Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 226 - 191: Rise of the Simian Tribe

December 29, 2017

This Cyan Cloud Tournament was destined to be the most surprising tournament ever.

In the preliminary rounds, Wang Jiu's stunning one-shot victories and the withdrawal of the biggest dark horse and championship favorite during the opening battle, coupled with the cunning maneuvers between Li Chaolu and Qian Yue in the main event... all these made the tournament feel fresh and unique to the audience. Many seasoned viewers who had attended previous Cyan Cloud Tournaments expressed that this year's event was far more exciting, truly worth the price of admission.

However, when the audience saw Lu Feiyu's three white towers rise from the ground, forming a solid fortress in a triangular arrangement, they realized they had greatly underestimated the excitement of this Cyan Cloud Tournament.

Someone actually brought city defense structures onto the single duel stage for cultivators! What kind of creativity is this, what kind of strategy!?

Even the commentators were momentarily speechless, forgetting how to commentate.

Fortunately, Zhang Zhixi was quicker to recover, and after a moment of shock, she quickly adjusted the atmosphere, saying: "Wow, I can't believe my words became a prophecy. Lu Feiyu brought out an unprecedented skill right from the start. But wouldn't such tactics violate the rules?"

Beside her, Li Jinglun pondered for a while before saying: "According to the current rules, there's no violation because that's actually a variant of the portable buildings developed by the Lu Family. Initially, it was intended to use Mechanical Techniques to construct mobile villas, but due to cost and technical difficulty, it didn't have much advantage over the now widely used Personal Cave Mansions, so it was never further developed. Unexpectedly, they've taken this niche technology, mutated it, and brought it to the arena. To be honest, it does have a hint of rule-bending since the tournament clearly prohibits the use of Personal Cave Mansions on the battlefield, but portable buildings centered around Mechanical Techniques are not banned. The Cyan Cloud Tournament always encourages young participants to open their minds and innovate, so at least in this year's competition, such tactics should be feasible."

"I see." Zhang Zhixi nodded, "Indeed, technological innovation is the key to progress. But I wonder if Shen Qingming can produce similarly surprising tactics in response to Lu Family's portable city defense."

——

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Shen Qingming was dumbfounded: "Is this even allowed!? Damn, how do I fight this?"

Wang Jiu was full of admiration, saying: "Your intuition was right! Truly worthy of the Shen Family bloodline!"

"Why do I feel like you're not praising me at all!?"

"You guessed right again!" Wang Jiu praised Shen Qingming again but suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of which, when I conducted an IQ test for you, did you also rely on intuition rather than thought to reach the conclusion? If that's the case..." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"It's a result of in-depth thinking! Definitely not intuition!" Shen Qingming suffered from being repeatedly reminded of her embarrassing past, feeling truly pained. "Forget about my IQ problem now! Hurry up and solve the immediate issue! The towers are increasing!"

During the brief moment when the two engaged in conversation via the Mind Passage, Lu Feiyu continued his insane performance. After the three Cannon Towers, he didn't stop, erecting one new tower after another: Ice Mist Tower, Thunder Lock Tower, Righteous Tower... the new technologies developed by the Lu Family after receiving a substantial investment from the Qian Family were displayed one by one on the battlefield.

In no time, the battlefield was a forest of towers. These towers were erected extremely quickly; Lu Feiyu often just snapped his fingers, and a tower would materialize and start operating, unleashing firepower crazily upon Shen Qingming.

These defensive towers, developed by the Lu Family, only required Lu Feiyu to remotely control with Divine Sense; the rest operated automatically solely through arrays and Spirit Stones. However, limited by tournament rules, Lu Feiyu's Divine Sense capabilities, and budget, these towers couldn't employ high-tier, high-burden components, so their performance was very limited. Despite the forest-like array of towers and rain-like firepower, they posed little threat to the supercharged Shen Qingming.

The real problem lay in the fact that these towers were genuine city defense structures, over three meters tall, and over a meter wide, crafted entirely from strong rock, tough as nails. Direct cannon fire only left a white mark on them, and ordinary Cloud Surge Realm cultivators, unless prepared with tools like Siege Hammers or gunpowder barrels, found it difficult to quickly dismantle the towers using just cultivation techniques and magical treasures.

