Chapter 223: 216 Firing the Cannon

When Tang Zhao truly began to grow familiar with the Kun Sword, he entered a wondrous state of feeling.

It was as if he possessed the vision of a bird, and the map of Jianzhou was slowly unfolding within his mind.

No, a bird does not fly high enough; one would need that legendary "artificial satellite" to have such a miraculous experience.

Jianzhou is vast, very vast, yet he could see the full picture of this landscape in his mind, and he could even zoom in or out on the map. When his Spirit relaxed, the map was like a jigsaw puzzle of varying colors, but when his Spirit focused on a single point, he could even see every blade of grass and tree, and even the veins on a leaf upon a tree.

He could see the battles beneath the trees, see the blood and corpses covering the ground. He saw the SevenStarHead of Longyuan form an Array, exerting combat power that surpassed their own strength to besiege the remnants of the Kun Yu Sword Sect. He saw the Snow Mountain Wangfu sweeping outward with itself as the center, crushing all resistance. He saw the remaining young Talisman Sword Masters, who belonged to no side, being protected yet also confined within a small Array by Longyuan, and he saw the Basalt Ice Sculpture trapped in the mud, collapsing, wrapped in starlight chains as if it were a rice dumpling, while the Cloud Dragon Ice Sculpture was long gone, he knew not where...

It seems that in this tumultuous battle, Longyuan won after all?

In his mind, there even appeared several scattered points on the map. Those were the "relics" of Jianzhou spread throughout Kungang.

There was the White City he had visited and the Lotus Pond outside the city, the Maze City that was currently in shambles, and high mountains, cliffs, cities, and dense forests that Tang Zhao had never been to...

As long as it was a place opened up by the Kun Sword, it existed in his mind; with a shift of his heart and mind, he could inspect it. He could even intervene and interfere, pinching and rubbing the map to shape it into whatever he desired.

Was it because he had gained the recognition of the Kun Sword that he now controlled every inch of land under the Kun Sword's Sword Law?

No, it was far from control. Even now, he could not insert a single thought of his own into the Kun Sword; he was still a bystander, just more familiar with the sword. If he had been an inoffensive stranger before, now he had probably become... a friend he could talk to?

What he could do was not to adjust things at will like a chess player with pieces on a board, but to exert influence through this friend in his hands.

Well... it was fairly handy, right?

Now, the Kun Sword was executing his will; the massive Jianzhou was shrinking bit by bit, and it had now shrunk to the point where everyone could once again engage in a chaotic battle; that original Jianzhou Island was returning.

It was just that... there was no longer any sea outside the island.

The seawater outside Jianzhou Island had been brought by the Sword Law "A Coastline". Although it looked boundless, it was actually far from as vast as the ocean, nor was it very deep; the amount of seawater was limited. That water had previously been swallowed by the soil on the island and had completely merged into the land. Now that the land had receded, the ground did not reveal the seawater again, leaving only large stretches of seabed mud.

Drained pond, but no fish.

On the exposed seabed, there was not a single fish. This was actually a dead sea. After all, the power of a sword has its specializations; it was already a stretch for the Earth Sword to create an ocean, so how could it possibly create aquatic life?

This reminded Tang Zhao of the Sumeru Sword, which was similarly vast in space and similarly lifeless.

It seems that in the world of swords, vitality is also an extremely powerful force that ordinary swords cannot touch.

In fact, there was only one kind of aquatic life inside and outside the island, and that was the giant turtle.

Tang Zhao discovered a huge giant turtle on one side of the island, only slightly smaller than the one in the library. He figured it must be some "ancestor" of the turtle clan. Before he could zoom in to observe, he discovered that the giant turtle had been surrounded by several Longyuan Disciples.

Although he could not hear any sound, Tang Zhao could magnify the image to the point where he could see their lip movements.

Judging by their lip movements, the Longyuan Disciples seemed to be accusing the giant turtle of treason, of passing messages to the enemy, and of releasing Yin Qi to cause a great disaster. The two sides exchanged a few words, Longyuan moved to encircle and suppress, and the giant turtle did not show weakness, launching a counterattack.

