The Importance of Air Superiority

Song Wen was about to cast Fireball Technique again and finish Tang Yinian for good.

Suddenly, countless piercing whistles tore through the air behind him. He turned around.

Countless arrows were hurtling toward him.

It turned out that, earlier that afternoon, Tang Yinian and his son had sensed something suspicious in Extreme Yin's words. They had gathered several hundred elite men, all clad in iron armor and armed with spears and bows, and laid an ambush outside the courtyard.

When these hundreds of elite fighters saw the small building suddenly explode, they charged into the courtyard and attacked Song Wen.

At this moment, Tang Yinian also noticed the arrows streaking across the sky.

He suddenly burst into manic laughter. "Little bastard, I don't care how you killed Extreme Yin—that has nothing to do with me. But you killed my son. I will make you accompany him in death."

Laughing madly, Tang Yinian seemed to have already seen Song Wen buried beneath the rain of arrows.

These several hundred elites were all martial artists who had cultivated inner strength. They wielded iron-backed bows of enormous power, and every arrow was capable of tearing a human body apart.

The spells Song Wen had used were clearly all single-target attacks. There was no way he could retreat unscathed while surrounded by hundreds of elite fighters.

Yet Song Wen showed no panic as he watched the arrows fill the sky. A Gale Talisman suddenly appeared in his hand.

The talisman activated, and a violent gale arose out of thin air.

The wind howled, sending sand and stones flying.

Under the fierce gale, so strong that people could barely stand upright, the arrows were blown every which way and instantly lost their aim.

Only a scattered few struck Song Wen, but their power had been greatly diminished. They posed no threat at all to Song Wen, who had cast Shield Technique.

At the same time, the burning flames were whipped by the gale, rolling in all directions.

The wind fed the fire!

Every tree in the courtyard was ignited. Even the medicinal field was not spared. Most of the spirit herbs Extreme Yin had painstakingly collected were destroyed, and the dense forest on the mountain behind the small building caught fire as well.

The entire courtyard was already surrounded by a sea of flames.

The arrows had failed to threaten Song Wen, but they gave Tang Yinian an opportunity to escape.

Taking advantage of the moment, he widened the distance between himself and Song Wen, staggering toward the elite gang members.

Once he reached the elites and his safety was assured, thoughts of revenge surged up in his heart once more.

"Song Wen, there is no way you will escape today. Today, I will slaughter an immortal."

"Bring up the Eight-Ox Ballistas for your gang leader."

Ten massive ballista carts were brought forward. Each was fitted with ten pure steel spears as thick as arms and a zhang long, their sharp points gleaming menacingly.

Several burly men pulled the bowstrings, raised the spearheads, and prepared to fire. The Eight-Ox Ballistas let out chilling, shrill creaks.

"Fire!"

"Buzzz, buzzz..."

All ten ballista carts fired at once, and the steel spears shot forth with ear-piercing, terrifying whistles.

These spears were more than a hundred times as powerful as the earlier arrows.

The Eight-Ox Ballista was a siege weapon used by Gan Kingdom's army. Every one of them possessed the power to storm cities and uproot strongholds. Who knew where Tang Yinian had obtained so many of them?

"Let's see where you can run now!"

Facing a hundred pure steel spears a zhang long, Song Wen did not dare be careless. He could not be certain whether the Gale Talisman could blow away such spears, much less dare use Shield Technique to take their terrifying force head-on.

The Flying Talisman activated at once.

Song Wen immediately felt his body grow light, and he soared into the air. In the blink of an eye, he had reached a height of thirty zhang, directly leaving the spears' attack range.

The Flying Talisman was Song Wen's greatest trump card, and the fundamental reason he had dared attack Tang Liang. With the Flying Talisman, Song Wen could leave battle at any time, coming and going as he pleased.

Without the Flying Talisman, Song Wen would never have chosen to assassinate Tang Liang within the Heavenly Baleful Gang. He would have chosen the safer course of waiting outside the Heavenly Baleful Gang for a chance to take revenge.

