Might of the Raging Fire

Du Chen rubbed his nose with a wicked grin. "Alright! Adams, fire the cannon! Blast that Margaret to bits!"

Adams's right hand rested on the Scorcher Cannon, his left gripping Du Chen's arm tightly. Du Chen, in turn, had his hand pressed against Andy's forehead. A crimson light flashed across the cannon, and then a raging inferno erupted, coiling around it like a colossal, burning egg. At that very instant, a vast and terrifying suction force emanated from the cannon. Even the formidable Andy found it impossible to resist, unconsciously drawn towards it. Du Chen himself lurched forward violently, his Green Cloud Step almost failing him!

But with a soft grunt, Adams generated a repulsive force from his left hand, gently pushing the linked Du Chen and Andy outwards. The immense suction instantly vanished, leaving not a trace behind.

Watching the Scorcher Cannon's operation intently, Du Chen mused inwardly, *No wonder Adams had to hold onto me. It seems the cannon, during its preparatory phase, can't distinguish friend from foe. However, Adams, as its host, has the ability to select what it absorbs. The Scorcher Cannon is a double-edged sword; it can slay enemies, but also potentially harm its wielder. I'll need to prepare ample defenses for future use!*

"So powerful! Master, look at the life-wall!" Andy exclaimed in shock. In that brief moment, an area spanning roughly twenty meters around them was almost completely vacuum-sealed by the sheer suction force! And this was the formidable life-wall!

The Scorcher Cannon seemed sated; its flames abruptly shifted to a violet-blue. Then, the cannon's body shuddered. Du Chen's vision registered a single flash of violet-blue fire, and then, all was calm…

"Benefactor, it's done!" Adams gasped, then slumped unconscious, every inch of his skin seeping blood. He had reverted to the state Du Chen found him in when he first rescued him. Andy's Battle Soul explained, "Master, all the elemental energy just now flowed through Adams's body into the Scorcher Cannon. So much energy, in such a short time… an ordinary person would have already exploded!"

Du Chen nodded absently, his mind replaying the instant the Scorcher Cannon fired – a violet-blue flame, a mere flash too swift for the eye to follow, shot out in a specific direction. The flame's surface area was tiny, barely the thickness of an arm, yet this slender ribbon of fire pierced directly through the obstructing layers of life-wall, burrowing through one after another… Now, looking into the distance, the life-wall appeared like countless sheets of cardboard, penetrated by a high-explosive bullet, leaving behind a series of neat, precise holes!

In terms of speed, it surpassed even Green Cloud Step. Dus's warning of a fifty-meter safe distance was no exaggeration; it truly warranted the description "instant kill."

As for power, piercing through countless layers of life-wall, it was indeed worthy of its reputation as the "Overlord of Sacred Artifacts"!

What utterly bewildered and horrified Du Chen most was that the entire firing process of the Scorcher Cannon took no more than… two or three seconds!

Suddenly, Du Chen used the Precious Lotus Scripture to absorb the Scorcher Cannon and the severely wounded, unconscious Adams. He shot forward with Green Cloud Step, calling out, "Andy, come with me to see the results! Stay vigilant!" Following the hole bored by the cannon, Du Chen stealthily darted through!

He wanted to witness the true might of the Raging Fire Scorcher Cannon with his own eyes. Its preparation and instantaneous firing were simply too terrifying. If its battle-results were equally…

***

Just moments before the Scorcher Cannon fired, Margaret, who was leading her people through a labyrinth, suddenly frowned. Her eyes turned violet-blue; the Heavenly Eye Divine Technique warned her of an impending destructive force!

As a Godslayer Grand Marshal, Margaret instantly recognized the familiar power. Bonis himself had been wounded by the Raging Fire, so what chance did Margaret, who was a step below Bonis, have? Her expression shifted dramatically as she cried out sharply, "It's the Scorcher Cannon! I can't escape! Don't try to save me, get away from me, now!"

As she spoke, Margaret's body seemed to blur into phantoms, conjuring over a dozen illusory upper torsos. At that precise moment, the cannon's flame pierced through the final layer of life-wall, unbelievably swift, leaving Margaret with no means of evasion! The pinpoint of fire *blasted* into Margaret's multiple illusions!

For an instant, the crimson of the flame intertwined with the Marshal of Skylands' azure water-light, creating a beautiful yet fleeting spectacle. Then, Margaret's illusions shattered, and the streak of fire, its mission accomplished, dissipated into nothingness!

"Hmph!" Margaret clenched her jaw, letting out a muffled grunt instead of a scream. Her left arm, however… was gone! Utterly obliterated!

Even as a Marshal of Skylands, even with her thorough understanding of the Scorcher Cannon's abilities and characteristics, Fourteen-ranked Margaret still paid the price of an arm!

Just then, a peculiar "plop" sound echoed. A Water Orb seemed to drop beside Margaret's left side and burst! Even more bizarrely, though Margaret had lost an arm, there wasn't a single drop of blood on the ground!

"Marshal!" the Saintess Legion cried out in alarm!

