Stealing the Heavens - Chapter 975 - A Bloody Journey
“Speed up! Return to Liangzhu at full speed! Quick! Quick! I WANT full speed!” Ji Dai cried out at the top of his voice. The sudden sense of crisis in his mind had stiffened him. At this moment, his hatred for the eight Supreme Oracles who had left without him went bone deep. If they had not abandoned him, they could easily have taken three hundred flying ships back to Liangzhu at a speed so fast that they would not have to worry about being intercepted halfway.
But now, he had to rely solely on flying ships to make his return. Yet, even if they flew at top speed, it would take them at least three months to get back to Liangzhu. That was enough time for Wu Qi to make arrangements for him to die on the road. Without the strength of Primordial-grade experts, what was the use of his army of 300,000 soldiers, which seemed to be terrible?
The fleet left long white trails high in the sky, flying at an overloaded speed in the direction of Liangzhu despite the huge immortal stones consumption. Even so, Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng still felt uneasy. They kept urging the soldiers to speed up, unsympathetic to the power cores of the ships; the frames of the ships were already shaking violently, but they still insisted on flying at such a high speed.
Fortunately, the quality of Great Yu’s flying ships was excellent, so there were no failures even after three days and three nights of frantic flight.
Straight ahead of the fleet’s course lay a range of mountains stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles, with peaks shaped like swords and blades pointing at the sky. Whenever a strong wind blew through this area, these blade-like peaks would rip it and make a noise like the howling of ghosts, which could be heard from thousands of miles away.
At Ji Dai’s urging, the fleet zoomed straight into the mountain range, flying along a winding valley no wider than ten miles between the peaks. After losing those Supreme Oracles, they did not notice an army of nearly 100,000 elite soldiers in Ling Dynasty’s armor lying in ambush on the nearby mountains.
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Just as the fleet reached the heart of the mountains, the knocking of a wooden clapper suddenly rang out. At the sound, thousands of flags belonging to Ling Dynasty were raised. Although they looked tattered—covered with cuts from knives and swords, holes from arrows, and patches of dried blood—the sight of them fluttering in the wind still cast a dark cloud over the hearts of Ji Dai and his men.
Before Ji Dai could give the order to defend, three energy cannons made by Ling Dynasty had been loaded at the top of a mountain a few miles away.
When Wu Qi saw the three energy cannons captured from a city of Ling Dynasty, even he could not help crying ‘Wastrel!’. Although they were small in size, the projectiles they fired were incredibly powerful — the five-element pearls condensed from the acquired energy essence of the five elements!
The pearl was a material that could be used to craft superior-grade Gold Immortal artifacts, but Ling Dynasty had invented such a terrifying cannon and used this rare and precious pearl as the projectile. Wu Qi had no doubt about the insane power of the cannon.
Twenty-seven five-element pearls were seized along with the three cannons, and now three pearls were loaded in the cannons.
Standing on a nearby mountain, Wu Qi, clad in the armor of a Ling Dynasty’s general, covered his face with a golden mask. Then, he waved his hand lightly, and Huang Liang, who was standing beside him in a similar suit, cried out, “Attack!”
Amidst the rapid knocking of wooden clappers, three cannons shot out three beams of red light, which smashed into Ji Dai’s fleet like a hot knife cutting through butter. Loud booms echoed out as eighteen ships were pierced by the light, their bodies ripped with holes about a mile in diameter. Severely wounded soldiers could be seen falling out of the holes with blood gushing out of them, while the ships spat plumes of smoke and fell heavily toward the ground.
A dazzling light filled the void as red shockwaves swept across the valley. More than thirty ships were twisted and shattered in the glare of light and then blasted to pieces, along with all the men on board. The power of three five-element pearls spread in all directions, breaking two lofty mountains in the middle and sending huge rocks flying hundreds of miles into the nearby mountains, generating loud rumbles that caused pain in one’s eardrums.
Ji Dai rushed out of the hall in his flagship and bellowed, “King of Dong Hai… YOU…”
His cry stopped abruptly, and he looked in horror at the flags that belonged to Ling Dynasty around him, as well as the elite soldiers armed with crossbows and clad in rich armor so different from that of Great Yu, who had silently appeared on the mountaintops in all directions. The next moment, the soldiers—a hundred thousand of them—pulled the triggers at the same time.
Each of the crossbows in these soldiers’ hands was loaded with twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six bolts. The bolts made by Ling Dynasty were particularly fine, and although of the same length, they were only a third to a quarter the diameter of the standard bolts in Great Yu. So, their crossbows could be loaded with more bolts. And, in addition to those standard armor-piercing and curse talismans, they were attached with other rather useless talismans, such as those that emitted a whistle or a strong light.
So, as soon as the triggers of 100,000 crossbows were pulled, more than a million bolts soared into the sky like meteors with long, bright tails, filling the air with deafening whistles as they blanketed more than two hundred ships. The huge web of bolts swept past the ships that had no time to activate their defenses, piercing the soldiers standing on the decks.
