Chapter 869: Cannon Against Cannon

"It's coming."

When the cannon light on the opposite side lit up, Tang Zhao was not alarmed but laughed instead.

This was, of course, because he had anticipated it long ago; in fact, he had been waiting for this shot!

Behind Tang Zhao were three Divine Machine Bows that were firing arrows incessantly.

Yes, three, not six.

Tang Zhao had limited time; six Divine Machine Bows were too many, and he simply couldn't repair them all. Therefore, he selectively repaired three, and added a simple double-Talisman Formula to each of them. This allowed the three Divine Machine Bows to fire two arrows simultaneously with every shot. The cost was that the power of each arrow was halved.

Fortunately, the Shenji Arrow was a great killing weapon. In a war like this, used against cannon fodder, its power was already excessive. The original version would pierce through rows of enemies, and the halved version would also pierce through rows of enemies; there was no difference. Almost no one present, from the Inspection Bureau to the Garrison Commander's troops, had ever seen how the original Shenji Arrow was fired, and the enemies outside the city were even less likely to spot the flaw.

He specifically directed the Shenji Arrows to slowly sweep back and forth, and through permutation and combination, he cleverly glossed over the flaw that the two adjacent rows of arrow rain were parallel. He let the Shenji Arrows clear out the miscellaneous soldiers like this, while he focused his own energy mainly on repairing the Sword Light Cannon.

He knew the Sword Light Cannon was the most powerful weapon, but Tang Zhao was in a hurry to repair the cannon not for the pile of skeletons below.

It was prepared for the cannon on the other side.

Yes, he had guessed early on that the other side had a cannon.

Mai Shiyu might not have known, and Jiang Shenyi might not have seen it at the time, but how could Tang Zhao not know that the Turtle Bandits had a cannon?

When he was in Jianzhou, if he hadn't been holding the Kun Sword in his hand at the time, he didn't know how many casualties there would have been when the Turtle Bandits fired a cannon shot through space. He later specifically looked up information and learned that the terrifying aura came from the Turtle Bandits' ancestral war weapon, the Hundred Spirit Cannon.

Tang Zhao had never seen the enemy on the other side, so naturally, he couldn't be sure if they had a cannon in hand like they did at Kungang, but it is better to overestimate the enemy. Since he knew the opposing camp had such a great killing weapon, how could he not make preparations?

The key was, what preparations should he make to meet the battle?

Should it still be the Kun Sword?

He could indeed simulate holding it, but a simulation could not compare to a real sword, and the consumption was immense. When holding the real Kun Sword, he could choose any Sword Technique, use Sword Momentum and Sword Intent, and the consumption was limited—as long as the Kun Sword agreed. But if he were to use it now, the consumption would all be his own strength. He feared the scale of the Sword Technique would not be enough to drown out the cannon fire.

Moreover, the Kun Sword itself was not actually good at slaughter; "Vast Fields" and "Juan Tu Chong Lai" were not large-scale destructive means, they just relied on brute force. Last time it was a coincidence that the fertile soil passed directly through the spatial vortex and hit the face; this time he wouldn't have such good luck.

He didn't even know from which direction the cannon would fire, or where it would aim.

Then, the most feasible method was to counter cannon with cannon.

Just as the Turtle Bandits had large-scale destructive weapons, could it be that the current Imperial Court did not? The Sword Light Cannon was the war trump card stored in Yunzhou City. There was only one, but its deterrent power was enough to influence the entire war situation.

When Tang Zhao was repairing this cannon, he once thought about what method to use to increase its power, but after just one look, he knew this was not an Art Tool he could intervene and modify; this was a Dharma Artifact.

The Sword Light Cannon should be considered a very rare Talisman Magic Tool. It used Talisman Formulas to construct destruction power at the level of a top-tier Dharma Artifact. It was like an extremely precise machine that had already fully utilized every Talisman Formula, with efficiency tuned to the maximum. Tang Zhao could only identify it in his haste, not intervene; being able to repair it had already exhausted all his efforts. The last thing he could do was replace the Origin Stone behind this cannon; the original Origin Stone had already been exhausted, and Tang Zhao happened not to be short of Origin Stones.

