Ten thousand I am across the heavens

The space beneath the hull of the land battleship is quite large, enough for a person to stand upright and walk. However, everyone chooses to crouch to move forward, mainly because when the ground is bumpy and uneven, there's a risk of being hit in the face by the hull above. Even if you're a superhuman, being hit by that tens of thousands of tons of weight would leave you bruised and battered. Fortunately, the sheer weight of the land battleship provides a relatively high level of security. This section of the road where the enemy can use long-range artillery to bombard the area is only a few hundred kilometers long.

Admittedly, if the opposing eighth-rank expert insisted on using ranged attacks, they could potentially launch attacks tens of thousands of miles away. However, such attacks would lack accuracy, and tracking attacks, if released outside the region, would become uncontrollable once they entered the border area. Therefore, only parabolic or straight-line trajectories could be used, and attacks at such distances would take several hours or even longer to travel, with the success rate purely dependent on luck. Wasting one's energy reserves during such attacks is clearly not worthwhile. Only within a hundred kilometers can wide-area ranged attacks have a relatively high hit rate. Even then, there is still the possibility of the attack being detonated by the projectile mid-flight.

The inability to use lethal attacks doesn't mean ordinary kinetic energy or weapons are unusable. Simple close-in weapon systems, rockets, or even single-target worms can still be used.

Using a single Gu worm alone will not result in a backlash, but after reaching the third level, almost no one will use a single Gu worm anymore, because its power is too weak, and if it is not used to create a killing move, the cost is not proportional to the effort.

However, in some fields, even using a single Gu worm can be profitable. For example, in automated production lines, raw material Gu worms that continuously supply steel and other raw materials are usually just logistical or auxiliary supplements. But now, they are providing a continuous supply of ammunition for land-based strategic ships. Rockets can be fired into the sky as if they were free.

Many lethal attacks simply collided with the rockets and detonated, as not everyone could add enough intelligent trigger conditions to their attacks. A significant portion of the attacks were collision-triggered, since overly complex structures would become ineffective within the border. Many powerful attacks were thus intercepted in mid-air. Only the occasional powerful attack that landed was able to breach the defenses of the land battleships.

Dao Tian peered through the gaps in the hull of the land battleship. He could see that the end of the border wasn't far off. Following the land battleship for about an hour or two, they would be able to completely break through the border barrier. At that point, he would be much safer.

However, the further they went, the more intense the firepower they endured. Most immortals were not adept at beyond-visual-range combat; even at the eighth level, their combat distance was usually limited to within 50km. The battlefield radius was even smaller than that of top-tier fighter jets on Earth in the 21st century, especially in this world. The advantage of high-range firepower wasn't significant, and the advantage of offensive techniques over defensive ones wasn't as pronounced. Therefore, beyond a certain range, the marginal benefit became too great.

Once the distance reached within 100 kilometers, it fell into the advantageous zone for the Heavenly Court's powerful warriors. At this distance, they no longer needed to fire parabolic trajectories; straight-line trajectories were sufficient to hit. This meant that while the difficulty of interception increased, the enemy's hit rate also improved. The defenses on the land battleships, which were initially protected by a faint layer of golden light, gradually thinned.

One land battleship after another was reduced to water or fragments in the explosions, but Fairy Ziwei's brows furrowed deeply. The enemy numbers were far greater than she had imagined, and she couldn't distinguish which were the real enemies and which were mere cannon fodder used to deceive them.

The "Intelligent Strategy" was originally best suited for use in this environment. While the Republic of Mountains and Rivers excels at utilizing designs from various natural science fields to defend against all sorts of reconnaissance and assassination techniques—such as using stealth layers to defend against wave-based reconnaissance like radar-reflecting sonar systems, and using specially designed armor to defend against infrared thermal imaging and penetrating detection—these are relatively conventional reconnaissance methods. However, observing the interior of a heavily armored land battleship is extremely difficult.

Comparatively speaking, the more mysterious methods of divination and destiny-based killing techniques are more effective at detecting whether there are real people inside land battleships, especially when physical reconnaissance is difficult.

The problem is that highly mysterious reconnaissance capabilities mean fewer restrictions on their use. She can use them from hundreds or even thousands of miles away, directly interfering on a mystical level and preventing her from arriving at the correct answer. From the start of their attack, the Mountain and River Republic has been conducting saturation-style interference using various schools of thought, such as the Dao of Wisdom and the Dao of Fortune. While the level of their killing moves might not be particularly high, the sheer volume and quantity are overwhelming. The frequency of these attacks can reach 10-20 times per second, and they are all at the level of immortal killing moves. This saturation-style, comprehensive interference is something even the Heavenly Court, by summoning its old immortals, can't easily counter. Faced with thousands of land battleships carrying only one or two people, or even no one at all, cannon fodder, they can only resort to bombardment to try and eliminate the real enemies by chance. Only when the distance is close to tens of kilometers, and high-powered natural science-based reconnaissance killing moves are forcibly used to break through the anti-reconnaissance layers, can one more accurately determine which vehicles contain real people. But at this distance, even if the determination is made, the effect is limited. They believed that the Republic of Shanhe had definitely anticipated this, and that when the distance was only a few dozen kilometers, there would definitely be other changes.

And that was indeed the case. Following the original plan, when they were only a few dozen kilometers away, Dao Tian and his companions quickly climbed the gangway at the bottom of the land battleship and entered. This opening at the bottom was the weakest point in the tank's defenses. However, they seized the opportunity during a vacuum created by the enemy's overwhelming attack, and with the tank's defenses becoming less effective afterward, they were able to safely climb into the tank and quickly make their way along the internal passageways to the airstrip.

