Chapter 440: This Is Impossible

In the high sky, Ma Dashu fiercely grabbed the long sword that had pierced through his chest with both hands.

His eyes bulged, and fresh blood kept seeping from his mouth.

His face twisted in disbelief; he simply could not believe that the sword that had pierced his chest came from behind him.

Standing behind him was his old comrade-in-arms of many years, who had struggled in the Black Phoenix Army since childhood, followed Pei Feng's father, risen from obscurity to prominence, and stubbornly earned the title of First-Rank Duke!

Those commanders behind him—he had blocked blades for them, taken arrows, shared disasters, and together been ordered by Pei Feng's father to be brutally beaten with military sticks, lying grinning on their beds for at least a month unable to get up.

Likewise, on the battlefield they had used their bodies to shield Ma Dashu from blades and arrows, dragging his heavily wounded body out of piles of corpses, and, amidst enemy encirclements, struggled desperately to keep him alive.

Comrades-in-arms closer than blood brothers...

"Aooo!" Ma Dashu threw his head back and howled; blood-colored flame burst from his palms, his hand strength surged, and he forcibly snapped the Nine Refined Spirit Weapon piercing his chest in two.

Burning with rage, Ma Dashu unleashed power far beyond what his cultivation level should allow; the flesh on his hands burned rapidly, quickly revealing blood-red hand bones. As his hand bones scraped against the long sword, sparks flew.

Ma Dashu's pair of hands were now completely ruined.

But before his hands were totally destroyed, they would burst forth with a brief, brilliant light, capable of shattering anything and crushing everything.

Just like the Nine Refined Spirit Weapon he had violently snapped.

He forcibly turned around, ignoring the blood spraying from his chest, and Ma Dashu glared murderously at the Black Phoenix Army commander wielding the broken sword behind him, stunned: "Tie Can Dou… you bastard, what are you doing?"

Tie Can Dou, who had just seriously wounded Ma Dashu, dropped his broken sword, his face twitching violently as he looked at Ma Dashu, his expression a mix of crying and laughing, utterly bizarre: "Old Ma, if my strike just now had been aimed at the back of your head… do you still have the strength to shout at me now?"

"This strike won't kill you; the sword bears a secret anesthetic. Lie still for two months honestly, and everything will be over."

Ma Dashu let out a low, hoarse roar; his arms had completely turned into blood-red skeletal frames, and he struck out with a palm as fast as lightning, slamming it onto Tie Can Dou's chest.

Tie Can Dou's armor shattered silently; Ma Dashu's palm pierced his chest like a blade through tofu, easily entering his torso, punching through his body and protruding from his back.

"Who else?" Ma Dashu spat blood while staring at the dozen-odd Black Phoenix Army commanders behind him, dumbfounded.

Fiery pillars of light darted through the air; dozens of rebel warships suddenly struck, swiftly destroying over a hundred warships under Wu Tie's command. Tens of thousands of elite Black Phoenix Army troops screamed as they burst from the exploding warships, and many who couldn't run fast enough were swallowed by the fireballs and blast waves.

"Ma Brother, we didn't!" the dozen-odd commanders behind Ma Dashu shouted, raising both hands and shaking their heads repeatedly.

"Then go… control the brothers properly!" Ma Dashu coughed blood as his body went limp and collapsed toward the ground, his hand, soaked with blood, pulling out from Tie Can Dou's chest.

"Damn, that anesthetic is potent…" Ma Dashu's body gradually slackened, his muscles turning as soft as fluffy cotton, devoid of any strength.

Tie Can Dou, whose chest Ma Dashu had torn open, fell like a meteorite, plummeting straight down from the sky.

Tie Can Dou gave a grim grin, his face wet with tears or rain, indistinguishable.

Ma Dashu also held back; otherwise, had that strike been aimed at his head, with the terrifying power his hands gained after invoking the forbidden technique, his skull would surely have been blown apart, and his divine fetus might not have had a chance to escape.

The warships in the air fell into chaos; the rebellion of dozens of warships directly threw the Black Phoenix Army soldiers into disarray.

Who is the enemy?

The enemy is our own brothers!

Should we counterattack?

Those enemies are our own brothers!

Should we counterattack or not?

Those enemies wear the exact same armor as us, brothers we see day after day… and looking at the decks of those rebel warships, masses of Black Phoenix Army soldiers stare blankly, dazed and confused.

They likewise have no idea what happened; the rebellion before them seems to envelop them, yet they truly know nothing.

"Black Phoenix Army, rebels! We obey orders to suppress!"

A low, grim voice echoed from afar; behind the mountains to the northeast, several hundred li away, thousands of warships of various sizes suddenly shot up into the sky, heedless of the lightning flashing in the rain clouds above, and plunged straight into the cloud layer.

