Chapter 287: Charge!

"What happened?!" Gongshu Kuo's black-and-white robe billowed as a strange set of blackboard trigram script lit up around him. The exploding shrapnel was densely and thoroughly intercepted by the power of this bizarre trigram script. Clearly, his black-and-white robe was also an exceptionally powerful dharma artifact.

Although he was preserved, the dharma vessel beneath him was obviously not as fortunate. Before the first wave subsided, another arose, and dozens of giant black arrows shot through the sky once more!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Two rounds of attacks directly reduced Gongshu Kuo's twenty-odd armored vessels to wreckage. Several had clearly been struck in their vital parts; unable to sustain themselves, they plummeted toward the Heavenly Wolf Pass below!

"How is this possible?!" Gongyang Jun, standing beside him, expressed quite a bit of displeasure. "Brother Gongshu, didn't you say your Gongshu family's armored vessels were second to none? How is it that they cannot even withstand a few of the enemy's city-destroying ballista bolts now?!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" At this moment, Gongshu Kuo's crown had tilted to one side, and his originally meticulous garments were now somewhat disheveled. With a distorted expression, he said in a deep voice, "Impossible! Though I know not what wicked trickery they employed, every single one of my sect's armored vessels was crafted at the cost of vast human and material resources from the Gongshu family. They absolutely cannot be destroyed so easily!"

He pointed toward the dharma vessels of the Grand Jin army ahead and said, "They have no more of those giant black arrows!"

Indeed, forging these giant black arrows had consumed immense effort from the Wuwei Daoist Alliance, and the Alliance had not been able to produce many.

A powerful attribute that ignored defense like this would only appear on precious dark-gold equipment, and recreating such runes carried an extraordinarily exorbitant cost!

After firing two consecutive rounds, the arrows were clearly depleted entirely.

"It seems whatever faction is backing them is not completely useless after all!" Gongshu Kuo's face was grim. "No wonder they dared to instigate the Wuwei Daoist Alliance to break away from the Three Grand Holy Sects, and no wonder the Wuwei Daoist Alliance dares to challenge us!"

"I underestimated them, but I will not do so anymore!" Gongyang Jun's eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a flash of piercing coldness.

"Their transport vessels carrying warriors are rushing up!" an elder of the Gongyang family shouted.

"Their warriors dare to contend with the cultivators of my Cloud-Yun Domain?!" Gongyang Jun said. "Pass the order to the Gongyang family cultivators to form the Thunder Yuan Array and cast the Qian Yang Thunder Scourge to strike these warriors down for me!"

Soon, within the fleet of dharma vessels, sheets of vessels bearing the banners of the Gongyang family stepped out in succession. The cultivator army aboard the vessels all formed a strange Thunder Dipper Dharma Array, chanting a long, drawn-out series of incantations. In the sky, dark clouds gathered and thunder flashed violently!

"It's the Qian Yang Thunder Scourge!"

Looking at this expanse of thunderclouds, the Grand Jin army camp let out a chorus of exclamations. This kind of spell differed from the Divine Sword Lightning Control; it was a regional spell cast simultaneously by a large number of cultivators arrayed together. In terms of sheer destructive power, it naturally could not compare to the Divine Sword Lightning Control, but its range was extremely vast, almost encompassing the entire front line of the Grand Jin army.

Its destructive power was naturally completely insufficient against experts like An Huwei or Ji Wu, but it was more than enough to deal with a mass army of warriors.

It was inherently an anti-army spell, possessing terrifying lethality against troops. In fact, Ji Xuantong had clashed with the Upper Cloud-Yun Domain in the past, and his army had been defeated precisely by this terrifying might of thunder. He himself could remain unscathed beneath this thundercloud, but his army had lost more than half its numbers in an instant, turning into a veritable purgatory!

For the veteran general Wang Tong, who had experienced that battle, even seeing such a scene now still caused his heart to palpitate. He warned, "Everyone, be absolutely careful! The spiritual light barriers of the dharma vessels can hardly withstand such a spell!"

Not to mention, the Gongshu family's armored vessels had still played some role earlier; the remaining spells had shattered many of the spiritual light barriers of the transport dharma vessels. The Grand Jin soldiers standing on such vessels were almost equivalent to being defenseless!

Yet at this moment, atop the dharma vessels of the distant Grand Jin army, sheets of flickering red and blue lights ignited one after another. The light was so scorching and intense that it even dyed the very sky with color.

"What is that...?"

