The next morning, before the light of day had pierced the darkness of the horizon, the Chengtian Hall was already as bright as day.
The dome is inlaid with hundreds of crystals, and when the main light shines on it, the entire ceiling shines like a starry river.
Lin Feng sat upright on the black and gold divine wood throne that symbolized absolute power. Unlike usual, he did not lean back lazily, but sat upright, with his elbows resting on the armrests carved with ferocious dragon heads, his fingers interlaced in front of him.
His gaze did not fall on the civil and military officials standing below, but rather he stared intently at the huge sand table in front of the throne, which was carved from a single piece of flawless white jade.
This sand table is the highest level of secrecy in the entire shelter. It accurately replicates all the mountains, rivers, forests and ruins within a 500-kilometer radius of the shelter at a scale of 1:1000.
Qin Lan, the woman who holds the dual roles of Minister of Discipline and Commander of the Imperial Guard, is standing beside the sand table at this moment.
She changed out of her usual black uniform and into a specially made, more capable-looking leather outfit.
She held a long pole made of star silver, and gently tapped the tip of the pole at various points on the sand table, producing a crisp and powerful sound.
"Leader, based on our scouts' continuous reconnaissance for over seventy-two hours, combined with intelligence gathered from interrogations of refugees, we have now fully identified a total of seventeen survivor settlements. Among them, the largest and strongest is this one—'Green Valley Fortress'."
Qin Lan's silver pole pointed to the west side of the sand table, to a valley marked by detailed green vegetation models and miniature city wall models.
"Green Valley Fortress currently has a population of approximately 3,500 to 4,000. Its leader, Wei Zheng, was originally a construction engineer during the Blue Star era. He is a resilient, resourceful, and highly effective leader."
"He led his men to occupy a crescent-shaped valley with abundant water and fertile land. They relied on farming as their main occupation and hunting as a supplement, and had already achieved self-sufficiency in food."
Her tone became serious: "According to our most elite scouts who risked their lives to get close and observe, its city walls are fifteen meters high, and the main body is made of mountain stone mixed with high-grade cement, making them extremely sturdy. On the city walls, there are at least thirty heavy repeating crossbows that we have never seen before, as well as more than five hundred well-trained and well-equipped crossbowmen."
"It can be said that Green Valley Fortress's defensive fortifications are undoubtedly the best among all the surrounding settlements."
Qin Lan's detailed report caused the atmosphere in the hall to freeze.
“Leader,” Li Xiangbin stepped forward first, “our shelter has just completed its main construction, and all aspects of production are in dire need of rebuilding. Launching a large-scale war at this moment to take on a tough nut like Green Valley Fortress, even if we ultimately win, will likely result in enormous resource consumption and significant casualties. This… could shake the very foundation of our development!”
“Yes, Leader,” said Wang Dachui, the newly appointed Minister of Industry, in a deep voice, “Our smelters have just gotten on track, and every skilled craftsman is invaluable. Using our flesh and blood to attack someone else’s steel walls—it’s simply not worth it!”
Everyone in the hall nodded in agreement.
Only Su Wanqing, who stood beside the throne, and Liu An, the chief steward who maintained a humble demeanor, remained silent.
They knew better than anyone that the will of the man on the throne was never bound by mundane logic.
Lin Feng finally made a move.
He slowly raised his head, shifting his gaze from the exquisite sand table to the crowd below.
His eyes were calm as still water, yet they possessed a power that could pierce through one's heart. Those whose gaze swept over them all trembled inwardly and instinctively lowered their heads.
“Casualties? Attrition?” He repeated the two words softly, but a cold, almost mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
He slowly stood up, walked to the sand table, and extended a slender finger, gently touching the sturdy miniature model of "Green Valley Castle".
"Your vision is still stuck in the era of building victory with human lives."
His voice wasn't loud, but through a tremor of telekinesis, it resonated clearly in everyone's ears: "And I will redefine 'war' for you, for this world."
He withdrew his finger, turned around, and walked back to the throne.
"Reveal my decree."
His voice suddenly became authoritative and cold, brooking no argument.
"The entire army assembled, and three days later, they arrived at the gates of Green Valley Fortress."
"but,"
He paused, each word seeming to emanate from a frozen abyss: "Not a single arrow must be fired, not a single soldier must be lost. I only want you to surround the city completely, and then... quietly admire it."
"I want them to witness firsthand what a miracle is, right beneath the walls they are most proud of."
"I will personally knock on its door."
Three days later, at Green Valley Fortress.
Lead-gray clouds hung low, and the air was filled with the damp smell of earth.
On the city wall, Chief Wei Zheng leaned against the cold battlements, his face ashen as he gazed outwards. His palms were covered in cold sweat.
As far as the eye could see, there was only darkness, an endless torrent of black.
