Chapter 451: Crimson-Heart Swan Arrow
Various pills were poured into their mouths. At this moment, every second counted. Both Sun Ning and Sun Lingtong exerted all their strength to recover.
Very soon, they sprang into action again.
According to Ning Zhuo’s plan, they didn’t go for the Mana Reservoir, but headed to the armory instead.
A stone sphere suddenly burst from the ground inside the armory, immediately triggering alarms and the defensive formations’ attacks.
"Hold it off for me!" Ning Zhuo used the stone sphere to cast an Earth Element spell!
Surging mana drained rapidly, transforming into a vast, earth-yellow halo.
The halo was shallow but densely fortified. It easily withstood all the attacks.
“The armory is under attack!”
“Quick, follow me inside to kill the intruders!!”
The cultivators guarding outside the armory rushed in upon hearing the commotion.
Then, they saw a perfectly round stone sphere rolling rapidly through the armory. Wherever it passed, suits of armor and long spears vanished one after another.
“Someone’s stealing our armaments!”
“This is bad, stop him quickly!”
“You thief, leave your life behind!”
The cultivators of the White Jade Camp were furious and attacked together.
They deployed their military strength, unleashing attacks of increased might. The earthen halo wobbled slightly under their strikes... but that was all.
If this group had been able to deploy their full military force, they might have been able to threaten the stone sphere. But how could that be possible now?
Most of the military force had already been reassigned to assist the Commander and Deputy Generals in their siege against Grandfather Long, or occasionally to help the outer cultivators reinforce their defenses against the Thousand Peaks Forest’s Golden Core cultivators’ ranged spell attacks.
If this group had included a Golden Core-level cultivator, perhaps with military might and battle formations they could have harmed the stone sphere.
But the reality was, the strongest among them were merely at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Ning Zhuo had chosen the perfect moment—White Jade Camp was overwhelmed and unable to guard everything.
The stone sphere, braving all the attacks, made a full sweep around the armory, taking nearly all the armaments with it.
Then, under a dozen pairs of furious eyes, it suddenly drilled underground and vanished once more.
Inside the stone sphere, within the Wanli Dragon.
A massive pile of armor and long spears had formed a small mountain.
Sun Lingtong fully activated his thieving techniques to miniaturize them. Otherwise, even the mechanical dragon couldn’t hold it all!
Jade Armor!
Glare Lance!
The armor was primarily milky white, its surface emitting a gentle jade glow. It was both tough and resilient, with excellent defensive capabilities.
Its shape was traditional—the pauldrons rounded, with smooth lines. The chestplate resembled a circular mirror, fully curved. Overall, it appeared simple and elegant.
The lance was snow-white, its tip razor-sharp and gleaming with cold light. The shaft was icy to the touch, measuring seven feet long. The butt of the lance had a bulwark-like circular ring to prevent slipping—and could even assist in blocking.
Whether it was the Jade Armor or the Glare Lance, both were classified as weapons, and carried their own military techniques.
The former came with the Iron Mantle Art, allowing full-body defensive coverage; the latter came with the Keen Edge Art, channeling the lance’s sharpness into the user’s fists and feet.
These two techniques could even be combined into the Iron Mantle and Keen Edge Art!
This technique fused offense and defense into one—attack became defense, and defense became attack.
If the enemy punched the armor, it was like striking a lance tip with a bare fist. Conversely, smashing the sharp lance tip would feel no different from striking a solid piece of armor.
Iron Mantle and Keen Edge Art was a classic military technique. Once activated, it balanced offense and defense with no weaknesses.
Therefore, although these two types of gear were only magic tools—not full magical treasures—they still sold at high prices.
The Jade Armor was priced around forty thousand lower-grade spirit stones, while the Glare Lance went for seventy thousand.
There were over four hundred sets of Jade Armor, and more than three hundred eighty Glare Lances.
The total value was approximately forty-two million two hundred sixty thousand lower-grade spirit stones!
Because they were magic tools, sealing them was much easier for Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong than the Mana Reservoir.
The only issue was the sheer quantity.
