Chapter 954

Twenty small light cannons, each with an attack power reaching half-step venerable level.

Its lethality was only slightly inferior to that previous giant crossbow.

Twenty beams of black light struck the siege ram; the massive siege ram, like a small city, likewise had a great defensive formation light up, layer upon layer of ninefold light halos enveloping the entire wagon.

The laborers swarming the siege ram and the demon soldiers standing atop it all let out hysterical screams of terror.

The layers of light halos violently trembled, then were utterly shattered under the frenzied impact of the black light.

As if a heavenly god had overturned an iron-smelting furnace, molten steel and iron sparks flew everywhere; countless specks of light exploded, filling the sky for a thousand li, twenty mushroom clouds rose slowly, their thin stalks shooting up over three hundred li high before the clouds began to drift outward.

Twenty metal-cast ruined kilns stood silently in the place over a hundred li before the city wall.

The metal burned, the air filled with a piercing, burnt-metal rust odor; tens of thousands of laborers swarming the siege ram vanished, as did the tens of thousands of demon soldiers standing on the wagon's roof.

The main frame of the siege ram barely survived, wrapped in black flames, smoldering bit by bit.

Black, viscous metal liquid continually dripped from the frame onto the ground, seeping into the gravel and stone with a "hiss" sound.

After burning for about the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, the frames of the twenty siege rams collapsed with a boom, once again sending up countless sparks.

The remaining eighty siege rams suddenly slowed their advance; the laborers stared over here in inexplicable terror, while the black mushroom clouds spread slowly in the air, and countless tiny burning iron filings turned into a fire rain that fell from the clouds.

Heaven and earth were like a blazing hell.

On the wall, only Li Ergouzi's hysterical shriek could be heard: "Old dog, I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore—I'll stake everything and fight you lot to the death!"

He leapt onto a battlement, waving his arms and legs as he bellowed at the demon army outside: "Come on, come on, come attack… Old dog will give you a little something nice."

Li Ergouzi stood at the edge of the battlement; two "personal guards" screamed, rushed to his side, grabbed his belt, fearing he would tumble headfirst off the wall.

This bastard undid his belt, and a stream of yellow liquid trickled down.

"Come on, come on, Old Dog grants you holy water… Travelers from afar, drink up this aged brew!" As he spoke, Li Ergouzi actually burst into song.

His voice was desolate yet lingering, and it actually had a certain charm.

Hundreds of ruffians, like market toughs even tougher than ordinary soldiers, jumped onto the battlements, undid their belts, and imitated Li Ergouzi's voice, singing in strange, grating tones.

"Travelers from afar, drink up this aged brew!"

Li Ergouzi still had a touch of romantic charm; his singing was somewhat pleasant to hear.

And his underlings—those market toughs who had once defected to Wu Tie in Daze Prefecture and been conscripted into the Daze Army—each performed the essence of "military scoundrels" and "scum"… Their voices were as unpleasant as ghosts wailing.

Yin Wu Shuang was not provoked by Li Ergouzi and his gang of "good fellows."

He rose into the air, stepping on a flaming black demon cloud, standing tens of li above the ground to look down on the city walls a thousand li away.

He saw that the twenty black light cannons were dull in luster, and the metal pipes connecting to the cannons were continually injecting thin streams of blinding light into the emplacements; as these streams flowed in, the black light cannons began to glow faintly.

Yin Wu Shuang pinched his fingers and calculated.

"Half an hour." Yin Wu Shuang pursed his lips and smirked: "Indeed, for such enormously powerful light cannons, the greater the power, the slower the charge. It takes half an hour to finish charging before another strike can be made."

"Pass my order: spare no expense, assault the city." Yin Wu Shuang said in a deep voice: "Avoid that brat, don't harm his life… He is, after all, a major patron."

"Tell the boys, half an hour. Those damned light cannons have a half‑hour cooldown between shots." Yin Wu Shuang sneered: "Half an hour—if they breach the city, they'll live; half an hour—if they fail to breach it, we'll see who's unlucky."

Yin Wu Shuang's order was passed down.

One million demon soldiers formed nine massive battle arrays and surged mightily toward the wall.

In the midst of the laborers' hysterical howls, the eighty siege rams were shoved by them to move several times faster than a galloping horse; it took only a quarter hour to shift from a hundred li out to right beneath the wall.

Such enormous siege rams slammed heavily into the wall.

With a tremendous boom, the siege ram halted; the laborers pushing it were shaken by the recoil until they spat blood, and many fell to the ground.

But they quickly scrambled to their feet, gritted their teeth, and dove into the siege ram, each howling hysterically while gripping the huge hammerhead with both hands, straining to pull it backward with all their might.

The hammerhead, several zhang thick, retreated backward over a hundred zhang, then, under the all‑out push of tens of thousands of laborers, it lunged forward with a vicious thrust.

Inside the hammerhead, large swaths of heavy demonic sigils lit up.

The hammerhead accelerated on its own; over a short distance of a hundred‑plus zhang, this enormous hammerhead forced its speed up to a terrifyingly high level.

The eighty siege rams almost simultaneously slammed into the wall.

At the same time, the colossal demonic avatars coalesced from the nine great battle arrays also swung their long sabers and chopped heavily into the wall.

Three platforms trembled violently, streams of light fluttered about, countless gate arches and pavilions swayed with dazzling rosy light and smoke, and the entire wall of the One‑Hundred‑and‑Eighth Slay‑Ghost City quivered slightly.

Black demonic flames rose from the hammerheads of the eighty siege rams, and black vapors shot up tens of li high.

The rosy light and variegated hues bolstered by the three platforms on the wall were shattered by the hammerheads, which then hammered heavily and solidly into the wall itself.

The metal‑cast wall emitted a piercing "creak," and was forcibly blown out eighty pits each a hundred zhang in diameter and about a zhang deep.

The laborers shouted hoarsely, they steadied the violently trembling hammerhead, and then strained to pull it backward.

Inside each of the eighty siege rams, a laborer leader bellowed: "Brothers, give it your all with the hammer… If you don't want to die, then give it your all!"

Countless laborers roared in unison: "I want to live, I want to live… We don't want to die!"

In those laborers' howls lay endless sorrow, endless resentment, endless fury, and humanity's strongest will to survive.

Li Ergouzi stood on the battlement, looking down at the eighty siege rams that were as tall as the wall.

"You want to live? Old Dog, there are still so many brothers who don't want to die either!" Li Ergouzi muttered: "We've been living such a comfortable life—why do you lot have to come here?"