Chapter 779: and translation of chapter title

Daybreak.

But there was no sun.

Thick mist, glowing with an eerie blue phosphorescence, swept in from the horizon, devouring the dawn.

Wherever the mist passed, plants instantly withered black, curled, and turned to powder.

On rock surfaces, a cold, frost‑crystal‑like nether energy deposit condensed.

On rock surfaces, a cold, frost‑crystal‑like nether energy deposit formed.

The air grew heavy, carrying a pungent corrosive smell and a faint low‑frequency hum that pressed on everyone's eardrums and nerves.

"It's the polluted mist! Protect!"

On the battlements of Jinzhou, an officer bellowed.

Soldiers quickly covered their mouths and noses with coarse cloth soaked in strange‑iron powder and alkaline solution, but their eyes still streamed tears from the irritation.

The mist weakened visibility; beyond ten zhang everything was a blur.

Worse, it interfered with the energy‑neutralizing generator's Huang Guang field, cutting its effective range nearly in half.

Note: Huang Guang is Huang Guang per glossary.

Then the tide arrived.

The first to break through the mist were masses of iron‑bone war slaves, as dense as black rock.

They no longer had the scattered disorder of earlier probes; instead they formed tight, almost shoulder‑to‑shoulder ranks.

Silent, stepping, their speed steady.

Their crystallized bone armor reflected a cold light in the blue mist.

What they held was no longer a simple bone blade, but a crude yet heavy siege hammer whose front was inlaid with large chunks of unstable nether‑energy crystal.

"Cannons! Free fire!"

The command flag on the battlements was waved down.

A roar erupted; orange‑red cannon flames briefly tore through the blue mist.

Solid shot screamed into the war‑slave formation.

Sounds of shattering bone, exploding crystal, and heavy thuds of falling bodies rose.

The front‑rank war slaves fell, but the rear ranks instantly filled the gaps, their steps unperturbed.

They trod over their comrades' remains and kept advancing.

It seemed they felt no fear, no pain, only the order to move forward.

"Fire at close range! Use armor‑piercing spears and firearms!"

Within a hundred paces, the Ming troops fired their firearms in volley, lead shot falling like rain.

The armor‑piercing spearmen stood firm on the crenellations, driving their specially made spears down hard.

The battle at the base of the wall instantly turned white‑hot.

The war slaves slammed their bodies and siege hammers into the wall; where the nether‑energy crystals met the stone, a corrosive hiss sounded.

The Ming forces poured down every means of death.

War slaves kept falling, but more kept surging forward.

At the wall's base, a layer of shattered crystal armor and twisted bodies quickly piled up.

But this was only the beginning.

"Underground! The monitoring array is sounding an alarm!"

"Over thirty seismic sources! Varying depths, all approaching!"

The soldier in charge of listening to the deep well changed his tone.

Almost as his words fell.

On the northern wall of Jinzhou, more than ten sections, the foundations simultaneously transmitted a dull boom and violent shaking.

It wasn't digging; it was an explosion!

The subterranean beasts had at some point piled large amounts of unstable nether‑energy crystals at critical points of the wall's foundations and detonated them simultaneously!

Bricks and stone collapsed, smoke and dust mingling with the blue toxic mist as they shot skyward.

Dozens of huge gaps loomed starkly amid the spreading smoke and dust.

"Plug the gaps!"

Zu Dàshòu's eyes nearly burst.

The reserve troops shouldered sandbags, planks, even torn‑out beams, and charged madly toward the gaps.

But the toxic mist spewed from the gaps; the front‑line soldiers' skin instantly ulcerated, and they screamed as they fell.

"Generator! Aim at the gaps!"

Huang Guang struggled to pierce the mist, neutralizing the corrosive energy.

Both sides engaged in a brutal tug‑of‑war at each gap.

"Sky! Look at the sky!"

Someone cried out in alarm.

All that could be seen above the mist were dozens of dark shapes flitting by.