The two of them moved frantically, their hands a blur. After finally completing all the temporary seals, they collapsed onto the floor, motionless.
“I don’t want to move anymore,” Ning Zhuo said. His face was pale, devoid of color, his eyes bloodshot.
His cultivation was only early Foundation Establishment, far below Sun Lingtong.
Sun Lingtong struggled to sit up, encouraging him: “Zhuo’er, get up. This is an exceptional opportunity—we can’t miss it. Think about how we used to worry over every single cultivation resource.”
Ning Zhuo’s expression changed immediately. Memories and painful emotions surged like whips lashing him.
“Keep going! Let’s keep going!!”
White Jade Camp.
Grandfather Long’s palms danced through the air, accompanied by the sounds of dragon roars, striking the Golden Core deputy generals and sending them flying one after another.
Shuangjing was fighting awkwardly.
He wasn’t a body cultivator—he cultivated only his sea of qi—so he couldn’t contend with Grandfather Long head-on.
In actual combat, this was a major disadvantage!
Shuangjing could only rely on the White Tiger Sky-Ripping Sword Qi to continually attack Grandfather Long. The Golden Core deputies gave everything they had to act as meat shields, buying time and space for Shuangjing to maneuver.
But the Golden Core deputies were gradually weakening and could barely hold on.
“What’s going on? Our military power has dropped so drastically!” Shuangjing sensed something was wrong and quickly questioned his subordinates.
They had wanted to report earlier but never had the chance.
Now that Shuangjing had uncharacteristically paused his attack to ask, the subordinate immediately cupped his fists and said, “Reporting, my lord—an earthen monster broke into our camp. It has Nascent Soul-level power and is stealing military equipment all over the place. Despite our full efforts, we can’t capture it.”
“What?!” Shuangjing’s brow furrowed tightly. “A round stone monster? Could it be... the Stone Dwelling Old Monster from Thousand Peaks Forest?”
As the main commander and scion of a powerful clan, Shuangjing naturally had access to detailed intelligence on the enemy.
A military formation's strength came from many sources—not just its soldiers, but also equipment, timing, terrain, and other external factors.
That’s why military gear was stored externally, in armories.
If stored inside personal storage tools, it wouldn’t bolster military strength. But if a centralized depot were raided, the loss would be catastrophic.
One should never put all their eggs in one basket.
War was full of unpredictable variables. For safety, it was best to store armaments in separate batches.
Of course, there would still be some equipment stored inside storage treasures.
However, the more items stored in a storage magic tool, the more advanced—and costly—it needed to be, with mana consumption increasing proportionally.
For individual cultivators, one excellent storage treasure might hold nearly their entire fortune—and still have room left.
But for a whole army? They simply had too much. Solely relying on storage treasures couldn’t meet massive logistical needs. In other words, the cost-effectiveness was too low.
Hearing that the Stone Dwelling Old Monster had infiltrated, Shuangjing’s heart sank.
At this point, they were already struggling to fend off Grandfather Long—on the brink of collapse.
“If the Stone Dwelling Old Monster joins forces with Grandfather Long…” The thought made Shuangjing suck in a cold breath.
In the next moment, he saw one of the towering Sage Light Illumination Towers suddenly vanish.
Then, the stone sphere that had just successfully stolen it burrowed back underground.
Shuangjing’s eyes went wide!
He quickly scanned the area and saw that out of the original seven Sage Light Illumination Towers, only four remained.
Three had already been stolen without his noticing.
Even someone from a prestigious clan like Shuangjing felt the sting.
Each Sage Light Illumination Tower was embedded with supreme-grade spirit stones, was of magical treasure level, and priced at 3.6 million middle-grade spirit stones.
Three towers stolen—a loss of 10.8 million middle-grade spirit stones!
“That damn Stone Dwelling Old Monster!!!” Shuangjing wanted nothing more than to drag him out and beat him senseless!
Grandfather Long also wanted to drag him out and beat him senseless!!
“Stone Dwelling Old Monster, what are you skulking around for?”
“Hurry up and join me! Let’s crush this White Jade Camp!!”
