Chapter 306: 282 Pursuit Part 2

A massive explosion erupted from the side of the ship like ripples.

From afar, the entire ship’s deck suddenly lit up with flames.

Flames, explosions, black smoke, instantly pressed the whole ship down heavily.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!

Continuous flashes of red light appeared.

Cannonballs hit the ship, where the gunpowder burst open, the wooden planks shattered, causing secondary explosion damage.

The splintered wood shrapnel scattered like bullets, piercing through the unsuspecting sailors of the Thousand Teachings Alliance.

The two ships repeatedly endured continuous bombardment.

On the hill.

Zhang Rongfang stood with his hands behind his back, accompanied by Shangguan Lianyue.

In front of them was a row of arranged artillery, musketeers, crossbowmen, and sword and shield soldiers.

A total of twenty mobile cannons from the stationed troops were all mobilized by Shangguan Lianyue.

At this moment, they were methodically firing in rotation, bombarding.

Shangguan Lianyue was dispatched by superiors to assist in defending the Agarwood Palace.

He was awakened in the middle of the night by Zhang Ying Daoist, then brought over to bombard the two inexplicable ships.

If it were anyone else, they might ask why.

But since Zhang Ying plainly stated he would take all responsibility, there was nothing more to say, just bomb them!

Shangguan Lianyue stood to the side, occasionally glancing at Zhang Rongfang from the corner of his eye.

This was his first time meeting the long-rumored Daoist of the Great Dao Teaching.

The previous guy was just a fraud, looked the part but was nothing, but this time was different.

Honestly, just from appearance, he was quite unpredictable.

“General Shangguan, deploying troops at midnight, I’m troubling you and all the soldiers.” Zhang Rongfang calmly watched the bombing ships.

The two ships had already started breaking in half, slowly sinking.

Fire raged on the ship’s hull.

From afar, tiny ant-sized figures scrambled to jump off the ship to escape.

“Daoist’s orders, naturally I must cooperate.” Shangguan Lianyue smiled, “I just don’t know what it is about these two ships that enraged the Daoist to personally oversee the bombardment?”

He was well aware of the cannon’s power. Not just ordinary people, even a Grandmaster caught off guard wouldn’t survive.

Only the spiritual guards and martial artists with spiritual veins could survive.

“Just some clowns causing trouble in secret, perhaps thinking they have everything under control. Unfortunately… they forgot where they are.” Zhang Rongfang smiled.

“Counting up, there should be experts on those two ships, and later the General will need to personally eliminate them.”

He could see Shangguan Lianyue had his own thoughts. But so what?

As long as he’s a general of the Spirit Court, he must openly cooperate with him; otherwise, he would be violating the Spirit Court’s orders.

The Great Dao Teaching is now becoming increasingly formidable, if Shangguan Lianyue, as a master of the Snow Rainbow Pavilion of the Spirit Court, does not cooperate, it would be unthinkable.

No one needs to act, a single order from above would result in ruin and immediate death.

“Since it’s the Daoist’s command, I must comply.” Shangguan Lianyue raised his right hand.

Instantly, two gigantic men in heavy armor, carrying tower shields and broadswords, slowly drew their swords and entered combat readiness.

“You two, make sure to protect the Daoist’s safety. If anything goes wrong, pay with your lives!”

“Yes!!”

The two gigantic men responded in a rough voice.

Their armor, judging just by the arm plates, seemed over an inch thick.

Such armor likely couldn’t be penetrated by ordinary muskets.

Ahhh!!!!

At this moment, a furious scream suddenly came from the direction of the bombarded ships.

On the coast, at the dock.

The half-sunken ship’s blaze illuminated the shore, becoming the sole light.

Ahhhh!!

Zhu Wanguo looked up and roared in anger.

A moment ago, everything was under control, the next moment… everything shattered into bubbles.

He looked down at the remaining fifty-plus people who had desperately escaped.

Out of over two hundred elite brought, only this few remained after the sudden attack bombing.

At this moment his heart bled!

“Who… who the hell is it!!!?” he screamed angrily, eyes bloodshot, face contorted.

The tremendous disparity completely broke his emotions.

He couldn’t even imagine the master’s reaction bringing back just these few people.

Clearly…

Clearly his plan was flawless!

Why!? Why!!!!!!

“Only the official army has cannons!” Han Jia and Ping’Er were spiritual veins, Ping’Er’s expression was solemn, constantly surveying the surroundings.

“Master, we must leave here immediately! I’m afraid the official army has targeted us!”

“Fear what! First go and kill the ones firing the cannons! What kind of experts can Citong possibly have to stop us!?” Han Jia roared.

“Yes, Master, let’s go kill them! Destroy those cannonheads!!”

“A bunch of ignorant big-headed soldiers! Finish them!!”

“Master! Kill them!!”

Everyone was shocked and angry, having been awakened from sleep, narrowly escaping death.

Their fear and dread swiftly turned into rage, they desperately needed to vent it.

“Where’s Qin predecessor with the one-eyed sword!?” Zhu Wanguo suppressed his anger, suddenly scanning around.

“Qin predecessor went over the moment the bombardment started!” a follower quickly responded.

“In that case…. let’s go too!!” Han Jia called.

“Shut up!” Zhu Wanguo forcefully suppressed his emotions, closed his eyes, took a deep breath.

“No! How were we exposed? We know nothing now. We’re vulnerable; everyone spread out. Don’t get bombed again.”

Everyone came to their senses and scattered quickly.

The intensity of the bombardment likely left a lifelong shadow.

Not every martial artist has been bombarded by artillery strikes.

Regular martial artists don’t usually have this fortune.

