Chapter 693

The chaotic battle over there continued on.

Though Yuchi Zhen held the Dragon-Rising Mace in hand, divinely brave and unmatched.

Beneath his mace, there was scarcely a foe who could last a single exchange.

Yet the fewer-than-thirty Tang Army soldiers who had followed him had already lost more than half.

Those who remained were also nearly all wounded.

But not one of them was willing to retreat at this moment.

They were all soldiers, and would rather die on the road of the charge.

Boom!

As a series of thunderous booms rang out in quick succession, Yuchi Zhen knew that the fourteen siege crossbows had taken position.

He glanced back and found that only five Tang Army soldiers remained.

Those five were nearly drenched in blood, and it was impossible to tell whether it was their own or the enemy's.

"Move! I'll take you back."

Yuchi Zhen's eyes welled with hot tears; though divinely brave and unmatched, in truth upon this chaotic battlefield he could not divide his attention four ways.

Bringing those fewer-than-thirty Tang Army soldiers to charge out was in fact having them guard his rear.

With the task now complete, Yuchi Zhen's heart ached, and leading these last five, he once more cut his way back.

"Very good! At last so many siege crossbows have arrived — Demon Master, you may make your move!"

Seeing the giant bolts from the city wall grow far denser, Borhu knew the moment had come.

So long as these siege crossbows were pinned to this one stretch of wall, Bi Xuan leading those worshippers would have far greater assurance of breaking through into the city.

Seeing Meng Chixing had long been unable to hold back; in just this short while, over a hundred of his disciples had been killed or wounded.

Nearly all of them had been slain outright by Yuchi Zhen, with that utterly unique Dragon-Rising Mace, man and weapon together.

Every disciple killed or wounded made the flame inside Seeing Meng Chixing surge another degree higher.

Now, his fury had already blazed to the heavens!

Hearing Borhu's order, Seeing Meng Chixing roared once, directly unleashed his demonic Wu Gong, and rushed at Yuchi Zhen at top speed,

"Die for me!"

Seeing Meng Chixing's Wu Gong was utterly dark and cold.

Before he had even arrived, one could see waves of cold qi already filling the air.

In an instant, that cold qi transformed into blade after blade of ice, stabbing toward Yuchi Zhen's back.

"Lord Sikong, look out!"

Yuchi Zhen was in the midst of fighting a master of the Demon Master Palace; though this man's weapon had been shaken into powder, he still struck back ceaselessly with an iron shield.

Seeing Yuchi Zhen could not for the moment divide his attention, a Tang Army soldier behind him shouted loudly.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he threw his body directly behind Yuchi Zhen to shield him.

"Puchi—"

How could an ice blade unleashed by a Heavenly Dao Golden List–level master possibly be blocked by a mere lowly Tang Army soldier.

The ice blade simply twisted once, grinding this Tang Army soldier into a mass of flesh and blood.

"Ah—"

Only now did Yuchi Zhen react; seeing this Tang Army soldier's death so wretched, he roared furiously, turned and swung his mace, smiting the ice blade.

This ice blade was one of Seeing Meng Chixing's killing moves, using true essence together with spiritual force to draw upon the power of heaven and earth.

Before the killing move appeared, there was only cold qi.

When it manifested, it was already a strike of certain death.

By rights, such an ice blade — neither metal nor iron, formed purely of true essence and the power of heaven and earth — could not be countered by the Dragon-Rising Mace's properties.

Yet when Yuchi Zhen struck this ice blade with his mace, he actually smashed the ice blade into powder as well.

As the ice blade was scattered, the spiritual force clinging to the ice blade was naturally scattered as well.

Seeing Meng Chixing thus suffered a hidden loss, his head feeling as if pricked by needles.

"What kind of damned weapon is this? How can it even shatter my ice blade, and destroy my spiritual force as well?"

His heart filled with dread, and he was about to employ another killing move.

Captain Chen upon the city wall had already seen Seeing Meng Chixing rushing over.

He immediately ordered ten siege crossbows to fire at Seeing Meng Chixing.

