Magical Water Margin: They all call me brother

Page 33

"Well done!"

Seeing that Liu Hong had become so valiant in just a year and a half, Suo Chao's eyes flashed with a blood-red, fierce light. Undeterred, she charged forward, and boundless fighting spirit erupted from her body! Her blood-red cloak fluttered like a scarlet dragon in the morning mist!

But the next second, Suo Chao's pupils suddenly contracted, and his fanatical face became more solemn—Liu Hong's pair of sky-covering gilded wings suddenly folded into a beam of brilliant gold, transforming into a bolt of molten gold lightning that swooped down!

At this moment, his diving speed had tripled, exceeding the limit of Suo Chao's dynamic vision. Suo Chao couldn't see Liu Hong at all!

"boom!!!"

The white, dark lightning crackling around the tip of the Shadow Scale Spear tore through the river's surface, leaving terrifying, molten silver-like wounds. This, combined with the golden flames trailing from the Golden-Winged Roc, created a pattern of gold and silver lightning and fire. Before Suo Chao could react, the lion-shaped breastplate on his chest shattered beneath the spear tip!

In an instant, five purple star rivers danced wildly in the wind, and six star demon lords roared. Liu Hong fused the Five Heavenly Gang Slash into his swooping charge, shattering Suo Chao's armor once again. This time, however, he hit Suo Chao's heart.

"clang!!!"

Amidst the ear-piercing metallic scraping sound, sparks flew from the seams of the armor, each spark sending up plumes of black smoke as it fell into the river. Suo Chao was forced back five steps. The double defense of the Bright Light Armor's breastplate and the brass plates of the infantry armor barely managed to twist the fatal piercing that was about to tear his heart into a diagonal wound that pierced through his left shoulder blade. Although Liu Hong's charge attack was terrifying, it was not fatal.

"Roar!!!"

Just then, a terrifying roar, like that of a wounded beast, burst from Suo Chao's throat. His eyes turned blood red, and the crimson cloak on his shoulders suddenly came to life, flying and soaring freely under the sky like a blood-red Yellow Spring!

The folds on the cloak resembled towering waves of blood churning in the underworld. The sound of the wind whistling through the cloak was truly the screams, wails, and howls of countless dead people in the blood-red underworld!

Upon activating her Blood Rage state, Suo Chao's strength surged from the mortal limit of 20 to the level of a Bear and Tiger General of 28. Wisps of crimson steam billowed from the gaps in her armor! Her 52-pound golden axe, following the momentum of her still-drawn spear, lashed upwards. The axe blade, wreathed in crimson gale, instantly shattered dragon scales, tearing a horrifying gash of flesh and blood across Liu Hong's chest, unleashing a terrifying waterfall of blood over three feet high!

Not only that, this axe blow sent Liu Hong flying seven or eight meters like a kite with a broken string, crashing headfirst into the water and creating a towering wave. In an instant, the difference in their heights was determined.

Liu Hong quickly used Star Healing to treat his wounds. He covered the scar on his chest, flapped his wings, and flew up from the water again. He took a deep look at Suo Chao. He had indeed become stronger, but there was still a certain gap between him and a first-class master like Suo Chao, who could fight Guan Sheng, the leader of the Five Tigers of Liangshan, for more than ten rounds and only fall behind.

However, I can also inflict extremely serious injuries on her! If I'm careful this time and avoid being hit by her strike, and manage to land a successful blow, I can immediately retreat and launch continuous attacks, and there might actually be a small chance of winning.

Although Liu Hong was defeated, he did not lose heart. Instead, he burst out with even stronger confidence, flapped his wings, turned around and ran away! Like a golden meteor, he quickly withdrew from the battlefield.

Seeing their leader defeated, the sixteen small boats of Liangshan Marsh seemed to panic and turned around, rushing back to the bay.

"You little brat, you went back on your word! Liu Hong! Don't let me catch you! I've changed my mind! A coward like you who can't take a joke doesn't deserve to be my right-hand man!!!"

Suo Chao was furious. "I won! How dare you not surrender?!"

In a fit of rage, she clutched her own badly injured left shoulder and immediately gave the order to pursue. The Daming Prefecture River Guards, who made up one-third of the total force, rowed their boats, unfurled their sails, and gave chase!

