"Hostile targets destroyed. Dispatch ground forces for cleanup!"
"Order received and confirmed. Dispatching ground forces for cleanup."
In Pass City, Chess Mountain Domain, a mecha unit composed of mercenary rogue cultivators and mortal controllers rolled out. Shortly after the warplane strike, they reached the battlefield and engaged the army of bone soldiers, which was collapsing into chaos.
This unit was not under Li Chen's command. Its operation had instead been outsourced to hired rogue cultivators and local powerful aristocratic clans, making it subordinate to Pass City's local authorities.
But since Li Chen had taken charge, this force, originally intended to fight the Chess Mountain Domain Commercial Alliance, had received large quantities of mechanism puppet armaments from Pass City's workshops. Most were experimental products of cultivation mortalization. Li Chen had poured considerable money, manpower, and resources into them, leaving the unit exceptionally well equipped.
Upon arrival, they seized the high ground and, following modernized drill manuals, launched a fierce attack on the enemy from more than a hundred zhang away.
This, too, was a change Li Chen had brought to Chess Mountain Domain.
Wilderness rogue cultivators mostly excelled at close-quarters combat, and the mechanism puppets of the Puppet Dao likewise emphasized melee.
This stemmed from the protective gang essence possessed by living bodies. Anyone who cultivated spirit essence and possessed magic power naturally generated gang qi, which could block the vast majority of physical attacks when projected outward.
Thus, breaking through gang qi required spirit essence and magic power.
Against mundane weapons, this power offered protection comparable to an indestructible diamond body. Ordinary bullets and firearms could not breach it at all, and even cultivators' ordinary ranged attacks tended to be ineffective.
Only divine abilities and spells could effectively melt away this protective gang qi and achieve their intended offensive effect.