Cataclysm King

Chapter 572 Black Death

A bright moon suddenly appeared in the sky, and the bright moonlight spread all over the earth, giving people a sense of peace and tranquility, as well as a dreamlike hazy beauty.

The moonlight shone on the cold turret, reflecting a number of extremely serious faces.

Ji Xun had seen the methods used by the outer gods many times, so he was not surprised at all.

Even the Silver Moon Cult's sacred object, the Moon, is still in his possession.

But it was the first time for most of the coalition forces to see such a magical scene.

There was a light mist in the canyon and the bright moon was hanging high in the sky. When people looked at the moon, its image was also reflected in their eyes.

This is the means of faith pollution.

However, the coalition forces already had plans to deal with foreign gods. They not only had various prohibitions and formations to block pollution, but also some relics that absorbed divinity.

The moonlight had no effect on the soldiers in the Kiran defense line.

Ji Xun and Dong Qi quickly came to the observation window of the artillery position.

Before long, the two saw sporadic lights appearing on the horizon in the direction of Rig City at the end of their sight.

Then those spots of light gradually gathered into a wave of fire, rushing towards the canyon.

Ji Xun picked up the telescope and looked carefully.

In front of the enemy camp were some dilapidated mechanical cities and poorly equipped slave legions.

Dong Qi also saw this scene and muttered, "That's a lot of people."

She knew that this was just a test attack and that these people could not pose any threat to Kiran's defense line, so she didn't pay much attention to it.

But Ji Xun frowned slightly as he looked at those people, "It will be a fierce battle in the future."

Dong Qi looked at him suspiciously, and gave him a puzzled look: "Huh?"

The two knew what the other meant without saying much.

Ji Xun's eyes were far-reaching and deep, and he said directly: "The Oran Royal Court originally regarded these vanguard troops as consumables. The purpose was probably for 'sacrifice'. The more people die now, the stronger the power of the foreign gods behind will be. They will be more powerful in the future."

But this is an open conspiracy, and even if you think of it, there is no way to deal with it.

The enemy sent a group of cannon fodder. If we don't kill them, they will come to destroy the defense line.

If he is killed, a medium is added to the sacrifice.

No matter what you choose, the enemies will become stronger and stronger.

Dong Qi frowned and muttered, "But, there are at least tens of thousands of people here."

Although she knew that there would inevitably be death in war, she still couldn't understand why those in power could just destroy hundreds of thousands of lives.

This made her feel that the Oran Royal Court seemed to take life too lightly.

After all, these people are nominally citizens of Oran.

Ji Xun didn't respond to the slightly cold topic.

But the fact is, in the eyes of gods, believers have always been consumables.

All he said was, “More to come.”

Only one side can survive in this war, so the Oran Royal Court will definitely use all the means it can.

There is a chance that Oran can win if they rely on normal means to attack Kiran's defense line.

But that could take months, even years.

That King Arthur couldn't wait.

Therefore, this war was destined to be extremely brutal from the very beginning.

Moonlight is like a stimulant. Those Silver Moon believers are willing to die for their gods without hesitation.

Apart from anything else, the population of Eastern Wasteland is large enough.

Several Moon Gods want to win the war as quickly as possible, and this method is the most practical.

"."

Dong Qi listened to Ji Xun's words with a serious expression, his eyes flickering with thought.

The two wanted to observe more carefully, but at this time the fog outside suddenly became thicker.

It started to drizzle and a cold wind was howling.

The field of vision was suddenly restricted and visibility became extremely low.

These rain and fog not only obscure vision, but also serve as a means of perception.

The ability to change the climate is also extremely terrifying on the battlefield.

Ji Xun saw the traces of the flow of laws in his eyes and said to himself: "'Elemental King Lagros' has also taken action."

A huge uncertainty factor in his deduction was the two Seven Lords of Natural Disaster.

King Arthur went completely crazy, and in order to win, he completely unleashed the two Outer Gods at all costs.

In that case, the coalition forces would have both won and lost in the end.

The scene of the fall of the Tarun Empire three thousand years ago may also be replayed.

Dong Qi looked at him with a frown on his face.

Even though there was a fog in front of her, she had no intention of leaving.

The light in Ji Xun's eyes faded, but he greeted him easily: "Let's go, let's eat first."

This is just the beginning of the test. The war will not end so soon, so we still have to eat.

"fire!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"."

The enemy's vanguard had already attacked, and the coalition forces did not hesitate to start artillery coverage.

The sound of artillery fire was dense and orderly.

