Free Web NovelChapter 277: Chapter 264: Sea Battle 2
War was coming.
Just four days after Lin Hui’s inspection of Xia Si, the God herd and Black Cloud finally went to war.
「Above the Jade Sea.」
On three sides of Black Cloud—east, south, and west—countless shipping lanes had been shut down.
The sea surged, the sky’s mist transformed into black clouds, and thunder rumbled, creating an oppressive atmosphere.
Flashes of lightning momentarily illuminated the world, revealing the orderly formations of over a million Black Army soldiers gathered on three sides of Black Cloud.
They had not set out to battle, nor were there any fleets. All the Black Army soldiers stood dispersed upon three colossal, diamond-shaped blackstone platforms on the sea’s surface.
The million-plus soldiers of the Black Army were packed together, resembling a massive swarm of black insects surrounding Black Cloud on three sides.
Everyone was silent, circulating the power within their bodies—be it Inner Strength, True Power, Void Power, or Mental Power.
At this very moment, all these powers converged and rose, coalescing above Black Cloud into three massive, three-dimensional, blackish-purple arrays.
At the center of each of the three arrays was a floating mountain peak, its summit shimmering with a blinding, platinum-white light.
Lin Hui stood at the summit of Gongsun Xinlian’s third mountain peak, just outside the platinum light, looking down upon the sea below alongside the other Deputy City Lords.
There were four Deputy City Lords of his rank present for the battle in total. All were top-tier Blood Progenitors, second in power only to the Fog People.
Besides Lin Hui himself, there were two other Deputy City Lords standing on the third mountain.
One was a large, fat man named Li Hanzhang. He looked like a wealthy merchant, sporting a small black mustache, and had been smiling amicably since they met, exuding an air of affluence and good nature.
The other was a tall woman named Hongling Xiao. Her face was veiled, revealing only a pair of sharp, black eyes. Dressed in a long, black gauze gown that concealed every inch of her skin, she had an icy demeanor.
"To be honest, this is my first time fighting against the God herd’s Fog Spirits," the stout Li Hanzhang said with a grin. "Do you two have any advice or warnings? We’re colleagues, after all. We should look out for each other."
"This is my first time in this war as well. I’m not familiar with the key aspects either," Lin Hui said slowly, shaking his head.
"This is my third time," the woman, Hongling Xiao, stated calmly. "In that case, I’ll give you two a brief overview of the process."
"I’m eager to hear it."
"Many thanks!"
The stout man and Lin Hui cupped their fists at her in a gesture of respect.
Hongling Xiao nodded and got straight to the point.
"Fighting the God herd is completely different from conventional warfare. It’s divided into two parts: offense and defense."
"In conventional wars, superior numbers often grant the advantage, and can even decide the final victory. But here, no matter how great your numbers are, they’re just ants before the power of the Fog People and Fog Spirits. Utterly meaningless. So... what truly decides the outcome of this war is the clash between high-level powers."
The two men nodded at her words. It was true. A single Fog Person could wipe out an entire city. At that level of power, sheer numbers were indeed meaningless.
Seeing they agreed, Hongling Xiao continued.
"Therefore, the key to victory is to concentrate all our power on the strongest point to help our high-level combatants win. As long as our top powers are victorious, the war is all but decided. These Black Army soldiers going into battle are here to channel all their power into the arrays and relics, which then converges upon the three City Lords. This amplifies their strength, allowing them to crush the opposing God herd of Fog Spirits. That is the ’offense’."
"So the Black Army won’t be engaging in close combat? Is that right?" Lin Hui asked, understanding dawning on him.
"Exactly. But if we are defeated, every Black Army soldier participating in the array will suffer a backlash, resulting in severe injuries or even death. So the consequences are no safer than in a conventional war," Hongling Xiao explained.
"So, how strong can they get when the power of so many people is amplified and converged into one?" the stout Li Hanzhang asked.
"I don’t know for sure, but the amplification must be immense. Otherwise, the City Lords wouldn’t go to the trouble of arranging such a grand formation," Hongling Xiao said, shaking her head slowly.
"And the defense?" Lin Hui asked.
