Chapter 952: War of Wealth and Strength (4)

How afraid of death is this guy?

The flesh buds newly grown on Yin Wushuang's face were still wriggling; his ferocious visage had just healed eighty‑nine percent. Seeing Li Ergouzi pull out these three battle platforms, he couldn't help feeling a sweet rush in his chest, and another mouthful of blood spurted out.

How afraid of death is this?

One person, a city lord guarded by a garrison stationed in his city, actually carries three grand formations on his person.

Moreover, the defensive power of each of these three grand formations is not inferior to the city's own defense grand formation.

It is obvious that the cost of these city‑dependent, fixed‑installation defense grand formations is possibly less than one‑thousandth of a mobile platform with equivalent defensive power.

In other words, Li Ergouzi carries mobile platforms whose total cost equals that of three thousand Slay Ghost 108th City Defense Grand Formations. And these three mobile platforms are merely to protect his own life.

Plus the Ink Spider poison pill he previously threw, that bottle of Old Geda's lifeblood essence, that sticky, black, highly corrosive great net, and the over two hundred large cannons he ordered flung down the city wall without hesitation and then detonated.

Yin Wushuang finally understood what Li Ergouzi meant by staking his entire fortune on a fight to the death.

He's rich.

He's damn rich.

Not only is he damn rich, he's willing to throw that money at the enemy's head just to save his own life.

Yin Wushuang gritted his teeth in hatred.

The defensive power of the three mobile platforms, when combined, is far more than a simple one‑plus‑one‑plus‑one equals three; their total defensive power is at least twelve times that of the Slay Ghost 108th City's defense grand formation.

"The troops below, the army formation isn't enough to break these three platforms." Yin Wushuang waved his hand: "Let the demon puppets launch a fierce assault first, then redeploy troops from the rear."

Yin Wushuang gave a cold snort: "This commander really has gone all‑out against this guy."

He drew an arrow from the quiver of a nearby demon officer, snapped it in two with both hands, and Yin Wushuang shouted sternly: "If I don't break this city, this commander… will have no face to meet people."

Over a hundred elite demon guards rushed backward in haste.

After running a hundred or so li, they stopped, fumbled out huge, already‑formed formation plates, and in just half an hour laid out a large teleportation formation on the ground.

While those elite demon guards were busy, twenty‑seven towering demon puppets, each a thousand zhang tall, had been stepping ever closer to the city wall.

These huge fellows stood three to five hundred zhang from the city wall, heads bowed, looking down on the city; in their deep‑set eye sockets, two clusters of scarlet demonic flame rose.

After staring like that for a while, once the tens of thousands of demon troops below had withdrawn, the demon puppets' bodies lit up with fine red lines; the lines were as thin as blood, tracing intricate demonic patterns across their surfaces.

Boom!

From within the demon puppets came a roar like a giant ship's whistle; they grabbed behind them, and a scarlet light shot up into the sky, from thin air they drew forth blade after blade, each eight or nine hundred zhang long, its light blazing like solidified flame, forming huge curved swords.

These twisting, jumping curved blades emitted intense heat, and from within the blades came wailing, mournful cries.

Li Ergouzi and the others' pupils contracted at once.

The material of these huge curved blades is actually the souls of living beings; countless souls were forcibly extracted, cruelly treated with demonic evil arts, staining them with boundless resentment and killing intent, and only after being combined with special substances were they forged into such demon blades.

Such a massive demon blade must require the souls of at least a million people to forge, right?

Twenty‑seven such demonic weapons mean tens of millions of living people have died horribly at the hands of these demons.

"I… damn it!" Li Ergouzi muttered: "You demons, if you don't die here, Gouye will never again believe there's any justice in this world."

Shaking his head, Li Ergouzi closed his eyes and recalled his short life from when he first became aware until now.

He muttered softly: "Before I became a follower of my lord, I too was a heartless bastard… but after being taken in by my lord, I discovered that heaven's principle and human morality still exist. Although in this damned age they are scarce, he still has them!"

"But you damned demon horde…" Li Ergouzi spat out an extremely vulgar profanity: "If you were my father's sons, back then I should have shoved you into a kettle of boiling water and scalded you to death."

The twenty‑seven huge demon blades came down heavily.

