Chapter Forty-Three: Furious Waves and Falling Feathers

Though there was no thunderous commotion, a pale arc hung in the sky above—a white rainbow that, like a comet rushing toward the moon, sped swiftly toward their position. The lookout on the warship easily spotted its trajectory.

Something was flying in from the southern sky!

This message was almost simultaneously picked up by the lookouts of both fleets and relayed rapidly up the chain of command.

From the sky? Flying toward us?

In this era, airships and airplanes already existed. Aircraft had begun to be used for military purposes, and although air strikes were not yet fully emphasized, the concept that an enemy might approach from above had taken root. Thus, the sudden appearance of the white rainbow put both sides on alert.

They were locked in stalemate.

Yet the white rainbow was certain to shatter that deadlock.

All they could do was remain vigilant. For aside from vigilance, they had almost no effective means of defense; nothing could accurately reach the sky. Even if such weaponry existed, none was mounted on their ships, and the concept of anti-air defense occurred simultaneously to both the soldiers of Xinghan and the foreign officers.

Friend or foe would be revealed soon enough.

“It’s the Immortal Master!”

Yeng Liangchen, who was regulating his breath, showed a look of delight. As the white rainbow drew near, this practitioner sensed the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly gather. It was the method Master Lan Yi often used to replenish their energy—not as efficient as the direct infusion from Canghua, but convenient and effortless.

Especially after the stabilization of the Lotus of Thunder Pool.

Lan Yi had grown fond of gathering energy with her magnetic manipulation, letting martial artists soak leisurely as if in a warm spring.

Having easily identified friend from foe, Lan Yi used this technique to declare her presence.

And it was only thanks to the grand scale and billowing smoke of the battle here that Lan Yi, streaking north in a rainbow, found her way with precision even without soaring too high.

Had the notorious Lan the Demon gotten lost in an artificial divine realm, and the reborn ones discovered it, she’d surely become a laughingstock among the new generation of spiritual cultivators.

To the ordinary eye, Lan Yi was riding the white rainbow, flashing across the sky.

A minute before, the rainbow was still at the horizon.

In that brief span, the thunderbolt-like arc flashed several times, dragging a straight trail, and directly charged into proximity! That overwhelming momentum—so fierce that even a blind man would sense the killing aura emanating from Lan Yi. Merely being swept by it, people’s breath halted, as if scrutinized by a predator, enemy of heaven!

Is this… the power of the mind!?

Huo Yuanjia was utterly astonished within.

But then, he found it only natural.

Though Immortal Master Lan Yi had never openly demonstrated mastery of true martial arts before them, her understanding was profound. How could she not have cultivated the martial way? Such blazing, ferocious, and combative intent was a perfect match for the cold, rational visage that everyone had observed from afar.

Within the hearts of the two martial practitioners, emotions churned.

Their ambitions were too small.

Martial arts brooked no limits—if one didn’t even dare to imagine, they would surely be shackled.

Now, Lan Yi, with the most violent manner, showed all lucky enough to witness: martial arts means daring to dream! What is martial? Ending war with force? Nonsense!

A single warrior against a nation! To take a general amidst ten thousand! To raze cities, annihilate kingdoms! To pluck stars, shake the moon!

That is the martial way!

Kill!

Lan Yi’s fierce and unyielding will erupted in everyone’s minds as an unrelenting battle cry, her brainwaves and the battlefield’s atmosphere perfectly resonating, drawing all who revered her into a shared vision.

They saw the world as Lan Yi saw it.

Like mountains of steel, dreadnoughts counted in tens of thousands of tons appeared as mere clay and straw; deadly naval guns seemed scattered, their fields of fire full of gaps. The seemingly unbridgeable distance—if one dared, a single step could cross it. No matter the obstacles, however far, nothing could block a martial artist’s path!

Flash!

If a mountain bars me, I will cleave it.

Flash!

If the sea blocks me, I will burn it.

Persist in flashing, so long as the body withstands the strain!

Until…

Beneath my feet, the towering, ferocious enemy warship.

Whoever I wish to slay, I shall slay—this is martial prowess. Now, I shall strike to kill!

Dragon Sparrow Devours Whale Diagram—Godlike Martial Form: Furious Tide, Falling Feathers!

The foreign commander, sensing his end, looked up in his final moment. His gaze seemed to pierce layer upon layer of decks, meeting a pair of eyes blooming and spinning like lotus flowers.

Boom!

A thunderbolt split the sky, blinding lightning, and the radiant glow of the thunder phoenix spreading its wings created a scene where, save for the source of the light, everything was plunged into pitch darkness—a profound terror following in its wake.

The terror of life and death.

In everyone’s perception, that one second of a sudden strike stretched to what felt like tens of minutes.

When their senses returned to normal, it was all over. The sea breeze, waves, whistles—everything appeared normal, yet so profoundly altered. They gazed with awe and yearning toward the region tens of kilometers away.

They could not see it.

But they knew. In their hearts, every one of them knew.

Just now, Master Lan Yi had unleashed her martial power, killing all those foreigners. Some saw lightning, some saw a phoenix, some saw darkness, some saw rivers of blood—but all, without exception, saw the foreigners before Lan Yi swept away like sandcastles battered by the tide.

It was finished.

What seemed to them a bitter struggle, a situation possibly requiring retreat and regrouping, was decisively settled upon the Immortal Master’s arrival.

The punitive fleet was annihilated.

Not even a chance to escape.

In this era’s naval battles, it was a game of chase and pull, hoping for a lucky shot to cripple the enemy’s ship. If not, one would simply wear down the foe, waiting for a mistake, bad luck, or lack of maneuvering space—a process that often took days.

But Lan Yi—and the martial artists—had completely changed the game!

As long as they approached, they could swiftly wipe out the crew of an ironclad, achieving the destruction of the fleet.

Never mind that Lan Yi could fly.

Even a martial artist trained in energy cultivation, with a few tools, could approach targets underwater. Those with powerful external arts could prove just as effective aboard ironclads as those skilled in divine martial arts. Even if the interior was fully fortified, martial artists could demolish it by force, halting the ironclads.

Whether sealing off decks below or hauling both ship and crew away, nothing was impossible.

Martial artists had proven one thing:

The empire’s great naval powers had lost their former supremacy.

Whether on land or sea, the fist of the martial artist prevails—a single warrior against nations!