Coastal Defense

After contacting Major General Lu Xiangsheng of the Jinnan Military Region, Ji Yun took a train to the military region's headquarters the next day.

Jinnan Military Region!

It was the largest military region in the north. The former Jinmen City had stood right by the sea, and after Jinmen and Kyoto merged to become Kyoto Base City, this stretch of land became a crucial line of defense against marine monsters.

The Jinnan Military Region covered a coastline nearly three sub-cities long. To the north, it bordered the Liaonan Military Region of Northeast Base City; to the south, it extended for hundreds of kilometers. It had a vast area to defend and faced enormous pressure.

Because it lay so close to Bohai Bay, where there wasn't much land, King Rank Monsters were relatively scarce. The main threat came from monster tides. Huge waves of monsters attacked the coastline every week. Even though the Lord Monsters directing these assaults knew their troops were being sent to their deaths, resisting each tide still took a heavy toll on human Martial Artists.

The train went straight to a military camp that the Jinnan Military Region had set up on the coastal front. The camp stood behind a massive steel fortress, built across part of the river channel that had once flowed into the sea at Jinmen. Rocks, reinforced concrete, and steel had completely blocked off this stretch of water, and an enormous little fortress of steel and concrete had been built on top of it!

Barrels of cold, gleaming guns jutted from rows of gun ports.

The fortress was only a few kilometers from the camp. An ordinary War General Martial Artist could reach it in minutes at full speed, and a large number of troops remained stationed inside to repel any sudden monster tide.

Marine monsters usually couldn't come ashore directly, so they sought out rivers to invade the inland areas. Rivers were a vital route of attack for intelligent Lord Monsters and King Rank Monsters. Over the decades since the Great Nirvana, countless monster tides had widened the rivers until they were broad enough for Lord Monsters to enter.

But a Lord Monster that entered the river directly would only be throwing its life away. The fortress's Laser Cannons could swiftly kill Lord Monsters and even King Rank Monsters. The monsters usually sent low-level Lords and Beast General Rank creatures to lead large numbers of Beast Soldiers in attacking the fortress.

Inside the fortress.

In the room at the highest point, a middle-aged man with a slightly stooped frame stood by the window. His eyes still gleamed sharply, but his expression was grave and he remained silent.

The newly risen sun shone across the distant sea, scattering light over the rippling waves. It looked peaceful, but everyone there knew what kind of currents lurked beneath the calm surface.

The currents churned!

"Commander, this monster tide seems unusual," one of the major generals in the room said.

"Yes. It's far too quiet. The sea is so calm it makes me uneasy," the middle-aged man sighed. "I'm afraid this time will be a hard battle." The calmer it was, the more thoroughly the monsters had prepared.

A show of force was only an illusion. For a fortress of such size and firepower, the only thing that could destroy it was a hidden, fatal strike—not some so-called frontal assault.

Ji Yun stayed at the camp for a short while. After registering his information, he went straight to the enormous fortress.

The sea breeze stretched for miles, making the road taste of salt. There was even a faint trace of blood mixed into it.

Ji Yun wrinkled his nose. The salty sea breeze really didn't smell pleasant, and since he'd never been near the coast before, he wasn't used to it. As Martial Artists grew stronger, their senses improved in every way, so it was only natural for him to notice things like this.

He called Major General Lu Xiangsheng and arranged to meet him in a room inside the fortress.

Just a few minutes later, Ji Yun met Major General Lu Xiangsheng in the room. Though they'd only been apart for a few months, several strands of gray had already appeared on Lu Xiangsheng's head!

Lu Xiangsheng laughed heartily, and there was a hint of relief in his eyes as he looked at Ji Yun.

"I knew I was right about you. You really did come."

"By the natural order of the world, only our Huaxia military regions can gather nearly all their strength to withstand great disasters and dangers. Only our Huaxia Base Cities have remained unbreached for decades. And only ordinary people in Huaxia can feel completely safe as long as they live inside a Base City. Why?"

"Our Huaxia Martial Artists carry on the legacy of our ancestors. We serve our country and fight for survival. As long as we draw breath, we dare not retreat."

