The moment the figure appeared, irregular golden lines began to spread across the vault of heaven with him at their center, layering upon one another. The few drifting clouds floating across the sky dissipated as swiftly as blown sand.
Upon closer inspection, these lines were covered entirely with scales, as if tens of thousands of lifelike, colossal dragons were soaring through the air. At this moment, the city defense canopy above the prefectural city seemed as flimsy as rice paper.
Gazing up at such an awe-inspiring celestial spectacle, most of the soldiers within the city were left completely stunned.
Too many upheavals had occurred this day, reaching a point beyond what they could bear.
High-ranking officers of both the loyalist and neutral factions strained to maintain order among the troops, yet military morale continued to unravel bit by bit.
The instant Xu Yuan saw the White Emperor appear, he immediately understood the sects' intention behind this move and deduced the current state of affairs inside the city.
No matter what kind of stat monster the White Emperor was, it was impossible for him to shatter the city defense array in a single strike. By showing himself at this moment, what he wanted to shatter was the morale of the garrison!
Due to cultivation requirements, every soldier across Great Yan's armies had been selected through rigorous screening. The vast majority of them had put life and death out of their minds from the moment they enlisted.
The Zhenxi Army was naturally no exception.
Yet that soldiers did not fear death did not mean they would not panic when driven into a desperate corner, much less that they would throw their lives away in futile martyrdom.
They dared to battle demonic beasts several or even dozens of times their size, but under the current circumstances, they had no idea where they were supposed to swing their blades.
At that Saint up above?
Don't be ridiculous.
The sudden activation of the array in the early morning, the high-level power struggle at the drill grounds before noon, the lingering doubts surrounding Linlang and the Desert Divine Maiden, followed by the collective mutiny and bombardment by junior officers—wave after wave of crisis had crashed over them without pause. And now, witnessing the might of a Saint with their own eyes, a suffocating despair naturally began to spread across the city.
In fact, this thread of oppression even crept into Xu Yuan's own heart.
The schemes laid by the scholar surnamed Wen and his allies in Zhenxi Prefectural City were linked link by link. Even though Xu Yuan had resolved them one by one, he had simply had no time to manage the lingering fallout of those events.
As this residual impact continued to pile up, the appearance of the White Emperor pushed it past the breaking point, bringing the morale of Zhenxi Prefectural City to the brink of total collapse.
The common soldiers did not know the relative strength between Saints; they only knew that on the opposing side, there were five more beings like the Saint towering in the sky above.
If they were to wait until all those mighty figures gathered above Zhenxi...
"Third Young Master, morale in the city is about to collapse. What do we do?"
Si Zijing came to Xu Yuan's side. He too saw that this was now a matter of life and death.
With an enemy Saint having already appeared, it was too late to flee. Even he could not escape under the siege of six Saints.
In other words, they were forced to see this path through to the bitter end.
At the very moment Si Zijing arrived, Huang Shiwei's voice transmission brought the first piece of good news Xu Yuan had heard all day:
"Third Young Master, the traitors have all been dealt with. However, most of the heavy city defense weapons require reloading and recharging. The seventeen array-inscribed ballistas we can still use are already aimed at the Saint in the sky."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan did not hesitate in the slightest and waved his hand toward the city walls.
Instantly, seventeen beams of white light soared skyward, shooting toward the figure gathering power high in the heavens!
Standing in the void, the White Emperor caught sight of the afterimages. His draconic eyes, which looked down upon all living beings, narrowed slightly.
Had the warcraft of the human race truly evolved to such an extent?
He could clearly sense the dangerous aura carried by those massive bolts. Merely several centuries ago, these engines of war could only threaten the Origin Realm, yet now they could actually pose a threat to a Saint.
It seemed that after returning to Guyuan from this campaign, the reforms could no longer be delayed.
Watching the incoming gleams of the bolts, the White Emperor's thoughts grew somber as he prepared to shift aside and dodge.
Yet right at that moment,
a crisp woman's voice transmitted into his ears:
"Lord White Emperor, we hope you will take these seventeen array-inscribed bolts head-on, to completely crush the morale of the military array below."
The White Emperor's draconic eyes glanced down at the abyss-like Thousand Thorns Gorge, with no intention of answering the speaker.
He was well aware that his appearance was meant to shatter the morale of the city below, and he knew that taking these great bolts under the watchful eyes of all would deal a finishing blow to their already tottering spirits.
But why should he do that?
He had just seen that these giant bolts could pierce through techniques. Taking so many array-inscribed bolts head-on would injure even someone with his physical resilience.
Under the current circumstances, the White Emperor was not foolish enough to obey the orders of those humans and willingly diminish his own strength.
Therefore, he halted the gathering of energy within his body and shifted aside with effortless ease, dodging the seventeen white streaks.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan felt joy rather than alarm, his fists clenching slightly beneath his sleeves.
