Chapter 771
Chapter 771
Inside Nanzhu City.
Having witnessed the annihilation of the Nirvana Army in a matter of seconds, Ying Qi was utterly stunned.
‘The incomparably strong, nearly invincible Nirvana Army… gone just like that? Why doesn't this feel real? What a dazzling record the Nirvana Army has built over the last year or two! They crushed the army of Gong, the army of Chu, and the army of the Zhong clan, winning every battle they fought. To be annihilated in an instant... it feels utterly surreal. I never imagined Fudao Mountain was this formidable.’
"Your Highness, this was a slaughter of this world by an ancient civilization, a slaughter of the secular world by a transcendent one."
Ying Qi frowned at Xue Xue's words. For some reason, he disliked hearing that.
‘Xue Xue, aren't you a person of this secular world? Have you always considered yourself a spokesperson for the transcendent world?’
Soon, Ying Qi noticed something was off. Knowing Shen Lang as well as he did, he felt Shen Lang was overacting. Wailing and crying tears of blood like this wasn't his style.
‘Strange. I feel like there's a trap here.’
***
Watching the Nirvana Army being wiped out, Xue Che's eyes narrowed slightly. Everything was going according to plan, but his son, Xue Ding, as if driven by some compulsion, had insisted on defeating the Nirvana Army in the shortest time possible. Still, it didn't significantly affect the outcome. For some reason, however, Xue Che felt a faint sense of unease. It wasn't because of Shen Lang's exaggerated performance; Xue Che simply thought Shen Lang was a dramatic person by nature. Rather, he found Jin Mulan's behavior strange. If the Nirvana Army was annihilated, shouldn't she at least show some grief? But she showed none. After the battle began, she had donned a helmet that covered her face, hiding her expression, but her gaze was odd. She wasn't looking at the dead Nirvana Army soldiers on the ground, but up at the city walls. And Big Dummy! Clad head to toe in armor, he was trembling for some reason.
‘Is he trembling from weeping?’
Xue Che noticed all these minor details, but they weren't enough to be called flaws. Yet, the unease in his heart didn't dissipate; instead, it grew stronger.
***
The five thousand disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect exited the city gates and began to form up. They approached Shen Lang and the dense field of "corpses" of the Nirvana Army. They were still acting cautiously. Although the Nirvana Army was clearly dead, half of the five thousand disciples drew their bows, aiming at Shen Lang's position. Their arrows were the same poison arrows, filled with *gu* insects, that had just wiped out the Nirvana Army. The two sides grew closer and closer, and the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect hoisted jars filled with fish oil. They planned to get at least fifty meters closer before throwing the fish oil and setting it ablaze to dispose of the bodies.
And if several of the enemy's leaders, like Shen Lang, still hadn't left? All the better. A great fire would burn them alive. Even if there was a Grandmaster by Shen Lang's side, what did it matter? The disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were a martial legion, and among them were Grandmasters who had come as reinforcements. The distance between them shrank, until only a hundred meters remained.
But then, suddenly, the three thousand-odd members of the Nirvana Army, who were supposed to be dead, sprang up in an orderly fashion. At that moment, the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were so shocked they were dumbfounded. Xue Ding, who was watching the situation, was equally horrified, and the hair on Ying Qi's head stood on end.
‘It really was a ploy.’
Caught completely by surprise, the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect had no time to react. The Nirvana Army drew their bows in unison. Their arrows were special, drawn from the water, and the arrowheads were coated in white phosphorus.
*Swish, swish, swish, swish.*
The Nirvana Army immediately unleashed a rain of arrows. As the arrows shot out like lightning and streaked through the air, the friction ignited the white phosphorus, creating eerie green will-o'-the-wisps in the air. In an instant, the blazing arrow storm shot with ferocious speed into the formation of the thousands of South Sea Sword Sect disciples.
*Boom, boom, boom, boom.*
Many of the South Sea Sword Sect disciples were holding jars of fish oil. When the arrows struck and shattered the jars, the oil instantly exploded. The flames spread, and those holding the jars were immediately engulfed in fire. A continuous chain of explosions followed, igniting more and more people until countless men became human torches.
"Scatter! Scatter! Counterattack! Counterattack!"
The remaining South Sea Sword Sect warriors, who hadn't been caught in the explosions, quickly scattered to avoid the burning men and fired back with their own arrows. But tragically, all they had were the *gu* poison arrows. To make them burst easily, the tips weren't sharp, nor were they made of steel; they were special, fragile arrowheads. They fired their *gu* arrows at the Nirvana Army, and once again, the arrows burst, and countless *gu* insects burrowed through the gaps in the armor and into the bloodstreams of the Nirvana Army soldiers. But a moment later, all those second-grade Corpse Gu insects died. As it turned out, the Nirvana Army had already injected themselves with a defensive antidote.
*Swish, swish, swish, swish.*
The Nirvana Army now switched from white phosphorus arrows to normal steel arrows and fired relentlessly. A one-sided slaughter unfolded. The disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were on the verge of madness. What they needed now were normal arrows, not *gu* poison arrows. But their special quivers couldn't hold ordinary steel arrows. Even if they had a few normal arrows, they couldn't possibly unleash a storm of them like the Nirvana Army.
