Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 299 - 299 0240 Grand Ambition_2

Chapter 299: Chapter 0240: Grand Ambition_2 Chapter 299: Chapter 0240: Grand Ambition_2 Understanding the details of these trebuchets was crucial, and even more critical was grasping the true purpose of the stones they launched. These matters related to the Heavenly Dao Engine, and Qi Tian could not afford to be careless.

Qi Tian descended from the City Gate Tower and returned to the base of the ramparts. Upon rejoining Zhang Lei and the others, he pulled out a book and started flipping through its pages.

Zhang Lei and the rest dared not disturb him, so despite the crowd around him, Qi Tian was able to read in peace.

He continued thus until night fell. Then, Qi Tian stood up and departed, quickly disappearing into the vast expanse of the night.

Tongmen West Pass was a fortress built between two mountains. Both sides of the choke point were steep and perilous, impossible for ordinary people to scale. This natural barrier was what forced the Chi Di people to seize Tongmen West Pass in their path south.

Qi Tian was no ordinary man. With little effort, he scaled the treacherous peaks beside the pass and descended to the foot of the mountain under the cover of darkness. The Chi Di people would never have expected someone to leave the fortress by climbing over the mountains, as it was a feat nearly impossible for ordinary people. If a cultivator wished to leave, they could easily bypass Tongmen West Pass. No matter how you looked at it, no one would choose to exit this way.

Under the cover of night, Qi Tian silently headed toward the Chi Di encampment. As a cultivator, it was exceedingly easy for him to evade ordinary people’s senses. Despite the Chi Di people setting up patrols in and around the camp, establishing intersecting patrol routes, and setting up hidden sentries among other security measures, none of them detected Qi Tian.

As a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage, Qi Tian’s hearing was incredibly sharp. He could discern minute breathing and footstep noises, thus predicting where the Chi Di soldiers were located, when they would encounter him, and when to avoid them. His extraordinary hearing alone might not have been sufficient to evade all Chi Di people; Qi Tian also had the advantage of speed. His practice of the Strider Cricket Skills allowed him to reach a speed of 30 meters per second. If necessary, he could use the amplifying effect of the Heavenly Dao Engine to triple his speed, achieving a staggering 100 meters per second. This speed was more than enough to avoid most dangerous situations.

Of course, Qi Tian’s actions were not without risk. His advantages were overwhelming when dealing with ordinary people, but if he faced another cultivator, his superiority would vanish or, at the very least, considerably diminish. Moreover, this was the Chi Di’s main camp, where tens of thousands of soldiers were assembled. If Qi Tian were discovered, the sheer number of soldiers could overwhelm and kill him.

Luckily, Qi Tian was not completely without a trump card. The Heavenly Dao Engine he used could help him detect fluctuations in Spirit Qi in advance. Should a cultivator approach, the Heavenly Dao Engine would alert him, giving him a chance to escape.

Winding his way through unnoticed, Qi Tian covertly infiltrated the Chi Di main camp, reaching the trebuchets. An elite pair of Chi Di soldiers guarded this area, but seemingly due to their overconfidence in their camp’s defense, they merely stood watch beside the trebuchets and didn’t patrol the surrounding area regularly.

Qi Tian was able to approach the first trebuchet without any difficulty. Under the moonlight, he examined the ten-meter tall siege weapon. During the day, when he had discovered the anomalies about these trebuchets, he had already scrutinized them closely. Now as he stood directly next to one, he would not miss the opportunity to investigate the abnormalities up close.

The key components that clearly defied the normal laws of physics were Qi Tian’s main focus. Before arriving, Qi Tian was inclined to believe that these key components were made of new materials. But upon inspection, he found that they were not made of new materials but common wood, which should not be strong enough to build a trebuchet, especially not one of such large scale. The reason they served as the main material was that someone had inscribed runes on them. Simply put, these trebuchets were not crafted by ordinary craftsmen. Instead, they should be classified as magical instruments created by cultivators.

With these symbols, not just ten-meter tall siege engines could be made, but even one hundred-meter tall ones could be constructed. However, the cost would be significantly larger, making it uneconomical.

According to the tacit agreement between Great Zhao and the Chi Di, secular people are not allowed to use magical instruments. Small objects like a protective talisman could be ignored, but the use of siege weapons like the siege engine was strictly forbidden. This was as if a cultivator was committing a massacre on ordinary people. If everyone played by this rule, both the Chi Di people and the inhabitants of Great Zhao would be doomed to extinction.

The Chi Di people, fully aware of this, dared to act this way, signifying their confidence without fear. Considering the series of events that happened recently in the small city, the Chi Di people’s violation of the rules suggested they had a grand scheme behind these actions.

Qi Tian let out a cold humph, he put his hand on the carved symbols. The whole siege engine basically had no Spirit Qi. He didn’t need to consume the whole siege engine, just touch the symbols, and the Heavenly Dao Engine would extract most of the Spirit Qi from inside.

The effect of the symbols relied entirely on the Spirit Qi. Once the Spirit Qi was lost, the symbols would fail. If a large amount of Spirit Qi was lost, even if the symbols did not fail, they would be on the verge of collapse, losing most of their original function. If he was not afraid of the siege engine collapsing and causing a major disturbance, attracting unnecessary trouble, Qi Tian would have destroyed these symbols directly. Now, this method could barely keep the siege engine upright without any damage. But the fun part would happen if someone tried to operate these siege engines.

Qi Tian repeated his actions and ruined all the symbols on several siege engines. After his series of meddling, the fate of these siege engines had been sealed.

Qi Tian then searched around the siege engines, but he didn’t find the catapults that could cause the evolution of the Heavenly Dao Engine. However, he was not without gain. He found the warehouse where the Chi Di stored their ammunition. In the warehouse, there were many barrels, each as big as two or three adults embracing. He could smell the pungent oil smell before even approaching these barrels.

Qi Tian’s face slightly changed when he saw these barrels. He had not participated in ancient warfare, but in his previous life, he had watched some ancient dramas and knew that in addition to launching stone projectiles, ancient people also used siege engines to launch fire bombs. Could these be fire bombs prepared by the Chi Di people?

Such a large barrel, filled with so much oil, one could imagine what would happen if the Chi Di people fired them onto the walls of Tongmen West Pass?

Could this be the conspiracy prepared by the Chi Di people?

Qi Tian couldn’t let the Chi Di people turn these barrels into burning fire bombs and launch them into Tongmen West Pass. If that were the case, Tongmen West Pass would surely fall. At that time, with the Chi Di people advancing south and grinding Great Zhao into the ground, Qi Tian would be too embarrassed to tell anyone that he had once stayed in Tongmen West Pass.

Qi Tian’s first reaction was to pack up these barrels, but after thinking, he dismissed the idea. These barrels were numerous, hundreds, if not thousands. He had plenty of Storage Bags, but even if he emptied all of them, he couldn’t carry all these barrels away.

If he couldn’t carry them, the second option was to destroy them. However, he also quashed this idea. The siege engine position was deeply embedded in the Chi Di camp, and if he destroyed them, he would definitely alert the Chi Di people. At that time, the entire Chi Di army would mobilize, and the Chi Di cultivators hiding among them would also swarm out. He might not be able to escape and could likely lose his life here.