Way of Conquest

A bubbling, boiling roar resounded. The dead-still ocean surged, waves churning without cease. Under the glare of searchlights, wisps of pitch-black appeared in the gloomy waters, rapidly spreading and stretching out from afar like winding mist or creeping streams. Utterly fearless of man-made steel, they slammed violently against the lead warship in an instant. Immediately, a scalp-numbing chorus of shrill scraping rang out, mingled bizarrely with the sound of boiling water. Screams erupted. On the deck, Dancheng sailors stumbled backward in terror as colossal beasts leapt from the sea, thudding onto the wooden planks and slithering about. They were monstrous fish larger than a grown man was tall—hideous and massive. Rows of fangs flared outward from their jaws like bristling wire brushes. As those gaping maws snapped open and shut, they gouged deep furrows into the deck; anyone caught in their bite was severed clean at the waist, blood and viscera spraying across the planks. Man-eating fish! The grotesque fish thrashed, writhing and crawling all over the deck. Some tumbled back into the sea; others were reduced to mangled heaps of meat under frantic bursts of gunfire. Yet even with their brains and organs blown apart, their hollow eyes remained fixated on the prey around them. Gaping their jaws, they flapped and coiled forward. They could not comprehend death, could feel no pain, and had no need for thought—only instinct. The brains of these damned things held only one thought: eat, eat, eat. Even stripped of a brain, they could still control their bodies through spinal nerves and residual organs—even when severed at the waist, the remaining upper half would thrash and crawl relentlessly, seeking people to devour. More horrifying still, amid the scalp-numbing cacophony of grating gnaws, countless monstrous fish gnawing from the sea caused cracks to rapidly spider across the hull. Several watertight compartments had even been chewed open, taking on water. Amid roaring thunder, shipborne autocannons began firing wildly into the sea. Huge man-eating fish surfaced continually, only to be immediately torn to pieces by their own kin until not a single bone remained! The damned things even ate each other! "It's a herd." Rushing to the bridge, the captain stared at the radar screen with a knowing look. "Guns are useless against these things! Launch the depth charges!" Anyone living on the Endless Sea was bound to deal with such creatures sooner or later. Ragtag as the Seven Cities might be, anyone trying to scrape a living here had to find a way; no matter how dire the situation became, they would not be left utterly helpless. Besides, aside from a few unlucky bastards on deck, no one else had died yet! *Thump!* On deck, a stubby barrel let out a muffled boom. An arc traced across the air before plunging into the black tide. A few seconds later, as light flared deep beneath the ocean, a dull roar erupted outward. Blast waves surged skyward, kicking up layer after layer of ripples. Wherever the pale shockwaves swept, the sea roiled, floating up uncounted carcasses. Depth charges! Weapons long since phased out of standard service by the Federation and the Empire flourished magnificently on the Endless Sea, undergoing continuous reinvention, upgrades, and a brand-new style of play. The design was still the original design, the usage still the original usage; the only thing changed was the internal explosive payload. They crammed it, shoved it, stuffed it until it was ready to burst! Stuffed until not a damned bit more could fit. Once fired and reaching a certain depth— *Boom!* Fish blasting! Under the violent fluctuations of air and water pressure, countless fish charging forward were blown to pulp in an instant. With a single shot, the surface of the sea was quickly blanketed in corpses. Yet the depth charges did not stop. Round after round followed, until the corpses grew thicker and thicker on the water's surface, sickeningly mingled with stench and charred aroma. The dark tide drew back on its own initiative. As though finally learning fear, the man-eating fish no longer advanced. Yet the captain on the bridge showed not the slightest trace of pride or excitement. Instead, his expression grew increasingly grim. Herds— Why were they called herds? Because these damned things were cattle and sheep herded by merfolk! Just like tending cattle and sheep, this staggering shoal of mutated fish was military rations carried on the march. In a fight, they were sent out first as cannon fodder; once dead, a feast was held on the spot to devour them; the survivors were kept and fed, waiting for the next feast to be eaten! Having realized the food ahead was treacherous and having suffered such heavy losses to their herd, no matter how brainless the merfolk might be, they would not blindly charge in again. In the dead, eerie silence, pairs of eyes glowing like phosphorus peered up from the deep, glaring intently at the fleet above. The lull lasted far too long. It even made people wonder if the merfolk had taken fright and fled. In reality, that was impossible. Merfolk were far too human-like; they had brains, and because they were like humans, they held grudges, practically defining vindictiveness. If a ship had ever harmed their kin, the scent left behind would provoke the hostility and attacks of every merfolk. Staying quiet for so long could only mean one thing: these bastards were preparing something big! A mere few minutes later, the creaking, groaning wail of a horn sounded from the distance. At its call, the moonlight faded, and the stars withdrew into darkness. The sea wind blowing against