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Chapter 195: Capturing Fire Dragon Pass, Merit Evaluation in the Military Realm
🕑 Added 2024-11-01 17:36:00 +0000 UTCRound Moon Fortress, as a key city for the defensive array, never had its own defensive capabilities considered from the very beginning.
Its defense was even worse than what Wang Ji had arranged at City No. 92.
At least Wang Gong knew to install a few anti-tunneling formations beneath the city walls!
However, Round Moon Fortress lacked even that.
Due to the overwhelming confidence in Fire Dragon Pass, neither Round Moon Fortress nor any other fortress within the pass had any anti-tunneling formations.
There were some mechanisms, but these were not designed for anti-tunneling; they were primarily used to draw power from the earth veins.
Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie had already finished setting up the explosives yesterday.
The only tricky part was being careful while tunneling.
Fifth-rank Firecracker Bamboo was extremely volatile, and with Round Moon Fortress built on top of a fire vein, any minor accident during the tunneling process could blow them up.
"Move out!"
Chen Shijie gave the order.
A hundred sorcerers and Shennong, all proficient in tunneling techniques, carried large amounts of Firecracker Bamboo and headed toward Round Moon Fortress.
"Divine Travel Guard!"
Zhao Xing pointed forward, and a golden light enveloped a large batch of Firecracker Bamboo, sinking it into the ground.
Then, carrying the explosives, they began to traverse through the underground.
Round Moon Fortress was about the size of 25 football fields.
However, the sections that needed to be blown up were not that extensive.
Blowing up Badasi’s mansion and the four judicial array nodes of the fortress would suffice.
The most critical target was Badasi’s mansion.
This was the core of Round Moon Fortress.
Blowing up the four array nodes at the corners of Round Moon Fortress would sever its connection to the southern defense arrays of Fire Dragon Pass, but the arrays could be repaired.
However, blowing up the mansion would necessitate a complete rebuild, just as Pang Guangyao had mentioned—it would take three or four months to restore.
This part could only be handled by Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing.
Why?
Because no one else could fully utilize the power of the explosives, and the arrays beneath the mansion were relatively more complicated.
When the hundred tunneling soldiers reached the exterior of the fortress, Chen Shijie transmitted his orders through the earth veins.
"All teams must retreat in half an hour, and detonation will occur five quarters later!"
"Whether the explosives are fully planted or not, retreat in half an hour! Understood?"
"Understood!"
Chen Shijie declared, "The operation begins now!"
Buzz~
With that, the hundred soldiers dispersed in various directions beneath the city.
Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie, meanwhile, continued tunneling toward the center, aiming for the mansion.
They were carrying the largest quantity of explosives.
The route they had to take was also more complex.
As the core of the array, the mansion was situated atop a fire vein, and it would take considerable strength to tunnel through it.
Two quarters later, Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing came to a halt.
"We’ve arrived. Up ahead is the Blazing Fire Dragon Essence Array."
In the earth vein ahead, a dragon-shaped flame pulsated, its enormous head opening its massive jaws downward.
The power of countless underground flames was being sucked into the dragon’s mouth, then converted by the array and distributed to the smaller fortresses surrounding Round Moon Fortress.
These smaller fortresses acted as relay stations for the larger array.
Eventually, all the energy converged at Fire Dragon Pass.
That section of the pass was the weakest part of the Flame Mountain Range, but through layers of complex formations, it had become the strongest defensive point.
"We’ll split up. I’ll start at the southeast position, and you..." Zhao Xing began to assign positions, but then remembered that Old Chen wasn’t familiar with the work of the Gong family, so he changed his mind mid-sentence.
"Don’t look down on me," Chen Shijie interjected. "Ever since I came back, I’ve been brushing up on the basics of the Gong family’s formations."
"Li for fire, Dui for marsh, right? You want me to set the explosives at the southwest position to maximize the Firecracker Bamboo’s power by using the positions of Li and Dui."
