Chapter 484 - 119: Initial Probing
The Sacrificial Captains, connected to Emperor Yuanding through a Divine Technique, sensed his will. Disregarding whether they could repel the Third Realm Cultivators outside, they immediately transformed into streaks of golden light and charged out of the barrier.
The Third Realm Cultivators beside Jiangcun immediately wanted to follow, but they were stopped by the Python Robe Cultivator holding a black umbrella, who said, "We should wait for orders from His Majesty the Emperor and Princess Xia Yao!"
Upon hearing this, Jiangcun reached out his hand. A portion of the frost clinging to the barrier’s surface immediately passed through and flew toward him. As he felt the chill of the ice in his palm, a dull thud echoed in his ears.
It was a Sacrificial Captain, sent flying backward by a collision with a Gold Cultivator from the opposing side. His body smashed against the barrier’s surface, creating a ripple as blood threaded with gold filaments stained the barrier red, outlining its shape.
BANG.
Another dull thud rang out. A different Sacrificial Captain was also knocked back. His body landed on the barrier and, due to the powerful impact, shattered like a broken clay pot. Blood threaded with gold filaments once again spread across the barrier’s surface.
The most powerful among these Sacrificial Captains were only equivalent in strength to ordinary Third Realm Cultivators. But at this moment, due to Emperor Yuanding’s physical condition, they were unable to use many Divine Techniques. Facing the battle-hardened Third Realm Cultivators under Xiao Shan Lord, the only thing they could do was delay for as long as possible.
The death of their physical bodies was not true death. The consciousnesses of these Sacrificial Captains had long since been merged with the Imperial Palace’s Divine Technique Formation.
The shattered flesh and blood were still squirming. The golden threads within the blood acted like sutures, stitching the broken flesh back together. In the blink of an eye, they were restored to their original state. Meanwhile, in the Inspiration Realm, their consciousnesses were like puppets, manipulated by the glittering golden Divine Technique Formation of the Imperial Palace.
Furthermore, the Royal Family’s fortune was strong here. Every time they died, they would draw upon five hundred years of accumulated Divine Technique energy from beneath the earth. This energy was both formless and tangible, and in just over ten breaths, it cleansed the frost and bloodstains from the barrier’s surface.
Seeing this, Yu Zuo glanced back in Xiao Shan Lord’s direction. Then, using the Magical Artifact above his head, he transmitted a new coordinated strategy into the Spirit Seas of all nearby Third Realm Cultivators.
The fighting Gold Cultivators immediately withdrew. The three Artifact Cultivators providing cover from the rear at once blocked the pursuing Sacrificial Captains. At the same time, the Earth Vein Cultivators, who had also been holding the line, flew forward a short distance and activated a pre-prepared Combined Formation.
In just a moment, the entire mountain range protecting the Imperial Palace began to tremble. The earth for several miles around seemed to form some kind of connection with the sky. An immense pressure tried to pierce through the golden clouds and descend upon the land, while a powerful suction rose from the ground, as if trying to devour the mountains beneath the Imperial Palace.
But the Imperial Palace and the mountains beneath it were stabilized by Divine Technique Formations. The pressure from the sky was blocked by the illusory ’Divine Country’ within the clouds. As the two energies clashed, the ground around the Imperial Palace rippled like an ocean. The forests closing in from the south and west were overturned, and the plains to the north and east fractured layer by layer with each successive ’wave’.
When the ’waves’ hit the golden barriers Xiao Shan Lord had erected to the south and west, they crashed like surf against a reef, their momentum carrying them back in a ripple toward Shangjing City!
In the frontline military camps of the Chu Country south and west of Shangjing City, most of the soldiers were praying devoutly. Only a few soldiers tried to flee because of the churning earth, but they were quickly captured by the Military Supervisors and beheaded.
"Shangjing City is the culmination of more than five hundred years of the Central Plains Region’s heritage. It truly isn’t so easily shaken."
Wan Zhi Daoist seemed a little more anxious than Xiao Shan Lord. She looked at him and asked, "Should I make a move and take the Imperial Palace directly?"
Xiao Shan Lord maintained his cold expression and replied, "It’s still too early. Upsetting the balance now won’t do us any good. Besides, Yu Zuo and his team are capable of more than this."
From the very beginning, Wang Ping had been observing Yu Zuo and the other Third Realm Cultivators. Their coordination was linked by the Magical Artifact above Yu Zuo’s head, allowing them to act as one. Of course, the key to achieving this was their mutual understanding and trust. With the combat prowess they were currently displaying, they could definitely withstand an attack from twice their number of cultivators of equal strength.
If it were a fight against an equal number of opponents, and if those opponents were a disorganized mob, Yu Zuo’s squad of Third Realm Cultivators could probably finish them off in moments. If they focused their attack on a single person, that person would fall in an instant.
Wang Ping even imagined himself as that single person. ’The first thing I would do is activate the Profound Jade Token, then escape with the Pocket World Mirror. After that, I’d toss a Power Pill powerful enough to destroy them. But, given the energy supply they generate through their coordination, even a Power Pill made from a Third Realm Puppet wouldn’t be able to completely annihilate them in one go.’
While Wang Ping’s mind was racing, dense black vines appeared on the trembling earth. They crept along the quaking ground and climbed onto the barrier surrounding the Imperial Palace. The nearby Sacrificial Captains immediately tried to clear them away using the Divine Techniques carried within their bodies, but these vines were laced with a deadly poison—a poison that could devour spiritual energy. Divine Techniques were completely powerless against this toxin.
At the same time, the Water Spirit Qi swirling between the vines coalesced into dense formations of ice spikes amidst flashes of cyan light, then rained down upon the barrier like a torrential storm.
A deafening rattle echoed without end as the Sacrificial Captains were instantly pinned to the barrier’s surface. This time, their physical bodies couldn’t recover, because the downpour of ice spikes was relentless. In the blink of an eye, the entire grounds of the Imperial Palace were covered.
Behind the barrier, Jiangcun frowned. "If this keeps up, the barrier will collapse within a quarter of an hour!"
His thoughts were simple. ’I just hope we can keep stalling like this, drag it out until the succession ceremony is over. Then I can finally return to Dongxu Island and live my carefree days in peace.’
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
As he spoke, he looked at the floodwaters spreading across the land. It was the water from the Nong River. The heavy rains from a few days ago, combined with the few spells cast just now, had caused the nearby dams to burst, leading the surging river water to spread around the base of the mountains beneath the Imperial Palace. With this, Yu Zuo and his men would have a limitless supply of Water Spirit Qi.
As Jiangcun’s words faded, the middle-aged man in the python robe beside him turned to look toward Emperor Yuanding, who was at the center of the altar deep within the Imperial Palace. Seeing this, Jiangcun also turned to look at Xia Yao.
"All we can do is delay until the succession ceremony!" Emperor Yuanding said to Xia Yao, his voice cold.
"If that’s the case, then let’s do everything we possibly can." As Xia Yao spoke, she turned her head, her gaze piercing through half the Imperial Palace to land on Jiangcun.
"Stop them!"
Xia Yao’s tone was not a command, but a suggestion.
A glint flashed in Jiangcun’s eyes. He suppressed his slightly dazed expression, glanced at his two older brothers meditating in a palace outside the altar, then looked over at Guang Zuo Taoist sitting cross-legged on a mountain peak to the west of the Imperial Palace. He then called to the Third Realm Cultivators on his left and right, and charged out of the barrier to meet Yu Zuo and his forces.