These warships spewed long flames, pushing at full speed; in the blink of an eye they crossed over ten li, and after just a few breaths they had reached the vicinity of the chaotic Black Phoenix Army fleet.

Relying on their numerical superiority, the thousands of warships formed a semicircular encirclement and launched an attack from above the clouds.

Thousands of bow-mounted main cannons fired simultaneously.

Whether rebel warships or those still under the Black Phoenix Army high command, hundreds of warships were almost simultaneously struck a deadly blow, each hit repeatedly by a dozen main cannons, their hulls continually ripped open by huge gaps.

Even Wu Tie's largest thousand-zhang flagship, under concentrated fire from nearly a hundred warship battleships, was blazing all over, its bow and stern shattered into fragments; only the central bridge and most of the thick midsection remained barely intact.

Yet more warship battleships joined the siege.

Moreover, hundreds of commanders clad in heavy armor, riding twin-winged flying dragons and having reached the Embryo Storage Realm, soared into the sky, leading legions of sky cavalry mounted on twin-winged flying dragons to charge here.

A skyful of arrows whistled down; dense arrows glittering with rune light swept across the wildly dancing Black Phoenix Army troops.

Ma Dashu lay paralyzed on the ground, unable to move; just like him, the few highest-ranking, most prestigious generals in the Black Phoenix Army were also struck down by treacherous comrades.

As for the remaining Black Phoenix Army commanders, you have no idea whether they have rebelled or still remain loyal to Pei Feng.

Contradictory orders flew back and forth through the air; each messenger, soaked through, darted wildly amid the heavens, shouting loudly.

The Black Phoenix Army's formation collapsed completely.

Arrows swept across the disordered ranks; vast swaths of Black Phoenix Army soldiers were hit and screamed, blood-soaked as they fell from the sky to the ground.

On the ground, in Sima You's camp, the ten thousand elite of the Pivot Mechanism Hall stood motionless, tightly guarding their own barracks, staring dumbfounded at the internal strife of the Black Phoenix Army and the massive fleet that had suddenly appeared.

The nearly million private troops that Sima You and his companions had brought surged forth, piloting six hundred warships of various sizes as they simultaneously charged toward Wu Tie's camp.

One loud, powerful voice after another spread rapidly through the heavy rain.

"Black Phoenix Army rebels! By order, suppress them! Lay down your arms, or die if you resist!"

Main cannons roared chaotically, secondary cannons fired wildly; the family private troops of Sima You and company were extraordinarily strong, after all they were each family's handpicked elite, dedicated to guarding and escorting them.

Nearly a million private troops burst from their own camps, and after the time it takes to finish a cup of tea they had reached the outskirts of Wu Tie's camp, launching a fierce assault.

Inside the camp, of the Black Phoenix Army's ten thousand elite left to guard it, fewer than fifty thousand retained any combat ability; that recent mob of frenzied ox-headed brutes had inflicted devastating losses upon them.

As for the good men of the Great Marsh Prefecture army who had not gone out to labor within the camp…

What could you expect them to do?

Seeing Sima You's private troops rush out like wolves and tigers, those Great Marsh Prefecture army good men each locked their barracks doors, trembling as they hid in the sturdy buildings, pleading heaven and earth that the private troops would not break camp and massacre indiscriminately!

After all, they are nothing but a bunch of city foxes and shrine rats at heart…

Wu Tie and Pei Feng had expended great effort trying to reform them, but all they succeeded in doing was turning them into a somewhat slicker, bulkier bunch of city foxes and shrine rats—their essential nature remained unchanged.

Outside the west gate of the military camp, Pei Feng held a long spear, struggling to cope with the concentrated attack of two rhino-dragon knights.

The identities of these two rhino-dragon knights are absolutely not simple.

Their cultivation is extremely strong, absolutely reaching the peak level of the Fetal Storage Realm, and the technique they cultivate is undoubtedly a top-secret divine art, far beyond what ordinary military arts can match.

Each time Pei Feng's black spear clashed with their lances, she felt a wave of soreness and numbness in her arms, shaken so that she could not keep her footing and kept retreating.

Even though Pei Feng had just devoured a string of diamond relics with the Demonic Phoenix Black Flame, greatly increasing her cultivation, she was still no match for these two rhino-dragon knights; she relied only on the subtlety of her technique and her own ability to recover qi extremely quickly, continually healing her shaken arms, which allowed her to barely withstand their furious assault.

Though it sounds like a long story, it actually happened in the blink of an eye, after which over a thousand rhino-dragon knights charged in.

One of the rhino-dragon knights fiercely attacking Pei Feng shouted in a low voice: "Charge in, slaughter them!"

