Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao scrambled up the city wall, already gasping for breath.
Questions swirled in both their minds.
"You're stationed here?" Zhang Sheng asked, his face flushed with excitement.
This was the battleground of the Central Plains, where men fought to the death!
Of the Hundred and Eight Thousand Cities, a full third had already fallen into dead zones.
The City of No Return was practically half a dead zone itself.
For over a decade, Great Xia had been entirely unable to muster an army to send here.
Qi Yuan held his broken sword, feeling a trace of regret. "I've been here a few days. Pity... I haven't run into any demonic monstrosities."
"You aren't a man of Great Xia—you're a rogue cultivator?" Zhang Sheng took in the absence of a Great Xia banner on the battlements and understood at once.
In this world, there were still many wandering cultivators who set out generously to fight in the Central Plains.
And most of those wanderers were true cultivators.
Men like Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao could hardly be called true cultivators at all; they were barely unranked.
Even among the troops that had marched with them, only half had been cultivators.
Regrettably, every last one had died at the hands of the demonic monstrosities.
"Something like that," Qi Yuan replied without bothering to deny it.
"May I plant the Great Xia military banner here? It would show that the City of No Return remains under Great Xia's control." Zhang Sheng looked at Qi Yuan with eager anticipation.
"Go ahead." Qi Yuan looked at the two NPCs, his expression unreadable.
Their auras were already paper-thin, not far from death.
Yet neither showed the slightest terror of their approaching end; instead, they looked thrilled.
Hearing Qi Yuan's permission, Chen Jiao reached into the front of his shirt with his single arm, pulled out a blood-soaked, crumpled military banner, and carefully smoothed it flat.
Zhang Sheng stepped in to help. The two men treated the task with utter solemnity.
Though it was merely setting a banner into the battlement, the effort left them panting.
A fierce gust blew, kicking up dust and snapping the fabric in the wind.
The two gazed at the fluttering banner, longing in their eyes. "I wonder how long it will stand."
"A pity General Yuan couldn't live to see our banner planted on the walls of the City of No Return," Zhang Sheng murmured with a heavy sigh.
General Yuan was the commander who had led the Song Battalion.
Besieged by hundreds of demonic monstrosities, he had slain dozens before his strength gave out. When he died, his eyes had remained open, staring in the direction of the City of No Return.
Zhang Sheng knew that General Yuan was of Great Xia's nobility, a man who had stood before the Emperor.
Before they marched, General Yuan had told them that if their banner could not be planted atop the walls of the City of No Return—if Great Xia lost the city for twenty years—the nation would cease to exist.
Great Xia would be absorbed entirely into Great Sui, forced to guard Jialan City alongside them.
The two men sighed, then turned back to Qi Yuan. "Hero, what happened to the demonic monstrosities inside the city?"
"Quite a few were roaming about. I put them down." Qi Yuan sat on the wall, looking as though he were merely whiling away the hours.
In truth, he had been reviewing the cultivation arts he acquired in the Canglan Realm, pondering their depths.
One day in the Canglan Realm equaled ten years here; he had to make proper use of this game's time dilation.
The Qi Yuan Scripture he had stitched together was riddled with flaws—aside from the fact that it could actually be cultivated without turning him into livestock feed. Not only did it degrade memory, but it also induced mental instability.
He was deepening his insights to patch up the Scripture's holes.
Only when demonic monstrosities appeared would he make a move; otherwise, he simply sat perched atop the wall.
"Weren't there nearly a hundred monstrosities roaming the city? Are you a cultivator?" Chen Jiao could not help asking. "What realm are you in?"
Zhang Sheng instantly shot him a glare.
Chen Jiao realized his blunder; one should never pry into a cultivator's realm so bluntly.
"Level 49. Weak as can be." Qi Yuan hid nothing.
Chen Jiao froze.
Zhang Sheng assumed Qi Yuan simply did not wish to reveal his true identity and strength.
