Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Desolate Bronze Small World.

Western Desert.

Amidst the vast expanse of yellow sand, a youth with bronze skin and well-defined features sat cross-legged in tranquil cultivation, his presence spreading out for kilometers like a mountain, smoothing the wrinkles of the earthly sands, quelling a storm that had lasted for untold years.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes, revealing a look of shock.

Boom!

Across an unknown vastness of miles, a hot blaze diffused, forcefully blasting hundred-mile-wide holes into the sky and the barrier between worlds, igniting a Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi tumult that affected the entire realm, causing the earth to shake, mountains to tremble, rivers to redirect, and lakes to overturn.

At this moment, any cultivators deep in cultivation who had not previously sensed it would immediately fall into a state of cultivation deviation and sustain grave injuries.

Within the void, a faint transmission of white light sprawled, barely revealing a continuous stream of an Iron Tide descending from it.

”Eastern Devil School…”

The bronze-skinned youth’s eyes were filled with coldness.

Hum!

The Elixir Field trembled slightly, and a fist-sized Six-legged Golden Cauldron flew out from it, shrouded in Vajra and immortal light, casting the silhouettes of eight Taoist disciples.

They were clad in diverse robes, but every one of them was at the peak of Foundation Building, their spiritual auras pure and vast, far from those who had barely broken through to this level.

Xuanwu Heavenly Palace core inheritance!

Within the seventy-two halls of the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, each hall had only one core inheritor, the future Nascent Soul Seeds.

”Greetings, Substitute Daoist Master Xia Houding!”

The eight reverently bowed in salute.

From the Foundation Establishment Stage in the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, each realm would have one person acquire the title of Xuanwu Daoist. In addition to this, there would be three other substitute successors who were hardly less impressive.

Among dozens of Small Worlds under Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, these were the four strongest and most promising Foundation-building cultivators.

And they were stationed in just one side of the Desolate Bronze Small World Western Desert.

”Go, assemble the cultivators under your command.”

Xia Houding spoke in a deep voice, ”The Eastern Devil School is strong offensively but weak defensively. Relying on our Formation Methods and waiting for them to come knocking is foolish. We must annihilate them all while they are yet to establish a foothold!”

”Yes!”

The eight core inheritors resolutely obeyed the command.

…

The sound of the wind was sharp.

Air currents roared past.

”Shit! Damn director of the testing department, and the teacher who set this up!”

”Having a son…”

Jiang Ding opened his eyes to the sound of many classmates swearing up a storm, their language extremely colorful.

At the moment, he was shockingly in mid-air thousands of meters high, plunging rapidly down with a parachute on his back!

All around, to the left and right, were classmates dangling from parachutes, armored vehicles, trucks, tanks, supply vehicles, densely packed with people, spaced tens to hundreds of meters apart.

”I am a Xiantian Martial Artist! A Xiantian Martial Artist!”

”I can’t fly, damn it!”

Jiang Ding also cursed.

But that wasn’t the main issue. Parachutes were one thing; with his martial arts skills, even without prior parachuting experience, he’d be able to learn quickly just by recalling instructions.

The key was that it seemed like there were people flying up from below!

Quite a few, hundreds just within this small area, all cultivators capable of flight above the Qi Practicing Phase.

”Hehe! Brothers! They must be coming to welcome me, right?”

Someone said, holding onto a glimmer of hope.

Jiang Ding instinctively touched his Flying Sword, and thankfully, the sword trembled lightly in response to him.

Moreover, after a quick check, the Scout Camouflage on his body and the anti-material sniper rifle on his back were still there, with over a hundred bullets wrapped around his waist.

He picked up the rifle and looked through the scope.

”Robes with the emblem of a blue sword pattern... Hmm, the sandy brown pattern of Xuanwu Heavenly Palace.”

These people were extremely cunning, their formation incredibly loose, only revealing their figures at the very beginning.

Upon discovering the Xianmen cultivators, they swiftly employed Optical Invisibility magic and disappeared from view, demonstrating exceptionally high combat discipline, devoid of the foolishness of extramundane cultivators.

