Chapter 288: Iron Army! (Average Subscription Bonus 06)

"How did they get out?!" Lord Gongyang's face contorted into a hideous grimace. He utterly refused to believe that the army of the Jin Kingdom could have emerged from the Tribulation of Qanyang Thunder, yet this impossible feat was unfolding with terrifying clarity right before his eyes!

It was as though a toddler who had been stumbling awkwardly before him just moments ago had suddenly transformed into a true army of elite warriors!

"Spell—Hellfire Wave!" Lord Gongyang roared his command. The cultivator army shifted into rigid phalanxes as countless flares of light ignited atop the dharma vessels, screaming toward the Jin army like a barrage of cannonballs!

"Form shield wall!" The Jin martial artists stood firm, resembling a succession of obsidian ramparts. The descending flames crashed violently against their shields, only to dissolve into drifting smoke.

Meanwhile, the martial artists in the rear had already notched their arrows to their bows!

"Release!" A torrent of arrows enveloped in martial qi shot forth, carrying with them the thunderous roars of the Great Jin warriors as they soared toward the dharma vessels of the Yundian Region. In terms of range, the arrows might not match the spells, but in raw destructive power, they were hardly inferior.

The massive volley rained down upon the spiritual light barriers shielding the dharma vessels, causing the luminescence to flicker violently, teetering on the brink of collapse!

And the dharma vessels of the Jin army were drawing closer still!

"Fall back! Fall back!"

"Target their vessels! Stop them!"

Lord Gongyang's cultivator army had clearly fallen into a desperate stalemate. If the martial artists were permitted to board their vessels, it would lead to a scenario he absolutely refused to entertain.

Even if he remained confident that the elite cultivators of the Gongyang Clan would not suffer total defeat because of this, the pride of the fourth greatest clan of the Yundian Upper Region would be utterly ground into the dust!

"Retreat! Fall back!"

"We cannot retreat any further!" Gongshu Kuo bellowed in frustration.

To retreat now meant their formation would collapse into absolute chaos.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Lord Gongyang asked, his face darkening. The coalition between the two houses was clearly fracturing.

"Rally our elites!" Gongshu Kuo declared. "Kill—"

Before his words could fully leave his lips, the scene unfolding ahead caught his eye:

"Fire Wall! Push the Fire Walls forward! Hurl the Bursting Flames ahead!"

"Taoists! Group healing, send the skeletons across!"

"Anyone with area-of-effect skills, rain them all down on the front line!"

Aboard the dharma vessels, vast sheets of blazing fire erupted, light billowing into the sky! These arcane flames required no physical fuel, burning continuously under the sustenance of the magic itself.

Spells of this nature demanded no tedious chanting of incantations, no intricate hand signs, and no somatic mudras.

Invoked by a single individual, the power might not seem particularly formidable, but when unleashed en masse, the entire fleet holding the elites of the Yundian Upper Region was instantly transformed into a raging sea of fire!

The flames blotted out the sky in an unbroken, relentless expanse, merging together until the encroaching dharma vessels were entirely enveloped in a colossal cloud of fire!

In the world of martial arts, speed reigned supreme, unbreakable!

"Lightning Spell! Focus fire with Lightning Spells! Do you see that commander over there? Take him down! Focus fire on him immediately!"

An elder of the Yundian Region was still frantically shouting orders to rally a defense when suddenly, over a hundred streaks of deep blue lightning cascaded from the heavens. The strike came without the slightest warning, descending with abrupt, violent fury!

Crack!

His protective dharma treasures shattered in an instant, and the elder’s face turned deathly pale!

"He's still alive! He's not dead yet, keep focusing fire!"

Rumble!

The deck of the dharma vessel splintered violently. Seized by absolute terror, the elder fled frantically to a vessel situated safely behind him!

"He ran! Let the runner go, next target!"

"Spread the Fire Walls forward, sweep the Bursting Flames ahead, advance the vessels! Warriors, hold the front line!"

The white-robed elder, having just escaped death by the skin of his teeth, was visibly shaken, his face drained of all color!

Witnessing this, both Gongshu Kuo and Lord Gongyang stood frozen in sheer dumbfoundment.

What was the nature of this sorcery? It was unleashed the very moment they willed it, and its potency was inexplicably immense!

Though their own spells possessed devastating power, they were lengthy and cumbersome to cast, whereas the magic utilized by the army of the Great Jin Kingdom was exceptionally simple, streamlined to the absolute limit!