"Defense... that’s our responsibility. Because the arrays and relics provide such a powerful boost to the City Lords, the enemy will try to send people to bypass the front lines and destroy the amplification arrays if they find themselves in a stalemate or at a disadvantage. That’s when we step in," Hongling Xiao said.
Lin Hui understood. Looking now at the grand arrays in the three directions, he clearly grasped what stage they were in.
The summits of the three floating mountain peaks were where the three City Lords were located.
A massive amount of intangible power was surging into the peaks like a river, transforming into a temporary power boost for the three Fog People.
Only the three Fogman City Lords would fight. Everyone else was responsible for guarding the grand arrays to prevent the amplification formations from being destroyed.
"They’re here!" Suddenly, Hongling Xiao’s voice deepened as she looked up into the distance.
In the distance, over the Jade Sea, the mist on the horizon had long since been covered by the massive black clouds and had temporarily dissipated, allowing a clear view of the scene far away.
Upon the turquoise sea, an innumerable horde of grayish-white monsters was forming an overwhelming, grayish-white tidal wave, rushing toward Black Cloud.
Even from such a great distance, Lin Hui could faintly hear the cacophony of howls from all the different monsters.
He roughly estimated the monster wave to be at least several thousand meters high. Things flying in the sky, running on the surface, and swimming in the sea—a trinity of creatures swarmed madly toward them.
Their ranks were so thick in the rear that it was impossible to see how many there were.
"Be careful. This is a common tactic of the God herd—they drive an endless stream of monsters from the Fog Area to attack city districts. These monsters are boundless and inexhaustible. Even if we kill them all today, they will be back to their original numbers after a while. We only need to hold back their assault. Do not advance rashly." The voice of the Third City Lord, Gongsun Xinlian, suddenly rang in the ears of the three Deputy City Lords.
"Yes!"
The three responded in unison.
"First defensive layer, prepare! Second defensive layer, on standby!" The voice of the Second City Lord, Baoxin Tower Zhang Yao, echoed in everyone’s ears.
SHING.
Amidst the sound of countless weapons being drawn from their sheaths, a large circle of Black Army soldiers on the outer perimeter raised their weapons, unleashing a uniform, immense wave of Inner Strength and Mental Power.
They were the ones responsible for defending and protecting the Black Army soldiers who were powering the arrays within. Their main opponents were these endless monsters, and their purpose was to alleviate the pressure on the Protective Array.
FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH!!
Giant, fiery-red, meteor-like cannonballs shot out from all over the high walls of Black Cloud, smashing into the monster wave like a massive flock of firebirds.
Countless craters were blasted into the surface of the monster wave, but they were quickly filled by the endless creatures behind them as the wave continued its charge toward Black Cloud.
Then came the second round, the third, and wave after wave of fiery meteor-like shells, so numerous they filled half the sky and dyed the daylight red.
"They’re coming!" Xie Chang’an’s voice thundered across the entire army. "Second Brother, Third Sister."
"Here!"
"I’m here!"
The two responded in unison.
"Let’s go. Time to pay a visit to that fellow, Minglan."
With Xie Chang’an’s command, the ball of platinum-white light at the summit of the first floating mountain suddenly soared, shooting into the sky.
It was followed by a second, and then a third.
The three platinum-white shooting stars streaked through the sky full of fiery meteors, like three suns surrounded by countless red shooting stars, plunging toward the distant monster wave.
BOOM!!!
In the next instant, a blinding light filled Lin Hui’s vision, and everything was dyed pure white.
He couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything.
Only the three exploding balls of platinum-white light filled his entire field of view.
It took a full several seconds for his vision to return.
The other two Deputy City Lords were in the same state.
The moment they recovered, the three of them immediately looked toward the distant battlefield on the sea.
The previous monster wave had vanished, as had the three City Lords. All that remained were the vast numbers of monsters behind, rapidly repairing and reforming a new monster wave.
"Get ready to engage!" Hongling Xiao said in a low voice.
Lin Hui and Li Hanzhang nodded, their gazes fixed on the approaching monster wave.
Half a minute later, with a deafening crash, the monster wave slammed violently into the giant, translucent membrane of the array outside Black Cloud.
The membrane was torn open with countless holes of varying sizes, but it quickly and automatically reformed into a net, blocking some monsters while letting others through to alleviate the pressure.
