81: Chapter 81 Black Rain Erosion Array, the Northern Vein is About to Collapse

After the White Bone Armored General raised that blade, the sea surface on the north side suddenly went silent for a breath.

The next instant, it was as if something in the black tide opened its eyes simultaneously.

Not just a pair.

It was hundreds upon thousands of dim, dark red lights, igniting simultaneously on the crests of the waves, in the gaps of the bone shields, and behind the cold, wet faceplates of those black-armored Cultivators. Immediately following, the bows of the three foremost black boats sank abruptly. From beneath the hulls, a series of grey-white chains were dragged out, suspending dozens of grey-black bone orbs the size of human heads, which were all flung into the sea with a loud splash.

As soon as the seawater submerged them, that stretch of the sea surface looked as if it had been scorched and rotted.

There was no fire.

Only a layer of greasy black foam churning outward.

A stench—fishy, rotten, damp, and cold—mixed into a smell that made one's teeth ache, rushing straight toward the Northern Ridge of Xuangui Island along the sea breeze. The outermost layer of the purple lightning barrier, which was still holding on, dimmed first, followed immediately by a dense, sizzling sound, as if countless needles were being stabbed into wet cloth at the same time.

Li Heng's expression changed instantly.

"It's not a charge!"

"It's eroding the formation!"

No sooner had the words fallen than the Evil-Suppressing Sand on the outer ring of the first section of the live line at the Northern Ridge collapsed all at once.

Chen Mo had just pressed a blood-stained wooden thorn back into the rune gap, and when he looked up, the corners of his eyes twitched: "This isn't the bit of foul Qi from last night… This is filthy stuff refined from bones!"

Lu Changyuan gripped the military talisman, the wound in his palm seared even deeper.

He did not speak.

The five sections of the live line within the military talisman were reporting back at the same time.

The line at Warehouse No. 3 was still stable, but the black Qi on the warehouse door began to burrow downward along the old lightning patterns.

The damaged ship behind the second pile of the Outer Port was swaying, and several injured Cultivators tied to the wooden piles had already started coughing up black water.

The Spirit Stone troughs that the Array Master team of the Central Military Drill Ground had just replenished were only seven-tenths lit. The situation on the East Shoal side was even worse; black fire within the seawater was licking up along the shoal, like a row of rotting teeth slowly closing in.

The most vicious attack was still at the Northern Ridge.

The layer of Evil-Suppressing Sand that had just been replenished on the outer ring of the Old Turtle Head Stone, once drenched by the black rain, turned greyish-black and had already begun to grow sticky.

The White Bone Armored General stood behind the black tide, its long blade still raised.

It did not move forward again.

Yet the entire black army stopped along with it.

It was as if they were waiting.

Waiting for Xuangui Island to rot open a gap on its own.

Lu Hu rode on the Purple Lightning Seahorse, his whole body as wet as if he had just been fished out of the sea, with marks from black fire burns on half of his armor. He looked at that sheet of black rain and couldn't help but curse: "The bastards filled the line with their lives last night, and tonight they've switched to using dirty things to grind down the line."

Before his words had even faded, a sound exploded from the direction of the Outer Port.

It wasn't a blast.

It was the crisp sound of wood collapsing after being forcibly eroded through.

A ship-guarding Cultivator screamed: "The floating bridge on the outside of the second pile has rotted!"

Immediately after, someone else shouted: "The stern board of the damaged ship is bubbling with black foam!"

"Someone has fallen over by the medicine shed!"

The voices had barely emerged before they were swept away by the sea breeze and the black tide.

Lu Changyuan turned his head abruptly: "Who is at the Outer Port?"

A chaotic series of voices immediately replied within the military talisman, finally managing to merge into one.

"The one with the broken leg is still there."

"The ship protection team is still there."

"The dozen or so who were tied up to move the sand are also still there."

"No one ran."

When this "No one ran" fell into his ears, Lu Changyuan's hand gripping the blade tightened slightly.

It wasn't because of being moved.

It was because he could hear that they weren't unafraid over there.

It was that they simply had no time to be afraid.

Even if they were afraid, they had to hold the pile first.

Soon, another sentence was added within the military talisman.

The Cultivator with the broken leg had tied his waist to the half-broken flagpole, and his other hand was still pressing tightly against the base of the main pile, as if afraid that the next breath would sweep both him and the pile away with the tide.

Lu Changyuan heard the wood rattling behind him.

But he did not hear him beg to retreat.

The White Bone Armored General seemed to have heard something as well, and its blade suddenly pressed downward.

With this pressure, the hulls of the three black boats tightened simultaneously, and the second batch of grey-black bone orbs was whipped into mid-air by the chains, exploding directly in front of the Northern Ridge.

This time, it was not falling into the sea.

It was black rain.

Sheets of black dots pattered down onto the purple lightning net, onto the outer ring of the Old Turtle Head Stone, and onto the armor faceplates and shields of those defenders who hadn't had time to shrink back into the shelters.

A few of the condemned soldiers who had just picked up sandbags hadn't even reacted before black smoke began to rise from the backs of their hands, and the pain caused them to drop the sandbags on the spot.

Chen Mo's grandson rushed out from the medicine shed: "Don't touch it directly! Use wet cloth to wrap your hands!"

He had only said half of his words when Chen Mo raised his hand and slapped him on the back of the head: "Get back!"

The youth was shoved so that he stumbled, but he didn't actually retreat.

