Chapter 701
Chapter 701
*Swish.*
Mulan’s arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning.
“Well met!”
The Chu commander, Yan Jing, bellowed as he swung the greatsword in his hand down with all his might.
*Clang.*
The sharp arrow fired by Mulan was shattered.
‘Yan Jing is nearly seventy, yet he’s still so formidable?’
Yan Jing, too, was greatly astonished.
‘Who is that woman? Her archery is incredible.’
Although Privy Councilor Yan Jing had shattered her arrow, the sheer force behind it had left his arm slightly numb.
*Swish, swish, swish, swish.*
The Second Nirvana Army and the master archers of the Savage Tribes continued to fire relentlessly. With the threat of the trebuchets gone, both armies could approach within a hundred meters of the city walls. In an instant, the lethality of their arrow volleys became even more astonishing. The tens of thousands of defenders on the walls couldn't even raise their heads under the barrage.
“Return fire! Fire your arrows, fire!”
The commander of the Chu defenders shouted loudly, but it was useless. This distance was beyond the range of the Chu archers. The rain of arrows pouring down on them only grew denser, filling the sky. In a short time, hundreds of thousands of arrows were densely embedded in the ground, making it look like a porcupine. Then, something infuriating for the Chu army happened. Shen Lang's First Nirvana Army, trusting in the sturdiness of their armor, advanced and began to retrieve the arrows they had just fired. His army had come on a long expedition, so each soldier could carry at most two or three hundred arrows. In other words, the First Nirvana Army was about to run out. But in that moment, they recovered hundreds of thousands of arrows from the battlefield.
The Chu general was momentarily at a loss.
‘What should I do now? Should we keep shooting or not?’
If they kept shooting, they couldn't hit their targets at this range. If they stopped, they would be taking a one-sided beating. Tens of thousands being pummeled by a few thousand was a great humiliation, and it dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Chu soldiers.
***
The Chu commander, Yan Jing, was so furious he could have spat blood. He had never fought such a foolish battle in his life. He had always opposed enlisting local ruffians into the defense force, because battles were not won by numbers alone. He had originally thought that the twenty thousand Escort Guards and ten thousand Imperial Guards would be enough to suppress the enemy. But the Queen had insisted on conscripting these disorderly people into the ranks, and in an instant, the city walls became chaotic. As casualties mounted, they immediately started wailing, showing no semblance of military discipline.
Yan Jing immediately ordered all the militia to withdraw from the walls to be used as a reserve force, leaving only the Imperial Guards and Escort Guards. As expected, the walls were instantly cleared up. The thirty thousand elite troops raised their shields high, blocking the rain of arrows from the sky, and casualties immediately decreased. With the situation now stabilized, the Chu commander Yan Jing let out a cold sneer.
‘Shen Lang is too naive. Your archers may be formidable, but to lay siege, you must climb the walls. Without siege ladders, I’d like to see how you get up here.’
Just then, a giant clad head-to-toe in impossibly heavy armor appeared. He carried a greatsword on his back and held a box as he charged madly toward the city gate. That person was, of course, Big Dummy. A Chu officer shouted loudly.
“Shoot him with fire arrows!”
Countless fire arrows were shot at Big Dummy’s body, but it was a futile effort. The armor he wore was so astonishingly thick, what arrow could possibly pierce it? Big Dummy quickly reached the base of the city gate.
“Drop the heavy stones.”
At the command, numerous logs and stones were thrown at Big Dummy, but it was still useless. Even when stones weighing dozens of pounds were thrown at him, he would at most stumble once; they couldn't stop him at all. The armor he wore weighed a good four or five hundred pounds, so the stones merely left small dents.
“Pour boiling oil.”
The defending commander ordered again, and strong soldiers lifted cauldrons of boiling oil, preparing to pour them down. No matter how formidable Big Dummy was, he wouldn't be able to withstand boiling oil. But just then, Jin Mulan and the Savage Queen aimed at the soldiers holding the oil cauldrons on the wall and fired arrows like a volley. Both were master archers; each arrow found its mark.
“Aaargh!”
As the soldiers were struck and killed by the arrows, the cauldrons of oil fell right onto the city wall, splashing onto the surrounding Chu soldiers. In an instant, their flesh was boiled by the oil.
“Aargh!”
A series of utterly wretched screams echoed from the Chu soldiers on the wall. And soon, Big Dummy unleashed his power. He lifted his two- to three-hundred-pound black iron greatsword and began to hack madly at the city gate. The defending commander watched in astonishment.
‘W-what is he trying to do? Does that big oaf really think he can chop a hole in the gate? Dream on! This gate is over six inches thick and half-made of iron. How do you expect to break that? You could chop all day and night and you still wouldn't get through.’
Big Dummy swung his greatsword for a long time, hacking at the gate until the wooden layer covering its surface was completely shattered, revealing the iron plate within. Then, Big Dummy took out an object and placed it on the iron plate of the gate. What could it be? It was another of Shen Lang's secret weapons. This was the same substance used to melt the steel pillars of the Hidden Yuan Society's high-rise building in the State of Yue—thermite. It was a mixture of aluminum powder and iron(II) oxide powder combined in the proper ratio. Among the natural resources available to Shen Lang, thermite was not difficult to produce. The mixing process was extremely simple. However, obtaining aluminum was difficult. It was very, very rare.
Of course, it wasn't that the deposits were scarce, but that they all existed in the form of aluminum silicate minerals. With Shen Lang's current knowledge of alchemy, refining pure aluminum was an incredibly difficult task. However, refining aluminum using bauxite was relatively simple. Because of this, the annual output from the mines on Gold Mountain Island was surprisingly low. After making two sets of armor for Mulan, a small amount of thermite, and a few other special armors, all of Gold Mountain Island's steel had been used up.
