A World Worth Protecting

1

As the stronghold experienced a renewed vigor in its fighting spirit, the fighters charged forward in a full-fledged counter assault. The gigantic bat suspended in the hurricane in the distance narrowed its eyes. It split its gory mouth wide open and blasted out an ultrasonic wave.

The ultrasonic wave was piercing, and strong winds rose where it passed. Big-bearded commander-in-charge and the two Foundation Establishment realm cultivators shuddered, and blood spilled from their lips.

At the same time, the two fleeing Foundation Establishment realm beasts whirled around and used the opportunity to strike back. There was no hesitation in their movements. It was clear that as Big Beard was conspiring against them, they were also scheming against the stronghold. The timing of their move was impeccable, and their sudden strike placed Big Beard and the two Foundation Establishment realm cultivators in immediate danger.

“Damn it! Why hasn’t help arrived?” Chen Yutong’s face darkened, and his fists tightened fiercely. He was helpless and at his wits’ end. Despite being at the peak of the True Breath realm, the chasm between him and the Foundation Establishment realm was too great. There was little assistance he could provide.

Wang Baole’s face turned heavy as well. The warriors around them fell into a gloomy silence. The wave of surprised cheer had just risen moments earlier, but with the sudden change in the tides of battle, the situation became unpredictable. Everyone was fraught with worry and tension.

<em>The key lies in that giant bat! </em>An icy light shone from Wang Baole’s eyes. It had been clear from the start that the bat was the commanding general of the army of beasts. It had only struck twice; the first attack wiped out the array formation and a great number of the Fire God Cannons, tilting the scales in their favor, and the second assailed the Foundation Establishment realm cultivators, sending a heavy blow to the stronghold’ earlier raised morale!

<em>Unless we kill the giant bat… </em>Fury rose within Wang Baole. He knew that only by destroying the bat could they affect the outcome of the battle. Otherwise, unless help arrived soon, defeat was inevitable.

At the thought of that, a vicious look appeared on his face. He knew that his cultivation level was inadequate. The only thing he could rely on… was the crippled Fire God Cannon.

<em>We’ve not reached the end of the line yet… there’s still one last option… </em>Wang Baole eyed the Fire God Cannon, then turned his eyes towards the distant bat. He gritted his teeth, madness bright in his eyes.

<em>Since it’s come to this, let’s give it a shot!</em>

“Senior Brother Chen, help me fight for time. I need five minutes. I’m going to modify the Fire God Cannon!” Wang Baole said in haste. His right hand rose and pressed onto the Fire God Cannon once again.

Upon hearing that, Chen Yutong’s pupils contracted. He stared at Wang Baole. Wang Baole’s earlier modifications of the inscriptions had revealed his proficiency in Dharmic Armaments. His mastery was impressive; though not as accomplished as Chen Yutong himself in some areas, in others, Wang Baole had clearly surpassed him.

Chen Yutong didn’t comment further. He stepped back to guard Wang Baole. There were many Dharmic Armament cultivators from the four Dao Colleges who had arrived. They heard Chen Yutong’s instructions and were shocked at what Wang Baole was planning to do, and a few had doubts in their minds. If the situation had been different, they would have voiced their protests. However, in such a time of crisis, there was no time for talk. After all, it was a Fire God Cannon under Wang Baole’s charge—and it had held strong and remained the last one standing.

They didn’t speak further and instead, chose to spread around and stand guard.

The warriors followed suit. Behind the layers of defense, standing in the middle of it all, Wang Baole raised his right hand—eyes bright with a hint of madness—and pulled out vast quantities of materials!

The materials were but a distraction; his real target was amidst the materials, concealed and inconspicuous, the Armament Sand!

Wang Baole’s refinement of Armament Sand had fallen in frequency after he had refined his scabbard to the third grade. However, his occasional refinements led to the accumulation of thousands of grains of Armament Sand.

