Elven cultivators

Outside the ruins of Deeprock City, in the Blood Prison of Dragon Bones.

The dilapidated city walls cast jagged shadows in the sunlight.

Strom sat cross-legged on a relatively flat base of broken wall, his hands pressed against the dark red membrane in front of him. Magic flowed continuously into it from his palms.

The scales on the membrane moved slowly, flashing on and off, like a sleeping giant breathing and rising and falling.

Ao Sen, about ten meters to his left, was also maintaining the same posture.

Both of them wore expressions of barely concealed fatigue.

Not far away, two other wolf-born saints were hurrying to recover their magic power so they could take turns with Strom and Orson.

This situation has lasted for a full two weeks.

At first, the wolf-born saints were full of confidence, certain that Anton would not last long and would soon be worn down, becoming a fish on a chopping board, at their mercy.

However, things took a far different turn from what they had initially anticipated.

Half a month has passed, and the aura belonging to Anton within the barrier still shows no obvious signs of weakening.

On the contrary, they were exhausted and had used up a lot of magic power.

These past few days, we've barely managed to stay afloat by taking turns injecting magic into each other.

"Chieftain, something's not right..." Olsen's brows furrowed deeply. "The energy loss rate of the Dragon Bone Blood Prison is much faster than normal. There's definitely something strange going on."

A werewolf saint sitting on the pile of rubble opened his eyes, frowned, and said, "Could it be that Anton is absorbing the energy of the Dragon Bone Blood Prison?"

"Impossible." Another werewolf saint categorically denied it. "Even the dragon-orcs of Bloodhowl Fortress who have fused with dragon blood couldn't do such a thing. How could Anton, an elf, possibly have that kind of ability?"

Storm said with a grim face, "No matter what, we have to keep going."

Olsen and the two wolf-born saints exchanged a glance and remained silent.

As Strom said, they had no way out now and could only grit their teeth and persevere.

Otherwise, if Anton manages to escape the barrier alive, they will be the ones in trouble.

……

At the same time, hundreds of miles away, deep in the Ash Wasteland.

Large tracts of gray-brown hills lie prostrate on the earth like the back of a sleeping giant, with a narrow valley running through them from north to south, like a cleavage cut by a knife in the earth.

In the center of the valley, a temporary camp is spreading out along the terrain, covering a vast area.

Tents and wooden sheds were crammed together in layers, with rough wooden fences enclosing several areas of varying sizes, leaving wide roads for vehicles to pass through.

Trucks loaded with supplies moved in and out along those gray dirt roads, their wheels rolling over gravel and dry mud, raising thick clouds of dust.

The camp was heavily guarded, with a watchtower standing every few dozen steps.

Further away, large patrols of wolf-blood soldiers moved back and forth along the outer perimeter, their steps synchronized, the soft clatter of armor plates colliding carried away by the wind.

Above the camp, armed airships hovered or moved slowly, casting huge shadows on the ground. As the airships moved, they glided slowly over the tents and vehicles, like moving cloud shadows.

In the control room of one of the armed airships, the light from the magic crystal screen cast a faint glow on Gideon's face.

He leaned back in his chair, one foot casually resting on the edge of the control panel, his gaze wandering among the dense clusters of dots on the screen.

In the center of the screen, a green dot was flashing steadily, representing the airship he was on.

There were twenty-nine yellow dots surrounding it, each representing an armed airship belonging to the Bloodclaw Clan.

"The modifications made by Heart of the Mountains are truly impressive," Gideon exclaimed. "Not only has the airship's firepower increased significantly, but its detection capabilities are also quite remarkable, capable of detecting flying vehicles 300 kilometers away in advance."

"It's impressive, but I wonder if it will be effective against the Flying Radiance Tower?" A companion chimed in, "I heard that the Flying Radiance Tower has amazing anti-detection capabilities. Back then, it traveled all the way from Eldron Plains to Steelmane City without anyone noticing it. It's practically elusive."

Gideon scoffed, "That's just an exaggerated rumor."

"What level of craftsmanship is the Heart of the Mountains? It's the best on the continent. Even they can't do it, so how could those elves possibly do it?"

"In my opinion, the Flying Tower's anti-detection capabilities are probably only slightly better than those of an ordinary airship. It just got lucky and won a battle, so people have been praising it to the skies."

"What a pity, so many days have passed and the Flying Radiance Tower still hasn't appeared. It probably won't come. Otherwise, it would have been a good opportunity to verify my words..."

Gideon spoke eloquently, but received no response from his companions.

He turned around in confusion and found his companion frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at the outside world with a look of utter disbelief.

"What's wrong?"

"Look over there..."

Gideon looked in the direction his companion's trembling finger was pointing and was immediately stunned.

At the edge of the sky, a dense array of outlines appeared out of nowhere.

Those outlines are expanding at an astonishing rate, quickly stretching from tiny black dots into clear ship hulls and pavilions in the blink of an eye.

Their shapes are long and sleek, with slightly upturned bows and layered pavilions standing above the decks, gleaming with a bluish-white light in the twilight, like some kind of reflection in the water emerging from the clouds.