Although the vision was obscured by rain and fog, the coalition forces had already deployed a large number of intelligence personnel and reconnaissance machinery.

Even without vision, the headquarters can accurately locate the enemy's position through multiple deployments.

At this distance, artillery is the best means of attack.

The coalition forces had the support of the huge arsenal in the New World Science and Technology City and had already stockpiled sufficient ammunition, and all kinds of artillery shells poured down like raindrops.

Occasionally, shells from Oran's side would hit the rock wall, but the range was a little short, and other than knocking down some rubble, there was no threat at all.

Most of the Kiran defense line is in the mountains, and the canteen is even deeper.

Apart from some slight sounds of gunfire, there was no impact at all.

When Ji Xun and Dong Qi came, there were not as many people eating as at mealtime on normal days.

The young soldiers all looked nervous, but the generals and high-level card masters seemed very calm.

It’s time to eat, it’s time to drink.

The food during the war was excellent, both in terms of standard and taste.

In order to cater to the tastes of different places, there are hundreds of kinds of food every day.

Ji Xun didn't have such high demands for food, but little Ivan liked the feeling of eating at a buffet, so the cafeteria was a place he had to go to every day.

Everyone in the defense line knew Ji Xun and Dong Qi, the "No. 1 Mechanical Female Warrior", and greeted them when they passed by.

During the war, everyone ate in the cafeteria, no one was an exception, even the leaders of several organizations.

When Ji Xun came, he saw Chujiu and Griffith were there too.

He and Dong Qi walked over.

Ji Xun took the initiative to greet Griffith and said, "Senior."

Although Dong Qi was not familiar with the leader of the Rebel Dragon Army, she knew that he was the strongest fighter in the coalition. She followed Ji Xun and greeted him obediently as a junior.

Griffith smiled gently.

There is no need to be so distant with Chujiu since we are friends. Just nodding is a greeting.

Ji Xun and Dong Qi sat opposite the two of them. He looked at the invisible aura lingering outside Griffith's body, as if he saw something different, and asked in surprise: "Senior, has your realm been broken through?"

During a previous chat, he knew that this person's rank had reached a bottleneck.

It's similar to Marshal Andre of the Iris Legion. It can be said that without a great opportunity, this is almost the ceiling that a human transcendent can reach.

That's right. As soon as Ji Xun opened his mouth, he immediately thought that he might have seen it wrong.

But don't want to,
Griffith nodded and said softly, "Yes."

Hearing this, Ji Xun glared: "Ah?"

Is it really a breakthrough?
"hehe."

Griffith chuckled, knowing why he was so surprised.

After all, even for herself, this was something she couldn't even imagine a few days ago.

That gorgeous face was filled with a gentle smile, and she said, "Thanks to you for finding the correct way to use the [Gray Mist Relic]. I tried to go to that relic space. Although I didn't have the same opportunity as you to meet His Majesty Lanlingster, I did find the Rose Tavern and drank a glass of soul wine [Dream God's Dew]. This has greatly improved my imagination in painting. The bottleneck of the "Fantasy Universe" magic secret realm has finally loosened up."

She was not an outsider either, so she told others about her opportunities.

"Oh?"

When Ji Xun heard this, he suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."

Chujiu, Nanjing and Reni had all been to that tavern, but except Ji Xun, no one else had seen the witch Lanlingster, so it was not surprising that he hadn't met her.

But that soul wine is a real great opportunity.

Most people can't afford that kind of wine, and it requires a ninth-level soul to exchange for it.

Others may not have it, but this person can.

It is good news that the coalition forces' highest combat power can break through the realm at this critical juncture.

Ji Xun asked curiously again: "Then Senior, aren't you going to take the last step?"

Griffith shook his head and said, "It's still early."

Ji Xun could sense the long wait for the God Level from the tone of voice, and thought of something, so he asked, "Does your sequence have a promotion ceremony? I mean, something like the war sequence?"

Since Andre of the Iris Legion wants to use this promotion ceremony to condense the godhood, I think other sequences may also be possible.

"Have."

Griffith also said, but then changed the subject, "However, the final step of the [7 Arts] path is very difficult and the required promotion ceremony is also related to the times. Only in peacetime, when literature and art flourish, will the rules become clearer."

After a pause, she expressed her thoughts: "The culture and art of the Talen Empire were highly prosperous, but later it entered the Dark Ages because of the war. In that desperate era, the paintings of the masters could not even be exchanged for a loaf of black bread. It is not much different now. So I plan to wait until the war is over, go to the academy to be a teacher, and add some color to the dead art world. That is the life I dream of. When the civilized literature and art are reborn and revived, perhaps that will be the time for my promotion ceremony to be completed."

