Chapter 383: Defection
RUMBLE
Sparks and electric currents emitted from Plum Emperor Sword as Kang Dongfang forcefully terminated the pact with Ling Tianlong, driving out the latter's blood from the weapon.
CRACK
The tip of the sword cracked as the backlash got to the weapon. It also flopped to the ground as it ran out of energy.
'I-It's done. N-Now, child. Give me your blood essence.'
Kang Dongfang's voice was so weak as if he was about to die.
Kang Yan felt bad for him. She knelt and extracted a drop of her blood essence for the weapon. As a result, she lost half of her Life Essence and her dantian size slightly got smaller.
This was the consequence of giving away one's Blood Essence without having a system cheat like Miaomiao. Still, she could reaccumulate Life Essence and restore her dantian size after a few months of recuperating.
As soon as Kang Dongfang received the blood essence, he instantly established a mental connection between his soul and Kang Yan's nascent soul's embryo. Then, a flood of information entered her brain as Kang Dongfang imparted everything he knew to his precious daughter.
Overwhelmed by the incoming foreign memory, Kang Yan fainted.
Ju Shoufen supported Kang Yan before her head could hit the ground. She carried the girl on her back, bringing her to her room.
The loli elder didn't forget to pick up the sword and put it next to Kang Yan's bed. After all, they needed some time alone.
After Ju Shoufen handled the matter, everyone gathered around her to ask what had happened.
"Actually, it's a funny story. I think it's a good time to teach all of you about what I learned from my dao god."
Ju Shoufen told the yin slaves about the god realms with the limited information that she knew.
God Realms were self-explanatory, the worlds of the gods. However, people there no longer cultivated like mortals. Their cultivation methods and strength heavily relied on the number of their believers, their follower's faith power, karma, and luck.
In short, they had to act like a proper god by bestowing their luck to their vessels, teaching their followers about dao, or protecting them from harm's way. Most lessor gods ignored their job and were punished by their ill karma while proper gods were rewarded with faith power and luck energy, which could be used to create miracles and twist laws of the god realms.
That was all that Ju Shoufen know. She figured that the spirit in the sword might have been cursed by his own karma or the past sins when he attempted to break through, or someone more powerful put him to this state.
Wei Yuan was interested in the topic, "So, Dao Gods seek out mortals to spread their influence and gain our faith. After that, they get stronger?"
"Something like that. I don't know the detail."
"Have you dao god helped you at all?"
"Actually, Sun Crow rescued me and taught me some techniques in exchange for my loyalty and faith. He can't do much in the past. But he has been paying attention to me lately."
"Sun Crow? Is he also connected to Miaomiao?"
"Probably… Right. Ever since Miaomiao shows up in my life, my dao god has been very active..."
Wei Yuan glanced at Miaomiao's completed quest detail, which revealed some of the dao god's names. The Sun Crow, Ju Shoufen's Dao God, was among them.
'Yup. Miaomiao's backers are INDEED big shots. How the hell did he attract so many dao gods? Why are they wanting Miaomiao to kill these… protagonists?'
…
COUGH
Suddenly, Ling Tianlong spat several mouthfuls of blood while he was being transported to Liu Biao's camp. He sensed something precious to him being severed.
Huang Hansheng glanced at his prisoner and smirked, "Oh? Has your precious weapon abandoned you? Yeah, that's something you should have expected since everyone tends to throw away their useless friends and families. From this day onward, you can no longer cultivate but become my slave, so don't fret if your partner dumps you."
Ling Tianlong glared at Huang Hansheng and ground his teeth. He swore that he would pay back for this humiliating defeat a thousand folds.
Meanwhile, Lu Fengxian faintly smiled as he figured what might have transpired back at Siren City. He thought of Ling Tianlong's immortal-grade sword.
