He had never imagined such a stampede would break out anywhere outside a battlefield, let alone in Lingxu City!
Fortunately, while this greatest city in the world had no outer walls, two colossal natural rock cliffs stood outside the North Gate. Any creature approaching from that direction—be it merchant caravans, carriages, or Thunder-Wielding beasts—had to pass through the gorge between them.
The passage was eleven zhang wide and exceptionally level, which made travel smooth for carts and horses, but naturally offered no obstacle to a herd of Thunder-Wielding beasts.
Yet the earlier mud mire spell had bought Lingxu City a sliver of time. Several great demons rushed to the scene and combined their arts, weaving together earth shaping, petrification, and various other supernatural powers to erect a massive wall at the mouth of the passage before Lingxu City!
In the post-immortal era, cultivators no longer possessed the might to move mountains or drain seas, but pooling their magic to temporarily raise the terrain remained well within their power.
The wall stood eight zhang tall—roughly twenty-six meters—and was an astonishing five zhang, or sixteen meters, thick. Evidently, the great demons had taken into account the colossal kinetic impact of the Thunder-Wielding beasts.
Its surface was rugged and uneven, completely devoid of aesthetic refinement, but raising it in a mere quarter of an hour demonstrated the profound reserves of Lingxu City.
An expert recognized true skill; He Lingchuan gave the feat a mental thumbs-up.
With unrest already erupting inside the city behind them, Lingxu City had still managed to mobilize these great demons. Their response could hardly be called slow.
Furthermore, the rock wall had not been slapped together blindly. It followed the proportions of composite mortar, and several talisman masters were hastily inscribing runes across its surface, preparing formations to reinforce the structure further.
Before the stampede even reached it, He Lingchuan saw faint light rippling over the rock face.
It was the glow of origin power.
Beijia's origin power had already taken effect upon the wall.
Though it was a rampart thrown up in haste, withstanding a barrage from heavy artillery would likely pose no problem.
Rather than a wall, it was more like a massive dam.
It reminded He Lingchuan of his first visit to the Panlong Ruins, where he had seen the land bridge outside the South Gate. That structure had also been forged through divine techniques, and back then, his only thought had been how wonderful it would be to witness such construction with his own eyes.
Here and now, that wish was unexpectedly fulfilled.
Inside and outside the city, atop the mountains and across the plains, all living beings held their breath, waiting to see if the united efforts of Lingxu's demons could halt this frenzy of Thunder-Wielding beasts.
Charging to the base of the wall, the herd ground to a halt.
After all, the rock wall stood taller than even the lead behemoth; they could not sprout wings and fly over it.
The massive creature tapped the rock with the fractured bone plate on its forehead, as though testing its thickness.
The wall remained rock-solid.
Restless agitation rippled through the herd. A few giant beasts, unwilling to believe it, surged forward and butted the barrier with their snouts.
Useless. It did not budge an inch.
Seeing this, onlookers let out a collective sigh of relief, assuming the crisis was temporarily contained.
Only the lead Thunder-Wielding Behemoth cocked its head, continuously sniffing the stone, its ears twitching slightly.
He Lingchuan was uncertain. "Is that brute... actually thinking?"
It simply stood before the land passage, exhaling repeatedly.
Others could not tell what it was doing, but Fan Long and those closest to it saw clearly: each time it puffed, it sprayed tiny clusters of deep purple crystals against the rock wall.
Raised in haste by supernatural arts, the wall appeared solid, yet it harbored large internal fissures and air pockets. Erected in mere moments, it could hardly boast the meticulous craftsmanship or sophisticated mechanics of skilled masons.
The small crystal clusters penetrated the stone upon contact, burrowing deep into its interior as if endowed with awareness. Once they found suitable ground, they lodged themselves and proliferated wildly.
Before long, the entire face of the rock wall took on a deep purple hue, with crystal clusters protruding everywhere.
By He Lingchuan's aesthetic standards, the wall looked rather striking; the crystal clusters resembled amethysts, gleaming with obvious value.
Fan Long, however, was in no mood for sightseeing. He relentlessly directed his troops to loose arrows into the pack of Donao beasts.
Lingxu City possessed centuries of tradition in hunting Donao beasts, and its hunters had developed specialized toxins for them. Harassing and shooting them from behind throughout the chase, they had already felled over a hundred along the way in a gruesome display.
Yet the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth was cloaked in defensive plating so formidable that normally only heavy siege ballistas could pierce its outer shell. The combined efforts of Lingxu City's great demons were barely enough to breach its defenses.
A yellow badger demon wielded the strangest art of all, managing to swap the behemoth's rock-hard outer armor with its relatively soft inner hide. Though the effect lasted only four or five breaths, it offered the archers enough time to sink several more venomous shafts into the beast.
Watching the battle unfold from Mount Xing, He Lingchuan took a sharp breath.
Fortunately, his raid on Mount Xu tonight had prioritized sheer speed; the battle had ended before reinforcements from the Heavenly Palace could arrive. Otherwise, if pitted against these eccentric great demons with their bizarre, unpredictable arts, what chance would his plan have had?
The behemoth's rampage served as a preview, showing him the staggering cost of taking on Lingxu City head-on.
By now, the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth had lost all patience. Roaring furiously, it suddenly wheeled around, galloped back over a hundred zhang, and spun to face the rock wall, aligning its colossal head armor with the barrier...
The other Thunder-Wielding beasts scrambled out of its way.
Watching intently from Mount Xing, Dong Rui stared unblinkingly. "Is this brute really that reckless?"
That was a solid rampart five zhang thick. Even the vassal demon kings of the Baixiang Kingdom would think twice before ramming it with their bare skulls.
