Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

Seeing that everyone was ready, Zhu Gaoxi placed his right hand on his face with his fingers spread, and slowly extended his left hand, activating the Light of Time.

An invisible ripple spread from his palm, radiating outwards from him toward the city wall.

The seemingly sturdy city wall, in the instant swept by the light of time, seemed to undergo a weathering process accelerated tens of thousands of times. The stone rapidly changed from a hard bluish-gray to grayish-white, cracked, disintegrated, and turned into rubble.

Finally, the entire city wall collapsed like a sand sculpture, shattering into a pile of stone chips and dust.

Before the general and soldiers on the city wall could react in shock, the city bricks beneath their feet suddenly turned to dust.

"Ah...ah"

Before they could even scream, they fell from the height, crashing into piles of rubble, into the dust, onto the ruins that were indistinguishable from the city walls or the ground.

Zhu Gaoxu had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

"Follow me and charge! Crush these worthless bones!" He drew his sword from his waist, clamped his legs around the tiger king's belly, and launched the first charge.

The Tiger King roared to the sky, the sound waves shaking the surrounding rubble. Its four thick legs leaped out, stepping on the rubble and ruins, its claws carving two deep furrows in the ground with incredible speed and force.

"kill"

"kill"

"kill"

Immediately following behind, Zhang Fu, Zheng Heng, Xue Lu, Qiu Fu, and others urged their respective lions to follow closely behind. Behind them was a whole row of rhinoceros vanguard. The rhinoceroses trudged heavily over the ruins, and the ground trembled violently under their hooves.

The war elephants, at the very back, raised their trunks and let out a loud horn-like sound, causing the entire earth to tremble.

The Annamese soldiers on the ruins of the city wall had just climbed out of the rubble and hadn't even had time to stand up when they saw a fierce tiger with piercing eyes and a white forehead leap out from the other end of the ruins. The Ming general on the tiger's back brandished his sword, a bloodthirsty smile on his face.

"You bunch of beasts, what were you yelling about on the city wall just now! Keep yelling! Keep yelling!" Zhu Gaoxu's sword drew an arc in the sunlight.

Then came a herd of lions, rows of rhinoceroses, and mountain-like war elephants, rolling in like a dark mass, the ground trembling violently under their hooves, as if the entire earth were sinking.

"Mom! I want to go home!" A young soldier threw down his weapon and ran, but he tripped over a pile of pebbles after only a few steps. He cried as he got up, but tripped again, his face covered in dirt.

"Help! These Ming soldiers on the other side know sorcery! Run!" Another soldier lay on the pile of rubble, covering his head with his hands, trembling.

"I am the commander! Don't kill me! I surrender!" The garrison commander, who had just been arrogantly shouting and cursing on the city wall, struggled to crawl out from a pile of rubble. A few pieces of broken tile were still hanging on his head, and his face was covered in blood. He waved frantically at Zhu Gaoxu, who was charging towards him, and begged for mercy repeatedly in Annamese mixed with broken Chinese.

But the battlefield was filled with the deafening sounds of battle, the footsteps of rhinoceroses, the roars of lions, and the clash of weapons, so no one could hear what he was shouting.

"What are you babbling about? I don't understand... I'll give you a slash!" Zhu Gaoxu's sword slashed down with a whoosh, the blade flashing and disappearing in the sunlight. With one slash, he cleaved the Annamese general, who was still frantically crawling out of the rubble, off the ruins. The two personal guards who had just gotten up next to him were also sent flying by the Tiger King's claws, crashing into the rubble and kicking up a cloud of dust.

As he sheathed his sword, he shouted excitedly to those behind him, "That was awesome!"

The Ming army had been itching for a fight for a long time. First, they surrendered without a fight at Ailiu Pass, and then they hadn't encountered a decent opponent during their long march. Finally, they were about to have a real battle at Jiling Pass.

Zhu Gaoxu took the lead, wielding his sword and taking down any Annamese soldier who stood in his way with a single blow. The Tiger King pounced left and right, and none of his men could withstand his attacks.

Zhang Fu, Qiu Fu, and others were all seasoned veterans who rode lions and charged through the chaotic army with unstoppable force.

Zheng Heng and Xue Lu flanked the enemy from the flank and blocked the fleeing Annamese soldiers.

The most amazing thing was the Rhino Vanguard Battalion. These rhinos didn't even need the knights to lift a finger; they just charged forward with their horns, and all the Annamese soldiers along the way were sent flying.

"Stop chasing us, let us go."

"Don't kill me! I have an eighty-year-old mother and a three-year-old child..."

The Annamese army collapsed like a house of cards, with most of them abandoning their weapons and only caring about escaping for their lives.

"Is this bastard provoking us?"

"Judging from that expression, it seems like..."

The Ming army couldn't understand what they were shouting. They only saw the Annamese running and shouting at them, so they assumed they were still putting up a last-ditch resistance and pursued them relentlessly.

Several Annamese soldiers who knew a few words of Chinese knelt on the ground and begged for mercy in broken Chinese. Because their accents were too heavy and were drowned out by the noise of the battlefield, their voices could not reach the ears of the charging Ming soldiers.

With a single stomp from a rhinoceros or elephant, even the kneeling figure vanished.

As the crushing continued, the Annamese soldiers behind them also wanted to surrender, but they found that surrendering was useless.

Anyway, these Ming Dynasty soldiers couldn't understand what they were saying, so they just started hacking and slashing at them without listening to anything they were saying.

So they started running backwards, hoping to escape into the inner city and avoid this calamity.

"Collect." Zhu Gaoxi's gourd was already prepared; it was still that dark green alchemy gourd.

After the battle began, he floated in the air on a cloud, accompanying Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi and others who were charging below.

He did not participate in the killing on the ground, but instead used his mental power to cover the entire battlefield. Any Annamese soldiers who tried to escape into the inner city would be precisely sucked into the gourd's mouth by the suction force as long as they crossed the invisible boundary he had drawn.

"Ah—ah—" These Annamese soldiers originally planned to sneak into the inner city and escape, but before they even stepped into the city, they felt a powerful suction from behind. With a scream, they were sucked into the gourd and disappeared into the dark green light.

Trying to escape? Do you think you can escape from me? You'll all become nourishment for the Ming Dynasty.

Standing atop the cloud, Pigsy watched as the Ming army, riding ferocious beasts, chased after the fleeing soldiers. He then watched as Zhu Gaoxi calmly collected the Annamese soldiers who were trying to escape into the inner city one by one into his gourd. Pigsy's hand, carrying the rake, tightened involuntarily.

"Brother, these people are all powerless to fight back, should we continue?" Pigsy finally couldn't help but ask, turning his head to the side.

His tone held no accusation, but rather confusion. In his mind, Laozi's disciples were reclusive sages, practicing alchemy and cultivating the Tao, but this man before him was far too ruthless.

Zhu Gaoxi didn't stop. He took in three more fleeing soldiers who were trying to escape into the inner city by climbing over the ruins. A ghostly light flashed at the mouth of the gourd, and the men shrank and disappeared with screams.

He turned to look at Pigsy and replied seriously, "Second Brother, didn't you see what they said just now? They said they would never surrender. We should be honest and responsible for our words. I was helping them uphold their principles."

Since they vowed to die rather than surrender, then let us grant their wish. To defend one's oath with one's life—what a precious quality! This integrity deserves our respect.