Fierce Phoenix

The Punishment Fleet formed by the allied great powers sailing south numbered more than the Starhan Fleet.

Huo Yuanjia and Geng Liangchen had drawn off a contingent.

There were also several ironclads attempting a surprise attack, whose route happened to collide head-on with Lan Yi's northbound path.

Now this was going to be fun!

These ironclads were under the command of the Flag of France.

Just like in most team battles, when they were trampling the weak punching bag that was the Qing Imperial Court, they had the wind firmly at their backs. They could run wild without a care, while the great powers remained naturally harmonious, happily making fortunes on Starhan soil and occasionally shelling cities to flaunt their martial might.

When things were going well, brothers were respectful and siblings were affectionate.

When things went badly, they shifted the blame onto each other, taking their parents as the origin and their family trees as the radius as they sent regards to one another's relatives, filled with wild sexual fantasies about the females among those relatives and thoroughly exploring the question of reproductive isolation between humans and beasts.

The Flag of France also had a concession in Puhai.

The upper-class people in the concession had been ravaged by those lowly mobs of yellow-skinned monkeys, and from there came a plea for help from a freshly minted widow of a reporter.

Whether to protect the lives and property of their expatriates or simply to keep the spoils for themselves, the Frenchmen chose to slip away after shelling the place and extorting it.

They named it, "A Romantic Gift from the Fleur-de-Lis."

The party members who had planned the battle had not expected the French among the great powers to be so freewheeling. Several ironclads had actually been lured out during the main army's operation and charged straight over. They had secretly skirted around the combat zone, taking speed as the essence of war. They had indeed been astonishingly fast—Lan Yi had barely boarded the ship and sailed into the Yellow Sea before running into them.

Oh?!

A pleasant surprise!

That was almost the first thought in both command rooms when they discovered each other.

There was no need to say much about Lan Yi's side. With an immortal master stationed aboard, let alone a mere few ironclads—even dozens of them—they believed the immortal master could unleash an immortal art and wipe them all out! This was no joke. Immortal Master Lan Yi's glorious record of destroying a warship alone on the Yangtze was widely known!

As for the Frenchmen, who still had no idea what they were about to face, they were overjoyed when they saw a lone ironclad sailing north. This was military merit delivered straight to their mouths. If they intercepted or captured it, the Starhan warships behind it would effectively have their retreat severed.

Boom, boom, boom!!

Whether they could hit anything or not, these French white-skins who had moved out from Yanjing's Eight Great Hutongs fired their cannons with the mentality of bullying the weak.

According to their experience,

the Starhan army—

as soon as it heard cannon fire, it would scatter by thirty percent. Once a volley of rifles was fired, another thirty percent would scatter. Then they would raise their bayonets and charge bravely, leaving only a handful capable of fighting back.

Naval warfare was much the same.

Starhan's ironclads had long since fallen behind. Once they were bombarded, they no longer knew whether to advance or retreat.

Several rows of naval guns fired. Columns of water erupted with thunderous force, and the Frenchmen, like a pack of wolves hunting a little lamb, had already opened their throttles to cleave through the jade-green waves and were closing in from all sides.

At that moment, aboard the ship,

the warriors and soldiers were still able to remain calm.

But when the towering columns of water exploded from the naval guns and the choking, bitter stench of gunpowder was blown onto their faces with the shattered spray, the accompanying spectators who were facing death head-on still panicked uncontrollably. Many of them were either rich or noble—when had they ever come so close to a battlefield and death?

"Mommy, what are they afraid of?" Scathach asked in puzzlement, her smile sweet and clear.

"It's only natural for sheep to fear wolves." Philia gently wiped her daughter's face.

"Then they're so silly. They don't need to be afraid at all." Scathach's face flushed crimson as she spoke with bashful adoration. "They're wolves, while Darling is a dragon! Dragons are picky eaters. They like tasty food!"

The dragon had come out to hunt.

No one knew when it had begun, but the turmoil on the deck quietly subsided. One warrior after another hammered a fist against his shoulder and stood in neat ranks aboard the swaying vessel like green pines and cypresses, splitting apart the chaotic crowd and opening a passage.

Lan Yi strolled down that passage.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, his white hair flying wildly. Even beneath the sunlight, his Colorless Eyes gleamed brilliantly!

The accompanying Liu Baiyuan did not notice the movement behind him.

His face had been slapped by smoke and spray, and now his eyes were bulging with fury as he gripped his treasured bow tightly and glared at the Flag of France's warships in the distance. He wished he could nock an arrow and fire. Those damned foreign devils! This was how they had shelled the north—after a barrage, not a single old person, child, woman, or infant in a village would remain!

He wished he could drink the white-skins' blood, eat their flesh, and sleep beneath their hides!

Just as Liu Baiyuan's fury was about to erupt,

a hand as pure and white as jade pressed against his shoulder.

Liu Baiyuan's rage went out in an instant, and every hair on his body stood on end. Though he could not see, he had already reached Qi Cultivation Grand Completion. His mind reflected a huge fanged maw exhaling hot, bloody breath. That mouth drew close to his ear and spoke in an incomparably tranquil voice:

"Reach Spirit Cultivation before you draw your bow. For now..."

"Watch me."

"And look at this sky!"

Roar!!!!

A high, sharp screech instantly drowned out the sound of cannonballs scraping across the skull like knives. It was a vicious, murderous shriek that only humans could hear, a roar that thundered like a peal of lightning! It was a scaled creature soaring into the heavens, a form bathed in thunder that only humans could see!

It regarded colossal whales as mere insect bait and hunted flood dragons as though they were snakes and worms! It battled the Kunpeng by the shores of the dark sea, stirring the blue heavens as wind and thunder raged!

What soared into the sky was the great Fierce Phoenix!

The Dragon Sparrow Swallowing Whale Diagram and the Primordial Magnet Star Dou Technique surged and interwove. The reflected mindscape was as if mythology had descended and legend had returned!

It was not merely a mindscape, but also an art—and spiritual energy being wantonly burned and poured out.

For a Spirit Cultivation Practitioner, if the mindscape was fire, then fire oil and thunderclap powder would be called upon, making the illusory and real alternate as the enemy was blasted to death. Lan Yi naturally knew this method as well. The Feathered Thunder Robe and martial radiance illuminated the void. At this moment, he mobilized the hundred-meter-tall mindscape and sent it pouncing straight over, just like hunting a whale!

Twenty thousand meters. Divide the spiritual-energy coverage nodes into twenty deployments. Directly launch with the powerful magnetic field.

Five seconds.

The bodily damage should be within acceptable limits.

Lan Yi's thoughts turned as the two martial arts techniques rapidly grew familiar and rose in level at a speed visible to the naked eye. The chapters on Qi Cultivation, Qi Cultivation Grand Completion, Self-form, and Human-form came effortlessly to him.

It had to be known that the martial arts techniques Lan Yi had cultivated before his rebirth were not these two. His talent had long since been honed to a terrifying degree.

The next moment, the Thunder Feather Fierce Phoenix soaring through the heavens crowned itself with Cang Hua's ring and beat its wings with all its might before everyone's eyes!

One flap of its wings, one instantaneous shift.

In the space of a single breath, it shot ten thousand meters away!!

The Flag of France's command room erupted into an uproar. They had never dreamed that a monster from mythology would suddenly burst forth, and that in the space of only a few breaths it would pounce down upon them from above! Over the warships, even the sun's radiance was briefly obscured by the lightning!

"Fire! Fire!"

"Fire at the sky!"

"Stop it!!"

The Frenchmen issued orders at the top of their lungs, even in despair, until the thunder pool crashed down over them!