The Geared Immortal

Chapter 73 - Preemptive Strike

Chapter 73

But here, at dawn, the sun seemed to spit yellow venom on the tenebrific land where a broody mist and an atrabilious semblance always hung. The spinney that hugged the advance cultivator's camp drooped and had a dreary look like it was in an eternal slumber. The stock of the trees seeped with sap like the beads of sweat that the sun sucked from under their skins. The glittering morning deity, that was once temporary assuagement for the winds that were to come as it emerged from its night of hiding, now reminded everyone that the day has finally arrived.

After 3 days of preparation, every single soul in the town and those in its borders has a tense look in their eyes. Everyone knows that today is the day where the beasts would arrive in the borders, with a tense feeling none dare to relax and everyone is on their guard.

"Dao ancestor, are you sure that today is the day that the beast tide would arrive?" an old man wearing a silver cultivator's armor asked a man who looks like in his late 30's standing beside him.

The man just nods his head and didn't say anything else. He knows that everyone in the town is on their toes, for the fear of facing many powerful beasts. This man is Shanguan Lao who stayed in the town of Dis to assist the town in facing the beast horde.

There are only 3 World nascent realm cultivators in this area and Shanguan Lao is one of them. The two are the protectors sent by the empire to protect Qin Lou. The emperor of Xi was amazed at the batches of rapid healing pills that the alchemist from the town Dis have made, although there are also many coming from the kingdom of Yi which the town of Dis is under. But the quality of the pill is far more superior when it's from the town of Dis. So the empire sent around 10,000 soldiers to the borders of the town to help repel the incoming beast tide. But because of the distance, the airship carrying the soldiers is due to arrive 2 days later.

Because of the distance, even when they use the fastest airships it would still take them 1 week, how much more when the ship is carrying thousands of people. So the estimate would be around 10 days as this is the fastest the airship could go with its cargo of 1,000 cultivators per ship.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the town, Shin Jiao and his group are already done with their preparations. He divided the Shadow Squad into three teams where there are those would act as snipers and also those who are defenders. There are two people in each team, as Xi Jung volunteered to help so he is in a team with Phoenix's. They already made their plans and would not wait as the cultivators do. Since Shin Jiao is confident with the gears he made for them, he is confident to bring the fight to those damned beasts.

The sun rose up in the sky which signifies that it's already mid-day. Most of the people in the town of Dis are busy walking to and fro as they finished their war preparation. But then all of a sudden the three World nascent realm cultivators stood up from their seats.

"This aura is far more powerful than I thought. This would be a hard fight." Shanguan Lao said.

"Yeah, and I can feel many levels six beasts are coming. This place would be in a very dangerous situation." A world nascent cultivator next to a young woman muttered.

"Senior we don't have to worry too much, we have evacuated most of the alchemist along with the needed equipment." The young woman wearing a white veil on her face sitting beside the world nascent cultivator said and this young woman is Qin Lou.

"You should have gone with them. You know that this place is very dangerous. We don't know what would happen next. But since you insisted on this the two of us can't argue, but if everything would go sour I will personally take you out of this place. And one thing, no heroics." The other world nascent cultivator advised.

"I understand that but I just wanted to be of some help. And I know that you two seniors are here, so I can fully show my worth in this situation." Qin Lou said with an air of righteousness in her words.

"Shin, I hope that you would be okay out there." Qin Lou said to herself as the worries deep in her heart could not be quelled no matter how hard she tries.

"Sigh… Elder Ao is right, you young lady has a very stubborn personality." Thought the two World nascent cultivators.

"Sorry seniors for troubling you." Qin Lou said while cupping her hands to both World nascent cultivators.

The two just nods their head and admired the straightforwardness of Qin Lou.

In the outer part of town, a lot of rich merchants and some clans are already on their way to the city of Yi, although the travel would take them a long time yet they have no choice as they are afraid to be embroiled or even join in the battle. In this exodus of the clans in a particular carriage sat two young people. They are the Lyn Lei and Jing Lei, as the two siblings were too scared to fight against the beast tide they would rather lose their face than their lives.

"Brother, what should we do? Can we still go back and see dad?" Lyn Lei asked as she felt a little dissatisfied that they were sent away by their father.

"Sister, we need to work hard on our cultivation. I promise to be strong… I will become strong that I would surpass everyone. I swear to have my revenge on those haughty cultivators and that mortal man that had humiliated us before. I will kill them all with my own hands." Jing Lei said as he felt really depressed when he was humiliated every now and then and was looked down upon.

This time he clenched his fist tightly as he swore in his heart to do everything in his ability to become really strong. This time vengeance and shame is what's driving him towards gaining strength at all cost. If he can sell his soul at this time, he would agree to sell it to the devil just to be strong. Unknown to him, his determination is the catalyst that would cause great destruction in the kingdom if not stopped.

…

Meanwhile, deep inside Daemon forest gigantic beast which looks like small mountains are slowly advancing towards a single direction. In front of all the beasts, walks a fairly large beast shrouded in black mist causing some of the lower level beasts to keep their distance from it. The beast tide this time has many levels six beasts which would ensure slaughtering a lot of human cultivators.

"Ahhh… Hahaha… I can feel the presence of many souls. This will be a great harvest, with this I can then become stronger and the kings of this forest would start to respect me. I will show them that I the great Fen Hu can also become one of the kings of this place. Hahaha! Eh? What is that?"