"He is," He Lingchuan replied. The Thunder-Wielding Behemoth dared to charge head-on into the sandstorms of the Fu Realm; its skull was hardened beyond reason. What was a mortal wall to it?
Sure enough, no sooner had the words left his mouth than the behemoth surged into a sprint and slammed full-tilt into the rock wall.
A dull, earth-shaking thud carried all the way to Mount Xing.
Whether jarred by the impact or triggered by some occult resonance, the crystal clusters embedded inside the wall detonated simultaneously.
The spectacle was magnificent beyond words.
Countless crystals blasted outward in every direction. Even the soldiers thirty zhang away were caught in the shockwave, thrown into utter disarray.
In a single breath, the rock wall was leveled, collapsing with a cataclysmic roar!
This was an explosion born from within the structure; neither the reinforcement formations nor the ambient origin power had any chance to resist it.
He Lingchuan truly had not anticipated that this lord-tier behemoth would be so versatile—not only could it levitate in grand fashion, but it also excelled at demolition.
The herd had broken through once more.
In truth, during the dozens of breaths the beasts had paused, the great demons had joined forces to slay dozens more Donao beasts in a textbook display of lethal efficiency.
Yet the remaining three hundred-odd beasts were now liberated, thundering onward behind their chieftain.
This time, they finally breached Lingxu City—a completely unobstructed Lingxu City!
The forces stationed behind the rock wall had no effective means to stop them. Standing upon the heights, He Lingchuan watched the ensuing mayhem unfold.
The northwestern quarter of Lingxu City, overrun by the Donao beasts, instantly descended into chaos.
He Lingchuan could almost hear the shrieks carrying across the distance.
He also saw fires erupting across numerous buildings. The crimson flames and lightning crackling over the behemoth ignited wood, paper, and lamp oil the moment they brushed against them, sending flames whooshing up into the roofbeams.
Dong Rui pointed toward the city. "Whoa, that monster moves fast."
Where the fires blazed marked the beast herd's path.
In that brief span, they had carved their way seven or eight li deep, tracing a serpentine, utterly unpredictable route.
Wherever they passed, houses collapsed, lives were snuffed out, and towering flames lit the night sky.
The herd drove into the soft belly of Lingxu City like a dagger.
Six hundred years of peace had graced this imperial capital; when had its living residents ever witnessed such a catastrophe? Countless citizens stood dumbstruck in terror, failing to flee until they were crushed into paste under the stampede.
Such indiscriminate assault wrought the greatest devastation. Exhaling a cold breath, He Lingchuan remarked, "Fang Canran is utterly ruthless."
So long as it dealt a crippling blow to Lingxu City, Fang Canran seemed not to care how many casualties were incurred.
Dong Rui shrugged. "Who told Lingxu City not to build walls?"
They had put on airs, and now they were paying the price.
Zhu Erniang let out a chilling chuckle. "Splendid, simply splendid! Lingxu City hasn't been this lively in ages, has it?"
To witness a herd of Donao beasts running amok through Lingxu City was a once-in-a-century spectacle, a fortune rarely granted in three lifetimes.
She harbored no fondness for Beijia; Lingxu City had even shamelessly seized her immortal husk. Whatever made Lingxu City miserable brought her utter joy.
"Don't be deceived by the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth's ferocity; it's merely having its moment," He Lingchuan said with level-headed clarity. "Against Lingxu City, it has no chance of winning."
A creature of its scale, backed by hundreds of Donao beasts, could easily obliterate a lesser city.
Yet this was Lingxu City.
The Donao beasts appeared unstoppable now only because Lingxu City had been caught unprepared, and many of its elite forces and great demons had already rushed toward Mount Xu.
Once Lingxu City truly freed its hands, a grim fate awaited the herd.
Of course, the three atop Mount Xing did not realize that Fang Canran's earlier operations had specifically targeted grassroots administrative offices, material depots, and the households of high dignitaries from the Floating Isle. When the chaos struck, the lower tiers found themselves with no one to organize manpower, no means to haul supplies, and no way to douse fires, mount rescues, or establish barricades. Orders cascaded down from above only to hit a wall at the foundation, completely unexecuted.
Dong Rui sighed wistfully. "If only I could get my hands on a few of them for research, that'd be grand."
True to form, he never strayed far from his trade. He Lingchuan smiled ruefully. "They aren't demonic beasts of our realm—can you still refine them into demon puppets?"
"Can't hurt to try. Who knows, maybe I'd forge a whole new breed?" Dong Rui shrugged. "Don't demon puppets carry the blood of celestial gods as well?"
To speak such words bordered on outright blasphemy, but He Lingchuan knew that was always Dong Rui's way.
"Donao beasts cannot survive long in the mortal world." This realm offered none of their sustenance.
"I'm just thinking out loud." Could a man not indulge in a little wishful thinking?
Just then, the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth seemed to slow down. It began leading the herd back along its tracks, circling in wide, repetitive loops.
Evidently, several great demons had arrived and woven a combined shadow barrier spell along its path.
To put it plainly, they had trapped it in a maze of disorientation.
While the behemoth's destructive momentum was terrifying, its intellect was crude. If it could be kept running in circles within a labyrinth, the damage to Lingxu City would be drastically curtailed.
Once its stamina flagged, wiping out the herd would be far easier.
One had to admit, whoever conceived such a tactic on short notice possessed genuine talent.
Right at that moment, an azure silhouette swept down through the air, circling as it let out a sharp, resonant cry.
It was a colossal bird resembling both a stork and a crane, its wingspan stretching at least twenty zhang—over sixty-six meters—trailing long tail plumes and crowned with an elegant crest.
Even against the dark night sky, its silhouette stood out with razor clarity.
Wherever it passed, whirlwind after whirlwind whipped up across the earth below.
Chapter 706