Night fell swiftly.
The world was quickly swallowed by gloom.
Qi Yuan looked up. The sky was pitch-black.
"Hey, why are there no stars in the sky in this world of yours?"
Only after arriving in the City of No Return had Qi Yuan noticed that nightfall turned the sky as dark as ink.
There were no stars, not even a glimmer of starlight.
"Stars in the sky? What do you mean?" Zhang Sheng was bewildered, unable to fathom what Qi Yuan meant.
Seeing his reaction, Qi Yuan understood.
This world had no stars above.
Could it be that someone had eaten all the stars?
At that thought, Qi Yuan felt a spark of excitement.
"Nothing. It's dark, and you two aren't cultivators, so you can't see in the dark. Go find a place to sleep." Qi Yuan was decent at heart and offered the reminder kindly.
"All right." Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao made their way down the rampart.
As they stepped off the final stair, both turned in unspoken unison, looking long and deep into the darkness toward the Great Xia banner.
...
The next day, just as dawn broke.
Qi Yuan was still seated on the wall, pondering the methods of the Canglan Realm.
From time to time, he glanced down into the city, catching sight of the two men gasping for breath as they gathered and buried the bleached bones strewn through the streets.
Both were grievously injured and looked as though they had mere days to live.
Yet there they were, relentlessly hauling corpses.
Toward evening, Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao climbed back up to the wall, wheezing as they lugged up a large wooden chest.
"Young Hero, care for some wine?" The chest was packed full of jars.
When a jar was unsealed, an aroma of wine drifted up, rich with a sour tang mingled into the fragrance.
Back on Blue Star, Qi Yuan had never touched a drop of alcohol due to his illness.
He had never developed the habit of drinking.
"Thank you both, but I don't drink. I lose my mind whenever I touch the stuff." Qi Yuan declined.
"Ah, this wine is our Great Xia's own Daughter's Fragrance.
"Normally, when a daughter is born in Great Xia, her family buries several jars of Daughter's Fragrance, only digging them up on her wedding day.
"Under ordinary circumstances, you could never taste it. It was only because we soldiers were heading for the City of No Return that the common folk lined the streets to give us wine before we set off." Chen Jiao tipped a jar back and poured the liquor down his throat. "If I don't drink it now, I never will."
Zhang Sheng grabbed a jar as well, gulping it down. "If we don't drink it, no one ever will."
The scent of wine drifted thick across the wall.
Finishing his drink, Zhang Sheng walked over to Qi Yuan. "Young Hero, I scavenged quite a few good things in the city.
"Here are Blood-Invigorating Pills, Blood-Nourishing Pills, and healing balms. They ought to be of use to you, so I brought some up."
Qi Yuan looked at the assortment of jars and bottles Zhang Sheng presented and said, "You two are severely injured. If you take these medicines, you might live another day or two."
"Thank you for your kindness, Young Hero." Zhang Sheng gave a self-deprecating smile. "But our two worthless lives could at best be traded for one or two monstrosities. These pills are far better off in your hands."
Qi Yuan reached out and took only the Blood-Nourishing Pills. "Take the rest back. I have no use for them."
"Young Hero..." Zhang Sheng tried to press.
"Hmph, you harbor ill intentions! Giving me medicine—are you cursing me to get hurt?"
Qi Yuan scoffed at the very thought. "Could those monstrosities even scratch me? You fear them, but to me, they're downright adorable. They're nothing but exp babies."
Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao found his words utterly incomprehensible, but they didn't dare force the medicine on him any further.
They could only cough awkwardly. "The Young Hero is truly extraordinary."
The two sat on the parapet, drinking and chatting.
"I wonder when the army of monstrosities will show up."
"A pity we don't know how long Great Xia's banner will hang here."
"Young Hero, while the monstrosities haven't arrived, why don't you leave? With your strength, you must be at least a high-ranking Commander. If you leave the City of No Return for another stronghold, you might still find a way to survive."