The monsters that surged in were handled by the Black Army and the city’s officials.
"KILL!!"
The Black Army guards on the perimeter roared, raising their spears, blades, and shields to meet the monsters charging onto the port grounds.
They formed small, interconnected arrays in groups of three, which could briefly boost their defenses as they hunted the monsters together.
There were pure white giants with fiery red cracks all over their bodies, giant flying insects resembling spiders, and ferocious predators with the head of a lion, the body of an ox, and the tail of a snake.
The lowest-level monsters here were Invasion Level, followed by Dangerous, High-Risk, and Destruction Level.
Most notably, there were more than ten of the highest-level, Destruction Level monsters—terrifying creatures that only Palace Masters or Mingji could confront—in the very first wave.
Fortunately, the Black Army wasn’t composed entirely of the Human Race. At the very front were the powerful soldiers of the Undead Race.
Even if their bodies were smashed to pieces, they could quickly reassemble and recover.
Every member of the Undead Race was essentially immortal, a sort of low-spec version of the Fog People. The difference was, each time one of the Undead Race People died, they would lose some of their previous memories. After dying a certain number of times, they would completely revert to a newborn state, having lost all their memories and needing to learn everything from scratch.
Behind them were the humanoid Black Army soldiers, members of other, more powerfully built races like the Lion-men, Elephant People, the Python Race, and so on.
These were slave soldiers. No one would care if they died. They were used as a buffer in the middle ranks.
Only at the very back were the Black Army soldiers of the Human Race.
Behind the Human Race’s Black Army were large numbers of civilian auxiliary forces, which served as manpower to reinforce various parts of the battlefield and maintain balance.
The auxiliary forces came from major civilian gangs, great clans, and Sects. The people from the Clear Wind Dao were also in this formation.
Finally, at the very rear, were the four Deputy City Lords including Lin Hui, along with the Blood Progenitors from Extreme Desire Heaven and the Taixu Origin Disk.
They were responsible for keeping a close watch on the big guys everywhere—the Destruction Level behemoths—as well as any God-descendants or even low-level Fog Spirits that might have snuck in.
Because there were many Fog Spirits, it was possible some might try to sneak in and sabotage the arrays.
Lin Hui felt a sense of anticipation.
He had specifically saved a slot for his Annihilation Sacred Form for this very moment. These Destruction Level monsters, each of a different species, were the best raw materials to complete his Pulse of Annihilation.
He was eagerly looking forward to it. Perhaps after this war, his Annihilation Sacred Form could finally be successfully condensed.
After all, with so many top-tier monsters gathered right in front of him... to not take what heaven provides is to invite disaster. Since the opportunity was laid out before him, he naturally had to seize it.
’It would be even better if I could get my hands on some God-descendants, or even a Fog Spirit,’ he thought.
The wind howled, and chaotic fragments from the countless collisions of power drifted everywhere on the air currents.
And yet, just a moment before Black Cloud engaged in battle...
「Far away, to the rear.」
Tuyue and Xie Jun had already appeared silently on the surface of the Jade Sea.
"It’s starting. Finally. Only at a time like this would Xie Chang’an be too preoccupied to notice anything else. This is the perfect time to strike!" Tuyue said, gritting her teeth.
Now that she no longer had a city to share the burden of decay, her lifespan could only be sustained by devouring and absorbing Evil Energy. She was still living under someone else’s roof in Xingdiao City.
Her original curiosity and dissatisfaction with Lin Hui had, after hearing that he could actually deal with Wild Fog People, given way to a resurgent greed.
’If I can devour Lin Hui and obtain the opportunity within him... that’s a terrifying stroke of fortune that could allow a mere mortal to rival a Fog Person in a single leap!’
’Even the Fourth Princess couldn’t help but be drawn to it. If it were given to me... then...’
’Most importantly, that Lin Hui was supposed to be my food! Mine! But he was snatched away by that damned Xie Chang’an!!’
’Now I have no city district, I have nothing! Since I have nothing left to lose, I’ll just grab him and run. No matter how strong Xie Chang’an is, would he dare abandon Black Cloud to hunt me down all over the world?’