"And you’re setting the explosives at Zhen to disrupt the energy flow of the Blazing Fire Dragon Essence Array, causing the concentrated fire energy to explode in self-destruction."
"Incredible!" Zhao Xing gave him a thumbs-up.
"What’s incredible? I know how to learn, that’s all. It’s no big deal," Chen Shijie responded casually. "While you were farming in Dongshang City, I wasn’t exactly sitting around doing nothing."
Though he said this nonchalantly, Chen Shijie felt a surge of satisfaction upon seeing Zhao Xing’s surprised expression.
Burning the midnight oil for over half a month had finally paid off. He had managed to impress the kid!
With Old Chen’s newfound knowledge, the task became much easier.
Zhao Xing carefully handled the Firecracker Bamboo, maneuvering the Eight-Angle Earth Palace closer.
Each of them had brought 100 pieces of fifth-rank premium Firecracker Bamboo, for a total of 1,400 segments.
The power of a fifth-rank Firecracker Bamboo was measured in segments.
A single segment of fifth-rank premium Firecracker Bamboo had enough explosive force to penetrate the defenses of fifth-rank battle armor.
If they were in any other place, trying to blow up a mansion using only 1,400 segments of Firecracker Bamboo wouldn’t have been enough.
They were positioned about 200 meters underground, and the foundation of the mansion was solidly built. Blowing it up would require a lot more.
But Round Moon Fortress was built on top of a powder keg.
All the fifth-rank Firecracker Bamboo had to do was ignite the powder keg.
One quarter of an hour later, Zhao Xing sent a message:
"Are you done?"
"Almost," Chen Shijie replied, "Help me check for any mistakes."
"Sure." After finishing his own task, Zhao Xing immediately went over to double-check Chen Shijie’s placement of the Firecracker Bamboo.
After another quarter of an hour, with the designated retreat time fast approaching, Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie cross-checked each other’s work twice.
Satisfied that there were no issues, they began their retreat.
Once they left, all that remained were the segments of Firecracker Bamboo buried deep underground, wrapped in a golden glow.
Everyone involved in the operation knew this technique.
It wasn’t even a spell—just the simple process of using vital energy to wrap the explosives.
Anyone who had reached the eighth rank could control their vital energy enough to do this. Three quarters later, the energy would dissipate automatically.
Without the energy shielding them, the Firecracker Bamboo would soon detonate in the intense heat underground.
One quarter of an hour later, Zhao Xing and Chen Shijie were the first to surface outside the city walls.
The rest of the team returned one after another.
Another quarter of an hour passed, and all one hundred soldiers had safely regrouped, without any accidents.
"Retreat!"
Chen Shijie immediately gave the order.
There was only one quarter of an hour left before detonation, and they needed to get far enough away to avoid being caught in the blast.
Inside the mansion, Badasi awoke from a dream with a start.
The two Fire Demon Tribe beauties beside him also woke up.
"What’s wrong, my lord?" they asked.
Badasi held his head in his hands. "I just had a nightmare... I dreamed that I died."
As a sixth-rank martial artist who had trained his Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend bodies, Badasi’s seven souls were incredibly strong.
When the seven souls nourish the life soul, it can often resonate with the heaven soul and earth soul, allowing for some prophetic senses.
These premonitions are usually related to life and death or karma.
This is why the higher-ranking warriors are, the harder it is to ambush them—they have heightened senses and alertness.
"How is that possible? We’re inside Fire Dragon Pass..." one of the beauties tried to comfort him.
"Shut up!" Badasi angrily pushed her aside, quickly putting on his clothes and opening the door. "Guards!"
"Yes, Lord!"
Two guards rushed over.
"Go find Mechanist Hope. I need to inspect the underground formations," Badasi ordered. "And send someone to check the walls for any signs of enemy activity."
"Understood."
Before long, a peculiar-looking Fire Demon Tribe member approached. He carried a mechanism box on his back and had a broken horn.
"Honorable Lord Badasi, you called for me?"