And he also thought of a small trick.

That was the timing of firing the cannon.

All cannons in the world are the same; after one shot, they all need to adjust and accumulate power before they can fire a second shot. The greater the power, the longer this adjustment time. The Turtle Bandits' Hundred Spirit Cannon was like this, and the Sword Light Cannon in his hand was also like this.

Then, if he were the leader of the Turtle Bandits, when would be the right time to fire?

It should be during the interval after the cannon in Xun City had just fired once and didn't have time to fire a second time, right?

So Tang Zhao used the Time Jar in the middle to intercept part of the energy of one shot, then dissolved the jar to re-emit half a shot, using a refraction mirror to magnify the cannon light, combining reality and illusion to disguise it as a real shot, making the other side think the opportunity had arrived.

In fact, the real Sword Light Cannon had been ready to fire all along.

Would the person behind the scenes be lured?

Tang Zhao's heart remained suspended until he saw the light on the opposite side ignite, and a feeling of fear for his Soul, similar to when he was in Jianzhou, rose up again—

It's coming! It's from that direction!

Well come!

Then we also—

Fire!

Maximum power!

A beam of light, like the scorching sun, rushed out, directly facing the pale white cannon light of the Hundred Spirit Cannon shooting over. The two beams of light intersected on the battlefield and exploded together!

The terrifying energy collided head-on, erupting with dazzling light. The white light shot straight into the sky, blotting out the sun and sky, obscuring the Sunlight that had just poked out half its body, leaving nothing behind; it was even more dazzling than the brilliant light of high noon.

Besides the brilliance, there was powerful force. Countless energies collided, mutually annihilating, rebounding, and refracting, surging in all directions. The entire battlefield outside the city wall was shrouded within it.

Tang Zhao had been prepared long ago, striking first to gain the advantage, making the center point of the energy collision in the rear part of the battlefield, far away from the city wall. Even so, he felt the gate tower shake, and some bricks and stones were scorched and cracked by the light and heat, emitting sounds of being unable to bear the burden.

The remaining armies on the battlefield, whether skeletons or the corpses of Fierce Beasts, were instantly roasted away, leaving no traces behind. Mai Shiyu was no longer as calm as before; she jumped onto the city wall in a sorry state, hiding behind the protection of the Talisman Formula, and did not forget to release a Spirit Image to block a disaster for that most fragile section of the city wall.

The clash of the giant cannons did not determine a winner. The light of the Sword Light Cannon could not push forward after pushing a few dozen feet toward the opposite side, and the energy of both sides gradually dissipated in mutual consumption.

When the brilliance and energy on the battlefield dissipated slightly, one could see that the ground ahead was level. The surrounding terrain could no longer be distinguished; it was physically razed to the ground. The plain had been scraped three feet deep in the clash of the giant cannons.

Mai Shiyu recovered her senses and first looked down at the city wall, seeing that part of the wall was cracked, but overall it was not damaged. Her flower tree had been hit quite hard, but it had managed to hold on. Looking outside the city again, there was no shadow of any enemy.

This should be... a victory, right?

Tang Zhao put down the cannon and said, "Mai Jie, the enemy is in that direction. I will go solve it."

Mai Shiyu said, "I will go over, you stay here and guard!"

Tang Zhao said, "I am going too. Leave the cannon here to Battalion Commander Zhou. If the opponent fires again, fire another shot to counter it. The most important thing now is to capture the leader and achieve success in one battle. My senior brother is alone in the front conducting a decapitation strike, but the cannon still fired over. Either he didn't find the enemy leader, or he was powerless to stop it. I fear he is in danger; I must find him."

Mai Shiyu said, "Fine, my sword flight is fast, I will carry you—" Just as she was speaking, she saw a two-wheeled vehicle that she had never seen before but inexplicably felt was very cool fly out from the city wall, its speed so fast it was as if a dragon were pulling the vehicle.

