dmims Page 114
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Shi Wengong frowned slightly. This was bad; he couldn't dodge this attack! The impact area was too large. With this giant meteor crashing down, an area with a radius of twenty meters would be transformed into a devastating crater filled with fel-energy magma! There was simply no way to avoid this attack!
A victorious smile spread across Qin Ming's lips. "I don't expect to kill you with a single blow, but if I can just kill that white horse, you won't be able to escape the Liangshan cavalry's pursuit! Even if you're truly invincible, the four of us can come at you together. Even Lin Chong couldn't take on two of us at the same time!"
"Death! Has fallen! From! the! Sky!!!"
Qin Ming roared as he plummeted from the sky, a hellish meteor shrieking as it tore through the heavens, crashing down with demonic fire as thick and dark green as blood! In an instant, the earth trembled and cracked like fragile glass, and a bottomless, scorched crater suddenly appeared. The deafening explosion, carrying the scorching sulfur and the aura of death, transformed into a twisted and ferocious black and red fire cloud that surged and engulfed half the sky.
The deadly shockwave swept across everything like an invisible giant hammer. Wherever it passed, rocks melted like wax, giant trees instantly carbonized and spewed away, and everything was reduced to twisted, charred remains and ashes in the extreme heat. The billowing, thick smoke was so dense that it blotted out the sky, as if a rift leading to purgatory had been brutally torn open in the earth. Only the sinister green magma flowing at the core of the giant crater pulsed, shimmered, burned, and writhed like poisonous blood!
Qin Ming revealed a confident smile, but the next moment, her mouth dropped open in astonishment: Shi Wengong had suddenly appeared fifty meters away, exceeding the maximum range of her flames?!
How is this possible? She was right beneath my feet. I aimed very accurately; even if I were off-target, it couldn't be fifty meters off! Is this her ability? Teleportation? Or instantaneous teleportation?
Qin Ming's thoughts raced, but before she could figure out how Shi Wengong had escaped, she suddenly felt waves of excruciating pain all over her body! A full twelve arrows had pierced the Hellfire's shoulders, elbows, and even her knees, instantly shattering Qin Ming's Hellfire form and forcing her back to her original form!
"Hua Rong! Why did you shoot me?!"
At this moment, Qin Ming was somewhat doubtful. The arrow that had pierced the elbow and other vulnerable joints came from the front, probably shot by Shi Wengong. Although she hadn't seen Shi Wengong nod or draw his bow, there were already too many things about him that she didn't understand, so one more wouldn't make a difference.
However, the three arrows that pierced his back, knee, and neck came from behind!
Among those with this skill, only Hua Rong is behind him.
"What are you talking about? I was just aiming at Shi Wengong when she suddenly teleported a huge distance! Why would I shoot you for no reason?!"
Hua Rong gave a nonsensical reply.
"You were the closest! How did she shatter your Hellfire?!"
"what?"
Qin Ming incredulously pulled the arrow that had struck the back of his neck from the hellish lava. Upon closer inspection, he felt a chill run down his spine and his heart stop. On the arrow shaft were three large characters—Shi Wengong.
So it seems that just now, Shi Wengong not only teleported forward fifty meters, but also circled behind me and shot twelve arrows at me.
How can this be? !
Qin Ming looked at Shi Wengong in the distance, a hint of solemnity appearing in his eyes. He summoned the Hellfire Armor again and reconstructed his massive body in the molten lava pool.
"Be careful! I don't know what just happened, but she managed to get behind me and shoot an arrow, and then teleport fifty meters forward in an instant!"
"This is outrageous! You reconstruct your body first, I'll deal with her!"
Hua Rong, also riding a pure white Jade Lion, was the second to catch up, second only to Qin Ming, who had transformed into a shooting star. Compared to Sun Li, who was clad in heavy armor, Hu Yanzhuo was much faster. She spurred her horse forward at full gallop while simultaneously drawing her bow and nocking an arrow for the second time to engage Shi Wengong!