Huang An, the militia commander of Yuncheng, and He Tao, the commander of Jizhou, exchanged a glance. Fearing that Suo Chao would take all the credit, they also ordered their five hundred men to advance. In an instant, one thousand five hundred soldiers and one thousand five hundred laborers on sixty ships advanced and pursued the retreating Liangshan navy!

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Burning the Golden Lotus Chains – First Merit Awarded

Under the relentless pursuit of sixty large government ships, Liangshan's sixteen small boats fled in panic, retreating with Liu Hong until they reached a bay. Suo Chao glanced around; the bay was surrounded on three sides by crescent-shaped mountains, with only one waterway leading in.

Furthermore, two solitary and simple arrow towers were erected on both sides of the waterway, with figures moving about inside.

Could this be an ambush?!

Suo Chao cautiously observed the bay. At the entrance, the guards of the two arrow towers pulled out several ropes from the water, preparing to use these makeshift contraptions to block the waterway. They also fired a few arrows at Suo Chao to cover the retreat of friendly ships back to the harbor.

"You son of a bitch! Slow down the rope!"

"Brother, I haven't even entered the harbor yet! Why are you pulling so fast? Are you in such a hurry to be reincarnated?"

"Row faster! Faster!!!"

As the harbor began to block the bay, the Liangshan heroes on the sixteen boats erupted in a chaotic cacophony of screams, curses, and cries! Everyone wanted to enter the harbor before the ropes were pulled up, so the sixteen boats lost their formation and huddled together at the entrance to the river bend.

"Sound the war drums! All troops, charge!!!"

At this point, Suo Chao had no more doubts and ordered her entire army to charge! She personally drew the Iron-Bone Treasure Bow from her back and fired at the two arrow towers from both sides. Every arrow hit its mark, and with each bend of the bow, she could hit at least one bandit's torso, rendering him unable to fight.

After four arrows, the two Liangshan scouts responsible for pulling the ropes were hit by arrows and fell to the ground. The ropes, which were only half-pulled, fell into the water. With no further obstruction, all sixteen boats surged into the river bend.

Upon approaching the port, about a hundred soldiers scrambled to escape the ship and scramble ashore before retreating southwards towards Dazhai.

"How come there are only 100 people on 16 ships? These ships have a heavy draft; I thought there would be at least 200 people on them! What are they carrying?"

One of the river guards from Daming Prefecture was somewhat puzzled, but at that moment, Suo Chao had already led sixty ships and 1,500 soldiers into the river bend in a mighty procession, and rushed into the dock, causing more than seventy ships to become a chaotic mess.

Before the river guard could even tell Suo Chao his doubts, the frantic brute had already brandished his golden axe and stormed ashore!

"Urgent! Urgent! Urgent! Urgent! Suo Chao, the vanguard, is here!!!"

Suo Chao took the lead, and five minutes after the Liangshan troops had retreated ashore, he led the first two hundred Damingfu River Guards and forcefully landed on Liangshan! The other thirteen hundred soldiers also hurriedly and forcefully landed.

But at that moment, an unexpected event occurred. A beautiful fox shadow flashed out from the cabin of a Liangshan warship. The Song soldiers were all in a hurry to land and chase down the deserters. No one expected that there would be bandits who had not come out of the cabin.

Just then, five demonic rays suddenly burst forth from Pan Jinlian's fox tail, and the phosphorescent flames condensing at the tips of the tails emitted a terrifying shriek like the cry of an infant! The next second, the five burning fox tails suddenly pierced the deck, and the wood grain instantly ignited with vein-like flames, causing the entire warship to emit a mournful cry like a dying beast!

Thick, blood-red flames erupted from the cracks in the wooden planks, igniting the entire warship and turning the surrounding waters into ablaze.

Amidst the raging flames, the sails were also set ablaze. The silk cloth, soaked in strong liquor, did not ignite but instead curled up, transforming into a blazing sun, hanging high above the mast. Thousands of burning canvas fragments sprayed through the air like fireworks and meteors, spreading the flames across the other ships.

It turns out that the reason why the sixteen small boats that went out to war only carried one hundred people and were fully loaded with extremely heavy drafts was because they were filled with dry reeds, firewood, and lard and strong liquor given to them by Chai Jin—all highly flammable materials that would ignite at the slightest touch! Even the entire wooden plank was soaked in oil and liquor so that it could be ignited immediately!