'Who was it? Ma Moxi? Wei Yuan? Fang Meirong? Mao Miaomiao? Or… Is there an illegitimate child or an abandoned child of a dao god somewhere in the city that I have no idea about? Perhaps, Kang Yan? Since she's exceptionally talented in swordsmanship, is she the one?'
As Lu Fengxian had been absentminded, Huang Hansheng's expression suddenly changed. He looked back at Siren City, after which he gazed toward the southwest.
He sensed the massive fluctuation in the air, caused by Soul Essence of an immortal.
A powerful immortal was about to reach here soon!
"TSK!" The archer clicked his tongue, "You are lucky. I'll drop you off at my ship, and I'll come back to deal with you later!"
Huang Hansheng increased his speed as he pulled the chains, urging his prisoners to hurry.
…
1 PM
A massive army of 50,000 cultivators covered the sky, approaching Siren City from the east.
At the southeast of Siren City, a flying island and Sun Wentai's fleet slowly moved northwest, heading closer as well.
Zhang Ren, who had been waiting and observing, signaled his troops to head north.
Meanwhile, ten battleships of Liu Biao and Huang Hansheng followed after Sun Wentai's fleet as if they were stalkers. Yet, they maintained the cruising speed, not intending to get to the frontline any time soon.
Aside from Wei Huang, who went missing in action, most Yuan Shaoqing's allies had mobilized.
Zhao Bao, Ju Shoufen, Jia Wenhe, Ma Moxi, Fogan, and many fighters in Siren City gazed at their enemies in solemn. Despite being outnumbered, they never despaired.
Ma Moxi's men started loading DU armor-piercing shells into their cannons and pointed at the approaching battleships of Sun Wentai. As for the snipers, they quietly mounted their anti-material rifles and adjusted their breath, aiming at the obvious commanders who led their men at the forefronts.
Jia Wenhe and Ju Shoufen rushed to the circular formation array, which had been drawn next to the pylon tower. They directed the flow of Life Essence in the air and Qi from the tower to the prepared formation, reactivating and fueling their city's barrier dome.
Fogan and Zhao Bao hovered above the pylon tower, observing the situation as a whole as they were getting ready to rush out and confront Yuan Shaoqing's top experts at any moment. However, they would only sortie if the snipers and the cannon battalion couldn't finish the job.
Mao Xueyan and Mao Dandan hid among the beastmen troopers, acting as the commanders of the reserve units. They would instantly rush out for melee combat had their enemies managed to breach the city barrier again.
Wei Yuan, Liu Guang, Ma Xingjuan, and yin slaves were the last line of defense as Ju Shoufen had entrusted them to protect the non-combatants, such as worker orcs, harmless monks, and pet-like beasts.
The formation was ready.
Two kilometers
Everyone forgot to breathe, waiting for their enemies to get into their range.
One kilometer
The enemies got to the cannon's range, but no one started shooting yet. Everyone now emptied their minds.
800 meters
Ma Moxi waved his hand and ordered all cannons to get ready. No one could think anything now as they were eager to fight to the death.
Before Ma Moxi could swing his hand down and signal the cannons to fire, Sun Wentai's battleships suddenly pointed their broadside to the north, opening their windows and showing their metallic medieval artillery cannons. Yet, all weapons were embedded with essence cores.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Without warning, 20 of Sun Wentai's fleet open-fired at Yuan Shaoqing's main troops, where 50,000 cultivators had been gathering, sending 200 round glowing shells toward them.
The cultivators were taken by surprise and forgot to react. Some of them were smacked by the incoming round shells, but the cannonballs were not strong enough to kill them in one hit. Even 5th-stage cultivators, who had gotten hit by the cannon shells, were unharmed.
Yuan Shaoqing looked at the fleet and bellowed in rage, "SUN WENTAI, STOP SHOOTING!! YOU'RE SHOOTING AT YOUR ALLIES!!"
Yuan Shaoqing still thought that Sun Wentai made a mistake.