Chapter 317: Shi Wengong Battles Against a Horde of Demons (Bonus Chapter for 3550 Monthly Tickets)
Seeing that the Liangshan troops were out of formation, Shi Wengong also had an idea. He and Hua Rong exchanged arrows. The two female generals on horseback drew their bows and fired arrows at the same speed, creating a rain of arrows. Shi Wengong was able to accurately intercept every arrow that Hua Rong fired in mid-air.
However, Hua Rong could easily deal with and resolve every volley of arrows fired by Shi Wengong. The two were evenly matched in archery skills, making it difficult to determine who was better.
Strangely, after the two exchanged fire for about a minute, Shi Wengong stopped retreating, turned his horse around, and launched a cavalry charge towards Hua Rong!
A fierce glint flashed in Hua Rong's eyes, and with an astonishingly fluid motion, she suddenly raised the powerful bow! Her body spun rapidly like a hawk in a somersault, her toes stepping on the stirrups for leverage. The bow opened to a full moon, the string snapped like tearing silk, and the twelve steel arrows transformed into a series of thunderbolts in an instant, tearing through the air almost end to end, accompanied by a chilling shriek, piercing straight into the sky!
Shi Wengong was somewhat surprised. The twelve arrows did not come straight at him. Instead, they shot into the sky like precisely calculated stars, instantly disappearing into a chaotic cloud of smoke and bloody dust, as if they had never existed.
In the same instant, Hua Rong sheathed his precious bow, drew his Dragon Gallant Silver Spear from the saddle with both hands, and with the spear tip forming a dazzling, cold silver moon, he thrust it toward Shi Wengong's throat with the force of his entire body! The silver spear whirled and hissed as it tore through the air, its speed almost transforming into a deadly silver arc that cleaved the battlefield!
Shi Wengong's pupils contracted sharply, his mind completely stunned by the astonishing spear strike before him. He also sheathed his ice bow, drew his halberd from his saddle, and fiercely retaliated! A deafening clang of metal on metal echoed, like thunder rolling across the wilderness! Sparks flew violently in all directions from the clash of metal, and the immense impact caused the ground beneath their feet to crack inch by inch.
The attack was so fierce that Hua Rong felt as if his tiger's mouth was about to split open, and his blood and qi surged throughout his body. He and his horse were swept back two steps by Shi Wengong's ferocious halberd. Shi Wengong and his white horse were also forced back a step by Hua Rong's fierce attack. In just one move, the difference in strength was already determined.
But in that instant when the old force had just been exhausted and the new force had not yet been generated, the cold light at twelve o'clock in the sky, which Shi Wengong had briefly forgotten and which was almost invisible to the naked eye, suddenly pierced through the chaotic dust and revealed its ferocious face again!
The twelve arrows, like twelve vengeful thunderbolts falling from the thirty-third heaven, descended with even greater force than the initial strike, accompanied by howling wind and thunder! They precisely locked onto Shi Wengong's head and shoulder!
"Good archery skills!"
Seeing the twelve steel arrows raining down from the sky, even Shi Wengong was amazed by Hua Rong's archery skills. Hua Rong himself seized the opportunity to brandish his Dragon Gallant Silver Spear and launch another round of ferocious attacks.
But, the next second, Shi Wengong suddenly disappeared from Hua Rong's sight.
Hua Rong was somewhat taken aback. Before she could react, a series of muffled, heart-pounding sounds suddenly rang out from above her head, like tattered leather being pierced by a heavy awl!
A steel arrow pierced her right shoulder, the arrowhead protruding from under her shoulder blade, carrying fragments of bone and blood.
Two sharp arrows pierced his left shoulder blade, their fletchings still trembling violently!
A short arrow, carrying the shriek of death, pierced precisely and viciously through the top of Hua Rong's helmet, the white-tasseled gold crown that symbolized his status. The cold arrowhead grazed his scalp and pierced deep into the base of his hair, reaching the feather! The gold crown that bound his hair shattered instantly, and his long hair, stained with hot blood, suddenly became disheveled!
An arrow, seemingly with eyes, grazed his raised arm as he parried, tearing through muscles and tendons, and instantly bursting into a spray of dazzling blood!
The last seven arrows were like death descending from the sky, piercing the white horse's body from top to bottom, severely wounding Hua Rong and killing her horse at the same time!
