The tornadoes rampaged everywhere. Houses, sheds, lakes, trees, living humans, and demons alike were all sucked into midair and hurled violently back to the ground.
This proved far more efficient than mere human arson or explosives; when wind tornadoes touched fire, they often turned into fire tornadoes, their destructive power redoubled.
Zhu Erniang remarked in wonder, "Another demi-immortal? Where did this one pop out from?"
Both He Lingchuan and Dong Rui were taken aback. "This avian demon is a demi-immortal too?"
A demon's strength was generally proportional to its size—generally. Under the current ambient spiritual energy, ordinary avian demons could never grow this large, nor could they wreak havoc on such a scale.
The dozens of tornadoes it unleashed inflicted more damage upon the city than Fang Canran's subordinates and the herd of Thunder-Wielding beasts combined.
It was just that each tornado didn't last long, only twenty to thirty breaths.
Yet that was already more than enough.
So where had Fang Canran found such a colossal creature?
Zhu Erniang watched a while longer. "Hmm. In sheer power it comes close, but its divine abilities are far too one-dimensional."
Avian demons usually excelled in spellcraft. If this azure bird possessed the ability to control wind, unleashing several kinds of divine abilities with ease should have been child's play.
As the three spoke, the azure bird swept over the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth. A tornado swept through, tearing the shadow barrier spell to tatters.
With the disorienting barrier shattered, the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth broke into a run again, wreaking wanton destruction.
Worse yet, it spat lightning toward the tornadoes, instantly transforming the wind tornadoes into lightning tornadoes that crackled with explosive thunder beads along the way. Wherever they passed, the dead and wounded were stacked in heaps!
Tongxin Guard Grand Commander Fan Long rode along the flank of the Thunder-Wielding beast herd once more, directing the counterattack.
A behemoth crashed through a row of watchtowers. Fan Long yanked his mount's reins to dodge, which inadvertently spared him from a ray of black light lunging from behind.
*Eh? What was that?*
A chill gripped his heart. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an anomaly emerging from the ruins, darting toward him at lightning speed.
*So fast!*
Before he could even make out what it was, the thing had already closed in right before his eyes.
Fan Long drew his blade without hesitation.
With a resounding clang, he parried a bizarre object. It was shaped like a flying disc, yet lined with razor-sharp teeth around its rim—if it struck flesh and blood, it would shave bone and strip meat without mercy.
The spinning force was so tremendous that even the black bo beast beneath Fan Long was knocked back two steps, neighing loudly and nearly tumbling into the rubble.
He flung the thing away, but the spinning disc didn't fall to the ground. It whirled twice, accelerated, and charged right back at him!
It attacked entirely on its own, remarkably nimble and agile.
At that exact moment, two whistling sounds broke out as two more spinning discs drifted in from the flanks. Fan Long barely dodged them when two wind shells struck down from the sky. One blasted right beside his mount's hooves, the concussive force flipping the beast over, while the other snapped the nearest ruined wall, sending the entire masonry crashing down toward Fan Long's head!
The giant bird demolishing streets and buildings in midair actually found the leisure to give him special attention.
Gleaming with light as origin power shielded his body, Fan Long leaped off the black bo beast, trying to spring clear of the danger zone.
The two spinning discs hovered nearby like cruising sharks circling a drowning man. Seeing him jump, they pounced together in seamless coordination.
The black bo beast blocked their path, so the spinning disc didn't swerve at all, shearing straight through it and slicing it in two.
It didn't slow down for even an instant.
Watching his beloved mount of over a decade meet such a grisly death, Fan Long didn't even have time to grieve, for all three spinning discs had already caught up. If he didn't find a way out, he would suffer the black bo beast's exact fate!
At the critical juncture, Fan Long lashed out with his flying cable, forcibly altering his midair trajectory. The three spinning discs struck empty air, wheeled in a tight circle nearby, and resumed their pursuit.
It was impossible to tell whether these things possessed sentience or were guided from afar.