Parked here are things that resemble carrier-based aircraft. However, these fighter jets have a streamlined shape, are very long and slender, and look somewhat like the powerful, high-flying Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. They are clearly the type that puts all their skill points into speed.

Without a word, everyone jumped into the cockpit, and the land battleship activated its electromagnetic catapult. As the battleship's energy was almost instantly depleted, all the fighter pilots felt a powerful surge of acceleration. The sudden G-force slammed them into their seats, rendering them immobile. Each pilot was like a supersonic missile, hurtling rapidly towards the border.

The Heavenly Court's powerful figures also noticed this scene. However, their ability to intercept it was now extremely limited. In an instant, tens of millions of fighter jets were launched. Each one flew at hypersonic speeds. The distance of tens of kilometers was covered in less than a minute. The overwhelming and fierce attack destroyed hundreds of thousands of fighter jets in those few dozen seconds. However, more than 10% of these were smoke bombs. They were all unmanned, simply cannon fodder to attract attention. Those who were hit might not necessarily die, partly because they had life-saving defenses, and partly because their own strength was often very high, but they were limited by their killing moves and could not unleash them.

Accelerated to such high speeds, even if struck down mid-air, the inertia would be enough to throw them beyond the border. Once outside the border, super-powerful defensive and healing attacks could be used without restriction. Dao Tian was among the unluckiest of the group. He was hit by less than a 1% chance of being struck, and his own weakness, coupled with the brief loss of contact with his protector, made his situation extremely dangerous. Fortunately, the layer of pale golden light protecting him hadn't disappeared. He tumbled and crashed to the ground, skipping across the surface like a stone skipping across water. He rolled and rolled until he was outside the barrier, regaining his ability to use attacks independently. However, on this battlefield of immortals, his fourth-tier level was pitifully weak. Even though the high-powered attacks from the Mountain and River Republic could somewhat compensate for the gap between him and true immortals, he was still an ant that could be easily crushed.

So at this moment, his first choice wasn't a movement-based or defensive attack. Instead, he used a move to conceal himself, like a stone hat, making himself blend into the background like a blade of grass or a roadside stone, inconspicuous. Then, he disappeared into the ruins and started using his equipment to call his protector.

This kind of killing move, resembling a stone hat, is actually more effective on weaker opponents. Since his strength is weaker than even the weakest soldier, he doesn't attract much attention. By lowering his profile, no one even glances at him. His only real worry is being caught in the crossfire of attacks from powerful opponents. At his current level, he's easily shattered by a single touch, let alone the aftershocks of a top-tier eighth-level battle. Even the aftershocks of an ordinary sixth-level immortal could crush him.

Fortunately, his own powerful ally was reliable; he carried eight communicators to contact his side, including dozens of immortals. Any one of them nearby could quickly arrive to protect him. And his luck wasn't too bad this time; the third person calling for help was nearby. And it seemed he'd even bumped into a powerful figure. The other person's ID was Xu Cheng. He vaguely remembered seeing him in news reports about a fighting tournament or something. He didn't know his rank in the military, but he seemed to possess considerable individual combat strength. Although he sensed the other person's aura was only around the sixth level, in the Mountain and River Republic, cultivation level didn't equate to combat power.

In virtual fighting tournaments, the skill gap between professional players who rank in the top one million and amateur players without professional training is hundreds or even thousands of times. Even if a professional player uses an account that is two to three levels lower than an amateur, they will most likely still dominate the amateur. Therefore, after seeing that the player he had randomly selected was clearly a professional player who had been in the news, Dao Tian knew he had it in the bag. He didn't need to worry about anything else; he just needed to watch the pro's performance.

"Are you alright?" Xu Cheng's voice echoed in his mind, but the other person did not appear in front of him.

"It's mostly fine, but the effects of the one-time defensive items are almost gone. I'm going to be on an infiltration mission next. Do you have a way to get me to the other side of the front lines without attracting their attention?"

Xu Cheng had already located him, but didn't immediately offer assistance. He merely adjusted the direction of the aftershocks of his killing moves during the battle, deflecting some attacks that might have affected him. His system quickly received information about Dao Tian's behind-enemy-lines scientific research mission.

"I understand your situation. You want to smuggle yourself out as inconspicuously as possible, right? Here's what we'll do: you continue using your killer move to minimize your presence, and I'll enhance its effect. From now on, you'll basically be treated like a roadside stone, and no one will notice you."

"It's no use if no one notices me. If I don't move, of course people will mistake me for a stone. But if a stone grows legs and runs away, it will still be discovered no matter how hard it tries to reduce its presence."

Although Dao Tian expressed his doubts, he obediently continued to use his killing move to minimize his presence. While doing so, he felt as if he had truly turned into stone. His body seemed to merge with the stones of the surrounding ruins. He even felt as if he had truly become part of the stone, his entire body melting and becoming one with the terrain beneath his feet.

Then he experienced a scene that left him completely speechless, unsure how to express his "Holy crap" feeling.

Xu Cheng, who was engaged in a fierce battle with the Heavenly Court's powerful warriors, summoned tens of thousands of rock spears from the earth with a wave of his hand, unleashing a barrage of arrows like a rainstorm. This launched a comprehensive attack on the Heavenly Court's forces. The intensity of this attack was like a casual basic attack to him; he had unleashed similar golden sword rains before. For this kind of ranged attack, which was insignificant and whose only advantage was its wide coverage, the Heavenly Court's immortals could at most protect their disciples fighting on the front lines who hadn't yet reached the immortal level, preventing them from being easily killed by the overwhelming attack.

Dao Tian was speechless to discover that his body had been forged into one of many rock spears, and now it was becoming one of the arrows in a volley of arrows, flying away into the distance at a terrifying speed like a meteor.

[To be continued]

Please add this to your favorites and vote for it! (End of Chapter)