Chapter 340. A Hundred Opponents, A Single Victor (1)

Two thousand out of the three thousand five hundred troops fell into the ground.

"Agh!"

"U-ugh!!"

The casualties were piling up fast. If this wasn’t the pits of hell, then what was?

When the survivors looked up, they realized they were trapped nearly four zhang deep.

“Fuck, we have to get out!”

A few quick-witted people sensed something ominous.

Fearing what might happen if they stayed, they started thinking about climbing the wall or using each other’s shoulders to jump.

The height was daunting, but not impossible for martial artists. With combined strength, escape seemed doable.

However, Zhuge Shengji wasn’t one to let that happen.

After they climbed roughly two zhang up the uneven wall of the collapsed ground, there was a sound of mechanical devices engaging.

Clunk!

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

A square section of the wall was suddenly carved out, its edges clean—like it had been sliced with a sword.

Before they could figure out what was happening, an iron pillar shot out, embedding itself into the opposite wall

Boom!

“Ahhh!”

Even if it had been made of wood or stone, it would’ve been deadly. But it was iron.

The Seven Stars Division soldiers climbing the opposite wall were struck as if by what seemed like lightning, their bodies crushed and flattened into mangled flesh.

Those who narrowly avoided being struck fell back into the pit, bones cracking as they hit the bottom.

Chaos erupted again.

It wasn't just one or two pillars. There were more than fifteen of them, and they began to block the view above their heads.

"Damn it, don't try climbing any further!"

"But what if everything above us collapses?"

Within the pit of hell, the survivors belatedly realized the danger and screamed.

Even those who didn’t give up until the end had to come down.

Mechanisms...

In the midst of the chaos, only Destructive Soldier remained calm and analyzed the situation.

The Mechanism Freak.

Zhuge Shengji had earned his title through several incidents. It was mainly due to the various weapons mobilized by the Gold Will Merchants.

Zhuge Shengji.

As a companion of Zhou Xuchuan, he was also known to the Dark Heavens Association as a freak obsessed with a dead art.

However, the Dark Heavens Association couldn’t simply remember him as a somewhat unique person.

Since many of the Dark Heavens Association's branches and plans had dormant mechanisms, Zhuge Shengji was designated as a dangerous person.

Destructive Soldier didn't have to think too deeply to know who had created the mechanism above him.

“Destructive Soldier!”

Someone shouted, pulling him from his thoughts.

It was the Wind Mountain Gang boss, Wang Jijian, one of the Nine Forest Gangs’ most notorious leaders.

His exposed teeth were yellow and his hair was disheveled. He was about six feet tall and had a wild appearance, holding a podao in his right hand.

A fierce flame spread from his eyes.

What sort of shit are we in because of that bastard?!

Wang Jijian hadn't liked Destructive Soldier from the beginning.

He didn't want to follow the orders of some nosy bastard, and didn't trust him because he always hid in armor.

If the Stockade Boss Hong Xialang hadn't been the one to tell him to follow him obediently, he would have beaten up Destructive Soldier a long time ago.

Like most Green Forest Gang bandits, Wang Jijian didn't have much patience.

Since things have turned out this way, I, the Wind Mountain Gang Boss Wang Jijian, will take advantage of that bastard's failure to become the commander.

His heart was already pounding at the thought of controlling the three thousand Dark Heavens Army forces like his own hands and feet.

Wang Jijian made an ambitious plan in his head, and approached Destructive Soldier as if he was going to run towards him, and shouted.

"You! You bastard! How do you plan on taking responsibility for this... ugh!"

However, Wang Jijian’s ambition didn’t last even the full Three Days in Heaven.[1]

Destructive Soldier grabbed Wang Jijian’s neck with one hand.

“Those who are alive from the Blessed Existence Star, gather together.”

“Understood!”

The heavy, sinking voice of Destructive Soldier spread around.

Before those who had just begun to recover from the shock could fully regain their senses, Destructive Soldier’s voice rang out again—freezing them in place.

"As you can see, we've fallen into a trap, and a mechanism at that. Is there a way for us to minimize the damage and escape?"

The Seven Stars Division soldiers belonging to the Blessed Existence Star were unable to easily answer Destructive Soldier’s question. They looked at each other with troubled expressions.

The brains of the Seven Stars Division, the Blessed Existence Star, didn't know everything. Especially as only a few people within the Blessed Existence Star were knowledgeable about dead arts like mechanisms.

“Tsk.”

