Chapter 178: Danger Every Step of the Way

Thundering blasts tore through the heavens without rest. The four Foundation Establishment realm cultivators battled fiercely with the seven Foundation Establishment realm beasts. They fought brutally and without pause, and any misstep could mean life or death!

That was especially so when faced with seven Foundation Establishment realm beasts. The four cultivators were clearly struggling to hold their own, but none retreated. They engaged in battle with all their might. The Foundation Establishment realm beasts relied on their invincible physical bodies, while the cultivators had not only Numinous Treasures but also array formations at their disposal. One of them, a man in his middle age, even possessed a seventh-grade Dharmic Armament!

Just this single Dharmic Armament was enough to strike awe and fear into the opponents’ hearts!

A Dharmic Armament was, after all, an item of extreme luxury and rarity to a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. It was referred to by all as a priceless treasure, and few had their hands on one. Dharmic Armaments were typically wielded by the top-notch warriors in the respective political forces—Core Formation cultivators!

The battle in the sky continued fiercely, while the fight on land was a complete massacre.

The hundreds of thousands of stronghold troops clashed with the Beast Tide on land. The violent slaughter was soul-shaking, and deaths occurred every moment. Flesh tore and blood spilled, drenching the earth in blood!

The destructiveness of the behemoths as well as the giants was overwhelming. They could only be taken down by multiple cultivators most of the time, and because of that, the stronghold was placed at a severe disadvantage; they were clearly at the losing end of the battle.

Fortunately, compared with the beasts’ simplistic attacks, the cultivators had Array Formation cultivators, Alchemy cultivators, and Beast Taming cultivators amongst them. They were able to force a delicate balance between the two camps.

There was battling high in the skies and on land, and another layer of battle took place between them, one that was equally brutal!

The aerial battle in midair took place on the various Fire God Cannon platforms. The enemies were swarms of flying beasts; they were swift and cruel, fearless of death as they flung themselves forward without rest. Their attacks disrupted the repairs of the cannons and hastened the cannons’ malfunction.

The repairs of the Fire God Cannons was slow work. In the midst of that, frequent firings continued to take place in coordination with the fighting in the sky and on land. There wasn’t time to spare for their own self-defense, and the thousand-odd warriors stationed on every platform formed the last line of defense for the Fire God Cannons.

Battle cries rose in the air without pause. On the platforms, there were Fire God Cannons with fragmented inscriptions awaiting repairs while being swarmed by beast attacks. They couldn’t last until the repairs were made and broke down immediately.

With the collapse of a cannon, the platform it was on was immediately swarmed by hordes of beasts. They surged forward, frenzied with bloodlust, and the casualties skyrocketed. It was a bloodbath.

Be it Chen Yutong, Zhou Penghai, Sun Fang or the Dharmic Armament cultivators from the four Dao Colleges—all were possessed by rage, and red veins lined their eyes. The work was too much. They had to be wary of the winged beasts while hastening their repair work which made them the natural targets of the beasts.

At that moment, Wang Baole had just restored a Fire God Cannon to a barely acceptable working condition, and as he leaped away, he heard a cry of agony. He turned his head and, through the protective glow of the Golden Bell Shield and past the warriors guarding him, saw a Dharmic Armament cultivator from the Holy River Dao College on a distant Fire God Cannon platform. Seven to eight beasts ripped through the protection of his Numinous Treasure and tore him into bits!

Amidst the thickening blood mist, countless beasts rushed onto the platform. The battle that followed left them and the hundreds of warriors on the platform dead…

If it had been another place and time, there would be Combat cultivators around to protect them. However, everyone was fighting for their lives. The only protection the Dharmic Armament cultivators had were their own Numinous Treasures and the thousand warriors on each platform!

Wang Baole had become familiar with the warriors. Every time he approached a Fire God Cannon platform whose care he was charged with, hordes of warriors rushed forward surrounding it and used their bodies as meat shields against the encircling beasts.

His Golden Bell Shield proved its worth during that time, and he flung more than a dozen of them at the platforms he was responsible for.

Other Dharmic Armament cultivators did the same. They pulled out every Dharmic Artifact they could use. Wang Baole even went to the extent of distributing the Dharmic Artifacts he had crafted to the warriors guarding him, enhancing their battle capabilities.

Despite all that being done, casualties couldn’t be avoided. The winged beasts in the skies gathered like a dark storm cloud, and their numbers were countless. The True Breath realm beasts within the horde of beasts often struck in groups of ten and more with unimaginable force.

Even though Wang Baole had released the mosquitoes earlier, in the face of innumerable beasts, they were but a drop in the vast ocean. They barely survived.

Danger continued surfacing. Regardless of the repair work by Dharmic Armament cultivators, Fire God Cannons all around repeatedly broke down, and a slew of killings followed each malfunction.

At that moment, Wang Baole had just completed repairs on a Fire God Cannon. The cannon let loose a blast of light that shot into the air and, in sync with the four attacking Foundation Establishment realm cultivators, bombed the Foundation Establishment realm beasts. A violent heave traveled through the cannon before it malfunctioned and broke down!

In mid-air, nine True Breath realm flying beasts saw a window of opportunity with the malfunction. They swooped near at high speed, leading thousands of Ancient Martial realm flying beasts, and smashed straight into the protective Golden Bell Shield.

A thunderous hum resounded through the air, and the flying beasts were flung back, shaking. The Golden Bell Shield trembled as well; however, it was made of superior quality, and there was a great deal of them. As a result, the shield didn’t suffer one crack.