Boom after boom, demonic light rose, evil energy surged; the three platforms trembled slightly, the auspicious light and vapor from dozens of arches were split three or five layers, yet the boundless auspicious light within those towering arches rushed forth, swiftly repairing the split layers of light as if nothing had happened.

Feeling offended, the twenty‑seven demon puppets let out wild roars, gripping their huge demon blades and launching a fierce chop at the city.

Their attack speed is slow; they can swing only one blade per breath.

But their bodies are massive, their force extremely fierce; a full‑power strike from any one demon puppet rivals the all‑out assault of a body cultivator who has reached the tenth heaven of the Divine Realm's great perfection.

If Li Ergouzi weren't wealthy enough to pull out three platforms for joint defense, just a few dozen strikes would have broken this city.

But Li Ergouzi is so rich that, despite the twenty‑seven demon puppets frenziedly slashing thousands of blows, they achieved nothing.

"You brought this on yourselves." Li Ergouzi sneered: "You're big—so what? Being big, how do you compare to the legendary Primeval Heavenly Dragon Clan?"

Without giving Yin Wushuang time to ponder why Li Ergouzi suddenly brought up the Primeval Heavenly Dragon Clan, he roared: "Send a few burly, strong‑bodied fellows with the greatest strength!"

Dozens of men, over a zhang tall, with their armor askew, wearing that dazzling, eye‑catching plate, looked like monkeys wearing hats—burly fellows who suddenly burst out of the chaotic crowd on the city wall.

These men bore not a trace of military bearing.

Their armor was crooked, chests bare, showing thick chest hair; or arms bare, deliberately revealing the elaborate embroidered patterns on their arms; some even wore upper‑body armor protecting vital spots while leaving their lower bodies bare, revealing tattoos of pythons, flood dragons, tigers, elephants and the like on their thick legs.

In short, these guys resembled ruffians, street thugs, hooligans, or the lackeys of decadent rich heirs—nothing like soldiers.

But each of them wore a gold‑and‑jade tablet on their belt.

Since ancient times gold and jade have been extremely valuable; to be able to wear a gold‑and‑jade tablet at the waist in the army, one must be a high‑ranking officer of status and position.

Yin Wushuang curled his lip.

The commanders in this city are all just a bunch of… 'things'?

He couldn't be bothered to say what these fellows resembled, so he simply called them 'things'.

Still, this group—or this pile of 'things'—certainly had a sleazy air, yet each was over a zhang tall, belly‑full and intestine‑packed, their builds like those of a seasoned, qualified old butcher or cook.

Each had a round head and a thick neck; when they walked, ripples of flesh rolled over their bodies, inexplicably giving a strange yet strong sense of power.

They seem to have trained in some decent body‑cultivation methods, possibly even a Buddhist school's body‑cultivation technique.

Their skin was pale gold or ancient bronze; beneath it, faintly visible were myriad Buddhist characters and lotus Buddha seals, and behind their heads drifted a chaotic spray of Buddhist light, vaguely forming an incomplete circle.

It's a decent Buddhist cultivation method.

Although they've practiced this Buddhist method in a messy way, the characteristic halo behind Buddhist disciples' heads is also chaotic, yet they truly are cultivating a Buddhist method.

Yin Wushuang sneered: "Buddhism does have some restraint over my demonic path, but just relying on this bunch… of 'things'?"

Li Ergouzi called out to that bunch of 'things', then gritted his teeth, face twisted with anguish, and produced a wholly crimson, enormously massive giant crossbow a hundred zhang in length.

The giant crossbow was strange and ferocious in shape, its surface covered head‑to‑toe with bloody dragon‑scale patterns; as soon as it appeared, mournful dragon cries shot up to the sky, a wisp of substantive killing intent seeped out from within it, condensing above the bow into a half‑real, half‑illusory dragon‑head seal.

Yin Wu Shuang 'Crack!' once, violently opened his mouth, then his jaw dislocated from excessive force.

"What... what devilish thing is this?" Yin Wu Shuang's body couldn't help trembling violently.

Three parts, shock.

Three parts, fear.

Three parts, at a loss.

The last part, extreme greed.

Afterwards, the flame of greed burned away all the shock, fear, and bewilderment in his heart; the greedy flames scorched his whole body, making his heart spasm and twitch, thoroughly distorted.

