Could it be...?
He Lingchuan could not resist glancing westward. The burned-out official residences lay in that direction.
"No reason at all. Eldest Young Master, we just need to stay hidden right here!" Maotao had killed many people and suffered many wounds, but he was not reckless; he had no desire to tangle with an opponent he couldn't beat.
Just then, a voice behind them called out in pleasant surprise: "Eldest Young Master, you're here!"
Could that voice be...?
He Lingchuan was overjoyed beyond measure. Whirling around, he indeed saw Zeng Feixiong standing with five subordinates at the entrance of a cellar.
"What took you so long?" Eldest Young Master He complained the moment he opened his mouth. "Where's my father?"
With six capable fighters on his side, his strength had suddenly grown, and He Lingchuan felt vastly more at ease.
"The commandery governor sent us down to help Eldest Young Master. He stayed up above with the men to hold off the resentful souls." Zeng Feixiong looked all around in bewilderment, his mouth hanging agape in shock. "What on earth is happening here? Why aren't we going to help the National Preceptor?"
"He harbors ill intent. Just moments ago he tried to plot against me." He Lingchuan's expression hardened. "Every last one of you stays right where you are. Nobody goes up there!"
Though Zeng Feixiong had no idea why the National Preceptor would plot against He Lingchuan, he hesitated for two or three seconds before deciding to stay by the eldest young master's side. The battle ahead was fierce, but both the National Preceptor and Commandant Nian were formidable men; they would surely take care of themselves.
He Lingchuan narrowed his eyes.
Ever since he first met Sun Fuping, this National Preceptor had swaggered around, putting on all the airs of a grand master. So why hadn't he unleashed any major trump card for a counterattack yet? Most of the monsters' attacks had been parried by Nian Songyu; what about the National Preceptor's own skills?
Even a bystander watching the show like him understood that to catch bandits, one must capture the ringleader first. Unless the black flood dragon atop the city gate was eliminated, the monsters on the ground would never end.
Why hadn't Sun Fuping made his move?
He Lingchuan harbored doubts in his heart. Had he known the National Preceptor was a paper tiger, why would he and his old man have swallowed their anger while following orders?
Or perhaps Great Yuan's dynastic fortune had grown so frail that the National Preceptor's power, tied intrinsically to it, had weakened as well?
Little did he know, Sun Fuping's strength was being poured entirely into maintaining the boundary in the real world. After all, He Chunhua and the others outside weren't dealing with any random rabble, but the Gale Army!
With his power and focus divided, the National Preceptor was constrained in this battle, which annoyed him to no end.
Beneath the South Gate, Nian Songyu was already panting heavily: "National Preceptor, if you don't play your trump card now, it'll be too late!" Their personal strength was limited, while the black flood dragon seemed to possess limitless power on its home turf. The fight had been unfair from the start—how were they supposed to keep this up?
Sun Fuping had already taken sword in hand. At that moment, he had just slit the throat of a demonic ape. "Very well! Buy me thirty breaths—completely undisturbed!" His swordsmanship was inferior to Nian Songyu's, but it was by no means weak.
Seizing the opening, he scattered more than a dozen bronze beans onto the ground. This was the secret art of scattering beans to summon soldiers; the golden-armored soldiers that sprang forth were identical to the two fallen earlier.
They formed a defensive wall, shielding Sun Fuping firmly in the center.
Divine arts suitable for the battlefield consumed immense true energy, and within this illusory realm, the energy expenditure was doubled. Sun Fuping was truly bleeding himself dry, not hesitating to burn through two deep-green profound crystals in one go.
Earlier, the walnut platter had traversed the desert back and forth for hours carrying over two hundred people, yet it had consumed only three low-grade profound crystals, whose quality could not compare to these two. If He Lingchuan saw this, he would surely slap his thigh in dismay—in an instant, three Great Capital luxury mansions with attached estates, pretty maids, and proprietary produce were gone.
By proprietary produce, it meant certain ancestral grand estates possessed unique goods of their own: for instance, spring water dedicated to brewing fine teas and spirits, or old plum blossoms and jasmine with exotic fragrances grown on the grounds, making their pastries and sweetcakes taste far superior to any normal workshop's. Such residences possessed unique geomantic and irrigation advantages that could nurture their masters in return. Of course, their greater significance lay in the sheer prestige, so in status and price, they looked down upon ordinary luxury homes.
Truly obscenely extravagant.
Er, digressing.
Nian Songyu naturally had no time for lamentations. He glanced at the monsters surging from all directions, calculated the thirty-breath limit, and gritted his teeth. "Fine!"
If they didn't make a desperate push while they still had strength left, they would soon be meat on someone else's chopping block.
Sun Fuping swept his gaze across the ruins of the south city, and somehow, his eyes locked right onto He Lingchuan's.
Naturally, he also spotted Zeng Feixiong and Maotao.
Ever since He Lingchuan discovered that the monsters summoned by the black flood dragon did not attack him, he had grown much bolder, even daring to climb up to the second floor of an abandoned tavern to watch the spectacle. Zeng Feixiong and the others naturally had no choice but to follow.
This was the corner where the east and south walls met, at most thirty paces from the city wall.
With that single exchange of glances, He Lingchuan felt a chill run down his spine, for Sun Fuping flashed him a bizarre, unsettling smile.
Just a single smile, as if telling him: *You're in for disaster.*
At that moment, Nian Songyu roared toward the heavens. Teal light coalesced around him, and directly above him manifested the phantom of a muscular giant roughly fifty feet tall.
Like him, the giant wielded twin sabers. Though a phantom, the blades were forty feet long!
Just as the monsters charged from all sides, Nian Songyu executed two sweeping horizontal slashes, followed by an upward cleave into the air.
Wherever his blades passed, the giant's blade phantoms struck as well, extending more than thirty feet beyond his own reach.
Cold gleams flashed and blade qi crisscrossed; monsters within a seventy-foot radius were cleaved apart in a single sweep, torn into gory shreds.
Even the monstrous birds in the sky rained down with loud clatters.
With just a few more following slashes, the monsters on the field would be largely eradicated.
This martial skill bore a name extraordinarily familiar to He Lingchuan: Primordial Might. It was Nian Songyu's ultimate trump card, capable of borrowing the power of a primordial giant to make him invincible on the battlefield, suppressing even the divine arts of others.
Its only flaw was perhaps that the duration of its overwhelming might was too brief—he could only be an overbearing, true man for a mere fifty seconds.
Taking advantage of the temporary reprieve from surrounding threats, Sun Fuping pulled an ivory carving from his robes, bit his index finger, and dabbed the flowing blood onto the sculpture.
He Lingchuan was too far away to make out the details of the ivory carving; he only knew the sculpture had turned slightly yellow, a characteristic of aged ivory, making it clearly an ancient relic.
Strangely enough, after smearing it with blood, Sun Fuping let go, closed his eyes, and silently chanted a prayer. The ivory carving hung suspended in midair, motionless, beginning to emit a faint luminescence.
The instant the carving appeared, the black flood dragon, which had been watching like an idle spectator atop the city gate, suddenly could sit still no longer and slithered straight down.
Over a hundred and fifty feet long and moving faster than a galloping horse, it virtually sprang and landed upon the ground, hurtling right in front of Nian and Sun!
The black flood dragon's target was that ivory carving.
At this moment, Sun Fuping stood motionless with eyes closed, lips muttering chants, wholly unable to stop it.
Their only reliance was Nian Songyu.
The commandant was slaughtering in all directions, and even the giant phantom above his head was gradually turning crimson, radiating an aura of sheer berserk fury.
Chapter 60