Chapter 621
: Forced Opening
"Boss, look! That warship's spirit-patterned cannons are charging! The locked direction is... that forest on the other side of the river! The target must be hiding there!"
Following his gaze, everyone saw that the warship's menacing main cannons were now gathering a dazzling light that sent chills down their spines, firmly locking onto a dark forest several miles away!
"Great! We've finally found him!"
"Let's see where he can run this time!"
"Shoot him to death! Avenge our fallen brothers!"
An uncontrollable cheer and roar erupted in the camp. Everyone seemed to see the dawn of victory and looked forward to the destructive beam of light turning the target and the forest into nothingness!
Under the watchful eyes of countless expectant, excited, and hateful gazes, the main cannon of the Purple Ying warship finally reached its peak energy!
"boom--!!!"
A massive, dark purple beam of light, as thick as a spear of the gods, tore through the thick night sky, shooting out with a terrifying power capable of destroying everything!
However, the beam of light was not aimed at the mountains and forests on the opposite bank of the river as everyone expected. Instead, it drew a strange arc in the air and struck the midsection of another Ziying warship, which had just taken off and was preparing to cooperate, with lightning speed and absolute precision!
"Do not--!"
"What's going on?!"
"Wrong number?!"
The deafening explosion, accompanied by towering flames and flying metal fragments, burst forth like the cruelest joke in the night sky!
All the cheers and shouts in the entire camp came to an abrupt halt.
Everyone was frozen in place, as if struck by a spell. The excitement and anticipation on their faces instantly turned into extreme shock, bewilderment, and... incomprehensible fear!
Du Xingchuan stared blankly at the dazzling yet deadly "firework" in the night sky. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He felt a chilling despair instantly engulf his entire body.
In the night sky, the main cannon of the Ziying warship, which had been hijacked by Jiang Xuan, still retained the afterglow of destructive energy.
The unfortunate warship that was hit by it had a shockingly huge hole blasted in the middle of its hull, with the metal at the edges twisted and melted, flashing an ominous red light.
Thick black smoke, like the cloak of death, billowed out of the hole. Accompanied by continuous internal explosions, the massive warship, like a steel bird with broken wings, completely lost its balance and crashed heavily to the ground several miles away with a tooth-grinding metallic tearing sound!
"Boom—!!!"
Another deafening roar followed, accompanied by towering flames and flying debris. The warship exploded into a massive fireball on the ground, the scorching heat felt even from a great distance. The cultivators on board had no chance to escape and were instantly reduced to ashes, with not a single survivor.
On the ground, Du Xingchuan and his cultivators were all frozen in a deathly silence.
They watched helplessly as one of their own warships blasted another of their own warships to smithereens in such an absurd and cruel manner. The impact of this was far more unbearable than being attacked by the enemy.
After a brief moment of deathly silence, the camp erupted in chaos!
"They're insane! Insane! Have the people on that warship gone mad?!"
"They've hit the wrong target! They must have hit the wrong target!"
"That was the warship commanded by Old Liu! Just like that... gone?!"
Exclamations, questions, and cries of regret rose and fell; everyone was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events, their minds in complete disarray.
However, the nightmare had only just begun!
Before they could recover from the shock of the first warship being destroyed, the warship that caused the accident and was hijacked by Jiang Xuan once again emitted a dazzling light from its hull runes. The main gun turret readjusted its direction at an astonishing speed and locked onto another Zi Ying warship in the distance that had just noticed something was wrong and was speeding towards them!
"Oh no! It's about to fire again! Get out of the way!!"
Xiao Mu's eyes were bloodshot, and he roared with all his might to warn everyone.
But it was all too late!
"boom--!"
Another thick, dark purple beam of light tore through the sky, striking the side of the warship that had come to provide support with deadly precision!
The warship's spirit shield shattered instantly like paper, a terrible hole was blasted in its hull, and countless fragments scattered everywhere, billowing thick smoke. Following in the footsteps of the previous ship, it fell to the ground with a mournful cry, eventually turning into a second huge ball of fire in the distance!
"It wasn't a mistake... it was that warship... that it was hijacked by the target!"
