CHAPTER 310: CHAPTER 139: RAPID SUPPORT

From Jinmen to the Imperial City, it was merely a hundred kilometers away. The convoy led by Chen Jian took only 3 hours to arrive.

By then, chaos had already engulfed the Imperial City.

A large number of civilians were fleeing towards the city gates while the Holy Blood members maintained order. Despite mobilizing all the forces of the Holy Blood Temple, it was still too difficult for them to prevent the collapse of order.

The city gates were wide open, and parents driving oxcarts wore all their warm clothes, with the carts burdened with heavy grain and precious tools. Young children ran alongside, playing unaware of the arduous journey ahead.

Merchants had long arranged for steam locomotives from the Mechanical God Sect. Fully armed mercenaries stood by the carriages, using gun stocks to ward off civilians trying to hitch a ride.

Swarms of scouts from the Holy Blood were sent out, returning later covered in blood along with the bloodied clothing of companions.

The will to fight began to crumble, and the already disorganized Holy Blood Temple exposed deadly weaknesses during the crisis, with even the powerful Blood Sources abandoning the civilians and fleeing.

The dense crowd moved southward, while the convoy led by Chen Jian became the sole group moving in the opposite direction.

Sitting inside the soldier’s vehicle, Chen Jian focused intently on the aerial footage relayed by drones, ordering:

"Do not bring the 152 Howitzer into the city; deploy the cannons in the open grounds outside, at the former Imperial City airport."

"Launch all drones to monitor the monsters’ position in real-time."

"30A vehicles advance, and lay the defenses along the Thirteen Tombs and Changping line."

"Deploy unmanned combat robots near the Mang Mountain Heavenly Pool to intercept the monster horde with lateral firepower."

"Huaxia Army squad, stay inside the city as the last defense line to intercept monsters breaking through to the urban area."

"Ji Xing, Li Shi, Xie Liu, and Xu He, come forward with me."

"We are responsible for the decapitation operation, tasked with obliterating all restricted monsters in the shortest time possible."

"The monster horde is 28 kilometers away from the city, expected to enter artillery range within an hour."

"Combat mission confirmed, everyone, execute immediately!"

"Understood!"

"Received!"

With the order issued, everyone sprang into action immediately.

Without much hesitation, after deploying the cellular network base station, Chen Jian handed over frontline command to the War Skull and then jumped out of the soldier’s vehicle without hesitation, leading Ji Xing and others to climb onto the 30A and sprint away alongside Lei Jie.

Guide Xie Yuan hesitated briefly, seemingly contemplating whether to report to his Holy Father first or to follow in Chen Jian’s footsteps onto the tank.

"I’ll go with you!"

Xie Yuan declared firmly:

"You only have five people; manpower is absolutely insufficient!"

"While we may not be able to stop those monsters directly, if only tasked with the final kill, we are certainly enough!"

"Okay!"

Chen Jian nodded decisively, and soon more Holy Blood members joined the rapidly advancing war vehicle.

Dust and smoke swirled, figures darted through the forest like a dance of rabbits and hawks.

When the roar of the beast reverberated across the plains, the shattered morale seemed to have regained cohesion.

Chen Jian did not intervene in the command of the Holy Blood members.

He was well aware that, with no understanding of how this group fights, blind command could result in negative effects, sometimes just as pointless as moving a machine gun position forward by 5 meters.

He focused only on his own team.

After half an hour, traversing nearly 10 kilometers, the 30A team reached the vicinity of the Thirteen Tombs.

The unmanned combat cluster immediately dispersed and, under War Skull’s command, went to construct defenses near the Heavenly Pool.

Meanwhile, Chen Jian led his team on a detour to the west side, occupying the high ground at Dingling.

By this time, the monster horde had approached to within less than four kilometers of the entrance at Thirteen Tombs.

It was Chen Jian’s first time seeing such a dense monster swarm; the impact of the sight far exceeded any prior experience.

Several massive monsters squeezed through the pass less than 500 meters wide, with the thud of their footsteps and collisions echoing through the canyon like a drum.

The monstrous beings, with bizarre appearances, unfurled their fangs, claws, tentacles, and appendages, leaving behind a trail of viscous fetid liquid and a devastated vegetation.

The toxic fog gradually expanded like a shroud, enveloping the entire canyon.

In the gray-white and purplish-red haze, the branches and leaves of plants visibly withered away.

The horrific scenes instilled fear among the Holy Blood members gathered around Chen Jian, but under Xie Yuan’s command, they suppressed their fear and dispersed into task units, readying for battle.

"There are three groups of targets in total."

"The first group has entered the canyon pass, expected to reach artillery range in 20 seconds."

"Prepare the 152 Howitzer, calibrate the artillery parameters."

"30A, proceed, block them!"

"Understood!"

With the command given, 30A sped away.

Simultaneously, Chen Jian also followed closely, leading a few Holy Blood members to sprint.

Their target was not the monsters before them.

To be precise, it was those half-dead monster corpses in front.

Ten seconds later, the first explosion sounded.

"Boom!"

The killing blast fell in the middle of the canyon, washing away a small patch of mist under the overpressure.

Immediately, the drones opened fire.