If there were Supreme Oracles in the army right now, the ships’ defenses would have been activated at the fastest possible speed, and the bolts would not have approached them at all. But, with twelve Supreme Oracles killed by Qixia and the remaining eight abandoning Ji Dai, there were now only a handful of weak oracles in his army.
All the soldiers standing on the deck of more than two hundred ships, with an average length of about a mile, were badly wounded by the bolts. Those who were lucky fell on the deck, struggling and groaning, while the unlucky ones fell out of the ships into the valley below covered with mist. No one knew what kind of miserable fate they had met.
The cannibals who served Wu Qi, including Gold Horn and Silver Horn, were hiding in the valley, happily opening their mouths to swallow all the food that had fallen from the sky. Every drop of blood essence of these human soldiers with strong cultivation bases contained a powerful life force, which was the best tonic for these cannibals to enhance their strength.
Under Ji Dai’s panicking command, more than two hundred ships who had survived the attack fled the valley in disarray, flying as fast as they could in the direction of Liangzhu. Ji Dai stood shivering on the deck as he howled, “Why is Ling Dynasty’s army here? WHY!”
Yu Qingcheng’s face turned livid. He could guess where these soldiers came from, but even if he told them, who would believe it? He had no proof at all!
Wu Qi did not order the chase. Human soldiers could fly in the air for a short time, but it was unrealistic for them to catch up with the speed of these flying ships. So, he asked Huang Liang to return to Dong Hai with the soldiers while he followed Ji Dai’s fleet with the group of cannibals.
After a few days of flying, the fleet was stopped by a huge, forbidding mountain that stood like a screen. The mountain, hundreds of miles high and about a thousand miles wide, was black and gave off a ferocious, savage air. A plume of grayish-white energy rose from the mountain peak, turning into three vague gray lotus flowers atop the clouds.
Looking at the three gray lotus flowers, Ji Dai, filled with resentment at being forced to flee in panic, gave an order without thinking twice, “Why are there itinerant immortals cultivating here? Do they regard Great Yu’s injunction as nothing? Somebody, raze this place to the ground!”
Yu Qingcheng wanted to stop Ji Dai, but he knew the other would never listen to him. So, thirty ships carrying more than twenty thousand soldiers flew toward the mountain while their prow decks opened, revealing the powerful heavy crossbows inside.
But, before they could fire, a faint shout was heard ringing out of the mountain. Then Tu Xiaobai, carrying two huge sledgehammers, rushed out with a group of demon immortals from the Underhand Sect. Glaring at the ships with a pair of bloodshot eyes, she smashed them all to pieces as if she had gone mad. Afterward, the demon immortals behind her took out magical ropes and captured all the soldiers.
When she was done smashing the ships, Tu Xiaobai shot a fierce look at Ji Dai and his men, who were dumbstruck, and slammed them hard with a Primordial-grade spiritual pressure.
Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng coughed up mouthfuls of blood and again ordered the whole army to flee at full speed.
After fleeing for another five or six days, Ji Dai saw a dozen black-clad fiend immortals flying on clouds ahead of the fleet, each carrying a basket containing worthless herbs on his back. Judging by the swirling fiend aura around them, their cultivation bases were at best at the level of Heaven Immortals. Ji Dai, who had suffered two losses in a row, was elated, and immediately ordered the soldiers to capture them so that he could vent his anger.
The fiend immortals were easily captured, but when Ji Dai had just cut off the arm of one of them, his fleet was surrounded by dark clouds. Thousands of fiend immortals with the cultivation base of Gold Immortals gnashed their teeth and launched a frantic attack at his army. With only about a hundred Second Pangu Heaven generals, there was no way Ji Dai’s army could defend themselves against thousands of Gold Immortals. Soon, one ship after another was destroyed. In the end, only some ninety of them escaped, and the captured fiend immortals were rescued.
Only then did Ji Dai realize that he had stirred another hornets’ nest. Although the cultivation base of the dozens of fiend immortals was weak, they had very strong backers!
After being battered three times in a row, even Yu Qingcheng began to wonder if they were having bad luck this time.
They flew on for a few days without any incident. One particular day, when they were about a month away from returning to You Xiong Plain, Ji Dai saw a very beautiful girl flying by the side of the fleet on a sword. Nobody knew what was wrong with him, but he ordered his men to stop the girl and insulted her with foul language.
The girl, who was weeping with fear, suddenly screamed, “Daddy, someone bullied Xue Mei!”
A furious roar rang out, and then Supremacy Three Flame rushed over, cursing Ji Dai’s mother while spewing flames that burned all his soldiers to ashes and turned his legs into a cloud of smoke.
Ji Dai uttered a shrill scream, and he finally activated a life-saving talisman, which teleported him and Yu Qingcheng back to Liangzhu in the blink of an eye.
The army of three hundred thousand soldiers he brought with him was completely wiped out.