Another rhino-dragon knight's eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty red light as he roared: "It has been investigated that there are rebels plotting treason within the Black Phoenix Army; according to the Great Jin military law, all are guilty of death, slaughter them all, leave no survivors!"

Inside the camp, all Black Phoenix soldiers quickly gathered, silently preparing to fight to the death.

Meanwhile, the state army braves hiding in the barracks, upon hearing the order of those two rhino-dragon knights, suddenly had many of them wailing: "Sirs, please show mercy… we soldiers eat grain, we are merely following our general's orders… we are not rebels…"

"Sirs, have pity on us little ones!"

"We little ones are willing to be your ox and horse, enduring any hardship!"

"Sirs, our family's younger sister is only thirteen, fresh and pretty, most obedient; please spare our lives… we are willing to offer our sister to you, sirs!"

"Sirs, our family has no sister, but our elder sister-in-law is quite beautiful; she too can be offered to you, sirs…"

"Sirs, if you do not disdain… my old mother…"

"Shut up!" Pei Feng, while fending off the fierce attacks of the two rhino-dragon knights, occasionally glanced back at the distant sky where the inverted warship battle raged; she was anxious as fire, her worry for Uncle Ma, whose fate was unknown, and her close aides nearly drove her mad.

Having already entered a hysterical state, Pei Feng was at her worst temper; the state army braves' nonsensical rant made fire flash above her head and a surge of wicked rage rush up from her heart.

"You bunch of useless trash… General Huo Xiong was right, trash also has utilitarian value… so… you all go fight to the death!"

Pei Feng suddenly raised a jade tablet, then forcefully injected a stream of black flame into it.

This is a soul-controlling jade tablet refined by Wu Tie; all state army braves controlled by Wu Tie through his soul secret technique will be subject to this tablet's control.

In other words, Pei Feng has always been able, when Wu Tie is absent, to replace him in controlling the entire Great Marsh State Army.

But Pei Feng never had the chance, and she also did not want to overstep her role, doing something easily misunderstood.

But now Wu Tie is absent, a terrifying enemy has suddenly attacked, and these state army braves behave like… such bastards; Pei Feng, provoked to anger, directly used this jade tablet.

"Either fight to the death, or you just go die!"

In the camp, the state army braves who were resting in the barracks, actually slacking off, simultaneously felt their heads about to split, as threads of black flame ignited in their souls, burning them almost to nothing.

Pei Feng's voice sounded beside the ears of all the state army braves.

Led by Li Erhaozi, tens of thousands of state army braves with the "purest lineage" began to wail in unison, each of their eyeballs turning blood-red.

The hundreds of thousands of private troops violently subdued by Wu Tie, who were just muddling along in the Great Marsh State Army with a "broken pot, broken mentality," also simultaneously let out fearful, unwilling roars.

These attackers outside the camp merely howled, demanding to kill them all.

And Pei Feng had already placed a sharp blade at their throats, able to slaughter them all with a casual swing.

Between possibly being killed and being outright killed… the death-defying spirit buried in the marrow of the state army braves driven to desperation exploded.

Today Li Erhaozi led a large force outside to supervise civilians and artisans building a fortress; when the great battle erupted in the sky, he was frightened and brought a group of people to hide.

At this moment he let out a mournful howl, drew his long blade, and pointed it at the tangled warships battling in the sky.

"Brothers… we can't survive… step back, death; step forward, death… all roads lead to death!"

"There's no way to live… then let's fight!"

Inside and outside the camp, the state army braves simultaneously shouted at the top of their lungs, each with bloodshot eyes, as if tears of blood could fall from their sockets: "Truly we cannot survive… fight! Fight!! Fight!!!"

"Daring to risk one's life to drag the emperor off his horse…"

This saying describes those who are sometimes as timid as a mouse, sometimes lawless—those city foxes and rats!

In them are concentrated the world's most extreme, most opposing traits.

Kindness and cruelty, bravery and cowardice, dignity and shamelessness, nobility and baseness…

They are like the sewage in a drain, pitch black, yet you can always find a glint of seven-colored light reflected on the surface.

Filthy, polluted, yet sufficiently rich.

Pei Feng hastily retreated backward, she retreated into the camp, then produced a seal and held it high.

The entire camp violently shook, the camp's walls rose directly by a hundred zhang, becoming thicker and sturdier; then a tremendous roar of machinery came from within the walls, as over a dozen super-large-caliber main cannons and hundreds of various-sized main cannons simultaneously flipped out from the walls.

The camp instantly turned into a gigantic hedgehog, Pei Feng's voice echoing through the mountains and forests: "All Black Phoenix Army and Great Marsh State Army forces, retreat to the camp!"

In Sima You's pavilion, Sima Wolf stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

"This, impossible!"