Chapter 323 – The Bronze Jungle
Translated by: Berrrybunz
Edited by: XRCO and DeAndreR
Rumble rumble!
The ground started to give rise to one after another of earth balls, continuously rising up and overlooking from the skies, only to realize that the balloon like earth balls were quickly covering up the entire place.
Tang Tian’s sight suddenly darkened, the earth ball in front of him was suddenly exploded by something that shot out from the ground, it was extremely fast, upon exploding it rose up, and countless of earth balls slided down it’s side, causing dust to fly up.
That was….a bronze pagoda…..so huge…..
Tang Tian was astonished, he watched as the bronze pagoda slowly rose in level. Rising steeply from level ground, like a gigantic bronze snake breaking through the earth! The bronze pagoda casted a shadow out over him, causing him to feel extremely inferior.
On his left and right, weird bronze structures after another started to form, like spring bamboos growing in rapid succession, they rumbled on, striving to be the first to be built out of the ground.
The dust was pushed up into the sky, diffusing into the clouds.
Ya Ya who was still in Tang Tian’s embrace, opened it’s mouth wide open, as it stared in dumbstruck at the majestic bronze pagoda.
The tall 50 m bronze pagoda suddenly appeared, in which Tang Tian had never come across such a majestic building before. Even if the higher floor windows were empty, even if all the moistened dust was floating around, even if the designs of the pagoda were already corroded by time.
But just by the astonishing height, caused Tang Tian to revere it.
The twisting bronze rails, intertwined in the sky. All the visibly seen bronze ruins, were full of stains and spots, and some even had moss on them.
But, in Tang Tian’s eyes, every single one of the strange looking bronze structures, were like majestic cold bronze beasts, crouching down, showing their past glory. Any one of the tall bronze buildings, were all spectacular and majestic.
Bronze Jungle!
This was practically a bronze jungle!
The ice cold shabby bronze jungle, carried a stunning force.
Tang Tian completely shocked. When Bing designed the mechanical weapon training barracks in Three Spirits City, it was already an ambitious plan to Tang Tian, it’s extent shocking. But compared to the Bronze Jungle in front of him, it was like comparing the earth and heavens.
“Looks good right. The 07 army barracks is a standard squared shape area, 10 km at every side.” Bing’s voice was filled with sorrow, as he raised his head to look at the tall bronze structures, his voice was distant: “This pagoda, was a lighthouse, 412 m tall, the tallest structure of the Army. It was used to give mechanical weapons directions. The barracks was at the edge of a cliff, and if you were not careful, if you dropped down you would die instantly. The 07 army barracks garrisoned 70 thousand people in it’s prime. Oh, in that campaign, this was the counterattack point, where most of the army’s forces were congested here to prepare for the counterattack. In normal times, it would hold roughly 30 thousand people.”
“30 thousand people?” Tang Tian muttered, his brain imagining the prosperous spectacle of countless of figures travelling back and forth in the bronze jungle.
That must definitely been a magnificent sight…..
“The fight was fought terribly at that time, but the quality of the military fortifications were done relatively well. Of course, it could not be compared to after the war. After the war, our mechanic techniques were already unmatched, and we were rich. For example the underground ordnance facility in Three Spirits City, those were considered easy. The facilities here are extremely old, the mechanic techniques might be lagging behind, but for us currently, it is sufficient.”
Bing’s expression was filled with sighs, he was out of character, but slowly sorted out his feelings: “Let’s go, we will go take a look at the command area, and see how many things are still usable.”
“What’s the command area?” Tang Tian regained his senses.
Bing began explaining: “The army differentiated many areas, for example the sentry area, which is mainly the outer area. Then the training area, where you will most probably be in the most next time, it was used by the soldiers to train. The command area is the most core region of the place, and only you have the authority to activate it.”
“Only I have the authority?” Tang Tian did not understand.
“That’s right, you have inherited the army. Of course, that is not clear yet, but it should have something to do with your lineage.” Bing walked and spoke, at the same time consoling him: “Don’t think too much, these things will be made clear to us someday.”
The route was hard to navigate, with many of the bronze buildings poking out of the ground, and many of the wreckages around. The paths were uneven, with many bronze and copper alloys lying all around the place, so Tang Tian and Bing had to fly to advance. What made Tang Tian feel extremely nervous was that many of the extremely corroded tall bronze buildings could fall anytime. If the huge buildings fell, no matter how strong he was, he would also become minced meat.
Tang Tian followed along the route with a tension in his heart.
Bing did not feel anything, he was like an old winded old granny talking non stop.
“This three story building used to be a shop, where Ah Yun’s relative started the business. And when it was opened, we kept ridiculing him, that he was an idiot. Do you know what he sold? Fleece Cloth! A barracks filled with a big group of old men, and selling fleece cloth, which was extremely expensive, if he was not crazy, then what was he? Everyone thought that he definitely would not be able to sell anything. Who knew, his business flourished. For those who had wives and daughters and sons, every time they sent mail, they would send a fleece cloth to them. What choice did they have, other than the fleece cloth shop, everything else was mechanical weapons or weapon shops, if they did not send that, would they send blades and swords over? Whoever’s girlfriend came to the barracks, they would definitely go to that shop. If you did not act well, they would not give any discounts, and in the end, every woman would definitely tow a big pile of his products home. So everyone was constantly scolding him, but in their hearts they did not care, since they did not have anywhere else to spend their money, and who knew when it would be their turn to die….”