"Hope, come with me to inspect the underground formations," Badasi said. "Check if anything is wrong."
"This..." Hope hesitated, confused as to why Badasi would suddenly make such a request. Did he notice something?
"What’s wrong?"
"My lord, it’s... it’s just a minor issue," Hope stammered, his face stiff.
Seeing Hope’s hesitation, Badasi grew more agitated. "Speak up, now!"
Under Badasi’s intense questioning, Hope had no choice but to confess.
Last month, during routine maintenance, he had removed several protective arrays, including the anti-tunneling array.
Furthermore, he had skimped on the materials for 16 other formations, replacing them with cheaper alternatives.
In short, Hope had been embezzling.
Afraid that Badasi had discovered his theft, he confessed everything.
"You... you scoundrel!" Badasi’s unease intensified. Grabbing Hope by the neck, he growled, "Get down there and fix it immediately!"
"You fools! After last month’s theft of the Earth Fire Lotus, how could you be so careless?"
Though Hope complied, inwardly, he remained indifferent.
The Earth Fire Lotus incident had nothing to do with me. And aren’t you the one who’s been spending all day indulging in pleasure?
Nevertheless, Hope quickly called his men, and with Badasi, they descended into the underground through a special passageway.
As they descended, Badasi’s unease grew stronger.
But the moment they reached the bottom, that unease peaked.
"Hmm? What’s that?"
Upon reaching the underground, Badasi immediately noticed several faint golden glows floating near the array.
The people around Hope also turned to look.
The moment they saw the golden glow, Hope was terrified beyond belief.
"Th-That’s..." Hope stammered, too frightened to finish his sentence. His limbs went weak.
Badasi grabbed Hope. "Speak clearly, you wretch!"
The others started to scream:
"Oh no! That’s fifth-rank Firecracker Bamboo!"
"There’s so much of it, and it’s about to blow!"
"Run!"
"What?!"
Badasi turned his head just in time to see the first golden glow extinguish.
"Boom!"
A powerful explosion rocked the earth, shattering the surrounding rock.
"Whoosh!" The dragon head that had been absorbing the earth fire was blown apart.
One after another, the second, third, fourth... hundreds of golden lights went out.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A brilliant light filled Badasi’s vision.
Moments later, his consciousness plunged into darkness.
Pang Guangyao stood in the forest, watching Round Moon Fortress from a distance.
He knew very little about the Shennong and had no idea what kind of special explosives Great Zhou’s Firecracker Bamboo was.
All he knew was that “Xia Jing” had taken a hundred men to Round Moon Fortress while leaving the rest of the army behind.
"Isn’t this too risky?"
"How could they expect to take Round Moon Fortress with just a hundred men?"
"Shouldn’t we have sent all 3,000 troops to avoid leaking any information?"
"Is this man really Xia Jing?"
Pang Guangyao was full of doubts.
But just then, "Xia Jing" returned with his men.
"My lord..." Pang Guangyao couldn’t help but ask.
"All troops, retreat! Retreat!"
Chen Shijie roared in anger.
But at that moment, the ground began to shake.
"Rumble~"
"Rumble, rumble~"
"Crack, crack, crack~" Even the trees in the forest started to shake.
The earth trembled violently. Pang Guangyao watched in shock as a small hill of dirt began to rise in the distance.
"Crack, crack, crack~" A massive fissure, several kilometers long, suddenly appeared nearby.
"What’s happening?" Pang Guangyao’s heart skipped a beat.
He quickly flew into the air.
What he saw next was something he would never forget.
"Boom!"
In the distance, Round Moon Fortress was soaring into the sky!
Yes, it was soaring.
The entire fortress suddenly rose over a hundred meters into the air!
It was like a city engulfed in flames!
The entire city shot up a hundred meters in an instant, and then, before Pang Guangyao’s eyes, it disintegrated, disappearing completely.
It vanished entirely—not a single piece of debris remained!
