Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 799 - Chapter 799 Chapter 799 Defending the Pillar of Clouds

Chapter 799: Chapter 799: Defending the Pillar of Clouds Chapter 799: Chapter 799: Defending the Pillar of Clouds Qi Wusheng was not a local from Qiuchen Xian Market; he was dispatched here from Sword Forging Peak to facilitate business communications.

He wasn’t very familiar with the local conditions and only knew that his predecessor had been severely injured; he couldn’t continue down the same path.

Releasing a batch of Pillars of Clouds was meant to divide the Spirit Beast attacks and draw their enmity.

Of course, he wasn’t stubborn in his opinions; he just hoped that everyone would consider this and also hoped they would take the initiative to report.

For the formidable Qi Family, the economic cost of activating Pillars of Clouds was insignificant; what he considered was the impact brought by the decision.

If no one agreed to activate the Pillars of Clouds and he still had to push for it, that would be forcing an impossible situation.

If activating the Pillars of Clouds brought negative impact, that would be his decision-making error and would also taint the Qi Family with a bad reputation.

Hence, only by coordinating efforts both up and down, fully respecting each other, could they both relieve the crisis and avoid taking on responsibility.

Without a doubt, Ji PingAn immediately reported to activate the Pillar of Clouds at his defense point.

Xia Pingan had long wanted to do this, but that was not the focal point; the main issue was the severe lack of defensive manpower at their position.

On the surface, there were five people at full strength, but in reality, one person was useless and they still had to keep an eye on him; thus, their point actually only had the equivalent of three and a half combat strengths.

Logically, with even fewer than three and a half left, they shouldn’t divide their forces, but the troops they could dispatch could greatly attract fire.

And they only needed to hold out for one more day for the poisoned one to recover seventy percent of his combat strength, or be completely restored after two days. In such a case, why not apply to divide their forces?

Early the next day, about a mile from the city wall that Feng Jun and his team were defending, a white pillar slowly rose. The pillar was about three feet in diameter, with a platform on top about ten feet in diameter.

This pillar seemed solid, but attacking the lower part of the pillar felt like attacking an illusion, causing no damage to the pillar at all — whereas the platform was very much real, as anyone landing on it could stand firm.

Perhaps it was for this reason that they were called Pillars of Clouds?

The height of the pillar was roughly thirty feet, just slightly shorter than the city wall, meaning that even if Spirit Beasts occupied it, they would not exert a higher ground pressure on the walls.

Xia Pingan laughed heartily and shot straight up to the Pillar of Clouds, “I’ve waited for this moment for so long, finally, I can attack freely.”

However, he was obviously happy a bit too early. That day, the Cultivators released about twenty Pillars of Clouds, which were met with frenzied attacks from the Spirit Beasts and wild beasts.

Xia Pingan was very brave, and that was truly no boast; several times he had been forced to leave the Pillar of Clouds, and after a fierce battle, he returned — being able to fly, of course, he could afford to be capricious.

But such intensity of battle was not something a single Innate Expert could withstand; in just half a day, he had accumulated five or six wounds on his body, the most serious being a through-and-through wound on his right shoulder.

This was because he tried to fly below to cut the ear of a Golden Rock Sheep, but ended up drawing concentrated fire from many Spirit Beasts.

He still managed to cut off the ear and bring it up, but the scene was too dangerous; he didn’t even have time to collect the sheep’s carcass.

Then, he could only watch helplessly as the carcass of the Golden Rock Sheep was devoured by Iron-Eating Ants.

Originally, he intended to hold the line for a day, and then take turns with Feng Jun, but after enduring half a day, he was already covered in wounds.

Just after noon, fog began to rise in the sky, a rare sight in the Crimson Flame Desert.

However, the way the fog formed was a bit strange; many Pillars of Clouds were enshrouded in fog, and the city wall as well, and the space in between them was foggy, but outside of this area, the sky was clear, with no fog anywhere else.

“It’s Mirage Insects!” Ji PingAn shouted at the top of his voice, “Xia Pingan, be careful! If you can’t beat them, withdraw and let Feng Jun hold the front!”

Feng Jun’s mouth twitched slightly, thinking you really dare make decisions for me.

But there wasn’t much to be said; among the five of them, he had the highest cultivation level. Although Ji PingAn was more experienced in dealing with Spirit Beasts, he had to coordinate the battle and couldn’t easily leave the city wall.

As a matter of fact, Feng Jun had guessed that Ji PingAn might suspect he had achieved Martial Enlightenment.

However, Xia Pingan was quite unyielding, shouting loudly, “I’ve just taken medicine for the injury; it’d really be a waste to withdraw now… let’s wait until the fog gets thicker.”

Unfortunately, the fog did not thicken but maintained a certain density. From the city wall, straining one’s eyes, one could barely make out the Pillars of Clouds, but could not see clearly what was happening above.

Soon, Xia Pingan’s call came from afar, “I can’t hold on; these creatures are too cunning. If the fog gets thicker, they should become blind to the Pillars of Clouds… Damn it! Feng Jun, hurry up and replace me.”

With that, the man was still trying to take advantage of the Mirage Insects’ fog for concealment, which must be said, was quite audacious.

“`

The plan had failed, and he had to withdraw, but as an Innate Expert, it was somewhat offensive to speak to a High-Rank Practitioner of Qi Refinement like that.

