156: Chapter 156: You call this a mortal?
In the valley.
Wu Dalong and his dozen or so subordinates had all been disarmed, crouching on the ground with their hands behind their heads, looking as wilted as quails.
Their flying swords and Storage Pouchs had all been confiscated and piled to one side.
Several soldiers were holding an unfamiliar instrument, scanning back and forth over this pile of "spoils of war."
"Report, there are thirty-seven low-grade spirit stones and a pile of rotten herbs in the Storage Pouch; nothing valuable."
"Report, the flying sword is made of green steel mixed with a bit of mythril. It's very brittle and has poor spiritual power conductivity—an inferior product."
Hearing the reports over his headset, the muscles on Zhang Liancheng's face twitched.
With such meager possessions, they actually had the nerve to come out and kill for loot? They must be dirt poor.
However, he became even more vigilant.
These were just scouts; having suffered such a huge loss, the other side would definitely come to settle the score.
A tough battle was inevitable.
He glanced at Jiang Ning in the distance, who was directing the "infrastructure puppets" at work, and felt much more at ease.
With her here, there was nothing to fear, even if the sky were to fall.
"Commander! The outer sentries have detected a large group of high-energy targets heading this way! About fifty of them!"
The report came through the communicator from the sentry.
"They're here?" Zhang Liancheng's expression turned serious.
"Level One combat readiness!" he immediately ordered. "First and Second Squads, get into the fortifications and prepare to engage! Third and Fourth Squads, protect the engineering units, and don't stop the work!"
"Yes!"
The soldiers immediately took action, diving into the newly erected alloy bunkers.
Dark gun barrels poked out from the firing slits, aimed at the valley entrance.
Those four "infrastructure puppets" completely ignored the commotion outside, continuing their work at an unhurried pace.
One puppet's mechanical arm had been swapped for a massive pile driver, rhythmically hammering ten-meter-long rune-inscribed alloy piles into the ground.
Another followed behind, using a spirit energy welding torch to connect the tops of these piles to a large circular plate.
A strange-looking iron tower was taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"What are they doing? They're about to die, yet they're still building that piece of junk?"
In the distance, the cultivators of the Wu Clan saw this scene through a water mirror and laughed.
"A bunch of idiots, thinking they'll be fine just by hiding behind iron shells?"
"Family Head, let's make our move!"
Wu Xiangtian watched that strange tower growing taller and taller, feeling an inexplicable sense of panic.
But he had no way out.
"Wu Clan disciples, heed my command!" He drew his flying sword and pointed it forward. "Set up the 'Black Stone Great Formation'! Flatten this valley for me, leave no one alive!"
"Kill!"
More than fifty Wu Clan cultivators roared in unison, full of menacing momentum.
They quickly dispersed to take their positions, and the true yuan within their bodies began to resonate at a strange frequency.
A wave of thick, earthy-yellow spiritual power rippled out, connecting everyone together.
The black stone mountain beneath their feet seemed to come alive.
"Falling Rock Technique!"
Wu Xiangtian gave the order.
More than fifty people simultaneously formed hand seals and pointed sharply at the valley.
The peaks on both sides of the valley trembled violently.
Countless house-sized boulders dislodged from the mountains and were lifted into the sky by a force.
Like rain, the stones blocked out the sun as they smashed down, with the intention of leveling the valley.
In their eyes, under such heavenly might, those mortals and their iron shacks would immediately be turned into a pile of minced meat.
"Fire!"
Inside the valley, Zhang Liancheng's voice was chillingly calm.
Hundreds of blue energy beams shot out from behind the bunkers, weaving into a net to meet the falling rocks.
The energy beams struck the stones, exploding into clusters of blue flames.
One by one, the giant boulders were blasted into smithereens by the violent energy while still in mid-air.
But there were too many stones in the sky, and quite a few slipped through the net and came crashing down.
"Activate Defense Tower One."
At this moment, Jiang Ning's voice came faintly.
A technical soldier beside her immediately pressed the red button in front of him.
The "pot lid" on top of the newly built thirty-meter-tall iron tower suddenly lit up.
