Chapter 450

The hulking earth spirits stood in the great rift valley.

They were a thousand zhang tall, their figures so majestic and stalwart; the great rift valley was only a few hundred zhang deep, and standing at its bottom, their bodies far exceeded the valley's length.

Earth-yellow divine light rolled over their bodies; as they slowly pulled at the ground with both hands, square stone pillars spewed forth a pale yellow light from underground, slowly drilling upward.

The earth writhed, undulating like water waves.

The ground of the great rift valley quickly solidified into rock, and thick, solid earth-yellow divine sigils spewed from the earth spirits' palms, continually stamped onto the surface, making this patch of ground tens of times stronger than steel.

These earth-yellow divine sigils, after the earth spirits cultivated their ancestral arts, suddenly surged from their blood like a burst of enlightenment, various secret divine abilities. The sigils reach the primordial and acquired earthen great Dao, with endless subtleties and immense power.

Making the ground as hard as diamond is merely the most basic effect of these sigils.

Stone pillars level with the rift valley's cliffs stood in a row; then their tops writhed violently, the rock undulating like water and extending outward. In sight, a massive stone bridge a hundred zhang wide formed atop these giant pillars spaced a li apart.

Like a flying rainbow spanning the entire great rift valley, the stone bridge, faintly yellow throughout with a hint of crystalline luster, was as if forged from fine jade.

Wu Tie stood on the flagship bridge originally belonging to Sima You, looking back at these earth spirit Elders hard at work, he couldn't help but nod in admiration. Having finally reclaimed his ancestors' legacy, the strength of these five-element spirits advances by leaps and bounds each day.

As for combat, these earth spirit Elders' massive bodies qualify as the ultimate group-damage weapons on the battlefield.

But when it comes to infrastructure construction…

Wu Tie smiled radiantly like a flower; these earth spirit Elders using them for infrastructure projects are nothing short of divine tools. A stone bridge hundreds of li long and extremely sturdy can be completed in just a few short hours, which is truly delightful.

With such efficiency, after crossing the great rift valley, future road paving can lay out thousands of li of straight, sturdy highways in a single day—this efficiency is immensely pleasing.

A massive tower ship slowly flew forward, followed by a full thousand main battle tower ships.

The vast five-element spirit army, after rigorous training, the talented among them have already mastered the operation of these tower ship warships. Although they are not yet as practiced as the professional soldiers of the Divine Jin State, they make up for it with unwavering loyalty and absolute reliability.

All the Divine Might soldiers who originally operated these warships have either been incorporated into the Black Phoenix Army or the Great Marsh State Army, now being drilled frantically by Pei Feng and his men; these five-element spirits paired with these warships are indeed the strongest force under Wu Tie's command.

The massive tower ship warships formed a battle array, advancing like a vast dark cloud toward the forests across the great rift valley.

Suddenly, a sharp birdcall came from ahead.

To familiarize the five-element spirits with these tower ship warships, Wu Tie led a large force to drill near the great rift valley for a full month. Throughout that month, thousands of large and small tower ship warships either took off, landed, sped forward, or patrolled; each day the warships' main guns, secondary guns, and various ordnance blasted the forests into a hazy frenzy, their noise carrying for a thousand li.

The forest herders on the opposite side, along with their vassal forest herders' centaur tribe, had long noticed the movements here and kept a tense watch.

Today, as Wu Tie moved his main fleet, vast flocks of giant flying beasts erupted from the opposite forests, countless of them flapping their wings as they shot straight up to ten thousand zhang in altitude, screaming as they charged this way.

On the backs of many of these giant flying beasts sat ape-like creatures with ferocious faces and muscular builds.

These apes actually bore traces of rudimentary cultivation, and with their extraordinary talents, their bodies were honed to formidable strength, roughly comparable to the peak body cultivators of the Divine Jin State's Ganxuan realm; they could barely be counted as qualified warriors.

They wielded crude stone spears, the tips clearly coated with various poisons—azure and verdant spearheads gleaming in the sunlight.

Countless vicious birds bore the apes skyward; after a single swoop, they dove from ten thousand zhang altitude onto the tower ship warships flying a few hundred zhang above ground. The apes let out sharp roars, and while still several hundred zhang from the warships, they frenziedly hurled heavy stone spears.