Ji Pingan was worried that Feng Jun might feel uncomfortable and glanced at him, “Lao Feng, we’re on the battlefield right now where everyone speaks bluntly, he didn’t mean it deliberately, and we still need your effort.”

“How could I mind such things,” Feng Jun said with a smile, waving his hand before shouting, “Xia Pingan, you come back first so I can cover for you… If I went over now, who would bring you back?”

The Pillar of Clouds wasn’t far from the city wall, just one mile away, but even at that short distance, flying back through the air was still very dangerous.

Forget about Innate Experts flying fast; could they fly faster than a Spiritual Hedgehog shooting its spines?

Xia Pingan hesitated for a moment, “If I leave first, then on top of this Pillar of Clouds…”

Of course, he wanted to leave first, but if a Spirit Beast or wild beast took the chance to occupy Yuntai, with Feng Jun in the air, regaining control would come at a considerable cost.

So although Xia Pingan could be somewhat obtuse, he was still quite responsible in his actions.

Feng Jun couldn’t be bothered to explain further and just yelled, “If the Pillar of Clouds falls, I’ll take responsibility for reclaiming it, now roll back to the city wall, and stop with the nonsense.”

Xia Pingan was stunned for a moment, but said no more and flew towards the city wall. It was then that two yellow long ropes shot towards him like lightning from below, not anything else, but the silk spit out by two Desert Dry Spiders known as ‘Lone Hunters’.

Desert Dry Spiders are fairly formidable Spirit Beasts, desperate enough to hunt and kill beasts a hundred times their size in a crisis.

Upon seeing this, Feng Jun uttered no words but cast two Thunderclap Talismans that struck the two strands of silk precisely.

At that moment, a Wind Falcon dived at him like a flash of lightning, considered weak among Spirit Beasts, but incredibly fast, faster than a stormy petrel, almost on par with a black-headed sand swallow.

If Xia Pingan had still been on the Pillar of Clouds, he wouldn’t have feared it, even though he was injured, it was not a creature that could mess with him. But at that moment, he was in the air, unable to leverage any force.

“Scram!” Just then, an angry roar erupted, followed by a swiftly delivered slash of a blade as Feng Jun arrived.

After repelling the Wind Falcon with a single cut, he grabbed Xia Pingan by the collar and yanked him back, then like lightning, he dove towards the Pillar of Clouds.

Beneath were two vipers, spitting venom at him. His body flickered, evading with ease and grace, and he landed on the Pillar of Clouds.

“Damn, that was so easy,” Xia Pingan rubbed his neck while coughing–the force of Feng Jun’s grip had been intense.

But he didn’t dwell on that and instead widened his eyes, “Why didn’t Spirit Beasts attack him when he returned? Was this… to have me draw their fire?”

“What’s with that look?” Ji Pingan glanced at him disdainfully, “Didn’t you see the vipers spitting venom? Oh, I forgot… you’re just an Innate, with limited vision.”

Xia Pingan nodded at those words, “I figured as much. He’s not that kind of person… Since the Spirit Beasts aren’t attacking right now, I’ll go and recuperate for a while.”

With the Pillar of Clouds in place, the Spirit Beasts’ attacks on the city walls had indeed lessened significantly, their attention more focused on the Pillar of Clouds.

But the cultivators who could single-handedly guard a Pillar of Clouds were never mediocre. Someone like Xia Pingan, an Innate Expert, rarely had the chance to stand alone, at most they could rotate in to buy some rest time for the true experts.

It was only because Xia Pingan had been clamoring to defend the Pillar of Clouds that Ji Pingan didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm, allowing him to take a turn–let reality teach you life lessons.

It was different when Feng Jun took over the defense of the Pillar of Clouds; it became a place where High-Rank Practitioners harvested the lives of Spirit Beasts.

In just an hour’s time, he had slain three Spirit Beasts and severely wounded five, a far more efficient defense than the five-man team on the city wall.

This might seem unbelievable, but in fact, it was the norm.

Because the Pillar of Clouds was floating in the air, its bottom two zhang were just an outline without substance, and many Spirit Beasts couldn’t climb onto it at all, including the notoriously troublesome Iron Devouring Ants, as well as venom-spewing scorpions and the gravity-using Dry Fire Turtle…

Some long-range attacks were also blocked by the platform at the top of the Pillar of Clouds, after all, it’s a “T” shaped platform.

There were also some vipers that could soar a few zhang into the air and wind around the Pillar of Clouds to climb up, but crawling upside down to reach the platform on the top of the T was still a problem.

Simply put, that platform was a bit dangerous with enemies on all sides, but at the same time, the number of Spirit Beasts capable of attacking the defenders also reduced significantly, making combat far less restrictive.

However, it was unfortunate that collecting ears proved to be quite difficult. Yuntai had a diameter of merely around ten zhang, and many Spirit Beasts’ bodies were larger than Yuntai, making it hard to prevent their corpses from falling off the platform, especially during battle.

After fighting all afternoon, Feng Jun had only managed to obtain one Wind Falcon’s body and half the body of a Golden Viper.

Typically, Golden Vipers couldn’t fly that high, but the Wind Falcon had brought it up there. It was supposed to be a joint attack, but unfortunately, the plan failed, and most of the bodies were left behind.

Feng Jun was not quite satisfied with such a harvest, but defending this position offered its benefits; namely, it was relatively easy to hold.

“`

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