Tang Tian listened quietly.
“In our times, we were constantly having wars everyday. Oh, that should be slightly exaggerated, it should be every year, that should be more right. Every three to five years, there would definitely be a large scale war, and the small wars were going on, so constantly they numbered to the amount of hair a cow had, even we did not know how many times we had fought. In that generation, the atmosphere was much more swift and fierce. There were more star spirit beasts, and the ancient ones were extremely terrifying. If your luck was bad, and you met a desolate beast, the entire army would be completely wiped out, just in the time it takes for you to blink….”
“What’s a desolate beast? It’s that strong?” Tang Tian asked, although Bing frequently loved to brag about the army, but he always looked down on his opponents, and for him to praise the desolate beast to be so fearsome, Tang Tian was taken back.
“The strongest star spirit beast, if you gave them a rank, they should be the same as our saint domains.” Bing said without looking up: “But there are very few of them now. Oh, Maybe the deeper parts of Heaven Road where no one has gone to might have a few. In our time, they were the true tyrannical rulers.”
“Star spirit beasts also have saint domains?” Tang Tian was surprised.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Bing showed a surprised look: “There may be tens of thousands of human race families, but if you placed them in Heaven Road, they are just a small speck in the big ocean, what worth are they really? Star Spirit Beasts races diversify and differs to over millions and millions in numbers, and you practically cannot count them all, and there are too many of those star spirit beasts blessed by the heavens, they are the real heaven’s child. Even if their talents were just ordinary, but their lifespan is so long, some spanning to over ten thousands of years. Think about it, even for a martial artist to be so stupid, if he trained for ten thousand years, how powerful would he be?”
“I’m really curious on how powerful those star spirit beasts are.” Tang Tian thoughts were wandering far away.
Bing snorted: “You better pray that you never ever meet one, if not, you will simply be trampled down to death like an ant.”
Tang Tian was confident of himself: “Don’t look down on me, I improve really quickly!”
Bing wanted to laugh at him, but he suddenly remembered, Tang Tian’s improvements were honestly so fast and made people unable to refute with it.
The two of them were extremely fast, and suddenly Bing’s eyes lit up: “We’re here!”
“Peanuts!” Tang Tian’s eyes lit up, the bronze structure in front of him was shaped like a big plump peanut, and even the bumps on the exterior greatly resembled one.
Bing rushed to the bronze door, and said: “The one who design for this barracks was Peanut, oh, his nickname was Peanut, Ii forgot his real name, he was a lunatic that would die if he did not eat peanuts. He stubbornly wanted to design the command area like a peanut, causing the officer of the army to almost die of anger, and sent him to the warehouse to serve a sentence. In the end, after that, the army’s various peanut snacks were all gone, they were eaten by that asshole! After that the higher ups reinstated his position as a mechanic engineer, but he didn’t want it, and really tested everybody’s patience.”
Bing shook his head: “It was the most annoying to speak to him, as the smell of peanuts would always rush into your nose.”
Tang Tian was extremely interested listening to his stories, the Southern Cross Army seemed to have many weird people.
Peanuts, so fun!
“Come here, and put your palm on top.” Bing said.
“Oh.” Tang Tian complied and placed his palm on the plate at the side of the bronze door.
A light outlining his palm came out, ka ka ka, the sound of gears appeared behind the door, and the extremely dense bronze door gradually opened.
“Alright, although he was annoying with his peanuts, but his mechanic techniques were extremely dependable.” Bing entered, and touched the familiar door, and said: “Oh, there are no more star rocks.”
He took out a rank seven star rock, and inserted it somewhere, and the scene before Tang Tian lit up.
Bronze tables and chairs appeared in his eyes, as well as other inanimate objects. What made Tang Tian most curious was, other than the muddled atmosphere, the place was actually maintained very well. Other than corrosion, the majority of the place was maintained well.
Bing pressed something else, after that, the air started to flow again, and it was not so still.
“This barracks was closed by us, so it was maintained rather well. The command area was the core region of the barracks, and was created from the best materials and best mechanic techniques. But the techniques at that point of time was not enough, and was unable to create it well like the ordnance.”
Bing reached the center-most table.
The bronze table was smooth, with the engravings of the Southern Cross words, Bing placed his palm inside the words.
Suddenly, rays of light appeared beneath his palms, and the bronze table suddenly seemed to become alive, and started to rapidly wiggle, scaring Tang Tian.
Rows of buttons appeared on the table, there were so many that it caused Tang Tian to feel muddle headed. He then saw Bing quickly typing on the buttons, and seemed to be muttering some words.
“Out of the 36 sentry posts, there are 9 usable. The Training Area, oh, the Energy Room is unusable, the Speed Room can somewhat be used. Let me see, the Suicide Room, can be used! That’s great!”
Bing was extremely excited.
Suicide Room? Tang Tian quivered, hey hey hey, I never thought of committing suicide….
Without waiting for Tang Tian to reply, Bing was already excited: “Let’s go! Let’s go to the Suicide Room!”