All 1,001 tower ship warships simultaneously emitted a hazy glow, all defensive arrays activated at once, layer upon layer of thick transparent light curtains encircling the warships.

Stone spears struck the warships with precision; the crude spears shattered on the light curtains, unable to even ripple them.

Countless wood spirits on the decks shouted excitedly, raising the specially crafted short bows urgently delivered by Mr. Li.

In previous frenzied battles with the forest herders, these hovering giant birds and the vicious apes on their backs had caused the wood spirits great trouble, with who knows how many of them blasted apart by falling stone spears.

But now, they ride tower ship warships as sturdy as battle fortresses, soaring equally high in the sky.

Especially, they no longer wield homemade crude wooden bows and arrows, but finely crafted short bows urgently produced and sent by Mr. Li through unknown channels.

This batch of short bows lacks the ten million that Wu Tie blithely mentioned, yet it still amounts to a full five hundred thousand.

In just a short month, five hundred thousand short bows were custom-made to the wood spirits' physiques and shipped silently from the heart of the Divine Jin State to Great Marsh, then to Wu Tie's hands; the influence of the noble figure behind Mr. Li is easy to imagine.

These five hundred thousand finely crafted short bows all reach the terrifying standard of first-grade spirit weapons.

The wood spirits' homemade wooden bows and arrows could already send shots two to three thousand zhang aloft by innate divine ability; now wielding spirit‑weapon‑grade bows and arrows whose power has increased unknownfold, their range has surged more than tenfold!

With a booming 'bang', on the 1,001 tower ship warships, the full five hundred thousand finest wood spirit archers simultaneously drew their short bows and loosed arrows.

Five hundred thousand arrows shot straight upward, like a black tornado inverted and rising, instantly engulfing tens of thousands of giant birds.

A shrill bird cry rang from above; the smooth, hard feathers of tens of thousands of giant birds could not withstand the violent piercing of metal arrows, the birds were sprayed with blood and great patches of ruffled feathers fluttered down from the sky.

Giant birds screamed as they fell from the sky, spinning toward the ground.

The apes riding the giant birds' backs cried out in terror; the birds could glide on their wings, so even gravely wounded by arrows they might still glide to the ground and possibly survive.

But these apes…

They plummeted straight down like stones, each falling faster and faster, finally slamming straight into the ground with a dull thud.

Just one volley of arrows annihilated over half of the large detachment of giant birds dispatched by the forest herders.

The other tens of thousands of unharmed giant birds let out frightened cries, their formation scattering as they fled into the distant forests.

Strange power undulations continually surged from the forests; the forest herders employed secret arts to try to control these soulless giant birds, but no matter how they chanted and danced, the birds flew wildly askew, quickly escaping their control.

At Wu Tie's command, the tower ship warships began to ascend.

One thousand zhang, two thousand zhang, three thousand zhang…

Finally the tower ship warships stabilized at an altitude of three thousand zhang above ground; according to the various clan Elders, those stout centaur warriors, even their strongest could hurl a javelin no more than a dozen li away.

At three thousand zhang high, about fifteen li above ground, even if those centaur warriors exerted all their strength, they could at most throw a javelin that high, posing negligible threat to the warships.

The wood spirits stood in neat rows at the ship's railings, each donning the thousand‑li scopes sent by Mr. Li's men to accompany the bows and arrows.

This is a peculiar monocle fixed to the left eye by a strap, its lens etched with strange runes, allowing those of insufficient cultivation to clearly see the fine details of ants crawling within ten thousand zhang.

Such thousand‑li scopes are issued in the Divine Jin State's army exclusively to elite archers; ordinary soldiers never get them, and each is costly to produce.

But the noble patron behind Mr. Li is generous, having sent not only five hundred thousand short bows but also five hundred thousand thousand‑li scopes as an emergency measure.

Looking down from on high, the weather is fine; the wood spirits' talent is evident here—standing on the warship, they can clearly see the leaves fluttering on the treetops.

Wearing the thousand‑li scopes, they can see through gaps in the foliage to clearly discern the tiniest blades of grass on the ground, and the tiny insects scurrying beneath them.

Huge centaur warriors hidden in the forests appear in the thousand‑li scopes as strikingly conspicuous bulky figures—practically perfect targets.

"Free fire!" Wu Tie waved his hand: "Use anesthetic, not poison. These centaur hulks are so big… what fine heavy‑load livestock!"

