Chapter 441

The battle outside the camp came to an end.

When the super-large-caliber main cannon on the camp walls issued an angry proclamation, Sīmǎ Yòu's fleet high above, together with the massive newly arrived fleet, began to retreat, withdrawing as fast as possible to several tens of li away, then swiftly descending and hiding behind the thick mountain mass.

Such a super-large-caliber main cannon, powered by the earth veins and a vast formation, is no monster that those floating thousand-zhang, hundred-zhang class tower ships could withstand.

The fleet withdrew, taking with them the prisoners they had captured alive.

Several hundred thousand Black Phoenix Army soldiers were shaken by the blast's aftershocks into severe injury, unable to resist, and were sucked into the ship's hold by the devouring formation aboard the tower ship specifically used to mass-capture local soldiers.

Besides the Black Phoenix Army soldiers killed in action, another several hundred thousand Black Phoenix Army troops, supporting each other, escorted a large group of disheveled provincial troops back to the camp.

In the extremely brief battle, Lǐ Èr Hàozǐ lost an arm; the group of brave leaders beside him was halved; over fifty thousand provincial troop cadres lost more than twenty thousand, and the other several hundred thousand private militias incorporated into the provincial troops likewise shrank by sixty percent.

Only about one-tenth of the troops were killed; the rest were severely wounded and then sucked into the tower ship's hold, becoming prisoners.

In short, casualties were heavy.

The laborers and artisans fared okay; aside from a few unlucky fellows whose skulls were cracked and limbs broken by falling tower ship debris from high above, there were actually not many casualties.

These people also closely followed the retreating Black Phoenix Army, not entering the small forts along the way to take shelter, but instead returned to the camp at top speed.

The south gate of the camp spewed a pillar of light, sucking in each approaching Black Phoenix Army and provincial troop soldier; all the laborers and artisans were also drawn back into the camp. Thereafter the camp was enveloped by a huge light barrier, thirty zhang thick, its surface shimmering with flowing light, proudly proclaiming the camp's formidable defensive power.

"This is impossible!" Sīmǎ Láng stood in the pavilion, blankly staring at the camp radiant with flowing light, obviously having unleashed its full defensive power.

"This is impossible. Huò Xióng isn't here; how could Pèi Fèng possibly have mastered this camp's formation main seal?" Sīmǎ Láng nearly roared, spraying saliva at Sīmǎ Yòu: "Huò Xióng and Pèi Fèng—are they that close? No, no, no, even if that adulterous couple** had done the deed, how could a man hand over the imperial seal symbolizing authority and power to a woman?"

Sīmǎ Láng and Sīmǎ Yòu were both muddle-headed, completely unable to comprehend what was unfolding before their eyes.

The Cave Heaven Camp ahead had obviously unleashed its strongest defensive power, and its built-in defensive armaments were all revealed. Not to mention the hundreds of large-caliber main cannons, just speaking of the dozen-odd super-large-caliber giant cannons standing on the four-sided walls—those are the true weapons of mass destruction.

Such super-large-caliber giant cannons, if the terrain permits, are enough to threaten all enemies within a radius of ten thousand li.

Even a peak Fetal Storage Realm cultivator who has mastered top-tier divine arts and is shielded by nine-refined immortal weapons would not dare to take such a cannon blast head-on.

Human strength is limited, yet these heavy armaments, erected on solid earth veins and drawing power from the veins and massive formations, were fundamentally designed not to deal with individual soldiers but to exist for large-scale cleansing.

Even if their firing speed were somewhat slower, these giant cannons emplaced there would deter anyone from daring to approach this damned camp lightly.

Moreover, let alone the countless heavy bed crossbows and the thick defensive light barrier.

Without a doubt, the Cave Heaven Camp's complete form was fully revealed; without a doubt, Pèi Fèng had grasped the camp's control core—a crucially important imperial seal representing the camp's supreme authority.

"This," impossible," Sīmǎ Láng shook his head in anguish.

Sīmǎ Yòu also wore a gloomy, uncomprehending look as he gazed at the radiant camp, slowly saying, "This truly makes no sense."

Really, I can't understand it.

One is the heir of the Ying King, the other the heir of the Cheng King; in their upbringing from childhood, power and resources were so important that any power, any resource that could be grasped had to be completely mastered in their own hands.

They could bestow a few scraps upon those below, exchanging them for sworn death loyalty.

But even their most beloved woman dare not touch the slightest bit of the power they hold.

This is the bottom line, a bottom line with no room for negotiation. Be it Sīmǎ Láng or Sīmǎ Yòu, they are power monsters, possessing an unimaginable aggressiveness and exclusivity toward power.

For power, Sīmǎ Láng even instigated Sīmǎ Yòu to eliminate all his brothers.