"What are you wailing about?!" The Marshal of Skylands snarled, a twisted smile on her face. "The Scorcher Cannon's single-target lock mode concentrates all its power to annihilate one person… Hmph, but its greatest weakness is that without the aid of Ancient Military Arts for targeting, multiple illusions of the locked target will cause a deviation. Furthermore, it vanishes instantly after a single successful hit! Knowing these two points, I wouldn't die!"

The members of the Saintess Legion felt slightly relieved and quickly gathered around her. "Marshal, how did a Scorcher Cannon appear here? Our objective was…"

"Silence!" Margaret clearly didn't wish to mention their true objective for this trip. The Legion General dared not press further, instead looking at Margaret's missing arm. "Marshal, your left arm…"

"Don't worry, I won't be crippled! Have you forgotten my ultimate Secret Technique?" She waved her remaining right hand, collecting the shattered Water Orb into her sleeve. Margaret cast a hateful glance along the path where the flame had struck. "Francis and Andy are still nearby. Now that I'm gravely wounded, it will take at least half a year of recuperation to recover. I'm certainly no match for that Composite Aberrant Beast! Forget it, activate the Water's Embrace Maze Formation, let's go, back to Water's Embrace Lake!"

She paused, then added, "Send someone to inform Xue Ji and Sword Slave. The sudden appearance of the Scorcher Cannon is suspected to be related to Francis! Tell her to suspend her mission and make a trip to the Saint Dak family to borrow their Military Arts Cartography! Hmph, Francis, you just wait… until my wounds have fully healed in half a year's time!" She gritted her teeth, her expression venomous. In her heart, she already loathed Du Chen to the bone!

The leader of the Saintess Legion also stomped her foot in extreme frustration. "Damn it! If only we'd known about this unexpected Scorcher Cannon, we would have brought the God-seeking Needle! Or even the Molten Heart would have sufficed!" With that, she barked orders for her Generals and Soldiers to array a cryptic formation. After a swirl of mist, the entire group vanished!

But precisely at the moment they disappeared, something utterly incredible occurred to Margaret! The mass of water she had collected slowly crept up her body to her mangled left shoulder. The fluid water flowed, miraculously forming an arm made of water…

Her body transforming into water, and water, in turn, manifesting as a body – Margaret truly couldn't be crippled… Unfortunately, by the time Du Chen arrived, Margaret and her group had already vanished. He hadn't witnessed Margaret's "ultimate Secret Technique" with his own eyes, otherwise, he surely would have recalled something!

Andy sniffed around, then looked up. "Master, the Old Hags are gone, and their aura is chaotic. It seems they left in a great hurry! Andy can still track which direction they went. Should we pursue?"

"Never mind," Du Chen murmured. "Without any bloodstains, we can't ascertain the Old Hag's injuries, and Adams is unconscious, so he can't fire the cannon again anytime soon…"

Though he mumbled these words, Du Chen's heart was filled with inexplicable awe. Bonis had been wounded by the Scorcher Cannon, and now Margaret was injured too. This Raging Fire Scorcher Cannon was simply outrageously powerful, defying Heaven's Will! If he used it properly, he would have nothing to fear from anyone in the future!

No! Du Chen wasn't intoxicated by the sudden surge of power. Reason told him that back during the Holy Alliance's golden age, Divine Emperor Prince had used alchemy to create fourteen Raging Fire Scorcher Cannons based on sacred artifacts. Yet, even then, the Fiendkind still stood on equal footing with the Holy Alliance. This meant the Scorcher Cannon was by no means invincible. If humanity possessed such cannons, the Fiendkind surely had something capable of countering them. What could it be?

Relying on his unparalleled memory, Du Chen recalled the vast trove of information within the Old Matriarch's study in the Brockman family mansion. He suddenly rubbed his nose, muttering to himself, "Ancient Military Arts! Damn it, my preconceptions must be overturned!"

Andy stared blankly. "Master, what are you talking about?"

Du Chen said solemnly, "Andy, you've witnessed the power of the Scorcher Cannon today. Can you imagine what it would be like to have fourteen such ultimate weapons on a battlefield?"

"Yes! Adams used single-target lock mode just now. If he switched to wide-area annihilation mode… while the power would be significantly dispersed and perhaps insufficient to harm someone of Margaret's caliber, for ordinary Soldiers, it would be a massacre!"

"Precisely! Yet, even so, the Fiendkind held the upper hand for most of the war. They must possess something equally formidable! I just realized, the Secret Scrolls of the Brockman family mentioned that the Divine Emperor excelled at alchemy, and Bonis's greatest strength wasn't even battle qi, but Ancient Military Arts!"

Andy grew even more confused, not grasping Du Chen's meaning. "Master, how does this relate to what you said about overturning preconceptions?"

Du Chen decided to explain it more plainly. "Dud once said that the Clandestine Circles of warfare boil down to five key elements: Heaven, Earth, Generals, Weapons, and Beasts! In the past, when we studied the Godslayer War, we focused on the opportune timing, the advantageous terrain, the renowned Generals' formations, and even the various Aberrant Beasts, but we overlooked one crucial aspect—Weapons!"

*Clap, clap!*

Suddenly, applause echoed in the tunnel! "What a splendid articulation: Heaven, Earth, Generals, Weapons, and Beasts!"