He was left with no other choice. More than two-thirds of the Fire God Cannon inscriptions had been fragmented; even if he were to continue with their modifications, the cannon would break down after the next few firings.

In addition, the Fire God Cannon was powerful, but with its range, it could not reach the giant bat. The only option that remained for Wang Baole was… to bet on the Armament Sand!

“Please, let me hit the jackpot, just this once!” Wang Baole uttered a silent prayer. His breathing quickened as he melded the materials with the Fire God Cannon, and focused his concentration on controlling the Armament Sand and melding it with the cannon.

That was his first time using the Armament Sand to reform a composite Numinous Treasure. He focused all his energies on his efforts nervously, slowly separating the Armament Sand into several hundred portions and pouring them into the Spirit Kernel inscriptions on every Numinous Treasure—effecting changes on all Numinous Treasure inscriptions that were beyond his control.

Wang Baole had no idea what would come out of the changes. The Armament Sand melded with the inscriptions before his eyes, and the inscriptions glimmered; some fragmented parts melded together with one another, forming entirely new inscriptions.

What was even more astonishing was the appearance of what had originally been concealed on the Spirit Kernel—inscriptions that had been hidden from Wang Baole’s eyes. Wang Baole was staggered by the hidden inscriptions’ appearance.

He had heard someone mention on the Spirit Intranet before that some extremely powerful Dharmic Artifacts had hidden inscriptions that were like an encrypted code of sorts. No one except the original creator could see or replicate them.

The hidden inscriptions appeared before Wang Baole then, large parts of them fragmented. A flurry of thoughts raced through his mind, and realization struck him. The reason why the inscriptions he had modified earlier couldn’t be sustained was that he only modified the inscriptions visible to him. The concealed inscriptions were hidden from him, and he couldn’t modify them, which was why the repairs were incomplete!

The Armament Sand served as a cipher key that unlocked the inside of the Fire God Cannon, unveiled the hidden inscriptions, decrypted their encryption, and unleashed their full potential!

The secrets within the Fire God Cannon revealed themselves before his keen eyes. The sudden descent of good luck brought clarity to his mind, and the gears in his head turned more quickly. He had a stronger grasp of the inner workings of the Fire God Cannon, deepening his understanding of the inscriptions within.

There was no time to reflect over his discoveries. He let them sink in as the fusion of the Armament Sand completed. He couldn’t discern the effects immediately as the Fire God Cannon was too complex. In the end, he gritted his teeth and aimed the cannon at the giant bat. He fired the cannon. The shot was a test of the effect of the fusion in actual battle.

<em>Please be a success! </em>A raging howl rose silently within Wang Baole. The cannon fired, and shook the heavens!

The blast was no different from the earlier cannon firings, the explosive beam of light identical to previous blasts. It dashed across the battlefield towards the Beast Tide, as if it was charging straight at the giant bat in the eye of the hurricane.

Chen Yutong and the surrounding warriors watched nervously; even the giant bat turned its head and watched as the beam of light raced from the distance towards it.

As the crowd looked on anxiously and Wang Baole prayed fervently, the skyward beam froze in mid-flight, transformed into a huge sphere of light, and fell upon the earth…

The sudden turn of events left everyone dumbfounded. Even the giant bat was equally stunned. It hadn’t expected that a Fire God Cannon blast could morph into a sphere of light.

As Wang Baole cried out in dismay and the crowd stood stunned, the ball of light landed on the swarm of beasts on land. Upon its landing, a deafening explosion that surpassed the combined explosions of all the Fire God Cannons rippled through the heavens and sent the earth quaking. It was like giant waves crashing onto the land, an ear-splitting roar that rose to the skies.

The thunderous boom shifted the landscape. Clouds rolled back, and a gush of strong wind swept across the lands. The color drained from the faces of the Foundation Establishment realm entities battling in the skies.

The warriors around Wang Baole, the Dharmic Armament cultivators from the four Dao Colleges, and Chen Yutong were all stunned speechless.