”This is going to be troublesome.”

Da da da...

Making jokes aside, the very moment those people appeared, countless students in the sky propped up machine guns and fired in rapid succession, weaving a dense barrage of bullets that covered the sky and rained down on the areas where the cultivators had been sighted.

Boom!

Jiang Ding also fired off an anti-material sniper rifle round.

The effect was poor.

Shooting in the air was considerably off target, missing the intended points by at least several hundred meters, without the slightest hint of accuracy to speak of.

Nevertheless, the covering fire from the many students had some effect; in the seemingly empty air, blossoms of blood burst forth, with fragments of robes and flesh exploding together.

At least a dozen cultivators in the Late-stage Qi Practicing from the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace were simultaneously killed.

Within a short time, some students had already begun to descend ahead of others, approaching the ground within a radius of a kilometer—the maximum distance that a Late-stage Qi Practicing cultivator can typically fly.

Whoosh!

Through the hazy cloak of Optical Invisibility magic, stream of aqua-colored Flying Swords appeared from midair and instantaneously sliced through the nearby students.

”Area of the fallen, within a hundred meters!”

”Covering fire!”

Someone bellowed in the regional communication channel.

Da da da...

Thousands of students in the area heard the command and shot towards that location, to little effect.

Parachuting and shooting in mid-air were extremely difficult even for Jiang Ding, a Xiantian Martial Artist, and even more so for the others—where aiming and actually hitting were worlds apart, almost no different from shooting blindly.

In fact, it resulted in the accidental deaths of several comrades in the front row, who died without a sound, turning into a mist of blood.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Seizing the opportunity, streams of aqua-colored Sword-light crisscrossed through the air, like a reaping machine harvesting the lives of the Xianmen students, whose blood and flesh fell to the ground like rain, staining the ground red.

The Qi Practicing students didn’t have many viable options either, and firing cannons from tanks in mid-air was equally ineffective.

”Stop!”

”Use your Inner Energy to create a thin film and slow your descent!”

Jiang Ding stirred his True Qi, cut off the parachute cords, and used True Qi as propulsion to accelerate towards the ground, stating coldly over the communication channel.

The slight Sword Intent contained in his voice sent chills down many people’s spines, instinctively drawing their serious attention, immediately recognizing the name of the speaker, and their faces lit up with ecstatic joy.

”Holy shit!”

”The Dari Swordsman!”

”Brothers, run! Let this guy go first!”

The Xianmen students quickly reacted, channeling their Inner Energy through their meridians to form a thin film, decelerating their descent.

They were only temporarily panicked by the sudden attack; otherwise, they would have thought of this method earlier.

Those without Inner Energy or Mana could only seek help from the more capable students nearby.

If no such student was nearby, then they could only await death.

Everyone within several kilometers kept their eyes on Jiang Ding as he accelerated towards the ground.

As for those beyond this range, they naturally accelerated their descent, forming battle formations and readying their weapons in the briefest time possible.

Within a few breaths, Jiang Ding had reached an altitude of a kilometer above the ground.

He was still adaptive to the situation, shaping his Xiantian True Qi into gliding wings that he donned on his back, occasionally even slightly altering his direction more flexibly than he could have on the ground.

”Senior brother, it’s unusual for someone to stand out like this,”

”Be careful.”

At the elevation of seven or eight hundred meters, several Late-stage Qi Practicing cultivators who had cast invisibility magic were serious and warned a peak Qi Practicing cultivator with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes through a whispered message.

”As long as he’s not a Foundation-building cultivator, what does it matter if he’s abnormal...”

The young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes scoffed.

Then he saw,

An Azure Flying Sword flew out from beside the Sword Master, crossing the span of seven or eight hundred meters in a blink, almost ten times the limit distance of the Divine Sense of a peak Qi Practicing cultivator.

With a single strike, the sword slew more than a dozen Late-stage Qi Practicing cultivators.

”Foundation-building Sword Cultivator!”

The young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes screamed, losing all will to fight, and frantically fled into the distance.