He tore off the wet cloth from his shoulder, rushed over to cover the blackened back of a defender's hand, and was then dragged back behind the shed by the collar by an injured Cultivator nearby.

This bit of chaos, instead, made the entire Northern Ridge hold tighter.

Lu Changyuan suddenly spoke: "Li Heng."

"Here."

"Do not unleash the full power of the Central Army lightning fire array; save two-tenths."

"Save it for which line?"

"Save it for the moment it enters."

Li Heng's Adam's apple moved, and he didn't ask any more: "Understood."

"Chen Mo."

The old rune master coughed up blood and looked up: "Not dead yet."

"Move the outer ring of the Old Turtle Head Stone back another ten zhang."

Chen Mo was stunned for a moment: "Moving it back any further will be right against the stone root."

"That is exactly the point—to be right against the stone root."

Lu Changyuan's gaze did not shift, "It is grinding the outer ring. Then let it grind. The Northern Ridge is not on that ring of sand; it is in the stone root."

A ruthless look flashed in Chen Mo's eyes, and he turned and cursed: "Did you hear that! Withdraw the outer ring, pile it in the inner ring! Dump all the sand that hasn't turned completely black into the stone root trench!"

A dozen or so defenders and condemned soldiers immediately rushed to move it.

Their movements were chaotic.

Their feet were slipping.

But no one stopped.

A muffled sound came from the direction of the Outer Port again.

This time it was a Formation Flag snapping.

Someone immediately reported urgently within the military talisman: "The auxiliary flag of the second pile has snapped in half!"

Immediately following was another hoarse voice.

It was that Cultivator with the broken leg.

"The flag can still be planted."

"The person is not dead yet."

"Vice Envoy, the Outer Port is still here."

The short sentence was spoken as if every word were gasping blood.

Lu Changyuan closed his eyes and opened them again.

The White Bone Armored General had already moved.

It did not charge the line itself.

Instead, it raised its blade and pointed it diagonally toward the Northern Ridge.

The first row of black-armored shield Cultivators lowered their bodies simultaneously.

The second row of spear-wielding Cultivators slammed the ends of their spears into the boat decks.

The dozens of people in the third row, carrying grey-white bone baskets, neatly lifted the lids of their baskets, and clusters of grey-black powder, finer and more fragmented than before, were tossed into mid-air, wrapped in black fire, mixing with the black rain as they pressed directly toward the line of the Old Turtle Head Stone on Xuangui Island.

"It's washing the stone!"

Chen Mo's voice cracked, "It wants to wash away the lightning patterns on the stone root!"

Lu Hu's eyes turned red, and he urged his Purple Lightning Seahorse to charge.

Lu Changyuan pressed down on his reins: "Do not face it head-on."

"If we don't cut in, it will really be able to grind through the Northern Ridge!"

"If you charge now, the fifty riders will all be buried."

Lu Changyuan's tone had not the slightest fluctuation, "Wait until it presses its blade to the fifth zhang."

Lu Hu stared fixedly at the black tide, his teeth almost shattered from clenching.

The White Bone Armored General was clearly also aware that Xuangui Island was waiting.

It, however, was in no rush.

The blade pressed down inch by inch.

For every inch it pressed, the black rain became one part denser.

The purple light on the first section of the live line at the Northern Ridge began to look as if it had been soaked soft by the tide, fading section by section.

The layer of lightning patterns on the surface of the Old Turtle Head Stone, which had originally been faintly visible, also slowly dimmed in the black rain.

Li Heng suddenly groaned, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

The handle of the Formation Flag in his hand had cracked.

"Vice Envoy…"

"The first section, dim another tenth."

Lu Changyuan looked down at the military talisman.

The thin line representing the first section of the Northern Ridge within the military talisman was no longer just dimming.

It was sinking into blackness.

If it sank any further, it would not be "dimming by three-tenths."

It would be a break.

And once it broke here, the outer ring of the Old Turtle Head Stone would definitely collapse.

Once the Northern Ridge was exposed, what the White Bone Armored General would want would not be to grind the line.

It would be to directly shatter the stone.

A very low wailing sound suddenly came from the sea breeze.

It sounded like a bone flute.

Or like someone in the distance blowing a horn while holding it underwater.

After the White Bone Armored General heard this sound, the two dim red lights under its helmet became noticeably brighter.

It finally took a step forward, and its blade suddenly sank to its chest, pointing directly at the Old Turtle Head Stone.

In this instant, the entire black army moved.

The black-armored shield line pressed forward.

The black fire on the spears connected into a single sheet.

The three black boats collided with the waves and pushed forward simultaneously.

The dozens of black-armored Cultivators at the very front even stepped directly onto the black fire and bone shields, leaping out from the crest of the tide, as if they wanted to use their bodies to smash the Northern Ridge of Xuangui Island to pieces.

Lu Changyuan finally spoke.

"Li Heng."

"Release the Central Army lightning fire array."

"Chen Mo, seal the stone root."

"Lu Hu, cut its third row at the East Shoal, do not be greedy."

"Outer Port second pile, even if the flag falls, use people to hold it for me."

He pressed down with each sentence; his voice was not loud, but it was carried very far by the military talisman.

The military talisman vibrated slightly at the end.

The five sections of the live line flashed with light simultaneously.

And at this very moment, the White Bone Armored General pressed its blade down another inch.

The layer of purple lightning net at the very front of the Northern Ridge of Xuangui Island was finally eroded by the black rain, creating a gap.

The black tide crashed in through the gap with a roar.