In the Liufeng Realm, the classification of cultivators was straightforward: Unranked, First Realm, Second Realm, Third Realm, Fourth Realm, and Fifth Realm.
The First Realm was known as Commander;
The Second Realm was called Hegemon, a ruler of a region;
The Third Realm was the Nation Protector, a single warrior capable of guarding an entire kingdom;
The Fourth Realm was the Terrestrial Myth, beings on par with immortals;
The Fifth Realm was the Sovereign, the absolute pinnacle of power in the world.
Rumor had it that among the Hundred and Eight Thousand Cities, some were guarded by Sovereigns.
Only such cities were truly impregnable, utterly impervious to demonic monstrosities.
"I am the Guardian of the City of No Return. Naturally, I will not leave."
Of course Qi Yuan would not leave.
The longer he held the city, the greater his reward.
Back on the Wangyue Continent, slaying monsters yielded experience, but securing an item on the level of a Heavenly Dao fragment required clearing the dungeon.
The demonic monstrosities here were tempting, but they only provided him with experience.
To earn higher rewards, he had to guard the City of No Return.
"Now that the Great Xia banner stands atop the walls, the monstrosities will learn of it within a day," Zhang Sheng said. "In less than five days, their army will be upon us."
Even without a banner, the monstrosities would eventually realize the city's state, but it would take longer.
Qi Yuan stared in surprise. "If the banner isn't planted, they won't send new ones right away?"
He had waited all this time without a single monstrosity appearing—was it simply because no banner had been raised?
"They would, just much more slowly." Zhang Sheng couldn't fathom why this young hero was so clueless about such matters, but he explained in detail nonetheless.
"So as long as the banner is here, an army of monstrosities will arrive within five days?" Qi Yuan muttered to himself.
In other words, he could use the banner to control the timing of their assaults.
"Roughly speaking, yes," Zhang Sheng replied.
Qi Yuan looked at the two men, a glimmer of greed in his eyes.
Their hearts skipped a beat as Qi Yuan asked, "Do you have more banners? The more, the better."
"Yes... we do." Baffled, Zhang Sheng nevertheless produced several more banners. They had gathered them while searching the city and kept them on hand.
"What do you need so many banners for, Young Hero?" Zhang Sheng couldn't help asking.
"One won't last long enough. I intend to hold this place for quite a while," Qi Yuan replied candidly.
One day outside was nearly ten years in the game.
He had to seize this time to cultivate diligently and advance his cultivation.
Zhang Sheng fell silent, unable to bring himself to urge Qi Yuan to leave any longer.
Beside him, Chen Jiao didn't overthink things. Gulping down his wine, a look of heroic resolve washed over his face. "I never imagined that a man like me, Chen Jiao, would get to die in this city alongside someone like you, Young Hero."
To him, once the demonic army descended, all of them would perish within these walls.
Qi Yuan rolled his eyes at him. "You might die, but I won't. What kind of player dies permanently in a game?"
As for NPCs... pity they didn't respawn at fixed points.
Zhang Sheng hurriedly tugged at Chen Jiao's sleeve. "The Young Hero possesses unmatched prowess; he'll surely send the monstrosities running with their tails between their legs!"
Seeing this, Chen Jiao joined in the flattery.
Yet beneath the words, Zhang Sheng felt profound reverence for Qi Yuan.
With an overwhelming demonic host looming, this young hero showed no intention of retreating.
Mixed emotions surged within Zhang Sheng's chest.
Knowing a city could not be held, yet resolving to defend it to the death—such mettle commanded true admiration.
...
Great Xia.
The Residence of Duke Yuan.
The Emperor was only sixteen years old, yet he had held the reins of Great Xia for four years.
Over those four years, he had strained to balance the factions, assembling an army of cultivators until he finally established the Song Battalion, placing it under General Yuan's command to march on the City of No Return.
