Azure Foundation City, Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty:
Blood covered the Azure Foundation City Lord as he stood on the top of a city gate tower. As he looked at the shouts coming from below, he showed a bleak and sorrowful expression.
Countless corpses lay all over the place.
“City Lord, the cracks in the defensive ritual array are increasing. More arrows and poison gas are entering. Another troop of soldiers defending the city died. As for the citizens defending the city, they…,” a low-ranked officer said anxiously.
The Azure Foundation City’s ritual array was right in front. Even though it could repair itself from the damage from the enchanted treasures and attacks, countless cracks still appeared in it.
No one could enter through the cracks, but skilled archers could shoot their arrows through the cracks. Poison gas also entered through the cracks, immediately killing and injuring countless people.
The city could attack from the inside, killing three million enemy soldiers. However, one million defenders in the city fell as well. As for the citizens, the deaths were uncountable.
“We can’t maintain the defense. The ritual array will break by tomorrow. Initially, we could hold them off. However, the Heptagold Sect’s sect master and elders attacked as well. The ritual array will not last for much longer.”
“City Lord, what should we do? Surrender? Perhaps…”
A group of city guards said in horror as they wiped the blood off their bodies.
The Azure Foundation City Lord shook his head and said, “Have you forgotten the miserable fate of Heavenly Peace City?”
All the soldier’s eyes turned bloodshot.
“Broadcast my voice to the entire city,” the Azure Foundation City Lord said sullenly.
Yes!
Buzz!
With a sound amplifying enchanted treasure, the Azure Foundation City Lord’s voice immediately reached the entire city.
“Citizens of Azure Foundation City, Azure Foundation City is at a pivotal moment of life and death. I thank the volunteers who came to help my city’s army resist, not fearing death and risking themselves.
“However, most of the city’s army has already died. A large number of volunteers have died as well. They are all heroes, heroes that defended our home.
“We are about to lose. I need more people to help.
“You might die immediately by participating in the fight.
“However, you will at least die with dignity. The defenses will fall soon. However, we have to wait for reinforcements to come, wait until His Majesty comes to rescue us.
“The sorry state of Heavenly Peace City remains clear in our memories.
“What awaits us when these demons break into the city?
“They will kill your sons and daughters. They will humiliate your wives and daughters. They will behead your parents. You can only watch, fallen in a pool of blood as you die.
“For your sons and daughters, for your wives, for your parents, for yourself, come and help us! Defend our home! Defend our Azure Foundation City!”
The city lord’s voice spread through the entire city. All the citizens who were hiding at home immediately shivered.
“No. I have to go and defend the city. Father, Mother, don’t stop me. If I don’t go, our entire family will die. For my children, I have to go. Even if I die, it is sufficient that you live!”
“You coward! Why did I marry you? If you are not going, I am!”
[TL Note: The Chinese word for marry is mostly gender-dependent. For the man, it is something like marry over. For the woman, it is marry into. This is based on the concept that a woman leaves her family to join another, while the man brings a woman into the family. So in some cases, it is possible for a man to marry into a woman’s family as a result of social status. In this case, the marry here is marry into, which means it was a woman speaking.]
“I’ll go!”
Many citizens headed for the city gates.
Archers quickly shot arrows out.
The intense battle raged on, instantly killing or injuring many of the invaders.
“City Lord, the ritual array cannot hold out for much longer. It will break by tomorrow,” one of the officials responsible for the ritual array said with a bitter and sorrowful expression.
“City Lord, the reinforcements will take ten days to arrive, at the very least.”
“With the Heptagold Sect Master and the others attacking, they will break into the city tomorrow. We cannot hold them back.”
The defending soldiers reported bitterly.
“If the city survives, the people survive. If the city goes down, everyone dies!” the City Lord said with bloodshot eyes.
“Yes!” the soldiers said sorrowfully.
“Hey? Something’s not right. City Lord, look. There’s a flying ship there. Why are the Heptagold Sect Master and the Heptagold Sect experts boarding the flying ship?”
“Are they running?”
“They only left behind a portion of their commanders. What’s going on?”
The Heptagold Sect Master and the Heptagold Sect elders left?