It was only after that that a dazzling light burst forth from where Round Moon Fortress had once stood.
The intense light caused Pang Guangyao to instinctively raise his hand to shield his eyes.
A shockwave, visible to the naked eye, swept across the surrounding area.
A mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and the ground seemed to boil as the earth rippled like waves in every direction.
"What?!" Pang Guangyao was startled and immediately retreated, flying higher.
"Boom!"
It wasn’t until the shockwave reached the forest that Pang Guangyao heard the deafening explosion.
"Zzzzz~"
"Boom~"
"Crack, crack, crack~"
The shockwave rolled through the forest, setting it ablaze in an instant.
The sounds of burning, explosions, and orders mixed into a cacophony.
Dazed, Pang Guangyao followed "Xia Jing" as they retreated.
The vanguard had three assembled makeshift flying ships, each capable of carrying a thousand people.
At this moment, all three ships were swaying like candles in the wind.
Before they could fly far, they crashed back to the ground.
Fortunately, they had already put enough distance between themselves and the explosion. The shockwave had lost much of its strength by the time it reached them.
The flying ships didn’t break apart.
Pang Guangyao flew up to "Xia Jing" and shouted, "My lord, what just happened?"
"What happened to Round Moon Fortress? How... how is it gone?"
Zhao Xing gazed at the distant remains of Round Moon Fortress. He had been as panicked as anyone moments ago, but now he calmly replied, "As you can see, we blew it up."
"Blew it up?" Pang Guangyao couldn’t comprehend Zhao Xing’s words.
How could an entire mechanism fortress, covering ten thousand acres, be blown up?
Chen Shijie, on the other hand, was still in shock as he looked ahead.
"Damn it, we need to conduct more tests on Firecracker Bamboo’s use in different environments. This time, we overdid it."
The Firecracker Bamboo had far exceeded their expectations.
First, Zhao Xing had cultivated all fifth-rank Firecracker Bamboo, most of which was premium or top-grade, with only a small portion being mid-to-low grade.
Second, Round Moon Fortress was built atop a fire vein, and the fortress itself drew power from the underground fire.
Third, thanks to Hope’s shoddy maintenance and corner-cutting, the full power of the Firecracker Bamboo was unleashed without being hindered by the fortress’s defensive formations.
In their preparations, Chen Shijie and Zhao Xing had overestimated Round Moon Fortress.
So, they had planted an excessive amount of Firecracker Bamboo.
These factors combined to produce the outcome they now witnessed.
Round Moon Fortress, along with dozens of surrounding fortresses, had been completely obliterated in a single blast.
Not only had all life been wiped out, but even the stones had melted.
Had they not retreated quickly enough after sensing something amiss, they might have lost some of their own men in the explosion.
"Yeah, we need to use less next time," Zhao Xing agreed.
This operation had certainly cured both of their fears of lacking firepower.
Next time, they would need to plan more carefully.
"My lord, who... who exactly are you?" Pang Guangyao couldn’t help but ask, now looking at Zhao Xing as though he were a demon.
With a mere wave of his hand, Round Moon Fortress had vanished. Pang Guangyao couldn’t help but feel terrified.
Just who had he allied himself with?
"At this point, there’s no need for me to hide it from you anymore." Zhao Xing clapped his hands and stood up. "Standing before you is Zhao Xing, captain of the Ninth Battalion of the Shenwei Army under Captain Liao Rulong. I serve the Ninth Battalion of the Ninth Division of the Shenwei Army."
"The Shenwei Army?" Pang Guangyao was stunned. He had indeed boarded the wrong ship!
"However, I didn’t lie about one thing: I do have ties to Xia Jing. He is my life-and-death friend. We trained together in Ten Sun Cave-Heaven, and this time, our two armies are fighting side by side."
"My promises to you are as good as Xia Jing’ promises. The minotaur who delivered the message to you—was his name Ye Chongxian?"
Pang Guangyao nodded.
He did indeed know Ye Chongxian’s real name.
