Chapter 31: Like the Might of Heaven! (Please Keep Reading)

The shell landed in the courtyard several meters away from the high wall, the thunderous roar of the gunpowder blast shaking the very earth. Li Changan glanced at the undamaged wall, letting out a bitter laugh as he murmured, "Missed by a bit..."

With that, he began adjusting the angle of the cannon's muzzle once more.

Li Changan had originally aimed for the top of the Yan estate's high wall, intending to blast a breach through it to make it easier for the rebel army to charge inside.

He had not anticipated that, due to the less-than-meticulous polishing of the cannon bore, the parabola traced by the shell would be imperfect, failing to land where he had intended.

Yet despite this, the blast still carved a massive, deep crater into the blue-brick ground of the Yan estate!

This scene nevertheless struck everyone present dumb with shock.

Wang Su had initially been stroking his beard with a faint smile, harboring a touch of dismissal in his heart.

After all, he knew that with the meager power of Immortal Fire Powder, it was utterly impossible to do anything against such a grand manor built of blue stone.

However, when the shell detonated, feeling the deafening buzz in his ears and seeing the ripples of airwaves surging across the sky, Wang Su nearly ripped his own beard out. His eyes widened in sheer disbelief as he stammered, "This... this is truly... truly Immortal Fire Powder?"

As a Daoist priest, though Wang Su could not claim to have refined countless elixirs in his life, he naturally possessed his own understanding of the way of alchemy.

And Immortal Fire Powder was merely used as a catalyst required to extract certain elixirs.

He was actually very familiar with it, which was why he had been able to confirm the shell was packed with it based on scent alone.

Yet having used Immortal Fire Powder for most of his life, this was the very first time he realized it could actually unleash such an earth-shattering, mountain-collapsing display of might!

Li Changan shook his head, then nodded again, saying, "This is Immortal Fire Powder, but it is not Immortal Fire Powder in the traditional sense. I call it gunpowder!"

Hearing his reply, the look in Wang Su's eyes changed entirely; he froze right where he stood, plunging into a profound state of self-doubt.

The rest of the rebel army needed no explanation; the way they looked at Li Changan was as if they were beholding a deity descended to the mortal realm, filled with awe and terror!

To master an unknown power that rivaled the wrath of heaven itself.

If he was not a deity, what else could he be?

...

Inside the Yan estate, looking at the backyard where earth was blasted into the air and bricks sent flying, everyone—including the previously confident Cao Tian—fell into a dead silence.

What had happened?

Why did such a thunderous roar suddenly erupt from the backyard?

Could it be that the rebel leader knew how to summon heavenly thunder and fire?

The crowd of fully armed servants and soldiers in the manor looked at the smoking crater, all of them involuntarily swallowing their spit, their faces twisted in dread.

Earlier, when Li Changan was tinkering with the cannon muzzle over there, they had all been watching from afar, though at the time everyone simply thought he was out of his mind.

Who could have imagined that just a few minutes later, that bizarre, barrel-shaped structure would unleash such terrifying power with the thing it fired!

And this was merely the result of hitting open ground.

If it were to crash into a crowd next, or smash directly against the high wall... wouldn't it be capable of tearing men into fragments or rending a fissure through the stone at any moment?

At the thought of this potential outcome, the expressions on everyone's faces changed completely.

The one whose expression changed most drastically was Yan Tian, the master of the Yan family. Encouraged by the confident assurances of the others, he had managed to muster what little confidence he had, but now, before the rebel army had even charged, chaos had exploded within his own walls...

How could they endure this?

Watching Li Changan still tinkering with that strange weapon not far away, the soldiers within the Yan estate fell into a deathly silence, every heart slowly sinking as the contempt and disdain they held at the start vanished completely.

Now, they could only silently pray that the quantity of those bizarre, thunder-like weapons was limited; otherwise, they feared they wouldn't last long...

"Boom!"

A thick cloud of acrid smoke belched from the muzzle.

After repeated adjustments, the descent of the shell finally met with no accident this time, accurately striking the courtyard wall of the Yan estate.

Several servants who had been crouching behind the wall, waiting in full armor, were thrown flying by the massive kinetic energy before they even knew what was happening, various bodily tissues splattering across the ground.

Though the struck wall was built of blue stone, it split open with a gaping fissure under the artillery strike. Although it had not completely collapsed, it was clearly on the verge of giving way.

A burst of cheering erupted from the rebel army.

In truth, as early as when they assembled their ranks outside the Yan estate, they had already prepared themselves to throw their flesh and blood against that high wall.

Yet they never expected their leader would use a method that struck them all as divine to effortlessly tear a breach in the high wall.

Naturally, this greatly boosted the army's morale.

Li Changan fired a few more shells, widening the breach in the wall until it was broad enough for two or three men to walk abreast, before turning to look at Xiong Er behind him, saying calmly, "Charge with the brothers. Remember, those wealthy lords must be taken alive!"

Hearing Li Changan's command, Xiong Er, who was already raring to go, nodded immediately and began leading the charge alongside several core members and elites of the rebel army.

It had to be said that Wang Su was indeed very capable.

For this rebel army to be assembled, this batch of core members who possessed decent skills and dared to risk their lives at the front lines had undoubtedly played a monumental role.

...

Seeing the dark mass of the rebel army charging forward, Yan Jiangrun within the courtyard grew flustered.

He was nothing more than a local wealthy landlord entrenched in his own corner. Although his ancestors had produced capable men, that capable man was clearly not him.

Consequently, utterly at a loss, he instinctively looked toward the grim-faced Cao Tian beside him, trembling as he said, "Officer... Officer Cao, the courtyard gate is broken, what should we do?"

Cao Tian was in no mood to pay attention to this old sycophant, silently beginning to weigh the strength of the opposing sides in his mind.

To deal with the rebel army, the Yan family had armed over a hundred servants and hired about fifty neighboring farming households. Adding the capable men, martial experts, and veteran soldiers invited from the city, along with the cooks in the backyard and the non-combatant family members.

At the absolute maximum, they numbered fewer than three hundred people.

With such a small force, relying on a sturdy wall might have allowed them to wrestle with the rebel army, but now that the wall was breached, they were completely inadequate in the face of nearly a thousand rebels.

Cao Tian was not an indecisive man either.

After measuring the fighting capabilities of both sides and realizing their party was utterly unable to resist, he let out a cold snort, stood up, and walked over to two men who were resting with their eyes closed not far away, speaking, "Brothers of the Liang Family Martial Arts Hall, a slight mishap has occurred today, and I may truly need you to lend this official a helping hand."

At this point, his voice paused, his gaze sweeping over Li Changan who followed within the crowd, his tone turning sinister as he said, "We shall join forces to kill the leader of that rebel army. I refuse to believe this rabble can turn the heavens upside down!"