"It’s truly unbelievable..." Liu Shuyue murmured, "If the two Lotus Cloud Sects are the same thing, they should be from the past. But now it seems they are like they’re from the future..."

Sixteen Wind Ships lined up majestically in the sky, like divine soldiers descending from the heavens.

Each ship is two hundred meters long and over thirty meters wide. The ship’s structure is made of wood, but both sides are wrapped in steel armor, weighing at least a thousand tons. To have such a thing float steadily, even in Jiang City, would be considered a miracle.

"I’ve always said, cultivation defies logic." Lin Qing stepped back, hiding slightly behind Chen Xuan, "Anti-gravity engines are top-notch technology even where we come from, but here they achieve a similar effect with spells. You know what it looks like? Like primitive people operating a spaceship..."

"Do you know how it flies?" Chen Xuan asked Liu Shuyue.

She nodded, "Yesterday, Xu Xuanling took me to see its power room—a spiritual energy device evolved from the ’Ride the Wind’ spell. It doesn’t consume talismans, but the heart of a Great Demon."

"The heart of a Great Demon?"

"Correct, they even told me the process. Before a Great Demon dies, they set up a spiritual gathering array to collect all the demon fiend’s spiritual qi, then extract it to use as energy for the spiritual energy device. Since spiritual qi needs an entity to attach to, a durable heart is a perfect choice."

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow, "Doesn’t that mean each Wind Ship signifies they’ve killed a Great Demon?"

"Not just one." Liu Shuyue replied, "The strength of Great Demons varies, and using two or three hearts to power a Wind Ship is quite common for them. With this substitute, cultivators don’t have to exhaust themselves activating the spiritual energy device. You could say this design is absolutely ingenious."

"I see..." Chen Xuan looked at the massive fleet with a newfound appreciation.

These Wind Ships clustered together represent the splendid battle achievements acquired over more than twenty years of war against the Demon Fiend by the alliance army and the Great Demons. With each powerful Great Demon vanquished, there’s more resource to build another Wind Ship. With this ebb and flow, it makes sense that the Four Great Sects and the French Army transitioned from defense to offense.

"But I’m curious," Lin Qing muttered, "They have a complete control over the skies, yet the enemy hasn’t surrendered. Could it be that they’ve also evolved?"

Just then, the long blaring of the horn turned short and urgent.

Woo—Woo—Woo—Woo! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Enemy forces spotted ahead! It’s the Rock-Throwing Beasts!" the lookout on top shouted loudly.

His warning traveled through the voice transmission pipes, disseminating to every part of the ship.

Then Ji Yun’s voice unfolded within the clouds, clear for everyone to hear.

"Ships disperse, watch out for attacks, shield group cultivators, take your positions!"

With the command issued, the previously steady ships began to sway, the massive hulls started to turn under the influence of wind, and the structure emitted creaking compression sounds.

Chen Xuan realized that although these ships were enormous, their wooden keel limited their speed. If they made high-speed maneuvers at sharp angles, inertia might tear them apart.

"What kind of monsters are those?" Lin Qing exclaimed in surprise.

The coastline of Great Britain was less than a thousand meters away from them now. They could see a large group of black dots moving on the beach, like a swarm of ants on the move. Keen eyesight was no issue for Chen Xuan. Using the Divine Eye Technique, he magnified his view and discovered that those so-called ants were actually colossal creatures, two to three stories high.

They resembled mutated hermit crabs, except the shells they carried were specialized into pointed cone shapes, leaving a pitch-black opening at the top.

Chen Xuan was no stranger to such beastified demons, but what made these unique was, besides their shells, they dragged along a steel machine at their tail. Many soldiers busily sweated on it, shoveling coal into the machine, with several dark pipes extending from the top into the shell, occasionally emitting wisps of white steam at the junction.

Wait... consuming coal to exhale vapor, could this be a steam engine!

The moment the thought emerged, the tops of hundreds of shells suddenly erupted, spewing out balls of white fog the size of half a person, shooting towards the fleet like cannonballs!

In that instant, numerous arcs were drawn across the sky.

Holy crap, it’s truly ancient anti-aircraft artillery!

Chen Xuan instinctively summoned the Thousand Thoughts Sword, standing in front of the three of them.

The flagship Red Feather was also within the attack range. In less than ten seconds, the "cannonballs" arrived as expected! Simultaneously, a pale blue barrier emerged around the ship, covering the hull like a semi-transparent mirror!

This spell Chen Xuan had seen before, he even had a spare one in stock: "Spiritual Energy Shield."

Unexpectedly, the Four Great Sects had applied it to the ships.

Indeed... for an individual, it wasn’t a practical defensive spell. Consuming spiritual qi for hard defense would leave one short on attack spells. But with a battleship, it was different. With a dozen or even dozens of cultivators supplying spiritual qi, precisely controlling the direction of the spiritual energy shield’s deployment solved both energy consumption and defense issues!

The shell struck the barrier, bursting upon impact, shattering into clusters of black, stinking slime.

Chen Xuan observed closely. They weren’t metal balls at all, more like a group of tightly clinging shell creatures, spraying corrosive liquid upon impact.

A few drops penetrated the shield and splattered onto the deck, immediately corroding fist-sized pits.

If it hit the Wind Ships directly, it would surely cause severe structural damage.

But this fleet wasn’t helpless either.

Chen Xuan noticed the allied Wind Ship next to them had already turned its body, opening the cannon ports below the ship’s side. Dozens of cannons protruded from the openings, aiming at the beach below.

With the sound of dense thunderclaps ringing, the three felt a violent tremor underfoot!

The dazzling glow of flames spread across the side, as if the bottom of each ship was aglow!

The familiar scent of gunpowder filled the air, reminiscent of New Year’s Eve at midnight.

After a sensory prolonged yet factually brief wait, the beach of Great Britain erupted into boiling chaos! Shells landed on the sand or pounded the heads of the sea race demon fiends, raising conspicuous plumes of smoke, varying only by whether it was sand or enemy body parts and blood decorating it!

"Impressive!" Lin Qing whistled, "Haven’t seen them in action for over twenty years, and they’ve already mastered the naval gun line bombardment."

The shots fired by the fleet weren’t solid rounds or chain shots, but proper modern heads with fuze warheads, demonstrating considerable impact.

Also, although most cannons were arranged on the ship’s sides, they weren’t outdated muzzle-loaders. Throughout the reloading process, the cannon muzzles never retracted into the cabin.

One side aimed at the sky from the ground, battling against gravity, while the other aimed at the ground from the sky, with gravity on their side. The advantage was obvious. Despite the enemy forces on the beach firing under fierce bombardment, their successes were limited. Only a few beetle shots penetrated the shields, hitting the Wind Ships; but by then the fleet had positioned side-on to the enemy. The corrosive liquid posed nowhere near as much threat to the ironclad planks as it did to wood.

Chen Xuan came to understand why Wind Ships needed an extra layer of metal armor on their sides—these encounters likely occurred multiple times along the French coast, and iterative combat experience eventually gave rise to the current form of the Wind Ships.

"Detected enemy forces ascending!" the lookout shouted again, "Northwest direction, over a thousand in number!"

"Are those... hot air balloons?" Liu Shuyue speculated.

"Looks like it..." Chen Xuan clicked his tongue in wonder, watching as numerous balloons slowly ascended from a camp deep inland—the flying entities bore striking similarities to hot air balloons, with a basket swaying below the plump balloon, holding several figures inside.

There was no question these were crafted by the hands of the Britons, each white sphere adorned in the center with a red cross insignia, like fluttering Saint George flags.