The ash that was blown into the sky was slowly drifting down, even the troops stationed at a distance were being subjected to this rain of ash.
After waiting for the chaotic airflow to calm down again, the observers carefully watched for any changes in the environment. They needed to confirm the exact situation before they could send anyone out as reinforcement, otherwise, they could be sending out reinforcement for the enemy instead.
All disaster-infected Desolates had the ability to rapidly regenerate through absorbing disaster aura from killing people, so they had to be careful about it.
The ammunition they had chosen was specially made out of Cede, which was named God's Guidance. Shortly after being shot, the Cede runes carved onto the projectile would be triggered by the heat caused by air friction, then guide all surrounding matter to undergo the same physical reaction.
It was a weapon of mass destruction, but all Celestials knew about a backdoor that was left in the God's Guidance ammunition, which allowed them to swiftly take the corresponding defensive maneuvers and avoid being caught in the reaction, although they would still have to endure the explosion that followed.
Everything around the center of the explosion had been reduced to nothingness, which left a huge crater in the earth, the only thing remaining was the drifting ash in the sky.
After a long while, some of the ashen ground was pushed away as Yun Yi climbed out from inside. After twitching for a bit, his right arm's gauntlet broke into pieces and fell off, even his giant snake Totem had become transparent.
The force of the explosion was smaller than expected, most likely because the disaster-infected Desolates had destroyed everything there was to destroy, leading to fewer things being able to take part in the physical reaction.
"That's not necessarily a good thing" Yun Yi slowly shook his head and touched his forehead with his hand, noticing a small cut. While he had made sure to defend appropriately, some of the force still penetrated the barrier and injured him.
He searched the pieces of his broken gauntlet for a bit to take out a small bottle and swallowed a pill from it, which made him feel a bit better.
"The others should still be alive, I wonder if the Shaman…" Yun Yi's eyes scanned through the inside of the crater.
The Nanwu Shaman doesn't know the frequency of God's Guidance, which would have made it much more difficult to deal with.
In other words, she would have been caught in the range of the explosion as well as the preceding physical reaction.
But since the force of the explosion wasn't quite as large as we expected, it's hard to tell if that actually killed her.
At this point, Yun Yi realized that he hadn't calmed down at all, something that he couldn't quite perceive was sending signals of danger to his mind.
"That luck-increasing reward, I suppose?" Yun Yi stood straight up on top of the smoking ground, keeping an ear out for any surrounding noises.
"One, two,… five" one after another, the Celestials emerged from inside their barriers. Including Yun Yi himself, only 6 people remained, which meant that 3 people were already dead.
A black aura suddenly flowed out in the sky and manifested into the Nanwu Shaman's form, however, she appeared considerably weaker, which suggested that not even she had managed to escape the explosion unscathed.
『 AAAHH… 』the Nanwu Shaman looked down and smiled, then looked up and started laughing.
Her delicately pale features coupled with the hysterical laughter only made it so that she was even more terrifying: 『 How wonderfully done, I really want to kill you all even more now 』
Yun Yi spat up some blood with a terrible expression. Even though he had anticipated this, the fact that this individual remained alive was a strike to Yun Yi's mental state. His strength paled in comparison to the Celestials, so most of his prowess lay within the fantasy technology that he carried around, but unfortunately, they were all broken now.
As the black aura gathered towards the Nanwu Shaman, her previously weakened presence rapidly returned to how it was before.
The destruction caused by the disaster-infected Desolates would be snuffed out very soon, but 'soon' wasn't immediate, and quite a few disaster-infected Desolates still managed to sneak off to other regions to cause destruction. As long as this source of disaster remained, the Nanwu Shaman would continue to be able to absorb the disaster aura necessary to maintain her existence.
The explosion earlier wiped out all the disaster aura that made up her body, the force of the explosion also struck her consciousness directly, which almost killed her, but it was only 'almost'.
Her consciousness managed to hold on, once again absorb disaster aura, and resurrect.
Not good, I have to do something quickly!
Watching the recovering Nanwu Shaman, Yun Yi raised his index finger to the sky and released his 'dead' Totem again. The weak giant snake coiled its own body and extracted a bit of Cede from the Ancestral Wild to help Yun Yi perform a Cede curse.
Fresh blood shot out from the tip of his finger and exploded into a bloody mist in the sky.
…
"Commander, code Red again!" the observer was a bit surprised, then swiftly reported.
This type of ammunition was extremely difficult to produce, so the 3rd squadron only brought two of them this time, but the bigger issue was those who remained in the crater. They were all elites among the Celestials, but it was already difficult for them to escape the explosion by relying on the backdoor just once, so attempting to do so once again was practically suicide.
"Those who walk the path of eternal peace would not regret their choices. Once again, prepare to fire!" the commander of the 3rd squadron gave out her orders once again, knowing that everything currently happening was under control.
Very few people would know that firing two God's Guidance in a row at the same location would lead to a unique reaction. The 3rd squadron's commander stood up with a flick of her jacket, showing off her beautiful slender physique that not a single person dared enjoy, gently smiling as she gazed into the distance.
The other consciousness of Lord Negary had created [Disaster] and became the Lord of Disaster. Since none of us is currently with him, we should at least send someone that would be suitable as an aide.
Lan Shan half-opened her eyes as she turned her eyes towards the floating Nanwu Shaman.
As she was the one who personally created God's Guidance, she knew about the exact special characteristics of this kind of ammunition. Whenever two God's Guidance shots were fired at the same location in a short period of time, it would swiftly tow an instance of space into the world.
At that time, they would have to see whether the Nanwu Shaman could take advantage of this opportunity, both to survive the explosion as well as accept the guidance of the Lord of Disaster's power. If she couldn't catch this opportunity, then there was nothing else to be said, since the organization had decided that she would only aid the Lord of Disaster with some insignificant minor tasks.
If she couldn't even grasp an opportunity, then she would most likely not be able to accomplish even minor tasks, which meant she didn't need to exist.
As for Yun Yi and the other Celestials, Lan Shan simply giggled while narrowing her eyes. Killer J was already caught while acting pitiful to Negary, so that gate of his was currently available for use. After sealing himself to become a Divine Artifact, The Unreachable Gate's unapproachable form of existence had greatly disappeared, but at the same time, so had his restrictions.
At least, his Pathway wouldn't suddenly collapse anymore just because someone stepped on it.
All of those Celestials, including Yun Yi himself, volunteered to take part in this operation, either to fight, or to face death, or to cut off their path, but in essence, they were trying to advance on the path of eternal peace.
What Killer J needed to do was to use The Unreachable Gate to save them. Just like the Nanwu Shaman, each of them had been given a single chance to live, and only by surpassing themselves would they be able to catch it. This was their hope, so if they came to regret it later on, then there was no choice but to have him say sorry.
…
"I really hate this job!" Killer J was sitting with both his legs on a chair while propping his bored face up with one hand. He was certain that the beady-eyed Lan Shan was plotting against him again.
