Dragon Canon

Seeing the heavy casualties, the Liao leader hurriedly ordered his men to retreat. This one charge had cost them more than 500 men!

The Liao leader reorganized his troops and switched to a scattered formation. Then, he launched another charge. He had no other choice; every moment passed was a moment the Jin army could descend upon their heads.

This time, the archers and crossbowmen did not pause their attacks. They kept charging and shooting until they were just 20 zhang away from the human’s battle line to prevent the defenders from fighting back.

However, their cover fire proved ineffective as roars kept echoing from the defensive positions, and clouds of gunpowder smoke filled the air. Over 100 archers and crossbowmen fell backward as if struck by an invisible hand.

The Dao Foundation-stage riders waited until a projectile had whizzed overhead before springing to their feet and firing their guns. They dodged if more projectiles were flying their way, or kept shooting if they were not. They were in the Dao Foundation stage and so, so much faster than ordinary mortals, not to mention that they were a dozen or so zhang away from the enemies. As long as one’s luck wasn’t too bad, they were unlikely to get hit.

The Liao group charged once more, and the human defenders fired at full speed. The ten rounds of ammunition they carried were rapidly dwindling.

A Liao squad leader leaped with all his might, drawing upon his middle-stage Dao Foundation stage cultivation to cover ten zhang instantly and appear above the trenches.

His face was contorted with savagery as he swung his saber with all his strength at the heavy armor soldier below him! Seeing the soldier raising his steel rod to meet his blow, he roared and channeled another one-third of Dao energy into the strike!

His saber strike was powerful and heavy; the Liao squad leader was confident he could cleave both the soldier and his rod in two!

Saber and steel rod clashed with a thunderous clang, and the heavy armor soldier stumbled backward until his back slammed against the opposite side of the trench. However, the Liao squad leader’s saber was also knocked high into the air. He had never imagined that his opponent was also a Dao Foundation stage cultivator!

Although the human’s Dao Foundation was pathetically weak, it was still a Dao Foundation. It made him far stronger than a peak Body-tempering stage cultivator. Thus, the Liao squad leader stopped underestimating his opponent and swung his long saber like a storm. He believed that his opponent was a military officer, and that killing him would be worth more than killing 10 rank-and-file soldiers.

However, two heavy armor soldiers came to their comrades’ rescue and thrust their spears[1] at his flanks, fast and ruthless. To his shock, they were both Dao Foundations as well!

Surrounded by three Dao Foundation stage cultivators, the Liao squad leader simply couldn’t defend himself. In the blink of an eye, his body was riddled with over a dozen holes, and he collapsed in a pool of blood. All other squad leaders who had charged into the defensive positions also found themselves surrounded by multiple Dao Foundation stage cultivators and were killed in an instant.

That said, their sacrifices weren’t completely futile. The main body of the Liao force ultimately managed to break through the line of fire and storm into the defensive positions, forcing the heavy cavalrymen into close combat.

Things looked dire, except... this was a fight between a light-armored Body-tempering stage Liao tribesman against heavy-armored Dao Foundation-stage cultivators. The outcome of this battle practically wrote itself.

Just then, the sound of hooves thundered like a storm. The 100 knights Wei Yuan had left behind in the camp had long since mounted their warhorses and circled around the perimeter. Now, they were charging straight at the enemy’s exposed rear flanks.

Realizing the battle was lost, the Liao leader drew his mystic saber and swept his hawk-like eyes across the chaotic battlefield. He then locked eyes with Wei Yuan in no time at all. For some reason, he simply couldn’t stand the sight of the young human.

At this point, killing anyone was the same as killing no one, so he might as well kill someone that he fancied seeing in a pool of blood. So, the Liao leader locked onto Wei Yuan and charged straight at him.

Wei Yuan felt helpless. The guy could have chosen anyone else, yet he had gone straight for him. Once more, the sages were right: a tree that stands out in the forest is bound to be blown down by the wind.

Wei Yuan raised his spear to meet the attack. Seeing that he had accepted the challenge, the Liao leader let out a mighty roar and swung his long saber, unleashing a blood-red saber beam that slashed down with the force to split mountains and shatter rocks!

