A violent shockwave mixed with searing heat swept through everything in an instant. Even the clouds in the sky rippled outward like waves, and neither the Skyward Legionnaires nor the demon ranks could open their eyes against the blast.
Seven forward arrays of the Heavenly Fleet, along with their warships, were swallowed by the blast, while all the demons surged forward—accelerating their charge even as they kept their eyes tightly shut.
Amidst the raging tide, Monkey King tilted his head back and grinned, while Marshal Silver’s eyes widened, his hand tightening slowly on his sword hilt. Across the distance, the two locked eyes.
"Plague Toxin, Blaze Bombs. If you dare strike first, I’ll strike back twice as hard. Don’t forget, we demons live with our lives hanging from our belts—there’s nothing we won’t dare." Monkey King’s laughter grew even more exuberant.
His exaggerated words were clear enough that even Marshal Silver, fifteen li away, could read his lips. The hand on Silver’s sword gripped tighter still.
What did that mean? Was this a show of defiance—a warning of revenge?
The Heavenly Fleet used plague water on Frost-Rain Mountain, so Blossom Mountain spread Plague Toxin even wider, devastating all life. The Heavenly Fleet rammed Blossom Mountain with Blaze Bombs; now the demons could send even more powerful warships crashing into the Heavenly Fleet’s arrays.
"Converge both wings! Advance the center!" Marshal Silver practically roared through clenched teeth.
The rampaging flames ahead quickly faded away.
Compared to Blaze Bombs, these warships had one huge advantage: their flames weren’t just sprayed out, but were unleashed by explosive force. That meant they could be used in aerial combat.
But this was the sky, after all. The explosions, though fierce, did not unleash Rootless Fire, and there was nothing in the air to fuel the flames. Moreover, the enemy here was not just the ordinary demons of Blossom Mountain’s Demon City, but the regular troops of Heaven—the Heavenly Fleet.
The bombardment, though intense, was fleeting and failed to inflict catastrophic damage on the seven arrays that were swallowed by it. Most Skyward Legionnaires suffered only extensive burns—painful, but not fatal, and they retained much of their fighting strength.
But for Monkey King, that was enough; the greatest value of these weapons lay in the terror they sowed.
Maybe one day, he’d ram these warships straight into the Heavenly Fleet’s headquarters—Cloudrealm Sky Harbor. In the face of death-hardened Traveler’s-Path demon elites, the Heavenly Fleet’s Daoist cultivators were—utterly outmatched.
As the flames faded, General Trent lifted his battered head and saw the Nine-Headed Wyrm leading a mass of demons, roaring as they flew over the shattered Heavenly warships, surging toward them—close enough to touch. The defenders had no time to organize a defense.
The slaughter began.
Blood fell like rain.
Every demon charged madly at the Heavenly troops, like blood-crazed fiends. Monkey King had one foot on the gunwale, gripping the Golden Staff, ready to leap into the melee himself at any moment.
"Both wings—snipe the enemy!"
A storm of arrows erupted from the Heavenly ranks—not aimed at the demon vanguard, but at the empty ground between the demon front and middle ranks.
At this moment, the whole Heavenly Fleet was like a slowly tightening sack, with the center stuffed full of the Nine-Headed Wyrm’s forces locked in a death struggle with General Trent’s seven arrays. For the Heavenly troops, this arrow barrage was more about intimidation. As long as they could block or even just slow the support coming to the Nine-Headed Wyrm from behind and hold off the demon second line, the Blossom Mountain vanguard would be theirs for the taking!
Unfortunately, Marshal Silver misjudged the morale of Blossom Mountain’s demons.
Faced with the arrow storm, these death-defying demon troops only charged harder, going berserk as countless demons were shot down.
Monkey King accepted a long metal tube from Shortbeak, grinning as he weighed it in his hand, then leveled it at Marshal Silver.
In that instant, Marshal Silver’s eyes widened even further.
The Heavenly Generals beside him seemed to realize something, quickly crowding around Marshal Silver to shield him at the center.
"No need to panic!"
Taking a deep breath, Marshal Silver brushed aside the two Heavenly Generals blocking his way and stepped forward, meeting Monkey King’s gaze head-on.
Monkey King slowly broke into a grin.
Channeling spiritual power through his clenched fist into the metal tube, the embedded barrier formation whirred to life. As Monkey King poured in more power, the whole device began to buzz, glowing dark red as if straining under the load.
On the Heavenly Fleet’s flagship, the Heavenly Generals held their breath, waiting.
In the chaos, a Skyward Legionnaire beat his wings, drifting directly between Monkey King and Marshal Silver.
Monkey King pressed his thumb against the bead on the tube’s rear grip, his face expressionless. The shriek of the weapon echoed across the entire battlefield.
Monkey King’s hand recoiled slightly, the muzzle aimed at Marshal Silver smoking faintly.
The winged Skyward Legionnaire was pierced by something unseen; two bloody holes appeared in his chest and back, spurting blood.
Over ten li away, just three inches from Marshal Silver’s brow, a red-hot metal pellet spun and hissed, trying to advance further, but was locked in place by Silver’s Flowguard Formation. The violent collision made the air itself ripple and distort.
Marshal Silver’s eyelid twitched.
Soon, with both sides deadlocked, the metal pellet exploded in mid-air and scattered on the wind.
The Heavenly Generals were stunned.
Before they could process Monkey King’s intent, demon soldiers in the ranks who had been carrying wrapped bundles swiftly shrugged off their packs.
Inside those packs were weapons similar to the long tube-shaped device in Monkey King’s hand, but even longer.
They quickly raised them, aimed at the distant Heavenly troops, and—at a crisp command—fired in unison.
Thin smoke and a piercing shriek filled the front lines of battle as countless Skyward Legionnaires were struck down.
Of course, the weapon’s power depended greatly on the user’s own strength. At ranges over a thousand zhang, these metal pellets couldn’t even pierce the Heavenly troops’ armor.
But it was enough—at least better than bows and arrows, right? The range was farther, the impact stronger, and it was much harder to defend against.
And the sound itself was a powerful deterrent. After each volley, the Heavenly Generals could immediately see scores of Skyward Legionnaires spraying blood as they fell.
Working in tandem with archers, these weapons quickly suppressed the Heavenly Fleet’s ranged units.
It wasn’t over yet. In the center of the battlefield—right at the gap the Heavenly Fleet was desperate to seal—over ten steel warships surged in. These Blossom Mountain–modified ships had their main ballistae removed and replaced with black tube-shaped weapons.
Each warship was armed with at least twenty of these.
These weapons were basically giant versions of the smaller tubes—amid thunderous blasts, they fired massive metal projectiles.