Moreover, while the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were strong, they were not professional archers, and their accuracy was far inferior to the Nirvana Army's. The Second Nirvana Army was unbeatable in archery within a hundred-meter range. Like reaping broken stalks of barley, the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect fell, group by group. They were too close to the Nirvana Army to either advance or retreat.
"Charge! Let's go and kill them all! We disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect are highly skilled in martial arts. In close combat, we can surely kill them."
Even in this desperate situation, the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were braver than any ordinary army. They abandoned their bows, drew their sharp swords, and charged toward the Nirvana Army.
*Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.*
The Nirvana Army didn't flinch, continuing to fire a mad volley of arrows. The disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect charging toward them were like moths drawn to a flame. They were brave, but their numbers dwindled with every step. In the end, only two or three hundred managed to break through to the Nirvana Army's lines. They were incredibly formidable and courageous, some even running with several arrows sticking out of their bodies.
‘Hahaha! Nirvana Army, we've finally reached you. Now, let's see how you die.’
*Slash!*
At that moment, the thousand soldiers of the First Nirvana Army swung their massive executioner's blades.
‘Cleaved in two!’
The charging enemies were split down the middle. Except for battlefield killing machines like Big Dummy or Nampo, when ordinary martial artists faced a disciplined military formation, tragedy was inevitable.
*Slash, slash!*
‘Cleaved in two, cleaved in two!’
*Swish, swish, swish.*
A final, furious volley of arrows rained down, and the last few hundred disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect were finally wiped out. The supreme martial arts masters who had come as reinforcements saw how unfavorably the situation had turned and immediately retreated back into Nanzhu City.
***
Shen Lang looked at the corpses littering the ground and raised a finger to wipe away the last tear from the corner of his eye.
"Did you see that? These are what you call crocodile tears."
Unfortunately, Shen Lang's martial arts were not high enough for his voice to carry far, so his boastful words didn't reach the enemy. Shen Lang shouted toward Xue Ding on the city wall.
"Now that all the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect are dead, isn't that refreshing?"
This time, Big Dummy acted as Shen Lang's personal amplifier.
"Isn't that refreshing? Isn't that refreshing?"
Huh? Strange. An unexpected echo? A deathly silence fell over the scene. Everything had happened too quickly, too suddenly. In that moment, Xue Ding understood perfectly what it meant to fall from heaven straight into hell. According to his plan, he had annihilated Shen Lang's Nirvana Army in an instant, but in the very next moment, the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect had been wiped out with no chance to fight back. How could this be? Why were Fudao Mountain's *gu* insects ineffective against the Nirvana Army? Was it because they possessed a special bloodline?
That couldn't be it. Fudao Mountain had already conducted numerous experiments and confirmed that the Nirvana Army's special bloodline offered no immunity to the *gu* insects. So why didn't they die? There was only one reason. Shen Lang must have had a defensive antidote. Just as all the disciples of the South Sea Sword Sect had taken an immunity drug before using the *gu* poison arrows to avoid losing their lives if they were accidentally exposed to the second-grade Corpse Gu insects.
But how did Shen Lang get his hands on an immunity drug? That was an absolute secret of Fudao Mountain. Not even Wu Daozi possessed the formula for it. Shen Lang shouldn't even have known that the Xue Clan possessed a large quantity of second-grade Corpse Gu insects. So how did this happen?
Xue Ding now understood why people's faces paled with unease at the mere sight of Shen Lang. He was too terrifying, too vicious, too despicable. Xue Ding couldn't help but turn his head toward a window in the watchtower. He knew his father had been watching the entire battle. But when he looked at Xue Che's face, his father gave no instructions, no reaction at all.
***
In truth, Xue Che was frozen to the core. He just couldn't show it. In a situation like this, he had to remain even calmer. Otherwise, his subordinates would fall into chaos.
"Prepare the second secret weapon."
"Yes!"
A cellar in the watchtower opened, and hundreds of warriors rushed in, carefully carrying out box after box. They didn't know what was inside, but they knew it was something terrifying—perhaps even more terrifying than the second-grade Corpse Gu insects.
"Move them to the top of the walls and eliminate Shen Lang's Nirvana Army below!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
What was in these boxes? It was a true poison gas, capable of mass slaughter. This, too, had come from Fudao Mountain. It was all sealed in special containers, ready to be thrown at the enemy when needed. The poison was a liquid, so in windless conditions, dropping it from the city walls would cause it to fall straight down without spreading too widely. But if there was wind, the gas could spread and cause friendly casualties.
Of course, using this poison would severely contaminate the land, but after the situation was resolved, they could burn the ground with a great fire to eliminate most of the residual toxins. However, the lethality of the poison at the moment of release was unparalleled; any enemy hit by it would surely die. That was why Xue Che had been reluctant to use it unless absolutely necessary. Using it could easily make the situation spiral out of control. Once that happened, the number of casualties could become unpredictable, but now, he had no other choice.
‘Shen Lang, you wretched bastard, you had an antidote for the second-grade Corpse Gu insects. But surely you don't have an antidote for this poison gas from Fudao Mountain? Not even I have one, let alone you.’