In their view, everyone in the world is just like them, extremely sensitive to power; when Huò Xióng left the camp, going out unknown what he was doing, he might have granted Pèi Fèng partial authority over the camp, and such authority could at most allow the camp to exert about one-tenth of its combat strength and defensive power.

But right before our eyes, it is clear that Huò Xióng handed over the camp's entire control core to Pèi Fèng.

This amounts to the whole camp being handed over by Huò Xióng to Pèi Fèng.

What is the relationship between Huò Xióng and Pèi Fèng? A man and a woman. Between a man and a woman…… a man entrusts his foundation, his lifeline core, to a woman who is not worthy of trust?

"It seems Huò Xióng amounts to just this much— for a woman, he actually… actually did such a foolish thing." Sīmǎ Láng quickly explained the cause and effect of what was happening from another angle.

Without a doubt, Huò Xióng was bewitched by Pèi Fèng's female charms, and thus handed over the control core of the Cave Heaven Camp, which concerned his own life and fortune, to Pèi Fèng.

Such mentality, such methods—Huò Xióng is through and through an idiot; such an opponent is utterly unworthy of Sīmǎ Láng's attention. Thus Sīmǎ Láng quickly placed Huò Xióng on the list of the dead, furrowed his brow, and began seriously considering how to deal with Pèi Fèng.

"This girl Pèi Fèng is stubborn…… her temper is violent and easily angered……" Sīmǎ Láng looked at the radiant camp, sighed helplessly: "This damned camp falling into her hands makes it no easy task to dispose of."

Clenching his fists tightly, Sīmǎ Láng's skin all over faintly flushed, his capillaries engorged, veins bulging on his forehead, a flame shot from his pupils, and the room filled with his heavy panting.

"But you are mine, little woman. Today I must have my way with you." Sīmǎ Láng took a breath, glared at Sīmǎ Yòu: "Now it's your turn to step forward. I can't show up for now, lest I scare her…… but there's still a chance, still a chance……"

Sīmǎ Láng suddenly burst out laughing, then quickly laughed until he couldn't catch his breath, bending over, clutching his belly, letting out a series of 'heehee' laughs: "Poor Pèi Fèng, she could never imagine who exactly is betraying her behind her back…… heehee, she'll soon realize that a woman is just a woman…… a woman's purpose is to lie in bed pleasing a man, then obediently bear children for him."

"Reviving the family business, establishing merit and career, and such…… please, woman, step aside. Those she most cares about and worries over have all betrayed her, heehee—will she feel hurt? Will she suffer? Heehee, go, go, since we can't breach the camp, we must resort to other means."

In the camp, Pèi Fèng gripped the imperial seal, standing on the gate tower.

Nearly a thousand rhinodragon knights galloped madly through the forest, exerting utmost speed to leave the camp.

But on this wall, the four gates have abnormally large caliber; the gun barrels stretch out nearly a hundred zhang long giant cannons, and together with the one hundred twenty main cannons, they have slightly adjusted their barrels, locking onto these over a thousand fleeing rhinodragon knights.

Rhinodragons are huge, like a small mountain, with boundless strength, clad in armor one chi thick; when they charge, they resemble an iron mountain roaming the battlefield, looking down. On flat terrain, ten such rhinodragon knights can break through a formation of tens of thousands of troops and easily slaughter them all.

But in the forest, especially in the rainy-season forest, these rhinodragons fell into dire straits.

Their overly massive bodies make it hard to navigate the jungle; huge tree trunks constantly block their path, while the land littered with standing water, mire, soft ground, countless pits and ponds reduces their movement speed to the extreme.

After Pèi Fèng entered the camp, seeing the camp walls undergo a drastic change, those rhinodragon knights immediately turned and left.

They were a bunch of seasoned veteran ruffians who knew when they could go all-out on the offensive and when they had to flee for their lives.

But it was too late; the rhinodragons had charged into the jungle and fled less than ten li before Pèi Fèng even had time to meet the Black Phoenix Army and provincial troops trickling back from outside—she had already activated those main cannons on the wall and locked onto the rhinodragon knights.

There was a shortage of enough specialists trained to operate the main cannons, but the Black Phoenix Army still had some soldiers capable of serving as gunners.

Auxiliary formations whirred to life; one after another, treasure mirrors equipped with auto-lock, range-finding, and speed-sensing functions rose from the main cannons, data flashing rapidly across them; Pèi Fèng raised the imperial seal in her hand and gave a low, stern shout.

"Die."

On this wall, one hundred twenty-four main cannons roared in unison, one hundred twenty-four massive pure yang auroras tearing through the void and slamming heavily into the forest.

They were too close; the rhinodragon knights had fled less than twenty li, those knights unwilling to abandon their lifelong companions, still shouted atop their rhinodragons. They did not leap into the air; everyone took the full brunt of this main cannon barrage.