Yet such nimbleness had already surpassed the usual standard for magic artifacts.
Just as Fan Long's feet hit the ground, a short blade slipped silently out from the shadows of the neighboring rubble, as if waiting there all along.
This was the true, lethal ambush!
The next second, blood splattered.
In close combat amid darkness and pandemonium, every strike hung between life and death.
Fan Long's personal guards rushed in to reinforce him—all battle-hardened veterans—yet eight of them were slaughtered in succession within six breaths!
Such precise targeted assassination—swift, pinpoint, and merciless—would have dazzled even He Lingchuan.
"To capture bandits, capture their leader first." The sudden removal of the Tongxin Guard Grand Commander left several divisions leaderless, severely crippling Lingxu City's defensive interception.
The three spinning discs flew through the air, flinging off every trace of blood before vanishing once again into the ruins with their master, impossible to track down no matter how others searched.
Shielded by firelight and turmoil, the phantom-like killer moved on to the next target.
His prey were all key figures in the city's defense.
The azure bird in the sky unleashed wide-area destruction, while the shadow on the ground quietly reaped vital lives!
Meanwhile, the charging herd of Thunder-Wielding beasts drew everyone's attention.
The fruits of this turmoil in Lingxu City had to be expanded—expanded even further!
He Lingchuan and his companions had no idea these thrilling covert battles were unfolding through the city's alleys—otherwise, Zhu Erniang would have recognized a second immortal. Standing on Mount Xing, they simply bore silent witness as upheaval, fire, violence, and terror spread through Lingxu City in tandem.
With the intrusion of the behemoths, an imperial capital that had enjoyed six centuries of peace began to sink into chaos.
No, that was wrong. Lingxu's inhabitants had already fallen into panic the moment Mount Xu began to burn.
He Lingchuan had unleashed Juju to burn down Zhaixing Tower and trigger a volcanic eruption;
Fang Canran's forces had wreaked widespread havoc in Lingxu City, cloaking everything in smoke and ruin;
and then Fang Canran had drawn the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth to trample Lingxu City, dragging everyone within into an unprecedented disturbance unseen for six hundred years.
It was hard to say whose harvest was greater.
He Lingchuan shook his head inwardly. Though Fang Canran appeared genial and smooth in all directions on the surface, he truly deserved to be described as "indomitable of heart and ruthless in method."
Of course, in the eyes of the Heavenly Palace and the Demon Emperor, both of these grand feats would likely be pinned on He Lingchuan, the one who wrecked Mount Xu.
Dong Rui couldn't help asking, "Where will these behemoths end up going?"
He Lingchuan pointed upward. "Don't you see they're approaching the Jinghong Crossing?"
How could Fang Canran be satisfied with merely disrupting Lower Lingxu? Yet the Floating Isle was Lingxu City's vital core; doing this would only hasten the Thunder-Wielding Behemoth's death.
Suddenly, the earth shuddered violently, making even those atop Mount Xing struggle to keep their footing.
Immediately afterward, several colossal booms echoed. Looking north, they saw towering flames soaring above Tianshu Peak as two mushroom clouds rose into the air—another volcanic eruption!
It had stayed calm for quite some time since He Lingchuan left the bounds of Mount Xu. For it to erupt so suddenly now—had the talks between Juju and the Heavenly Palace fallen through?
Meanwhile, in the heart of Lower Lingxu, several fireworks rose steadily, casting a lasting glow across the night sky.
Looking up, everyone saw that after the dense clouds parted, a vast, wondrous spectacle suddenly appeared in the night sky:
A thousand peaks rose in stunning splendor, lush and verdant, encircled by clear streams like ribbons of jade. Palaces of jasper and jade loomed faintly through the sea of clouds, while over a hundred streaks of iridescent light darted in and out—all immortals riding artifacts through the skies!
The elegance, tranquility, and breathtaking beauty of this vision stood in stark contrast to the burning inferno of Lingxu City directly below.
