Within the blood mist, the concealed merfolk moved with terrifying speed. Their bizarre, half-human, half-serpentine bodies shot through the air like lightning, diving and darting, easily dodging the tracking CIWS rounds. Slipping through the blind spots of fire between the warships, they pounced forward and stormed onto the decks.
Their skin was clad in what looked like heavy rock crust; even point-blank bursts from machine guns ricocheted harmlessly off their bodies.
In their four or six arms, they wielded blades resembling solidified currents of water, wreaking wanton destruction. Among them, super-sized behemoths could rip a warship's armor plating clean open. Others were wreathed in lightning and swirling torrents, their shrieks turning entire cabins into slaughterhouses; beneath the whirling dance of countless high-speed water-blades, countless sailors in the cramped corridors were sliced to ribbons before they could even react.
Yet very soon, their offensive ground to an abrupt halt.
As the casualties mounted, crimson flames surged, wrapping around the Swarm Celestial Chosen across the warships. The men Peñarosa had brought to Dancheng were all his personal retainers and private guards, members of the Swarm belonging to the Legion.
Now, they suddenly erupted into a counter-hunt. Just as the merfolk tried to pull away and create distance, a cold snort echoed from the void, bursting in every soul like a clap of thunder.
Darkness flashed before the eyes of all the beasts. The mist that had borne them aloft seemed to lose its buoyancy, rapidly disintegrating.
When they turned back to face the Swarm Celestial Chosen—fighting as three bodies of one mind—what awaited them was a brutal rout and slaughter.
With Peñarosa's cold snort, the savage shockwave surging within the crimson flames suppressed far more than just the merfolk on site; even the thick fog cloaking sea and sky violently shuddered and dissipated under that callous voice.
A torrent of bloodfire swept upward against the mist like a surging tide. The sound of something shattering echoed from its deepest depths.
A horn fractured.
Perched atop a colossal, monstrous fish, an ancient merman—haggard and hunched compared to his kin—revealed himself to everyone's senses.
He was so decrepit he possessed only two arms, yet he was draped in conch shells and seashell ornaments, crowned with a crest of bone, looking very much like a priest.
His spiritus fluctuated wildly; though a mere beast, through innate talent he had somehow touched the fringes of sorcery.
The moment the mist broke, his silhouette blurred. Without hesitation, he concealed his presence, desperate to open the distance and vanish into the gloom.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Following the cold snort came a sharp bark!
The halberd in Peñarosa's hand shot through the air. A roar like the discharge of a giant cannon rumbled across the sea. Under the churning pressure of bloodfire, the elderly merman was squeezed out of empty space once more, his camouflage shattered. He had only enough time to look back—
His eyes reflected the halberd expanding rapidly in his vision.
*Boom!!*
He exploded into a cloud of crimson mist.
The moment the elder priest blew apart, the man-eating fish flying across the sky seemed to lose all control, scattering in panicked flight. The merfolk, whose coordination had been so tight, completely collapsed and were hacked to pieces in a landslide rout.
Watching this, Ji Jue's eyelids twitched furiously.
Fucking Swarm psychos!
What a waste!
No matter how much Ji Jue grieved the waste of materials, he had no room to intervene.
Under the witness of representatives from all sides, ninety-one merfolk and countless man-eating fish were hacked into countless pieces, raining down into the sea.
This migrating merfolk tribe was wiped out, reduced to ashes.
"Just this many?"
Peñarosa snatched the halberd that reformed out of thin air in his hand, casually tossed it to a guard, and cast a contemptuous glance at Haming. "Going through all that trouble and mobilizing so many forces just to build up hype... what hard work."
Sailing all this way just to handle a few beasts wasn't even enough for a warmup, let alone anything resembling military merit.
As for how Dancheng planned to boast about it, he couldn't care less.
The mere thought of having to play along with these clowns' theater irritated him to no end.
Haming let out a self-deprecating chuckle, unbothered by Peñarosa's scorn. But just as he was about to speak, he saw Peñarosa's expression suddenly turn grave.
Sullen.
Glaring furiously right at him.
That icy stare sent an involuntary shiver through Haming, who couldn't fathom what had gone wrong.
Immediately afterward, he heard horns sounding one after another from the far horizon of the sea—across the deathly still, shadowy ocean, dots of phosphor flared and spread, shining like a sea of stars.
Ji Jue's expression changed as well.
On the satellite cloud imagery, this area was being swiftly blanketed by dark clouds. Gale-force winds suddenly whipped up, howling gusts kicking up the lingering stench and shoving it up everyone's nostrils, nauseatingly foul.
Even more chilling was the stench of decay wafting from the deeper reaches of the ocean.
Merfolk! More merfolk!
Only, this number... One tribe, two, three, four... two hundred, three hundred... five hundred... six hundred...
In his daze, Ji Jue almost laughed aloud.
Out of sheer fury.
"I really did underestimate you guys."
He glanced at the dumbfounded Haming, barely suppressing a sneer.
He had calculated everything, finally figuring out the two-faced hypocrisy of these maggots, only to overlook just how amateurish and incompetent these idiots truly were—to pull off such an astronomical blunder, crashing and burning on this scale!
How the fuck was this "a small scattered band of merfolk conducting hit-and-run harassment" like the intel claimed?!
The tribe they had just found was nothing more than an advance scout detachment sent by countless tribes following behind!
They had thought it was just some nobody pushovers to trample for good publicity, obsessing over stirring up hype and creating headline news. Well, the "big news" they hyped up had literally jumped right into their faces!
And the champagne?