Hope shone upon the young Emperor's youthful face. "Marquis Yuan did not fail Our trust. Great Xia's banner has finally been planted on the walls of the City of No Return."
The Hundred and Eight Thousand Cities were fortresses, but they were also formations.
Whenever a banner was planted atop a city wall, the Dragon-Suppressing Bell in the Great Xia imperial palace would toll nine times.
If the banner fell, it would toll once.
Days earlier, the Dragon-Suppressing Bell had tolled nine times.
The Emperor had bolted toward the ancestral shrine before he could even put on his shoes.
Now, the City of No Return had returned to Great Xia's fold.
This signaled that Great Xia had secured another twenty years of national destiny.
Otherwise, twenty years without the city would mean the fall of the empire, forcing them to merge into Great Sui.
Even under Great Sui, they would still fight the demonic horde.
Yet who wished to be cannon fodder? Who wished to be thoroughly exploited?
The Emperor's excitement was palpable, but the sight of Marquis Yuan's weeping wife made it wither away.
Great Xia's banner stood on the walls, but when would Great Xia's soldiers return?
In a few days, the demonic horde would strike the City of No Return once more. How many days could it hold?
The Emperor could not bear the thought of his subjects hearing the death knell of the city tolling once again.
...
Over the days that followed, Qi Yuan often watched Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao staggering through the ruins, burying the skeletal remains.
Their life force grew fainter with every passing hour, dwindling to a mere thread.
Yet both seemed sustained by a single breath, refusing to collapse.
"Cough, cough... If those damned monstrosities don't hurry up, I'm going to drop dead first," Chen Jiao muttered from his seat on the rampart, cursing under his breath.
Zhang Sheng also knew his time was running out. "Before I die, I have to take down at least one of them!"
Only then would his life not be wasted.
In those final days, they stopped burying the bones, conserving their remaining strength solely to guard the Great Xia banner.
After an unknown stretch of time, the earth began to tremble.
The two men on the wall snapped to attention.
Struggling to their feet, they stood against the parapet and looked out at the sky of churning yellow dust.
Amidst the storm, roughly seven to eight hundred massive demonic monstrosities were thundering toward them.
They charged like rampaging colossi, kicking up billowing clouds of grit.
If such a terrifying vanguard crashed into a mortal army, the ranks would be shredded in an instant.
Against such overwhelming might, the City of No Return was utterly defenseless.
No trace of fear showed on Zhang Sheng's face. He raised his bowl. "Drink with me!"
Chen Jiao drained his in a single gulp.
Crack! The wine bowls shattered on the stones, breaking into shards.
"Sons of bitches! The bastards are finally here!"
Zhang Sheng glanced up at Qi Yuan, regret flickering in his heart.
This young hero had refused to leave, and now, all chance of escape was gone.
Chen Jiao continued cursing, his voice wavering with tears as he watched the oncoming horde. "I want to go home... We left in such a hurry, I forgot to geld the pig I gave to Widow Li next door..."
Looking down at the surging horde, a faint smile touched Qi Yuan's lips.
"Finally here, are you?"
Holding his broken sword, he stood along the ramparts, gazing at the advancing army.
After a moment's thought, he shouted down, "I am the Guardian of the City of No Return! Those who trespass shall die!"
His voice rang out like thunder, crashing over the demonic ranks.
The horde paid him no heed, charging straight for the walls.
Seeing this, Qi Yuan's expression chilled. "You might be mindless madmen who can't understand human speech, but refusing to give me face still puts me in a bind."
Gripping the broken sword, he leapt straight from the battlements.
A thirty-zhang drop was no different from flat ground to him.
Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao watched in stunned awe, their blood running hot.
"If only we were true cultivators, we'd leap down and fight to the death alongside him!" Zhang Sheng lamented.
They were merely unranked practitioners who had learned a few basic martial tricks; leaping from such a height would mean instant death.
"Young Hero, slay them! We'll walk the Yellow Springs beside you!" Zhang Sheng screamed at the top of his lungs.
