ocean-life Chapter 148 The Enhanced Deal, The Trailblazer Returns
Chapter 148 The Enhanced Deal, The Trailblazer Returns
Black and gray dust fell heavily from the sky.
Jiang Ming walked to the place where the nightmare had dissipated, bent down and picked up a necklace that emitted a faint blue light from the ashes, as well as three crystal-clear beads the size of longan.
【Nightmare's Howl Necklace (Blue - Rare)】
[Attribute: Mental Strength +5.]
[Attached Skill "Mental Scream": Releases a mental shockwave, forcibly stunning targets within a 20-meter radius. Duration depends on the target's mental resistance. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
Jiang Ming casually put the necklace around his neck.
A cool breeze instantly rushed into my brain, sweeping away the slight fatigue brought on by the continuous high-intensity battle.
He also casually tossed 3 high-level spiritual essences into his portable storage card.
This is a top-quality material for crafting advanced magical items.
The position was deathly silent.
Hundreds of Earth soldiers were still lying on the ground, panting heavily. Although the excruciating pain from the repeated churning of steel needles in their brains had subsided, the feeling of exhaustion in their bodies remained.
With Lei Zhan's help, Chu Tianfeng stood up unsteadily.
The iron-willed brigade commander was deathly pale, and the back of his uniform was soaked with cold sweat.
He stared intently at the young figure standing not far away, his eyes filled with nothing but shock.
One person, one sword, and two bizarre hand grenades that were concocted on the spot.
The horde of ghostly monsters that even tens of thousands of soldiers from the Dongjiang Military Region couldn't handle was so easily wiped out?
"Brother Jiang... Brother Jiang." Chu Tianfeng's voice was dry, as if it had been sanded on sandpaper, and even his form of address changed unconsciously. "What exactly was the principle behind those two glowing grenades?"
Jiang Ming turned around, casually twirled his sword, and sheathed the [Calamity Fire Thunder Prison] sword back into its sheath on his back.
"Commander Chu, it's not a good habit to pry into other people's hands." Jiang Ming walked back to his position, looking down at Chu Tianfeng. "We're talking about a deal. I've done the job, you haven't forgotten the price, have you?"
Chu Tianfeng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart, and solemnly nodded: "I haven't forgotten. Any old weapons, scrap explosives, or armor plates you want, as long as they're available in the Dongjiang Military Region's warehouse, you can take them. I, Chu Tianfeng, am a man of my word, and I will never go back on my promise."
Old Zhao, the commander of the defense line who had recovered, was so engrossed in listening that he kept swallowing hard.
He shakily pulled out a flattened cigarette and put it in his mouth, but couldn't light it even after several attempts with a lighter.
"Brigade Commander, this young man... just who is he?" Old Zhao lowered his voice, looking at Jiang Ming as if he were a prehistoric beast in human skin. "The fire and lightning that sword just now unleashed, I thought some Taoist priest had come down the mountain to undergo tribulation."
Chen Qi approached, rifle in hand, his face full of smugness: "Old Zhao, right? That's our Brother Jiang! This is nothing. You haven't seen Brother Jiang tear apart the orc warlord in another world. This is nothing, not even a warm-up."
Marlowe rode over on his dire wolf, grinning with his yellow teeth.
The goblin's vanity was greatly satisfied by the reaction of these guys.
Chu Tianfeng was preparing to order the remnants of his troops to be gathered and the defenses to be rearranged.
The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped without warning.
The ground, which was already covered with a layer of frost, is now visibly spreading outwards with the speed of the naked eye.
A strong, nauseating stench filled the air.
The system's shrill notification sound suddenly exploded in Jiang Ming's mind.
[WARNING! Extremely high concentration of necromantic energy detected!]
[A secondary tear has occurred at the current spatial overlap point!]
[The passage to the Wailing Abyss - Bone Swamp has been completely secured!]
Jiang Ming suddenly turned his head and looked at the gray mist at the end of the street.
"Click".
"Click".
The sound of bones clashing, accompanied by heavy footsteps, echoed from the depths of the mist.
The ground began to tremble slightly, as if a massive army was approaching.
This time, it wasn't some ethereal ghost that emerged.
Instead, they were rows of skeleton soldiers clad in tattered black iron armor and wielding rusted heavy swords and spears.
Their eye sockets flickered with eerie green flames, and their white skeletons were still covered with shriveled bits of flesh.
The number isn't hundreds, it's tens of thousands!
In the center of the skeleton army's formation stood three enormous creatures, each as large as a main battle tank.
It was a colossal beast forcibly pieced together from the bones of countless wild beasts and humans, with even a massive bone cannon resembling a siege weapon mounted on its back.