Grandfather Long’s spiritual sense surged, reaching Sun Ning and Sun Lingtong.
But the two of them turned a deaf ear, eyes gleaming, focused only on looting the best gear from the White Jade Camp.
They broke into another armory and found over five hundred warhorses.
White-Plume Gentle Dust!
Each of these white horses had long, elegant forms and noble bearing.
Their fur was snowy white, covering their entire bodies like the finest white jade sculptures.
Strangely, their manes resembled bird feathers—long and soft. Silvery feathers flowed down from their heads and necks like waterfalls, giving off an ethereal, immortal air.
Their tails had also been replaced with long, slender white plumes. When the tails drooped, the feathers swayed lightly like down, glimmering with an icy-snow brilliance.
White-Plume Gentle Dust horses had long limbs, and their legs bore faint gray spots, resembling specks of dust.
The military equipment of the White Jade Camp was truly lavish!
Every one of them had a mount, though they couldn’t be called cavalry just yet, as they hadn’t trained any mounted formations.
This time, after the White Jade Camp was attacked from the Barbarian-Demon Camp’s flank, they had received an early warning.
They dismounted in advance, placing the already travel-weary horses into the stables, and formed formations on the spot to mount a defense.
Training their troops into a proper mounted formation was the plan of Shuangjing and the others.
Ning Zhuo clapped his fists with a sigh of regret. “Such fine horses, all of them! What a pity—much harder to steal than weapons.”
Sun Lingtong replied, “Zhuo’er, don’t fret. I have a way!”
He took out some sedative incense, ignited it directly, and wrapped a thick cloud of narcotic smoke in front of him.
Sun Lingtong activated his thieving techniques. Every time a White-Plume Gentle Dust horse appeared inside the Puppet Dragon, it would be immediately engulfed in the narcotic smoke.
The horses were already restrained and unable to move. After inhaling the smoke, they quickly became unconscious.
“What powerful incense! Boss, where did you get this?” Ning Zhuo asked in surprise.
Sun Lingtong said, “It’s not mine. I got it from Yang Chanyu.”
Only then did Ning Zhuo understand.
Yang Chanyu also hailed from the No-Void Sect, and unlike Sun Lingtong, she was very skilled in poisons.
Once the White-Plume Gentle Dust horses were knocked out, Ning Zhuo stacked them one by one, packing each cabin full.
Living creatures, unlike inanimate objects, couldn’t easily have their sizes compressed.
Thus, transformation techniques had always had thresholds, requiring cultivators to study diligently and train tirelessly to master them.
The stone sphere rolled a few more laps, stealing the entire herd, then turned to another location.
“Our horses!” The Golden Core deputy generals were devastated.
When the horses had been procured, they had paid a steep price, begging every elder and ancestor to finally gather enough support from their clans to scrape them together.
But now, they were all gone!
“Stone Dwelling Old Monster, I curse you!!”
“To think you’re a Nascent Soul cultivator—have you no shame?!”
“A dignified Nascent Soul, doing this kind of work, with such skill in theft... you’re a disgrace to Nascent Soul cultivators!”
Shuangjing, however, had already calmed down. “Let him steal, let him loot!”
“If he had joined forces with Grandfather Long, we might already have collapsed.”
“Losing wealth is painful, agonizing even—but at least we’ve managed to pin down the second Nascent Soul of the enemy!”
“Generals! We must fight to the end—first defeat Grandfather Long, then drive away that old monster!”
Shuangjing transmitted his thoughts through spiritual sense, rousing morale.
And indeed, morale was lifted somewhat.
The Golden Core deputy generals followed Shuangjing’s reasoning and began to feel fortunate.
“Retrieve the armaments stored in the storage bags, replenish our ranks, and lure the Stone Dwelling Old Monster to keep stealing—buy us more time!” Shuangjing gave a decisive order.
Compared to life and death, money was utterly insignificant!
Without their lives, what good would all that wealth be?!
Shuangjing knew his decision was wise, but still, the grief and hatred in his heart were hard to suppress, piling up more and more.
White Tiger Sky-Ripping Sword Qi!
