Kays Translations

Just another Isekai Lover~

Chapter 276: Overbearing

Chang Lin and the others all looked toward Beichen Yuqing; the situation with the target had changed, which was beyond Chang Lin’s capacity to handle.

Beichen Yuqing smiled confidently: “Our objective is not to injure the enemy, but to intimidate them. So, continue shelling Dongguan Town, and let the surviving soldiers of Jin Kingdom witness with their own eyes what true fear looks like.

Of course, I ask Immortal Feiyu to mark the location where the enemy landed earlier. Let’s reward them with a few 305 mm caliber shells. I imagine a few large shells will leave a deep impression on them.

After destroying Dongguan Town, we’ll continue north along the coast and destroy the saltworks and other facilities along the way.

In addition, since Nascent Soul stage experts have appeared, do not dispatch aircraft for now. Wait until the number and positions of the enemy Nascent Soul experts are confirmed, then we can act. At that time, we’ll take a detour and bomb from areas beyond their reach.”

The ironclad ships slowly approached the shore. At first, the five ironclad ships continued to fire salvos aimed at Dongguan Town. Because the goal was intimidation and Dongguan Town was already an empty city, only two salvos were fired instead of a full bombardment.

Even so, those two salvos were almost enough to destroy the city of Dongguan Town. Over seventy cannons fired simultaneously—all 150 mm, 240 mm, and 305 mm cannons—producing an overwhelming effect. The city walls were blown open, houses smashed to pieces, and the ground itself was turned over. Thick smoke billowed and covered the sky.

Especially the 305 mm shells—according to Immortal Feiyu, their explosions were nearly equivalent to the self-destruction of a late-stage Core Formation expert burning their soul. Such power posed a significant threat even to Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

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As for the soldiers of Jin Kingdom, seeing the city of Dongguan Town blown away, on one hand, they were grateful for their general’s wise decision; on the other hand, just as Beichen Yuqing had anticipated, a seed of fear was indeed planted!

A few soldiers even went weak in the knees and collapsed to the ground… Fighting Anyang like this—wasn’t this just asking to die?

However, before these soldiers had time to feel relieved, some of them noticed that the muzzles of the ironclad ships were turning, with their dark barrels now aimed at their own position.

“Run!”

No one knew who shouted it first, but the soldiers, already scared out of their wits, immediately bolted. Although General Cheng Yunbo was known for his strict discipline and strong fighting spirit—intent on capturing an ironclad ship and rescuing his son—Jin Kingdom had not seen war for a hundred years. Many of the new recruits lacked real combat experience, and now, faced with such intense bombardment, the army’s morale didn’t just crack—it shattered.

Not to mention, many of the soldiers were from Dongguan Town itself, not the elite troops personally led by Cheng Yunbo.

Now that someone had taken the lead, many soldiers scattered in all directions. In the blink of an eye, deserters were swarming across the hills. With no city walls to “block” them, the soldiers fled gleefully. By the time Cheng Yunbo realized what was happening and tried to dispatch a supervisory team, more than ten thousand soldiers had already fled.

Once those ten thousand ran, the rest of the soldiers lost heart as well.

Just then, as the supervisory team was about to act, the third salvo from the five ironclad ships erupted!

The earth shook… the sky collapsed… the heavens darkened… Even the great general Cheng Yunbo himself didn’t know how to describe the violence of the explosions. The temporary fortifications built with spells—stronger than city walls—were torn apart in an instant.

A 150 mm shell exploded less than three meters from Cheng Yunbo. Already wounded and with his magical treasures damaged, he gritted his teeth and barely withstood the blast using his Nascent Soul cultivation. But his internal organs were seriously injured, his vision blurred, and he was unable to stand for a while.

Fortunately, there were still some temporary defenses during the first salvo, which blocked most of the explosive force. Only a few stray shells caused casualties. Though there were deaths and injuries among the soldiers, they were not severe.

But this time, the shells exploded right overhead, terrifying many soldiers completely. And so, another large group fled for their lives.

In the world of cultivation, people have long lifespans; and the longer one lives, the more cautious they become. This, too, seems to be a universal truth. So deserters are quite common in the Immortal Domain. No one is willing to fight to the death when escape is still an option. After all, the world is vast—if one can’t stay in Jin Kingdom, there’s always another country to flee to!

