Looking down at the crater widening once more below, as well as the shattered body of the insectman within it, Xu Yuan’s estimation of Mu Xingyi plummeted yet again.
He wasn't even worth one of the Barbarian King's hands.
If he were still in the body of a Transcendent aberrant ghost, he could probably have soloed Mu Xingyi without relying on any external tools.
With this new generation's Insect Saint performing so pathetically, Xu Yuan was even beginning to ache over the preparations he had laid down beforehand.
His resources were extremely limited, and the traps he had laid earlier were all area-of-effect damage. Ideally, they would have caught two Saints, but now they had all been wasted on this good-for-nothing Mu Xingyi.
Thinking this, Xu Yuan glanced toward the towering city wall not far off.
Without needing Xu Yuan’s command, over a hundred heavy ballistas atop the east city wall had already been drawn once more, aimed by Huang Shiwei right at Mu Xingyi inside the crater.
Looking at the situation, those two yin ghosts should be appearing soon, right?
Due to the existence of saint origin, as far as Xu Yuan knew, there were three ways to kill a Saint:
Slashing saint origin with saint origin.
Directly severing life force with the killing intent of a military array.
And inundating them with pure damage to overwhelm them in a short span of time.
And right now, Mu Xingyi had clearly reached the critical threshold of being overwhelmed by sheer damage.
With that in mind, Xu Yuan directed a solemn gaze toward Huang Shiwei, their eyes meeting in the air for a fleeting instant.
Though nothing was said, to a battle-hardened Transcendent powerhouse like Huang Shiwei, everything was already understood.
Xu Yuan wasn't sure about that ominous brat, but Madame Wan would definitely not stand by and watch her husband die.
And just as Xu Yuan had thought—
"Sigh..."
A soft sigh sounded beneath the canopy. A graceful silhouette flickered in the darkness and, in an instant, appeared right behind Huang Shiwei's burly figure.
Yet the moment her figure materialized—
BOOM!
A roar that shook the entire prefectural city detonated.
Huang Shiwei looked down at the slender woman who had appeared in an instant only to be slammed into the earth by the city defense array the next, quietly turning the heavy ballistas toward the ground as he scoffed coldly:
"Utterly foolish. How could the Third Young Master not know that I, controlling the heavy ballistas, would become your target?"
With those words, amidst Madame Wan's contorted, ferocious expression, the hundred heavy ballistas were fired simultaneously.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Listening to the continuous string of explosions echoing from the foot of the wall, Xu Yuan looked down at Mu Xingyi and said with a chuckle:
"Earlier, I heard Tianye say that yin ghosts have no brains. Looking at it now, your wife really isn't all that bright. I wonder, though, whether she can survive this when she's already injured."
At this point, Xu Yuan paused, the corners of his lips curving into a smirk:
"Good thing I didn't accept your terms. Barely a dozen-odd breaths into the fight, two of your family of Saints are already crippled. What do your two lives have that could compare to mine, Xu Changtian's, Mu Xingyi?!"
As he spoke, Xu Yuan directly produced enough Source Crystals from his Sumeru ring to maintain the city defense array for two days, making as if to hurl them down at the completely immobilized Mu Xingyi.
And right at that moment, Xu Yuan's heart abruptly began to race.
Before he could react, a pale hand suddenly seized his wrist. Glancing sideways, Xu Yuan saw a pale youth who bore a faint resemblance to Mu Xingyi.
Its pitch-black eyes stared at Xu Yuan, its voice thick with madness:
"No... don't you dare kill them..."
"..."
Feeling his racing heartbeat, Xu Yuan grinned once more at the brat, baring his stark white teeth:
"Little bastard, you've grown so big, yet you still haven't learned your lesson."
Hearing this, Mu Nuo split his mouth wide, revealing layer upon layer of sharp fangs inside:
"You can't... scare me anymore... Nuonuo is going to eat you... piece by piece... and everyone... by your side..."
Before the words had even faded, time suddenly ground to a halt.
Draped in the soul-shielding garment, Tianye silently materialized behind Mu Nuo.
Her deep golden eyes held a smile as she stared at this little ghost who had swallowed the artifact she had spent a lifetime refining. She slowly raised a pale jade hand and, as easily as piercing thin paper, drove it straight through its back and out its chest.
A wound through the chest was not grave for Mu Nuo, but the power belonging to the Thousand-Thorns Ghost Willow within its body abruptly began to riot!
At the same time, from deep within the distant government manor, a boundless pressure mingling the power of the city defense array and the military array began to radiate out, locking onto the rioting, boundless yin origin inside Mu Nuo from afar!
This scene within the city was naturally witnessed by the stooped old man and the others in the sky above.
Damn it, are these three good-for-nothings really Saints? They've only entered the city for a dozen-odd breaths, that Linlang hasn't even made a move, and they're already fucking about to be wiped out?!
Mu Xingyi just had to fixate on that Xu Changtian. If you had the strength to back it up, fixating on him wouldn't be an issue—after all, the family of three's goal was Xu Changtian from the start. But how the fuck did you get played into a cripple the very second you met?
That female yin ghost Saint was an even bigger idiot. Already wounded and terrible at fighting peers of the same realm, she actually tried to storm the city wall to save Mu Xingyi. With the boundless saint origin an Insect Saint possesses, was there any chance of him dying so quickly?
Before departure, Miss Wen had clearly drawn up a scheme for the three of them. Had they followed the plan, how could it have come to this?!
The traits of that female yin ghost Saint's ghost domain were practically a divine art against armies; once deployed, those low-tier martial apprentices forming the military array would have fallen into dazes and disorientation.
As long as they broke through the canopy, Mu Xingyi and the youth named Mu Nuo could have charged straight for the government manor while the female yin ghost Saint neutralized the military array. Wouldn't Xu Changtian have been a turtle in a jar all the same?!
Fury flashed through his mind, but the stooped old man realized they had to make a move.
Even though watching these three Saints sent his blood pressure soaring, if this family of the Insect Saint was truly crippled, the three of them might as well pack up and go home to their mothers.
Once the Saint from the Prime Minister's Manor arrived, unless all three of them were willing to fight desperately regardless of their injuries, there wouldn't be the slightest shred of a winning chance.
Without the slightest hesitation, the stooped old man charged toward the west.
Tianyuan also vanished from the sky in an instant.
Meanwhile,
outside the Military Hub Hall of the Zhenxi Manor, the flustered and exasperated curses of the young Divine Maiden echoed:
"You stupid wolf! What time do you think it is? You're still sleeping?!"
"..."
Dozing on the ground, the Linlang gave an "Awooo," lazily lifting its wolf eyes to glance at the terrifying qi dynamics in the sky, before rolling its eyes at Jiayi.
Dangerous. Not going. Get lost.
They're not even after you; this wolf isn't going anywhere.
Seeing this, Jiayi kicked the Linlang's rear in annoyance and scolded furiously:
"If you don't go bite someone, once that side collapses, this lady is going to die!"
"..."
Hearing that, the Linlang finally clambered up from the ground with immense reluctance. Yet the moment it found its footing, its lazy demeanor instantly transformed into tangible, suffocating killing intent.
Its narrowed slit pupils fixed on the several auras above for a few breaths before it dissolved into a white afterimage, rocketing abruptly into the heavens!
Naturally,
clever as it was, it very shrewdly picked the person who looked like they also just wanted to slack off.
Mm.
The antlered human, the only one still standing motionless in the sky.
Chapter 660