Fearing even that Yuchi Zhen might come to harm, he took the field himself, manned one siege crossbow, and loosed the first bolt.

500 Welcome home!

The three great dynasties — Great Qin, Great Tang, and Great Yuan — each possessed its own most unique foundation.

This siege crossbow was one of Great Tang's unique foundations.

Though named a siege crossbow, in truth it differed vastly from ordinary siege crossbows.

The crossbow's body was a full zhang long, its arms spreading more than a zhang and a half when opened.

The entire mechanism was crafted from thousand-year pear wood, fashioned by master craftsmen working with the Imperial Astronomical Bureau according to specific blueprints over a hundred days.

Once the crafting was complete, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau further carved unique formations upon it.

When ordinary soldiers operated it, it would directly absorb the operating soldier's true qi and internal force,

then, through the formations, affix them to the bolt; when blasted forth, its power was sure to be a hundredfold or more.

A Supreme-level expert, having already begun converting true qi into true essence,

therefore, if a Supreme-level expert operated the great crossbow, the bolt would absorb that expert's true essence, and its power would be all the more terrifying.

This first bolt, swift as a meteor, faintly transformed into a ball of fire, streaking across the sky at top speed.

Everything along the way was set ablaze.

That aura was even more terrifying than the attack of an ordinary Heavenly Being Realm expert.

Seeing Meng Chixing was now at the half-step Realm of Myths, not far from the supreme Mythical Realm.

By all rights, such a giant crossbow should not have been a threat to him.

But half of his Wu Gong was channeled through a unique spiritual force.

Spiritual force was even more crucial to him than true essence.

Just now he had struck ruthlessly, using the killing move Invisible Ice Blade, intending to cut Sikong Yuchi down on the spot.

He had not expected Wei Chi Zhen to counter with the Kàng Dragon Mace, shattering his Invisible Ice Blade and even wounding his spiritual force.

For a moment, his spiritual force was damaged, and his head throbbed as though injured.

When the first arrow fired by Captain Chen arrived, he actually felt a measure of threat.

"Damn it!"

Seeing Meng Chixing strained to gather his spirit, unleashing the aura unique to a half-step Mythical powerhouse, wielding true essence to command the power of heaven and earth.

At last he blocked the first bolt of the siege crossbow fired by Captain Chen, halting it in midair.

Yet although he had blocked it, that siege crossbow bolt had still not been destroyed.

Instead it seemed to roar without cease, the blazing flames upon the bolt swelling ever higher.

"This… how could this crossbow be so fearsome?"

Seeing Meng Chixing had assumed it was merely Watching Bi Xuan's cultivation being inadequate that allowed the siege crossbow to counter him, leading to last night's crushing defeat.

Today, struck by this bolt, he finally realized the terrifying aspect of these siege crossbows.

An ordinary peak-level expert, merely by wielding this contraption, could make even a half-step Mythical cultivator like himself feel a measure of strain.

One must remember Seeing Meng Chixing was no ordinary half-step Mythical cultivator!

He was the thirty-ninth ranked powerhouse on the Heavenly Dao Gold List — a tail-end rank, yes, but still a Heavenly Dao Gold List-level expert!

Shocked in his heart, yet Captain Chen over there had already ordered the Tang Army soldiers to fire more bolts.

Moreover, with the help of the Tang Army soldiers, he himself was already manning the giant crossbow to fire a second bolt.

With ten siege crossbows joining in, the southern Chengguan now boasted fourteen siege crossbows.

Each siege crossbow, even when operated by ordinary soldiers, fired bolts as fierce as the full-force strike of a half-step Heavenly Being expert.

A bolt fired by a peak-level expert like Captain Chen was even more fearsome.

At this moment it was as though fourteen half-step Heavenly Being, or even Heavenly Being Realm experts, were unleashing their full power atop the southern Chengguan.

Though the Great Yuan's offensive was fierce, against such terrifying defenses they could not advance an inch.

Worse, because of the siege crossbows, the attackers who had nearly reached the moat's edge were now driven back in repeated retreat.