So, after General Cheng Yunbo took about a minute to recover, he looked around and found even more deserters across the hills. The despicable ironclad ships of Anyang, however, ignored the fleeing soldiers and instead focused their muzzles squarely on the main encampment.

Suddenly, in the distance, the ironclad ships trembled once more and clouds of smoke burst out; the soldiers, having witnessed three salvos already, knew immediately—this was the fourth.

This time, even the hesitant soldiers took off running—without the temporary magical defenses, staying here was just waiting to die.

Not just the soldiers—even the great General Cheng Yunbo was dragged away by his personal guards—because a 305 mm shell was heading straight for him.

Facing the shell directly, even ordinary people could see it—let alone cultivators. The two Core Formation stage guards had just enough time to drag Cheng Yunbo about twenty meters before diving to the ground.

Boom… a massive explosion erupted behind them. The shockwave blew Cheng Yunbo and the two guards several feet through the air before they could even hit the ground.

Cough, cough… The already severely wounded Cheng Yunbo struggled to crawl up, blood gushing uncontrollably from his mouth. If it weren’t for the vitality of the Nascent Soul stage, his organs might have been completely ruptured. The two personal guards were pale-faced, looking like “White Impermanence” ghosts.

Cheng Yunbo looked up and around, discovering a scene of utter chaos. All around was a mess of yellow sand and debris, with broken bodies flying through the air and blood splattering everywhere. The air was thick with a pungent stench.

Cheng Yunbo steeled himself and spat out the blood in his mouth, then immediately gave the order: “Retreat!”

But at that moment, the distant ironclads had stopped firing in volleys. The 150 mm naval guns had begun rapid fire—what’s more, it was free fire—this was the navy’s favorite game aboard the ironclads.

Unfortunately, it was the army of Jin Kingdom by the shore that suffered. The sky was filled with sharp whistling sounds as shells rained down relentlessly; with each explosion, a dozen or even several dozen soldiers were blasted into the air, never to rise again. The mountains and plains were covered in fleeing troops, soldiers wishing they had four legs to run faster—fear had made many forget they still had magic, that they could fly.

Some elites above the Foundation Establishment stage managed to summon their flying swords and fled desperately; seeing these high-level cultivators take to the air finally reminded some of the Qi Refining stage soldiers to use spells to accelerate or fly.

In an instant, the entire mountain was filled with “bird men”—the scene was truly spectacular. Even more so were the bombs that kept falling from the sky, blossoming like deadly flowers upon hitting the ground…

Sometimes, a shell would collide mid-air with a person, explode mid-flight, and then a rain of “bird men” would fall from the sky.

The soldiers ran for five li straight, and the shelling seemed to have stopped. Cheng Yunbo couldn’t hold on anymore and was preparing to sit down to rest. The soldiers also collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Though they were all cultivators, and five li shouldn’t be exhausting, the earlier terror and desperate flight had truly drained them of strength.

General Cheng Yunbo stood up and looked at the mountain filled with deserters, trying to rally the soldiers. From his perspective, while the bombardment was terrifying, there were only five ironclads—casualties couldn’t be too high, at most three thousand dead. So General Cheng Yunbo loudly called for the troops to regroup.

After much effort, about twenty thousand soldiers were gathered back; the rest had completely fled.

But just then, a shell landed in the midst of the reorganized troops. Before anyone could react, more shells rained down—precise, evenly dispersed. In an instant, over seventy “scars” appeared across the newly reformed army.

“Bastards!” Cheng Yunbo immediately understood—earlier, the ironclads hadn’t stopped firing because they were out of range, but because they were waiting for him to regroup the routed soldiers before launching a concentrated bombardment.

But after the anger, Cheng Yunbo felt a sliver of fear—the shells could reach this far?! Dongguan Town was about two li from the shore; the ironclads were also about two li from the shore; and the troops had fled five more li. Altogether, that was roughly ten li!

The shells could actually reach ten li!

As he ran, Cheng Yunbo kept calculating. However, the actual range of the shells seemed to exceed his imagination. After running another seven or eight li, the 150 mm shells stopped. Then, after another three li or so, the 240 mm and 305 mm shells also ceased. Only then did they truly leave the range of the artillery.