Lu Xiangsheng led Ji Yun to a window facing the sea. The glass had long since been shattered, leaving only a frame stained with blood. The wind howled at that height, tossing Ji Yun's now-lengthy hair.

"What do you feel?" Lu Xiangsheng pointed toward the sea. The morning sunlight slanted in from the east, shining across their eyelids.

"A storm is coming," Ji Yun said. He sensed something unusual.

His expression grew solemn. From the way he felt the wind, he could tell it was swirling wildly.

"Yes. A storm is coming," Lu Xiangsheng sighed.

"This monster tide will probably be led by a large number of Lord Monsters." The sea wind howled past Lu Xiangsheng's neatly cropped hair and circled through the room.

"Ji Yun, do you know? The last time a large force of High-Level Lord Monsters led an attack, the nation lost a War God." Lu Xiangsheng's voice carried a bitter edge.

"That was two years ago, just after I was promoted to major general."

"That attack was like a landslide and a tsunami. Look at how enormous this fortress is. Yet under the assault of so many Lords, it was on the verge of collapse. Dozens of High-Level Lord Monsters, each with multiple heads, charged the fortress one after another, trying to carve a path inland with their bodies."

"But could we let them through?" Lu Xiangsheng asked softly.

"If the monsters got in, what would happen to the Base Cities? What would happen to the people of Huaxia?"

"In the early days of the Great Nirvana, our forebear Dong Nanbiao once slew the Tiger-Headed Monster Dragon alone on the banks of the Yangtze, saving hundreds of thousands of people and allowing them to evacuate safely to Jiangnan Base."

"And now, too, there are sons of Huaxia who give their lives to fill the gaps and block the monsters' advance."

Evening was the most exhausting time of day.

The soldiers inside the fortress were changing shifts. The sunset that had shone all day was fading, giving way to darkness.

Ji Yun lay in a room, with a new Wind Lifter beside him.

This rifle had been purchased so he could fight High-Level Lord Monsters. It had cost a billion Huaxia Currency and was an S-class spear, capable of fighting Intermediate Lords without sustaining damage.

Its spearhead gleamed coldly.

If you can't find the book by searching its title, try searching for the author. It may have been renamed!

The steel fortress seemed to mirror the cold of winter. Martial Artists weren't afraid of the cold, but the atmosphere still sent a chill through them.

Ji Yun hadn't forgotten what Lu Xiangsheng had said that day. He could feel it, too: this monster tide was going to be no small affair.

Whenever large numbers of Lord Monsters attacked, a King Rank Monster was always driving them from behind. And whenever a King Rank Monster came out, two Beast Emperors were sure to be behind it—the two Beast Emperors who could contend with humanity's peak powerhouses, Hong and Thor.

Bohai Bay never froze over. Warm ocean currents and the monsters' vigorous life force kept the water as warm as spring, which was also the temperature monsters preferred.

In the dark of night, a soul-shaking roar sounded faintly from the depths of the sea.

Bang!

The fortress suddenly shook. A cup on the table fell to the floor, shattering into flying glass.

Alarms blared inside the fortress. Lights came on across the forward units, and personnel hurried about. Martial Artists poured out of the rooms as well, rushing into the combat zone by the sea.

Ji Yun left his room and headed straight for the front line. As a High-Level War General Martial Artist who already counted as a top-tier combatant, he was duty-bound to take the front and hold back the powerful monsters, giving the laser weapons behind him time to fire.

The huge lights stretching for several kilometers along the fortress flickered on one after another, illuminating the river mouth until it was almost as bright as day.

As his vision cleared, the scene before him left Ji Yun stunned.

Dense throngs of aquatic monsters surged out of the sea and onto the shore, some leaping into the air and others scrambling forward. There were vicious arthropods, reptiles—the creatures best adapted to land—and bizarre coelenterate and echinoderm monsters, along with the most numerous of all: fish monsters, swarming across the sea!

As they evolved, these monsters had even developed a degree of adaptability to life on land, allowing them to adjust to the environment quickly!