The shout seemed to expend the last of his strength, leaving him trembling and drained.
"Three men together—we won't be lonely!" Chen Jiao roared.
Hearing them, Qi Yuan felt speechlessly amused. He called out calmly, "Sit tight on the wall and watch how I slice through these trash mobs, one by one!"
"To witness the Young Hero slaughter these monstrosities before I die... this life will not have been in vain!" Zhang Sheng gasped out, his words broken.
Qi Yuan raised his blade.
Seven to eight hundred monstrosities surged toward him like stampeding colossi.
Dust whipped through the air, turning the world into a sea of yellow sand.
Standing upon the grit, Qi Yuan's long hair fluttered, his robes snapping in the wind.
Heaven-Cleaving Sword-Drawing Technique!
In that split second, Qi Yuan unleashed his ultimate skill.
Though he was currently only Level 49, the major and minor skills he had acquired previously remained with him.
A flicker of curiosity crossed his mind.
At his current state, would he awaken new skills every ten or thirty levels?
Brushing the thought aside, Qi Yuan poured every ounce of his focus into the slaughter.
"Die!"
Qi Yuan sprang into the air, bringing the broken sword down from above with tyrannical fury.
The single stroke descended like the collapse of a towering divine monument.
Boom!
Sword qi detonated outward, cleaving the yellow sands in two. The shockwave swept through nearly a hundred demonic monstrosities, shattering their forms into a bloody haze.
The slain beasts vanished into nothingness in an instant.
A single sword strike had obliterated ninety-seven monstrosities.
Holding the broken blade, Qi Yuan walked steadily toward the remainder of the horde. "Trash mobs ought to bow their heads and line up to be farmed."
Up on the city wall, Zhang Sheng and Chen Jiao stared with wide eyes.
What had they just witnessed?
Nearly a hundred demonic monstrosities wiped out in a single stroke?
Such power was terrifying beyond belief.
What kind of Commander was this? This was clearly a Hegemon!
A Hegemon who, in Great Xia, could be granted the title of marquis on the spot!
Shock shook them to their core.
Never had they imagined that this eccentric young hero was actually one of the legendary Hegemons.
They watched as Qi Yuan threw himself into the thick of the demonic host.
The broken sword in his grip seemed sharper than any divine weapon in existence.
Every beast that crossed his path took a fatal stroke.
"Kill!"
Back in Tianjue, Qi Yuan had slaughtered tens of thousands.
In Dijue, he had fought a blood-soaked campaign against nearly three thousand extraterrestrial demons.
His combat skills had been honed to the absolute peak—especially his efficiency at mowing down monsters.
Demonic monstrosities massed into an army like this were far easier to butcher than the scattered stragglers roaming the ruins.
His blade moved like a swimming dragon, executing every monstrosity in its path!
Slaughter, endless slaughter!
Yellow sand swirled high, obscuring the vision.
One man, one broken sword, holding a solitary city.
He plunged into the demonic host, weaving through them three times over.
Whatever he saw, whatever he touched, whatever made a sound—he cut it down.
The formidable demonic army was wiped out by his hand until not a scrap remained.
As dusk fell, Qi Yuan held his broken sword, his garments unsoiled by a single speck of dust. He looked at the final, wounded white-bone monstrosity attempting to flee.
"Don't run! Face me in a fair fight!"
"Oh, you're hurt and don't want to fight?"
"Here, have a Blood-Invigorating Pill to patch yourself up."
"Ah, I forgot. You're made of bone—you don't have blood to invigorate."
A flash of sword light swept through, and the last bone monstrosity fell beneath his blade.
Lifting the broken sword, Qi Yuan gave a gentle blow as he always did, scattering the stray beads of blood left from the battle.
Wind and sand swept past. Standing upon the boundless desert, Qi Yuan turned to walk back.
Pity there was only the vast desert, with no solitary plume of smoke, and no setting sun round over the long river.
Chapter 99