"Father-in-law, husband, I'm going now!"
At the edge of the woods in the early hours of the morning, Sun Ruonan, shrouded in a black robe, called out to Zhao Fengxue and Zhao Dachui before preparing to set off.
" Ruonan, be extra careful!"
Zhao Dachui gave a concerned instruction, while his hands gripped tightly the pair of swords his Pops had previously worn.
Helpless, after taking out the pair of swords that Wang Hao had personally forged for him, his Pops forcibly snatched them away and threw the pair of swords he had been using earlier at him.
Faced with his Pops's tyranny, and knowing he simply couldn't win against the old man, he could only accept it with tears in his eyes.
"Yes, I will!"
Nodding, Sun Ruonan reached out and pressed a button on the side of the helmet to activate the internal mechanism. The Purple Gold- gold helmet then changed, eventually forming a fully enclosed helmet with a rooster inscription.
Now Sun Ruonan truly had an absolute defense that was comprehensive and without any blind spots.
With everything ready, Sun Ruonan stomped her feet hard inside her combat boots, using her lightness skill to rush out and try to maximize her speed.
This was the maximum initial velocity that Wang Hao wrote in the instruction manual. Although Sun Ruonan didn't quite understand why it was written as maximum initial velocity, it didn't prevent her from understanding the meaning behind it.
Simply put, the faster the speed before takeoff and gliding, the higher and farther you will fly in the end.
In order to cover the greatest possible distance, she used all her lightness skill and even pushed her internal energy beyond its limits.
Who is it?
Although it was late at night, the grassland cavalry's defense zone remained heavily guarded, with more than half of the cavalry taking turns on night watch. Sun Ruonan was discovered when she charged to within a hundred paces of the front line.
Before the steppe cavalry could react, Sun Ruonan used her lightness skill to rush within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) and was about to crash into them.
At that moment, Sun Ruonan stomped her feet hard on the ground, creating a crater, and then her entire body shot into the sky, soaring seven zhang high, one zhang higher than she had expected.
While in mid-air, a pair of enormous Purple Gold wings suddenly unfurled behind her, tearing through her Purple Gold robe. The wings, which stretched to a full three zhang in size, propelled Sun Ruonan with the help of the wind as she glided towards the city.
This scene stunned the grassland cavalry who had just recovered, and some of them were even brought to tears by the light reflected from the moon on Xun Feather Cloth.
After all, no one can withstand being suddenly exposed to such a bright light in the middle of the night.
In this way, Sun Ruonan glided for nearly sixty zhang, traversing the entire grassland army's defense zone and rushing into the interior, ten zhang more than she had originally expected.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that she had previously overworked herself to enhance her lightness skill, which gave her a greater initial velocity.
Without thinking too much, Sun Ruonan retracted her Purple Gold wings as planned and once again used her lightness skill to rush towards the city wall of the garrison. Only then did the grassland cavalry behind her react.
"Shoot the arrow! Shoot the arrow! Shoot him dead!"
The commander in charge of this area drew his sword and roared, and immediately a group of grassland warriors drew their bows and shot arrows at Sun Ruonan.
Unfortunately, although most of the arrows hit their mark, they were unable to penetrate the defenses of the Xun Feather Cloth and were all deflected to the ground.
At the same time, the troops on the fortress reacted and, regardless of whether Sun Ruonan was friend or foe, instinctively fired arrows at her, but unfortunately, they still failed to achieve their goal.
Rushing to the foot of the city wall, Sun Ruonan curled her fingers into claws and triggered the mechanism on the gauntlets of the Xun Feather Battle Armor. Instantly, five two-inch-long sharp claws emerged from the tips of her five fingers, and three-inch-long sharp claws also sprang out from the soles of her feet.
Then, using both hands and feet, they quickly climbed up the city wall.
Sun Ruonan was born in the Year of the Rooster, and the design and patterns of this Xun Feather Battle Armor are based on a rooster. Naturally, claw-like mechanisms have been added to her hands and feet.
These claws were specially forged by Wang Hao using refined Thousand-Forged Refined Steel that had undergone its thirteenth folding and forging process. If it weren't for the lack of Profound Iron, he would have even considered forging them with Ten-Thousand-Refined True Steel.
Even so, it was still extremely sharp and sturdy. To this end, Wang Hao even wrote down the cultivation method of the Nine Yin Divine Claw, which was derived from the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, on the back of the instruction manual. Using it in conjunction with these claws would make it even more powerful.
Of course, Sun Ruonan couldn't possibly learn the Nine Yin Divine Claw in such a short time, but she could still use it for simple wall climbing.
She crawled quickly, braving a hail of arrows, and soon reached the top of the city wall. But what awaited her was a barrage of spears thrusting at her.
There was no other way; the way she came up was simply too unusual, and given the current state of war, the soldiers would naturally react in this way.
Unfortunately, these spears did not cause any damage to Sun Ruonan, and because of the power-absorbing properties of the Cloth, they could not even shake her body in the slightest.
"Uncle, it's me, Ruonan!"
Ignoring the soldiers' attacks, Sun Ruonan looked around and spotted a valiant general in armor standing on the city wall. Overjoyed, she ran over and forcefully pushed aside the soldiers in her path.
Faced with Sun Ruonan's immense strength of tens of thousands of kilograms, how could these ordinary soldiers resist? They could only be forced to retreat in frustration.
" Ruonan? Stop! Bring her here!"
Upon recognizing his niece's voice, Li Xiongxin, who was sitting on the city wall, had an idea. He quickly ordered his soldiers to stop attacking and bring Sun Ruonan up.
"Uncle, I've finally met you!"
Sun Ruonan, who was brought up, ignored everything else and gave her uncle a bear hug. The immense force of the hug left Li Xiongxin pale-faced.