At the moment the flames shot into the sky, Pan Jinlian took a deep breath, and her five burning fox tails suddenly spun open, wrapping around her delicate body like a cocoon. The fox fire at the tips of the tails was drawn into her lips like a rainbow sucking water, compressed and condensed inside the mouth of the nine-tailed fox, and then exploded in an instant!

"Ugh!!!"

Pan Jinlian let out a cute fox cry, and with a flick of her embroidered mouth, she spat out a pillar of fiery pink flames into the sky. This pillar of fire rose twenty or thirty meters into the air before exploding like fireworks! To the astonishment of the Song soldiers, countless sparks traced the terrifying pattern of a nine-tailed fox in the sky, then scattered in all directions, igniting sails and burning through leather clothing. Each spark that landed on other Liangshan warships laden with firewood and strong liquor instantly expanded into a raging inferno, accompanied by destructive heatwaves, erupting into clusters of orange-red, deathly flames!

In an instant, fires erupted from the sixteenth battalion at the dock. At this moment, the sixty ships under Suo Chao's command were crammed together with the sixteen smaller ships, all rushing to land. The towering flames spread like a virus throughout the port, engulfing all sixty Song army ships! The first thirty ships had no chance of survival, the middle twenty ships were also unlikely to survive, and only the last ten ships were largely undamaged.

Sochao's flagship was the first to be attacked. The lookout on the mast suddenly let out a horrific scream—although the raging fire on the deck did not reach him, the towering black smoke completely engulfed him! Every breath he took in was filled with black smoke at hundreds of degrees Celsius; his entire respiratory tract was first burned with blisters, then extensively ulcerated and annihilated!

The Song army's warships, crammed together, became infernal prisons. The decks split open with the crackling of tar, swallowing the falling soldiers. Flames danced in the air, mercilessly igniting everything flammable. Many Song soldiers' clothes were also set ablaze, and they could only escape by jumping into the water in excruciating pain. The entire bay was filled with people splashing around.

A naval instructor tried to extinguish the flames, but a taut cable snapped after being burned and suddenly bounced back, instantly sending him flying!

Most horrifying were the cabins filled with wine jars and firewood; once the flames reached them, they would explode with a thunderous roar, hurling burning human remains high into the sky.

Pan Jinlian stood barefoot in the middle of the sea of ​​fire, each of her fox tails drawing a ten-zhang-long stream of flames. Looking at the chaotic dock, she suddenly chuckled and bent down. With the power granted to her by the Dragon King of Jidu, her body became as elusive as a shadow, moving through space like a ghost, easily escaping the sea of ​​fire.

By this time, the entire harbor was engulfed in flames, with no intact water remaining. Burning tung oil flowed like a river of fire between the waves. The keels of fifty warships groaned in their death throes, and some soldiers tried to jump into the river to escape, only to find, to their despair, that the water itself was also ablaze.

Meanwhile, some Song soldiers who had jumped into the river to escape also desperately raised their heads and found that the entire river surface was covered with burning oil. They could no longer stick their heads out and could only slowly sink into the riverbed in the desperate situation of suffocating under the water.

Chapter 69: Two Heroes Fight the Blood God Against the Soldiers (Bonus Chapter for 1500 Monthly Tickets)

"What happened?!"

Suo Chao turned around in astonishment and found that apart from the two hundred river guards from Daming Prefecture who had successfully landed on Liangshan Marsh just as anxious as he was, the other sixty ships and thirteen hundred soldiers were engulfed in the raging fire set by Pan Jinlian.

At this moment, only the ten ships at the very end of the column, due to their greater distance, managed to extinguish the small flames on board under the leadership of the militia commander Huang An, and hurriedly escaped. They looked back at the towering sea of ​​fire with lingering fear, trying to escape the bay.

But at that moment, one of their ships, under the terrifying power of the subspace, transformed into a 15-meter-long prehistoric crocodile, not only throwing all the people on board overboard but also attacking the second ship!