The uniform black armor gleamed with a cold luster under the gloomy sky, and the standardized spears resembled an inverted forest of steel. The silent and murderous military formation was like an ancient behemoth lying on the earth, exuding a terrifying aura of predation.
"Leader... what... what exactly do they want to do?"
The adjutant's voice trembled uncontrollably: "They've been surrounding us for two hours now, without making any noise or attacking the city. It's like... like a flock of vultures waiting to watch us starve to death!"
Wei Zheng shook his head, his throat dry. He couldn't understand it, he couldn't understand it at all.
This tactic of encircling without attacking was beyond his comprehension.
This was no longer war, but a massive and brutal psychological ordeal. His proud city defenses seemed like a joke in the face of this ferocious army.
Just then, the black torrent in the distance slowly parted to the sides, making way for a wide central avenue leading directly to the city gate.
Under the watchful eyes of thousands, a person slowly walked out from the army formation.
He wasn't wearing any armor, just a simple black outfit, with his hands behind his back and his steps relaxed.
Behind him was only a woman, also dressed in black and with a tall, upright figure.
One man and one woman, two people.
They strolled towards a fortified stronghold with thousands of defenders and walls fifteen meters high.
"Who...who is that? Has he gone mad?"
"Alone? Does he want to come and die?"
The guards on the city wall let out incredulous gasps and laughter, but Wei Zheng's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints.
He couldn't see the person's face, but even from hundreds of meters away, he could feel the aloofness and indifference that surpassed thousands of troops, which made his heart pound and an unprecedented sense of crisis instantly seized his soul.
Lin Feng, leading Qin Lan, walked step by step to a point a hundred meters from the city gate, where they stopped.
This distance, just within the optimal range of a heavy crossbow, is also a blatant act of contempt.
He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the heavy ironwood city gate, and saw the man named Wei Zheng on the city wall.
His voice wasn't loud, but through the precise vibrations of his telekinesis, it clearly reached the ears of everyone on the city wall.
"The leader of Green Valley Fortress, Wei Zheng."
“I am Lin Feng. The king of the sanctuary you speak of.”
"Now, I'm giving you two choices."
"First, open the city gates, lay down your weapons, offer your loyalty, and accept my rule. You will become my subjects and receive my protection and glory."
"Two..." He paused, a cruel and playful smile curving his lips, "I will personally crush your self-proclaimed fortress, along with your pathetic hopes, into dust."
"Choose. I'll give you... ten seconds."
These words are extremely arrogant and presumptuous!
The city wall was initially deathly silent, then erupted in a fury as powerful as a landslide or tsunami.
"Insolence! Who does he think he is? A god?"
"Chief! Stop wasting time talking to him! Order the arrows to be fired! Shoot this arrogant madman to death!"
Wei Zheng's face flushed red, and his blood surged violently.
He was a powerful figure, holding the lives of thousands in his hands. He had never suffered such humiliation in person. Fear was replaced by anger, and reason was consumed by pride.
"You madman, you're courting death!" he roared, drawing his longsword and pointing it fiercely forward. "The men of Green Valley Fortress would rather die than surrender! All crossbowmen, heed my command!"
"Aim at that man! Give him...fire! Turn him into a pincushion!!"
"Buzz—buzz—buzz—!"
At a command, hundreds of crossbowmen on the city wall simultaneously pulled their triggers. Thirty "Thorn" heavy repeating crossbows emitted a deafening, teeth-grinding roar of their mechanisms.
In an instant, a torrential downpour of steel began to fall from the sky!
More than five hundred sharp crossbow bolts gleaming with a cold light, and hundreds of giant crossbow bolts as thick as a child's arm and capable of easily piercing iron armor, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air, rained down on Lin Feng and Qin Lan behind him like a dark cloud covering the sky!
On the city wall, countless people revealed cruel and gleeful grins.
Under such a saturated, all-encompassing barrage of arrows, not to mention flesh and blood, even an armored porcupine would be instantly reduced to mincemeat.
However, what happened next froze the smiles on their faces forever, tragically.
Lin Feng, facing the overwhelming rain of death, didn't even lift his eyelids. He simply raised one hand dismissively, his fingers spread wide.
There was no light, no sound.
An invisible and intangible, yet vast and majestic power instantly enveloped the entire space.
Time was forcibly paused at this moment.
Hundreds of crossbow bolts flying in mid-air, along with those giant crossbow bolts that whistled in, mysteriously and simultaneously crashed into an invisible wall of sighs, all hovering less than ten meters above Lin Feng's head!
They floated there densely, their arrowheads gleaming with a chilling light, their fletchings still trembling slightly, yet they could no longer advance an inch!
"Wh...what?!"
"Oh my god! The arrow... the arrow has stopped! It's stopped in the sky!"
"Sorcery! It's sorcery! The devil! He's the devil!"
On the city wall, everyone was terrified by what they saw—a scene that completely defied the laws of physics and seemed like divine punishment.