This battle was unremarkable against the backdrop of the chaotic melee, ending with the giant turtle ancestor being flipped over and unable to rise again. The Longyuan Disciples hung it on a carrying pole and carried it back.

Tang Zhao was a bit surprised, and also somewhat relieved—besides the ignorant Gui Ye, did the giant turtle clan really have pure traitors who colluded with the turtle bandits? It wouldn't be strange if they did. Gui Ye was a mere junior of a few hundred years, still at a naive and innocent age, unaware of the filth of those thousand-year-old turtles and ten-thousand-year-old tortoises, just muddle-headedly completing the ancestor's mission. As for what the ancestor was thinking, how could it know?

There were too many enemies on the island, and Longyuan had too many opponents; one more didn't matter. When the Kun Sword went crazy earlier, that Basalt shadow seemed to exert force and teleported several people over. The most powerful among them was killed in seconds by "Dragon Fights in the Wild", and the rest were killed in seconds by Beichen. Presumably, that side should know the severity of the situation and wouldn't come to throw their lives away again, right?

Correspondingly, Longyuan could not spare the hands to pursue them, unable to expand their victory. Of course, they probably wouldn't dare to pursue them either; even with Beichen sitting in command, it was a struggle to fight, so how could Longyuan dare to chase them to their home turf?

The turtle bandits were the great enemies of the Imperial Court, not the great enemies of Longyuan. Longyuan really wasn't worthy.

Now it seemed that despite the bumps and hurdles, Longyuan was going to win after all.

Tang Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. Once Longyuan won and Jianzhou Island returned to its original state, his mission would be complete. Then he would find his senior brother, return the Spirit Image, and he would naturally recover as before, and then it would be none of their business. The two of them would naturally be carefree...

Wait, senior brother?

Tang Zhao's heart gave a jolt, and he hurriedly scanned the map again.

The bodies of those Talisman Sword Masters who had been robbed of their consciousness lay scattered everywhere, among them some familiar faces, but Jiang Shenyi was nowhere to be found!

What was going on?

One had to know that the protective barrier Beichen gave them had never been withdrawn, and the enemy could not get in. Everyone else was fine, their bodies not abused. Only Jiang Shenyi was missing.

Damn it—he had entrusted him to Zhuge Yudan earlier.

The next moment, he found the unconscious Zhuge Yudan inside the cloud cover. The other party had clearly been attacked; Tang Zhao discovered she had no external injuries and seemed to have been drugged.

Tang Zhao sighed; he couldn't blame her anymore. Anxiously, he searched for his senior brother in his mind, and finally found him under a flowering tree.

Jiang Shenyi was leaning quietly against the tree trunk, his expression serene, looking as if he were asleep. Crouched beside him was a... crocodile?

The crocodile lay quietly to the side, one claw resting on his arm, as if it were checking his pulse.

Tang Zhao magnified the perspective repeatedly, yet he did not see even a hint of ferocity in the crocodile, only a spirituality that exceeded that of a wild beast. Those eyes were just like a human's?

He felt a sense of emotion...

Such a spiritual crocodile could only be Zhu Yang's crocodile, right?

He didn't expect that even though the person was gone, the crocodile was still alive, and had even found Jiang Shenyi?

Although Tang Zhao had a grudge against Zhu Yang, the relationship between Jiang Shenyi and Zhu Yang should have been quite good. The two were vaguely like-minded. They had traveled all the way to Maze City; perhaps on the road, Jiang Shenyi and that crocodile had become familiar with each other?

Zhu Yang was already dead, leaving behind only the crocodile whose Soul had been modified. The crocodile should still recognize Jiang Shenyi; perhaps it saw Jiang Shenyi unconscious and believed he was in danger, protecting him in its own way?

It could only be called a stroke of fate.

