Although the soldiers had yet to become Transcendents, their physical conditioning and combat strength had skyrocketed.
Along with this increase in combat strength came a surge in the soldiersâ admiration for Li Changâan.
After all, they were the grunts who always suffered the most casualties whenever an Exotic Beast Tide erupted. And yet, Li Changâan was willing to provide them with a Cultivation Method.
He was even willing to give them the cultivation resources to go along with it.
To them, this was a life-changing gift.
After inspecting the soldiers, Li Changâan made his way to the barbican where the Energy Particle Beam Cannons and Super Electromagnetic Cannons were positioned.
The enhanced Energy Particle Beam Cannons and ten Super Electromagnetic Cannons were now fully assembled and deployed within the dedicated barbicans on three sides of the city.
The rows of dark, imposing muzzles gave the people of Cangxuan City an unprecedented sense of security.
After all, despite having lived in Cangxuan City for so many years, for many of them, it was the first time they had ever seen a full twenty state-of-the-art defensive armaments arranged in the cityâs three barbicans!
The previous City Lord, by contrast, had only ever deployed three obsolete Energy Particle Beam Cannons here.
The former City Lord would only go to the trouble of renting a few newer models from his connectionsâat a premium, of courseâif the Linjiang Reincarnator Association issued a notice that Dark Energy fluctuations in the Caves exceeded 3.0.
Under the former City Lordâs simplistic âbetter to rent than to buyâ mindset, the citizens of Cangxuan City could never have felt the kind of security that Li Changâan now provided.
âRange is truth; caliber is justice!
...
Seeing the populaceâs wild excitement, the engineers responsible for assembling these twenty high-tech cannons couldnât help but feel their stomachs churn with anxiety.
Itâs as they say: laymen watch for the excitement, while experts look for the craft.
The common folk were inexperienced; they had no idea just how many hidden problems these twenty cannons might have.
But as the ones who had assembled them, the engineers knew the truth all too well. âThese twenty high-tech cannons are all untested prototypes that have never been through a single field test!â
âNo matter how precise Li Changâanâs blueprints are or how impressive the on-paper specs look, it doesnât change the fact that these weapons have never seen a single real-world combat test!â
âEven if Li Changâan is a once-in-a-generation genius, capable of designing a high-tech weapon with a Martial Artistâs simple mindset that even scientists would struggle with, and even if those weapons actually work as designed, their stability and destructive power are still a massive question mark.â
âThey might work fine one second... and the next, the barrels could explode and kill a few of our own men.â
The ten Energy Particle Beam Cannons werenât quite so terrifying, as they were weapons with a proven track record in the Main World.
It was Li Changâanâs independently designed Super Electromagnetic Cannons that truly had the engineers terrified.
âAfter all, even on the Main Worldâs tech tree, the Super Electromagnetic Cannon is still an experimental âthree-noâ productânot fully researched, not yet in production, and certainly not certified.â
âPutting aside the question of whether Li Changâanâs contraption can even fire, or if its destructive power will be as laughably low as other prototypes... what about the power draw? If all ten Super Electromagnetic Cannons were to fire simultaneously, would Cangxuan Cityâs entire power grid even be able to handle the load?â
âThe whole city would probably be plunged into a blackout, wouldnât it?â
These questions left the engineers deeply unsettled. They were terrified that if the weapons malfunctioned, Li Changâan would pin the blame on them.
If it werenât such a critical moment, with the Exotic Beast Tide ready to erupt at any second, and if raising these sensitive topics didnât risk destabilizing morale, they would have gone to Li Changâan to have a serious talk right away.
...
Just as everyone in Cangxuan City was on high alert...
Li Changâan suddenly saw a black light bloom on the distant horizon. It erupted from the ground to the northeast of Linjiang, a pillar of darkness connecting heaven and earth as it shot into the sky.
Soon, the entire sky above Linjiang was dyed a lightless, inky black.
It was as if the world had plunged into Hell in an instant.
Inky black raindrops pattered down, unable to conceal the pale faces of everyone present.
Watching the dramatic change unfold before him, Li Changâan clasped his hands behind his back, took a deep breath, and said, "The Dark Energy has erupted. The Exotic Beast Tide is here. But this is a bit bigger than usual!"
No one present was a stranger to the Exotic Beast Tides.
Ordinarily, they wouldnât have been so helpless and confused.
But the scale of this one was truly out of the ordinary, and expressions flickered with fear across many faces.
ăHalf an hour later.ă
The entire city of Cangxuan began to feel violent tremors.
If their line of sight was clear enough, the soldiers on the walls could just make out hideous, terrifying monsters under the darkened horizon, stampeding toward them.
Cangxuan City was located in Linjiangâs central region, so it wouldnât have to bear the brunt of the initial assault; the cities closest to the Cave would be the first to be hit.
Even so, Cangxuan City was ready for battle!
When the first scattered Exotic Beasts came within three thousand meters of Cangxuan City, the stench of deathâlike rotting, festering fleshâwas so overpowering that people could barely keep their eyes open.
On the city walls, shimmering azure barriers materialized, sealing off the corrosive stench.
Li Changâan turned his head to look at the engineers at the firing controls not far behind him and commanded, "Cannon Three, aim the cluster shot!"
Hearing Li Changâanâs command, the engineers at the firing controls exchanged uneasy glances.
But at this point, they were damned if they did and damned if they didnât. They could only grit their teeth and aim the cluster shot at the Exotic Beasts drawing ever closer to the city walls.
âI just hope this shell doesnât blow us sky-high...â the engineers thought.
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PS: Recommending two of my friendâs books!
Under One Person: Tampering with Jia Shen! The Killer is Uchiha
Ascending to Godhood Through the Martial Dao in a Lovecraftian Era
If youâre interested, go check them out!
Also, a reader pointed out that I wrote the protagonistâs level incorrectly in a previous Chapter. Iâve corrected it now. To clarify, the MCâs current level in the Main World is Tier Three Peak, and he should now be breaking through to Tier Four.