Far across the snowy expanse, the gray-robed Elder Hu and the white-templed Elder Tie stood shoulder-to-shoulder, watching the siege unfold with unshakeable confidence.

"Brothers, advance!"

A Jinlin Guard, completely encased in heavy armor, roared the command. This guard, originally near the rear, surged forward with explosive speed, covering three to four zhang in a single stride, accompanied by a gust of wind toward the city walls. Arrows from above struck him with dull pangs, merely leaving faint white marks on his heavy plating.

Hundreds of Jinlin Guards fanned out and charged forward together.

"Boom!" The lead Jinlin Guard slammed his foot onto the ground before leaping again, soaring clear over the six or seven zhang expanse of fire, landing precisely on the daggers his comrades had previously driven into the city wall.

It turned out the first few dozen Jinlin Guards had only one objective: to embed daggers, creating precarious footholds for the main assault.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Dozens of Jinlin Guards landed almost simultaneously on the daggers, using them for a powerful upward thrust.

"Down!!!" A hoarse shout echoed from the battlements.

"Splash~~~"

Great iron cauldrons, burning scalding hot, were violently overturned, cascading down scalding water and boiling oil without mercy. Beneath the searing cascade of oil and water, the first wave of dozens of Jinlin Guards held their heads down, allowing the oil to drench them as they desperately clung to the parapet.

Low, guttural roars emanated from these Jinlin Guards.

"Kill!" Battle sabers swung down violently, targeting the Jinlin Guards' fingers or hacking at their ground-level defenses. Usually, several city guards would attack these assailants simultaneously.

"Clang!" "Clang!"

Iron gauntlets met steel. Sparks flew across their helmet visors. Quite a few Jinlin Guards were hacked loose and fell away, but many more surged over the top. The leader among them flashed a savage grin and roared, "Brothers, slaughter them!" The shout reverberated above Yanjiang City.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

Every Jinlin Guard let loose a bloodthirsty cry.

"Smash!" One guard delivered a palm strike that instantly burst the head of a city soldier. Brain matter splattered, and the attacker immediately drew the saber from his waist, hacking wildly and indiscriminately. The Jinlin Guards moved like wolves among sheep.

"Damn it all," spat a middle-aged city soldier, clutching a pot of hot oil and splashing it toward an attacking Jinlin Guard.

Splash!

Caught entirely off guard, the hot oil streamed through the visor and drenched the Jinlin Guard’s face.

"Aaaaaah~~~" The guard shrieked in agony, dropping to the ground and rolling, clutching his head. The skin on his face was utterly ruined; his eyeballs were scorched. In unbearable pain, the Jinlin Guard tore off his helmet, revealing it was filled to the brim with the hot oil. But—

"Thrust!" The middle-aged soldier abruptly swung his battle saber and cleaved the Jinlin Guard's head clean off.

"Uncle Liu, well done," an adjacent young soldier yelled excitedly.

"Watch out!" The middle-aged soldier’s expression shifted drastically.

Whoosh! A flash of steel sliced past, and the young soldier’s eyes widened as blood began to seep relentlessly from his chest before he crashed down heavily. A golden silhouette whooshed toward the middle-aged soldier: "You killed my brother, die!" This golden shadow was filled with uncontrollable rage.

"Damn you," the middle-aged soldier roared back, charging forward.

...

"Get down from there!" Wu Hao, the Captain of the Yanjiang City Guard, moved with lightning speed, kicking a Jinlin Guard from the side and sending him flying downward.

Wu Hao had earned his captaincy through martial prowess and was undoubtedly a first-rate warrior.

"This is bad," Wu Hao observed as he saw over a hundred Jinlin Guards had already breached the ramparts in a short span. The city defenders were only maintaining a temporary stalemate by virtue of sheer numbers. "We've already lost at least a hundred men in this brief moment. If this continues, another few hundred dead, and we’ll likely break and flee."

"Black Armored Army... too late to arrive," Wu Hao’s face darkened.

Three Jinlin Guards, appearing like monstrous iron beasts, closed in to surround him. Wu Hao had nowhere to escape.

"Clang!" "Slice!"

An arm was severed and thrown aside.

"Thwack!" "Thwack!" "Thwack!" "Thwack!" "Thwack!"...

A series of piercing sonic booms ripped through the air.

"I... I'm not dead?" Wu Hao stared wide-eyed. The three Jinlin Guards surrounding him had all taken projectiles through the head; bloody punctures marred their helmets. All three crashed down. Furthermore, in just a single breath, over ten Jinlin Guards had fallen!

This stunned the remaining Jinlin Guards on the wall.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Teng Qingshan, clad in heavy black iron armor, and Elder Yan, wearing lighter, simplified armor, appeared atop the wall.

"Qingshan, well done," Elder Yan said with a smile before his form blurred into action.

"Clang!" "Clang!"...

Dazzling silver sword light flashed ceaselessly as a figure moved with astonishing speed. Wherever the figure passed, Jinlin Guards fell.

"Innate Realm Expert!!!" A cry of sheer terror erupted.

"All of you, die," Teng Qingshan swept his cold gaze across the rampart. In his left hand, he held a small cloth pouch of pebbles, which he set on the ground. Teng Qingshan scooped pebbles with both hands simultaneously, transforming them into phantom blurs, each stone becoming a lethal weapon!

"Thwack!" "Thwack!" "Thwack!"...

Compared to Elder Yan, an Innate Golden Core expert, Teng Qingshan’s pebbles were far more terrifying. After all, seeing Elder Yan approach, the Jinlin Guards instantly tried to dodge and retreat; Elder Yan still needed speed to reach them.