Gathering spiritual energy into his eyes to look into the distance, he saw countless military formations neatly arrayed upon the Grand Jin dharma vessels. As his gaze swept across, streak after streak of fire ignited in the sky, turning into individual flaming seals. As the seals lit up, an ethereal, sacred glow seemed to envelop the perimeter of every single warrior.

Sacred Armor Spell!

Immediately following that, another sheet of fire talismans flew out. The talismans used for these fire talismans were universal talismans—that is, the imperial decree talismans most commonly seen among cultivators who practiced talisman arts. This category of talismans was applicable to any conventional Daoist art.

Another sheet of deep blue flames ignited above the heads of each military formation in succession.

Ghost Shield!

"All warriors, raise shields!" Ji Wu's face was solemn as he roared loudly.

"Raise shields!" Command after command was passed down, and the Grand Jin warriors atop the dharma vessels raised pitch-black great shields one after another.

Right after, countless bolts of thunder descended! The entire Grand Jin dharma vessel fleet was instantly transformed into a purgatory of thunder!

Incomparable confidence showed in Gongyang Jun's eyes. Back then, when Ji Xuantong campaigned north and south, his invincible army of warriors had been just like this—before even drawing near the Cloud-Yun cultivator army, half their numbers were already dead or wounded!

"Failing to reflect upon past lessons is simply foolish!" Gongyang Jun let out a cold laugh as he looked at this sky that resembled a thunderous purgatory. In his view, using an army of warriors to spearhead the attack could be described as utterly idiotic!

At this moment, Ji Wu's expression was also solemn to the extreme. Fine beads of sweat trickled from his forehead. Clearly, this emperor of the Grand Jin had also heard of the sorrow of the Grand Jin army's past western expedition; that was the nightmare of the entire Grand Jin army!

So much so that before the late emperor of Jin, Ji Xuantong, passed away, he had remained brooding over that year's battle.

And now, he was leading the massed troops to face this nightmare head-on, with no path of retreat!

"Hold on! You must hold on!" Ji Wu bit his gums so hard they almost bled.

Rumble!

Sheets of violent thunder fell, striking the advancing dharma vessels one after another. Spiritual light barriers were destroyed, the edges of the vessels were struck by lightning, and wood splinters flew everywhere!

They likewise fell upon the massive shield formation of the Grand Jin army!

It was just like giant hailstones smashing violently against the shields, ringing out in a continuous series of booms!

Many elite soldiers of the Grand Jin even felt a trace of despair at this moment. It was true they were elites, and their cultivation was even considerably higher than ordinary warriors, but facing such an attack, they knew not how to resist and could only huddle tightly beneath their shields.

Not to mention, this was the terrifying spell legendary for crushing the hundred thousand elites of the previous generation of the Grand Jin, who were once called the "Coiling Dragons of the Southern Land"!

The faint blue light of the Ghost Shield shone upon the shields; it was so weak that the thin light looked as if it would shatter upon a single strike.

Yet as the thunder fell upon the shields, all the Jin soldiers discovered to their surprise that this seemingly powerful attack did not cause them the fatal damage they had imagined!

Sheet after sheet of thunder fell upon the shields of nearly twenty thousand elite warriors. Coupled with the stamina enchantments upon the shields, they felt they could withstand it once more, and yet once more.

Perhaps they truly could walk out alive from this nightmare, this Asura purgatory!

Gradually, the sky began to clear, and sheets of dharma vessels rushed out from the dark clouds. Though some were teetering, under the resistance of the Jin warriors, the core portion had been preserved and had successfully carried them through!

"We held!" They had actually held; it was like a miracle!

"Imperial Father, do you see this?" Ji Wu's eyes grew slightly red as he gazed at the distant sky. "My Grand Jin army has finally walked out of this nightmare!"

He let out a roar: "Taoists, Mass Healing! Grand Jin warriors, charge!"

Sheets of clear white spiritual light rose among the crowd. The Grand Jin warriors, whose spirits had been somewhat withered, saw their condition recover at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"Our Grand Jin iron army will never fall!" A burst of roars and cheers erupted, as if celebrating a survival against all odds!

"For the Grand Jin, charge!" At this moment, the roar resounded through the clouds!

.

.

PS: The defense addition calculation for the Sacred Armor Spell and Ghost Shield works like this: the higher one's own level, the higher the additional defense. Therefore, even though it is level three defense in the game, a high-level Taoist casting it is entirely on a different level compared to a novice Taoist.

Translated into reality, the higher the cultivation, the higher the added defense.

Meanwhile, the internet cafe army Taoists casting defense for the various troops were all above the True Lake Realm. Thus, these warriors enjoyed defense at or above the True Lake Realm level, even if this defense did not amount to much for the True Lake Realm itself.