“His Majesty must have done something!” The city lord’s face lit up in joy.
“His Majesty?”
“It must be His Majesty! I knew that His Majesty would not ignore us. His Majesty lured away the Heptagold Sect Master. With this, we can hold out and wait for reinforcements!” the city lord said with wild joy.
“Really?!”
“Hurry! Inform the citizens. Tell them of this joyous, encouraging news. His Majesty made a move, and we can defend for longer!” the city lord said excitedly.
“Yes!”
The Heptagold Sect Master and the Heptagold Sect experts’ departure immediately encouraged the citizens, making them put more effort into defending the city.
The intense battle continued. Then, on the ninth day:
Boom!
The defensive ritual array exploded.
After losing five million soldiers, the invading army finally broke into the city.
“It’s over! It’s over! They broke into the city!” an officer said sorrowfully.
The countless citizens watched this scene, feeling at a loss. In the end, the enemies still broke in; they broke in.
Outside the city, the invading soldiers let out arrogant and triumphant cries.
“Hahahahaha! We finally broke in! This great me is going to slaughter everyone in Azure Foundation City.”
“Half my brothers died. I’ll make you pay with your lives!”
“There’s no hope of survival for any of you, just like Heavenly Peace City. Die!”
The invading army excitedly charged into the city.
The city lord showed an unsightly expression. However, he still broadcast his voice to the entire city. “Citizens of Azure Foundation City, the demons have entered. They want to kill your parents and children, plunder all your wealth, humiliate your wives and daughters. Are you going to just watch?”
“No!” The entire city let out griefful and furious roars; their voices shook the place.
The invading soldiers preparing to charge into the city suddenly shivered.
“Pick up your weapons! Fight these demons to the end!” the city lord roared.
“Kill the demons! Kill the demons!” the entire city roared out together.
Then, all the citizens charged out, rushing at the invading soldiers.
The invading soldiers preparing to burn, kill, snatch, and plunder suddenly shivered.
“City Lord, it’s not good. Soldiers of unknown origin appeared outside the city. Are there more invaders?!” one of the officers shouted in horror.
“On the city lord’s order, eight hundred thousand soldiers of the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty’s Yellow Foundation City are here to reinforce Azure Foundation City!”
“On the city lord’s order, eight hundred thousand soldiers of the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty’s Fabric Mountain City are here to reinforce Azure Foundation City!”
“On the city lord’s order…!”
Many loud shouts rang out as eight million soldiers suddenly appeared—all the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty’s reinforcements. Although they were late, they finally arrived.
“Hahahaha! Heaven spares my Azure Foundation City! Heaven spares my Azure Foundation City! Citizens of Azure Foundation City, the reinforcements are here! The reinforcements are here! Let’s keep these demons here in our Azure Foundation City forever! We will grind their bones to dust and take revenge for our brothers and sisters! Take revenge for the hundreds of millions of our comrades in Heavenly Peace City!” the city lord roared.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Murderous shouts filled the air. The reinforcements arrived! The citizens experienced a surge of battle hunger. Now, they no longer needed to fear. None of these demons could hope to leave alive.
Outside the city, the reinforcements also charged over while shouting.
The five million invading soldiers were already fatigued from fighting for one month. When they heard the warcries from behind, they immediately fell into disarray.
“Get in formation! Get in formation!” one of the commanders roared out.
However, the soldiers were all scattered. How could they get in formation? Many fled. As horror spread, more people started fleeing as well. The area around the city gates turned chaotic. In fact, many of the invading soldiers were trampled to death by their own people rather than being killed by the enemy.
Flee?
Where could they flee to?
“Heaven sees! Heaven sees! Hahahahaha!” the city lord guffawed with tears in his eyes.
The Heptagold Sect Master led the sect experts back to their headquarters in a fluster.
It was not that they did not want to leave more experts fighting at Azure Foundation City. However, if their headquarters at the one hundred thousand mountains got destroyed, their blessings could scatter.
The Heptagold Sect that had been established for one millennium would be destroyed.