Hua Rong froze instantly! The excruciating pain, like a landslide or a tsunami, swept through her entire body in a fraction of a second. Her thrusting motion with her spear abruptly froze in mid-air. Her body trembled uncontrollably from the intense pain, and her eagle eyes, filled with unbelievable horror and agony at the attack from the heavens, flashed across her face! Crimson, scalding blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining her bright silver armor and snow-white robe. She collapsed to the ground in a disheveled state.
What alarmed Hua Rong even more was that all twelve arrows that struck him and his horse were engraved with the words "Hua Rong".
Wait a minute, those twelve arrows were the ones I shot at Shi Wengong. I saw them rain down on him with my own eyes, so why did they land on my head?!
"Sister Hua Rong! What happened?!"
Qin Ming rushed over to defend, but Shi Wengong didn't linger. He used a strange method to severely injure Hua Rong and then created distance again to buy time. At this moment, Huyan Zhuo and Sun Li also charged in from the left and right, attempting to surround Shi Wengong.
Shi Wengong snorted coldly and retreated. As he fled, he drew his bow and shot an arrow, but Huyan Zhuo opened seven layers of light and waved his two steel whips, deflecting the arrows without hitting them at all.
But it didn't matter. After retreating for a minute, she turned back and attacked again!
"Sister! Let's attack together!"
"no problem!"
Huyan Zhuo roared and charged forward with his whip! In an instant, the sky darkened and the stars shone. The old general wielded two water-polished steel whips, one black and one white, dragging the vast star shadows of the Big Dipper, as if dragging two brilliant galaxies that blotted out the sun, and smashed them hard against Shi Wengong's right arm.
Sun Li also unleashed his best skills, summoning the subspace shadow of Yuchi Gong, a fierce general of the early Tang Dynasty. That god-like shadow, wielding a shadow spear solidified, compressed, and constructed using pure subspace energy, fiercely stabbed towards Shi Wengong's chest!
Faced with the combined attack of two fierce generals, Shi Wengong's bloodshot eyes flashed with a chilling glint of ferocity, and in the next instant, she vanished again.
What's even more terrifying is that Hu Yanzhuo and Sun Liming launched their attacks from the right and front respectively, forming a 90-degree angle.
The instant Shi Wengong disappeared, the two generals were face to face, charging at each other! The black and white whips, corresponding to the Big Dipper and intertwined with the brilliant Milky Way, clashed fiercely with Yuchi Gong's shadow spear! The battle was so fierce that the sky collapsed and the earth cracked, dust flew everywhere. Huyan Zhuo couldn't stop his momentum and shattered Yuchi Gong's shadow with a single whip. The terrifying power of the Heavenly Gang and the impact of the stars knocked the unsuspecting Sun Li off his horse.
Before Yuchi Gong's Shadow Spear was shattered, it struck Huyan Zhuo's chest with tremendous force, instantly shoving Huyan Zhuo off his saddle. Both men were hit by the opponent's all-out killing move and fell from their horses!
Chapter 318: Thunderbolt Fire Probes Enemy's Strength
Shi Wengong was extremely cautious. She severely injured Hua Rong, slightly wounded Hu Yanzhuo and Sun Li, and destroyed Qin Ming's Hellfire form, forcing Qin Ming to transform into Hellfire a second time. Even though she had achieved such brilliant results, she did not get close, fearing that the four Liangshan generals still had some trump cards they had not used. She continued to keep her distance, harassing them with arrows, and mainly focused on hiding.
Hu Yanzhuo, Qin Ming, Hua Rong, and Sun Li were somewhat panicked and bewildered after being beaten like this, and they were unable to judge Shi Wengong's abilities at all.
Qin Ming couldn't understand why his Hellfire form was instantly destroyed, and why Shi Wengong not only teleported forward fifty meters but also launched an attack from behind. These actions were so fast that Qin Ming couldn't even see them with his naked eye! "I'm a top-tier warrior! My dynamic vision can even detect flying crossbow bolts! How could I not see Shi Wengong's movements?"