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“Go!” Wang Baole shouted in haste and retreated quickly with the warriors on the platform. The beasts gave them no chance to escape, though, and charged a second time. An aura of bloodlust exploded from his person, and he roared.

“Wait for me at the next platform!” he said, then rushed out from the protective barrier of the Golden Bell Shield. He stepped onto the cruiser, his gloved right hand tightening into a fist, and punched!

Spirit Qi spiraled in, forming a tidal storm that surged out; where the storm passed, beasts cried out in pain and were ripped into pieces.

Without a pause in his steps, Wang Baole formed hand seals immediately after his first punch. Blades of wind sliced the air, and flying swords formed a river and shot out around him.

In the span of a moment, blood fell from the skies like crimson rain. Wang Baole’s sleeves had long been stained crimson, and he watched as the surrounding beasts retreated. His face darkened suddenly, and his left hand made a hand seal hastily. A mist rose around him immediately, and he whirled around without warning, his left-hand thrust behind his back and gripped tightly.

“Trying to ambush your granddaddy?”

With a thunderous boom, Wang Baole’s hand, which had the Cloud Finger channeled, grabbed the throat of the True Breath realm beast that tried to sneak up on him. It exploded upon contact!

Bright crimson blood spurted out. Wang Baole did not linger, and he retreated swiftly and caught up with the warriors who were within the Golden Bell Shield worrying about his safety. Once he caught up, they returned hastily to the stronghold.

The warriors didn’t stay for regrouping or rest, hurrying off to some other Fire God Cannon instead. Wang Baole panted heavily, retrieving a pill and swallowing it whole. Without even waiting for the pill to dissolve, his body pashed away, and in moments he was aboard his cruiser and on his way.

The battle in the sky raged on. Midair, winged beasts cast a shadow over the entire land, where beasts roared and bellowed. The primordial jungle battlegrounds spanned as far as the eye could see.

Danger lurked everywhere, and death shadowed every step. Wang Baole gritted his teeth, and a tinge of madness colored his eyes. He hadn’t forgotten his mission. It didn’t matter that he had lost three Fire God Cannons to malfunction, he still had seven functional and firing.

Every one of them was still holding on and fighting. Not one had cowered or retreated from the fight!

It wasn’t that they weren’t afraid, but that some things had to be done regardless of fear!

It wasn’t that they weren’t afraid of dying. Standing in the battlefield, where a single distracting thought was impossible, it would be an exaggeration to proclaim that they didn’t harbor such fears. But most of those who harbored such thoughts had already been slain.

The sight before Wang Baole affected him immensely, and fire seemed to course through his veins. The madness in his eyes deepened. He stood in his cruiser, battle worn and scarred by the claws of beasts, and sped towards another Fire God Cannon platform.

It was at that moment, as he sped out, that he felt a prickling on his scalp. He leaped off the cruiser without thinking, and the devouring seed within his body activated instantaneously, pulling towards one side of the stronghold walls with a violent heave. The cruiser dashed off on its own.

As Wang Baole completed the series of actions, more than ten beams of dark light came surging from the distant skies where the four Foundation Establishment realm cultivators were deep in battle with the Foundation Establishment realm beasts.

It was impossible to tell which of the beasts issued the attack, but the dark beams of light sped towards the stronghold, and their targets weren’t the Fire God Cannons but the Dharmic Armament cultivators!

The dark light beams were traveling too quickly. They approached in a blink of an eye, and instantly, each one of them shot a True Breath realm cultivator through the forehead, splitting heads instantaneously and decimating both body and spirit of the cultivators!

Chen Yutong barely countered the attack with his peak True Breath realm cultivation level, and only after sacrificing almost ten of his Numinous Treasures—all above third-grade quality. Even then, blood spilled from his mouth.

As for Wang Baole, his cruiser was shot through by a dark beam the moment he jumped off. As the cruiser exploded, the dark beam of light swerved and headed straight for him. The pull of the Wang Baole’s devouring seed allowed him to draw back at an impossible angle and land on the stronghold wall—escaping the approaching dark beam a second time.

Amidst the battle explosions, the dark beam brushed past Wang Baole, almost touching him, and landed on the ground below him with a deafening blast. Wang Baole panted heavily and raised his head in shock.

In the skies, where the Foundation Establishment realm beasts fought, a pitch-black beast in a form akin to a unicorn seemed to be staring coldly at him and Chen Yutong.

They were the only two who had escaped the fate of death from the numerous dark beams of light. Wang Baole managed to dodge the attack in the first place, a feat greater than blocking it. The Foundation Establishment realm beast hadn’t anticipated that happening.

After all, it should have been impossible for Wang Baole to escape the attack considering the level of his cultivation. However, Wang Baole had the extra sight gifted by his mosquitoes which alerted him to the attack in advance. There was also the devouring seed, which allowed him to emulate flight to a certain extent even though his cultivation level didn’t grant him the ability of flight. That was the unexpected factor that allowed his successful escape.

Wang Baole’s heart rate soared. As the threat of death grew stronger, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He had no time to think. The sounds of explosions and the cries of pain from the fallen rang ceaselessly in his ears.

With the appearance of the dark beams of light and the deaths of the Dharmic Armament cultivators, the repairs on the Fire God Cannons stalled. The Fire God Cannons were barely running in the first place, but after the attack, a massive scale of malfunctions surfaced!