"Wipe them clean! Target the armored vessels! Sweep across the armored vessels! Clear them all out!" Yu Chi roared his commands from atop the Jin dharma vessel.

Under the overwhelming blanket of firepower, many of the Yundian Region cultivators could not even find the time to initiate their spellcasting before they were utterly consumed by the thunder and lightning!

"We cannot afford to wait any longer!" A flicker of irrepressible irritation flared across Gongshu Kuo's face. Never since the day of his birth had he encountered such a predicament, nor had he ever imagined that his own cultivator army could be battered to such an extent by a mixed force of martial artists and low-tier cultivators.

This rabble could not be permitted to live!

Such was the singular thought dominant in his mind.

A black spike, forged of an unknown material that was neither copper nor iron, appeared in his hand. As he flung it into the sky, it instantly expanded into a colossal, heaven-striking wedge, which then plummeted violently toward the very heart of the cultivators who were currently maintaining the Fire Walls and Lightning Spells!

This black spike was an artifact he had obtained only after exhausting immense effort within the Cultivation Region; it was known as the Heaven-Falling Wedge. Even a cultivator of the Divine Sea Realm would find it impossible to withstand a full-strength strike from this weapon, let alone this assembly of cultivators who had not even attained the True Lake Realm, or at best hovered below its peak!

Furthermore, the object moved with such terrifying velocity that even a Divine Sea Realm master could seldom evade its trajectory.

Gongshu Kuo sneered inwardly. If he could annihilate this core group of cultivators, the crisis would resolve itself.

Moreover, the Great Jin Kingdom must have expended an enormous amount of human and material resources to nurture such a unique group of cultivators. Once this batch was slaughtered, he refused to believe the Great Jin could raise another group of such talents anytime soon!

The strike descended with unbelievable swiftness, catching almost everyone entirely off guard.

Even those who wished to intervene to stop it found themselves far too late.

Amidst a chorus of startled cries and furious curses, the gargantuan black spike tore through the air with lightning speed, striking directly into the elite center of the Great Jin Coalition's veteran internet cafe army.

"Not good!" Ji Wu’s expression altered drastically.

"Watch out!"

"Despicable bastards!"

A wave of frantic shouts arose, and in that instant, despair crept into the eyes of nearly every onlooker. An assault of this caliber was fundamentally beyond the defensive capabilities of any ordinary True Lake Realm cultivator.

Yet just before the black spike made impact, a fierce shout echoed from within the crowd: "Activate shields! Activate shields!"

Swish! Swish!

At the very core of the Great Jin Coalition Army, brilliant sheets of golden light erupted in succession. One magical shield after another flared to life, transforming the heart of the coalition from a dim cluster into a blinding, radiant expanse of gold.

Immediately following, the black spike crashed brutally into the crowd!

The protective treasures of everyone present were instantly ground to dust in that single moment, leaving them with no choice but to frantically mobilize the spiritual energy within their bodies to resist the impact.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless bodies were hurled backward like stray cannonballs. In that fraction of a second, the formation at the core of the coalition shattered, and their offensive ground to an abrupt halt.

Every cultivator and martial artist of the Great Jin Coalition watched this spectacle in sheer horror. Seeing their comrades falling through the air like dumplings dropped into boiling water, their minds went entirely blank: Could it be that the brothers who had fought alongside them for so long, trained together, brawled together, and hunted skill books together, had perished just like this?

A cold sneer surfaced on Gongshu Kuo's face. Enduring a strike from this artifact, even a Divine Sea Realm master might not survive, let alone this rabble of True Lake Realm cultivators.

"No!" Ji Wu let out a furious roar, his heart bleeding at the sight.

But at that very juncture, the falling cultivators suddenly shuddered mid-air. Instantly replenishing their shields, they soared back up into the heavens!

Though they appeared drained and exhausted, it was glaringly obvious that they were far from dead!

The combination of the magical shields and the added defensive enchantments provided by the Taoists had collectively absorbed the brunt of the assault, miraculously holding the line against the catastrophic strike!

"Group healing! Group healing! Heal them up for me!" Ji Wu roared with a countenance of ecstatic relief.

But the faction of the Yunnan-Dian domain was left with nothing but an enveloping silence.

Not a single crow chirped, nor a single voice stirred!

This was, in truth, an army of iron and steel, a legion as unyielding as the hardest metal!

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(Those who have played the game should know the defensive power of a mage before their shield is broken; therefore, no matter how high the level, it remains the core skill of a mage.)

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