Hua Rong couldn't understand why the twelve arrows that fell from the sky, which clearly landed right above Shi Wengong's head, had vanished the next second, and all twelve arrows had hit him, who wasn't even below him? This was impossible! Even among the fierce generals of Liangshan, my eyesight was the best; my eagle eyes could even see beyond a kilometer and track the trajectory of musket bullets! How fast had Shi Wengong to be that I couldn't even see him?
Huyan Zhuo and Sun Li exchanged bewildered glances. Strange, utterly strange! Just moments ago, they were positioned at a ninety-degree angle, attacking Shi Wengong from both sides, but in the next instant, Shi Wengong vanished, leaving them in the terrifying sight of themselves charging at each other. What happened?! Again, everyone here is a top-tier warrior, with eyesight sharp enough to see crossbow bolts flying and spears charging, and reaction speed fast enough to deflect arrows and disarm spears. How could they possibly not see Shi Wengong's movements?!
"Sisters! Should we retreat first? Shi Wengong's abilities are too strange; we can't see through him at all. It's too dangerous to continue fighting like this! Who knows what we'll encounter next? Anyway, we've already repelled Zengtou City's army and completed our mission!"
The youngest member, Sun Li, had second thoughts and even looked somewhat fearful as he watched Shi Wengong's retreating figure.
“That makes sense. Don’t pursue a defeated enemy too far. We were indeed a bit too eager for Shi Wengong’s head. The best solution now is to let Shi Wengong escape, and then we can go back and lead the Liangshan army to try to encircle and annihilate the tens of thousands of defeated enemy troops, so that they can’t escape and have no way to retreat to Zengtou City, regroup, and try again.”
Hu Yanzhuo also cautiously offered another solution.
"No! We can't let Shi Wengong escape!"
At this moment, Qin Ming, whose body had been reconstructed, loudly objected.
"Among the Liangshan heroes, we are among the strongest. When we first encountered Shi Wengong, we were all beaten so badly. If the other brothers and sisters had faced her without knowing her abilities, they might have been killed by her! Since Shi Wengong couldn't kill us instantly, it means that she is not invincible!"
"You two protect Hua Rong! My armor is thick! I'll go try again! That way we can have backup if anything goes wrong!!"
Qin Ming roared, and the massive hellfire swung a giant spiked club more than ten meters long above his head with fierce force. With earth-shattering steps, he charged forward once again, accompanied by the trembling and shattering earth!
The demonic green fire and sulfurous black smoke rising from the hellfire fissure resembled a burning tree reaching to the sky, its blazing flames turning the entire sky a ghastly green.
The movement was so fast it could fool all of us. Could it be some kind of spatial teleportation? If so, then let's use this trick!
Thinking this, Thunderbolt Qin Ming swung his spiked club with both hands, spinning it above his head like a windmill. After accumulating enough rotational potential energy, he slammed it heavily into the ground! In an instant, the soft ground, under the hammer of Hellfire, rippled like water with pebbles thrown in, spreading out in destructive, earthy-yellow waves. The entire ground trembled, caved in, and collapsed, while the earth at the outermost edge of these ripples rose up with a thunderous roar! Like a man-made ring mountain, it trapped Shi Wengong within this mountain range with a radius of three hundred meters!
Shi Wengong frowned, looking at the small hills around him that were generally only three or four meters high. He wondered what Qin Ming was doing. How could such destruction and alteration of the terrain possibly trap him?
But the next second, the mockery on her face turned to shock. These mountains were all active volcanoes! The massive craters surrounding Shi Wengong and Qin Ming suddenly bulged upwards at the same time! The demonic fire, accumulated to its limit, tore through the mountains! Columns of molten, dark green lava, thicker than rivers, carrying the shrill screams of sulfur from the depths of hell, fiercely pierced the sky! The heavens screamed and twisted, the clouds were ignited and burned, and when the lava rocks ejected from the volcanoes reached their highest point, they exploded like dark green fireworks! Thousands upon thousands of rocks, softened by the intense heat, dragged the towering demonic flames and fell into the crater, blocking all of Shi Wengong's escape routes.
"Take this! Shi Wengong! A volcanic eruption with a diameter of 300 meters!"
