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Chapter 213 Please Witness Our Victory

The sailboats continued forward, having broken through the enemy's coastal defenses. Under the relentless bombardment from both flanks, there was not a single foothold on the beach. When the fleet entered the airspace above the island, the ground was littered with the corpses of mutated monsters and shattered machine parts.

Apart from the six large ships that continued to maintain air superiority, the rest of the ships began to descend slowly.

Clearly, the Allied forces will next launch an island landing operation, relying on ground troops to occupy beachheads and establish their own cross-sea strongholds.

"They're not trying to gain air superiority with hot air balloons, are they?" Lin Qing sneered, watching a large swarm of Red Cross balloons slowly drifting by. "Aren't they just a bunch of sitting ducks?"

If windships represent another dimension of evolution, then hot air balloons remain stuck in the ancient era—a slight improvement over the days of queuing for executions, but still far inferior to magically enhanced floating warships. They rely almost entirely on natural winds for flight, are pitifully slow, and their gondolas don't seem to offer any bulletproof protection.

However, Lin Qing quickly realized that she had misunderstood.

When the hot air balloon rose to a height slightly above the fleet, the people sitting in the basket jumped out! To be precise, it was two people and a monster!
This monster resembled a manta ray, with a broad, flat body and two fleshy wings that, when unfolded, were about four or five meters long, allowing it to glide through the air. The two men on its back were clearly British soldiers; one piloted the monster, while the other controlled a multi-barreled revolver mounted on its back, charging menacingly towards the windmill.

"This works?!" Lin Qing was astonished.

A hot air balloon is simply a vehicle that provides altitude.

The enemy is still using their most effective boarding maneuver, only now they've set up the battlefield four or five hundred meters above the ground!

Seeing the British soldiers' attire, Chen Xuan had a surreal feeling of time reversal. Black tricorn hats and bright red overcoats—wasn't that the typical uniform of the Lobster Soldiers?

"Fellow soldiers, follow me to kill the enemy!"

Ji Yun's loud shouts also came from the clouds.

The flagship Crimson Feather was also among those left to guard the sky. The cultivators who had been waiting on the deck for a long time put on their wingsuits and took off to meet the attacking lobster soldiers.

A novel yet classic air battle ensued!

"Wow..." Lin Qing couldn't help but let out a soft exclamation.

Liu Shuyue was also watching intently.

The protagonists of aerial combat are no longer high-performance machines, but pure flesh and blood. Although neither side has wings, they have all solved the problem of flight in their own ways—at least for short periods of time.

The wingsuits worn by the monks were not the one-piece suits commonly seen in extreme sports, but rather "artificial wings" in the truest sense: a pair of movable, folding wings with a frame that appeared to be made of bamboo, covered with oiled paper with talismans pasted on it, resembling a kite without a head or tail. The monks would tie the wingsuits to their backs with ropes and then take off.

This device appears to be an improvement upon the Wind-Riding Talisman.

Compared to the Wind Riding Talisman, which requires precious materials to make, it only needs to summon a gust of wind to easily lift a person up. The drawback is that it cannot fly continuously and needs to frequently return to the ship to replenish the talisman.

Fortunately, the enemy's mobility was also quite limited. Once they made a sharp turn, the falling height could not be recovered, and they could only watch helplessly as they slid into the artillery's firing range. This is why they had to fight in hot air balloons. After all, the monsters that could move freely in the sea could not adapt to the sky like birds; being able to glide was already quite an achievement.

A fierce battle unfolded around the windship... Waves of enemies swooped down, like knights from hell. The monks spread their wings and fought these ferocious foe, appearing like angels protecting the world.

The witches were not idle either; they stood at the edge of the deck, supporting the Allied soldiers with various spells... The sounds of exploding fireballs and machine gun fire were incessant.

Chen Xuan spotted Ji Yun and Ji Lian among the group of cultivators.

Their movements were always more agile than those of other cultivators, often managing to maneuver into the blind spots of the rotary machine guns before using the Thousand Thoughts Sword to kill their opponents. The two worked together seamlessly, one focusing on offense and the other on defense. Even if an enemy found a firing angle, the bullets would be blocked by the qi swords summoned by Ji Lian.

If anyone can rival them, it's Hsu Hsuan-ling.

