The Times Have Changed, Kid!

Outside Tack Town, the once-flat wasteland had become a defensive position steeped in the stench of death.

Zigzag trenches nearly two meters deep scarred the earth, crisscrossing it in every direction.

In front of the trenches, sharpened hardwood stakes and packed earth formed a line of obstacles.

Two hundred mortal youths in coarse linen lay behind the trench cover like clay statues, not moving a muscle.

The cold morning wind swept in, carrying a murderous chill.

The youths' hands trembled. Some even pressed their mouths to the ground, quietly muttering something.

Lin Fan later learned that one boy had been reciting the chemical formula he had written on the blackboard earlier, going through every symbol from start to finish, then starting over like a monk chanting scripture.

Even after Lin Fan's hellish formation drills, when they truly had to face the Soul Masters who had always stood so far above them, the inferiority etched into their bones kept rearing its head.

"Keep those damn hands steady! Aim at the marker fifty meters ahead!"

Dressed in coal-stained cloth, Lin Fan stood on a crude platform of logs behind the position. It served as his command post.

He braced both hands on the wooden railing, his eyes fixed on the dozen or so dark specks emerging along the distant horizon.

The system's red warning box flashed without pause: "First wave of enemies has entered the defense zone."

"Heh. No scouts, no flanking maneuver—they're just strolling across the plain straight at us? Do they think my crossfire network is for show?" Lin Fan gave a cold smile and slowly raised his right hand.

Ahead, Spirit Hall's Border Enforcement Squad was closing in.

A level-fifty-one Power Attack System Soul King led them.

He wore Spirit Hall's conspicuously ornate silver light armor, a Five-Sword Insignia pinned to his chest. Behind him came more than a dozen swaggering Soul Elders and Soul Grandmasters.

"Captain, the reports say these refugees rebelled and seized the town. They've dug a bunch of muddy ditches, too. Shouldn't we be careful?" a Soul Elder asked quietly, eyeing the strange position in the distance.

"Careful, my ass! A bunch of peasants without Martial Souls? Give them pitchforks and they still couldn't turn the world upside down!"

The Soul King captain's face was full of arrogance. He could not even be bothered to release his Martial Soul, merely waving a dismissive hand.

"Charge straight in. Kill the ringleader, break everyone else's arms and legs, and haul them back to the mines as slaves! Make it quick. I still have to get back to the city for lunch."

"Yes!"

The other nine Soul Elders let out vicious laughs, and Soul Rings of every color flared across the wasteland.

Savage wolves, swift leopards, hulking bears...

All manner of Beast Martial Souls possessed their wielders, blazing with brilliant Soul Power. Like predators charging into a sheepfold, they launched a frontal assault on the trenches without a shred of caution!

Five hundred meters...

Three hundred meters...

One hundred meters!

In the trenches, the civilians heard the Soul Masters' pounding footsteps and saw their terrifying, multicolored Soul Skills. Some had bitten their lips bloody, and the hands gripping their Flintlocks were slick with cold sweat.

"Hold steady... let them reach fifty... no, thirty meters!" Lin Fan's raised hand did not fall. His voice was not loud, but its steadiness held the panic at bay. "Don't waste your shots. Wait until they're close!"

The foremost speed-type Soul Elders were only thirty meters from the trenches now. Their cruel, bloodthirsty smiles were plain to see.

Lin Fan's suspended hand suddenly chopped downward!

"First rank, fire!"

BOOM!

Sixty Smoothbore Flintlocks spat tongues of flame more than half a meter long at the same instant!

A deafening roar tore through the wasteland's dead silence. Thick white gunsmoke surged from the trenches like a tsunami.

Propelled by the immense pressure of expanding black powder, sixty heavy iron-and-lead bullets shot forth too fast for the naked eye to follow!

"What was that sound?!"

The speed-type Soul Elder at the front had no time to grasp what had happened.

The protective energy around his body met a bullet and tore open as easily as paper!

Kinetic energy was a force of physics that listened to no arguments.

As the bullet entered the Soul Master's body, it deformed and tumbled horribly, churning muscle, bone, and organs in its path into mush!

Splat! Splat! Splat!

A string of bodies burst apart.

The three Soul Elders at the front never even got to scream. Clouds of shocking blood mist erupted from their bodies mid-stride, and their mangled corpses flew backward. They died on the spot!

The entire enforcement squad was stunned!

But Lin Fan's tactical orders had only just begun.

"First rank, fall back and reload! Second rank, forward—fire!"

BOOM!

Another disciplined volley sent bullets pouring down like rain!

"Second rank, fall back! Third rank, fire!"

BOOM!

Three-Volley Fire, one of the classic tactics of modern infantry history, displayed its absolute mastery over life and death on this wasteland of Douluo Continent.

Volley after volley echoed through the valley.

The Soul Master lords whom ordinary people normally had to kneel and look up to fell one after another along their charge, like wheat before a scythe. Blood stained the earth in front of the position dark red.

"No!!! That's impossible!!!"

The enforcement captain stared at his dead subordinates, his mind blank.

"No Soul Power! Not a trace of Soul Power! How could they break a Soul Elder's defenses?!"

Fear robbed him of all reason.

With a roar like an enraged lion, he unleashed his fifth Soul Ring—a black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring!

"Fifth Soul Skill! Frenzied Lion Sky-Rending Strike!"

The Soul King captain drove his legs against the ground and launched himself dozens of meters into the air.

He meant to use the height to clear the trench spewing flames of death and take Lin Fan's head atop the platform!

"Looking for death."

On the platform, Lin Fan watched the airborne Soul King as though he were an idiot who had flown straight in front of a gun barrel.

"Jumping out of cover and into the air in the middle of a battle? Could he make himself an easier target?"

Lin Fan sneered, turned, and yanked the canvas off a pile of equipment beside him.

A Handmade High-Pressure Smoothbore Cannon appeared before everyone, its construction rough and its barrel frighteningly thick.

The cannon used no conventional gunpowder primer. Lin Fan had pried a piece of Solid-State Soul Power Crystal from his own body and forced it into the ignition slot at the base of the breech, then loaded a specially made pointed armor-piercing steel shell as large as an adult's fist.

"Have a taste of my custom Soul Power-Enhanced Armor-Piercing Round, kid!"

Lin Fan pulled the firing mechanism with one hand. The hard firing pin struck the high-purity Solid-State Soul Power Crystal.