Du Xingchuan finally broke free from the boundless shock and absurdity, his voice hoarse and trembling with disbelief as he uttered this conclusion that even he himself found insane.
"Hijacking?! How is that possible?!"
"The hatches of the Ziying warship have special spirit pattern locks, which are said to be difficult even for experts at the Spirit Sea Realm to force open!"
"Even if he gets in, piloting a warship requires unique techniques and authorization. How could a kid from a remote border region possibly know how to operate it?!"
The surrounding cultivators gasped in disbelief and shock, utterly unable to accept this fact. In their hearts, the Purple Ying Warship was a symbol of the empire's military might, a powerful and sophisticated war fortress. How could it be so easily hijacked by a mere cultivator at the Gang Realm level and turned against them?
However, the bloody reality was right before their eyes! Two expensive and powerful Ziying warships were destroyed by their own people in such a short period of time!
"puff--!"
Overwhelmed by anger and anxiety, Du Xingchuan felt a sweet taste in his throat and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire body slumped down as if his spine had been removed, his face ashen. The continuous blows, especially this fatal betrayal from within, had completely shattered his last line of defense.
"Retreat...quickly...retreat...run as far as you can..."
He collapsed in Xiao Mu's arms, his eyes unfocused. With his last ounce of strength, he hoarsely gave his final command, his voice filled with endless sorrow and despair.
"Retreat! Retreat now!!"
Xiao Mu scooped up Du Xingchuan and let out a piercing scream at the chaotic crowd.
The commander coughed up blood. With three warships destroyed in such an incomprehensible way, the remaining cultivators had long lost their fighting spirit, their hearts filled only with boundless fear. Someone shouted first, and the remaining people, like ants scattered from a nest, no longer cared about formation or orders. They abandoned their armor and weapons, fleeing desperately in the direction they had come from. The scene was completely out of control, like stray dogs.
……
High above the sky, Jiang Xuan sat steadily in the control room of the hijacked Zi Ying warship.
The enormous spirit array plate shimmered with complex and magnificent spiritual light before him. His hands moved across the plate like butterflies flitting among flowers, inputting one command after another.
As one of the designers of this warship, his familiarity with the spirit array disk far surpassed that of the mere trained operators. The entire massive warship moved with the agility of his own arm; every turn and acceleration was fluid and effortless.
His gaze, penetrating the spirit pattern light screen, coldly locked onto the last two Ziying warships in the distance, which had sensed the anomaly and were rapidly approaching him.
The two warships had clearly realized that their "comrade" was in trouble and launched an attack without hesitation!
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Boom! Boom!"
A barrage of powerful spirit-patterned cannon fire crisscrossed the night sky, illuminating it as bright as day, in an attempt to shoot down the "traitorous" warship.
However, the warship under Jiang Xuan's control displayed astonishing agility.
Sometimes it would glide past the scorching beams of light like a fish, and sometimes it would flutter like a butterfly, making all sorts of illogical evasive maneuvers amidst the dense artillery fire. Each time it was fraught with danger, but it always managed to avoid fatal attacks at the last second, and the ship remained completely undamaged!
"Damn it! Who is that guy?! How can he control a warship like that?!"
"This is impossible! Even a seasoned captain wouldn't make such a move!"
The cultivators on the opposing warship who witnessed this scene through the light screen were all shocked and felt a chill run down their spines.
Jiang Xuan remained calm and composed. He did not rush to retaliate, but instead used his superb control skills to dodge the opponent's attacks, as if waiting for something.
Sure enough, after nearly an incense stick's time of intense firefight, one of the enemy warships, which had been patrolling and on guard for a long time, was about to run out of high-grade spirit crystals due to the frenzied attack. The light of the spirit runes on the ship's hull dimmed at a visible speed!
"Oh no! We're almost out of spirit crystals! We must evacuate immediately and replenish our spirit crystals!"
The commander of the warship's expression changed drastically. He could no longer afford to attack and hurriedly changed course, attempting to escape the battlefield and make an emergency landing on the ground.
Just as it turned around, exposing its relatively vulnerable tail—
A cold light flashed in Jiang Xuan's eyes!
This is the opportunity he's been waiting for!