"Then that’s settled," Zhao Xing said, looking toward the Fiendish Wind Layer and the flashes of lightning in the distance. A smile appeared on his face as he walked over and patted Pang Guangyao’s shoulder. "General Pang, the army will soon break through the pass. Whether or not you can secure the title of Great Zhou General depends on you."
On September 16th, the Shenwei Army, the Xuanjia Army, and the Zhenhai Army advanced on Fire Dragon Pass.
The Fire Demon Tribe had believed these Great Zhou forces were marching to their deaths, but suddenly, a deafening explosion erupted from the southern section of Fire Dragon Pass.
All the defensive arrays ceased functioning for four hours!
Liao Rulong’s troops, riding the Dragon-Head Warships, charged through the pass, and 5,000 soldiers scaled the thousand-meter-high walls of Fire Dragon Pass.
The defending commander, Yue Haisheng, hurried to the frontlines to lead 10,000 barbarian soldiers in an attempt to repel the enemy and ordered the repair of the interior and exterior arrays.
The two sides fought fiercely for less than two quarters of an hour.
Meanwhile, the arrays at Guan Mountain North and the gate sections also began to fail.
The overall effectiveness of the defensive arrays fell to their lowest point in two hundred years.
Hundreds of Zhenhai Army warships flew over Fire Dragon Pass without encountering any resistance.
The underworld flame warships, three-leaf warships, and Dragon-Head Warships...
Divine crossbows, spirit-breaking crossbows, Spirit-Restoring Chariots, heavy water catapults, Tian Luo launch arrays... The pinnacle of Great Zhou’s engineering, all unleashed in a concentrated barrage on the defensive arrays.
The barriers grew dim and, in an instant, Fire Dragon Pass’s defensive arrays were completely neutralized.
Wen Shaoyang’s battalion of pike soldiers and the Xuanjia Army’s dragon riders followed Liao Rulong’s forces, scaling the pass in quick succession.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Yue Haisheng led his remaining troops in retreat, abandoning Fire Dragon Pass. The once mighty pass, stretching nearly forty kilometers, was soon flying the banner of Great Zhou.
Due to the disparity in numbers and strength, the thousand-year-old stronghold was conquered by the end of the afternoon.
On September 16th and 17th, the next two days were spent by the three Great Zhou armies reaping battle merits.
With the fall of the pass, the Fire Demon Tribe’s remaining soldiers became little more than walking merits.
In terms of both numbers and strength, they were no match for the Great Zhou forces.
"Thud!"
A purple finger pierced the head of a seventh-rank barbarian general, burning his entire body with lightning.
"Thump!" The barbarian general’s body, along with the long spear he had been holding, plummeted to the ground.
"Ha! Ho!"
On the ground below, a phalanx of soldiers, each wielding a three-meter-long pike, moved swiftly.
As the body fell from two hundred meters above, it was suddenly torn apart by a thousand-meter-long blood-red pike, reduced to powder.
"That’s Wen Shaoyang’s captain, Lin Ze."
"The battalion of pike soldiers, all eighth-rank warriors, form a blood pike formation like a forest of spears." Zhao Xing, having just finished chasing down a barbarian soldier, saw the battalion below.
Above the phalanx of pike soldiers, about one hundred meters in the air, floated a blood-red pike.
Two hundred meters higher was the shadow of a military flag.
"The battle soul flag of the Shenwei Army," Zhao Xing observed, gazing at the flag. "This battle soul flag is similar to my Seasonal Qi Command."
"But while my Seasonal Qi Command replaces the seasonal qi of heaven and earth, this battle soul flag forms a battle soul domain."
"Within the flag’s domain, all warriors' wills and life souls are greatly enhanced."
"Their willpower rises, their life soul strengthens, and their combat power surges, keeping them in a perpetual state of peak performance."
"However, the real enhancement comes from the formation below."
Zhao Xing took a closer look at Lin Ze’s pike phalanx.
The blood-red pike was entirely composed of condensed blood energy.
