Interception

At this critical juncture, the guard beside Wulu wielding the crescent fork leaped into the air. With a flick of the fork's central prong against the wooden wheel, he deflected the severed trunk, sending it careening to knock another massive log aside. It had been a long time since He Lingchuan had seen such a magnificent feat of using four ounces to deflect a thousand jin. Wulu himself hurled a boomerang straight down the road. Was the invisible, lethal obstacle ahead still there? The boomerang was no larger than a fist when it left his hand, but it expanded rapidly in flight, swelling into a man-sized weapon by the time it flew three zhang out! Massive in size and spinning perpendicular to the ground, it rebounded with a slight ping upon reaching the spot where the earlier guard had been beheaded, as if striking something remarkably resilient. Was that... a line? Realization dawned on Wulu. The enemy had laid a trap across their only path—not ordinary tripwires to snare horses, but far more insidious decapitation wires! Suspended in midair at a precisely calculated height, the nearly invisible filaments turned into deadly blades the instant cavalry charged downhill at breakneck speed! The supposed invisible, peerless weapon was nothing more than a few strands of incredibly tough thread? Realizing this brought Wulu no relief; his brow furrowed even deeper. Even his boomerang had failed to sever the line; its resilience was astonishing. If more lay ahead, would his two hundred riders dare to gallop forward? Right now, time was life and speed meant victory, yet here he was, held up on the spot! The boomerang rebounded on impact and arced back through the air. Instead of returning to its master, however, it shifted into a horizontal spin, sailed over the heads of the guards, and sliced directly into the brush! With several sharp thuds, it severed two trees. A muffled roar erupted from the depths of the thicket, and a giant ape burst forth. Clad in heavy bronze armor and brandishing a massive purple-gold cudgel, it opened with a sweeping swing of monumental force! The cudgel could extend up to three zhang in length. The ape aimed at horse-neck height, swinging the massive weapon so viciously that the riders scrambled desperately to dodge. Several cavalrymen failed to evade in time. Mounts and men were swept aside, tumbling two or three zhang through the air before crashing to the earth or slamming into trees. The fortunate ones saw the cudgel hit their mounts, the horses absorbing the brunt of the impact, leaving the riders concussed and bruised with a few broken bones. The unlucky ones took the strike directly on their own bodies, their internal organs shattered and their frames crushed flat, perishing before they even hit the ground. As the raging ape swept its weapon, an ethereal gale extending a zhang beyond the tip stirred gravel and flattened wild grass in uniform swaths. Scattered by the sweeping strike, the guard unit was forced to disperse. Immediately following up with a tremendous bound, the ape raised its cudgel to smash down onto Wulu's skull. The guard wielding the crescent fork leaped forward to intercept, utterly fearless, but a massive net suddenly shot out from the side, snaring him with pinpoint accuracy! A huge spider, five feet high at the back and pitch-black all over, had crawled out of the brush, spitting webs with uncanny precision. Trapped in midair with no way to maneuver, the guard had been caught completely off guard. This black spider was a web-shooting trapper brought to life from one of Zhu Daniang's eyeballs. The moment it seized its prey, it hauled the net along, scuttling rapidly back toward the woods. Others slashed at the net with their blades, but the webbing of the Burrow Spider Queen was so tough that even legendary weapons could barely cleave it. Even with their weapons reinforced by origin power, it was not something they could saw through in two or three strokes. With the guard dragged away, the ape's cudgel was about to smash Wulu's head. Wulu had no choice but to fling a doll the size of a middle finger at the beast. With a deafening boom, the doll transformed the instant it left his hand into a burly, massive puppet bear a zhang and a half tall. Slamming its two enormous paws down onto the cudgel, it charged directly into the giant ape. Earlier, Wulu had been surrounded by his guards, crowded on all sides, leaving no room to summon this gold-armored raging bear that could crush someone flat simply by sitting down. The creature was similarly clad in bronze armor and possessed real steel claws and fangs; striking the purple-gold cudgel produced showers of sparks. It was equally endowed with monstrous strength, forcing the ape two steps back with its very first strike. Enraged, the raging ape swung its cudgel vigorously, laying a relentless beating into the puppet bear. Exasperated, Zhu Daniang coached it in its ear: "Why are you hitting its head and belly? It's not a real bear; it won't get a concussion or have its guts ruptured!" "Roar?" Then where should I hit? "Gouge out its eyes so it can't see you!" Even a puppet needed eyes to see. "Quit messing around!" He Lingchuan's voice cut in. "That gold-armored bear is being controlled in real time by a human. It can fight even without eyes." He knew better than anyone. "Hmph!" Realizing Zhu Daniang was mistaken as well, the ape guffawed, only to bare its sharp fangs in pain as the surrounding Ya guards stabbed at its ankles. Argh! Origin power stings like hell! Being the largest and most conspicuous target, it had naturally become everyone's primary focus. Even in heavy armor, it would not last long under concerted fire. "Focus on Wulu; don't get distracted by the puppet bear!" He Lingchuan commanded. "Leave this big metal brute to me!" Immediately after, the brush on the other side of the mountain path rustled, and another massive figure leaped out— The gleaming bronze general made its entrance! Over the past six months, the revenue of the Yangshan Archipelago had doubled again and again, finally making He Lingchuan's title as island master worthy of its name. Even so, he had never upgraded the bronze general. Fang Canran had done the math for him: upgrading the behemoth from a bronze general to a divine general would cost at least 1.3 million taels of silver! Refitting such a contraption was like renovating a house: even the most bare-bones budget model cost that much, while a proper upgrade had no upper limit. The moment He Lingchuan heard the price, he passed on it without hesitation—the cost-to-performance ratio was abysmal! Besides, while he had always been generous toward the Yangshan Archipelago, and occasionally generous toward the people of Bailie and Dong Rui's research, he was exceedingly stingy when it came to spending on himself. He had no choice; silver was far too useful. He harbored grand ambitions, and every single coin would be needed in the future. Otherwise, had the bronze general been upgraded into a divine general, it could probably have dismantled the puppet bear with its bare hands. For now, though, it could only lock the bear in place. The two metal creations, feeling neither pain nor fatigue, tangled in a dead heat right beside Wulu and the ape. The raging ape, the giant bear, and the bronze general—all three behemoths squeezed into such a confined space, battering one another with deafening booms and struggling even to turn around. The other guards saw only flying sand and stone blinding their eyes; had they dared to step in, an errant stomp from one of those giant feet would have crippled them in an instant. Following He Lingchuan's orders, the ape launched a furious assault on Wulu. In such cramped quarters, a heavy weapon like the purple-gold cudgel was difficult to maneuver. It simply stowed the staff and reached for Wulu with bare hands. Wulu's preferred weapons were a pair of heavy maces, but against a power-type adversary like the ape, they were clearly ill-suited. Instead, he drew a pair of hand forks. These weapons resembled oversized stiletto needles fitted with crossguards, slender and cylindrical along their entire length. Having risen through the ranks solely on military merit, Wulu possessed cultivation that matched his rank. Weaving through the narrow gaps between the clashing behemoths, he moved with the fluidity of drifting clouds and flowing water, slipping effortlessly through every opening. Those colossal feet stomped down around him again and again, yet not a single one managed to catch him.