Destructive Soldier clicked his tongue in irritation.

"Cough, cough! Ugh! Agh!"

Meanwhile, Wang Jijian gagged and thrashed in his grip, coughing violently.

Destructive Soldier ignored him. He waited until the gang boss’s face turned blue, then finally flung him aside.

Thud, thud, thud!

"B-boss!"

“Are you okay?”

The bandits from the Nine Forest Gangs, especially from the Wind Mountain Gang, rushed to his side in panic.

“If you spout nonsense again, you’ll regret it.”

A chilling glare pierced from inside Destructive Soldier’s helmet.

Gulp!

Those who inadvertently met his gaze were overwhelmed and couldn’t even turn their heads properly.

“...”

Destructive Soldier raised his head and looked up.

The sunlight wasn't very visible because of the densely packed iron pillars.

From above, faint clashes of weapons could still be heard—the battle between the Guizhou Army and the remaining Dark Heavens troops was ongoing.

He thought about sticking his Flame Point Spear into the ground and extending its length to climb up, but he soon gave up.

Looking up, it was clear that there was a mechanism meant to stop any ascent above them.

One wrong move, and he could trigger a chain reaction that would bring the whole structure down.

If he were alone, he wouldn’t care. He could survive the collapse. But right now, two thousand of his subordinates were depending on him.

“Give me your opinion, Blessed Existence Star.”

There was a hint of anger in Destructive Soldier’s voice.

The Blessed Existence Star members instantly turned pale.

We'll die if we don't give him an answer.

Even if they didn’t know about the mechanism, they had to give him an answer.

Moreover, their answer couldn't be wrong.

The Blessed Existence Star members quickly racked their brains, integrated their opinions, and came up with an answer.

"C-considering the scale, they must have had quite a bit of materials. There must be a passageway for transporting them, and thus an entrance."

After gathering the Blessed Existence Star’s opinion, Destructive Soldier looked around. They were inside a massive underground cavern, spacious enough to hold two thousand men.

The ceiling, which merged with the surrounding rock walls, was crisscrossed with iron pillars.

Sunlight filtered in through narrow gaps, and faint tremors from the earlier impact still lingered, causing dirt to trickle down in a soft drizzle.

Just as the Blessed Existence Star had said, there were several passages leading out of the cavern.

Though they weren’t lined with marble or anything ornate, several tunnels could be seen at a glance.

They were wide enough for people to walk through, but too narrow to move an entire army at once.

"Report the number of troops, excluding the seriously injured or dead."

“One thousand, five hundred.”

The initial collapse of the ground caused many deaths and injuries. There were also those who died trying to climb up.

“A slight breeze is blowing from inside the tunnels!” a Seven Stars Division soldier who had been scouting a tunnel reported.

The same report came from the other tunnels.

The fact that wind was blowing through the tunnels meant that the passages weren't very long and were all connected to an exit of some sort.

"While it would be different if this pit was constructed to maintain secrecy like the Association base, considering this was made to be a trap, it would be a one time use construction, so there’d be no reason to dig the tunnels too far,” one Blessed Existence Star soldier noted.

"Moreover, judging from the sounds of the enemy and our soldiers fighting from above, the pit itself doesn't seem to be that deep," another added.

"Good. Then, send out scouts to check the area around the tunnels, and once that's completed, we depart."

Although they didn’t know what was lurking ahead, they couldn’t stay here forever.

They had to rejoin the rest of the army quickly before the troops above were wiped out entirely.

Time didn’t allow for careful reconnaissance.

They also couldn’t afford to bet everything on a single tunnel since they had no idea which led to the surface.

Those with quick feet or keen eyes among the Seven Stars Division soldiers were selected to look inside the tunnels.

In the meantime, Destructive Soldier also took charge of one of the tunnels and checked it out.

He planned on investigating by extending the length of the Flame Point Spear so that it reached the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately, the tunnel twisted and turned, blocking it halfway.

Though the spear could extend endlessly, it couldn’t bend or sense obstacles in front it.

Still, seeing no obvious issues, Destructive Soldier gave an order after withdrawing his spear.

"Send forward those trained in external cultivation, those with agility, and anyone with resistance to poison."

There were about twenty tunnels.

To proceed, they decided to divide into groups of seventy-five, assigning one group to each tunnel.

The tunnels were wide enough for two or three people to pass through side by side and long enough to accommodate everyone, so the plan seemed feasible.