"Capture them alive, everyone be careful—don't deliberately aim for their vital spots."

Seated in the large chair at the center of the open deck atop the bridge, Wu Tie issued the order in a relaxed manner.

The superb armaments of the Da Jin Divine State combined with these five‑element spirits of extraordinary talent make a perfect match; the combat power they unleash leaves Wu Tie in awe.

The Shepherd Forest people, the deadly foes of the five‑element spirits?

Heh heh!

Wu Tie gazed at the distant mountains shrouded in mist and clouds; taking them on would be no pressure at all—what if these Shepherd Forest people could drive away beasts?

With updated equipment and soaring cultivation, the five‑element spirits, completely renewed as a whole, are enough to create an overwhelming strategic advantage over the Shepherd Forest people.

The wood spirits laughed as volley after volley of arrows, like lightning and thunder, wrapped in gales and accompanied by a muffled tearing‑through‑air sound, fell straight from the sky, precisely striking the non‑vital weak points of those beast‑warrior soldiers in the mountains and forests.

The arrowheads were coated with a numbing drug specially prepared by the wood spirits; after a few frantic roars at the sky, the huge beast‑warrior soldiers' cries weakened, their burly bodies swayed and staggered, and they finally collapsed to the ground, unable to rise again.

One thousand and one warships lined up in a single row, forming a line hundreds of miles long, slowly sweeping across.

In the mountains and forests, whether Shepherd Forest people or beast‑warrior soldiers, they could not reach those tower‑ship warships; they could only shout and curse in the woods, then be struck down by precise arrows.

Occasionally, a remarkably strong Shepherd Forest expert would surge into the sky on wind and thunder, hoping to do battle with the tower‑ship warships aloft.

Whenever this happened, Old Tie would laugh heartily, turning into a black‑and‑white stream of light that flew from somewhere, brandishing a yin‑yang long spear; he would beat those unlucky Shepherd Forest experts until their heads were swollen, knock them out, bind them like zongzi, seal their power, and throw them into the warship's hold to be guarded.

The fleet kept advancing, while the Shepherd Forest people kept gathering from all sides, constantly mobilizing their tribesmen to try to block Wu Tie's army's advance.

However, Wu Tie's fleet combined the Da Jin Divine State's formidable armaments with the five‑element spirits' great talent; together they produced combat power beyond the ordinary.

Without even firing the warships' main guns, in just five days Wu Tie's fleet penetrated two thousand li into the mountains and forests, capturing tens of thousands of Shepherd Forest people and beast‑warrior soldiers.

More and more Shepherd Forest elders came with their warriors to join the fight, but the more they came, the denser they became in the mountains and forests, and the heavier the blows they suffered.

Besides the wood spirits' sky‑covering arrows, occasionally Wu Tie, in the mood, would sweep the five‑element divine light across the ground, and tens of thousands of Shepherd Forest people, beast‑warrior soldiers, and vicious birds and beasts would vanish without a trace.

After half a month of this, the Shepherd Forest people collapsed completely.

Throughout the mountains and forests rose long, wailing cries; the elderly, weak, women, and children of the Shepherd Forest tribes, protected by the few remaining young warriors, fled in disarray over mountains and ridges toward deeper forests.

Wu Tie's fleet closely pursued those fleeing Shepherd Forest people; after searching over ten thousand li in the mountains and forests, at midnight the fleet's main guns fired in unison, utterly destroying the ancestral temple the Shepherd Forest people had built deep in the mountains, and capturing their last batch of tribal leaders alive.

As Wu Tie had said, those huge, naturally immensely strong Shepherd Forest people and beast‑warrior soldiers were all enrolled into his labor corps, becoming the toilers building Longjiang Territory and Daze Prefecture.

The fleet continued advancing southward; behind it, a straight road a hundred zhang wide closely followed.

Clusters of fortresses followed the road, built densely every few hundred li; the fortresses stocked large amounts of grain and armaments, leaving only a small number of soldiers to guard them.

Forward, forward, ever forward.

Soon another two‑plus months passed; Wu Tie's fleet also cleared several strange tribes along the route, pushing the secret passage southwestward by tens of thousands of li.

That day, at noon, the massive fleet was passing over a huge lake in the dense forest; on a small island in the lake's center, a stream of light shot up into the sky, blocking the fleet's path.

"Which general leads troops here? I, the subordinate, have an important matter to report."