"It is impolite not to return what one has received. Let you have a taste of my talismans' power as well."

Without hesitation, Song Wen released two Fireball Talismans and one Gale Talisman.

Activating talismans was far faster than casting spells himself.

"He can fly!"

Tang Yinian and the Heavenly Baleful Gang members below stared upward in horror. Song Wen's ability to fly had completely exceeded their expectations. High in the sky, he was practically invincible.

"Quick, turn the Eight-Ox Ballistas around! Shoot him down!" Tang Yinian shouted.

Before they could turn the Eight-Ox Ballistas into position, they saw two fireballs plummeting from the sky.

"Boom! Boom!"

The two fireballs landed directly on two Eight-Ox Ballistas, shattering them instantly.

The fireballs exploded as well, scattering violent flames everywhere. More than ten nearby gang members were caught in the blast, and their entire bodies burst into flames.

Before the Heavenly Baleful Gang had a chance to catch its breath, howling winds followed. The gang members found it difficult to control the Eight-Ox Ballistas, let alone aim them at Song Wen in the sky.

"Song Wen, you despicable coward! As a mighty immortal, do you not dare face me head-on? Do you only dare hide and dodge by relying on talismans? I want to see how many talismans you have! Once you run out, I will chop you into meat paste!"

Seeing that several hundred men had surrounded Song Wen yet could do nothing to him, while suffering casualty after casualty instead, Tang Yinian roared in fury.

Song Wen smiled faintly in the air. The Flying Talisman would remain effective for a quarter of an hour. He still had plenty of time to play with them slowly.

"Face you head-on? Do you take me for a fool? Take this Flame Bomb!"

Talismans were limited in number, but Song Wen still had plenty of fierce oil in his storage pouch, all packed in one-jin ceramic jars—more than a hundred in total.

High in the sky, Song Wen held absolute air superiority.

The fierce oil jars fell like cannonballs from the heavens, smashing toward the most crowded areas and the remaining eight Eight-Ox Ballistas.

Flames that had not yet gone out already burned everywhere on the ground. Now, as fierce oil bombs rained down, coupled with the lingering power of the Gale Talisman—

The fire in the courtyard grew even fiercer, leaving almost no place for anyone to stand.

Countless gang members struggled and wailed.

Shouts and cries filled the air without end.

Aside from a small number of gang members at the outskirts who managed to escape, the vast majority of those who had entered the courtyard wailed within the sea of flames.

Tang Yinian's injuries were severe, and he had not managed to flee at the first opportunity. However, he had quite a few fiercely loyal subordinates at his side.

More than ten men surrounded him tightly, blocking the splashing flames one by one and temporarily keeping Tang Yinian alive.

As time passed, the subordinates around him were gradually swallowed by the flying flames, their numbers dwindling.

Song Wen kept his eyes on Tang Yinian from midair. Seizing an opportunity, he circulated his spiritual power and released a Fireball Technique.

Just as the fist-sized fireball was about to strike Tang Yinian, no one knew where he produced a steel spear a zhang long.

With a flick of the spear, he struck the fireball directly.

"Bang!"

The fireball exploded, scattering countless sparks.

The spear was struck by the fireball as well, and its tip exploded into countless fragments.

At that moment, a ceramic jar smashed directly against the broken spearhead.

"Boom!"

Fierce oil splashed everywhere, and blazing fire filled the sky.

The scattered fierce oil landed on Tang Yinian, and the flames instantly swallowed him whole.

"Aah... Aah..."

Tang Yinian turned into a human-shaped torch, continuously letting out miserable, shrill howls.

Song Wen silently calculated the time in the air. More than half the Flying Talisman's effective duration had already passed.

It was time to leave!

Song Wen controlled his body and flew toward the back mountain. As long as he crossed the mountain peak before him, he would leave the Heavenly Baleful Gang's territory.

Before departing, he did not forget to throw down every remaining fierce oil jar from his storage pouch, with Tang Yinian receiving special attention.