With military strength reinforcing him, the sharp sword qi once again slashed Grandfather Long’s back, carving open a gaping wound.
Blood poured from the injury!
Although Grandfather Long had a spiritual treasure on him, it was limited to his right pauldron, offering only partial defense—his right shoulder was the most protected.
After prolonged fighting, the White Jade Camp had sacrificed over a hundred lives, but they had also managed to grasp Grandfather Long’s combat traits.
Grandfather Long took a step back, attempting to create distance for healing.
But he was already within the battle formation, surrounded on all sides by enemies.
In the next moment, the Golden Core deputy generals swarmed him. Over a dozen fists and feet struck in unison, battering Grandfather Long until he stumbled.
“Stone Dwelling Old Monster, stop stealing treasures!”
“If you help us crush them, I promise—half the spoils are yours!”
Grandfather Long transmitted his voice through spiritual sense, filled with threat: “Have you forgotten? You bear the Divine Mandate!”
In Grandfather Long’s view, the Stone Dwelling Old Monster had never used his full strength.
But as for Sun Ning and Sun Lingtong, they had more than given their all. Time and again they pushed themselves to their limits. Even when exhaustion drove them to the brink of collapse, they would recall the terror of poverty and whip themselves onward.
And for the stone sphere—it was even more so.
The stone sphere couldn’t move on its own. Just continuously rolling like this was already beyond its limits.
Thus, the Divine Mandate had long fulfilled its terms for all three—no longer any restraint.
No matter how many times Grandfather Long called, the Stone Dwelling Old Monster never responded. Enraged, he shouted toward the outskirts, “Bi Tengyi, what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and help me!”
The Nascent Soul-level cultivator of the Ancient Vine Tribe, Bi Tengyi, and her Golden Core husband, Cang Teng King, had already joined the battle.
However, they, along with several other Golden Core cultivators, had been intercepted by the Red Flower Camp and trapped within the Red Flower Avatar.
If it could trap Flying Legs, it could naturally trap these cultivators as well.
Bi Tengyi was not a demon cultivator—her physique wasn’t strong and she couldn’t break through with brute force.
However, together with the other Golden Core cultivators, she continued casting spells, eroding the avatar far more intensely than Flying Legs ever could.
Battle Art—Rewarding the Three Armies!
Mu Lan’s face was pale. Holding the general’s token, she had been sustaining this battle art all along.
The effect of the battle art was straightforward—it consumed spirit stones to boost military power!
“This can’t go on!”
“Our military budget is already stretched thin. This battle is draining us dry. If it keeps up, we won’t even have funds to pay the troops next month.”
Such was war—once a stalemate was reached, the cost became a terrifying war of attrition.
A decisive gleam flashed in Mu Lan’s eyes.
She pulled out a longbow, and in the span of a single breath, drew and nocked an arrow.
A weapon at the treasure level—also called a battle treasure: Vermilion Phoenix Bow, Fiery Heart Arrow!
With her superior natural talent, she invoked a divine ability—Crimson-Heart Swan Arrow!
Military strength, battle formation, national might—all perfectly empowering her!
Mu Lan released the arrow.
The bowstring twanged like a phoenix’s cry!
An arrow shot forth, shaking the sky and splitting the heavens.
The arrowlight blazed brightly, like a giant flaming pillar piercing the heavens—resplendent as a rainbow, eclipsing all creation!
By the time Grandfather Long reacted, it was already too late.
He looked down at his chest—his flesh was scorched black, a gaping hole where his heart had been incinerated in an instant.
For a moment, the battlefield fell utterly silent.
Mu Lan lowered her head in exhaustion. Her arms powerless, the longbow slipped from her grasp. Her body staggered and nearly fell—fortunately, Zhang Chongyi caught her in time.
“Dear niece—no, General Mu… divine might!” Zhang Chongyi was overwhelmed with emotion.
He never imagined that Mu Lan, still at the Golden Core stage, had already developed a divine ability from her natural talent.
Crimson-Heart Swan Arrow!
A shot fueled by nearly all her lifeblood—an all-or-nothing arrow that could not miss!!