"Whoosh—"
There were roughly thirteen or fourteen black dots, hurtling through the air with piercing shrieks. When Xia Zuo first spotted them, they were still far away, but within seconds they had reached overhead and came crashing down.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The ground trembled as the incoming "black dots" smashed deep into the soil, sending columns of dirt several meters high into the air amid swirling dust.
Only then did Xia Zuo see clearly that the so-called "black dots" were watermelon-sized spheres. They were entirely black, their surfaces bearing a faint metallic sheen. They were extraordinarily hard; despite slamming into the ground, they had not deformed in the slightest.
Fortunately, the soldiers he had brought were all elites, and all of them were Magic-armored Knights. The instant they spotted the black metal balls, they had dodged, so no one had been struck. Otherwise, even if they had survived, they would have been gravely wounded.
What were these things? Xia Zuo studied them for a few moments, deeply suspicious, then raised his head toward the direction from which the black metal balls had flown. Judging from their flight paths, he could tell that they had come from an enormous distance—most likely dozens of li away, perhaps even over a hundred li.
Could they be projectiles launched by catapults? But that made no sense. Catapults could not possibly throw something this far... Xia Zuo could not figure it out, his brow tightly furrowed.
A soldier looked over and asked for instructions. "My lord, what should we do with these Metal Clunkers?"
"Move them somewhere far away... No, leave them here. Don't touch them. Stop resting; we depart immediately..." Xia Zuo issued two contradictory orders in rapid succession.
Seeing the soldier hesitate before heading toward the horses to carry out the latter order,