“This… This is just…!”

Wang Baole was equally dumbfounded. He watched the waves of light that exploded from the light sphere when it landed, its impact so strong it would shock one to hear that it rivaled the combined blasts of a dozen Fire God Cannons. The explosion formed a sea of light that splashed and sprayed everywhere, and where the light landed, beasts were wiped out instantly. From afar, within the endless rising Beast Tide, an empty space appeared. In that space… there stood no living beast; the grounds were strewn with their bloodied corpses!

The destructiveness of the ball of light was too overwhelming. As tremors traveled through the earth, both camps fighting on land were struck dumb by shock.

The Dharmic Armament cultivators from the four Dao Colleges, including Chen Yutong, whirled around and stared at the dazed Wang Baole. They were all gasping and overwhelmed by emotion.

It was then that the giant bat in the distant hurricane turned its eyes on Wang Baole. It let loose an ultrasonic wave. As the ultrasonic wave burst forth, Big Beard and the Foundation Establishment realm cultivators shuddered; it was as if needles were being driven into their bodies. Their cultivation was being suppressed, and the threat of death grew greater as the two Foundation Establishment realm beasts attacked.

The beasts surrounding Wang Baole’s platform seemed to have received orders as well. They howled, eyes crazed, and charged at Wang Baole fearlessly. It was as if they were determined to destroy the platform even if it cost them their lives!

“Defend with all you’ve got!” Light glimmered fiercely in Chen Yutong’s eyes. Wang Baole had used action to prove himself. As his senior brother, it followed that he too had to stand his ground. His Spirit Qi spread out as he spoke, leading the rest in facing battle.

The other Dharmic Armament cultivators were equally impassioned and roused by Wang Baole’s earlier cannon shot. They gathered their thoughts, scattered out and, together with the warriors, met the beasts rushing in from all directions in battle.

The intensity of the battle spiked all of a sudden. The beasts numbered too many, all of them in a raging madness. Amidst the drowning roars, death lurked around every corner.

Amidst the massacre, Wang Baole stood, panting heavily, his eyes bloodshot. He tried but couldn’t get the Fire God Cannon to fire again. It seemed that it had only enough for that last shot. He became frantic as he looked at the tragic fates that befell more and more people around him and the crazed, charging beasts swarming heaven and earth.

Madness flashed across his eyes, and he took out the Armament Sand again!

He had never tried to perform a second round of modifications on a Dharmic Artifact that had already been modified. There was no time to deliberate further; he flung the Armament Sand into the Fire God Cannon.

It was then that he discovered excitedly that the Armament Sand could be used for a second round of reform!

However, such a manner of modifications contained too much uncertainty. As soon as the modification was complete, the Fire God Cannon shuddered. Instability wrecked its internal parts, and it seemed on the verge of collapse. An alarmed Wang Baole quickly pulled out more Armament Sand and initiated another round of modifications.

Finally, after he went through five rounds of modifications, the Fire God Cannon that had been crippled and damaged beyond repair, shook with an unprecedented force; it was as if a terrifying energy was stirring within. Waves of Spirit Qi surged from all around. The inscriptions stabilized, and there were no signs of self-destruction or collapse.

“It’s done!” Wang Baole whooped with excitement. He snapped his head up and slapped the Fire God Cannon with his right hand.

“Fire!” Wang Baole roared. An earth-shattering blast of light shot from the Fire God Cannon, and exploded instantaneously!

The intensity and force of the blast surpassed all blasts that had come before and left them trailing in the dust. There was no competition to be had in the first place. Its color was no longer white but blue, and as it shot out, the mere waves of energy rippling out disintegrated the hordes of beasts all around. The beasts screamed in pain as they turned into dust!

The landscape shifted, and the blast of light became the focus of the entire battle. It sped across the sky, an unbending beam of light headed squarely for the giant bat that had its mouth gaping wide open to launch another ultrasonic wave.

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