It seemed as if countless invisible pillars of light connected the one thousand pike soldiers below.
The largest pillar of blood energy enveloped Lin Ze himself.
"Once the blood pike formation is activated, Lin Ze, a superior seventh-rank captain, can wield the power of a superior sixth-rank."
"Moreover, Lin Ze doesn’t need to issue orders through other means. His combat intent is transmitted directly into the minds of all one thousand pike soldiers."
"One thousand and one men, acting as one!"
"Any injured soldier can recover through the blood-red pike, as the damage is distributed evenly among them."
"Vital energy recovery works the same way. The blood-red pike continuously draws in the surrounding heaven and earth's vital energy, even absorbing the life force of the battlefield." Zhao Xing could feel the surge of blood energy pulling at him from below, prompting him to fly higher.
"Lin Ze’s pike formation has reached the level of a fifth-grade battle formation. The blood-red pike can break through myriad spells."
"If I encountered such a formation, only my Soaring Serpent Transformation, having reached six transformations, could have an effect on it. None of my other high-level techniques could seriously damage it, and my mind would be overwhelmed by the collective will of the pike formation."
"This kind of battle formation at the fifth grade is a perfect counter to mage teams," Zhao Xing mused.
At this moment, the pike formation was chasing down a group of Fire Demon Tribe sorcerers.
Occasionally, some sorcerers would try to fight back with spells.
But any spell cast within the battle soul flag's domain would be weakened by 30%.
Then, the blood-red pike in the sky would reduce its power by another 70%.
By the time the spells reached the pike formation, they were practically ineffective.
This was Wen Shaoyang’s most elite battalion, the pike soldiers with their fifth-grade blood pike formation, forged through years of training. The soldiers had to act as one, and their cultivation techniques and martial arts skills had to be perfectly synchronized to achieve this level of unity.
Zhao Xing hadn’t seen such an elite pike battalion in a long time.
"Zhao Xing! What are you daydreaming about?" A familiar voice called out. Zhao Xing turned to see Xia Jing riding a flying dragon.
His Xuanjia Dragon Riders were also hunting down fleeing soldiers.
"Why aren’t you earning your battle merits now? What are you waiting for?" Xia Jing teased. "Go chop off some heads! The three armies have already activated the Judicial Underworld Spirits for patrols, and the Mirage Pearls are recording everything."
"The heads you collect now will all be accurately counted."
"I got it!" Zhao Xing grinned and flew off in pursuit of his next target.
On September 19th, after Fire Dragon Pass was breached, the pursuit of the Fire Demon Tribe soldiers began to wind down.
There had only been a few tens of thousands of them to begin with, not nearly enough to satisfy all the Great Zhou soldiers.
Zhao Xing had participated in this "merit hunting," but there was an unspoken rule in the army: high-ranking officers wouldn’t compete with low-ranking soldiers for merits.
In these free-for-all chases, which were purely about collecting merits, Zhao Xing, as a seventh-rank officer, was expected to target seventh-rank enemies. Only if he was surrounded by eighth-rank enemies would he step in out of necessity.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair for high-ranking officers to hog all the battle merits, leaving nothing for the lower ranks.
On the night of September 20th, with the battle for Fire Dragon Pass concluded, news of the victory spread, causing a sensation throughout the entire Southern Barbarian Warzone.
No one had expected the eastern front, which had always been considered the least likely to see any breakthroughs, to achieve such a significant victory.
Fire Dragon Pass, which had stood tall for a thousand years, had been taken down by the Shenwei Army.
The news spread like wildfire, swiftly reaching every corner of the warzone.
Its impact began to ripple outward, not only in Great Zhou but also in the Golden Feather Court...
Meanwhile, Zhao Xing, Xia Jing, Wen Shaoyang, Liao Rulong, Chen Shijie, Long Xiao, and others had gathered at a fortress within Fire Dragon Pass.
Because the military realm’s merit evaluation had arrived.
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