Chapter 491: Fallen to a Lower Level

In just over ten days, the Witch Clan's canal had advanced another hundred miles, truly reaching the five-hundred-mile boundary line. From here, one day's march would bring them to Qingming for an attack.

The breach in Ding'an City had been mostly repaired, and new watchtowers had been rebuilt. At several unfinished sections of the wall, numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators were hauling multi-hundred-pound stones, placing them one by one into cages woven from steel bars.

Inside the new wall, steel bars formed square cages; large stones were placed first, then crushed stone, and after each layer, cement was poured, allowing construction to proceed at an extraordinary pace.

As Xu Xu Wenwu had repeatedly emphasized, cement had long been on the agenda, but its priority had always ranked below gunpowder, firearms, iron forging, and the medicinal garden, so little manpower or resources had been devoted to it, resulting in slow progress.

With the Witch Clan's large-scale invasion, cement's importance finally rose, and a disciple from the Heavenly Craft Hall was assigned to oversee it, along with over ten Foundation Establishment cultivators as assistants—finally achieving breakthroughs, though the cement produced was of mediocre quality. Yu Yu Zhizhuo, based on experience and his Dharma Form bird's judgment, believed this issue, like gunpowder's, was a matter of ingredient ratios.

There was no easy way to find the optimal ratio—only repeated testing.

After Ding'an City was destroyed, cement's importance surged to the top, so Yu Yu Zhizhuo devoted all his Dharma Form abilities to it and finally succeeded in improving the formula. The new cement still fell short of Xu Xu Wenwu's description, but it was usable.

For these past days, Xiang Little Wei Yuan had specially assigned five thousand Casting Body cultivators to burn large quantities of cement and rebuild Ding'an City.

The strength of the new cement walls was actually inferior to traditional ancient methods, but fortunately, although Xu Xu Wenwu could not recall the cement formula, he had seen cement before and understood the literal meaning of the words "steel-reinforced concrete."

For a genius cultivator like Yu Yu Zhizhuo, a precise name revealed sufficient information.

Thus, Yu Yu Zhizhuo devised a method of wall-building: steel-bar cages as frameworks, large stones as base, crushed stone as cushion, and cement poured in layers—construction advanced like flying. For inferior cement and insufficient local strength, Yu Yu Zhizhuo's solution was simply to thicken the wall by three meters.

To counter the Witch Clan's explosive arrows, Yu Yu Zhizhuo, drawing on Xu Xu Wenwu's mention of bunkers, built bunkers at intervals along the wall, casting their walls from steel and cement, with steel plates for front walls and ceilings. The watchtowers were even rebuilt as full iron fortresses.

Additionally, the Witch Clan's snipers and giant beasts hurling water spheres posed major threats—their range exceeded that of short-barreled cannons.

In response, Renjian Renjian Yanhuo proposed an improvement: cast longer barrels and attach them directly to the existing short-barreled cannons, extending the barrel length and increasing gunpowder charge.

Xiang Little Wei Yuan tested several cannons using this method and found the range clearly increased—each shot now reached thirteen or fourteen li. The method was crude, but effective.

The drawbacks were imprecise impact points and frequent cannon damage—each cannon could fire at most a hundred rounds before breaking.

But this was not a problem. A slight deviation in aim didn't matter; as long as the cannons could reach, the Witch Clan's slow-moving giants would no longer dare to show themselves.

Furthermore, Renjian Renjian Yanhuo's statistics showed that since the introduction of short-barreled cannons, each cannon had been destroyed after firing an average of fifteen rounds—never surviving to its natural hundred-round lifespan.

Another new weapon was Xiang Little Wei Yuan's inspiration from the spray-tube, leading to the development of the Spray-Tube Missile. This missile proved highly effective in the last battle, so Yu Yu Zhizhuo specifically improved it; after repeated refinements by Renjian Renjian Yanhuo, the new version of the Spray-Tube Missile was finalized.

The new Spray-Tube Missile was larger and heavier: its front stage was launched by a railgun, its middle stage activated the spray-tube for secondary acceleration, and its end stage was guided by a Dharma Form cultivator's spiritual sense—speed rivaling flying swords. Upon impact, it killed all Foundation Establishment cultivators within twenty zhang; even a Great Witch at the epicenter would suffer severe injury.

In the Forge Workshop, Xiang Little Wei Yuan was discussing advanced applications of the Spray-Tube Missile with Yu Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu when suddenly he sensed two flying vessels approaching the boundary, heading directly for the landing field.

Using Qingming, Xiang Little Wei Yuan swept his spiritual sense and discovered they were two flying vessels from Tai Chu Palace. He told Yu Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu, then flew toward the landing site.

Both Tai Chu Palace vessels were small; when Xiang Little Wei Yuan arrived, they had just landed. Their hulls bore clear signs of battle damage and hasty repairs, indicating they had rushed here without proper refurbishment.

The cabin door opened, and a smiling young cultivator stepped out, glancing around: "This place is indeed dangerous."

Xiang Little Wei Yuan was both startled and delighted, stepping forward: "Master Feng? What are you doing here?"

The young cultivator was Feng Feng Chutang, who had once taught the human race's history and two other historical disciplines. Xiang Little Wei Yuan's historical knowledge came half from Zhang Sheng and half from Feng Feng Chutang.

Feng Feng Chutang smiled: "I heard Qingming's situation was dire. I had just emerged from seclusion and happened to escort disciples from the Tianqing and Shuiyue Halls for training—perfect timing. I'll stay with you for a while to review Witch Clan sorcery."

Xiang Little Wei Yuan was again both startled and delighted.