"Renaissance?"

This word suddenly popped up in Ji Xun's mind.

With a flash of inspiration, he discovered that the so-called "promotion ceremony" seemed to be the development trend of a certain civilization.

This trend is not influenced by personal will, but it can allow outstanding talents in the wave to shine brightly.

Griffith saw the thoughtful look on his face and said, "The essence of the promotion ceremony is actually to steal the 'power of rules' that govern the operation of the universe. The power controlled by the gods has changed from laws to rules."

As she spoke, she looked at Ji Xun with a little surprise and said, "However, I have only just touched upon the surface so far. I cannot explain it to you too clearly. Generally speaking, people below the ninth level cannot understand it. But it seems that you understand it."

"That's it"

Ji Xun actually seemed to understand but not quite.

It was rare for someone to give him guidance, so he expressed his thoughts: "Senior, I am also a little confused and want to ask for advice. I also felt the same feeling you mentioned when I was practicing the magic secret technique "Guiding the Fall of the Gods" before."

I had no idea why the experience value of the secret technique didn't change.

Now that I hear it, I realize that I had comprehended something that was too advanced.

Hearing what he said, Griffith's expression gradually became strange.

Finally, after Ji Xun finished speaking, she responded, "Haha, you are really unique. The advice I can give you on this point is very limited. I um... When you have time, you can communicate more with His Majesty and Priest Nan. They can actually give you more help at your current stage."

"Oh"

Ji Xun nodded as he listened.

He knew what Griffith meant. It was three parts teasing, but seven parts serious.

Chujiu and Nanjing are at a similar level as him, but both the Augustus royal family and the high priest’s lineage have a profound heritage. The problems they are facing now have also been encountered by their predecessors in the Taren Dynasty, so there are relatively more things they can learn from.

At this point, Ji Xun looked at Chujiu in front of him and asked, "Is there any news about Xiaonan going to the underworld?"

Chujiu said succinctly: "Yeah. It should be soon."

Just one word "hmm" means everything is normal.

There is no need to say much about the two.

Nan Jing has been in the underworld for many days, and as the high priest, she has many heavy responsibilities on her shoulders.

There are some things that even Ji Xun and Chu Jiu, the two closest people, cannot tell. Nan Jing's trip to the underworld this time is probably related to the death of Nan Shenyu, the last high priest of Taren.

It might be related to the "Plane Monitor" mentioned by Lanlingster.

If we were to say who the Outer Gods in the Oran Royal Court feared the most, it would not be Griffith, the ninth-level God, but definitely the High Priest Nan Jing.

Ji Xun didn't talk much about this topic. Looking at Chujiu in front of him, he also asked: "Chujiu, have you also made a breakthrough?"

Chujiu nodded and simply replied, "Yeah."

Ji Xun smiled, "No wonder."

No wonder Griffith wanted the two of them to communicate more.

In fact, Chujiu's changes are even greater. Since the assassination, her royal power has been rising almost visibly every day.

When the subjects are strong, the king's fortune is also strong. This is the royal power.

More and more of Oran's former subjects came to him, and Chujiu now had the bearing of an emperor.

In other words, as Ji Xun said in his previous life, this was the "Emperor's Purple Aura", so domineering that it could be seen with the naked eye.

At the same time, her strength and laws also increased dramatically.

This sometimes made Ji Xun feel inexplicably emotional.

The Q and K sequence related to [Royal Power] is so special.

Sometimes, you can become stronger by doing nothing but sitting on the throne.

The table was piled high with delicious food.

Soon, little Ivan's belly became round and bulging from eating so much.

In front of him was the pioneer and practitioner of "supernormal affinity balance". Ji Xun chatted with Chujiu and also talked with Griffith about some things related to cultivation.

However, as they were chatting, an accident happened.

The gunfire suddenly stopped.

Ji Xun frowned.

Chujiu and Griffith also looked serious.

The perception of these three people was much stronger than that of others, and they guessed what happened.

Dong Qi didn't understand what was going on. He looked at the three people's expressions and asked, "What's wrong?"

Ji Xun said: "Olan has stopped attacking."

Dong Qi was a combatant, and her control over the overall situation was certainly not as good as Ji Xun and the other two. She still didn't quite understand why they were so serious.

Ji Xun didn't wait for her to ask more questions and said directly: "If nothing unexpected happens, the Oran Royal Court must have realized that a brute force attack would not be enough after probing. So they have to use a strategy. The reason why the bombardment was stopped is probably because they used some vanguards (cannon fodder) that cannot be bombarded."