Dazzling brilliance shot into the sky, illuminating everyone's faces until they were pale!

Then, it returned to calm.

The light dissipated, and the smell of scorching permeated from the front all the way to the back. The few people in the standoff truly felt the aftermath rushing toward them.

"How could it be... how could it be?"

Seeing that the cannon he had spent ten years accumulating power for was countered and extinguished by the opponent, and the city wall stood firm, that High Minister Spirit Image was instantly lost and dejected, even more frustrated than when his physical body was killed just a moment ago.

"Ha—hahaha!"

Laughter rang out, and a young girl detached from the bow, emitting hearty laughter. At this time, her voice did not sound as old as before; instead, it was a normal young girl's voice.

"What kind of bullshit trump card is that? It's completely useless! Heaven is destroying you all! You are finished; you have no means left now, right? People are also going to die; it is truly a crushing defeat. The Turtle Bandits will not have a good end."

The High Minister Spirit Image's face twisted, and he said word by word, "Feng Zhilie, you old scoundrel—"

"Feng Zhilie... this name sounds a bit familiar?" Jiang Shenyi looked at the girl in confusion, "It doesn't sound like a girl's name."

The Spirit Image of the High Minister shouted: "Of course it sounds familiar! He is your Town Guardian! That Town Guardian who was captured by us and pinned to death by a single arrow like a clay bodhisattva! Feng Zhilie, did you think I would be finished? I will not die; you are going to die before me!"

Jiang Shenyi was stunned, and when he looked at the girl again, his heart suddenly tightened: compared to when he first saw her, the girl's figure had become wavering, her color had become thin and transparent, as if she were a shadow, no longer real.

Although he did not know the principle behind this, he felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.

The High Minister's Spirit Image pointed at the girl and laughed loudly: "I will not die; the only one who will die is you! The Spirit Officials of my Dawai Chao have long possessed secret inheritance arts; even if the physical body dies, as long as the Spirit Image lives, one can endure. The Spirit Image Hui Yu, who was just shot to death by you, had her physical body die decades ago, yet she still exists. I am the same; I can live for a long time yet, while you will dissipate in a matter of moments. Especially since you just overextended your power several times—truly foolish beyond compare."

Jiang Shenyi glanced at the "girl" Feng Zhilie and tightened his grip on the bow.

The High Minister's Spirit Image gradually reined in his madness, becoming much calmer, and regained some of the poise of one who holds the reins of strategy, saying slowly: "How about it? Come over to our side, and I can pass on the secret arts to you, allowing you to live on. A miserable life is better than a good death; you have reached this age, so you must know the fear of death by now, right? Moreover, you could live very well in my Immortal Wei, even more happily than being a Town Guardian here. My Dawai Chao will soon regain control of Shenzhou, and when that day comes, you will even have a chance for promotion—wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Feng Zhilie shook his head and smiled: "Did you not see my arrow just now? If I wanted to cling to life, I could have done so the day before yesterday, or even just now. I fired that arrow to tell you that a man surnamed Feng would rather die than wallow in the mire with you neither-man-nor-ghost things. I have lived enough of those days rolling in the mud in the first half of my life; if a person lives their whole life in a daze from beginning to end, isn't that too pathetic? However, I must thank you; it is precisely because I saw you that I found so much courage. I realized that I am still a person who can be saved. I have not fallen to the level you have. This is all thanks to your contrast."

The High Minister sighed: "Truly, good words cannot persuade a ghost who is destined to die. I only gave you this opportunity because I saw you were a rare Artifact Spirit Official in this world; who knew you would be so ungrateful. Then go to your death."

Jiang Shenyi sneered: "Whether he dies or not is another matter, but you are the one who is going to die; you are definitely the ghost destined to die."

The High Minister shook his head: "An ignorant fool who does not know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth—what kind of person do you think a High Minister of Dawai Chao is?"

Suddenly, plumes of black Qi surged up around him, and a giant skeleton slowly rose from the ground, enveloping him within it.