At the same time, cobalt blue scales flickered among the clouds, and a fledgling dragon, roughly the size of a tiger, suddenly swooped down from the clouds. The stardust-like sparks of electricity scattered by her flapping wings wove a fine net of light at the entrance to the bay. As her tender dragon roar resounded, she spewed a destructive arc of molten silver from her mouth, hurtling straight towards the flagship of Commander Huang An!

The struck sails first displayed spiderweb-like shimmering patterns, then the embroidered characters for "Great Song" on the canvas twisted and burned into charred cracks under the intense heat of the electric current. A Song soldier carrying a crossbow realized the iron trigger was too hot, and before he could release it, he was struck by the current traveling along the damp wood, his hair standing on end—this became the perfect lightning rod, and a second, devastating arc of electricity followed, killing him instantly with a scream!

"Kill them all!!!"

Li Cunxiao was extremely excited. The people under Huang An, the militia commander, were from the Northern Song Dynasty, and their weapons and equipment were even inferior to those of the local militia. Their small bows and crossbows were no match for Li Cunxiao's dragon scales. Realizing this, she lowered her flight altitude and circled the fleet recklessly. Her wings flapped like a howling wind, and her dragon jaws spewed breath like thunder! Clusters of columnar molten silver dragon breath descended from the clouds like a natural disaster!

A cluster of electric arcs struck the top of the mast, melting the iron-clad lookout tower into molten iron. The scalding molten metal, carrying arcs of dark lightning, rained down onto the deck, causing chaos and screams among the Song soldiers. The most astute sailors had already jumped into the river, unaware that the conductive water carried tiny, chilling sparks in every wave! The electric shocks made everyone's eyes roll back and foam at the mouth.

At the same time, Wang Lun and Du Qian also appeared in the watchtower on the side of the bay. Wang Lun waved his folding fan, and countless birds and fish transformed from ink appeared one after another, pouncing on the fleeing boats like hungry wolves, attacking the oarsmen, damaging the sails, and leaving behind a series of brilliant and cruel ink streaks in the air.

Du Qian's twenty cannibals also displayed terrifying coastal defense firepower. Five of them used crossbows, whose firepower was naturally fierce. They could even penetrate the ship's cabin and kill Song soldiers from a distance of 100 meters.

Meanwhile, the other cannibals, with their immense strength and long arms, hurled giant wooden stakes and stones sixty or seventy meters away, causing the ten ships to sway precariously!

Under the combined sea, land, and air defense and blockade by Zhu Gui, Li Cunxiao, Wang Lun, and Du Qian, these ships had no chance of escaping the burial ground that Liu Hong had designed for them.

However, Suo Chao was completely unaware of all this, because she and her two hundred river guards from the Daming Prefecture were trapped on the isolated island of Liangshan Marsh, with the burning dock behind them. They stared in disbelief at the burning dock and the bay.

The next second, the fleeing soldiers stopped and formed ranks. More soldiers appeared in the southern stronghold. The four leaders, Wu Song, Lü Fang, Guo Sheng, and Song Wan, led 220 Liangshan soldiers and appeared on the battlefield in a dark mass!

Among them, Lu Fang and Guo Sheng led twenty Jade Warrior crossbowmen to the front, Wu Song led one hundred spearmen to the two flanks to encircle them, and Song Wan led one hundred archers to provide cover from behind, and they charged toward Suo Chao in a mighty force.

Even more terrifying, Liu Hong also flapped his pair of gilded wings and returned like a shooting star.

"Vanguard, surrender! I heard from Liang Zhongshu that if you lot fail to recover the birthday tribute, you will all be dismissed from your posts! You might even be convicted and exiled! You have no way out! And now, your army and ships are burning in the flames, you are bound to be defeated, so you might as well just surrender!"

Liu Hong tried to recruit frontline fighters.

"Every second you hesitate, another soldier under your command will die in the inferno! Their lives are now in your hands!"

Looking at the Liangshan army slowly unfolding before her, and then at the raging sea of ​​flames behind her, Suo Chao felt her breath quicken and her hands tremble. She did not surrender, but the morale of the two hundred Damingfu River Guards behind her had completely collapsed! Some of them had already thrown down their weapons and surrendered in despair.

"Don't be such a coward! I haven't lost yet! There are only two hundred Liangshan men. As long as we break through their defenses, we still have hope of victory! Everyone! Charge with me!!!"