The warship he hijacked suddenly came to an abrupt stop, and all the secondary guns at the bow, along with the main gun, simultaneously lit up with blinding light!
"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!"
The next instant, a barrage of artillery fire, like a raging storm, surged forth like a roaring dragon of energy, instantly catching up with the fleeing warship and striking its tail thrusters and energy transmission pipes with pinpoint accuracy!
"Do not--!"
Amidst the desperate roars of the enemy cultivators, the stern of the warship exploded with a deafening roar. The entire rear half of the hull was almost torn apart, billowing thick smoke and flames. Like a bird with broken wings, it spun around and howled as it crashed to the earth, transforming into the third massive fireball of the night.
The cultivators on the last enemy warship, having witnessed the tragic end of their comrades, were terrified and had no will to fight left. The commander roared hoarsely.
"Run! Run! We're no match for him!"
The only remaining Ziying warship pushed its power to the limit and fled desperately into the distance like a stray dog, without looking back.
How could Jiang Xuan let it go? He steered the warship beneath his feet, which had made great "achievements" in battle, at full power, like a hunting eagle, tightly biting its opponent.
After closing in to within effective firing range, he maneuvered the warship's main gun to complete its final charge—
"Goodbye."
Accompanied by his cold whisper, a dark purple beam of light, thicker and more condensed than before, struck precisely at the core of the escaped warship's spirit furnace, like a sword of judgment traversing the void!
"boom!!!!!"
The most violent and spectacular explosion burst in the night sky! The warship was detonated from the inside, blasting into countless burning fragments, like a grand, deadly rain of fireworks, which fell heavily to the earth below.
Jiang Xuan sat quietly in the control room, looking through the light screen at the four still burning wreckage in the distance, emitting towering flames and billowing black smoke.
Involuntarily, the innocent yet sorrowful face of the little girl named Luoluo appeared in his mind; he remembered the kind-looking woman who gave him the clothes; and he also remembered the spirit-patterned shuttle that had been reduced to ashes under the cannon fire of the Ziying warship, carrying countless innocent lives...
“Those innocent people who died because of me, those lives that were trampled on… Today, I will first seek some interest for you.”
He silently recited the mantra, his expression calm, but a cold, sharp glint flickered in his deep black eyes.
He had avenged part of others' wrongs today, but his own path was still long. The Chi family, and the potentially powerful force behind them that had stolen his primordial spiritual veins, were his true targets!
"Beep—! Beep—! Beep—!"
A piercing alarm suddenly blared in the control room, and the area representing energy reserves on the spirit array disk flashed a blinding red light. Continuous high-intensity combat and maneuvering, especially the final waves of all-out bombardment, had exhausted the last of the high-grade spirit crystals on the warship he had hijacked.
Without any hesitation, Jiang Xuan immediately steered the warship to gradually descend, eventually landing smoothly on a relatively flat riverbank.
He pushed open the hatch, his figure flashing out like a ghost, disappearing into the deep night.
Before leaving, he made sure to loot everything of value from the warship—including spare pills, spirit crystals, and the warship's logbook.
At the same time, he found the core spirit fire furnace in the heart of the ship's cabin and used the Flowing Light Battle Blade to destroy several key spirit rune nodes and energy transmission structures, ensuring that even if the warship were recovered by the enemy, it would be extremely difficult to repair in a short period of time, essentially equivalent to being scrapped.
After doing all this, he finally turned around and began a new journey towards the Forbidden City.
The night was as dark as ink, and a cool breeze brushed his face. Jiang Xuan, who was running, suddenly felt something, stopped abruptly, and looked up at the distant horizon.
A Wind Shadow Falcon was seen frantically flying away, clearly having witnessed the earth-shattering internal war on the warships and eager to send back intelligence.
As Jiang Xuan watched the black dot gradually disappear into the horizon, a cold and meaningful smile appeared on his lips. He even raised his hand and waved gently in that direction, as if saying goodbye.
He immediately withdrew his gaze, no longer lingering. His figure rose and fell a few times in the darkness, disappearing completely into the vast forest, continuing his thorny and unknown path ahead. (End of Chapter)