This meant that the heavy city defense weapons could harm the White Emperor—and if they could hurt a stat monster like him, they would certainly be effective against the other five Saints.
Even more importantly, these attacking Saints were all looking out for their own skins.
If his deductions were correct,
the White Emperor, the Qin family, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master, and that fanatic family of Mu Xingyi would all be wary of each other.
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Si Zijing whispered a warning:
"Third Young Master, that Saint's attack is about to crash down."
"I know."
Giving a brief reply, Xu Yuan glanced toward the prefectural yamen, only to see a ten-foot-long white wolf already darting up right in front of him.
Linlang had arrived.
Compared to the grim, lethal tension hanging over Zhenxi Prefectural City, this oversized dog seemed entirely oblivious to danger.
After rushing to Xu Yuan's side and seeing that he was unharmed, it did not leave. It sat back on its haunches in midair, slurping and licking its paws with complete nonchalance.
With a faint smile, Xu Yuan spoke to the wolf, which had grown several times larger than when they first met:
"Can you go up there and take this strike?"
"..."
Hearing his voice, Linlang stopped its slurping and paw-licking, raising its head to look at him with pure, innocent wolf eyes.
After meeting his gaze for a second,
the wolf tilted its head.
*Foolish human, this wolf doesn't understand you.*
"..." Xu Yuan's eyelid twitched.
Ancient beasts possessed very low intelligence; Jiayi had once said that Linlang was roughly on par with an ordinary dog.
At this point, however, Xu Yuan could only pray that its canine intellect wasn't that of a husky.
After Xu Yuan gesticulated and mimed frantically before the great beast for a while, Linlang seemed to half-understand, raising its eyes toward the White Emperor above the canopy.
The moment it caught sight of him, beastly instinct drove it to bare its fangs at the White Emperor. A deep, muffled growl turned into sonic shockwaves that swept indiscriminately through hundreds of meters around them.
Fortunately, Xu Yuan and the others were up in midair. Had they been close to the ground, no mortal within that range would have survived.
Yet after growling for a moment, this foolish dog went right back to licking its paws under Xu Yuan's stare.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan hastily tried to gesture again, but Linlang's aloof, dismissive gaze swept over him first.
*Piss off. Not going. If I take it head-on, I might die. Keep talking and I'll eat you.*
Catching that look, Xu Yuan felt an overwhelming urge to give up on life.
He had just been reflecting on how disunited the enemies were, only to find that on his side, not everyone followed commands like fingers on a hand either.
Then again, that was inevitable.
The clash between Tianye and the White Emperor that had reshaped the terrain was still vivid in his mind.
Now, with this stat monster charging up an ultimate strike, there was probably no one in the world who could take it head-on.
The city defense array could indeed block the White Emperor's strike, but to stabilize the soldiers' morale, they could by no means allow the blow to crash onto the protective canopy. Otherwise, the earth-shattering devastation would likely smash the Zhenxi Army's morale into complete collapse.
After all, the White Emperor's sheer, unadulterated violence was the absolute counter to massive targets like a city defense canopy.
Yet there was no one capable of venturing outside the array to intercept him.
Which meant they could only take the other path.
With that thought,
Xu Yuan turned his gaze toward the western city wall...
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Bone-chilling, piercing agony surged from every corner of her body like tidal waves toward her heart.
A sharp ringing in her ears stripped away her ability to think. She tried desperately to breathe, only to find that no matter how hard she drew air, she could not catch her breath.
Probing the injuries inside her body, she realized that the meridians surrounding her internal organs were already covered with fine fractures.
Just now, to intercept the giant crystal bolts, she had forcibly channeled the power of the military array despite lacking the cultivation for it, costing her half her life.
Her frame swayed precariously. The grievous internal wounds caused Li Junwu's vision to black out; her levitation technique was nearly exhausted, and a tremor almost sent her plummeting from the sky. Yet she forcibly steadied herself.
Li Junwu knew that most eyes in the city were now fixed on that scoundrel Xu Yuan, but if even a single soldier or a single commoner was looking at her, she could not fall here.
Bit by bit, she dispersed her technique, taking pains not to let the backlash spread to the rank-and-file soldiers.
Having done all this, Li Junwu let out a long breath.
Though grievously wounded, this time she hadn't relied on that guy, averting the prefectural city's destruction by her own strength...
A faint smile curled at the corners of her lips. Li Junwu did her best to conceal her internal injuries as she lifted her eyes to look around.
Yet that single glance caused her newly brightened mood to plunge to the very bottom.
*What on earth is that phenomenon in the sky?*
Though she couldn't match that guy, and what she knew couldn't compare to what he knew, she understood morale and the hearts of the troops.
With this phenomenon manifesting, the Zhenxi Army within the city would collapse...
Li Junwu realized the enemies' scheme, and she also realized what caliber of figures Xu Yuan would have to confront on a daily basis from now on.
Biting her lip and clenching her fists, she looked toward him, only to meet his gaze looking back at her.
