Chapter 577: Fiend Blood Handprint
He flipped his palms over and struck Sun Que, who was charging towards him. The palm wind was wrapped with seven kinds of evil energy, including cold, poison, burning, and devouring, which distorted the air.
Sun Que's pupils contracted sharply. He didn't have time to rein in the horse and could only brace himself with his halberd.
His first palm struck the shaft of the halberd, making his arms numb. His second palm followed immediately, striking the body of the halberd, and his third palm slammed into the blade.
Four or five palm strikes landed in quick succession, causing his tiger's mouth to split open simultaneously, and blood flowed down the shaft of the halberd.
The sixth palm struck his left shoulder armor directly, leaving a palm print in the purple armor. He was sent flying off the griffin's back, spitting out a mouthful of blood in mid-air.
"Still not dead?" The grandmaster grinned as he chased after him, his seventh palm already brimming with murderous intent, the blood in his palm so thick it was almost dripping.
He intended to smash Sun Que's head with this palm strike.
Sun Que suddenly turned around in mid-air and shouted: "【Sharp Arrow - Piercing Strike】!"
He still held his halberd in his hand, and using the momentum of being knocked away, the tip of the halberd flashed like lightning, piercing straight for the grandmaster's heart.
This move came extremely suddenly. The grandmaster did not expect that someone who had been knocked away could still counterattack. He did not have time to retract his palm and had to turn to the side to block with his left arm.
The halberd pierced his left arm and emerged from his elbow, spraying black blood all over Sun Que's face.
But at that very moment, the Grandmaster's seventh palm struck Sun Que's chest.
"Bang!"
Sun Que's breastplate was dented by the blow, and he fell from the sky like a kite with a broken string, spitting out large gushes of blood.
His ice-winged griffin let out a mournful cry and struggled to fold its wings and chase after its master.
But the grandmaster reacted even faster. Without even glancing at the halberd stuck in his left arm, he clenched his right hand, and blood light surged from his palm, instantly condensing into a blood spear that was entirely scarlet.
He threw it with a backhand.
The blood spear shot through the air, so fast that its trajectory was almost invisible. It pierced through Sun Que's back and emerged from his chest.
Its momentum remained undiminished, pinning him and the pursuing griffin together in mid-air.
A man and a beast were impaled together by a blood spear and plummeted straight down from a height of 500 meters, crashing into the edge of the Blood Abyss Sect's ground army's formation, splashing up a thick cloud of blood mist and raising a cloud of dust.
...
Corpses continued to fall from the sky. Icewing Griffins and their riders were killed by concentrated fire, while Ink Feather Kite and Blood Abyss Demon Sect's innate masters were torn apart and pierced, falling to the ground.
However, this fierce aerial battle did not affect the advance of the Blood Abyss Demon Sect's ground army at all.
The first wave of 200,000 menial disciples, pushing cloud ladders and flying tiger rope winch chariots, surged towards the Hangu Pass city wall like a red tide.
Their eyes were bloodshot, they were breathing heavily, and their bodies were covered in a faint scent of blood.
The winch-driven chariots were heavy, and sixteen handymen disciples pushed one chariot, leaving deep furrows in the gray-white earth.
When the vanguard advanced to within 800 meters of the city wall, the crossbows and catapults on the Hangu Pass city wall roared simultaneously.
Hundreds of crossbow bolts and hundreds of boulders pierced the air and crashed into the dense ranks of servant disciples.
The crossbow bolts have extremely high penetrating power, dealing 300 points of damage and having a piercing effect. They can pierce through seven or eight menial disciples in one shot, stringing their bodies together into a bloody line and pinning them to the ground.
The boulders launched by the catapult crashed into the crowd, each one creating a deep crater upon impact. Seven or eight servant disciples were trapped underneath, unable to move.
However, with the Blood Fiend Formation's blessing, even menial disciples who haven't reached the first level of cultivation possess thousands of health points, limiting the suppressive effect of catapults and ballistae.
