Chapter 75: The Strike That Pierced The Heaven and The Earth. |
One of the teachers, Zhang Ze, looked a bit bewildered. "What's going on here? Comprehensive research and evaluation went into each set of this armor to ensure advantages in agility, flexibility, defense, and other aspects. Adding all this thickness and fancy wings will greatly weaken its combat effectiveness."
Liu Feng chuckled bitterly. "Sir, what's the point of being agile if I’m dead?"
His words caused Pang Long and the other two to go silent as they recalled the student who had been sniped and killed, immediately understanding what the students were worried about.
Pang Long said in a deep voice, "Let's go."
Under the cover of night, armored vehicles and transport trucks traversed the blocked roads at a slow speed of eighty kilometers[1] per hour. Only the lead armored vehicle had its headlights on, while the rest of the vehicles followed with their low beams.
After leaving the city, the convoy began to accelerate. Soon, the rumbling vibrations echoed far across the wilderness.
The cult's stronghold was nearly a hundred kilometers away from Leisteru City, hidden within a naturally formed cavern in the middle of a small mountain range. The last of the rebel forces that had once occupied Leisteru City were hiding in a valley beneath another mountain.
The main forces usually gathered at the stronghold, while most of the lower-ranking members dispersed and blended into the villages, assuming various identities and coordinating with their many informants. Due to the fact that most of these rebels were locals, the Federal Army had found it difficult to distinguish them at first, since there had been little time to establish a comprehensive intelligence system of their own.
Many Kyrola civilians also harbored a subtle hostility towards the Federal Army. Oblivious to the consequences of allowing the rebels to establish a divine kingdom on Earth, they instead believed that the Federation wished to see them continue to be enslaved by the monarchy, and was thus hindering the rebels’ efforts to liberate their nation.
The drone of fighter jets echoed as dozens of them flew thousands of meters above and released powerful aerial bombs, one after another.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the distance, flames soared from between the mountains into the sky, illuminating the horizon with dazzling light. Even from a considerable distance away, Chen Chu and the others could still hear the thunderous roar of the explosions.
And this was only the beginning.
As the first wave of fighter jets departed after the bombing, in the far distance to the left, countless eruptions of fire burst forth. A dense barrage of rockets, accompanied by a piercing shriek, tore through the sky.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, the howitzer battalion that had already reached their positions launched their attack, unleashing a barrage of heavy artillery shells raining down from above.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground trembled under the bombardment of countless shells. Just then, fighter jets streaked across the sky once more, and dozens of heavy bunker-busting missiles descended with pinpoint accuracy, igniting instant infernos along the mountainside.
The deafening rumble shook the air, terrifyingly intense. The dreadful spectacle left Chen Chu and the others momentarily stunned, their expressions frozen in fear.
Such was the power of modern weaponry. Even Pang Long, an advanced martial artist capable of withstanding individual rocket attacks, would face certain death in the wake of such bombardment. A high-level practitioner like Lin Xiong would meet the same fate if unable to escape the blast radius in a short enough time.
Chen Chu and other low-level practitioners at the Second or Third Heavenly Realm could withstand rifle and submachine gun bullets when facing ordinary people, but against this level of onslaught, they would stand little chance. Just one of those aerial bombs could send them to their demise.
"The bombing has begun. Armored vehicles and transport trucks, continue forward." With that command, the convoy, which had previously halted, continued its advance.
They were still over ten kilometers away from the rebel stronghold.
As they resumed their journey, Chen Chu suddenly looked up, only to see a thick beam of light descending from ten thousand meters above, striking the bombed mountain peak in an instant.
Boom! The light of the nuclear explosion illuminated the heavens and the earth in an instant.
With one terrifying strike from the beam, the mountain peak, towering over a thousand meters high, collapsed with a deafening roar, and billions of tons of rocks and soil cascaded down, creating a scene akin to the end of the world.
Everyone was in a daze, staring in disbelief at the distant spectacle. They had initially thought it was just a large-scale siege, but they had never imagined that the military would deploy such terrifying firepower.
They had already witnessed the saturation bombing with countless rockets and missiles. But the deployment of weapons of terror, comparable to nuclear weapons and capable of collapsing an entire mountain with a single strike, was beyond comprehension.
By the time the armored convoy arrived at the foot of the mountains at full speed, the bombardment had already ceased. The area was littered with the remnants of explosions, leaving behind fiery glows and large craters everywhere.
As soon as the convoy came to a halt, Pang Long leaped out with several high-level military personnel, as one sternly shouted, "Special forces team, eliminate the rebel stronghold! Regular soldiers, follow up from behind and expand the perimeter. Do not let anyone escape."
As soon as they finished speaking, the high-level cultivators erupted with red and blue true power, which seemed to burn like raging flames.
Chen Chu and the others also quickly jumped down directly from the transport trucks once they received their order. Watching Pang Long and the others disappear at the foot of the mountain in the blink of an eye, Liu Feng exclaimed, "Wow, Old Pang and the others are so fast."
Xia Youhui impatiently retorted, "Of course. They’re Sixth Heavenly Realm cultivators. Their basic physique alone is at least thirty times that of an ordinary person, and the flame transformation makes their true power terrifying."
Chen Chu's expression hardened. "I'll go up first. You guys follow behind."
