Cthulhu Gonfalon

Sui Xiong stayed at Keane Hill for almost a week doing nothing much. He carefully observed the situation in Keane Hill and realized that there really was not much here that required his help for now. All kinds of matters were on the right track, and no job was particularly short of manpower. Recently, there were no natural disasters or sufferings happening, and there were no enemies around.

The country was prosperous, and the people were at peace. The seasonable weather with gentle wind and timely rain provided a propitious climate for a good harvest. Naturally, there was no need for the blessings of the gods.

Sui Xiong felt slightly left out. But he could not always be hoping for the people to be in misfortune just so he could satisfy his psychological demands. There was simply no such thing in the world!

So he had roamed about here and there and made two rounds about Keane Hill to look at the various places. With nothing else for him to do, he recalled this other body of his back and continued to focus on building Rye Fortress.

The original Rye Fortress was strong enough, but that was all. Whether externally or internally, it did not have enough means of defense. Other than that sturdy high wall, it practically had nothing more to offer.

First, Sui Xiong expanded its size. He designed it with two surrounding city walls, one inner and one outer. The outer city wall was slightly lower while the inner city wall was higher, and there was a rather wide gap between these two walls. This was the so-called “Urn City” design.

Not only that, Sui Xiong also installed ballistae on the outer city wall and catapults on the inner city wall. Huge ballistae and heavy-duty catapults had long been invented in this world. It was just that people seldom put these powerful weapons on city walls. And also, there were few cities with city walls wide enough to accommodate these big guys.

But to Sui Xiong, none of these things were a problem.

Though it was redundant.

The city walls of the new Rye Fortress were so outrageously high. Even the slightly lower outer walls were at least 25 to 26 stories high. The inner walls were even higher than the outer ones by at least ten meters. Just this towering city wall alone was enough to make any attacker feel despair.

There were also all sorts of siege equipment in this world. But in this world, was there any siege equipment that could face up to such ultra-high city walls? It was very difficult to make an aerial wooden ladder that could reach such a height—the aerial ladder had to be high enough, so naturally, it would be very heavy. When the ladder was so heavy, up to a certain extent, it would be hard for the ladder to bear even its own weight. Wanting to find wood that was sturdy enough would truly be no easy feat.

As for the catapults and any other weapons, they would not be able to unleash great power when facing walls so high—if there were no obstacles in the way, it would probably not be difficult to toss rocks so high up by building a large catapult. But in a head-on collision, if they were going against a city wall that also had catapults and a bed of ballistae, it would be a death sentence for those on the ground no matter what. And it would be a tragic death, an extremely tragic one that was so horrible that no one could bear the sight of it!

If nothing else, after Sui Xiong was done repairing this super wall, he had once tested it by using a catapult against it. In the end, he realized that from where he was, the target on the ground was far too small. If he had set the scope of vision to a mortal level, only small black dots could be seen…

Not only were the city walls extremely high, but they were also exceptionally sturdy. The walls were made out of a special stone that Sui Xiong had carefully selected from rock surfaces. And after it had been strengthened by him, its hardness was extraordinary. Even refined weapons like a heavy-duty battle axe would only produce some sparks when used to chop its surface ruthlessly, much less smashing the stones to pieces. And the sparks would leave nothing more than white prints that would disappear at the mere gentle wipe of anyone’s hands.

To prevent attackers from using spells like the Earthquake spell to destroy the city walls, Sui Xiong had also further reinforced the military base. The scope of the area that he had strengthened was very wide. Even if the Legendary Masters used a Legendizing spell to legendize the Earthquake spell, they could still forget about shaking these terrifying city walls and the military base, much less talk about the Earthquake spell used by advanced mages in general.

“I feel that this fortress is already strong enough,” said Morani, who had come to visit the fortress out of curiosity. After taking a careful look, he sighed and said, “So long as there’s no problem inside the fortress, I can’t imagine any mortal army being able to break it down.”

“Really?” Sui Xiong asked.

“Of course! These city walls are simply crazy! If I was leading my army out to war years ago and met with such a city wall, I think I would sigh and withdraw my soldiers right away,” Morani said with a smile as he shook his head. He added, “It’s impossible to take those walls down.”

Sui Xiong’s eyes lit up and waved his tentacles. He drew strokes by brushing against the wall and wrote a few big words that said, “Sighing walls.”

“To break down these walls, you’ll need to assemble 12 sparkling gold men who are all of different styles. Then by burning all their wills to create a ray of sunlight, you’ll be able to drill a hole in the wall…”

He was gushing, going on incessantly when Morani coughed twice and pointed at the sky.

Sui Xiong looked up. He saw the blue sky and white clouds, and the sun was shining brightly.

“Nima! Is it still possible to have fun with this…?”

After being hit by the brilliant sunlight, Sui Xiong no longer invested further efforts in trying to get that “12 golden men crashing through the Sighing walls” stunt to work out. It was not destined to be staged. Instead, he started to deliberate on the issue of air defense.

There were air forces in this world. And they were not small-scale forces. On the decisive battlefield of the “battle of Sun’s Death Day,” both the Orc Empire and the Eagle Kingdom had assembled air forces that added up to more than a thousand people. Especially the Eagle Kingdom, who at its peak was said to have a force of 3000 men consisting of its air force and ground force. Even though there were not many Griffin Knights or Eagle Knights among them, and the vast majority were Griffin sentries and Eagle sentries, who were not suitable for combat, they were nonetheless, still members of the air force.

The most reliable way to deal with air forces was naturally to also send out one’s own air force. But how many soldiers from an air force can be stationed in a mere fortress? So Sui Xiong decided that he had to further work on air defense.

But here was the problem—just like how the city walls of this new Rye fortress had to be high enough to make its attacker despair, the air forces had to be able to fly at a height that was high enough to make those on the ground feel despair.

In the face of enemies flying at least 400 to 500 meters in the air, the ground forces would really be left at their wits’ end. They could only accept the one-sided beatings from those above them.

Even on Earth, unless heavy-duty weapons like anti-aircrafts were used, ordinary guns were completely useless against these enemies at this height, not to mention in this world.

Of course, if a marksman used an advanced enchanted bow and arrow, he might be able to shoot that high. But such bows and arrows were rare, and the number of marksmen who could master them was equally scarce. As compared to the air forces, their numbers were totally on a different scale.

So no matter how Sui Xiong thought about it, he felt that he should still work purely on defensive power.

Half a month later, the entire fortress was enveloped by a huge slanted roof.

The attack means of the air force was nothing more than throwing stones from the air. This roof had been enchanted with a special spell, so even rain and snow could not stay adhered to the roof, not to mention stones. No matter how many stones the enemies sent crashing down, these stones would just roll smoothly along the roof surface and fall out of the fortress.

As for such things like “smashing the roof…” Sui Xiong had used magic to put this fortress through “integration.” In the face of such a perverse fortress that could evenly disperse the force regardless of the kind of attack, Sui Xiong truly found it inconceivable for anyone to be able to smash this roof with stones.

Want to smash it? Sure, carry a mountain over here before saying anything else!

If they truly had to confront a master capable of conquering nature, then any fortress would be of no use at all. There was also no need to consider “defense” whatsoever.

After he had completed these two main facilities, the first stage of Sui Xiong’s renovation works was finally over. What was left to be done was the detailed interior decoration.

Looking at the empty fortress with nothing but a mere skeleton, Sui Xiong could not help rubbing his tentacles together. With a heart full of anticipation, he laughed.

“This time, I must create such an attraction that anyone who sees it for the first time would find it unforgettable!”