Her chain technique had improved dramatically since twenty-five years ago; even a few talismans casually tossed into the air could become fulcrums for her to maneuver and dodge. One second she was directly in front of the enemy, the next she was pulled behind by the chains, sweeping past them while effortlessly slicing through riders and daemons in two. While the twins' flight paths were still somewhat traceable, she truly achieved complete freedom of movement, appearing and disappearing without a trace.

It was more like she was dancing among the enemy than flying.

After about thirty minutes of fighting, the situation gradually shifted in favor of the Allied forces. Fewer and fewer hot air balloons were taking off, and the reinforcements of the lobster soldiers could not keep up with the rate of loss. The other ten windships landed smoothly, and French soldiers and warhorses poured out of the stern hatches, charging towards the enemy camp in three directions.

Just as Ji Yun assured him, Chen Xuan wouldn't need to interfere much in this battle. He only needed to witness his disciple's victory.

……

Liu Shuyue returned with a full load this time.

She brought back not only numerous blueprints for spiritual energy devices, but also a whole box of cultivation insights written by Ji Yun. For cultivators, these experiences and personal reflections are the most private and precious things. If they fall into the hands of someone with ulterior motives, they could even use them to figure out the loopholes in spells, or even the cultivator's own weaknesses.

His willingness to share all of this with Liu Shuyue demonstrates his deep respect for the Immortal Master. This connection was not forgotten despite the passage of twenty-five years, nor was it neglected after he became the head of the sect.

Liu Shuyue's feelings were complicated, but since these things could be of great help to her and Mala Village, she was quite willing to accept them.

“This is getting interesting.” Lin Qing lay down on the sofa, making the new sofa creak. “The disciples taught by Liu Shuyue established the Lianyun Sect, and the Lianyun Sect then cultivated Liu Shuyue... Don’t even mention her, I can’t figure out how this is going on.”

Chen Xuan opened the shop door and resumed business operations. "So you're now convinced that these two Lotus Cloud Sects are the same sect?"

“That’s probably it.” She shrugged. “You probably think so too… otherwise you wouldn’t have asked that question before saying goodbye.”

That's correct.

Before returning to the store, he asked Ji Yun a seemingly unintentional question: If he were to establish a sect territory in the future, where would he choose to settle down?

Of the four major sects, only the Lotus Cloud Sect lacks a fixed mountain gate; all its cultivators camp in the wild like soldiers. This is fine during wartime, but it's impossible for everyone to wander indefinitely.

Ji Yun didn't think too much about it. After pondering for a moment, he smiled and replied, "I want to choose the mountain with the most abundant spiritual energy as the founding site of the Lotus Cloud Sect."

Why choose a high mountain?

“Because that’s the closest place to the stars.” He paused. “Now that we can set foot in the sky, it would be wonderful if one day we could go and see the stars.”

The Lianyun Sect, where Liu Shuyue belongs, is located on the summit of Kunlun.

“They even chose the same address, so the possibility is already quite high.” Lin Qing shifted to a more comfortable position, propping her long legs up on the coffee table. “There is also a more one-sided piece of evidence that can prove they are from the same sect.”

"What evidence?"

“A single world cannot erode itself,” she replied. “Whether you’re here in Joan of Arc and Chang’an, or on Xiao Shuyue’s side, you’ve discovered several points of intrusion so far, right? But none of them connect the two worlds.”

"Does this even count?" Chen Xuan scoffed. "It's as if I've already explored the whole world."

"At least not yet, so it's fine to assume that for now."

He suddenly had an idea: "Assuming both sides belong to the same world, if I bury a time capsule in Chang'an, wouldn't I be able to dig it up in Liu Shuyue's place?"

“Theoretically, that’s true, but you don’t even know where the Great Wilderness of Ten Thousand Mountains is, so how can you locate a box…” Lin Qing paused halfway through her sentence, “Wait! Maybe this method is actually feasible—if a fusion battery is used to provide energy, and it is combined with a microwave transmitter on a specific channel, the signal it emits can be received even after thousands of years.”

"Where am I supposed to get all this stuff for you?" Chen Xuan rolled his eyes.

"Of course it's New Paris!" Lin Qing clapped her hands and said, "They can build cities underground, so the technology shouldn't be a problem!"

But the prerequisite is having money.

Building your own PC also incurs costs.

His only way to get new Paris euros right now is through his monthly store manager salary.

(End of this chapter)