This giant crossbow is absolutely something that present-day humanity cannot forge.

This giant crossbow is absolutely a lethal weapon left over from the primordial mythic era.

This giant crossbow seems to possess spiritual awareness.

How many giant dragons must it have slain for that trace of killing intent, like an old monster just entering the Sovereign level, to condense into a half-virtual, half-real slaughter Dao seal?

This giant crossbow is nearly comparable to an old monster that has just entered the Sovereign realm.

But its killing power is absolutely on par with those Sovereign-level old fiends, even surpassing them.

Yin Wu Shuang held his dislocated jaw with both hands, 'Crack!' popping it back into place, then vigorously wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Fall back, withdraw further… quickly summon the great army, launch an all-out assault on this city."

"Spare no sacrifice, spare no cost, take this city. This giant crossbow belongs to this general, it must belong to this general!"

Yin Wu Shuang's body trembled violently; from greed, his eyes had turned blood-red.

He, on one hand, ordered his personal guards to escort him in retreat to avoid being struck by that terrifying giant crossbow; on the other hand, he ordered the rear armies to hurry forward, sparing no sacrifice to take this city.

The demon leader's ruthlessness is evident here.

The two personal guard commanders hurried to relay the order, while Yin Wu Shuang, escorted by his retinue, swiftly withdrew over a thousand li.

He stood on a hilltop, gazing far off toward the city.

With his cultivation, even separated by a thousand li, despite light clouds obscuring vision, he could still clearly see what was happening below the city.

On the city wall, Li Ergou summoned dozens of foul-smelling subordinates he called 'generals', huffing and puffing, straining to pull the giant crossbow's bowstring.

On the giant crossbow's surface, lines of assisting array patterns lit up; hundreds of palm-sized assisting arrays frenziedly devoured heavenly and earthly essence, emitting sharp whistles, helping these stalwart men pull the bowstring.

Even so, accompanied by a low chant, these men still took the full span of a tea break to finish stringing the giant crossbow.

With a 'whoosh', accompanied by the bowstring's 'thunk' catching onto the mechanism, dozens of sturdy men drenched in sweat collapsed limp on the ground, hurriedly pulling out energy-restoring pills to stuff into their mouths.

Yin Wu Shuang saw clearly—these fellows actually used nothing but Grand Dao Treasure Pills to replenish their energy!

Each one requires an alchemist to extract the Grand Dao patterns they have comprehended, at great cost, to successfully refine a Grand Dao Treasure Pill.

These rare, to Yin Wu Shuang also precious Grand Dao Treasure Pills, this gang of foul 'things', actually used them to restore stamina?

"This damned prodigal… if he were my son…" Yin Wu Shuang gritted his teeth, fists clenched in rage: "I would have exterminated his entire clan, mother and all!"

Li Ergou waved his right hand, and instantly Blood Light filled the heavens and earth.

He produced a shaft as thick as a water tank, a full one hundred twenty zhang long giant bolt.

With a 'thunk', Li Ergou let out a mournful howl. This giant bolt was forged entirely of an unknown blood-colored metal, extraordinarily heavy. Li Ergou took hold of the bolt but could not lift it.

The bolt fell to the ground, smashing onto his soles, utterly crushing both his feet.

Li Ergou screamed hysterically, his whole body twitching, flailing as he collapsed to the ground.

Yin Wu Shuang's face twitched violently; his enemy turned out to be such a waste. And yet this waste prevented Yin Wu Shuang from quickly taking his city!

"Damn… damn it ten thousand times over, you scum!" Yin Wu Shuang roared hoarsely: "Let the demon puppets… never mind, it's too late, keep assaulting the city!"

Over a dozen sturdy men rushed over, earnestly crowding around Li Ergou to ask after his well-being.

Two handsome 'personal guards' supported Li Ergou, hurriedly stuffing one after another limb-regenerating, vital-energy-boosting Grand Dao Treasure Pills into his mouth.

Li Ergou, with a Grand Dao Treasure Pill in his mouth, bellowed hoarsely: "Damn things, hurry up, string it, string it, load the bolt, kill those bastards outside the city!"

Only then did a group of sturdy men scatter like a startled flock of ducks, panting as they hoisted that bolt and, with a 'thunk', heavily set it onto the giant crossbow.