Although Tang Zhao was still a bit worried, he finally set his heart at ease; his senior brother was actually safer in the hands of the crocodile. Tang Zhao had seen the ferocity of that crocodile. He continued to think: once Longyuan won and Jianzhou Island returned to its original state, his mission would be complete, and then he would go back...

Suddenly, the sword in his hand hummed!

Danger?

On the high platform of the turtle's back, following an order from that Highness, the Black Water Order received the command to withdraw, and several strongmen carried up a pitch-black cylindrical weapon.

The cylinder was as thick as one could embrace and several zhang long. The surface of the cylinder had exquisitely delicate reliefs, and the metallic surface was pitch-black and shiny, looking radiant in the Sunlight, but the structure was extremely simple, consisting only of a cylinder, empty inside, without a single thing, just like a hollowed-out tree.

A group of tall and sturdy strongmen with their eyes covered and ears plugged were led up, each Strongman carrying several cages on their shoulders, and inside the cages were gray-white Phantoms. These shadows included humans and beasts; some were still lively, while others were already like dull shadow puppets.

If anyone with a little knowledge were here, they should be able to recognize that these cages actually held Phantoms.

Or rather, were they Spirit Images?

Spirit Images and Phantoms were originally of the same source and kind, indistinguishable.

"Load!"

Without needing the Highness to speak, a Colonel issued the order. A group of Black Water Order members came up, holding special forks, forking the Phantoms that looked like a pool of water, and roughly stuffing them into the cannon barrel.

That's right, loading meant loading Phantoms; the Hundred Spirit Sky-Piercing Cannon consumed these "Spirits".

One, two, ten...

The cannon barrel was not deep, and it seemed that a dozen or so Phantom should have filled it, but the black-clad Profound Water Order kept loading them, loading seventy or eighty in total, until finally, one could see white light from the outside of the muzzle.

"Keep loading!"

With the Pillar of State absent, the others could not face His Highness directly, so only that Colonel stepped forward cautiously and said: "Your Highness, these spirits are already enough to destroy A City; if you load too many, the cannon barrel will explode..."

His Highness's expression was gloomy as he said: "Even if it explodes, blow it all the way to Jianzhou. Profound Water Order, prepare to open the passage. Once the Sky-Soaring Cannon is raised, fire immediately!"

The crowd remained silent; half of the Profound Water Order were sweating profusely, repeating the loading action, while the other half set up the Array, preparing to disturb the space.

At this moment, someone presented a small Turtle Shell, which had already been drilled with holes and showed fine cracks; His Highness took one look, immediately pushed it away, and shouted: "No divination! Today, my Great Wei rises in accordance with the times and has the protection of Tianyou, so why bother with the superfluous act of divination? The mandate of heaven is unimpeded, listen only to my command!"

The crowd stood in awe and responded with a roar.

However, at this moment, someone in the front could not suppress a cry of alarm.

It turned out that the cannon barrel had been filled with too much, and it actually began to smoke. It was just like a person who had eaten too much and started to hiccup, about to vomit at any moment.

It's going to explode!

The Profound Water Order roared in unison, and the space fluctuated in response!

This time it was not a teleportation, but an opening of a vortex-like gap above, through which one could see a patch of blue sky on the other side—

"Hundred Spirit Sky-Soaring Cannon—"

"Fire!"

When the teleportation portal of the Hundred Spirit Sky-Soaring Cannon was opened, everyone in Jianzhou, regardless of whether they saw the vortex or not, felt a terrifying presence.

A person's Soul has an instinctive fear of higher-level, more powerful souls; whether it was the dragon might of Longyuan or the crocodile of Zhu Yang, both had demonstrated this point.

But when the white smoke from the muzzle of the Hundred Spirit Cannon flashed by in an instant, everyone had a feeling of being unable to bear the burden.

It was like a person standing at the bottom of a cliff with a mountain peak pressing down from above; in the final second before it reached their head, a person could generally feel it, that all-encompassing sense of suffocation that made it impossible to move, leaving only one thought:

"It's over!"