The saber strike was equivalent to an Avatar’s attack—fierce and deadly beyond measure. In fact, just being near the saber qi was enough to paralyze the nearby riders.

It was at this moment a towering warrior appeared out of thin air, stepping in front of Wei Yuan and using his own body to block the blow!

The blood-red saber qi sliced through the warrior’s body and left a massive gash across his torso. Despite his massive frame, the warrior had nearly been cleaved in half. The interior of the wound was a murky, chaotic mess—it was impossible to discern its composition, but it was clearly neither flesh nor blood, nor did it contain any internal organs.

A rider standing on fire appeared above the towering warrior’s head. However, its form was faint and its power was all but gone as it was suppressed by the great array covering the entire autumn hunting ground. After withstanding the blow, the warrior swung his horse-cutting saber straight down on the Liao leader’s head!

The Liao leader dared not underestimate the attack. He raised his saber to block the borderline Avatar-level attack—and actually succeeded! This alone showed that the Liao leader was no ordinary Dao Foundation stage cultivator—he was most likely an immortal foundation.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan stepped out from behind the warrior and pointed his spear directly at the Liao leader.

An instant of foreboding gripped the Liao leader—he actually sensed a faint trace of immortal spirit aura from the weapon! Knowing that an earth-shattering counterattack was imminent, he focused his entire attention on Wei Yuan and forgot about everything else.

Suddenly, a continuous series of explosions rang out all around them, and a thick cloud of gun smoke obscured both Wei Yuan and the Liao leader.

By the time it had cleared, the Liao leader stood frozen in place, his body riddled with over a dozen bloody holes[2].

While his entire attention was captured by Wei Yuan, several Dao Foundation-stage riders had freed their hands, reloaded their guns, took aim, and showered him with a barrage of concentrated fire.

These firearms had been designed to injure even Dao Foundation stage cultivators within a radius of 10 zhang. Although the Liao leader was at the peak of the late Dao Foundation stage, he also wasn’t wearing any defensive mystic artifact or treasure armor for protection. Therefore, the first seven or eight gunshots easily shattered his Dao energy defense, and the subsequent dozen or so shots instantly turned him into a sieve.

With their leader fallen, the Liao tribesmen’ morale plummeted, and Wei Yuan’s troops soon overwhelmed them completely. That said, the remaining Liao tribesmen also knew they were doomed either way and so fought with reckless abandon. As a result, Wei Yuan’s forces finally suffered casualties.

One rider was accidentally dragged out of the trench and immediately pinned beneath dozens of Liao tribesmen. Despite his comrades stabbing the mob frantically and repeatedly to save his life, he did not stop screaming in agony until he drew his last.

Several other riders were killed by surprise shots from powerful crossbows at close range.

The fierce battle lasted just under an hour. In the end, the entire Liao force of 6,000 was annihilated.

The area in front of and across the defensive positions was littered with the corpses of the Liao tribesmen: over 2,000 had been killed by the gunfire, and another 2,000-plus had been slain in close combat. Another 1,000 or so had perished behind the lines by repeated charges from Wei Yuan’s heavy cavalry.

In this battle, Wei Yuan’s forces suffered over a dozen wounded and 7 killed in action[3].

As the Liao’s army aura dissipated, a strange aura rose from many of the corpses. The moment this aura left their bodies, the corpses rapidly withered and aged

These strange auras were extremely subtle, vanishing in the blink of an eye upon leaving the corpses. However, Wei Yuan had been employing fortune for many years at this point, and these auras, which clearly bore the characteristics of fortune, could not fool his senses at all.

These Liao tribesmen had been transformed by some sort of secret technique of fortune. That was why their strength had surged dramatically. Moreover, the leaders leading the group—from their individual prowess to their military strategy and formation—were by no means ordinary men; they did not seem like the sort who would end up as mere prey in a hunting ground. Their presence here likely concealed a story worth pondering.

Wei Yuan still remembered King Ying’s warning. That was why he had turned a blind eye on all the strange occurrences from the very beginning. He hadn’t even wanted to fight this battle in the first place, but despite his sincere intentions, they were not accepted.