Crossbow bolts and boulders could only create chaos in the vanguard, but they could not stop the overall advance of the demonic army.
Immediately following, the Demon Sect's Three Fiends Cloud Piercing Ballista also entered the 800-meter range.
Hundreds of crossbow carts were pushed out; the carts were huge, and the three arrow slots were activated simultaneously.
With each tightening of the winch, three massive black iron arrows were simultaneously cocked.
The Demon Sect's flag bearer suddenly lowered the blood flag, and hundreds of Three Fiends Cloud Piercing Crossbows fired simultaneously toward the city wall.
More than a thousand massive iron arrows, like a dark cloud lying close to the ground, accurately struck the city wall.
The battlements were struck by giant arrows, sending stones flying. The soldiers guarding the city ducked to avoid the arrows, but many were still pierced by them.
The giant arrow shot in through the crenellations, piercing the chests of the operators and pinning them directly to the inner rear of the city wall.
A catapult operator was hit by three giant iron arrows at the same time, and his whole body flew off the control platform and was pinned to the stone wall behind the city gate.
Another crossbowman was pierced through the thigh by an arrow, screaming as he fell to the ground, blood gushing from the wound and staining the stone bricks beneath him red.
For a time, the firepower of the crossbows and catapults on the walls of Hangu Pass was greatly reduced.
At that moment, the 200,000 outer disciples immediately activated 【Blood Shadow Step】, increasing their movement speed by 30%.
They transformed into streaks of afterimages, bypassing the array of Three Fiends Cloud Piercing Crossbows, and advanced at an extremely fast speed to within 300 meters of the Hangu Pass city wall.
At this moment, the vanguard force of 200,000 laborers had broken through to within 200 meters, but was suppressed by crossbow bolts from the arrow towers and the 50,000 elite Qin soldiers on the city walls.
Three hundred meters away, forty thousand outer disciples wielding blue-quality stone-cracking bows began to draw their bows and fire arrows. A dense rain of arrows poured down, suppressing the Qin elite soldiers on the city wall so they could not raise their heads.
Taking advantage of the lull in the firepower, a large number of menial disciples pushed the Flying Tiger Rope Winch War Chariot to a point 100 meters from the city wall.
After the chariot came to a stop, the nearby servants immediately began operating the winch.
Thousands of tanks launched almost simultaneously, their giant grappling hooks tearing through the air, trailing helical cables thicker than an arm, precisely hooking onto battlements and fortifications.
The moment the grappling hooks embedded themselves in the stone bricks, a dull thud was heard, the winches were tightened, and thousands of thick cables spanned between the city wall and the ground.
"superior!"
Countless disciples, having reached the advanced stage of cultivation, stepped onto the noose and used the 【Blood Shadow Step】 to rush towards the city wall.
The Qin warriors immediately aimed their crossbows at the figures on the nooses, and the disciples desperately parried with their black iron clubs and claw-like weapons, but a large number of crossbow bolts still hit them.
It takes about six arrows to kill a disciple who has reached the Acquired Realm. One after another, disciples were shot into pincushions, screaming as they fell from the noose and crashed into the pile of corpses below the city, splashing up clouds of blood mist.
But immediately afterward, more than four thousand innate inner disciples rushed onto the noose.
They charged ahead, and a faint red glow suddenly emanated from their bodies—【Innate Qi】 activated!
The crossbow bolts from the city wall bounced off the protective aura, dealing only a dozen or so points of damage!
"court death!"
Wang Wu's eagle eyes locked onto a master of innate martial arts on a noose.
With a flick of his left hand, the longbow was fully drawn, and the 【Triple Arrow】 was activated.
The three arrows were fired almost in quick succession; before the sound of the arrows cutting through the air could be heard, the arrowheads were already at the face of the master.
The expert hurriedly raised his iron rod to block, but the three arrows were too fast. He only had time to raise his rod halfway before all three arrows hit him.
Although his innate qi was strong, it couldn't withstand the barrage of skills from a level 39 archer. The man was struck as if by three heavy hammer blows and tumbled off the noose.