However, what happened next confirmed Sun Wentai's intention.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
The harmless glowing shells earlier detonated and scattered brown dust everywhere. The dust latched onto the unsuspected cultivator skins and entered their pores as if they were alive.
The scattered brown dust annoyed the cultivators. Again, nobody was physically harmed… yet.
As soon as the explosions subsided, many 5th-stage cultivators began screaming.
"S-Something is crawling under my skin!!"
"HEEEEELLLLLLP!!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
"GET IT OUT!! GET IT OUT!!"
Random shout, dying scream, exclamation, and random noise muffled the voice of Yuan Shaoqing. The latter could only stare at his followers wringing in pain before they were slowly eaten from the inside by unknown creatures.
Several bold cultivators stabbed their arms and legs with their knives, digging out grain-sized brown antlions from their flesh. Some smart cultivators circulated their element Qi to kill the creatures.
However, inexperienced fighters tried to heal their internal wounds with their yang essence or yin essence.
The group of uneducated cultivators suddenly bloated like a balloon while small antlions flooded out of their orifices. Eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, anus, and pee holes gushed out these little insects, which scattered and headed toward the next victims.
Then, those balloons of flesh exploded, releasing more insects into the sky.
Yuan Shaoqing and many nascent soul cultivators recognized these deadly insects right away as they had once appeared during the previous demon-human war.
"Qiongqi Spawns! The brown dust is eggs of Qiongqi Spawns!"
"Don't circulate your yang essence! It will eat your essence and multiply! Use your fire element Qi to drive them out!"
"It's that guardian beast's domain power! Be careful, that guardian beast is not a divine white tiger. It's a freaking man-eating Qiongqi!"
Even though they realized the origins of Sun Wentai's secret cannon shells, it was too late for weak cultivators to react or get rid of the small insects in their bodies. Over 2,000 cultivators from weak clans and no-name sects fell like flies.
Yan Liang immediately charged toward the surviving people, who had been struggling to remove the insects in their chests and heads. He bellowed and expanded his domain to repel the guardian beast's domain, which covered the entire battlefield and the battleships.
The invisible domain of the white tiger cub was pushed back. As soon as the Qi manipulation territory of the tiger couldn't reach the victims of the insects, the multiplication of the creatures came to a pause.
Everyone managed to catch their breath as they used their elemental Qi to kill the antlions inside their bodies with ease.
Still, the damage had been done. Some of them lost half of their livers, lungs, kidneys, or even intestines. Many unfortunate people had some of their brains eaten by the bugs, and they lost their ability to fly or even function as a human.
With just one salvo, Sun Wentai had shown Yuan Shaoqing and the land that Jiangdong White Tiger Sect was not a pushover!
…
The tiger cub had been observing the battle on top of the flying island in glee. He laughed and bragged to Gan Ning and Zhu Qiao, who had also been listening to his lecture at the moment.
"See that? I only used a bit of my power to decimate half of our enemies! Remember what they are? Those bugs are from the Forbidden Forest to the north. They usually live inside Man-Eating Corpse Flowers like parasites. But if you extract their eggs and mix them with a drop of yin or yang essence, they can instantly multiply from one to a thousand within one breath!"
Gan Ning snickered, "Correction, a small portion of them have died, master. Also, those bugs are not created by you, so technically, they're not your power."
The tiger spat and stood on two legs, pointing the front chubby paw at Gan Ning's face, "It doesn't matter how many of them died! Also, I have been researching how to use them for 1,000 years, so they are a part of my power! Now, I've shown you how you can manipulate those bugs. Now, you two try to control the little mosquitos on your head before they suck your blood dry!"
"…"
Currently, two basketball-sized mosquitos were hovering over Zhu Qiao and Gan Ning's heads, threatening to stab them with the six sharp needle-mouths.
Zhu Qiao and Gan Ning's faces were pale as they were scared witless. They stared at the monstrous mosquitos as they attempted to communicate with these things, using their new bloodline power.
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