43: Chapter 43 Clues from Retired Veterans

"Charge! Charge! Crush him!"

Wang Tao roared frantically in the alliance channel. His God Kingdom Projection was fully deployed, and a squad of elite Griffin Knights took to the air first, striking like a sharp sword toward the deep entrance of Yixiantian Canyon.

Behind him, a torrent of troops from nearly ten God Kingdoms converged. The thunderous trampling of Earth-Walking Dragon made the ground tremble, and Elemental Creatures let out ear-piercing shrieks, creating a terrifying momentum.

In their eyes, Jiang Xun was already a trapped rat in the canyon; the only suspense was who would claim the top credit for eliminating him first.

The Griffin Knight regiment dove, being the first to enter the canyon's range.

However, what greeted them was not the panicked resistance they had expected.

It was death.

The moment the first Griffin crossed the canyon entrance, Jiang Xun's cold voice rang out in his own God Kingdom channel.

"Fire."

In the next second, atop the originally unremarkable cliffs on both sides of the canyon, hundreds of eerie blue points of light suddenly lit up.

Those were the dark, gaping muzzles of the Undead Musketeer!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

There were no synchronized commands, only the continuous, overlapping sound of gunfire.

Hundreds of specialized lead bullets, inscribed with "Armor Piercing" and "Explosive" runes, were enhanced by Jiang Xun's "Wind-element Acceleration" law, transforming into a web of death that blanketed the entire canyon entrance.

"Screech—!"

The Griffin Knights flying in the lead didn't even have time to scream before being hit by over a dozen bullets simultaneously, their massive bodies exploding into a mist of blood mid-air.

The companions behind them were also dazed by this sudden strike, and their formation instantly fell into chaos.

"Enemy attack! On the cliffs on both sides!"

"Damn it! What kind of attack is this?!"

Wang Tao howled madly in the channel, "Steady! They don't have many troops! Earth Dragon units, charge in and trample their positions for me!"

The heavy Earth Dragon units roared as they charged into the canyon, their thick scales sufficient to withstand conventional arrows.

However, they had barely stepped fifty meters into the canyon when a crimson glow suddenly lit up beneath their feet.

It was the first line of defense already laid out by the Dwarven Rune Heavy Infantry—the Holdfast Runic Array!

A heavy gravitational field erupted instantly, and the massive bodies of the Earth-Walking Dragon suddenly sank, their speed dropping sharply as they crowded together.

They became sitting ducks.

The Undead Musketeer on the cliffs immediately adjusted their aim, pouring firepower onto these slow-moving giants.

Explosive lead bullets blasted blood holes into their thick scales, and corrosive undead aura seeped into the wounds, causing the great beasts to let out agonizing wails.

In the observation hall, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone watched the one-sided slaughter on the light screen in stunned silence.

The narrow canyon had now become a literal meat grinder.

Whether it was flying units in the sky or heavy units on the ground, once they entered that range, they would be torn to shreds by the crossfire from both sides.

Jiang Xun wasn't defending at all.

From the very beginning, he had treated the entire canyon as a massive trap, a graveyard meticulously prepared for these dozen or so prodigies!

"This... this... how is this possible?!"

The gloating on Teacher Wu Jingguo's face had long since vanished without a trace. He pointed at the screen, his lips trembling, unable to say a single word.

Xu Qingran covered her mouth, her beautiful eyes filled with shock.

She finally understood why Jiang Xun had gone to Yixiantian.

This wasn't stupidity; this was absolute confidence! Absolute confidence in his own army and tactical abilities!

At the highest level of the VIP seats, the expensive teacup in Director Li Jianguo's hand cracked with a "snap," crushed by his raw strength.

He stared fixedly at the youth calmly commanding on the screen, the malice in his eyes almost overflowing.

He couldn't understand how the inescapable net he had laid out had turned into the other party's hunting ground.

On the battlefield, the alliance had completely collapsed.

"Retreat! Quick, retreat! It's a trap!"

"My men are all dead! Wang Tao, you bastard, you've killed me!"

"Run! This isn't something humans can fight!"

The channel was filled with wailing and howling.

But it was too late to run now.

Just as they turned to flee, at the canyon entrance, Jiang Xun's Dwarven Rune Heavy Infantry phalanx pushed forward like an iron wall, blocking their last path of retreat.

"Close the net."

Jiang Xun issued the command once more.

This time, even the people in the observation seats understood the meaning of those three words.

"Leave none alive."

The subsequent battle could no longer be called a battle.

It was a one-sided purge.

Jiang Xun's God Kingdom followers were like highly efficient harvesting machines, systematically eliminating the collapsing prodigies one by one.

When Jiang Xun sent the last person putting up a last-ditch resistance, Wang Tao, out of the match with a precise shot, there was not a single enemy left standing in the entire Yixiantian Canyon.

[Detected that you have defeated the Silver-grade civilization 'Storm God Kingdom'. Would you like to perform Civilization Plunder?]

"Yes."

A massive stream of data flooded into Jiang Xun's God Kingdom.

As Jiang Xun skillfully screened for useful laws and unit models, his movements suddenly stopped.

Deep within the data stream of Wang Tao's God Kingdom, he "accidentally" discovered a triple-encrypted folder.

With a thought, Jiang Xun mobilized his God Kingdom's computing power for a brute-force crack.

A few seconds later, the folder opened.

Inside were over a dozen transfer records and the complete logs of a chat group named "Deployment to Hunt Jiang Xun."

From Director Li Jianguo promising benefits, to distributing the "God-Binding Compass," to the agreement to surround and suppress him at the start... every conversation was recorded in full.

Jiang Xun looked at this evidence and smiled.

This was exactly what he wanted. He carefully made over a dozen backups of the files, encrypted them, and stored them in different corners of his God Kingdom. Just as he was about to process the next set of spoils, his God Kingdom terminal suddenly vibrated urgently.

It was a highest-priority encrypted communication request from Lame Zhang. Jiang Xun answered the call; there was no image on the terminal, only a line of text projected onto his retina, carrying irrepressible anger and trembling.

"Kid, I found it!"

"All these years, Director Li Jianguo has been embezzling the war disability pensions of us retired veterans! He used that money to nurture Li Ang and buy people's loyalty!"

Boom!

It felt as if a string in Jiang Xun's mind had snapped instantly. If his previous actions against Director Li Jianguo were out of personal grudge and counterattacking in self-defense,

Then the moment he saw those words, everything changed. That money was the final security the veterans had exchanged their blood and broken bodies for! It was his comrades' blood money!

Before Jiang Xun's eyes, the image of Lame Zhang's empty trouser leg and Old Ghost's severed arm seemed to surface. He slowly raised his head, and all the calm and composure on his refined face vanished, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness that could freeze a person solid.

"Director Li Jianguo..."

He whispered the name softly.

"You deserve to die."