The clamorous roar turned into terrified screams. Many soldiers dropped their crossbows with a clatter, and some even collapsed to the ground, their groins soaked with sweat.
Wei Zheng, the leader of Green Valley Fortress, suddenly collapsed to the ground, his legs giving way beneath his weight. The longsword flew from his hand and clattered to the ground.
His eyes widened like copper bells, and his mouth opened wide enough to fit a fist. His worldview was shattered completely at that moment, turning into dust.
This is no longer the power of an ordinary person.
This is... divine power! It is an irresistible divine punishment!
Behind Lin Feng, Qin Lan's eyes blazed with an almost manic, burning light of worship.
She knew it, she knew it! The power of a leader far surpasses the imagination of ordinary people! This is the god she is willing to give everything to follow!
"I told you, you guys are noisy."
Lin Feng's voice echoed softly. His eyes finally turned cold. He raised his right hand and gently clenched his fist.
"So, here's your toys back."
The moment the words fell, the rain of arrows suspended in the air seemed to receive a new and more cruel command.
All the arrows traced eerie arcs in the air, instantly changing direction and swirling back with even greater speed and force than when they came, accompanied by a deathly howl!
This is a reverse flow from hell!
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The sounds of flesh being pierced and torn apart were as dense as firecrackers being set off during a festival.
The city walls instantly transformed into a scene of carnage.
Those crossbowmen who were just grinning hadn't even lost their smiles when the arrows they themselves had shot pierced their throats, eye sockets, and hearts with pinpoint accuracy.
Thirty sturdy, heavy repeating crossbows were shattered into pieces by the larger crossbow bolts, sending splinters flying everywhere.
Blood splattered everywhere like a grand fireworks display. Screams rose and fell, only to be abruptly cut short.
After a volley of arrows, fewer than ten people remained standing atop the fifteen-meter-high city wall.
The scarlet blood gathered into streams, flowing slowly down the cracks in the wall like tiny blood-red waterfalls, staining the gray-white wall with a shocking and eerie crimson.
Dead silence.
The whole world fell into a deathly silence.
Outside the city, Lin Feng's massive black army remained completely silent.
But in the eyes of every soldier burned an absolute faith and fervor for the miracles of their leader.
Inside the city, the few survivors, including Wei Zheng, were so terrified that they wet themselves and crawled to their knees, kowtowing frantically to the man outside the city as if worshipping a god, until their foreheads were covered in blood.
"God...God...have mercy! Have mercy! We were wrong! We surrender! We are willing to give everything!"
However, Lin Feng's trial is not over yet.
His gaze passed over the lowly ants and landed on the tall and sturdy city wall.
"You say it's very sturdy?" he said, as if to himself, or as if to pronounce judgment on Wei Zheng, who was trembling beneath his feet.
He slowly raised his hands and held them loosely in front of his chest.
"Boom!"
The earth began to shake violently.
Before everyone's horrified and unforgettable eyes, that 100-meter-long, sturdy city wall, made of mountain stone and cement, began to rise inch by inch... off the ground!
Countless stones and dust fell in a flurry, and the connection between the city wall and the foundation emitted a tooth-grinding, unbearably strained groan and cracking sound.
Lin Feng's telekinetic power was like countless invisible Titan hands, forcefully uprooting this colossal object weighing tens of thousands of tons from the ground and lifting it dozens of meters into the air!
"No...no! No!!" Wei Zheng cried out in despair.
This wall is their lifeline, their last source of security, and a symbol of pride for everyone in Green Valley Fortress.
Now, this symbol, before this demonic man, is as fragile as a child's building block.
Lin Feng's eyes were indifferent, and his hands, which were loosely clasped together, suddenly clenched inward!
"boom!"
It was accompanied by an unprecedented, deafening roar.
The magnificent city wall that was lifted into the air was squeezed, kneaded, and twisted from the middle by an unimaginable, terrifying force from space itself!
Hard rocks crumbled and shattered instantly, like fragile biscuits! Thick steel bars were twisted into pretzels!
The next second, countless large and small fragments, like a meteor shower of apocalypse, carrying the kinetic energy to destroy everything, poured indiscriminately into the interior of Green Valley Fortress!
Houses collapsed, the ground cracked, and screams, cries, and the sounds of buildings crumbling blended into a desperate symphony of death.
Just one strike.
Green Valley Castle, once an impregnable fortress, along with all its pride and defenses, has been reduced to a desolate ruin filled with wailing cries.
Lin Feng slowly lowered his hands, as if he had only done a trivial matter.
He turned around, no longer glancing at the city that had become hell, and walked towards his army.
His silhouette, etched into eternity by countless eyes filled with awe and fear.
"Qin Lan," his voice remained calm, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him, "The rest is up to you. Take a headcount, confiscate supplies, and kill any who resist."
"Yes, my leader! My god!" Qin Lan trembled with excitement. She knelt on one knee and responded to her god with the utmost devotion.
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