Chapter 1286 Phoenix Palace’s Hidden Pearl and Secrets, Cold Blade Shadows Stir Heroes’ Souls (Part 5)

Wu Zhong’s black-iron prosthetic limb let out the grinding sound of gears turning. "Grand Squad Leader, what you mean is..."

"What we’re doing is not to let them slaughter each other, but to force them to join hands against the flood." Shi Feiyang took out the forged hydrology secret report, stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Works. "Xie Wen, take the Flying Eagle Camp and infiltrate General Guo Dunyi’s main camp, then ’accidentally’ leak this report. At the same time, have the Five Poison Sect spread word that the Cyan Cliff Stream is about to break its embankment."

He turned his head to look at Lan Xiaodie. "Die’Er, you must use your gu insects to create the illusion of the river swelling in a sudden surge, driving the people on both banks into panic and flight. In a few days, we’ll use the money and grain seized from the Iron Saber Association Headquarter to compensate the common folk."

By the time night fell, the people on both banks of the Chishui River were indeed gripped by dread. Guo Dunyi stared at the hydrology report in his hands, his brows tightly knit. He knew full well that if the Cyan Cliff Stream burst its banks, not only would his Firearms Camp be wiped out, the people of Bozhou would be plunged into calamity.

When Mu Tianbo received the news, he too fell into deep thought—Yunnan and Guizhou are linked by mountains and rivers; once the flood spread, Dian Nan would inevitably be affected.

As the first raindrop fell, Shi Feiyang stood atop the mountain peak, gazing at the two armies across the river, both on the verge of moving.

He circulated the Bright Jade Technique, his voice waves spreading through the river valley. "Prince Mu, General Guo! The Cyan Cliff Stream is about to burst its banks. If you continue fighting now, you’ll only consign tens of thousands of lives to the flood!" Guo Dunyi looked at the billowing dark clouds on the horizon, gritted his teeth, and gave the order. "The whole army on alert—reinforce the embankments first!"

Mu Tianbo also raised his ancestral treasure sword. "Follow this lord to the flood defense!" Torrential rain poured down. Hidden in the dark, Lan Xiaodie controlled her gu insects, making the roar of the flood grow ever more fearsome. At the brink of life and death, the various forces had no choice but to set aside their grudges for the moment and join hands, forming a wall of human bodies.

Far away, deep within the Forbidden City, the sound of the Emperor’s shattered teacup fell into the darkness together with the war reports being delivered.

Along the Chishui River, however, it was unusually calm. The Heroic Sakura Association’s Bozhou Sub-Branch secretly withdrew from their encampment, falling back entirely into the Thunder God Rock deep within the Thunder Sound Terraces, where they were merged into the Celestial Star Sect Headquarters, to be commanded by Celestial Star Sect Sect Leader Shi Ying and Vice Sect Leader Lan Xiaodie.

Dusk dyed the mountain ridges the color of blood-soaked silk. Xie Wen shot across the sky like an arrow loosed from the string; when the Feixu Qingyan Technique circulated, the afterimages he left behind turned into faint golden streams under the setting sun. His toe lightly tapped on Shi Feiyang’s shoulder. His eagle-like gaze swept across the crowd. "Grand Squad Leader, Nuerhachi has already destroyed the Hada Tribe, and Menggeboluo’s blood stained the execution ground! On top of that, he has created the Manchu script from Mongolian—his wolfish ambition could not be more obvious!"

Shi Feiyang lifted his palm, which rang and trembled like the Celestial Frost Blade. As the Bright Jade Technique flowed, his glazed, jade-like skin shimmered with an icy blue glow. "Lindan’s tribe is the shield of the grasslands. If Nuerhachi swallows it, the Central Plains will be in grave peril!"

He looked toward the surging dark clouds in the Northwest sky, cold qi in his palm condensing into frost. "Ready the horses! Tonight we ride for Lindan’s tribe!"

The night wind over the grasslands carried the stench of gunpowder.

