Blood, feathers, and even corpses rain down like hail as a silver warship tears through the clouds, trailing thick black smoke as it plunges toward the ground.
"He... he actually did it?"
A wild wind swept the tattered clouds past, and Nathan Young’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
First came the explosions that engulfed the entire fleet, then the charge; at the very instant the two armies clashed, the Heavenly Fleet collapsed.
All of this happened in less than a quarter of an hour.
The soldiers of both sides had completely mingled together; the Celestial Army was scattered like loose sand, unable to mount any effective defense. The entire battlefield had devolved into utter chaos.
Arrows whistled through the sky, while Shortbeak and his honor guard darted between warships, hunting down isolated Celestial soldiers with their bows.
Rhino crashed down from the sky, landing heavily atop an enemy ship. Grabbing a mast, he swept it in a wide arc.
Horace Coil darted back and forth with his trident, sometimes tossing the corpse of a Celestial soldier impaled on its prongs aside, like a lurking fiend in the shadows.
As for the demon soldiers, they went utterly berserk, hurling themselves at the Celestial troops before them—slashing with blades, stabbing with swords, biting with their teeth, using any means possible.
Nearly every demon soldier had gone blood-mad; nearly every Celestial soldier wore a look of terror.
At this moment, what use were fine equipment or superior numbers? The morale of the Heavenly Fleet had been utterly shattered the instant the two armies collided.
The few Celestial soldiers who still maintained some semblance of order clung desperately to their warships, but the demons had already abandoned their own vessels, surging onto enemy ships like a black flood.
The scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere completely stunned Nathan Young.
"Is this the true strength of Blossom Mountain?"
Before, he only feared Monkey of Blossom Mountain. In his eyes, aside from Monkey, the rest of Blossom Mountain was nothing but a pack of lackeys.
But today, was it Monkey's strength alone that crushed the Heavenly Fleet?
If General Lee hadn’t been captured back then, facing such a legion, the South Heaven Gate wouldn’t have lasted long either, Nathan Young thought.
In the struggle between life and death, many Celestial soldiers still fought desperately to hold their ground—but what was the point?
Nathan Young saw with his own eyes a Celestial soldier barely manage to block the spiked club of an elephant demon twice his size, only to be stabbed through the heart by a rat demon from behind.
The defeat of the Heavenly Fleet was already sealed!
Amid the turmoil, on the deck, Monkey King slowly lifted his leg and stepped forward.
Instantly, the entire encirclement widened by a full ring.
"If you're so afraid, why bother?" Monkey King swept his gaze over the Celestial soldiers aiming their long spears at him, half-smiling.
A stray arrow struck an officer on the upper deck; with a scream, the officer tumbled over the railing and crashed heavily onto the deck beside Monkey King.
All the Celestial soldiers stared in terror, eyes wide.
Monkey King gave a faint glance at the dying officer beside him, then turned to General Skyler and asked, "Do you still remember me?"
"You're that monkey demon from Azure Cloud Bluewave Lake!"
"Your memory isn't bad," Monkey King said, striding toward him step by step.
With each step he took, the Celestial soldiers retreated, step by step, until they could retreat no farther.
Monkey King halted, raised his head, and grinned, "Did you remember me before, or only now? I recall you took part in the sneak attack on Blossom Mountain. Fate really loves to bring enemies together."
General Skyler bit his lip, silent, his face turning the color of a pig's liver.
General Trent stepped between Monkey King and General Skyler, drawing his sword and shouting, "Form up!"
"Yes, sir!"
At his command, he yanked General Skyler back and leaped into the air. Over a dozen Heavenly Generals immediately converged on them, with more rushing over.
"Not so fast!" Monkey King's smile vanished; with a casual sweep, several Celestial soldiers standing before him were sent flying by the Golden-Hooped Staff.
Not far away, a black iron ball was falling from the sky; in an instant, Monkey King drew it into his palm and hurled it toward the gathering Heavenly Generals.
"Boom—!"
Another deafening blast; raging flames and billowing smoke soared upward.
The explosion dealt heavy casualties to the Celestial soldiers, though it barely affected the Heavenly Generals. Still, the flames and smoke forcibly broke up the formation.
Just a single instant was enough.
Before General Skyler could break free from the smoke, a furry hand reached out and seized his throat.
Next, what appeared before his eyes was that furry face, twisted in a ferocious expression.
"Did you really think you could escape? I won’t let you die so easily!"
General Skyler stared in terror, eyes wide.
A wild gust swept through, dispersing the smoke and dust.
Behind him, General Trent, sword in hand, charged at Monkey King with a furious roar.
An unfortunate Celestial soldier, confused by the smoke, happened to wander within a yard of Monkey King at that moment.
Monkey King's form flickered; dragging General Skyler, he flashed behind the Celestial soldier.
"Catch!"
He kicked the Celestial soldier toward General Trent, sending them crashing together.
By the time General Trent shoved the Celestial soldier aside and searched for Monkey King among the swarming demon army and Celestial troops, Monkey King had already dragged General Skyler a mile away into the sky.
High above, witnessing the scene before him, General Trent's furrowed brows slowly relaxed, his sword drooping helplessly.