With a roar, Suo Chao chopped down a fleeing soldier who had laid down his weapon with an axe, using his blood to consecrate his golden axe. Then, riding a warhorse, he launched a devastating charge towards Lü Fang and Guo Sheng! The blood-red cloak on her shoulders, like a mad blood dragon tied to her shoulders, unfolded a bloody and terrifying dance under the blazing flames.

Lu Fang and Guo Sheng exchanged a glance, planted their halberds aside, and immediately drew their crossbows and steel-pierced arrows. After Suo Chao rushed to within eighty meters, twenty armored warriors simultaneously pulled the triggers, unleashing a devastating barrage of steel-pierced arrows at Suo Chao. Meanwhile, a hundred archers behind them also unleashed a rain of arrows at the vanguard.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!!!"

While dodging, Suo Chao immediately swung his giant axe to defend himself, but his warhorse was shot dead on the spot by several crossbow bolts, which threw Suo Chao into the air and made him fall heavily to the ground. His beast-devouring brass chainmail armor was also hit by five steel-tipped arrows, which sparked and clanged.

Two steel-tipped arrows blasted the lion-headed shoulder-swallowing beast on her left shoulder into metal fragments embedded in her chainmail. The two steel-tipped arrows pierced through her lamellar arm guards, penetrating Suo Chao's left forearm and upper arm, causing her to bleed profusely, and her left hand was in so much pain that she could barely grip the axe handle.

When the last crossbow bolt pierced the breastplate, it spun and tore open a bowl-sized wound in her chest, the bits of flesh and blood that followed reflecting a coral-colored glow in the sunlight.

Then, a barrage of arrows rained down from the sky, turning Suo Chao into a pincushion! Unfortunately, these arrows had limited power and could not unleash the armor-piercing power of the Divine Arm Crossbow, thus causing limited damage to Suo Chao.

Shot by several arrows on the charge, Suo Chao let out a roar like a wounded beast. Losing his warhorse, he scrambled to his feet and charged forward on his own two feet! Lü Fang and Guo Sheng exchanged a glance, and with their left hands, they directly conjured the divine masks of Lü Fengxian and Xue Rengui, wearing the elemental masks of one bursting with fire and the other frosty with ice on their faces. In the next instant, destructive chaotic power erupted from the two women's delicate bodies!

Lu Fang's eyes spewed forth a dazzling light, and bursts of orange flames exploded continuously, transforming into a raging sea of ​​fire, which then transformed into the arrogant and domineering half-body phantom of Lu Fengxian.

Guo Sheng's eyes shimmered with the aurora of frost and snow, and one after another, white icebergs rose from the ground, transforming into frost mountain ranges that soared into the sky, quickly sculpting into a half-body statue of Xue Rengui's invincible arrogance.

These two ferocious god-like figures, each three meters tall, have returned, thanks to their offspring left behind in the world! Two mountain-sized halberds, carrying destructive power akin to splitting the heavens and earth, crashed down on Suo Chao as the sky was torn into three pieces!

Last time, the two summoned deities to fight each other. Although the power was great, they canceled each other out. No one knows how strong Lü Fang and Guo Sheng's abilities really are.

In addition, the two themselves are only second-rate in strength, and this ability can only be used for six seconds a day, at most summoning Lü Bu and Xue Rengui to fight for one round, which makes them even more underestimated.

This time, after facing the combined onslaught of Lü Bu and Xue Rengui's halberds, Suo Chao's expression changed drastically. He dared not retaliate, quickly halting his charge and roaring as he raised his golden axe to withstand the attack. He used his flesh and blood to withstand the devastating blow from two deities!

"boom!!!"

Lu Bu's flaming halberd, engulfed in a sea of ​​fire, crashed down. The ebony axe handle, crafted from ebony, bent into a bow shape under the terrifying impact, taut to its limit! The instant the axe and halberd clashed, Suo Chao was struck down to his knees by the immense difference in strength, coughing up blood!

In the next instant, Xue Rengui's halberd crashed down amidst a sky full of ice. The friction between the axe blade and the halberd tip sparked purple-red sparks, turning the blood rain within a radius of five zhang into a red mist!

"Crack!"

