"Caw... caw..."
A few crows flapped their wings and took flight, only to be shot down by the stationed soldiers with arrows. With a dull thud, they fell to the ground.
Night wind brushed over the towering and desolate imperial capital. The world boiled in silence.
Inside the palace walls lingered a deathly stillness, corpses strewn across the streets, no one to collect them.
Outside the palace walls, heads were piled like mountains, battle cries shaking the heavens.
Liang's surviving forces were now attacking the city in tandem with the cultivators of Lingtai Mountain.
These were not the regular imperial garrison originally tasked with guarding the capital. They were remnants of Huo Hengxuan's personal army, once disbanded by imperial edict, now reassembled from all over the realm.
In just seven days, twenty thousand commoners from across Liang had flocked here and swiftly rebuilt the army.
Not just soldiers, also civilians who voluntarily joined the charge.
At first, all they had were pitchforks, rusted sabers, and raw fury. But now, they were clad in patchwork armor, laughing amidst bloodshed, heads hanging from their belts, indistinguishable from professional soldiers.
War is a machine. Once it begins turning, it quickly grinds men into veterans.
From peasants, heroes emerge.
The broken army, reeking of bloodlust, had now pressed to the city gates, raising ladders, straining to push forward the battering ram.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Above them, cultivators clashed. Beams of white light and shadow flashed past, explosions in the air formed vacuum pockets, and when someone was struck down, they plummeted like meteors, carving massive craters into the earth.
Runes twisted like worms in the air, birthing blood-red mist. It spread plague and rot, turning humans to brittle bones where it passed.
Farther off, one cultivator summoned a beast a hundred zhang long, part qilin, part dragon. Its sweeping tail smeared the battlefield with blood and mud.
Across the wilderness and ruins outside the imperial capital, no inch of land remained whole.
Crater upon crater, the earth was scorched, weapons stuck into the ground like forests of steel.
In seven days, countless soldiers had poured into the fray, yet their numbers dwindled faster than replenishment.
From twenty thousand, fewer than four thousand now remained.
Now it was the eighth day.
At the deepest hour of night..
A young lieutenant, raising a flag marked with the blood-written character "Huo," slew the enemy before him. Seeing the gates finally breached, he cried, red-eyed: "Into the city! Into the city! Follow me, kill!"
He marched forward, brandishing his banner of a halberd wrapped in his comrades' uniforms, only to find barely anyone following him.
He halted, looked around, and saw corpses blanketing the ground. Less than one in ten still stood.
Clang! Clang!
The rhythmic clash of armored boots echoed from behind the gates. Rows of fully equipped Black Armored Soldiers surged out from the flanks, forming a brand new defensive line.
The young man gripped his makeshift banner, teeth clenched, face drained of blood.
Just then, a Lingtai Mountain cultivator descended, catching his faltering body.
The young man murmured, "Thank you."
"No need." The cultivator smiled and with a wave of his hand, sent the soldier flying ten zhang away to safety.
More and more cultivators landed, leaping over the Black Armored formation, facing the imperial heights where Li Hongling stood.
One stepped forward: "Jiang Jian of Lingtai Mountain, today, I challenge General Li's battle formation."
Another said, "Kong Yunyi of Lingtai Mountain, today, I..."
More voices rang out, one after another.
Murderous intent surged into the heavens.
Li Hongling sat atop Meteor Abyss, crimson eyes cold and disdainful. She chuckled darkly:
"Do they really think... that with these clowns, they could cost my Black Armored Army even a sliver of its strength?"
Because Shen Xingzhu of the Mysterious Divine Path Sect was here, neither side dared break the rules. It was monarchs against monarchs, soldiers against soldiers.
The enemy thought they'd traded two thousand dead for ten thousand of her troops.
But little did those loyal fools of Liang know..
The "Black Armored Army" they had fought these seven days were none other than defected Liang troops dressed in disguise.
Her true five thousand elite Black Armored Soldiers? Not a single one had moved.
Li Hongling's mocking smile deepened. She raised a hand, and a Black Armored Guard stepped forward.
"So much courage and spirit down there... it's time to bring that useless old relic out for a stroll."
She had deliberately allowed all activity in the prison to proceed undisturbed these past two days, just to observe Huo Hengxuan's attitude toward Chen Kuang and verify if the youth's story was true.
A man as shrewd as Huo Hengxuan couldn't possibly fail to realize that the young musician was a traitor to Liang. Just seeing the fine food and wine should have made it clear the boy had switched sides.
And sure enough, Huo Hengxuan had shown nothing but venom toward Chen Kuang over the past days, often shouting insults at him.
Which indirectly proved that Chen Kuang did indeed hold the secret to the elixir of immortality.
Now that the elixir had been found, Huo Hengxuan had no further use.
A pity about Qingqi, though, the one who had been watching the prison with Qingcuo.
He had served her for so long but still hadn't learned restraint.
Looting during the invasion was one thing, but to go out and attack commoners while Shen Xingzhu was present?
She had just personally killed him.
Li Hongling sighed, narrowed her crimson eyes, and looked down at the crowd of cultivators.
"Come on, then... Let's see, if I execute Huo Hengxuan right in front of you, will you still have the courage to stand against me?"
That was the final use of keeping Huo Hengxuan alive.
...
[With just a few words, you shattered Shen Xingzhu's Dao Heart. You have obtained the passive ability: "Heavenly Demon Law", Your music carries a terrible, irresistible power that affects the minds of others according to your emotions.]
Looking at the new passive in his status bar, Chen Kuang felt his sense of security grow a little stronger.
But not nearly enough...
Someday, he thought, this passive list will need to scroll through multiple pages.
Yet even as that small comfort took root, he heard Huo Hengxuan mutter:
"They've finally come..."
And then, the prison doors creaked open.
At the wrong time... came a sound that should not be heard.
Chen Kuang's heart sank.
It wasn't Qingcuo, it was two unfamiliar Black Armored Guards.
They headed straight for Huo Hengxuan's cell.
Chen Kuang's pupils contracted. He leapt to his feet, chains clanking, grabbing the bars with both hands.
The old general was dragged out between the two guards. He glanced back at Chen Kuang and then burst out laughing.
"Hey! Where are you taking this old bastard?!" Chen Kuang shouted.
The guards ignored him.
Next door, Chu Wenruo and the little princess were awakened by the commotion. The former sat up in a daze, then screamed in panic.
"General Huo!"
She was completely shaken, as if the ground had collapsed beneath her.
Chen Kuang watched helplessly as Huo Hengxuan disappeared through the door. He took a deep breath.
The old man didn't look surprised, he must've seen this coming...
But could someone at least tell him what the hell was going on?!
This old cryptic bastard hadn't dropped even the tiniest hint. Was this a final exam without warning?!
And damn it, raw exams were no joke!
Bang!
Chen Kuang couldn't help himself. In desperation, he tried to use the second stance of White Lotus Rebirth, channeling all his force to smash open the cell.
But this dungeon had been fortified with a restriction spell, only keys could open the doors. With his current strength, he couldn't do a thing.
Creak...
As if responding to his outburst, the prison doors opened once more.
Qingcuo arrived with the usual wine and fine food, placing them before Chen Kuang's cell.
But unlike usual, this time..
There were two bottles of wine.