But Teng Qingshan was different.

Every pebble launched signaled the termination of a life.

With the fingertip strength Teng Qingshan commanded, each launched stone possessed stopping power comparable to a large-caliber sniper rifle from his past life. Every stone could pierce hardened helmets and punch through the skulls of these Jinlin Guards. Moreover, Teng Qingshan’s skill with hidden weapons ensured absolute precision with every shot!

Both hands—it was like wielding two Barrett sniper rifles, firing at a rate of two rounds per second! The ammunition? Inexpensive 'pebbles'.

...

On the dim ramparts of Yanjiang City, a massacre was underway!

Previously, it was the Jinlin Guards butchering the common soldiers. Now, it was Teng Qingshan and Elder Yan slaughtering the Jinlin Guards.

"Retreat!"

"Withdraw!!!"

Angry shouts rose from the snowy ground below. Jinlin Guards scrambled backward, leaping down from the wall. Even as they fled, the omnipresent 'pebbles' continued their deadly trajectory, piercing the heads of four more Jinlin Guards before the rest managed to reach the base of the wall.

But even once they reached the ground, Jinlin Guards kept falling with their heads shot through.

"Run, run, hurry and flee!" The Jinlin Guards, running faster than leopards, were nearly broken. Even as they sprinted, comrades collapsed limply beside them, the sound of powerful sonic booms echoing in their ears. They didn't dare stop until they were dozens of zhang away, and the pebbles finally ceased—but they kept running, not stopping until they reached a hundred zhang out.

On the snow.

The surviving Jinlin Guards turned to look at their fallen comrades. Their faces were ashen, and they sank onto the ground, their eyes wide with terror.

"Haha, we won!"

"We won!"

The city soldiers atop the Yanjiang City wall cheered in elation. The brief siege had terrified them, but in the end, they were victorious. Soldiers who had lost brothers and friends kicked the corpses of the Jinlin Guards to vent their fury.

"Hoo," Teng Qingshan stood on the wall, gazing out at the scattered Jinlin Guards on the distant snow. "They fled quickly enough."

Teng Qingshan also flexed his fists. To launch so many 'pebbles' in such a short time, each requiring such piercing force... it placed extreme demands on his ten fingers. Fortunately, Teng Qingshan had relentlessly trained his hands and fingers since childhood.

"Qingshan," Elder Yan approached, faint traces of blood staining his armor, his eyes filled with astonishment.

"Elder Yan," Teng Qingshan turned, smiling.

"I have never heard of such hidden weapon techniques," Elder Yan glanced at the small cloth pouch nearby. No one would ever believe that commonplace pebbles had taken the lives of these prized Jinlin Guards. "In that short period, how many Jinlin Guards did you kill? Must have been around a hundred, yes?"

"Eighty-two Jinlin Guards on the wall, and thirty-three down below," Teng Qingshan replied.

Even witnessing it, Elder Yan found it hard to believe. "I only killed twenty-one Jinlin Guards, but Qingshan, you killed one hundred and fifteen."

"Elder Yan," Wu Hao, the Captain of the City Guard, approached respectfully. He paused momentarily, glancing at Teng Qingshan. He knew the other three of the Four Commanders, but not this man. However, Teng Qingshan’s attire clearly denoted a Commander, so Wu Hao quickly deduced his identity.

"Thank you, Commander Teng, for saving our lives," Wu Hao bowed respectfully, yet inwardly marveling, "Commander Teng’s hidden weapon mastery is truly terrifying. One by one, those Jinlin Guards just kept dropping."

...

The city guards on the Yanjiang City wall were carrying away the corpses of their comrades; the stench of blood saturated the entire parapet.

Down below, on the snow a hundred zhang away from the wall.

"Centurion Liu, you’re saying you didn't even see what hidden weapon it was?" Elder Tie, his temples white, roared in anger.

At a distance of a hundred zhang, given the speed and size of the pebbles, even an Innate expert couldn't see them.

The blood-soaked Jinlin Guard’s eyes still held residual terror. "Elder Tie, I only heard piercing sonic booms, and then my brothers just kept falling... They died too fast, too fast. Every time we heard the sound, another brother went down! The sharp noise kept sounding, so rapidly. When we fled from the base of the wall, a whole contingent of our brothers fell in just two or three breaths."

"Elder Tie, Master!"

A heart-rending cry rang out. A youth, tears streaming down his face, suddenly knelt before the two elders and sobbed, "I beg you, you must kill that murderer and avenge my elder brother! Master!!!" These Jinlin Guards, having narrowly escaped death, had absolutely no will to charge again.

This youth had no confidence in avenging himself; he could only plead with his Master!

"Set up camp here!" The gray-robed middle-aged man ignored his disciple and gave a cold command.

Elder Tie and Elder Hu stood near the edge of the newly formed camp.

"The surprise attack to seize the city has failed!" The gray-robed middle-aged man looked towards the camp. "These Jinlin Guards have completely lost their morale!"

The white-templed Elder Tie was filled with sorrow and rage. "Elder Hu, five hundred Jinlin Guards! Our Azure Lake Island only possesses two thousand Jinlin Guards in total! In such a short moment, we lost nearly a hundred and fifty men! Azure Lake Island has never suffered such a massive loss. What kind of terrifying weapon is capable of piercing a Jinlin Guard's helmet? And killing over a hundred in such a brief time—how many hidden weapon experts are there in Yanjiang City?"

"The Guiyuan Sect truly hides its strength well!" Elder Hu gazed toward Yanjiang City. "When we finally take this city, these hidden weapon masters had better be captured alive!"