This is not difficult to guess. The history of any human civilization is actually a history of war.

Any conceivable strategy has been implemented by someone in history.

When Ji Xun heard the gunfire stop, he had actually guessed most of what had happened.

"Oh."

Dong Qi understood it roughly after hearing it.

Sure enough, before long, a messenger came hurriedly and said something to the palace lady-in-waiting not far away.

The female official's expression changed, and she hurried over to Chujiu and reported: "Your Majesty, the sentry has received news that Orlan has used a large number of civilians as the vanguard, many of whom are the families and clansmen of the ministers."

"Oh, I see."

When Chujiu heard this, his expression remained unchanged, but a hint of solemnity flashed in his crystal eyes.

She stood up and said to Ji Xun, "I'll go take a look."

Ji Xun also wanted to see what was going on with Aolan, so he said, "I'll go with you."

Several people quickly arrived at the nearest artillery command room.

The weather was foggy just now, but suddenly the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, and the sky became unprecedentedly bright and clear.

The moonlight illuminated the entire plain across the canyon, making it bright and clear. On the ground at the end of the field of vision, there were craters of varying sizes and corpses lying all over the place.

In front of the artillery position of the Kiran defense line, the first wave of attempts by the Oran Royal Court failed without any suspense.

Now it’s the second wave.

A new group of pioneers are moving towards the canyon little by little.

It was a dark crowd, probably about tens of thousands of people.

Through the telescope, Ji Xun could clearly see the expressions of those people.

Among those tens of thousands of people, some were professional soldiers from Orlan, and many more had dejected and depressed expressions, and were obviously civilians who were forced to join the fight.

It was that civilian who made Chujiu and everyone around him silent.

Because the people in front of them are their loved ones.

Reni from the Drama God family, Reike from the Forbidden Spell Master family, and various former servants of Orlan who have recently come to join them.
They more or less saw their relatives and clansmen in the crowd.

Even though the Royal Court of Oran had been in exile for the previous two hundred years, the generations of exiled kings of Oran had made extensive preparations for restoring their country.

Orlan's former followers also took root and multiplied in major cities throughout the Federation.

Just like the Golden Oak Company in the City of Innocence, it was a force secretly supported by the Oran Royal Court.

So, there are actually many families of Oran’s former ministers.

Now everyone can see clearly that King Arthur wants to use the families of these Oran subjects as cannon fodder to make the coalition forces cautious.

Even looking back now, the reason why those people who had surrendered to Chujiu before took it out so easily might not have been because they let them go on purpose.

Then they kept a group of them and are waiting to use them as a threat.

Inside the defense line, everyone remained silent as they watched the human wall approaching little by little.

Everyone knows that this is Oran's siege tactic.

Let them come near, and they will break down the wall;
If they really opened fire and killed all these people, the morale of the coalition forces would immediately become unstable.

After all, there are not only the families of Orlan's old subjects in front of them, but also some people related to the revolutionary army and the Lionheart family.

Everyone was mentally prepared to face the cruelty of war, but no one expected that King Arthur would be so merciless and use such despicable tactics from the very beginning.

Fortunately, there was an emergency plan in place. As the commander-in-chief of the coalition, Chujiu decisively ordered: "Put the people in the quarantine area. No one is allowed to contact them without permission. Anyone who takes the opportunity to cause trouble will be killed on the spot!"

"Yes."

Everyone took the order and left.

Chujiu watched everyone leave, turned his head to look at Ji Xun beside him, and asked, "What do you think?"

She was very clear about Ji Xun's abilities. They had actually discussed this possibility before. Now that it happened, she asked.

Ji Xun narrowed his eyes slightly and said concisely: "Bugs, plagues, spies, assassins and faith pollution."

He advanced to the eighth level by following the path of [Unparalleled Patriot] in our [J War] sequence, so he has a deeper understanding of war than others.

The laws of war have now materialized into battlefield strategies and are now before our eyes.

In Ji Xun's mind, he saw the future scene of what would happen if those cannon fodder came in.

These people must not be killed.

But the Kielan defense line has not been breached, so it doesn't make much sense to rely on such a small number of people to launch a sneak attack.

No matter what, isolating this group is the best option.

The coalition's defense line in the Kiran Mountains did not completely block the Hell's Gate Canyon, but deliberately left a passage.

Those tens of thousands of people were released just like that.

Some of the Orlan soldiers hiding among the civilians approached the defense line and tried to rush into the artillery position, but they were beaten into a hive by the scattered mechanical sentry towers and soon stopped.