A pale blue hemispherical energy shield instantly expanded, like a large inverted bowl, covering the entire camp tightly.
Countless boulders smashed against the energy shield, the sound deafening.
Yet, that seemingly thin energy shield was ridiculously sturdy.
Every stone that touched the shield was either deflected by a gentle yet irresistible force or directly shattered into powder.
The entire shield didn't even flicker.
"This... this is impossible!"
Outside the valley, Wu Xiangtian's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets.
His "Black Stone Great Formation's" full-strength attack was actually blocked by a layer of light film?
It didn't even hurt a single hair on the enemy?
"What the hell is that thing?"
"Such a strong defensive formation! But... why can't I feel any spiritual power fluctuations?"
"When did they set up the formation?"
All the Wu Clan cultivators were dumbfounded, completely unable to understand the situation before them.
"Family Head, what do we do? The Falling Rock Technique is useless!" an elder said anxiously.
Wu Xiangtian's face had turned the color of a pig's liver.
He stared fixedly at the blue-glowing iron tower, his eyes full of wariness.
He now understood a little why the other side was desperately building a tower even when facing death.
That was simply a super-strong defensive magical treasure he had never heard of!
"I don't believe your turtle shell is that hard!"
Wu Xiangtian gritted his teeth and pulled an old piece of yellow paper with flame runes drawn on it from his bosom.
This was the Wu Clan's trump card—a "Blazing Fire Talisman" refined by a Golden Core Master!
"Everyone, back off!"
Wu Xiangtian roared and poured all his true yuan into the talisman.
The talisman erupted with blinding golden energy, and a terrifying pressure that seemed capable of burning the air itself radiated out.
"Go!"
Wu Xiangtian threw the talisman forcefully toward the valley.
The talisman ignited in mid-air.
The next second, a golden flame dragon over a hundred meters long appeared out of thin air, looking vivid and lifelike.
The fire dragon roared, carrying the momentum to burn mountains and boil seas, and crashed headfirst into the pale blue energy shield.
This strike was an attack at the Golden Core level!
Wu Xiangtian felt that even a great formation set up by a true Golden Core cultivator would be burned through in an instant.
However, he would never forget the scene that followed for the rest of his life.
The fire dragon hit the energy shield without making a sound.
There was no explosion, and the shield didn't shatter.
The pale blue shield just flashed brightly for a moment.
Then...
Then that huge fire dragon just dissipated into thin air, without a sound.
It was as if its terrifying energy, capable of melting steel, had been sucked dry by something the moment it touched the shield.
The battlefield was deathly silent.
All the Wu Clan members became like stone statues.
They stared blankly at the intact energy shield, their minds completely blank.
"Am... am I seeing things?" a young cultivator rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself.
"The talisman treasure... it's just... gone?"
"What the hell kind of formation is this? It... it ate the talisman treasure's energy?"
Wu Xiangtian was even more stunned, as if struck by lightning, frozen in place and unable to move.
That was a talisman treasure!
It was his greatest confidence, his hope for a comeback!
It was broken just like that, so easily?
He felt his Dao heart was about to shatter.
Inside the valley's Command Center.
The technical soldier watched the energy bar on the screen fill up instantly and then quickly drop back down, whistling.
"Report, Chief Engineer Jiang, Spirit Energy Tower One has successfully absorbed the target's high-energy flame attack. Energy conversion rate is ninety-three percent, and it has been transferred to the base's energy center."
He paused and added in a tone that was suppressing a laugh:
"Thanks for the power bank, buddy."
Jiang Ning held a cup of hot tea, took a slow sip, and her face remained expressionless.
This "spirit energy defense tower" wasn't about hard resistance at all.
Its core technology was "energy deflection and absorption."
Any energy attack that hit it would have the vast majority instantly absorbed and converted into pure spirit energy to be stored.
Simply put, the harder you hit me, the fuller my battery gets.
Want to break it with an energy attack? Unless your attack can exceed its absorption limit in an instant, it's just giving it away for free.
"Alright, the test is about done," Jiang Ning said calmly, putting down her teacup.
"Commander Zhang, stop playing with them."
"Let's raise our lightning rod as well."