forced deep into the ground several dozen zhang, smashing the stone giant until its whole body was cracked, violently shaking, yet it could not rise again.

Ding!

More than ten li away, in a dense thicket, a three-foot slender arrow shot out like a ghost, following a serpentine trajectory, its elusive strike hitting Wu Tie's helmet—exactly at his temple, a vital spot.

The Lianhuan Shan Wen Jia armor's defensive power was astonishing; the arrow shattered on the helmet, leaving not a trace.

Even so, the power hidden in this slender arrow was astonishingly strong; its elusive, gentle trajectory concealed a force dozens of times greater than the stone giant's heavy punch.

Wu Tie grunted, the tremendous force from the shattered arrow hurling him sideways; struck in the head, his body rotated rapidly around his waist like a windmill, with a whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Blown dozens of li by the arrow, the dazed Wu Tie then cast a spell to stabilize his form.

Having just steadied himself in midair, another elusive arrow shot forth from the forest.

This time Wu Tie noticed the arrow's origin; he flicked his body, swiftly dodging it. The arrow grazed his body, then abruptly accelerated with uncanny speed, carving a turbulent arc, and with a hiss pierced the defensive barrier of a Shuji Hall warship behind him.

With an anguished cry, the Shuji Hall fourth-rank commandant standing on the warship's prow, who had been watching Wu Tie get beaten with a smirk, was pierced through the heart by an arrow; the arrow's deadly poison spread rapidly, and the commandant, whose cultivation had reached the Tai Cang realm, saw his skin instantly turn variegated like a multicolored caterpillar, he collapsed heavily, and soon colorful toxic blood poured from his seven orifices.

Wu Tie stepped on golden light, swiftly retreated to his own flagship, then turned and snorted coldly at the flagship where Sima Yu and the others were.

"You all see clearly? Indiscriminate bombardment is useless against such experts… If you want to open a secret path, the only way is to advance step by step, secure your position, and wipe them out completely."

"I have the Lianhuan Shan Wen Jia protecting me, a full set of Nine Refined Immortal Soldier–grade armor, so I'm not afraid of their arrows… But, gentlemen, and your subordinates, aren't you afraid?"

On the flagship, Sima Yu's face turned livid with anger.

He glared fiercely at Wu Tie, waved his hand, and six hundred warships began to descend from the sky.

"Advance step by step, secure your position, completely clearing all dangers along the secret path… Wu Tie's proposed strategy, for now, appears to be the only way."