The thermite that Big Dummy now placed on the gate was a large quantity, weighing several dozen pounds. Big Dummy inserted a fuse, lit it, and quickly turned to run. Shen Lang had told him that this was a terrifying thing that even his armor, weighing hundreds of pounds, could not block. In the blink of an eye, Big Dummy had run dozens of meters away. After the short fuse burned out—
*FWOOM.*
There wasn't a loud explosion, but a light more blinding than the sun erupted. An incredible white flame burst forth, emitting a high temperature of twenty-five hundred degrees. In an instant, the thick city gate melted, creating a large hole. The defenders behind the gate were completely dumbfounded.
‘W-what is this devilish thing? It burned a hole through such a thick gate. What do we do now?’
Big Dummy ran back again and slammed his body into the gate. A loud bang echoed and the gate shook violently, but it didn't open. The thermite had pierced the iron plate, but it hadn't destroyed the massive iron bolt inside. Then, Big Dummy placed another bundle of thermite, lit it again, and quickly ran back.
“Put out the fire! Put it out!”
The defending commander inside the gate rushed forward, desperately trying to extinguish the burning fuse. But the next moment—
*FWOOM.*
The incredible flame erupted once more. The defending commander's entire body was instantly melted by the fire. At the same time, the massive gate bolt turned red-hot from the heat, constantly dripping molten iron.
“Uwaaaah!”
Big Dummy roared, picked up speed, and charged forward madly. He charged head-on like a tank.
*CRASH.*
He slammed his entire body violently against the gate. With a loud noise, the massive gate of the Chu capital swung open. The thick iron bolt, melted and weakened by the heat, could not withstand Big Dummy's monstrous strength. The Chu army was shaken to its core, utterly shocked.
‘E-even a gate as sturdy and indestructible as this was opened? Broken open? My God! What in the world is happening? Why can I see what’s in front of me, but understand nothing?’
Then, Big Dummy drew his black iron greatsword with all his might and charged alone toward the hundreds of defenders inside the gate.
*Swish, swish, swish.*
No one could withstand a single blow from him. For every enemy that stood in Big Dummy's way, there was only one outcome. To be split in two, armor and all. To not even have a complete corpse in death was a phrase that might as well have been coined for them.
*CRASH!*
A single horizontal swing of his sword sent a dozen Chu soldiers flying into the air. Big Dummy crushed everything in his path. On the battlefield, Big Dummy was a bug-like existence. Even Sword King Li Qianqiu could not display such power, single-handedly crushing hundreds of men. Then, Gao Duhuan shouted.
“First Nirvana Army, enter the city!”
The two thousand soldiers of the First Nirvana Army advanced into the city in formation. The armor they wore was not as heavy as before, but it still weighed a good forty to fifty pounds. The broadswords in their hands were also not as heavy as before, but they too were over forty pounds and forged from pure steel.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
Two thousand Nirvana soldiers poured into the Chu capital like a steel flood. The Chu commander, Yan Jing, was seething.
‘What in the devil's name is this? The gate was really broken? What other demonic trick has Shen Lang used?’
But there was no time to be surprised. The enemy had breached the city. He roared out a command.
“Stop them! Go and kill every last soldier from Yue!”
At his command, countless Chu soldiers swarmed toward Big Dummy and the First Nirvana Army. But this was inside the city. What a coincidence. This gate was also called the Xuanwu Gate, and beyond it lay the incredibly vast Xuanwu Avenue. The avenue was dozens of meters wide, allowing the two-thousand-strong First Nirvana Army to deploy in their most perfect battle formation. The Chu army charged forward relentlessly, one falling only for another to take his place, but in melee combat, the First Nirvana Army was invincible.
One slash, two pieces! One slash, two pieces!
*Swish, swish, swish.*
Two thousand broadswords fell relentlessly. Like killing machines, they easily sliced every charging enemy in two. On the battlefield inside the gate, a one-sided slaughter unfolded. The First Nirvana Army established a defensive line inside the city.
“Second Nirvana Army, enter the city!”
“Third Nirvana Army, enter the city!”
A moment later, nearly three thousand soldiers of the Second Nirvana Army and over four thousand master archers of the Savage Queen's Savage Tribes had all entered the city.
“Change formation!”
The two thousand Nirvana soldiers changed formation, creating a large, square shape. The Second Nirvana Army and the Savage Tribes' master archers, totaling over seven thousand, entered the large square formation. The First Nirvana Army, invincible in close combat and clad in impenetrable armor, formed a steel wall around the others. The coalition of archers, invincible at range, unleashed a mad volley of arrows from within. This combination was truly perfect. The wide-open Xuanwu Avenue was the ultimate killing field for them. Moreover, they were now shooting on level ground instead of from a lower to a higher position.
*Swish, swish, swish, swish.*
Within a hundred meters, the Second Nirvana Army was nearly invincible. The master archers of the Savage Tribes were slightly less skilled, but they still displayed incredible lethality. Firing with one-stone composite bows, they could pierce any Chu armor within a hundred meters. At first, the Chu army charged relentlessly like moths to a flame, trying to engage the First Nirvana Army in close combat. But soon, they could no longer get close. The Second Nirvana Army and the master archers of the Savage Tribes continuously rained down arrows. The scene now was nothing short of a one-sided, frenzied slaughter. The volley of arrows they unleashed continued to reap the lives of the enemy.