It is completely different from the angular steel airships produced in the Heart of the Mountains.

The Silvermoon Clan's Soaring Flying Ship!

Gideon's pupils contracted sharply.

As far as the eye could see, from east to west along the horizon, the bluish-white silhouettes of ships surged in like a tidal wave, filling the entire sky.

In the very center of this fleet of ships, two massive towers, like two floating castles, weighed heavily on the center of the fleet.

Even from a great distance, one can feel that invisible sense of oppression.

Flying Tower!

Gideon felt as if his blood had frozen for a moment.

The next moment, he suddenly snapped out of his daze, lunged at the control panel, and slammed his hand heavily on a red button.

The piercing alarm instantly resounded throughout the camp.

The once orderly campsite suddenly became like a pool of water that had been filled with boulders, instantly boiling over.

However, it was too late.

At the edge of the field of vision, one of the Flying Radiance Towers suddenly accelerated, like a giant beast swooping down on its prey, covering several kilometers in the blink of an eye.

The three-legged golden crow statue at the top of the tower suddenly lit up, and a crimson-gold flame shot out from its beak, like a fiery torrent that stretched across the sky, instantly engulfing the airship where Gideon was.

The metal casing glows red, melts, and deforms at a speed visible to the naked eye the moment it comes into contact with the flame.

The heat insulation layer and armor were peeled away like thin paper, revealing the exposed energy pipelines and keel structure underneath.

The explosion-proof transparent panel on the front of the control room cracked with spiderweb-like patterns under the high temperature, and then shattered completely. The scorching air wave, carrying debris and flames, poured into the cabin, engulfing Gideon and his companions.

In the final moment before his vision was completely engulfed by flames, Gideon had only one thought left in his mind.

He was wrong.

The airship skills of the Heart of the Mountains are indeed inferior to those of the Silvermoon Clan.

The sirens still echoed over the camp, but they had lost all meaning.

The armed airships that were originally scattered above the camp had just begun to adjust their formation when they were caught off guard by the oncoming fleet.

The two leading armed airships were instantly destroyed by the Golden Crow True Fire, turning into giant fireballs that crashed to the ground.

The flying boats also opened fire.

In comparison, while the firepower of the Lingyun Flying Boat was not as domineering as that of the Feiyao Tower, it was still far beyond what ordinary armed airships could withstand.

Each airship is equipped with a spirit crystal cannon made with spirit stone technology. The cannon's muzzle condenses a thin beam of light. Wherever the beam passes, the airship's outer shell is scorched with blackened through holes, the keel breaks, the airbags burst, and the wreckage falls down trailing thick smoke.

The disciples of Primordial City and the elven soldiers on the deck were not idle either.

The talismans lit up one after another, and the trajectories of various spells intertwined to form a dense net of light, which poured towards the armed airships that were trying to approach from a roundabout angle.

In a short period of time, more than a dozen armed airships were destroyed.

Huge fireballs exploded one after another in the air, their debris, wreathed in flames and thick smoke, crashing into the camp, collapsing large numbers of tents and wooden sheds, and the surging shockwaves toppling the surrounding soldiers and vehicles.

Only then did the armed airships launch their counterattack, albeit belatedly.

They managed to regain their footing and began to unleash their firepower on the fleet.

The projectiles and crossbow bolts intertwined to form a dense net of fire, crashing against the energy shield of the Flying Cloud Ship and creating a series of muffled thuds.

Seeing that the Lingyun Flying Boat, the target of the attack, was completely unharmed after a round of concentrated fire, the wolf-blood soldiers in the airship's control room turned green with rage.

What kind of defensive power is this?

Ugh!

A deep, long horn sounded suddenly.

Countless dark shadows rose into the air from all around the camp like a swarm of bees, rushing toward the fleet.

Those were wolf-blooded cavalrymen riding giant, blood-red bats.

The Bloodclaw Clan's prized elite force, the Bloodwing Demon Bat Cavalry, has finally joined the battle.

The sight of nearly 30,000 Bloodwing Demon Bat cavalry taking off at the same time was extremely spectacular, with half the sky filled with the silhouettes of their wings and riders.

They closed the distance and began to concentrate their fire.

Short spears, musket pellets, and arrows rained down on the bluish-white light shield covering the surface of the Flying Cloud Ship, exploding into a continuous pattern of light and sparks.

The airship's shield rippled under the intense impact, with fine dimming and cracks appearing at the edges. Several areas of the shield were briefly pierced, and scorching bullets and fragments of short spears streaked along the ship's walls, leaving scorch marks.

But nothing more.

The Flying Cloud Ship was not shot down as they had hoped. Although the protective shield was weakened, it was never completely breached.

And they soon paid the price.

The spirit crystal cannons of the Flying Cloud Boat fired alternately, each attack creating a huge gap in the Demon Bat Cavalry.

Large numbers of Bloodwing Demon Bat cavalrymen fell from the sky like dumplings in boiling water.