Everything has its limits, and these limits can be multifaceted.
Take the Crystal Cannon as an example. Le Dayuan wanted to increase the power of this weapon, and there were three methods he could use.
The first was to improve the efficiency of the energy circuit, allowing more energy extracted from the demon crystals to be converted into the weapon’s power rather than being wasted. The second was to use higher-grade demon crystals. It has been proven that the higher the grade of the magic crystal, the more energy it outputs and the greater the power per unit of energy. When applied to the weapon, its power naturally increases.
The third method was to increase the number of demon crystals used. By modifying the energy circuit, the Crystal Cannon could consume more energy with each shot, increasing its striking power.
Theoretically, the Crystal Cannon had infinite potential from these three points.
But in reality, this was not the case.
Although Le Dayuan’s research had made groundbreaking progress in improving the efficiency of the energy circuit, achieving perfect energy conversion without any loss was impossible and contradicted fundamental theories.
Crystal weapons were incredibly powerful, but they also consumed many resources. Even an organization as large and resource-rich as Cloud Peak has strict regulations on using such weapons during peacetime. The saying “a single cannon shot costs ten thousand taels of gold” held true even in the apocalypse, especially for crystal weapons. After a large-scale battle, Cloud Peak’s demon crystal reserves would be significantly depleted, a loss that would make anyone’s heart race.
Moreover, high-grade demon crystals were primarily used for human evolution and cannot be endlessly consumed in crystal weapons. Especially for crystals above grade seven, even Cloud Peak couldn’t afford to use them as expendable items.
But this was not a simple math problem. If ten crystals weren’t enough, you can’t just use twenty; if twenty aren’t enough, you can’t just use fifty.
This involved complex related issues. For example, using more demon crystals would require increasing the weapon’s size, and a larger weapon would need more complex energy circuits.
This led to a paradoxical problem of energy circuit consumption…
After countless simulations and experiments, Le Dayuan and his assistants finally found an optimal value. This value represented the perfect balance between the size of the Crystal Cannon, the area of the energy circuit, and the number of demon crystals used—essentially, the limit.
Thus, the ultimate model of Annihilation was born.
Of course, as Le Dayuan put it, this was the ultimate model when using level-six demon crystals. It will be a completely different story when level seven crystals were used.
These ultimate models, powered by level six crystals, were each the size of a small villa. They were on the ground and occupied over 200 square meters, with the highest point reaching nearly five meters. The relatively short barrel allowed a burly man to crawl in and out.
Each massive cannon was firmly embedded into the mountain, resembling a giant beast. On both sides of the cannon were fifteen neatly arranged indentations where the demon crystals were placed. Firing one of these ultimate Annihiliation required thirty level six demon crystals, equivalent to a six-star evolution potion. And these crystals could only support six shots from this ultimate model!
Since this massive cannon was designed to maximize lethality, it didn’t have the energy output adjustment buttons found in previous models. This means every shot fired was at maximum power. However, the firing mode can be adjusted. When facing a single target, it could be set to fire a concentrated beam. It could be set to a wide-area attack mode when facing multiple targets.
Following Le Dayuan’s command, over a hundred ultimate Annihilations selected the wide-area attack mode. A hundred massive energy orbs instantly flew over the Cloud Peak battle formation, across the gravel ground, and landed on the swamp.
Then, the orbs exploded, transforming into countless writhing energy serpents that wreaked havoc in the Secret Realm.
Since the targets had been pre-selected, the attack range of the Crystal Cannons was nearly maximized.
The ambush site chosen by Cloud Peak was shaped like a trumpet, with the swamp area being the largest. However, the length and width were disproportionate—the length was long, but the width was relatively narrow, especially near the Cloud Peak formation.
These hundred Crystal Cannons could almost cover the border between the swamp and the gravel ground.
However, the first attack round targeted the swamp’s middle section, covering only about half of its width.
After the energy attack, the entire battlefield fell into a momentary silence.
Within the attack range of the ultimate Annihilations, there were only dismembered limbs and corpses—no signs of life.
Upon seeing this scene, the frenzied swarm of monsters instinctively stopped, emitting various incomprehensible cries.
Despite their ferocious nature, the sight of tens of thousands of their kind dying in an instant terrified them to the core.
But they were only the first wave. The monsters behind them, still charging forward, had no idea what had happened ahead and crashed into their fallen comrades, trampling over their bodies.
Death affected these monsters, but it didn’t stop their charge.
Soon, large swathes of monsters surged over the scattered corpses, with some of the more ferocious ones even picking up chunks of flesh to devour.
The humans were perhaps intimidated by the monsters’ behavior, so they delayed their next attack. Thirty seconds later, the second round of cannon fire fell.
The ultimate Annihilations had a firing interval of thirty seconds, which was the limit of what Le Dayuan could achieve.
Once again, the monsters standing on their comrades’ corpses met the same fate.
Among them were high-level demon monsters!
It’s worth noting that the monsters following the Nine-Winged Crow were at least level five, with an average level of around six. Even the vanguard included some level seven monsters, but they couldn’t withstand the Annihilations’ attack. Even if they weren’t instantly killed, they were severely injured and trampled to death by their charging comrades.
After two rounds of attacks, the vanguard of over seventy thousand monsters had lost nearly a third of their numbers.
“Gunners, ready!”