【Skeleton Legion Vanguard (Lv.18)】
[Danger Level: Medium]
[Characteristics: Strong bones, tireless.]
……
【Skeleton Siege Beast (Lv.22 Elite)】
[Danger Level: High]
【Special Features: Necromancer Bone Cannon, Overpowered Smash】
Old Zhao's cigarette fell to the ground, and he trembled like a leaf: "Damn it! Is this never going to end?! What the hell is this thing now?!"
Chu Tianfeng's expression changed drastically. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and roared, "All personnel, prepare for battle! Machine gunners, take your positions! Bring up all the remaining high-explosive shells! Anyone still alive, get up and grab your guns!"
The soldiers on the position had just recovered from the mental shock and instinctively grabbed their weapons and rushed towards the sandbags.
But faced with that sea of skeletons covering the mountains and plains, despair was evident in everyone's eyes.
They can't hit the ghost, but it looks tough and thick-skinned; a regular bullet hitting its bones would probably just make a sound.
"Brother Jiang!" Chu Tianfeng turned to Jiang Ming, his eyes red with anxiety. "There are too many of them! And there are siege beasts too! You take your men and retreat first. I'll have the brothers hold them off and cover the evacuation of civilians in the rear!"
Jiang Ming stood still.
Looking at the sea of white skulls, he didn't back down; instead, a fervent, undisguised madness crept onto his lips.
Although those hundreds of ghosts gave a lot of experience, it's still not enough to level up to the next level.
These thousands of physical monsters in front of us are practically a super experience pack delivered right to our doorstep by God!
Jiang Ming reached out and pressed down on Chu Tianfeng's shoulder, forcefully pushing the brigade commander back to his original position.
"Withdraw what?!" Jiang Ming cracked his neck, his knuckles popping like beans. "Brigadier Chu, let's discuss some additional terms."
Chu Tianfeng was stunned: "Raise the stakes? What time is it now?!"
"I'll take care of all these skeletons," Jiang Ming said, pointing ahead. "Besides the scrap weapons we just agreed on, I also need high-octane aviation fuel."
Chu Tianfeng stared wide-eyed at Jiang Ming as if he were a madman: "You alone? There were over two thousand armored skeletons! And three siege beasts! What were you carrying?"
"That's none of your business," Jiang Ming said calmly. "Just tell me, are you going to do this deal or not?"
"I'll do it!" Chu Tianfeng gritted his teeth. "As long as you can hold the line, I'll give you everything, not just aviation fuel, but even the military region's logistics minister's chair for firewood!"
"make a deal."
Jiang Ming chuckled and pulled out a bunch of random things from his storage card.
Several empty gasoline cans collected from the underground shelter, a pile of bearing steel balls salvaged from an abandoned car, and the remaining [high-concentration necromantic crystals].
Under the horrified gazes of everyone, Jiang Ming clasped his hands together.
Synthesis talent activated instantly.
Empty gasoline can + bearing steel balls + high-concentration necromantic crystals = Hellfire fragmentation mine (area-of-effect damage)
[Attribute Preview: The explosion generates a ghostly green flame with a radius of thirty meters, inflicting a necromantic burning effect and causing devastating dissolution of undead creature armor.]
A blinding white light flashed by.
Five heavy landmines with grotesque shapes and gray runes appeared beneath Jiang Ming's feet.
"Just enjoy the show," Jiang Ming instructed.
"Understood!" Chen Qi replied cheerfully.
Jiang Ming picked up two [Netherfire Fragment Landmines] with one hand and gripped the hilt of the [Calamity Fire Thunder Prison] sword with his right.
Alone, he strode out of the defensive line, facing an army of more than two thousand fully armed skeletons.
"roar--"
The vanguard of skeletons at the very front spotted Jiang Ming. Soul fire leaped in their empty eye sockets, and they raised their rusty heavy swords and charged forward.
Hundreds of heavily armored skeletons ran at the same time, their stomping making a loud rumbling sound on the ground.
Without even stopping, Jiang Ming calculated the distance accurately and swung his arm to smash the two [Netherfire Fragment Landmines] in his hand into the center of the densest skeleton formation.
"Boom! Boom!"
Two deafeningly loud bangs.
Instead of ordinary flames, two enormous, eerie green fireballs shot into the sky.
The violent shockwave, mixed with tens of thousands of scorching steel balls, swept outwards in a ring.
Those black iron armors that could barely withstand assault rifle bullets melted instantly like plastic under the scorching heat of the ghost fire.
The steel balls easily shattered their hard ribs and skulls.
The first two hundred or so skeletal vanguards didn't even have time to scream before they were blasted into a shower of bone dust.
[Defeat the Skeleton Legion Vanguard (Lv.18) to gain 1800 experience points.]
[Defeat the Skeleton Legion Vanguard (Lv.18) to gain 1800 experience points.]