At this moment, he was utterly hopeless.
Arrows filled the sky, smoke billowed upward, warships crashed one after another, and Celestial soldiers fell in battle one after another.
Even when the Heavenly Generals managed to form a battle array, it was soon overwhelmed by the surging demon army.
His own forces had long since been slaughtered into utter disarray. Many Celestial soldiers were already fleeing to the edges, while the demon army relentlessly pursued them.
In the time he spent trying to rescue General Skyler, the Nine-Headed Wyrm had already slain three Heavenly Generals behind him. And now, the enemy's commander was holding his deputy's throat and smiling at him from a mile away.
"How did it come to this?" he asked in a daze.
He had been cautious enough, yet still miscalculated. In less than forty-five minutes, ninety thousand troops had collapsed like a mountain sliding down.
"General, what do we do now?" Nearly fifty Heavenly Generals had gathered behind him.
General Trent glanced at the Nine-Headed Wyrm, who was entangled with four Heavenly Generals nearby, then finally looked at General Skyler, whose throat was still gripped tightly by Monkey King. Feeling helpless, he closed his eyes: "Retreat."
A shrill sound gradually rippled across the battlefield—it was the signal to retreat.
Centered on General Tyson, over fifty Heavenly Generals fought desperately toward the edges, with countless Celestial soldiers joining them along the way.
The few warships still under Heavenly Army control began to turn and attempt a breakout, but the passageways were already packed with demons.
More Celestial soldiers and Heavenly Generals never even made it off the battlefield alive.
Ten miles from the battlefield, Anna Yang stood alone on a solitary warship, watching from afar.
She watched warships fall, Heavenly Generals trapped, Celestial soldiers torn to pieces, Monkey King brandishing the Golden-Hooped Staff atop the demon horde, and the black torrent raging through every corner.
The Heavenly Fleet, famed throughout the Three Realms, nearly a third of its strength, crumbled to dust before her eyes.
Her eyes reddened slightly.
"What's wrong, Sister Anna Yang?" Yisu asked from beside her.
Anna Yang took a deep breath and sighed, "It's nothing. Let's go back. Victory is enough. His decision wasn't wrong; firearms... really do work against the Heavenly Army."
The lone warship slowly turned and sailed home.
After this battle, the demon army of Blossom Mountain chased the Heavenly Fleet for more than fifty miles. Of the ninety thousand central route troops, only a handful of officers escaped; not a single rank-and-file survived.
The warships that crashed vertically into the earth stood like giant tombstones.
By the end, the frenzied demons could find no living Heavenly soldiers, so they hacked the corpses to pieces, slashed at the metal warships, and howled madly at the sky—as if endless rage demanded release.
Ninety thousand troops—the Heavenly Fleet, Heaven’s sword—held out for less than two hours. More precisely, they didn’t even last a quarter of an hour.
This was the result of Blossom Mountain’s ten years of hidden preparation. It was also, in all the millennia of Heaven’s wars against demons, the most devastating loss ever suffered—and yet, it was only the beginning.
Three hours later, General Trent, who had narrowly escaped, reported the news via jade tablet to the Frost-Rain Mountain front, where it was written up and placed on Marshal Silver’s desk.
Seated at his desk, staring at the bamboo scroll, Marshal Silver was silent for a long, long time.
At that moment, he did not yet know that the disaster awaiting him was far from over.
......
Twelve hundred miles southeast of Frost-Rain Mountain.
Late spring to early summer, fish and shrimp of all sizes floated dying on the winding river’s surface. Wherever the water passed, grass and trees withered.
The river wound through forests and plains, finally flowing into a small city built along its banks.
The city seemed dead; the streets were empty—not a person or even livestock in sight.
A gentle breeze swept by, scattering leaves from the low trees along the street.
A scholar, pale as death, shakily pushed open his door, only to stumble and collapse as he crossed the threshold—never to rise again.
"Another one. How many are left alive in this city?" A Ghost Messenger, face white as snow, wearing a tall hat and holding an iron chain, drifted out from the corner.
His attire resembled that of a government constable, except the character for 'messenger' was emblazoned on his chest.
"Widow Li in the east is still alive, but she won’t last much longer. Old Lin in the Lin family compound is still hanging on—maybe two more days. Oh, and two are missing: Cripple Li’s son hasn’t returned yet, should be back in a few days. Once he enters the city, that’ll be it. The Tian family has a big water jar, and their grain is all stockpiled..."
The clerk in white robes counted as he flipped through his register, until the Ghost Messenger grew impatient.
"Alright, alright, I’ll take this one back first and return later." With a hard swing, his iron chain flew toward the scholar, passing through his body like a phantom.
With a sharp tug, the scholar’s soul was pulled out, dazed and obediently following the Ghost Messenger away.
After the Ghost Messenger and the scholar’s soul disappeared, the clerk looked up at the sky, chewing his pen and muttering, "They said to report this to the higher-ups, but I don’t know if it’s been done yet. Why hasn’t the Dragon King come?"
As he spoke, thunder rumbled and rain began to fall, sparse and scattered.
Looking up from the city, one could faintly see four giant dragons of different colors leaping among the clouds.