A few days later, when Shi Feiyang led the heroes of the Heroic Sakura Association into the Kerchin territory, he suddenly saw towering pillars of fire rising from the grasslands ahead. Thick, viscous stone-fat oil burned in winding streams along the ground, congealing into "fire dragons" dozens of zhang high. The raging flames and howling gale intertwined in a shrill screech.

Dozens of black figures stepped upon the fire dragons and soared into the air—it was the "Eagle Claw Sect" experts of the Hai Xi Jurchen.

"Dogs of the Heroic Sakura Association, you dare spoil the Great Jin’s plans!" The leading Jurchen Warrior brandished a bone whip inlaid with gold, the whip tip coated with a gleaming blue poison. "Since Lindan’s tribe has set itself against Nuerhachi the Great Khan, it is the mortal enemy of us Hai Xi Jurchen!"

Shi Xiong’s White Rainbow Sword left the scabbard with a dragon’s roar, the wolf-bone stone on the sword tassel clacking out a clear, resonant note. "Grand Squad Leader, allow your subordinate to deal with these madmen first!" His toe touched the ground as he launched himself forward, executing "Green Peak Slices the Face," one of the Thirteen Life-taking Swords; his sword light was like a silver dragon, thrusting straight into the enemy formation.

But the Jurchen Warrior flicked out his bone whip; the whip tip hooked the sword blade and yanked it hard, while jet oil sprayed from under his feet, the sudden blaze swallowing Shi Xiong in an instant.

"Petty tricks! You dare invade my Lindan’s lands, hmph!" A surge of frigid qi erupted around Shi Feiyang as he drove the Bright Jade Technique to the stage of the "Supreme Forgetting Emotions Ice Soul Cold Prison."

He thrust both palms forward, unleashing "Heaven’s Edge," a move of the Hundred Victories Saber Technique. Nine golden blades of qi, each wrapped in icy cold, fanned out in an arc. The fire dragons were actually cleaved open by sheer force. Wherever the residual blade qi swept past, the Jurchen Warriors’ leather armor shattered inch by inch, and the exposed skin immediately crusted over with frost.

Xiang Kun’s iron flute suddenly rang out in a rousing melody. The Sound Wave Technique turned into an invisible barrier, knocking down the incoming Poisoned Crossbow Arrows.

Xiao Lingling’s Mandarin Duck Saber danced into a curtain of snow as she engaged the Jurchen "Snow Wolf Sisters" in a furious melee.

The sisters’ chain sabers were studded with backward-facing barbs. When they hooked her sleeve, Xiao Lingling let out a cold snort; her blade reversed with "Mandarin Ducks Misaligned Shadows," instantly severing the enemy weapons. Beads of blood sprayed onto the burning stone-fat oil, letting out a sizzling hiss.

Seeing the tide turn against him, the Jurchen Leader suddenly pulled out a deerskin horn and blew a long note.

From deep within the grasslands came a rumble like distant thunder—it was three hundred armored war wolves charging forth.

The wolves’ eyes gleamed with a ghostly green light, and the saliva they spewed from their maws was sticky and laced with sparks of fire.

Shan Zhi flicked out a flurry of plum-blossom darts that wove into a net, but with a metallic "ding," the dart heads bounced off the wolves’ armor.

"Watch me!" Wu Zhong’s black-iron prosthetic limb unfolded into a Thirty-Six-Barreled Thunderfire Gun, lead bullets pouring down like a torrential rain.

Yet the war wolves’ hides were thick and flesh tough; getting shot only drove them into a greater frenzy.

Seeing this, Shi Feiyang’s body turned into a stream of light as he leaped into midair, driving the Bright Jade Technique with all his might until his entire body became transparent like carved jade.

He unleashed the ultimate killing move of the Hundred Victories Saber Technique, "Cleave Heaven and Earth." A single golden saber beam, spanning heaven and earth, roared down.

Wherever the saber light passed, the fire dragons were split in two, and the war-wolf pack was severed at the waist, blood mixing with the burning stone-fat oil as it rained across the grasslands.