Across half the city, they exchanged a silent look.
Amidst the silence,
she parted her lips and gave him a soft smile.
"Use the city defense array. I will deal with the troops' morale afterward."
As her words fell,
the tens of thousands of dragons coiling across the horizon crashed down like a celestial waterfall.
The collapse began.
Zhenxi Prefectural City was situated at the cliffside of the abyss of Thousand Thorns Gorge. Through long years of construction, the city's foundations were exceptionally sturdy, but the surrounding loess and fractured rocks enjoyed no such protection.
The mere shockwave of air generated when the city-protecting array clashed with the Ten Thousand Dragons Heavenly Waterfall cracked the hundred-zhang stone causeway connecting both sides of Thousand Thorns Gorge, while colossal boulders and earth around the prefectural city tumbled down into the dark bottom of the gorge like mudflows...
The strike ended, and the tremors subsided.
The array had successfully blocked this strike akin to divine punishment, yet it was left in a battered state.
The protective canopy was tattered and flickering, marred by several enormous breaches.
Under Li Junwu's control, the city defense array began operating in overdrive.
Where the White Emperor had blasted open holes in the canopy, threads of net-like light rapidly emerged, spinning out like silk to mend the openings.
It was an extremely swift process, and Xu Yuan kept a vigilant watch on the Lord of Guyuan known as the White Emperor up above.
If the other party wished to, he could seize this opportunity to break into the city.
Clearly, however, he had no such intention.
The White Emperor merely stood in the void, quietly observing the chaos within the city.
Then, just as he had arrived, he vanished from the heavens in an instant...
"The array is almost repaired. Why didn't you press the advantage?"
Dense clusters of tiny eyeballs coated Mu Xingyi's eyes as he looked at the freshly returned Lord of Guyuan.
"Strike twice more, and the array would break outright."
The White Emperor's draconic eyes glanced at this insect-man. Without a word, he brushed past him and walked deeper inside.
Deep within Thousand Thorns Gorge, pitch darkness reigned so thick one could not see one's own hand.
From within, an aged, chuckling voice chimed in with Mu Xingyi's words:
"Little Brother Mu is right. With your strength, White Emperor, even if the city-protecting array didn't shatter after a few more strikes, the soldiers inside would scatter completely. Once the military array is gone, one of Xu Changtian's trump cards will be rendered useless."
"You could speak less nonsense," the White Emperor replied calmly. "I only do what I must. If you wish to breach the city immediately, why don't you and the Pavilion Master come up with me right now and strike together? How about it?"
Hearing this, the hunched old man stroked the mustache at the corner of his lips and fell silent.
Chaos under heaven was only just beginning to show its signs, and the order of rites and music had not yet completely collapsed; so long as these people of Yan could hide behind the scenes, they certainly would not show their hand.
After all, no one could say for sure whether the Emperor might change his mind before death, refrain from breaking openly with the Prime Minister's Manor, and choose to entrust the throne so that those laughable reforms could continue.
Even if the probability was minuscule, they could not fail to guard against it.
If the city fell by the hands of the White Emperor and the three non-human Saints, then even if Xu Yinhe wanted to settle accounts after the fact, he would have no righteous cause or standard rules by which to make them pay the price.
Yet unfortunately, the White Emperor had no intention of falling for it.
This creature would only proceed with the plan if he dragged them into the water as well.
In fact... if the objective could be achieved without their public appearance and intervention, the White Emperor might even turn around and stir up trouble for them.
After all, if they, the co-conspirators, kept themselves clean, the only target left would be Guyuan.
*A bit troublesome...*
Thinking this, the hunched old man glanced at the white-robed woman standing silently nearby.
It seemed their plan to corner and slay the White Emperor here was likely going to be shelved.
Amidst the silence of the crowd, an elegant woman's voice drifted quietly from the deepest reaches of the dark:
"Since Lord White Emperor is unwilling, we naturally cannot force him."
Hearing this voice, the hunched old man offered a genial bow toward the depths.
"Miss Wen."
The speaker remained hidden within the dark depths, her voice bearing a smile:
"Everyone, today's endeavor is not without gains.
"The only two anchors in Zhenxi Prefectural City capable of steadying the soldiers' morale have both been eliminated by Xu Changtian's own hand. The collapse of the troops' morale is already a foregone conclusion.
"We need only wait quietly; once internal strife erupts among them, we can strike together.
"Next, Mr. Mu, we will trouble you to control the insect tide and assault the city."
"..."
Mu Xingyi's compound insect eyes pondered for a moment, then he suddenly spoke:
"Controlling the insect tide to assault the city is no problem, but what if they resort to iron-fisted purges to maintain stability?"
After a brief silence,
the graceful woman's voice replied with a soft chuckle:
"That is indeed a question. But given the current state of affairs in the city, if he chooses to act that way, the collapse will only arrive all the faster~"
Chapter 651