After surviving the interception of the level-seven and level-eight fixed soul cannon shells, there were only three seconds remaining before the wave of level-five and level-six fixed soul cannon shells would unleash death across the battlefield.
The commander of the Northern Second Soul Engineer Regiment had no time to recover from the exhaustion and soul power depletion caused by resisting the higher-tier shells. He gritted his teeth, immediately issuing orders to the battered level-seven engineers who had barely survived.
"All level-seven engineers, deploy your mobile linked soul array devices and assist the ground forces in resisting the upcoming carpet bombardment from the lower-tier shells!"
There were indeed many ways for high-level soul engineers to mitigate the effects of mid-tier explosive ordnance, but that required one critical condition: the time and ability to do so.
Unfortunately for the defenders, time was a luxury they no longer had.
Meanwhile, without needing any further command from Huo Yuhao, every member of the sniper team knew exactly what had to be done. Suspended in the air a thousand meters above the battlefield were the exhausted, soul-shield-broken level-seven engineers—and their commanding officer. These were the perfect targets.
"I'll take the commander," said Chen Fenglin over the shared mental link created through Huo Yuhao's spiritual detection domain.
No one objected.
Each of the ten snipers steadied their charged soul rifles, golden lenses already locked on their individual targets. Through the targeting scopes, their prey was clearly illuminated: vulnerable, disoriented, floating in midair like sitting ducks.
Chen Fenglin's hands were steady, but his back was soaked with cold sweat. Excitement and icy calm clashed within him. He knew what he was about to do. One shot. One breath. One life.
He had the opportunity to kill a Soul Douluo—an eight-ringed soul master who, in the eyes of commoners, might as well have been a god.
Under the whistling northern winds, Chen's finger gently tightened on the trigger. His breathing slowed. His heartbeat fell in rhythm with the pulse of the shared spiritual detection. All across the sniper team, synchrony was achieved.
"Fire."
"Zzzz—BOOM!"
A half-second charging hum preceded the roar of each hyper-concentrated soul energy discharge. Ten beams of golden energy, traveling at one percent the speed of light, tore across the night sky like divine judgment.
Ten elite engineers—nine level-sevens and one level-eight—were instantly struck.
Some were hit in the head, their skulls annihilated on impact. Their bodies fell like puppets with their strings severed, necks stumps leaking steam and blood. Others were hit through the chest or abdomen, their internal organs vaporized by the pinpoint bursts of destructive energy. Consciousness fled them in an instant.
The commander, pierced cleanly through the stomach, looked down in disbelief. He saw the blackened hole in his gut, watched as the other officers fell like broken kites. His mouth opened. He tried to speak. No words came.
"What… is this?"
No life force techniques. No god-level regeneration. He was not Huo Yuhao, or one of the few who had bathed in the power of life energy and divine healing. His body couldn't recover from a wound like this.
Half his lungs had been scorched away. All he could do now was hover weakly, gaze wide and blank, and mouth silent questions. A moment later, the sky erupted again.
Below, ninety fixed soul cannon shells of level five and six rained down.
The world vanished in a blaze of golden fire.
Explosions engulfed the camp. Flames and shockwaves turned tents to ash, threw soldiers into the air like dolls, and blasted trenches into molten craters. The thunder of the detonations rolled endlessly across the mountain range.
As the last of the light faded, the commander's body—now lifeless—drifted gently to the earth, eyes still wide, face locked in a mixture of confusion and regret.
Dead. Truly and irreversibly dead.
A Soul Douluo. An eight-ringed master soul engineer. Slain in the sky, not by a Title Douluo, not by some grand martial soul fusion skill, but by a bullet fired by a man who had once been just a commoner.
The battlefield fell into stunned silence.
Every member of the New First Army—snipers, fire support teams, cannon operators—stood frozen for a moment, absorbing what had just occurred.
They had done it. They had killed a Soul Douluo.
But the mission wasn't over.
The moment the final explosions ceased, the assault team—one hundred soldiers in powered exoskeletons—charged into the devastated enemy base. Armed with gauss rifles and grenade launchers, they swept through the camp, eliminating any survivors who had the will to resist.
The enemy's soul shields were shattered. The invincibility barriers were long gone. The few remaining level-five and level-six engineers—barely a few dozen—were no match for the concentrated firepower of the exosuit-equipped strike team.
Some threw down their weapons and raised their hands. The New First Army was not composed of bloodthirsty butchers. They accepted the surrendering soldiers and secured them without further conflict.
But those who still chose to fight were met with full respect.
That is, they were respectfully filled with bullets.
It didn't take long. With only seventeen soldiers surrendering, the Northern Second Soul Engineer Regiment was wiped off the face of the continent.
After the final skirmishes ended, soldiers from across the New First Army assembled outside the charred remains of the enemy base. They gazed upon the carnage, the smoldering ruins, the countless bodies. It was hard to believe.
Could they really have done this?
Destroyed an entire regiment of soul engineers?
Chen Fenglin stood among them, silent. His gaze was fixed on the corpse lying at his feet—the body of the enemy commander, the same man who had once carried the badge of an exalted level-eight soul engineer.
And it was him. A common man. A former farmer's son turned sniper.
He had killed that man.
If the news of this spread, it would shake the Douluo Continent to its core.
The notion that an ordinary person could slay a Soul Douluo would be dismissed as fantasy by most soul masters. But reality had shifted. Technology had shifted the scale.
And now, even a mortal could pull the trigger on the impossible.
As the logistics team moved in to clean up the battlefield and secure the area, Huo Yuhao finally released the spiritual detection domain and let out a long breath.
The blitz had succeeded. More than that—it had been perfect.
"Report!"
The communications officer stood tall and saluted.
"Strategic Advisor! Following this operation, the enemy's Northern Second Soul Engineer Regiment has been annihilated. Total confirmed enemy deaths: four hundred eighty-three. Seventeen captured alive. No survivors remain. Our side suffered zero deaths. Thirteen wounded, all light. Awaiting your next command!"
A flawless victory.
The coordination of the New First Army's combat divisions had left the enemy no chance to mount an effective resistance. Their structure, training, and discipline had created a crushing edge on the battlefield.
Huo Yuhao nodded, his voice steady.
"Inventory all munitions expended. Collect and repurpose every usable soul tool from the field. Scavenge the battlefield thoroughly. Replenish our military supplies."
"Yes, sir!"
(End of Chapter)
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