In the main hall of the field camp, King Cheng finally broke the silence, saying, “This Wei Yuan is a master of concealment—I can hardly believe he brought five hundred Dao Foundation-stage cultivators into the hunting grounds. The Liao clans were plotting something serious as well. It would have been quite bad if they hadn’t been so unlucky as to run into Wei Yuan. In this hunting ground, Five hundred Dao Foundations is a force that would’ve bested anyone[4].”

Xu Tongshou spoke up. “Considering his military strength, if Wei Yuan were harboring hidden intentions—”

Xu Tongshou cut him off. “How long has he even been in the western regions? These Dao Foundations must have been secretly trained by the Palace of Absolute Beginning and entrusted to him as his core force.”

Xu Tongshou replied, “That does make sense. Since we’ll still be fighting side by side with the Palace of Absolute Beginning in the north, there is little point in quibbling over such a minor matter. That said, regarding the rankings for this autumn hunt....”

The King of Jin said indifferently, “Whatever happens after the pieces enter the board is up to fate. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The projection remained focused on Wei Yuan. It did not cut to any other location.

At the moment, the border army and King Ying’s troops were the only ones that were nearly intact and still on the battlefield. After King Ying’s scout cavalry had picked up the unusual commotion in the northwest army camp, the main force had immediately rushed over and slaughtered the dozen or so Liao tribesmen occupying the place. After that, they returned to idleness.

Meanwhile, the border army was still picking scraps at the southwest corner.

While ordering his men to clear the battlefield, Wei Yuan pondered the current situation. Although he hadn’t looted the treasure troves, he had wiped out 6,000 Liao tribesmen in one fell swoop—a feat that was bound to earn him a high score no matter how he would like to pretend otherwise, which was quite troubling.

He was hoping to find a few factions and start an in-fighting to lower his evaluation, but looking at the Liao tribesmen’s uniforms, he knew that the only factions left in the hunting grounds were likely King Ying’s and the northern frontier border army.

If possible, Wei Yuan did not want to fight them at all, not to mention that he had no idea where they were. Where would he even begin to look? This hunting ground was a mountainous region spanning 500 li!

Left with no choice, Wei Yuan had to accept reality. He could only hope that King Ying and the northern frontier border army would rise to the occasion and push him out of the top two. Both first and second place would receive a share of the nation’s fortune, though the second-place share was much smaller.

However, Wei Yuan did not want to receive even a speck of it. It was because possessing it automatically painted a target on his back. Just think about it: after he obtained Jin’s fortune, any military merit he earned or territory he conquered would naturally cause him to obtain more of the nation’s fortune. Since he wasn’t planning to stop anytime soon, he might find himself eligible for the throne of Jin before he knew it, and what was that if not treason?

Given King Ying’s warning and Zhao Tong’s advance tip-off, Wei Yuan naturally had no desire to get involved in this mess. That was why he was determined to finish last. Not only was Western Jin’s national fortune too coveted, it was the exclusive domain of the King of Jing’s sons. Forget the three military commissioners, even King Cheng and King Ying would be suspected of treason if they tried to claim it.

Long story short, it would be utterly inappropriate for Wei Yuan to take it, not unless he became the King of Jin’s adopted son!

1. Christ, in English it’s a spear/rod or staff/gun and in Chinese it’s still a spear or a staff. I can’t not translate this either because it is a 3-in-1 weapon. It’s a spear with the blade, a staff without, and a gun either way. =.=” ☜

2. If you think about it, Wei Yuan hasn’t fought anyone 1v1 since before chapter 89. Even during his duel against Tianyu Blackleaf, he always had the security that he could summon his classmates, his master, his big senior sister, yada yada blah blah to his rescue lol. ☜

3. This reminds me of a piece of Malaysian (I’m a Malaysian btw) history that I still remember to this day. I think it was when the Portuguese colonized Malaka, where just dozens of riflemen killed thousands of tribesmen in under a day. I don’t think they even lost anyone in exchange. It’s insane. ☜

4. Some of you might say he’s blind and that the guns are what made the difference, but remember that cash up until a while ago seemed like it would never be replaced until it did—at least in some countries. ☜

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