There were so many of them, and their abilities were bizarre beyond belief!

Take the arthropods, for example. Even before the Great Nirvana Period, thousands of shrimp and crab species had been discovered in the oceans. Including undiscovered species, there might have been tens of thousands! After mutation, the number of shrimp- and crab-type monsters had grown to astonishing proportions. The coelenterates and echinoderms were no different.

As this immense horde flooded the beach, countless fish monsters formed a torrent and swept through the river mouth. Led by a giant fish that was a Lord-level Monster, they slammed into the fortress again and again. The impact of tens of thousands of fish monsters was no weaker than that of a King Rank Monster.

Large numbers of reptilian monsters surged onto the beach, revealing their massive bodies. The thirteen High-Level Lord Monsters at the front were especially huge, each more than ten meters tall. They wasted no time after coming ashore. While calling out orders to the monsters behind them, they charged toward the fortress.

"These Lord Monsters are moving too fast!"

"We can't get a lock on them—they're moving too fast!" On top of a high-rise a thousand meters away, an operator at a Laser Cannon outpost shouted anxiously. "Those Lord Monsters are all too clever. They've learned their lesson, and not one of them slows down once it hits shore."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shells fired from barrels over 100 millimeters in caliber rained down across the front line. The stretch of land between the beach and the fortress was only five or six hundred meters, yet it had become a sea of fire. Countless aquatic monsters charged forward while the enormous fortress unleashed a barrage of every kind of artillery.

The shells were made of Kro Alloy and loaded with shrapnel. The fragments were devastating against low-level monsters, but nearly useless against Beast Generals and Lords, doing little more than disrupting them.

Twelve figures shot out from the fortress, each moving faster than the speed of sound.

They were the War Gods who could provide support the fastest. All belonged to the military and had been resting at the camp behind the fortress. They could reach the battlefield in just over ten seconds.

Each War God engaged one or two Lord Monsters, either keeping them occupied or trying to kill them. Slaying even one Lord would give the artillery crews behind them a measure of protection.

But—

Three more Lord Monsters surged out of the sea. They all looked alike.

Their fiery red pincers waved in the air. Black scales covered their bodies, and four pairs of eyes spun around incessantly. Their curved back shells carried large numbers of ordinary monsters. These were three Fire-Pincer Lobsters, all Elementary Lords.

Under the command of High-Level Lords, even Elementary Lords were reduced to cannon fodder sent in to clear the way.

The Fire-Pincer Lobsters didn't stop. Carrying hordes of monsters on their backs, they charged straight toward the front line, just five or six hundred meters from the opposite side of the beach. Large numbers of Martial Artists held the line there, with artillery crews behind them.

They charged through the barrage. Ordinary heavy artillery could no longer hurt them, and only Laser Cannons could take down Lord Monsters. But the creatures were moving so fast—how could the cannons hit them?

Without a sound—

A blinding beam of white light shot from a tower inside the fortress.

The laser struck a lobster monster by sheer chance, piercing through it and burning it to nothing.

"How long until the War Gods coming to reinforce us arrive?"

A shout rang out from inside the fortress.

"At least ten minutes for the fastest ones!"

Ten minutes? Ji Yun's expression froze. If they let the Lord Monsters keep charging, the front line would be completely lost in just a few minutes, leaving the area behind it exposed and undefended.

Another brilliant beam swept past, striking one of the lobster's thick legs. The lobster lost the ability to move, then was hit by a second shot and burned to ashes.

"The last lobster monster is nearing the front line! It's too close to the fortress—I can't fire, or I'll hit our own people!" An anxious voice from the tower reached the control room.

The stooped middle-aged man gritted his teeth, slapped the table, and said, "I'm going."

"I'm the last War God left in the fortress. I'll stop it and buy us time."

"But, Commander, if you go, even more High-Level Lord Monsters may show themselves. They already recognize you and know you're in command. If we reveal the strength we have inside the fortress, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out until the War Gods arrive!" someone beside him urged.

"We still need to try to surround and kill this Elementary Lord. They're only testing us for now. We can't take the risk!"