“Huangfu Chaoge, you are very ruthless! Truly ruthless. I only destroyed one of your cities, but you went straight for my headquarters. You are trying to destroy my entire sect!” the Heptagold Sect Master said with a ferocious expression.
The Heptagold Sect Master did not even consider that he had invaded the Divine Foundation Royal Dynasty first. Had he not done that, would Huangfu Chaoge have retaliated and gone straight to the root of the problem?
Whoosh!
The flying ship traveled nonstop for nine days before eventually arriving at the headquarters.
A super-large ritual array covered the entire headquarters. There were three cities close to the headquarters. The city lords of these three cities had gathered soldiers to reinforce the headquarters long ago. However, they had failed to achieve anything.
“Sect Master, you finally returned!”
“Sect Master, we have been sending soldiers inside over the past few days. However, there has been no word since they entered. This ritual array is too strange. What should we do?”
The city lords felt incredibly anxious.
“Ritual array? Could it be Gu Hai? Such a colossal ritual array?” Chu Chen’s expression changed as he looked at the ritual array.
Just at this moment, the Heptagold Sect Master’s expression suddenly changed. “No!”
“Sect Master, what’s wrong?” Chu Chen asked in surprise.
“Dead! The sword-toothed tiger died? My Heptagold Sect’s blessings are going to scatter? No!” the Heptagold Sect Master exclaimed, his expression changing dramatically.
Rumble…!
Suddenly, streams of golden aura came out of the foggy ritual array.
“Blessings? Those are blessings!”
The streams of golden aura flowed out and quickly headed to the northeast.
Rumble…!
“It’s Huangfu Chaoge. He killed the sword-toothed tiger and plundered my Heptagold Sect’s blessings?” The Heptagold Sect Master’s expression changed dramatically.
“That’s not right. Foundation Deity City is not in that direction, right?” Chu Chen said in surprise.
At this moment, at Nine-Five Island, Thousand Islands Sea:
The crown prince, Gu Qin, was overseeing the nation in Gu Hai’s absence. Right now, he was presiding over the royal assembly.
Rumble…!
Suddenly, loud rumbling came from above the Soaring Palace Hall, where the royal assembly took place.
Gu Qin and the civil and military officials rushed out of the Soaring Palace Hall and looked at the sky.
Everyone saw boundless golden clouds in the sky, giving off a terrifying might. Boundless spiritual energy quickly gathered.
“What is this?” some of the officials asked in confusion.
Among the crowd, Meng Tai’s expression changed as he said, “Blessings? This is a blessings cloud sea? Did His Majesty destroy a sect in the Divine Continent and plunder their blessings? This…this…this!”
Meng Tai felt utterly shocked.
This was a sect that possessed great blessings, not something that the sects of the Thousand Islands Sea could compare to. The might of such a sect could sweep through the entire Thousand Islands Sea.
This surging blessings cloud sea was definitely not because the citizens suddenly felt an increase in gratitude.
The Han Royal Dynasty had not even been established for a year yet. The number of citizens had not increased by much. It did have blessings—but pitifully little. There had been at most a wisp or two of golden clouds above the Soaring Palace Hall. Now, there was a shining golden cloud sea of blessings. How could there be so much?
It would take countless years to accumulate such vast blessings.
“His Majesty obtained so much blessings just by destroying a sect? The Divine Continent’s sects do not seem like much?” an official said, feeling puzzled.
Meng Tai: “…”
Some of the officials did not understand. However, they had recruited many cultivators over the past year. These cultivators understood the significance of these blessings.
Many of the recruited cultivators initially recognized the Han Royal Dynasty only because of the high pay. Now that they saw the surging blessings, they all felt shocked.
The Han Royal Dynasty? It has not even been established for one year, and His Majesty is already so tyrannical? He already destroyed a Divine Continent sect and started plundering blessings?
Some of the cultivators from other islands had come with designs on the imperial casino’s holiday villa. If they could, they would snatch away Gu Hai’s dragon vein and take over Nine-Five Island. That would be great for them. However, when they saw the surging blessings gathering, these cultivators with ill intentions immediately shivered. They showed horror on their faces as their previous ill intentions instantly vanished. Am I dreaming? There are so much blessings? You must be joking, right?
