Chapter 9-259: The Storm over Shanghai, Part III (2/2)

Vivic fires were raging over the corpses of Cultivators across the city, consuming the slimy-squicky feeling of Qi from the air, returning the world to normal. Three more Qi-forming Formations had been found and reversed by Traveler expeditiously, and were sucking in Qi from outside the city like vacuums, helped by the press of the world trying to get rid of the shit.

Alas, those Conversion Formations had been working for years, and the area contaminated by Qi had spread a great distance, indeed. The fastest way to get rid of it was still to feed a whole bunch of Cultivators to the Land. The intensity of those vivic fires, freeing up all the power they had leeched off the Land and stored up, was several times more intense than undead burning, and lasted much longer, too.

It was hard to be happy about it, however. It wasn’t making the Land any stronger, it was returning what had been torn from it and made it weaker...

“Useless shits from head to toe,” Sama muttered, and Briggs, standing next to her, nodded calmly, his own Mask up and studying the same thing. They had no Soul Essence usable here, but ki seemed to do the job well enough, once some adjustments were made. Staying in Arcane Focus helped, too.

“So, how do you want to handle them?” he asked, studying the arrogant and preening sot in the dragon crown. Eesh, what a pretentious prick, with skin like rancid milk. That milky hue of skin was now the sign of one of the greatest evils in the world. Nobody from China or Asia was ever going to associate white skin with purity and beauty ever again. The women Cultivators and their artificial, unnatural beauty was now simply a thing of horror to the common people, especially to the orcs they treated so mercilessly. If you weren’t bronzed by the sun, you looked like them, and that could actually get you ganked quickly now.

Sama considered them sitting there up in the air, aloofly surveying all they commanded, certain they were safe, that they would choose the moment to strike and counterattack.

“I want them to tremble,” she said in a guttural voice, and Briggs smiled, looking down behind him, where a whole bunch of new Sevens who had just become Forsaken were waiting. Many others among them were holding old guns, lovingly maintained over decades, hidden away from the Daoists in graves and holes, inside walls, among junk and dirt. Those wielding them often had grey hair and mottled skin, and eyes that had seen the Daoists prey on all their friends, family, and children, and had nothing left but vengeance to look forwards to.

Their firearms were old, but perfectly serviceable, especially after Traveler zipped by and Mended them up to pristine shape. Layer on Greater Magic Weapon, Bane Weapon, and Endless Ammo, and those guns were ready to speak, and do so repeatedly.

There were hundreds of these men, perhaps only a tithe of the fallen population of the city, but still significant.

“Traveler,” he said aloud, but it was really over the Fellowship link, “we need Cyclonic and some E-Plumbum. Oh, and how fine is your control of the rain there?”

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The rain was coming down even harder, restricting their vision, and even their divine sense was getting blocked by the crackling lightning in the air and water, disrupting all but their most general awareness of the elimination of the Qi throughout the city. The Qi-Gathering Formation within the walls of his Sect was still perfectly intact, however, and could supply the defensive Formation here indefinitely, of course. The Egg of the Nine Dragons was a masterwork that no mere mortal or dupe of the Heavens could possibly breach-

The heads of two dozen Cultivators around him suddenly exploded with black and gold fire, their brains spraying out the backs of their heads. Tiny swirls of wind extended from their faces off into the distance, gone in the next instant, the zipping buzz of bullets belatedly hitting the ears nearby too late to do anything.

A second later, another two-dozen shocked Daoists floating in the air suffered the same fate, and the panic began to spread.

This, this is impossible!, Jade Dragon thought, flashing into motion, his Qi accelerating his reaction time so that he could see what was happening.

Like threads of vapor, the straight lines of the rifle shots became visible as they breached the protection of the Formation, but were lost in the falling rain beyond it. They struck with unerring accuracy, head and heartshots that ignored the natural Qi defenses of the Daoists as readily as the Formation itself, and they had none of the killing intent attached to them that should make them easy to evade or knock aside.

It was like dozens of assassins were sniping at them from outside the Formation, right through its impermeable defense, from beyond the pounding rain coming down!

Those Daoists who didn’t realize what was going on and were slow to react were the ones who fell first, fires the colors of their own blood blazing on punctured chests or out the back of their skulls. No clapping of the shots, no warring with the thunder and the crackling lightning that had ceased falling a minute or two ago, and which was now roiling and seething impotently in the clouds above, in hindsight obviously gathering and building for something.

The Daoists on the walls naturally ducked for cover, while those in the air began to drop down hastily, getting out of view of the snipers picking them off. Some arrogant ones started zipping around, moving too quickly for any sniper to track, unwilling to concede that beings using such weapons could actually be much of a threat to them.

Their heads began to move right into the paths of incoming bullets, as if they were presenting themselves to be shot. The stunned disbelief in their eyes as their brains blew out stayed with them as they plummeted from the skies.

Jade Dragon only had to see that happen twice before he realized that the shooters were prescient, actually firing at where they were going to be, and removed himself hastily from their line of fire...