Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Boom!

The blockade lost, the fifth wave, three hundred and sixty-five missiles fell.

The Black Stone Sect's Formation Method collapsed in the flames and explosion, with countless spiritual lights and formation fragments scattering everywhere.

The dust cleared, revealing the scene inside the sect.

Contrary to what one might imagine, there were no cultivators fleeing in all directions, nor forming battle arrays to counterattack—it was eerily quiet, not a single silhouette in sight, nor any spirit beasts that could move.

The entire sect had become a realm of death.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Air-Space Warplanes flew in from the distance, numbering three hundred and sixty, circling around the Black Stone School Mountain Gate. Beams of communication crossed, and ten colossal auras of oppression spread out in all directions.

"Array Spirit has locked on to his vicinity, but it is somewhat vague, not precise, possibly due to the special terrain coupled with the setup of the formation method,"

Jiang Ding frowned and descended from the sky.

"The cultivators of Xuanwu Tiangong are too familiar with our methods; in any situation, they can find the most suitable countermeasure without choosing to flee to open spaces."

He walked slowly up the obsidian steps of the Black Stone Sect.

The surrounding buildings were similar, palaces, pavilions, tools—all crafted from black obsidian spirit stones. Everywhere one looked, no trace of the vitality and greenery that life should possess, just oppressive gloom.

It was silent.

"However, I have still found it."

Jiang Ding murmured to himself.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword unsheathed and stabbed into the ground, returning shortly after with a monster in tattered robe, constantly screeching, caught in the sword qi.

Its body was as flexible as noodles, shrouded in mist akin to shadows, with a gaping hole pierced through its chest, revealing a wound like silver-white metal.

But it seemed that it wasn't a fatal injury as it still opened its obsidian-crafted sharp teeth, attempting to leap forward and tear at living flesh.

"It's a Shadow Ghost!"

An Siyan, searching through her magic tool embryo database for a moment, said, "A kind of creature, similar to zombies or evil spirits, that the Yingsha Palace of Xuanwu Tiangong likes to refine. It has a physical body and excels in fighting in the dark and in shadowy spaces at night."

"The entirety of Black Stone Sect's members must have turned into these things, including their great elder Zhen Shi."

"The silvery-white within the body... this is a bit different from what is recorded in the Xianmen Library, a new characteristic. Can you transport the corpse up here? I'd like to study it."

She asked.

"Yes."

The Taiqing Flying Sword released six strands of light blue sword qi, pinning the limbs and the skull and chest of the creature, the Sword Intent of Destruction permeated, suppressing the divine soul, causing its struggling movements to gradually stiffen and become extremely sluggish.

Then, an array pattern, resembling a magnetic field aid dashed line, flashed by and the Shadow Ghost was lifted into the sky, captured by an Air-Space Warplane.

Jiang Ding, not in a rush, slowly strolled within the Black Stone School Mountain Gate.

"It seems to have fused with a special ore…"

An Siyan started a research group with classmates who usually did well in material science and artifact refining, distributing some samples, and swiftly initiating preliminary studies, debating heatedly now and then.

Hours later, after consulting various resources, their views gradually unified.

"It's Mercury Silver Magical Gold. Over a thousand years ago, Black Stone Sect had a third-order vein of it which they mined until depletion and then abandoned.

This late Golden Core cultivator of Xuanwu Tiangong must have accidentally discovered a section of the vein not explored previously, or it might be a secret extraction site of Black Stone Sect."

"In any case, he integrated the Mercury Silver Magical Gold into the creation of the Shadow Ghosts, enhancing their physical strength, stealth assassination capabilities, and even giving them immunity to certain magic spells and physical attacks."

"However, it's just a matter of more missiles needed for bombardment."

An Siyan confirmed.

"All right."

Jiang Ding nodded.

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Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword struck underground once again, treating rocks and soil as if they were nothing, creating no obstruction whatsoever.

This was a vast underground space, as open as a plaza.

Dark and devoid of light, the surrounding walls bore traces of being hewn by axes and chisels; the Black Stone Sect was established upon a mine after all.

The Taiqing Flying Sword's light flickered faintly.

In the mine, a dense swarm of shadow ghosts, resembling walking corpses, roamed about. Their bodies pitch-black, they wore the Black Stone Sect's robes, sometimes transforming into liquid-like streams, squeezing through narrow crevices.

Some of the more elite ones could even seep into the ground like water, not even needing the narrow crevices.

"Cleaning up will be quite troublesome."

Jiang Ding pondered briefly, then controlled the Taiqing Flying Sword to retreat.

"Coordinates (...), five hundred twenty meters underground, target exhibits tenacious life force, a minority of shadow ghosts can liquify and merge into the ground — evil spirit-type creatures."

"Copy that."

Jin Lingfeng immediately replied.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Three hundred sixty missiles roared as they fell from the sky, sparkling with spiritual light — half earthy yellow with the Earth Cracking Technique, half fiery red with the Flame Technique, continuously agitating the Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi.

Hundreds of meters of solid Black Stone crust were peeled away layer by layer; long-absent sunlight once again shone deep into the mines, many shadow ghosts screeched and rushed towards it, wriggling densely and advancing, a truly horrific sight.

Boom!

In the scorching explosions and flames, rocks within several kilometers were pulverized; the bodies of the so-called undying shadow ghosts disintegrated into ash under the Third Order Magic, not a trace of flesh and blood remained.

Drops of silvery metallic liquid fell to the ground.

Moments later, peace returned to the area and all traces of cold and gloomy aura were swept clean.

Jiang Ding descended along the rays of the sun, through the vertical shaft blasted open by the missiles.

He closed his eyes slightly, and Divine Sense along with Sword Intent scanned the area within a ten-kilometer radius, with the thick rock layers causing significant interference.

But that didn't matter; he specifically searched areas with mines, which were unaffected.

"Enemy tracks, shadow ghost distribution map..."

Soon, a three-dimensional map was sent to the Travel Channel.

Twisting and entangled paths intersected frequently, marked by myriad crimson dots scattered across them, tens of thousands in number, and were still moving in real-time.

"Human-shaped radar, the strongest reconnaissance infantry, also providing protection..."

Liu Mei from Beidou University had a glint in her eyes, filled with longing.

She really wanted one!

"Ahem! The Dari Swordsman belongs to Qingfeng University. Don't get any ideas," Jin Lingfeng coughed, interrupting their reverie. "There are too many enemies and they are too weak. Release the Machine Puppet Troops with special Magic Arts-Breaking Steel bombs and thermite bombs to eliminate them."

"Jiang Ding, please protect the Machine Puppet Troops so that they won't be massively destroyed."

"Okay."

From each Air-Space Warplane, a faint spatial fluctuation flickered as thirty six-legged spider robots emerged from the aircraft's storage space.

They were the size of a backpack, equipped with grenade launchers that could fire special ammunition, and light machine guns. They unfolded their retractable silvery parachutes and descended from the sky.

These were scout and support units uniquely assigned to Air-Space Warplanes.

The sporadic six-legged robots gathered together, tens of thousands of them forming a steel torrent, gleaming in the sunlight as they moved in an orderly fashion, crawling down through the vertical shaft.

Their speed was incredibly fast, the sheer rock faces pale in comparison to the machines' progress.

Once landed, their camera eyes flashed red, checking their grenade launchers and light machine guns before splitting into hundreds of squads, each heading towards their targets.

They occasionally raised their muzzles and fired in bursts, shattering the suddenly appearing shadow ghosts, then with incendiary rounds and thermite, they burnt the remnants of the ghosts to ash, eradicating them completely.

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