They were not birds.

They were large, deformed flying units with leathery flesh wings.

They circled, then suddenly dove, hurling from their abdominal sacs glob after glob of sticky, burning blue‑flamed gelatin.

"Nether‑energy fire slurry!"

The gelatin struck the battlements and interior, clung and burned, extremely hard to extinguish, and continually released toxic fumes.

An arrow‑store warehouse was hit, instantly becoming a blue‑fire hell.

In the direction of Peaceful Far and Mountain Sea Pass, urgent beacon smoke likewise rose.

Communications were intermittent under strong jamming, but a few words were enough to piece together a picture of despair.

The Ajige tribe attacked the forts outside Shanhaiguan without regard for cost, and the walls of some forts have been corroded through by a mutant beast that sprays a new highly corrosive acid.

Dai Shan's central main force was like a millstone, continuously grinding down the Ming outposts outside Jinzhou.

Although Amin's Bordered Blue Banner suffered heavy losses, it truly acted like a poisoned spear, thrusting toward Ningyuan's flank in an attempt to split the Ming forces.

This is not a battle.

This is a systematic, all‑around pressure test designed to completely crush and devour.

The Qing forces, or rather the Iron Crow Army, were calmly executing a destruction program.

In Responding to Heaven, the Martial Excellence Hall became a temporary war hub.

On the map, the cyan arrows showing the Qing advance kept extending, glaring and alarming.

The Brocade Prefecture city wall is breached in seventeen places, still being contested.

Tranquil Far requests aid, while Amin's unit threatens its supply lines.

The third and seventh forts outside Mountain Sea Pass have fallen; the garrison was wiped out.

Our artillery fire efficiency has dropped forty percent due to the mist, and the consumption rate of anti‑armor spears is five times normal!

Armories everywhere are producing at full capacity, but the transport lines are under attack……

Bad news poured down like icy water, wave after wave.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood before the map, motionless.

His face showed no expression, only two clusters of icy fire burning deep in his eyes.

Tell Xu Da to transfer three more firearms guards from the capital garrison, go by sea, and reinforce Tranquil Far.

Tell Tang He to activate the 'Earth Net' plan, bury explosives and traps along the main transport routes, and strike the Pure army's scouts and small units.

Tell the Investigation of Things Institute, I don't care what methods they use; within three days I want to see a plan that can effectively dispel or counter that mist, even if only a prototype!

His finger pressed heavily on the spot of Brocade Prefecture.

Also tell Zu Dashou……

I don't want casualty numbers; I just want Brocade Prefecture to remain in the hands of the Great Bright.

Not an inch of wall, not an inch of soil may be lost.

The orders were transmitted swiftly.

The Great Bright's massive state machinery creaked under the strain, yet still ran frenetically.

More soldiers were conscripted, more iron poured into the furnaces, and more ships set sail for the dangerous northern seas.

This was a civilization's last parry as the iron hammer fell.

Brocade Prefecture, the struggle at the breach has descended into bloody melee.

Sandbags and corpses were piled into a new low wall.

Bright Army soldiers and war slaves grappled, bit, and perished together amid the rubble and poisonous mist.

The Huang Guang of the energy generator had dimmed, its core overheated, requiring rotation for cooling.

Meanwhile, the cyan mist and the enemy surging like a tide seemed endless.

Zu Dashou's armor was smeared with blood and crystal dust.

He swung his blade, cutting down a war slave climbing the breach, and panted heavily.

Looking ahead, deep in the mist, the cyan light continued to surge.

He knew this was only the first wave.

The underground tremors never ceased, and the flying beasts in the sky still circled.

Despair clung like icy vines to every heart.

But no one stepped back.

Because behind them, there was no road to retreat.

The blood‑stained dawn stained not only the sky.

And also every struggling soul on this land.

Between that and the icy, advancing will of destruction, the line grew thinner but never fully broke.