Qin Ming stared intently at Shi Wengong. "I'd like to see how you're going to dodge my move with your strange abilities!"
"As expected of the former military commander of Qingzhou, he's terrifying."
Seeing herself troubled by the crater and bombarded by a saturation of molten lava, Shi Wengong remained calm and even teased Qin Ming. The torrential rain of molten lava, like a collapsing burning sky, first hit Qin Ming on the head, but was forcibly withstood by her obsidian hellfire body, leaving her unharmed.
Then, the torrential rain of lava also fell on Shi Wengong's head.
"However, there is still a world of difference between you and me."
Shi Wengong snorted coldly and disappeared once again while Qin Ming was focused on her! The hellfire meteor that covered a radius of 300 meters shook the entire battlefield and turned the sky upside down, but it did not hit Shi Wengong at all, not even touching the hem of his clothes.
Where did she go?
Qin Ming looked around in surprise and uncertainty, then heard a gasp from behind him!
"Below you!!! Shi Wengong is hiding beneath you! He's escaped the molten lava storm!!!"
Seeing Shi Wengong move with lightning speed, Hu Yanzhuo broke out in a cold sweat. He shouted and charged forward to save Qin Ming.
She stared intently at Shi Wengong this time, but he was able to break through everyone's dynamic vision limit and appeared under Qin Ming almost instantly, using his hellfire body as an umbrella to block the attack.
"Damn it!"
Seeing that the two were too far from Qin Ming to save him in order to avoid his indiscriminate wide-range attacks, Sun Li simply drew Hua Rong's bow and arrow and fired six or seven arrows at Shi Wengong to cover Qin Ming!
However, it was too late. Shi Wengong's halberd suddenly rose like a ghost, unleashing a dense and frenzied attack at a speed incomprehensible to humans. This was not Li Kui's Great Slash, but rather countless attacks that appeared at the same time in a bizarre manner. The combined destructive power caused a terrifying rift to spread wildly from bottom to top, instantly splitting Qin Ming's ten-meter-tall hellfire in two!
Qin Ming, inside the package, also had his armor torn apart by the Fangtian Halberd, suffering severe injuries to his flesh and blood!
Having landed a successful blow, Shi Wengong wielded his halberd and easily intercepted the arrow shot by Sun Li. Seeing Huyan Zhuo charging towards him, he did not fight back but continued to ride away. Huyan Zhuo and Sun Li did not dare to pursue. Carrying the seriously injured Qin Ming, Hua Rong retreated.
Qin Ming coughed up blood, severely injured by the earth-shattering halberd strike. He was also shocked by Shi Wengong's performance just now—the obsidian that had just formed my Hellfire body, tens of meters tall, broke at the same time, but that halberd was not even three meters tall, so it was impossible for it to do such a thing!
Could it be that her ability isn't teleportation at all, but rather something related to time?
Chapter 319: The Unparalleled Spiritual Power of the Cloud-Piercing Dragon
Although they failed to capture Shi Wengong, Liangshan achieved an absolute tactical victory. While the light infantry was indeed less efficient at pursuing the enemy, the 1,500 cavalry pursued them for a day and a night, ultimately killing 5,000 enemies and capturing 10,000, while suffering only a dozen or so casualties, some of whom were injured because they couldn't see the road clearly in the dark. They also seized countless amounts of money, supplies, flags, and weapons.
In the end, only one-third of the troops in Zengtou City, led by Shi Wengong and the Five Tigers of the Zeng Family, fled back to Zengtou City. They lost face completely. Shi Wengong also refused to leave the stronghold and held on to the death: Huyan Zhuo has no shame. More than 1,500 veterans, dragon horses, and heavily armored soldiers from the Western Xia front lost to Liangshan Marsh. This force can be considered the core elite on the Western Xia front! If they were placed in the Central Plains, in Shandong, which has been pacified for a long time, it would be a complete defeat.
No matter how many of these landlords' serf soldiers and farmhands there were, they couldn't fight Liangshan in open field battles. They could only defend their positions and fight defensive and attrition warfare. Open field battles were really out of the question. Even heavily armored infantrymen needed extremely high levels of training, morale, and dense formations to withstand the charge of armored cavalry. These unarmored spearmen, no matter how well they trained, were just courting death.