their faces turned thick and viscous, making it hard to breathe. Mist. Vast plumes of sticky fog rose from the sea like living things, rolling outward. And along with the mist came countless beasts from the herd, vaulting out of the ocean and into the air! At the sounding of the merfolk's horn, the mutated fish went utterly berserk. Freed from the shackles of the sea, they soared across the firmament like birds. Though slow in flight, their overwhelming numbers were enough to make anyone's blood run cold. "Alright, open fire," Peñarosa said, resting his halberd on his shoulder. He yawned, having no desire to wait any longer. Instantly, the dormant fleet shuddered with a roar, unleashing its full firepower. Every piece of shipborne armament erupted at once, ripping through the haze. The night was illuminated by searing tracer streams sweeping across the dark like giant slashing blades, churning up wind and rain of gore, literally dyeing the mist crimson. Blood fell like a deluge, raining down upon the sea alongside shredded meat in a spectacle as brutal as it was magnificent. Yet what drew Ji Jue's attention was not the spectacle before him, but Peñarosa, who gazed down upon it all with indifference. Faint crimson flames rose from his form as a fire of spiritus spread, subtly blanketing the entire fleet and flowing through it as one. Thus, the ragtag defense fleet of Dancheng, the obsolete warships, Peñarosa's personal guard, and an array of Imperial weaponry were unified into a single whole, vastly reinforced. Without unnecessary gestures or displays of force, he naturally became the backbone of the fleet, the fountainhead of its morale. Without needing a speech, the faces across the fleet flushed with excitement. With their blood boiling, they raised their voices in song— Instinctively, stumbling through the words, they sang an Imperial military anthem! Had this been a game interface, countless buffs would have been drifting before everyone's eyes: Morale boosted, Resilience boosted, Vitality boosted, Precision boosted, Execution boosted... Every conceivable attribute had been elevated to a whole new level! Even a motley crew, once in his hands, could become an elite division—one capable of holding its formation even after suffering over seventy percent casualties! *Who says you have no clothes? I share my robe with you. The king rallies his troops; I mend my spear and lance, and share your hatred...* He was practically a miniature Sacrificial Lord! "Truly worthy of the Holy Tree family," Ji Jue applauded and marveled, remarking from the bottom of his heart. "Truly worthy of the Tree of the Empire." As one of the fourteen families that had existed since the founding of the Empire, the Holy Tree family had begun merely as a local sect. Over generations of continuous aggrandizement, it had grown into a deep-rooted, towering tree of the Empire, based in Dadu and extending its branches across the four seas. This was a top-tier patrician clan at the very pinnacle of the pyramid. Unlike the Federation, the Empire never bothered with ballot politics; these families were literally part of the fabric of the Empire itself! Now, simply to protect their interests in the Seven Cities, they casually fielded a Swarm master whose path was none other than the Way of Conquest—the supreme path among the many Swarm Heaven's Mandates. This composite path of Tianyuan and Swarm governed violence with rules and demonstrated rules through violence, excelling above all in large-scale, prolonged group warfare. Truly, *a general's fame is built on ten thousand dried bones!* Only a Tianyuan core lineage like the Holy Tree family could pull this off. How could any wild Swarm practitioner ever secure recommendation letters and backing from a great house, earn decorations through orthodox military academy credentials, receive Imperial empowerments through long years of commanding armies, and then win the recognition of the Earthly Warden or Heavenly Overseer through meritorious service and battle results? The prerequisites were simply too high. Without every single one of them, pursuing the Way of Conquest was pure fantasy. Someone like Old Tom, no matter how profound his heritage or astonishing his origins, could never hope to touch it. With a figure like this holding the line, Dancheng was truly, firmly in the driver's seat. If the Seven Cities truly broke into internal factional warfare, so long as Peñarosa sat in the command center, the defense fleet cobbled together through thrown cash could truly roll over the opposition on an open battlefield. He alone was an entire battle-hardened army! Now, amid the roar of artillery, Peñarosa casually glanced over as if by chance. His gaze met Ji Jue's for a fleeting instant. He nodded slightly, offered a faint smile, and drew his eyes away. The true objective of tonight's hospitality had already been fulfilled. Only uncultured riffraff would scheme and squabble in the shadows. With the Holy Tree family's foundation and methods, laying their cards on the table and making their stance clear was almost always enough. What need was there for petty displays of dominance or crude intimidations? *Little brother, you've had our wine and shared our table. The Holy Tree has shown you every courtesy. Whether you still want to arm-wrestle is up to you.* Ji Jue merely smiled, his gaze shifting into the distance. Beyond countless exploding carcasses, through the rain of blood, colossal figures abruptly manifested from the mist. Cloaked and refracted by the fog, the grotesque, looming forms of the merfolk only revealed themselves to everyone's eyes once they had closed to within a hundred meters!