……
System notifications flooded Jiang Ming's mind like a waterfall.
The Blue Star soldiers on the position were all dumbfounded.
Old Zhao didn't even notice that the cigarette butt in his hand burned his fingers, and his mouth was wide open, big enough to fit a fist.
"This power... is even stronger than our 155mm heavy artillery!" Old Zhao stammered.
Chu Tianfeng gripped the sandbag tightly, his knuckles turning white.
He was now completely convinced that the young man before him possessed a heaven-defying method capable of mass-producing extraordinary weapons.
This kind of person must be won over, even if it costs the entire Dongjiang Military Region!
The skeleton army's formation was blasted open, creating two huge vacuum zones, but the skeletons behind them still fearlessly filled in.
"Buzz—"
The three massive skeletal siege beasts behind them stopped, and the thick bone cannons on their backs began to glow with a blinding green light.
The surrounding necromantic energy frantically converged towards the cannon muzzle, and the surrounding air was sucked away.
"Brother Jiang, watch out! That's an energy cannon!" Chu Tianfeng shouted from behind.
Jiang Ming didn't turn around at all.
With a stomp of his foot, he shot into the air like an arrow.
A purple, epic skill glow shone in the palm of his left hand.
Gravity Spell!
Jiang Ming pressed a button in the air towards the three siege beasts that were charging up.
"Boom!"
The gravity within a radius of 100 meters instantly increased tenfold.
The three siege beasts, which had just gathered half of their energy, suddenly sank, their massive bodies crushing their four thick bone legs.
The bone cannon's charging was forcibly interrupted, and the rampaging necromantic energy exploded directly inside the cannon barrel.
"Bang bang bang!"
The three-headed Lv.22 elite monster was blasted into pieces by its own internal energy before it could even fire a single shot.
[Defeated a Skeleton Siege Beast (Lv.22 Elite) that is above your level, gaining 3500 experience points.]
[Defeating a Skeleton Siege Beast beyond its level...]
With the most threatening turrets eliminated, the remaining skeletons were simply mobile experience points in Jiang Ming's eyes.
He landed on the ground, unleashing a terrifying power of over thirty points without reservation.
[Fire and Thunder Prison] is unsheathed!
Jiang Ming gripped his sword with both hands and charged directly into the horde of skeletons.
There are no fancy sword moves, only the purest violent aesthetics.
"Overload!"
The dark red greatsword was instantly enveloped in azure lightning and flames, and its sword aura surged to more than three meters in length.
Jiang Ming swept his sword across the room.
More than a dozen skeletal vanguards were cut in half at the waist, shields and all, leaving charred black marks at the cuts.
He swung his hand down with a backhand strike, and the violent power of lightning and fire spread along the ground, blasting dozens of skeletons in a straight line into the air.
This was not a battle; it was a one-sided massacre.
Jiang Ming transformed into a tireless meat grinder, weaving freely through the array of over two thousand skeletons.
Wherever it passed, lightning flashed and bone fragments flew everywhere.
Those heavily armored monsters, considered a nightmare by the Blue Star military, were as fragile as a pile of rotten wood in front of the [Fire and Thunder Prison].
A dozen minutes later.
The last skeletal vanguard was kicked in the calf by Jiang Ming, who then pierced the soul fire in its skull with a sword.
The entire street fell completely silent.
The ground was covered with a thick layer of white bone meal, which could even reach above the ankles when stepped on.
Jiang Ming let out a long breath, shook off the bone fragments from the blade, and sheathed the sword.
[Experience points full, level increased to Lv.15!]
[Gain 2 free attribute points and 1 skill point.]
comfortable.
Feeling the surge of power within his body, Jiang Ming casually picked up the dozen or so [High-Level Necromancer Cores] and several pieces of equipment emitting blue light that had exploded on the ground, and tossed them into his storage card.
He turned around and walked back to the defensive line, stepping on the bone dust scattered on the ground.
The soldiers of the Blue Star military instinctively took two steps back, making way for him.
Everyone looked at him as if they were gazing up at a god of death.
"It's all cleaned up." Jiang Ming walked up to Chu Tianfeng, his tone as casual as if he were commenting on the weather. "Commander Chu, when can we pick up the goods?"
Chu Tianfeng swallowed hard, suppressing his shock: "Anytime! I'll personally take you to the military region's main warehouse. Arrange for a convoy to load the battery packs and aviation fuel you requested immediately!"
Just as Chu Tianfeng turned around to call Lei Zhan's backup vehicle.
"Waaah—"
A long, deep whistle suddenly rang out over Dongjiang City.
The sound was extremely penetrating; it didn't seem to travel through the air at all, but rather vibrated directly in everyone's brain nerves.