At this moment, the battle in Gaotang County intensified, with dark clouds hanging low in the sky and artillery arrays standing menacingly.
Ling Zhen stood proudly on the newly deployed artillery position. Her fiery golden eyes swept over the three hundred Liangshan cannons, large and small, stretching like ferocious fangs. Each cannon was pitch black and cold, its muzzle pointing diagonally to the sky. The more than 1,500 artillerymen she had carefully trained were nervously adjusting their firing parameters, ready to bombard Gaotang at any moment.
Under Ling Zhen's command, hundreds of artillerymen transformed into precise gears, and pre-packaged packets of gunpowder and huge iron shells slid into the cannon barrels, like being stuffed into the gaping maw of a giant beast. The shells collided with the gunpowder packets, producing a low, rolling deathly groan.
"Fire!!!"
With Ling Zhen's furious roar, three hundred gunners lit the fuses, simultaneously detonating the gunpowder in the barrels. A deafening, resonant roar tore through eardrums, far more terrifying than thunder! It was the horrifying roar of hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder exploding at the same time! The blazing white flames spewing from the cannons instantly transformed Liangshan's artillery position into a hellish inferno that burned across the plains!
Above the sky, the three hundred millstone-sized, blazing red iron projectiles, like destructive meteors falling from the heavens, shrieked as they tore through the air. They rapidly magnified in the widened pupils of the city guards, their bodies even burning into a half-molten, eerie bright orange. Strands of scorching air trailed behind the projectiles, leaving twisted, boiling trails of death.
Under the skillful operation of these artillerymen, a full three-quarters of the shells struck the rammed earth city wall solidly. Sections of the sturdy city wall dented and shattered like rotten wood chips, the outer bricks and stones blasted into a waterfall of fiery red debris, and the inner rammed earth core was exposed and collapsed like rotting internal organs.
Many more cannonballs rammed into the city gate tower, the sturdy wooden main beams, like the spine of a giant beast, were brutally broken by the steel projectiles, splinters flying everywhere like arrows. The seven layers of thick blue bricks covering it, like fragile porcelain, burst and caved inward, collapsing. The bricks, compressed by kinetic energy, instantly transformed into a spray of scorching red-hot shrapnel, sweeping across the soldiers inside the gate tower, killing them instantly.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!!!"
Ling Zhen roared and commanded the entire army to reload ammunition and fire. The rammed earth core layer was suffocated by the continuous and frantic bombardment, and it actually collapsed with countless radial cracks, tearing open the entire rammed earth wall!
After the seventh round of bombardment, the rammed earth wall suddenly shrank inward, bulging with hideous cracks and bulges. In the next instant, with a deafening roar, it collapsed section by section under the relentless bombardment of artillery! The defenders, along with the rolling logs and rocks, fell like ants swept into a waterfall, screaming as they plummeted amidst the collapsing bricks and mud!
Gao Lian was stunned by the terrifying artillery formation and came to a conclusion completely opposite to Shi Wengong's—Liangshan's artillery was too fierce, and their long-range firepower was too dense. A defensive battle was absolutely out of the question; even the city walls of the county town couldn't withstand it! When facing Liangshan, one must find a way to engage in open battle! Then, use cavalry to steal their artillery; defending the city would be tantamount to waiting for death!
"Now! All troops, charge!!!"
Liu Hong seized the opportunity and personally led an extremely elite Liangshan army to charge forward. Gao Lian saw that the city wall had been bombed down and had no choice but to lead three hundred flying soldiers to block the breach himself.
"Brother! It's Gao Lian's flying divine weapon! The brothers suffered too many casualties charging in, I'll go first!"
Just then, Gongsun Sheng also made her move. She summoned thunder and lightning, and golden bolts of lightning roared down from the sky, tearing open ninety-nine terrifying spatial rifts in the mortal world. Those golden scars seemed to be frozen in mid-air. Through the scars, one could see dreamlike palaces burning with pink and blue dual demonic flames, constructed entirely of crystal.