Feng Feng Chutang, among the previous generation of cultivators, was ranked alongside Ji Ji Liuli and Zhang Sheng—his talent was no less, surpassing Xu Xu Henshui and Feng Feng Tingyu. In truth, another formidable talent existed in that generation: Wang Hu, the senior disciple of Mingwang Hall.

If Feng Feng Tingyu merely had more muscle in his head, Wang Hu's head was entirely muscle—thus he could not be grouped with the three.

Feng Feng Chutang studied Xiang Little Wei Yuan from head to toe, praising: "Truly worthy of being the top young cultivator below the Immortal Monarchs! But I heard your teacher had an issue—how is she now?"

Xiang Little Wei Yuan replied: "Her Dao heart has been restructured; she will soon begin re-cultivation."

"Oh? Her Dao heart is healed? Come, take me to see her." Xiang Little Wei Yuan hurriedly said: "There are many fellow disciples still on the vessel."

"I nearly forgot." Feng Feng Chutang swept his sleeve, and both vessels' doors flew open. Thirty to forty disciples descended—some cultivators, some Daoists, of varying ages, some still youthful, others bearing the weariness of time.

On the other vessel, the escort was True Person Lan Hua, whom Xiang Little Wei Yuan also knew well.

A bright young girl leapt before Xiang Little Wei Yuan: "Senior Brother Wei! I'm back!"

Xiang Little Wei Yuan recognized her as Fei Fei Yutong, the prodigy of Shuiyue Hall. Last time, she was on the verge of breakthrough and recalled by her Hall's True Person for seclusion. Now, upon their reunion, she had already reached Foundation Establishment late stage. Though newly entered, she was two years younger than Xiang Little Wei Yuan—this cultivation pace was terrifying.

Xiang Little Wei Yuan exchanged a few words with Fei Fei Yutong, then his subordinates arrived to guide the Tai Chu Palace disciples to their quarters. After greeting Lan Hua, Xiang Little Wei Yuan and Feng Feng Chutang flew toward Zhang Sheng's residence on the main peak.

Along the way, Feng Feng Chutang said: "I've heard the general story, but this isn't really your fault. Even without the Great Karma Curse incident, your teacher's Dao heart would have eventually cracked. Now that she's shattered and rebuilt, returning to the right path, it's a good thing."

"Why do you say that, Master Feng?"

Feng Feng Chutang chuckled: "Your teacher and Ji Ji Liuli both have ambitions higher than heaven. Merely achieving the Immortal Form wasn't enough—they kept seeking further advancement, cultivating an invincible momentum. Cultivating invincible momentum isn't wrong, but there are rules. For them to constantly be together? That's absurd. Of course something would break."

Xiang Little Wei Yuan thought carefully—it was true. Fortunately, his own cultivation of invincible momentum had been brief and occurred only after Zhang Sheng's injury; otherwise, he might have clashed too.

"Master Feng, if you're so learned, why didn't you warn them back then?" Xiang Little Wei Yuan's tone carried faint blame.

Feng Feng Chutang sighed: "I warned them. But every warning led to a fight. They never held back—who'd want to spar with them?"

They flew slowly, soon arriving at Zhang Sheng's residence, landing in the courtyard.

Xiang Little Wei Yuan knocked on the door. Inside, Zhang Sheng's voice came: "Come in."

Xiang Little Wei Yuan and Feng Feng Chutang entered to find Zhang Sheng standing before the window, gazing at the distant emerald horizon.

As the two entered the study, Zhang Sheng slowly turned and said to Feng Feng Chutang: "You came too."

"I heard the situation here was dire—I naturally had to come." Feng Feng Chutang studied Zhang Sheng. "I remember when you were called Zhang Sheng, you were barely ten. Now so many years have passed. Should I call you Zhang Sheng or Zhang Sheng now?"

Zhang Sheng replied coolly: "Male body or female body—it's all just appearance. No superiority or inferiority. As long as I can beat you, it's good. Call me whatever you like. But I'm more accustomed to Zhang Sheng."

Feng Feng Chutang snorted: "Sounds like you've ever beaten me."

"Have you beaten me?"

"What about this?" Feng Feng Chutang swept his sleeve, and an image appeared: two children rolling and wrestling, the boy pinning the girl and shoving her into a mud puddle, frozen in place.

Zhang Sheng gave a cold laugh and projected another image.

It was the latter half of Feng Feng Chutang's image: the two children wrestling in mud, the boy with a blackened eye like a panda, the girl's face untouched, though smeared with mud, still faintly revealing unmatched radiance.

Xiang Little Wei Yuan stared in shock—he had never imagined his teacher had such a vivid past.

Zhang Sheng gave another cold laugh and pointed at Xiang Little Wei Yuan: "You merely got a head start by luck—nothing special. You're probably no match for my disciple now. What right do you have to be arrogant?"

Feng Feng Chutang's expression turned strange: "Is this your new invincible heart?"

"Of course not."

Feng Feng Chutang exhaled in relief: "Good. Hmph. If you can't even beat your own disciple, what right do you have to be arrogant?"

Xiang Little Wei Yuan felt he'd been struck by a random disaster—why must you two fight among yourselves and drag me into it?

Feng Feng Chutang, seeing this, patted Xiang Little Wei Yuan's shoulder and laughed: "Your teacher teaches history. When it comes to arguing, when have I ever lost? When you have time, I'll teach you properly how to argue."

"To truly infuriate someone, the key is yin and yang. Someone like her—who can't win three arguments without resorting to violence—has already fallen to a lower level."

(End of Chapter)