“Retreat first!” Zhu Wanguo suddenly suppressed his anger and fear, thinking of a possibility. “Let’s retreat first!”

“But, Young Master!?” One of the leaders urgently shouted.

“No buts! Split into three teams. Li Zhang, Ouyang Ruo, Chen Xiaoguan, you three lead! Depart in three directions! Immediately, now!!” Zhu Wanguo immediately rushed towards the wilds, away from Citong.

Han Jia and Ping’Er paused for a moment, then led about a dozen people to follow closely behind.

The others looked at each other, quickly forming three teams as Zhu Wanguo instructed, and left in the other two directions.

They had only just run a short distance.

In the darkness, they suddenly collided with teams of officers and soldiers.

With the whizzing sound of crossbows breaking through the air, as soon as they met, the military crossbows of the officers fired in unison.

The members of the Thousand Teachings Alliance had not completely spread out before charging and fell half of them.

“Life and death are at this moment, kill!!!”

Two Ninth Grade fighters charged forward with swords, roaring.

But after only a few steps, they were turned into sieves by the dense second round of musket fire.

They fell to the ground, silver spiritual lines appearing over their bodies.

The spiritual lines were about to heal.

With a whirring sound.

A burly soldier clad in pitch-black heavy armor, reached down and plunged his hand into the wounds of the two men.

Soon, a strange sucking sound quickly emerged.

The two Ninth Grade spiritual guards of the Thousand Teachings Alliance shook violently, convulsing, as the silver spiritual lines on their bodies struggled incessantly, trying to escape.

But to no avail, soon all the spiritual lines were absorbed into the heavy-armed man’s arms.

“Hehe, it’s still refreshing to follow General Shangguan out….” A raspy voice echoed from beneath the black helmet of the armored soldier.

On the other side, the dispersed fleeing teams were also blocked by interception teams led by another horned heavy-armored soldier.

The regular army and guerrilla fighters from the Thousand Teachings Alliance clashed.

The military formations and martial arts tactics collided, with experts leading both sides.

In such an open space, martial arts experts were essentially massacred.

The elite of the Thousand Teachings Alliance scattered like a swarm of insects, exhibiting body techniques to try and escape in all directions, but unfortunately, they were still one step too slow.

In the midst of intense gunfire, they barely made contact before over half were shot on the spot.

The remaining ones were injured by scattered shots, their speed greatly reduced, and then surrounded and killed again, leaving only a few successfully escaping.

*

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In the darkness.

Qin Xianghong, with her single-scythe sword, moved like a serpent, constantly dodging the flying crossbow arrows and musket shots.

A fire burned within her heart as she quickly approached the artillery camp.

The several hundred meters of cannon range was covered in just over twenty seconds with her pace.

This was only because she kept zigzagging to avoid the long-range weapons, causing such a delay.

Seeing the artillery formation ahead, Qin Xianghong’s eyes sparked with killing intent, and she was about to lunge forward.

“The Daoist didn’t deceive me, there are indeed experts!”

Suddenly, a fierce blade gleam crashed down from one side.

Swish!!

In the night, the blade gleamed with a tint of distant fire, vaguely glowing dark red as it swept toward Qin Xianghong’s neck.

“Who dares stop me!?!”

Qin Xianghong shouted, swiftly drawing her sword and striking forward.

Clang!!!

A massive clash echoed.

The two blades collided directly.

One was a falchion, the other was a single-edged heavy sword, the two were vastly different in size.

But strangely, Shangguan Lianyue’s falchion, a heavy weapon over three meters long, was bizarrely deflected by this single strike.

Holding the sword with both hands, he was knocked back several steps by the immense impact, until he steadied himself upon stepping on a protruding rock.

“Hahaha!! Such a skilled fighter!! Just to my liking!!” Shangguan Lianyue’s eyes flickered for a moment, his hand loosening slightly on the sword hilt, as if he would let go.

But ultimately he continued gripping it tightly and laughed out loud,

He immediately resumed his body technique, advancing with a crescent-like dark red upper slash.

Both being of the Three Emptiness, the opponent’s strength was extraordinary.

Unfortunately…. if only it were a different place, a different time….

In an instant, the two were embroiled in battle mid-way.

One long and one short blade repeatedly pierced the air, occasionally missing, occasionally colliding, sparking with bursts of fiery points.

“Pity I don’t know any poetry, or else composing a poem right now, wouldn’t that be delightful?”

Zhang Rongfang quietly watched the fierce fight between the two masters not far away.

Surrounded by layers of Great Spirit knife and shield light-armored soldiers, and two dramatically proportioned heavy tower shield soldiers.

After receiving information from the interrogation on the ship, he and Zhang Yunqi pursued through the night, ultimately locating this mobile base of the Thousand Teachings Alliance.

Without any hesitation, he immediately returned to mobilize troops, not informing Shangguan Lianyue of their destination or who to kill.

He just forcibly brought people over for a direct bombardment.

If not for this, the retention of this group from the Thousand Teachings Alliance might not have been certain.

After all, these two ships were evidently modified, likely with very fast speed, and at the slightest hint of danger, they could have easily fled.

Now, the initial bombardment not only prevented escape but also significantly reduced damages.

The two rounds of artillery fire could at least halve their strength, right?

“What are your names?” he asked with interest, looking at the two giant armored soldiers before him.

These two were taller than him, at least two meters fifty-six. Extremely imposing.

Moreover, they weren’t lanky, but rather solid with muscle, otherwise they couldn’t possibly bear the weight of the heavy armor.

“Reporting, sir, I am Xia Lian’er.”

“Reporting, sir, I am Qiu Rushuang.”

Two rough voices resonated from inside their helmeted armor.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep