Peony detached her right hand to use as a projection device, then brought over a stool, drinks, and snacks, sitting next to Wang Ji Xuan, craning her neck to watch the three-dimensional projection screen in front of them.
The surface of Fortress 76 was quiet and still.
Wang Ji Xuan glanced at the layered monitoring screens, took the candied fruit Peony offered, and chewed it a few times.
Hmm? It's not an industrial product.
Wang Ji Xuan asked, "Where did you get the candied fruit?"
"Candied fruit?"
Peony answered honestly:
"You have special talent subsidy points. I saw you didn't have much use for them usually, so I exchanged them for some snacks for you. They were very expensive."
"The taste isn't bad."
Daoist Wang took the candied fruit and chewed it, instructing:
"Leave some for Ling Tong... Can you see the command center on the third level?"
"According to the rules and regulations, we shouldn't be able to see it," Peony smiled mysteriously, "but as long as you allow it, we can."
"Give me the visual."
"Alright."
Peony snapped her slender right hand on the table, and a projection screen appeared to the left of Wang Ji Xuan, showing the command center where Dongfang Zhenghong was located, with synchronized audio and video.
Is this the perspective Old Fu used to secretly watch the commanders?
Quite interesting.
On the large screen in front of Dongfang Zhenghong was a radar interface, showing dozens of constantly flashing red dots.
A group of high-level spirit energy users were advancing underground, seemingly using some kind of spirit energy to slowly overcome various terrain obstacles.
"The estimated target will appear on the side walls of the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels!"
"The enemy's advance is slowing down, they're avoiding the minefield!"
"Commander, should we actively detonate the landmines!"
Dongfang Zhenghong said slowly, "The individual human targets are too small. The blast mines prepared for the drill worms are easily blocked by the strata. Actively triggering them would have minimal effect. Wait for them to get closer."
"Yes!"
Wang Ji Xuan felt a little relieved upon seeing this.
To be honest, he was quite worried about the safety of Uncle Tai and the others.
But listening to Dongfang Zhenghong's tone, and what Old Fu had said before—that they had prepared sufficient combat power—he now felt somewhat reassured.
Fortress 76 was now an important research and production center for spirit energy weapons, and D5 would definitely not abandon it easily.
Moreover, Wang Ji Xuan had already seen some of the situation inside the fortress in the corner of Dongfang Zhenghong's screen.
Most of the civilians had entered the shelters on each level;
A large number of mechanical bodies filled the streets of the mid-city and upper-city;
Black Shell and his group of third-generation cyborgs had already donned their spirit energy user equipment and were ready to launch a bombardment at any time.
The military had indeed made ample preparations.
Furthermore, there was one more point:
Autonomous mechanical bodies possessed powerful learning abilities. Under the permission of human commanders, they could share their combat experience and use the network constructed by the autonomous mechanical body's computing core to constantly evolve enemy tactics, thereby completing their own tactical upgrades.
Previously, the autonomous mechanical bodies had already accumulated a wealth of experience fighting Blade Beasts;
The ongoing battles in the D3 Comprehensive War Zone, Xingrui Plains, had also allowed the autonomous mechanical bodies to collect a large amount of spirit energy user data.
The combat power of these mechanical bodies was constantly being unlocked.
Therefore, Wang Ji Xuan was quite looking forward to the upcoming battle. He wondered what a magnificent battle scene it would be when these spirit energy users were plunged into the ocean of mechanical bodies.
They're getting close!
The spirit energy users were using some special abilities to shuttle through the underground minefield, similar to Ji Xiao's ability but different...
Peony closed her eyes, concentrating on coordinating the live broadcast for Wang Ji Xuan.
In Dongfang Zhenghong's command hall, the atmosphere gradually solidified;
Wang Ji Xuan could almost hear the heartbeats coming from the screen.
Their heartbeats were tending to synchronize.
Suddenly, the constantly jumping red dots on the large screen stopped jumping. The spirit energy users had run into a wall and began to arrange themselves in an arc.
These red dots were still about sixty or seventy meters in a straight line away from the fortress wall.
The barrier of the grand formation!
"What's going on?" Dongfang Zhenghong frowned and asked.
A staff officer reported, "Commander! They may be gathering! They are very close to us!"
Dongfang Zhenghong nodded, thinking quickly.
Unfortunately, their mechanical bodies, cyborgs, and special forces could only fight in normal space, making them somewhat helpless against enemies using spirit energy to hide in the rock strata.
Daoist Wang, seeing this scene, leaned back slightly.
"Peony?"
"Yes."
"Didn't I tell them before that I set up a grand formation?"
"You did tell them," Peony replied softly, "but they didn't seem to care, they just thought it was new technology you developed to protect the seventh level."
Wang Ji Xuan: …
Alright, it shouldn't matter.