Are you still popping it?
The difference between poised, effortless mastery and a flustered, scrambling retreat was just this narrow gap.
Surprise, surprise! Didn't see that coming, did you?
The merfolk that had just been slaughtered seemed to sneer in the wind: *There are at least seven or eight more out there just as badass as us!*
With the situation turning out like this, the charitable interpretation was that Dancheng was a bunch of amateur clowns; the harsh interpretation was falsifying military intelligence—what the fuck were these maggots actually trying to pull?!
"Th-this..."
Sweat began pouring down Haming's face. Under Peñarosa's icy glare, he was on pins and needles, stammering, "I... I... no, Dancheng knew nothing of this, Colonel! None of the intelligence reports we received mentioned anything like this! I—"
On the verge of tears, Haming frantically explained, "Even if my uncle were plotting something nefarious, he wouldn't use me as bait!"
Callisto and Haming were uncle and nephew in name, but practically father and son. In fact, their relationship of political and status succession was even tighter than that of a father and son.
Even if Callisto were truly plotting foul play, he would never use Haming as chum. Besides, wasn't being a dog for the Holy Tree family lucrative and sweet? As long as you paid enough, they genuinely didn't care how you lived your life. Wasn't that ten times better than being a dog for the likes of the Xu family?
It made no sense.
Would anyone really throw away an iron rice bowl to go work for a shady shell company?
Peñarosa gave him one last glance and couldn't help cursing in Imperial dialect.
Translated literally into refined Federation speech, it amounted to something like: *Hang out with idiots, and you end up eating shit.*
"Hard to train a clever dog," Ji Jue chimed in using the Imperial tongue, offered as a bit of comfort.
Peñarosa's expression turned helpless, and he let out a sigh.
The guy was already a lapdog; what more could you expect from him? So he was a bit brainless, so he was a bit of a useless bum—he was their own dog, what could they do, beat him to death?
Fortunately, while the situation had spiraled out of control, it wasn't unmanageable.
Just somewhat troublesome.
The most awkward part was hosting a banquet only to lose face so thoroughly—it was quite an embarrassment.
"Mr. Ji, given what's coming, I fear I won't be able to look after anything else," Peñarosa said with a nod. "If I fail in my courtesies, I hope you will forgive me."
"Please, Colonel, feel free to do as you see fit. Do you need any assistance from me?"
"A guest is a guest. How could we make a guest do the heavy lifting?"
Peñarosa waved him off, dragging his halberd behind him as he stomped toward his flagship, a belly full of furious rage.
Fucking kill, kill, kill!
You worthless bastards, you trash beasts, get ready to die under my wrath!
In the distance, the thick, viscous fog manifested once more. This time, it rose into the sky, seemingly endless, turning into dark clouds.
In an instant, torrential rain poured down.
Within the dark clouds above the downpour, flashes of lightning flickered continuously in response to the sounding horns.
Those hair-raising flashes gradually coalesced into one, and under the summons of the various tribes, thick bolts of lightning fell from the sky like artillery fire, crashing down toward them!
Amid the driving rain, Peñarosa flicked his hand in annoyance. Thunder rumbled through the void as an invisible giant hand swept across, swatting aside the incoming lightning with ease and deflecting it harmlessly away.
With his other hand, he pulled an archaic creation resembling a solid-brass telescope from his breast, glowing with radiance.
No, that wasn't a telescope, that was—
Ji Jue narrowed his eyes.
A scope mounted on an antique rifle?
Before he could get a clear look, Peñarosa's icy voice rang out like an absolute decree, reverberating throughout the fleet: "Order the entire fleet—open fire!"
There was no refutation, no doubt, and not a sliver of delay.
The very instant the command was given, everyone moved by pure instinct. Even the cold steel warships seemed to respond to his order.
Ji Jue's brows rose, understanding dawning within him.
*I see. Weapons, is it?*
Beneath the mantle of bloodfire, every weapon and soldier was brought under the complete dominion of the Path of Tianyuan. Everything was treated as an instrument; when an order was issued, the instruments naturally sprang into motion.
Executing it without a second thought!
Six twin-barrel cannons, nine triple-barrel cannons, twenty twin dual-purpose guns, hundreds of anti-aircraft guns—all the armaments the Dancheng Defense Fleet had accumulated over the years unleashed their full firepower under Peñarosa's command!
The world was illuminated in a split second. A roar louder than thunder erupted across the sea, flames surging like tidal waves from the muzzles, while endless tracer belts soared into the heavens—
The entire fleet didn't even aim. Aimlessly squandering this insanely violent power, countless searing flashes enveloped the entire sea.
And then—under the dumbfounded gazes of onlookers—stream after stream of tracer fire twisted like serpents, curving seductively through the air in winding S-curves before crossing kilometers of open ocean to strike with pinpoint precision against distant targets on the waves and colossi lurking in the deep.
Artillery shells screeching through the air pulled sharp 120-degree turns mid-flight, blowing a corrupted monstrosity shaped like a giant whale straight into a puddle of mush.
"Well, that's physics packing its bags and heading for the hills..."
Ji Jue mused, his gaze falling once more upon Peñarosa's scope, now glowing red-hot.
Cheating was cheating, and he wasn't even pretending otherwise—not even bothering to hide his aimbot.
Aimbot head-locking, wallhacks, full-map tagging, accelerated bullets with zero bullet drop—every single FPS gamer's 'talents' were fucking right here!
His hands began to itch.
Seeing as they were on such good terms, and he'd even treated him to a sweet drink—
*Could you let me have a feel?*
Chapter 740