If he hadn't cultivated external martial arts and reached the Grandmaster Realm in internal martial arts, his back would have been broken long ago.
Even so, it still caused him severe pain, making him feel like his lower back was about to break.
That's right, this is my own niece!
Feeling his aching back, Li Xiongxin was now 100% certain that this was his precious niece with superhuman strength.
But my niece's superhuman strength seems to have increased significantly, and that armor she's wearing...
" Ruonan, let go quickly, or your aunt will be a widow!"
Despite the excruciating pain within him, Li Xiongxin quickly spoke.
If this continues, even with his profound skills, he won't be able to withstand it!
"Oh!"
Realizing what had happened, Sun Ruonan quickly let go, sticking out her tongue sheepishly, but unfortunately, it was hidden by her helmet and visor and no one could see it.
"Take off your helmet before you speak, and where did you get this armor?"
After catching his breath, Li Xiongxin stared at his niece's magnificent armor with a puzzled look. It was the first time he had ever seen such a style of armor that covered the entire body without leaving any blind spots.
"Oh! I'll open the helmet now."
Sun Ruonan responded and pressed her hands on both sides of the helmet for a while. Then the helmet shifted and retracted onto her back, revealing her entire head.
This was also designed by Wang Hao, giving the helmet three different styles. The first is the previous full-coverage mode, which only leaves the area for the eyes and the hidden holes for the ears, so as not to obstruct vision and hearing.
The second variation is a semi-coverage mode, which only exposes the face; the third is the current one, which completely shrinks to the back.
This design is inspired by the Tie Zhan suit from the Iron Man movies, and is achieved entirely through mechanisms.
Fortunately, he gained a lot of knowledge about mechanical manufacturing from the Eastern Heretic's inheritance. He specifically used his Dao Comprehension Function to thoroughly understand it and was even able to innovate to some extent.
This change in helmet design is an experiment; even the armor on the torso and limbs can be quickly disassembled and retracted, allowing for rapid donning.
Of course, it's impossible to achieve the same level of perfection as Iron Man in the movies; it would be much more complicated. However, it's still incredibly cool and convenient by today's standards.
Even the helmet's cool retractable design left Li Xiongxin and the surrounding generals stunned. As traditional people from ancient times, when had they ever seen anything so cool and advanced?
Then, the group stared intently at Sun Ruonan, or more precisely, at the armor Sun Ruonan was wearing.
As martial artists and generals, they naturally had a great fondness for this cool armor, and its defensive capabilities had just been demonstrated.
Despite firing so many arrows at them and the barbarian army from the grasslands outside, and even being stabbed by many soldiers with spears on the city walls, they were still unable to harm them in the slightest, not even leaving a scratch on their armor.
If we could have such a suit of armor, our ability to survive on the battlefield would increase by at least tenfold!
"Ahem... We'll talk about the armor later. First, tell me how you got here? Do you know the current situation of the imperial court? When will Datong Prefecture Old General Jiang Prefecture be able to lead troops to reinforce us?"
Noticing the intense gazes of his several lieutenants, Li Xiongxin coughed lightly and asked with a serious expression.
He sent a message to his brother-in-law via eagle so that he could prepare in advance, because when a traitor appeared in Hulan City and colluded with the grassland tribes' army from the inside, he had already foreseen that this battle would not be simple.
I'm afraid I might not be able to hold this place this time. Afterwards, the ministers from the opposing factions in the court will definitely take advantage of my misfortune. Even the ministers from my own faction will want to find a scapegoat for the failure of this war, and he is the most suitable candidate.
If things go wrong, it could really lead to the extermination of nine generations of one's family, and one's own brother-in-law and niece would also be implicated.
He just hadn't expected his niece to come all this way in person, wearing such a strange suit of armor.
"Oh, I almost forgot, this is a document from the Eastern Depot. My father-in-law has already led over a thousand Blood Wind Hall men to wait in the woods west of the city. He wants you, Uncle, to send archers to provide support and to open the city gates at the crucial moment."
Sun Ruonan then realized that there was still important business to attend to, so she hurriedly took out the documents from the Eastern Depot from the compartment of her armor and explained the plan that her father-in-law had previously devised.
"No, we can't open the city gates. The city is surrounded by a hundred thousand grassland troops. If we open the gates and allow the grassland tribes to seize the opportunity to break in, our deaths are a small matter, but losing Weicheng, our last city, is a much bigger one. So we absolutely cannot open the city gates."
As soon as Sun Ruonan finished speaking, a general with a full beard coldly refused.
"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to disobey the Eastern Depot's orders?"
Her expression turned cold, Sun Ruonan's eyebrows shot up as she stared at the bearded general with hostility.
"Hmph! We are the army of the Da Ming, loyal to the Emperor, not some eunuch dogs from the Eastern Depot."
With a cold snort, the bearded general clearly didn't take the Eastern Depot seriously. Upon hearing this, the expressions of the surrounding generals also turned sour, obviously agreeing with the bearded general's view.
There was no way around it; the reputation of the Eastern Depot was simply too terrible these days.
"Alright, enough of that. This document bears the official seal of the Directorate of Directorate of Ceremonial, it's a genuine military order, and we must cooperate."
Waving his hand to signal his lieutenants to stop talking, Li Xiongxin turned his gaze to his niece and said with difficulty, " Ruonan, it's not that your uncle is unwilling to open the city gates, but to prevent the city from being breached by the nomadic tribes of the grasslands, the four city gates have been sealed with huge stones and cannot be reopened in the short term."
"Oh, I see! Uncle, do you have any shields? I need a thousand shields, the kind that can cover my entire body."
After thinking for a while, Sun Ruonan had an idea.