The remaining people were guided to stop in the isolation area of ​​the canyon.

It looked like the Oran Royal Court had sent a group of hostages over for nothing.

But because it went so smoothly, Ji Xun became more and more certain that this might be the worst case scenario.

In the canyon isolation zone, countless artillery barrels were pointed at those tens of thousands of people.

Most of the crowd were women and children, as well as elderly people.

Most people had no idea what was going on. They looked around at the cold fortress in fear.

Just now they saw with their own eyes that the soldiers hiding in the crowd were beaten into pieces of flesh, and everyone's eyes were filled with fear and despair.

The adults could still understand the broadcast and kept silent, but the young children were frightened by the horrible atmosphere and kept crying.

No one knew who started crying first, but the old men and women all followed Taotao and started crying.

Being sent to the front line as cannon fodder by their own king was already an immense grievance, and now they were being pointed at with guns, and they had already lost their minds.

After all, the people below are their own family members, and the old ministers of Oran on the coalition side are all heartbroken.

On the ninth day of the first lunar month, King Augustus came out in person to speak and quickly stabilized everyone's emotions.

But in a blink of an eye, the expected accident occurred.

Among the group of people, someone's eyes suddenly had abnormal bloodshot eyes.
Gradually, strange black spots appeared on the skin of adults and children.

Not one, but a piece.

The time is also very accurate.

"Plague! They have the plague!"

"The holy water of the Holy Grail of Kingship can cure all diseases. Let's go find Queen Augustus. She will definitely save us!"

"Yes! Find King Augustus!"

"."

Someone in the crowd shouted, and the crowd, which had just calmed down, suddenly became chaotic.

Now, everyone understood the evil intentions of the Oran Royal Court in sending these elderly, weak, women and children.

Just as Ji Xun said, they brought the [plague].

Thanks to the emergency plan, no one was allowed to come into contact with these people. Even the bodies of those who tried to climb the wall and were beaten to pieces were immediately burned and destroyed.

Otherwise, if these people come into contact with those inside the defense line, the plague will probably cause the coalition forces to be defeated without a fight.

With a spy taking the lead in stirring up trouble, the adults, who had been able to remain calm before, suddenly became panic-stricken.

They could die on their own, but when they looked at their babies in swaddling clothes and their elderly parents, their mood collapsed.

The elderly, the weak, women and children formed a closed loop of fear.

The elderly and children have weak resistance and soon some will start coughing up blood.

In the panic, some people in the crowd tried to escape, but were forced back at gunpoint.

Seeing the people running around being killed by machine guns, the group of people knew they couldn't escape and just burst into tears.

Even if there was a last glimmer of hope, they couldn't bear to watch their children die from the plague.

The women and the elderly could only kneel on the ground and beg: "Great King Augustus, please save my child."

The sound gradually formed a torrent of desperate sound, echoing throughout the canyon.

The crying also attracted the attention of the group of old ministers of Orlan, who all looked gloomy and clenched their fists so tightly that water was about to come out of them.

Ji Xun looked at the commotion at the bottom of the canyon without any change in his expression. He just complained in his heart: "Black Death? King Arthur is really using some tricks to cut off his descendants."

They dare to use a strategy like plague indiscriminately without fear of backlash.

Another possibility is that the other party can accurately control the spread of the plague.

In addition to the top card masters in the few professional sequences of [Diamond 3-Plague Doctor], there is another possibility, that is the 'Source of Plague - Takpara'.

Ji Xun had read about the Black Death in the documents from the Talen period. This plague caused countless deaths and was almost untreatable.

The one being pointed at was the Seven Lords of Natural Disaster.

Although the Lord of Plague's jars were taken by the Southern Continent Dragon God Ariel to trick the Golden Dragon God, the plague would never disappear as long as there were living things.

The move by the Oran Royal Court was also very vicious.

【The Black Death】There is no cure.

As they deliberately spread, the [Holy Grail of Kingship] in Chujiu's hand can heal.

But the problem is that the Holy Grail can only condense a limited amount of holy water, and it needs to consume the holder's royal luck and original spell power.

One or two is fine.

If you want to cure these tens of thousands of people, I'm afraid it won't be possible even if you exhaust all of Chujiu's original magical power.

But if he is not rescued, the people's support that King Augustus Chujiu has just gathered will probably collapse immediately.

The most important thing is that once luck changes, some negative effects will inevitably appear in the war.

King Arthur came up with such a vicious plan as soon as he arrived, which immediately put the coalition forces into a dilemma.

(End of this chapter)