The two Fetal Storage Realm commanders who had just clashed with Pèi Fèng, frustrated and defeated, lingered at the rear, and together with another dozen-odd Fetal Storage Realm knights, they each unleashed their defensive secret treasures, forming several layers of light curtains that blocked the rear of the large troop formation.

The light curtains shattered under a single hit from the main cannons; a radius of several dozen li of forest burst out in great clouds of white smoke, then vaporized and vanished outright in the intense light.

The ground sank, melted, and vaporized.

A dozen-odd Fetal Storage Realm knights who had fallen to the rear, together with their mounts, let out mournful howls in the white light; one could see layers of dense light and shimmer appearing on their battle armor, then those layers of light and shadow were turned to nothing by the intense white light.

Their armor dissipated bit by bit, their bodies were peeled away bit by bit in the white light, vaporized, and then completely disappeared.

This process could be seen very clearly, seeming slow, but in fact it was completed utterly in an instant.

Over a thousand elite, fiercely powerful Rhinodragon Knights vanished in the span of a breath, while the main cannon on the city wall continued to vent its fury toward this side for three breaths, after which the white light pillar gradually thinned and slowly disappeared.

The air carried a strange, faint odor, the smell of air ionized by immense energy.

Outside the west gate of the camp, a large pit several dozen li in diameter appeared in the mountains and forests, slanting into the ground, roughly blasting down to a depth of over ten li.

The pit's walls were smooth as a mirror, and the high temperature caused them to emit a red glow.

The accumulated water in the nearby mountains and forests was turning into vast waterfalls, constantly pouring into the pit with a 'hissing' sound. Rainwater from the sky kept pouring down, rapidly turning into white vapor that rose, carrying away the immense heat within the pit.

It won't take long for this pit to become a deep lake.

"Damn it. Pei Feng, I will make you suffer in ten thousand ways." Sima Lang stood in the pavilion, a crystal mirror hovering beside him, replaying over and over the scene of more than a thousand Rhinodragon Knights being completely vaporized by the main cannon.

Sima Lang clutched his chest, feeling a twinge of heartache.

Under his command, the Rhinodragon Knights numbered just over ten thousand; maintaining them was enormously costly, and with the resources at his disposal he could only supply the massive material consumption of over ten thousand Rhinodragons.

Moreover, the Rhinodragon Knights as a heavy weapon—ten thousand of them could basically wipe out all large-scale enemies on the ground, so there was no need for him to keep many more.

But this time, one of his ten Rhinodragon Knight brigades was outright destroyed, wiping out a tenth of his strength just like that.

Especially the two leaders, they were Sima Lang's trusted commanders, moreover they were household troops who had served his Jiwang mansion for over ten generations, growing up alongside Sima Lang from childhood. Losing two such die-hard confidants at once, Sima Lang couldn't help but let out a wounded wolf-like 'woo-woo' from his throat.

In the high sky, nearly a hundred thousand double-winged Flying Dragon Knights formed the loosest possible formation, slowly and cautiously advancing to encircle the camp.

The lesson of the Rhinodragon Knights lay plainly before them; these Flying Dragon Knights dared not adopt a tight formation, for that would be nothing but a live target for the main cannon's bombardment.

On the ground, Sima Yu and the others also commanded nearly a million elite family forces, arrayed in a loose formation to surround from three sides.

Sima Yu's messenger had already arrived at the city gate where Pei Feng was stationed; he raised his head, took a deep breath, and shouted: "Pei Feng, commander of the Black Phoenix Army, there are rebels within your Black Phoenix Army who have seriously disrupted the operational plan of the Great Jin Military Department's Council Hall… Please, Commander Pei Feng, open the gate and let us enter the Black Phoenix Army to eradicate the rebels."

The messenger didn't wait for Pei Feng's reply, but went on to say: "If the commander refuses our reasonable demand, we will consider the commander already under rebel control… No wonder we must resort to other means."

Pei Feng glared at the messenger and, with a casual point, ordered: "Kill him!"

On the city wall, more than a dozen Black Phoenix Army strongbowmen suddenly popped up and, without a word, loosed an arrow.

The messenger was merely at the peak of the Chonglou Realm; facing over a dozen Life Pond Realm strongbowmen whose arrows were vicious and lethal, not a single shot missed—all struck his vital points. The three most deadly arrows almost simultaneously hit his brow, shattering his skull and annihilating his soul in one blow.

"Other means? I'll be waiting for you." Pei Feng gripped his black spear and slammed it heavily against the city wall.

Soon, dozens of wooden frames were erected in the mud before the city gate.

More than a dozen Black Phoenix Army commanders, including the severely wounded Uncle Ma and Huang Yu, who had inexplicably fallen into enemy hands, were all bound to the frames.