Chapter 0309: Rune Bomb

"What tremendous destructive power... So this is the war weapon Master Lu had been secretly researching all along? Truly formidable. Its destructive force poses a deadly threat to any cultivator at the Sea of Divinity realm. Even those fierce beasts with powerful physiques were blown to pieces in the explosion." Huang Chengyan's face turned solemn. He had long known that Master Lu was developing a powerful war tool, but he never expected the results to be this devastating.

"Ice and fire are two fundamentally opposing forces. And yet, Master Lu managed to merge them together, and keep them stable for a short period. Once shaken or touched, the fragile balance collapses—ice and fire interweave and erupt with a devastating force, unleashing their power many times over. Master Lu is indeed a genius."

Hu Bin murmured. Having followed Master Lu for quite some time, he could grasp the essence of his work. From the explosion just now, he deduced that this terrifying destructive force must come from combining the powers of ice and fire, releasing them all at once.

It was just like thermal expansion and cold contraction — gathered together, it would naturally explode with a bang.

"Amazing, simply amazing. To think that Xuanhuang Town possesses such a powerful weapon. No doubt, it was the black spheres buried underground that caused the blast. And the number of those spheres buried in the vicinity is... staggering. If all of them were to detonate, the destruction would be unimaginable. This entire area has become a forbidden zone."

The pale scholar couldn't help but inhale sharply.

Compared to the Thunderfire Bombs he knew of, these black spheres were on a completely different level. One or two may not be much — but now the entire surrounding area was laced with them.

Without a doubt, the area had become a death zone.

Anyone entering would be blown to smithereens, torn apart by the ice-fire energies — burned to ashes or frozen into icy statues.

"Incredible, truly incredible. The collision of fire and ice—two extreme opposing powers—produces the purest, most violent force of destruction. Add to that the shockwave of the explosion, and it's no wonder even the toughest beasts can't withstand it. With this forbidden zone in place, it's nearly impossible to even get close to Xuanhuang Town. And yet… this zone does have a weakness."

The middle-aged man surnamed Jia narrowed his eyes and gave a rare compliment.

This scene brought a powerful shock to many cultivators. No one had expected Xuanhuang Town to possess such a trump card. It now made sense—why they dared to stand tall against the foreign races and challenge ferocious beasts.

With this forbidden zone, breaching the defenses of Xuanhuang Town was almost unthinkable.

To get through, one would need to pay with their lives.

Even before reaching the city walls, many would perish.

As a city defense mechanism, this was undoubtedly a terrifying war weapon.

"They used Ice Runes and Fire Runes, both infused into a black-iron grade spirit crystal, crafting it into a sphere. Inside this sphere, these two opposing forces are separated by a fragile barrier. Once touched or disturbed, the balance collapses, and the resulting collision erupts into a devastating explosion. The key lies in this fragile separation—it must be weak enough to break, yet resilient enough to hold the runes apart before detonation. And it must not be affected by ice or fire. But it must also shatter with a slight shock. That material… is the true cornerstone of the Rune Bomb."

Yi Tianxing watched the inferno outside, the battlefield now a hellscape of fire and ice. His gaze was icy cold—without a hint of pity. Thoughts naturally surfaced in his mind.

After recognizing Master Lu's talent in mechanism arts and watching him create all kinds of war tools, Yi had a flash of inspiration and mentioned bombs. In his past world, bomb power came from gunpowder.

Creating gunpowder itself wasn't particularly difficult.

However, Yi Tianxing didn't think gunpowder would deal much damage to truly powerful beasts. Instead, he turned his attention to runes and talismans. After all, a talisman represented a portion of Heaven and Earth's laws. A powerful talisman could change the very world.

If talismans were already powerful offensive tools for cultivators, why not combine them with explosive devices?

Together with Master Lu, they settled on merging the power of ice and fire runes. Upon detonation, their collision would release terrifying destruction. The carrier for these runes was spirit crystal — inherently filled with pure spiritual energy. Once the runes were embedded, they would naturally draw in and convert that energy.

This nourished the runes and enhanced the explosive power.

They still needed a way to separate the ice and fire forces within the crystal without letting them collide prematurely. After many experiments, Master Lu discovered a breakthrough—a green liquid from a strange vine found nearby.

Once cut, the vine secreted a bitter green fluid that always maintained the same temperature. Neither boiling nor freezing could alter it. Over time, it solidified into a green crystal.

This green crystal was extraordinarily fragile — so delicate it shattered from the slightest vibration. Thinner and more brittle than glass.

This miraculous substance became the missing link in their research. By inserting it between the ice and fire runes, it kept them apart—until shattered. At that moment, the two powers collided, triggering the explosion.

According to the Nameless Heavenly Tome, this vine was called the Jade Beauty Vine, and its solidified liquid was named "Beauty's Tear" — extremely fragile, yet stable until broken.

Without the Jade Beauty Vine, there could be no Ice-Fire Rune Bomb.

Although Master Lu still considered it a prototype, its power was already horrifying. Against unprepared opponents, even Sea of Divinity cultivators had little hope of survival.

This black sphere, crafted by Yi Tianxing and Master Lu, was officially named the Rune Bomb.

Unquestionably, this terrifying new weapon had shocked everyone—causing both the beasts and foreign race armies outside to panic. None of them had imagined that such a deadly device lay buried near Xuanhuang Town.

The vanguard among the serpent horde had suffered devastating losses under the Rune Bombs.

It was a massacre.

"Cunning humans! To think they'd plant something like this underground. Thankfully it was the snakes in the front who triggered them. If our main army had charged ahead first, we would've been the ones to die in droves."

The Frost Direwolf King's pupils shrank in alarm. He felt a chill of dread.

Recklessly charging in would have meant disaster.

But the strength shown by Xuanhuang Town now triggered a growing killing intent in the hearts of the enemy commanders.

If allowed to grow any stronger, Xuanhuang Town would become a massive threat in the future.

"We cannot let Xuanhuang Town continue to develop. We must destroy it completely this time." This thought surfaced in the minds of the two-headed ogre, the Frost Direwolf King, and many others.

Xuanhuang's display of power had deeply unsettled them. As long as the town remained, they would never feel at ease.

Even the Azure Python King, while filled with dread, was consumed by rage and hatred as he looked again at the massive severed head hanging on the city walls. Even the threat of Rune Bombs couldn't make him retreat.

ROAR!!

With a ferocious, bone-chilling hiss, an even larger swarm of snakes surged forward like a tidal wave toward the city. These venomous serpents seemed driven by some invisible force, perhaps even by bloodline instinct, utterly unable to resist the order.

But this time, they attacked differently.

The snake horde didn't fan out to surround the town — they focused on a single area, pushing forward in a straight line.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground beneath them triggered Rune Bombs again and again. The vibrations from the mass movement of snakes set off a chain of explosions — fire and ice tore them apart in waves.

Yet under the Azure Python King's command, the snakes didn't retreat even a step. Instead, they advanced madly.

Using sheer flesh and blood, they carved a path through the minefield, creating a trail more than a hundred meters wide.

They had discovered that once a Rune Bomb was triggered, that spot would not detonate again. This insight drove the Azure Python King to force a passageway through brute sacrifice, allowing the army to approach the city walls.

Though countless serpents died in the explosions, their numbers remained enormous.