Dong Rui stared unblinkingly, an instinctive yearning rising in his chest. "Where is that?"
He Lingchuan didn't answer, but an answer was already on the tip of his mind:
*Lingshan?*
Was the image in the sky connected to the two words he had heard beneath the Dao-Seeking Tree?
In the unseen weave of fate, so many secrets seemed interlocked like an ouroboros biting its tail.
So Fang Canran's backing organization was tied to Lingshan? What sort of declaration were they trying to make by orchestrating such a massive spectacle?
Were the immortals returning?
Or was a world-shattering upheaval at hand?
What was certain was that both the Heavenly Palace and Lingxu City would surely understand this declaration.
He Lingchuan drew a quiet breath of cold air.
From the moment the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation was breached to the outbreak of chaos in Lingxu City, less than three-quarters of an hour had passed. Yet everything he had known over the past three months—and everything the people of Lingxu City had known for the past six hundred years—had fallen into complete disarray.
To the north, a volcano erupted; to the south, the city descended into turmoil.
The hues of blood and fire held absolute dominion over the imperial capital tonight.
On the western side of Lingxu City, halfway up the mountain, Fang Canran also looked down upon the imperial capital, clicking his tongue in admiration. "A world-famous masterpiece."
The canvas before his eyes was as tragically poignant as it was magnificent, unforgettable to anyone who witnessed it with their own eyes. The painting ought to be named—
*The Burning Imperial Capital.*
Their hatred had transformed into blood and fire, into blades and swords, determined to tear the hypocritical mask off Lingxu City's six hundred years of prosperity until it was shattered to pieces!
Just then, a faint blue glow emerged from the ground across Lingxu City, as if some grand formation had activated.
Several enraged roars echoed from the Floating Isle, sounding as though colossal beasts were about to descend upon the world.
A snow-white giant bird was the first to dive down, two natural crimson streaks marking the undersides of its wings.
It passed straight through the celestial vision of Lingshan in midair, and the vast, magnificent tableau quickly vanished into nothingness.
The white bird's body was nowhere near as large as the azure bird's, but countless ice crystals swirled around it. With a flap of its wings, a storm of wind blades and frost daggers surged straight toward the azure bird.
Behind it followed a vast flock of flying creatures, so dense they almost blotted out the sky.
"Eh?" He Lingchuan gazed far into the distance. Could that be the Winter Palace National Preceptor he had never met?
The azure bird in the sky had flapped up winds everywhere and done enough damage. Unwilling to drag out the fight, it wheeled around and retreated toward the city outskirts.
Its mission was complete; it was time to make its exit.
Coincidentally, it was heading straight in the direction of He Lingchuan and the others.
In midair, dozens of streaks of light shot toward it.
Lingxu City had been thoroughly provoked; the tempo of its counterattack had only just begun.
Dong Rui instantly dropped his spectatorship. "Hey, hey, hey! It's coming this way, and its pursuers are too!"
He Lingchuan instinctively reached for the divine bone necklace around his neck.
"Let's go! It's time for our exit, too."
With the Dafang Pot lid in hand, he had achieved a feat neither of the three-piece set's previous owners—the King of Yuan and Zhong Shengguang—had managed to accomplish.
Yet he had lingered until now precisely to observe how Lingxu City responded to a surprise assault.
Fighting an unprepared battle on one's own home turf would lay bare many underlying truths.
How quickly could their war machine crank into motion? Faced with simultaneous crises on Mount Xu and in the main city, how would Lingxu City allocate its forces?
How fast could celestial gods and great demons reach the battlefield?
What practical, effective interception measures did they implement? How did they evacuate and treat civilians?
The expert looks for the craft. He would collect this invaluable intelligence and dissect it repeatedly later on, discerning where the great empire's strengths and vulnerabilities lay.
Now, the performance belonging to He Lingchuan was over. This stage would be left to Lingxu City and Fang Canran.
—— End of the main text of *The Utopia of Demons (Volume 2)*.
Chapter 707