A sound of bones cracking pierced the battlefield—Suo Chao's second knee was also knocked to the ground, blood gushing from all seven orifices. The ground beneath her knees shattered in a spiderweb pattern, and the entire ground collapsed into a crater ten meters in diameter under the bombardment of the two deities. And right in the center was this fierce general from Hebei! Both of her knees were embedded in the ground.

The most tragic part was her armor: the beast-shaped armor on her left shoulder was melted into molten gold by Lu Bu's flaming halberd, while the chainmail on her right breastplate was covered in Xue Li's frost. As the two opposing energies exploded in her chest cavity, Suo Chaoxiong's body shuddered violently, and the blood mist he spat out froze into ice crystals in mid-air, only to be burned into scarlet steam by the remaining fire energy. The blood dragon cloak on his back tore apart piece by piece, and the red silk and red blood splattered in all directions like a torrential rain.

But her bloodied hands still gripped the axe handle tightly, the broken tiger's mouth leaving two bloody marks on the wood grain!

Just as Suo Chao was about to collapse, the phantoms of the two gods suddenly disappeared, and the strange phenomena in the sky vanished instantly, as if they had never existed.

Lu Fang and Guo Sheng's expressions changed drastically, and they exchanged an incredulous glance.

We can only summon our ancestors for six seconds, which is only enough time to land one hit! Apart from opponents who can also summon their ancestors, I've never seen anyone withstand a single hit from an ancestor!

And this Suo Chao actually withstood it twice? Although she was bleeding from all seven orifices and severely injured, she actually withstood it?! What kind of monster is this!

Chapter Seventy: Capturing the Vanguard General Liu Hongzhi

Suo Chao's condition at this moment was extremely poor. In the initial one-on-one fight, Liu Hong pierced his left shoulder with the Scale Shadow Spear, almost damaging his heart. Then he was riddled with arrows by a hundred men and turned into a hedgehog. Now he had taken a direct hit from two gods! He had reached his limit.

Her body was almost out of her control; her unfocused pupils and bleeding eyes blurred Suo Chao's vision, as if the whole world was shrouded in a terrifying blood mist.

Lu Fang and Guo Sheng exchanged a glance, not daring to underestimate such fierce generals. They both brandished their halberds and charged forward. Suddenly, Lu Fang's halberd emitted a clear phoenix cry, and the blade drew a crimson afterimage in the air. Guo Sheng's weapon was wrapped in the cold air of Xuanbing, and frost patterns condensed where the crescent blade swept.

The two female generals charged forward in a triangular formation, their footwork subtly resembling the image of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix. Before their halberds even reached them, the force of ice and fire had already carved a yin-yang symbol into the ground.

"Roar!!!"

With a roar, Suo Chao shook off the blood clots from his eyes. His fractured knees and legs were still able to pull themselves out of the deep ground. His golden axe swept out with a bloody wind, and with another powerful swing, it created a fierce wind! The axe blade collided with the red halberd, sparks flying everywhere. As the axe handle spun, it also clashed head-on with the ice halberd. The whirlwind axe slash, like a cornered beast fighting, actually forced Lü Fang and Guo Sheng back two steps.

However, her legs, which she could barely stand on, were already fractured and rotten. Let alone using her famous jumping chops and guillotine strikes, she could barely move!

"I'll hold her off from the front!"

Seeing such a formidable enemy, Lü Fang's face flushed with excitement. He spun around and took a step back, his crimson halberd striking towards Suo Chao's throat like a venomous snake. When it was blocked by the axe, he suddenly changed his move to "Phoenix Falling Cloud Vortex," and after the dazzling halberd shadows blinded Suo Chao, he stabbed it into the wound on Suo Chao's left shoulder!

"it is good."

After Guo Sheng nodded coldly, he circled around like a ghost, hooking the crescent blade of his ice halberd onto Suo Chao's armor belt and suddenly exerting force. The sound of the iron ring snapping rang out amidst the tearing of flesh and blood.

Suo Chao was indeed in terrible condition at this moment, unable to even defend against Guo Sheng's sneak attack. With no other choice, this fierce general, covered in blood, suddenly abandoned her giant axe, forcefully locking Lü Fang's halberd shaft with her left arm and gripping Guo Sheng's halberd tightly with her right. She rotated her ankles, waist, and arms, spinning in place.