The beast shrouded in dark mist suddenly stopped as it felt something. Its innate sense is telling it that there is a very dangerous situation up ahead. But then it didn't put his attention into it as it is confident enough that there are no cultivators within its wide sense range. All it can see are cowering small creatures and mortals hiding in fear, those are not enough to satisfy its humongous appetite for souls, so the beast tide continues on moving forward unimpeded.

Then all of a sudden without a word, two levels six beasts suddenly drop down to the ground.

But no one noticed it as the beast's horde is too numerous, then after ten minutes another two levels six beasts suddenly dropdown. Then a loud roar erupted from one of the beasts who fell, which startled the horde. The lower level ones began to scatter and fighting began to happen.

Thousands of beast began to rampage as their four levels six beasts turned up dead. As the chaos began to escalate, many levels six beasts began to notice this, but then after another ten minutes, another two levels six beasts turned up dead. With six high-level beasts gone the horde of beasts began to run out of control.

From afar two groups of shadows suddenly appear while they retreated.

"Mission accomplished! We have terminated 6 high-level beasts at the first ambush point." Said Fairy as she reported their progress on her headgear.

"Copy that. Proceed to the second ambush point and wait for orders." Said a woman's voice on the other line.

On the other hand, inside the underground base, a group of people is looking at a map. When they receive the report from the Shadow Squad, they marked the map and started to discuss the next action given to them by their leader.

Deep inside the forest at a top of a tall tree two scouts are observing the situation. Then they suddenly noticed the commotion within the ranks of the beast which greatly confused them. After looking at their rough-looking binoculars which the craft smiths from the town invented using a part of the technology they discover from the goggles of Shin Jiao they found in the swamp, they found out that there is around 6 high-level beast killed by an unknown force.

"Should we report this to the town? This situation is too weird." one of them asked.

"Yes, I think they should know this." The man then took out a communication crystal and sent out a report.

These communication crystals are for single use only. After they are used they became useless, so scouts would carry three of these because although they are useful still they are also too expensive and consumable. This technology relies fully on a single burst of power just to send a message, but this burst of power would always break the crystal afterward.

Meanwhile in the town of Dis, after the council receives the news they were astonished. They never thought that there are other forces at work in the forest.

"Seniors and elders, it seems that we have a company inside the forest. But as of now, we cannot determine who they are, but we must still be vigilant as with that kind of power our town might also be in danger of being invaded by them." The head elder of the town of Dis said.

This statement caused many to start discussing the possibility of the third party in this beast tide. They can't help to think this way as right now they are clueless of the power of the other party. If they would know that what they fear right now are actually a group of mortals, it would be a great blow on their pride as cultivators.

…

When Shin Jiao divided the Shadow Squad into three groups, he actually devises a plan to make a preemptive strike on the beast tide to at least wither their numbers down to a manageable amount. So the plan is to use their own numbers against them. Shin Jiao is very familiar with the characteristics of a lot of beasts in the endless forest as he had hunted and observed a lot of different beasts and their behavioral pattern, so he knows that this beast tide is not a normal one and is being controlled by not one but many high-level beasts.

If they can whittle the number of these high-level beasts, then there is a possibility that the beast tide would crumble on its own. It's not the possible solution but at least it could give the humans some fighting chance and at most save many people in the process.

High up a cliff on rocky terrain, the wind would always blow wildly. As the bushes and trees slowly sway back and forth a gloomy sound of wailing ghost would sometimes reverberate through the air. Within this part of the cliff a metallic object inconspicuously slowly protruded out of the rocks.

Behind that object is a beautiful young woman with her gorgeous white hair neatly tied in a ponytail. Her eyes are looking through the scope like an eagle. Her emotion and breathing are stable which makes her hand steady and calm as she carefully put her index finger near the trigger waiting for a command.

"Fairy here, reporting from the second location A, everything is a go!" she said.

"Vermilion Bird, reporting from the second location B, everything is a go!" another voice sounded.

"Phoenix reporting, defensive lines are all done! We are waiting for a command." Another voice sounded.

Upon hearing this, Shin Jiao from a hidden place smile and also prepared himself. He is now wearing full battle gear, like a modern soldier going into combat. He didn't put the guns he made inside the ring but instead holstered them in his body making him look like those Special Forces in the movies that are armed to the teeth.

This time his arsenal includes two high powered handguns, a low-grade sniper rifle, and his newly created weapon… a rifle that looks like a Lancer Tactical M4a1 carbine.

The two high powered handguns is a Desert Eagle look-a-like gun which is powerful enough to kill a level 3 beast in a normal setting. But it has an A.I. which could set its setting to max which is enough to wound a level 5 beast. If one is skillful enough then it could be a very dangerous weapon against high-level opponents.

The low-grade sniper rifle is just for emergency cases where is he had no choice then he would max it out and maybe kill a level 6 beast, which will also destroy the rifle.

Shin Jiao decided to create the Lancer Tactical M4a1 carbine-like rifle as an experiment, for multiple enemies.

Now with his new gears, he prepares himself to face this new challenge not alone but his new companions and his newly created base.

"After this war, the underground base will grow further after we finished training those newly arrived people. I'm glad that there are almost 50 of them that are able-bodied men and woman… Hmm… The Shadow Squad will grow if Phoenix and the others could teach another batch of Mages and Warriors." Shin Jiao suddenly thought after checking his equipment and gears.

Right now the most important thing is to survive the battle and then grow the underground base into a formidable fortress.. This way he can have his own place in this world where he can do research in peace and through that begin a technological revolution which would change this world, and through this maybe he can find a way to go back to Earth.