The soldiers quickly fashioned torches to illuminate the darkness ahead.

Since the initial reconnaissance hadn’t revealed any danger, the next logical concern was the possibility of traps—perhaps hidden pits or other mechanisms embedded within the maze-like passages.

However, after half an hour of searching forward, they realized something was wrong.

Clang.

Hissssss.

“It’s poison!”

"Agh!"

It all started with poison.

Poisonous smoke poured out from between the cracks drawn on the wall of the passage and filled the tunnel.

The Dark Heavens Army, now stuck in a narrow place where only two or three people could pass, was fully exposed to the poisonous smoke. Even though the soldiers tried to retreat, they were unable to move because of the comrades packed in behind them.

However, it wasn't just poisonous fog. Their hell was only just beginning.

Click, click!

As the sound of mechanical devices activating rang out, hundreds of small holes appeared on the walls of the circular tunnel.

Thwip!!

"I-it's a trap... agh!!!"

What flew out of the hundreds of holes were sharp knives and other hidden weapons.

The sight of metal flying in such a narrow passage was more than terrifying. The inside of the passage was soon filled with screams.

We've been tricked.

Destructive Soldier gritted his teeth.

Thanks to his Black Iron Armor which boasted absolute defense, Destructive Soldier had no problems.

All of the hidden weapons bounced off, and the poison couldn't penetrate his armor.

Most importantly, Destructive Soldier had kept his distance by taking the lead alone. Thus, he was able to activate the traps in advance and block them, reducing the damage to the soldiers who followed him.

However, the

only

place that was safe was the tunnel where the Destructive Soldier was, as the situation in the other tunnels was extremely dire.

“My body! My body!”

“AGH!!! IT BURNS!!”

Each mechanism was different. Destructive Soldier couldn’t even figure out how they operated.

Some triggered under a specific amount of weight, others activated when touched.

Poisonous smoke and hidden weapons were only the beginning. Sometimes fire would even spurt out, turning the tunnels into a fiery hell.

More importantly, there were also cases where traps would activate behind them, making it impossible for them to properly escape.

J-just who the hell made something like this?

Zhuge Shengji!

It was at this moment that the characters for Zhuge Shengji's name were engraved in the heads of Destructive Soldier and the Blessed Existence Star soldiers.

It was an understatement to say that this mechanism was genius. The design of the mechanism that even the experts couldn’t figure out was a nightmare.

In order to intentionally draw them into the trap, the mechanisms at the front of the tunnels weren't activated. Moreover, it was set to calculate weight so that they wouldn't be triggered during scouting, with devices installed so that they would only activate if more than a few dozen people entered.

Destructive Soldier tried to break the mechanism by scraping the wall with his spear, but then hesitated.

I might trigger something worse by accident.

He wanted to break everything and just go through, but he couldn’t because of what he had seen so far.

How scary you are, Zhuge Shengji.

Zhou Xuchuan wasn't the only monster.

In the Art of War, it was said that winning without battle was the greatest victory.

After all, wasn't that a true saying?

Without lifting a hand, Zhuge Shengji had stopped them from using their strength or cultivation at all.

Even though we know it's a trap, we have no choice but to keep moving.

The retreat was blocked. There were no side paths. There was more than just one or two concerning things for them to blast past while destroying everything.

He felt suffocated, as if he had severe indigestion.

Just how the hell does his brain work?!

The Blessed Existence Star soldiers also trembled. They were experiencing it firsthand now—and realizing how terrifying the art of mechanisms truly was.

The reason that it had become a dead art was because the art of mechanisms was extremely inefficient.

In essence, to even begin to learn it, one had to be proficient in mathematics, as well as various skilled crafts like engineering and blacksmithing.

Since its scale was large and various integration techniques were required, it inevitably declined.

It was an art only used to prevent the tombs of special figures such as the Three-Eyed Godly Thief or the Ominous Demon, or even kings and emperors, from being robbed.

It was only natural that it had been rejected by the

murim.

After all, wasn't it possible to achieve such strange creations through the art of formations without any special materials?

Besides, trying to trap a strong martial artist with agile movements using mechanisms wasn't an easy feat.

For most sects, it was far more efficient to invest time, effort, and money into training more experts.

There literally isn't any crazier person.

1. A mocking idiom meaning a short time. It originally came from those who led a successful rebellion only to lose in three days. I thought the idiom was funny because of its similarity to the completely unrelated Seven Minutes in Heaven, so I kept it instead of localizing it. ☜