Chen Chu paid no attention to any responses. He stomped on the ground, instantly unleashing a terrifying speed of fifty meters per second, and created a howling wind as he charged up the mountain.
After that kind of bombing, many high-level members of the Demon Cult and rebel forces were either dead or severely injured. Even if some experts managed to evade the bombing by taking advantage of the terrain, there were still Pang Long and the others to deal with them. All Chen Chu needed to do was rush up and collect some heads; those would all be contribution points.
If he missed this opportunity, he wouldn't know when he would encounter such a fortunate event again.
It didn’t take long for the realization to dawn on the other classmates, and they quickly shouted, "Chen Chu, don't hog all the credit! Leave us some heads too!"
"Wait for me!"
"Damn it, we're all at the Second Heavenly Realm, why is Chen Chu running so fast..."
Ignoring his classmates, Chen Chu charged up the first hill through the pockmarked craters. As he reached the top, he saw a staggering scene a kilometer away, illuminated by the fiery glow.
He saw Pang Long and each person wielding a gigantic weapon—some with long swords stretching over three meters, others with spears exceeding four meters in length. Most importantly, these weapons were all emitting light, a terrifying signal of their power.
Chen Chu watched as Pang Long swung his long sword, unleashing a seven-meter-long blade of light that instantly struck the air defense fortification on the mountainside.
Boom!
The sword qi exploded and scattered razor-sharp energy in all directions, instantly shredding both the fortification and a few rebels as it kicked up a cloud of dust into the air.
Such destructive power far surpassed their performance in the airport battle, leaving Chen Chu greatly astonished. It seemed as though whether or not they carried weapons made a world of difference. He was also puzzled however; when Pang Long and the others had gotten off the vehicle earlier, they didn't have any weapons on them. Could it be that they were equipped with spatial gear?
Either way, they moved quickly, and just as Chen Chu scrambled up the small hill, they vanished into the darkness. His gaze flickered slightly, then his figure flashed as he headed towards the rebel stronghold.
The terrain here was rugged, and many areas along the mountainside were suitable for defense. Even under the heavy bombing, many people had managed to survive by taking cover in the fortifications.
Such as the one Chen Chu discovered halfway up the mountain. It was clear, however, that this position had already suffered heavy casualties; there were only a few rebels and one cultivator hiding in a cave, having narrowly escaped disaster.
Chen Chu activated the miniature camera attached to his body and dashed into the cave with a swift movement.
Swish!
In the darkness, his blade flashed and gleamed, and three rebels who hadn't regained their senses yet were swiftly slain.
Boom!
Chen Chu spun around and delivered a powerful punch, causing the air to explode. His formidable fist landed directly on the chest of the cultivator who was attempting to ambush him from the corner.
Under the ferocious and domineering force, the Second Heavenly Realm cultivator’s chest collapsed, blood spewing from his mouth. With a thunderous crash, he slammed into the mountain wall, dying instantly.
After swiftly dispatching these few individuals, Chen Chu didn't even glance back as he dashed out of the cave and continued his mad sprint upward.
According to the intelligence provided on the way, the main force of the rebel stronghold consisted of over 1,400 soldiers, and dozens of ordinary cultivators, most of whom were at the First or Second Heavenly Realm, with around ten individuals at the Third.
The two leaders at the Fourth Heavenly Realm, who had been consistently accompanying the powerful members of the Demon Cult, had been stationed at the mountain peak, the one that had been initially destroyed by bunker busters and subsequently obliterated by energy weapons.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as he arrived at the mountainside, gunfire erupted from a half-collapsed fortification ahead. Despite sensing the danger beforehand, Chen Chu found himself unable to evade the bullets in time, due to the sheer number and velocity of them.
He chose not to; wouldn't his battle armor have been reinforced in vain otherwise?
Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!
Dozens of bullets struck his armor, creating a dense shower of sparks. One heavy machine gun bullet even slammed into the face mask. Aside from leaving a small dent, however, the impact didn’t inflict any harm on Chen Chu. His head was simply pushed back slightly in response to the force.
Amidst the hail of bullets, Chen Chu swiftly covered a distance of over thirty meters, smashing through the wooden barrier in front of him and charging into the enemy position. With his straight saber in hand, he unleashed a whirlwind of slashes.
Wherever his blade flashed, three rebels were instantly cleaved in half, their blood and entrails gushing out amidst their piercing screams of agony and despair.
The dozen or so rebels armed with rifles and submachine guns were utterly powerless to resist. In the blink of an eye, Chen Chu darted back and forth, leaving behind a trail of empty space where they once stood as he swiftly dispatched them.
"Die!"
Just as Chen Chu finished off the last of the ordinary rebels, the ground behind him erupted, revealing another rebel buried beneath the collapsed wood and soil.
"No playing dead now." With a cold tone, Chen Chu swiftly turned around and delivered a strike before the mid-stage Second Heavenly Realm rebel could react, slicing him in half from bottom to top. Instantly, the battlefield fell silent.
Amidst a pool of blood, its gurgling flow staining the ground crimson, Chen Chu stood amidst the dozen or so corpses in his dark red battle armor, emanating a terrifying aura just like a demon’s.
1. The original novel uses “fifty miles;” this was converted to kilometers for standardization ☜