Breaking this protective grand formation would definitely consume a lot of these spirit energy users' spirit energy. He could also be considered to be indirectly reducing property damage for his own side.
Peony suddenly said, "Sir, Commander Dongfang's side has captured the spirit energy users' communication signals. Would you like to listen?"
"Listen."
Buzz.
After some noise, the voices of several middle-aged men and women sounded at the same time:
"What's going on? Why can't we get through?"
"I feel the flow of spirit energy, right in front of us, like a wall, but I can't capture this spirit energy fluctuation."
"Strange, there's clearly nothing there, like a glass wall blocking us."
"We're not far from the fortress. I can sense a huge cavity ahead, that's the inside of the fortress."
"How far exactly?"
"Sixty meters... Commander Angel, what do you say we do?"
"You spread out slightly, I'll blast it open... Watch out for nearby landmines, we can't stay underground for too long, Captain Lu's ability can't last too long."
Angel, should be the vice-commander of that Destruction Squad?
Wang Ji Xuan was a little curious about this person.
Presumably, this was also an awakened spirit energy user, and his strength should not be much weaker than Meng Jin.
—The average combat power of Destruction Squad members was slightly higher than that of Judgment Squad.
About half a minute later.
Boom!
A muffled vibration sounded, coming one after another from the screen and the eavesdropped communication channel.
The command center on the third level of the fortress where Dongfang Zhenghong was located was also shaking slightly.
Several deep-seated landmines were detonated outside the defensive wall.
A shockwave rushed towards the surface, and the underground rock strata were constantly fracturing, but the affected area was not too wide.
Then...
Wang Ji Xuan looked at several screens. Because the screens couldn't capture the formation wall of the grand formation, Wang Ji Xuan didn't know how damaged the grand formation was.
The mountain protection formation he set up only used one hundred and eight formation bases. This was just a basic protection formation, but it covered the functions of [Absorbing Spiritual Energy], [Spiritual Energy Conversion], [Borrowing Earth Energy], and [Equalizing Force Dissipation].
Like the mountain protection formations of their Wang Xian Valley, they started with thousands of formation bases, and they were also connected to the earth veins of each peak. The power of the underground spiritual veins would also be fully utilized.
That was the real mountain protection formation, said to be able to withstand a finger of an immortal.
Even if the evil demons were rampant, they would not dare to easily attack their large sects, because of the existence of the mountain protection formation.
"Peony! The screens of Wu Man and Zheng Shiduo!"
"Okay," Peony agreed with her eyes closed, and a new projection screen quickly appeared beside Wang Ji Xuan.
That was the second floor of the workshop.
Wu Man, Zheng Shiduo, Uncle Tai, and Gao Huating were standing in front of a huge stone tablet. The stone tablet was engraved with many cloud patterns rising, and at this moment it was wrapped in a layer of light film.
This was the central hub of the grand formation, the main formation base.
Wu Man remained calm, lightly holding a jade stone 'remote control', responsible for directing the flow of spiritual energy of the grand formation.
Zheng Shiduo and Uncle Tai were fiddling with two projection screens, remotely controlling dozens of mechanical bodies. They were ready to replace the crystal cores for the main energy-consuming formation bases at any time.
Gao Huating was humming softly, and streams of strange spiritual energy flowed around them, allowing them to reduce their anxiety.
Suddenly.
Boom, boom, boom!
Three consecutive muffled sounds erupted underground, and three completely different spiritual energies bombarded the light wall of the grand formation.
Three awakened spirit energy users had attacked at the same time!
The stone slab was constantly shaking, and the jade stone remote control in Wu Man's hand flickered lightly. Zheng Shiduo shouted nervously, "Prepare! The crystal core's spiritual energy is dropping too fast!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Man handed the long jade stone forward.
A layer of earthy yellow aura appeared at the bottom of the main formation base, and this aura instantly enveloped the entire stone tablet.
Synchronously, a large amount of earth energy surged upwards, and the formation base responsible for storing spiritual energy released the spiritual power used by the grand formation, making the formation wall that had not been broken through even thicker!
Zheng Shiduo and Uncle Tai were a little flustered, issuing instructions to dozens of mechanical bodies to replace the crystal cores, and the mechanical bodies executed accurately.
A series of explosions sounded outside.
The shaking amplitude of the main formation base stone tablet became smaller and smaller, and the grand formation became more and more stable, and the flow of spiritual power became more and more smooth.
In the blink of an eye, the mechanical bodies had already replaced the crystal cores and picked up new crystal cores, waiting to replace the crystal cores for the grand formation formation bases.
Wang Ji Xuan smiled with satisfaction.
The combination of technology and cultivation was surprisingly effective!
Just prepare a few hundred crystal cores and you can directly exhaust these spirit energy users to death!
Subsequently, Wang Ji Xuan was also filled with emotion.