However...

Boom!

With a powerful punch from Shen Qingming, a snow-white tower positioned at the frontline emitted a moaning hum, with countless ripples surging across its surface, causing the entire tower to cave inward, reaching the brink of collapse in an instant.

In the audience section, the Lu Family's Elder in charge of financial audits jumped up: "Damn! A tower costing five hundred Spirit Stones can't even withstand a punch from a little girl!? I suspect foul play! We must investigate! Thoroughly investigate!"

On the podium, Lu Xin and other high-ranking members of the Lu Family frowned.

Shen Qingming's explosive power had advanced yet again! During the strategy discussion last night, several elders, along with Lu Feiyu and Lu Fangchen, the Yin Yang Pupils brothers, watched Shen Qingming's game footage repeatedly, estimating that even with her explosive capability, it would take at least three to four attacks to possibly dismantle a tower. But as it stands now, either her power increased overnight, or... as the financial elder suspected, some Lu Family research projects needed auditing.

Fortunately, Lu Feiyu always liked to be prepared, leaving room for contingencies. Just as the frontline tower was on the verge of collapsing, he pulled out a black hammerhead from his pocket and struck it against the tower.

In an instant, the tower on the brink of collapse stood up again, and the indentation smoothed out.

The second result from the Lu Family's independent research after receiving sponsorship from the Qian Family, the [Suffering Hammer].

Generally, any structure requires careful and professional maintenance; the more potent and intricate a structure, the more challenging its maintenance. Though the Lu Family's portable buildings had conveniences, maintenance became an issue. To address this, the [Suffering Hammer], capable of quickly repairing buildings, came into existence. It required infusing a bit of True Essence and some Spirit Stones to activate the mechanism within, summoning invisible workers akin to spirits, swiftly repairing portable buildings.

Lu Feiyu repaired the tower on the verge of collapse with one hammer strike and simultaneously threw out the last two portable towers, bringing the total number of towers on the field to thirteen—which was the maximum quantity he could manage at the moment. Lu Feiyu finally sighed with relief, thinking: maybe he could really hold out till the end.

These thirteen defense towers, crafted by the Immortal Family, when combined with thick walls, could fend off even thousands of troops—indeed, mortal armies were insignificant under the fire coverage of these thirteen towers.

Lu Feiyu's opponent was not a thousand strong army, but just Shen Qingming, one person.

Her fists were indeed powerful, stronger than cannon shells propelled by gunpowder. But ultimately, she was just flesh and blood; even though she could punch towers till they were bent and threatening to crack, she herself would also be battered, miserable.

Even if she delivers successive heavy punches so quickly that Lu Feiyu doesn't have time to use the Suffering Hammer and destroys towers one after another, could her petite body withstand the repeated counterforce?

In yesterday's battle with the Half-Wolf Demon, just three explosive attacks resulted in her limbs being completely wrecked, and here were thirteen towers waiting for her to dismantle!

Even if she had Immortal Treasures, even having proven her strength comparable to those Peak Cloud Surge Realm championship contenders, could she really find a way to take down such an array of towers?

However, as Lu Feiyu harbored a glimmer of hope on the field, and the Elder Council from the Lu Family held their breath in prayer for victory...

Shen Qingming slowly pulled out a thick, long metal rod from her waist pouch. As she extended her arm, the rod emerging from the pouch grew longer, eventually taller than Shen Qingming herself, crowned by a pink metal cat head much larger than a human's. The bizarre design left every spectator momentarily bewildered.

What... kind of bizarre contraption is this?

The next moment, Shen Qingming gripped the long rod with both hands, lightly drooping the pink cat head to the ground. Then, the petite girl let loose a thunderous roar, stomping on the ground, using the recoil to surge forward like lightning.

The pink cat head consequently traced a straight line in mid-air.

Behind the line was a large section of the battlefield Shen Qingming dashed through, and ahead was a scene of shattered bricks, steel, and debris of magical treasures. Lu Feiyu held a black little hammer in hand, his action of swinging frozen in mid-air, a look of astonishment struck by the sudden gust and flying debris.

At this moment, everyone present finally realized one thing.

Even Shen Qingming, as it turned out, knew how to use tools...