'This Daoist overestimated them.'
They actually couldn't break through this mountain protection formation!
Wang Ji Xuan looked at the flashing lights and shadows in the screen, his expression changing from rich and colorful to gradually calm.
He was a bit prejudiced, thinking that the Mountain Protection Array he activated before leaving was just a simple defensive array, without any counterattack, trapping, or illusionary arrays, making it not strong enough.
He really didn't expect that the Espers wouldn't even bother looking for the array's weaknesses, instead just slamming against the array wall.
The foundation of the array's operation was the flow of spiritual energy between the array bases, which actually had traces to follow.
To take a step back, if one could control spiritual energy within an extremely small range and then forcefully erupt it, it could forcefully open the array wall.
With their method of attack, without the full-force strike of a Nascent Soul cultivator, they would definitely not be able to break through this great array.
With the triple guarantee of Earth Qi, Spiritual Qi, and Crystal Core supplying spiritual energy, the Mountain Protection Array, facing the increasingly frantic attacks of the Espers on the periphery, actually…
…became even more stable.
Wang Jixuan chuckled and said, "Peony, ask Commander Dongfang, if we need to let the enemies in for a big battle, we can have Wu Man and Zheng Shi stop."
"Okay."
Peony's voice quickly returned from the monitoring perspective of the command hall.
Dongfang Zhenghong was first stunned, and then fell into a dilemma.
He really didn't expect that Wang Jixuan, even when not in Fortress 76, could easily keep so many powerful enemies out.
The point he was struggling with was a bit complicated:
If the enemies weren't let in, wouldn't the combat power they had painstakingly mobilized and the traps they had set up be useless? If a battle didn't break out here, how could he prove his command ability? He had always been stuck in the rear, and this was a rare opportunity for him to show off his skills.
However, Dongfang Zhenghong quickly made his own choice.
He smiled and said, "If we can keep the enemy out, why would we let them in? Subduing the enemy without fighting is the highest level of strategy."
Wang Jixuan smiled and raised his eyebrows, then had Peony send a text message to remind Dongfang Zhenghong.
Those Espers were relying on some kind of ability to constantly shuttle underground; they themselves couldn't last too long, and would either have to choose to rush out of the surface or return the way they came.
In addition, Wu Man had a storage hoop;
Ji Xiao's Earth Escape ability had been strengthened under Wang Jixuan's guidance.
Dongfang Zhenghong immediately understood, summoned a messenger, and had Ji Xiao bring Wu Man's hoop magic weapon to the command center as quickly as possible.
Wang Jixuan didn't watch the aftermath much;
He chose to trust Dongfang Zhenghong and Ji Xiao.
After completing this arrangement, Daoist Wang had Peony turn off the monitoring.
Finally, Wang Jixuan heard the communication channel of that group of Espers:
"This is impossible!"
"Can't open it? What the hell is this thing!"
"Black Storm is too amazing, I've already fallen in love with this guy! This can only be the technology he brought! If we had this technology!"
"Let's try working together! Hurry up!"
"Concentrate our power on one point, infinitely increasing the pressure! According to the laws of physics, the smaller the area of the point of force, the better!"
"Hahaha! Black Storm, you really make me happy!"
Daoist Wang: …
This group of Espers was a bit disgusting.
"Is the commander not going to continue watching?"
"Just watching won't let me immediately fly back to help them, so it's better not to watch… Tell me immediately when there's news from over there."
Daoist Wang sighed softly.
A cultivator's life is truly lonely as snow.
When I get back, I'll reinforce the Mountain Protection Array to three hundred and sixty array bases!
I'll arrange for both killing arrays and trapping arrays!
These protective arrays created by the predecessors in the cultivation world are not just for show!
Half an hour later, Peony brought a battle report.
Ji Xiao used Wu Man's storage magic weapon and his own Earth Escape ability to carry a tactical nuclear warhead and place it on the return route of that group of Espers, successfully detonating it.
The good news was that they killed more than a dozen Espers;
The bad news was that those S-level Espers only escaped with injuries.
The yield of the tactical nuclear weapon was small, and its power in the rock layer was greatly limited. Because the location was not chosen skillfully enough, significant results were not achieved, and there was some waste of resources.
"Have Ji Xiao write a three-thousand-word self-criticism, and systematically study the principles of chain reactions."
Daoist Wang gave the order.
…
At the same time.
In the workshop on the seventh floor of Fortress 76.
The constantly cheering Zheng Shi and Uncle Tai formed a sharp contrast with the dejected Ji Xiao in the corner.
A pitch-black butterfly landed by the window, carefully examining the stone tablet that served as the main array base of the Mountain Protection Array.
Then, the butterfly flapped its wings, flew up and down for a while, and transformed into a shimmering light, chasing after Angel and the others as they retreated underground.
