223 Liu Bian's Invasion
The auction theatre was in chaos after the cannonball had crushed the audience on the first floor into meat paste. Everyone rushed to the exit as if their lives were depending on it.
On the other hand, people on the upper floors were calmer. Some of them simply climbed the window and leaped out of the building while the capable ones destroyed the walls to make private emergency exit doors.
Yet, everyone on the fifth floor, except for Liu Bian's group who had left before the afternoon session, remained on their seats. As the nascent soul expert hadn't moved, their subordinates couldn't go anywhere.
Xu Lanying, Sun Wentai, Zhang Junyi, Zhao Bao, and Xia Dun activated their domain power to check the situation outside the building.
As soon as they had expanded their senses, their domains collided with each other. However, they ignored the other nascent soul's power and scanned the surroundings.
It didn't take long for them to find out what had happened outside.
Yet, even after they had learned about the general situation, they didn't move. These nascent soul cultivators simply contacted their subordinates and guards from outside the city to prepare their airships.
At the same time, they didn't stop looking at the auction stage. Their eyes gleamed in a strange light.
…
The bombardment got more intense.
A dozen flying carrack warships unleashed their spirit cannons at the barrier dome. Each cannonball worked differently, depending on the shell types.
Most of the cannonballs contained the power of metal element Qi, giving them more penetration power. Some other shells, instead, were fueled with fire element Qi, and they acted as incendiary shells.
These cannonballs were specially made for siege warfare, and they worked well against a large city defensive array or a spell formation array. Unless the defenders were rich enough to maintain the barrier shields by spending a thousand of essence cores, no defending city could last long against Liu Bian's cannon bombardment.
Still, those were the only basic shells that Liu Bian had prepared for every general situation. Liu Bian hadn't come here without a trump card as several cannons on the prince's flagship were loaded with dark shells and green shells, which hadn't been fired toward the city yet.
Liu Bian and Head Eunuch Rang were standing on their flagship, gazing at the hexagon dome. There were a thousand basic shells on each warship, and they had only fired less than 50 shells. Yet, the barrier had already shown a sign of breaking.
At this rate, the city's shield would be destroyed soon.
"Zhang Rang," Liu Bian called Head Eunuch Rang by his real name. "Can you fight your fellow clansman?"
"Are you sure? I heard that the Zhang Clan is a superpower clan on the mainland."
"Even if my clan is one of the top 5 clans from the holy land, they don't treat everyone as equal. You see, most of us on Aves Continent are outcasts. Only Karmic Severing Realm and Heaven Gate Realm experts are considered members of the clan. Anybody weaker than that is considered expendable assets."
"That's quite harsh…"
Karmic Severing Realm was the 8th-stage while Heaven Gate Realm was the 9th-stage. They were the last hurdle for cultivators to go through before they could ascend into a full-fledged immortal with countless lifespan.
Liu Bian was curious about the last two pre-immortal realms, but it was an inappropriate time to ask for a lecture. Liu Bian returned his focus to the battlefield as anything could happen at any moment.
As they were watching the bombardment, they could hear Qiang Han's voice.
"STOP!! CEASE FIRE!! AREN'T WE ON A PEACE TREATY!? YOU EVEN MADE A DAO OATH!? HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ATTACKING US!?"
As they had expected, the city lord finally showed himself.
The prince sneered. He didn't reply how he cheated the dao oath as there was no reason to reveal his secrets. Instead, he shouted, "If you want me to stop, pay us 100,000 essence cores as the remuneration for selling me a counterfeit mural! Also, I want my money back from the Tang Merchant Guild!"
Qiang Han couldn't refute since they had really sold the prince a normal rock. Still, he had never expected that the prince would have attacked them head-on since many enemies of Liu Bian were still in the city.
"Fine! Liu Bian, today, this place will be your grave! Have you realized that all of your enemies are here as well!?"
"Like I care! Sure, I have many enemies. But today, your Qiang Clan has to be destroyed first! All units, destroy the entire city! LEAVE NO PRISONER!"
…
Cao Mao gazed at the cracked barrier dome with a relaxed expression. He had an urge to buy some popcorns from the local market to watch the battle from the rooftop.
But Mao Xueyan reminded Cao Mao of her objective. She hadn't given up on her relative.
"Hey! Have you forgotten that my sister is still in that building!?"
Cao Mao rolled his eyes, "Can we wait a bit? Those pesky nascent soul monsters are still in the building."
"If you're waiting for them to come out, it'll be too late. I doubt all of them will leave with empty hands. I'm sure a few greedy bastards will definitely use this opportunity to steal the auction house's items, including abducting my sister!"
"Mhm. So, you want me to make my move first?"
"Yes! Please!"
"Hmm."
Cao Mao wasn't the type who would risk his life for someone else. Even though Mao Xueyan had the aura of a female lead, he didn't feel like risking his life for her errand.
'I'm not a protagonist, and my plot armor power is off. Why should I jump in there and get myself killed? Even if I can save her sister, at best, I will probably have another concubine as a reward. I already have so many wives at home, and I don't actually need a cliché furry waifu…'
Ding
\u003cKunwu sympathizes with Mao Xueyan.\u003e
\u003cYuan Hua feels bad for Mao Xueyan.\u003e
\u003cYour Sponsor thinks it's interesting to spice things up a bit.\u003e
\u003cYour Sponsor, Kunwu, and Yuan Hua have given you a side-quest.\u003e
…
Side-Quest: Rescue Mao Xueyan's Sister
Quest Description
You have heard from Mao Xueyan that her sister has been captured by one of the Qiang clansmen. She has begged you to save her.
Although saving her means you will have to free her from the Tang Merchant Guild and become their enemy in the process, your system sponsor and dao gods feel that you should give Mao Xueyan a hand this time. Of course, if you succeed, you'll get quest rewards from them.
Complete Conditions
1. Rescue Mao Xueyan's sister from the Tang Merchant Guild.
2. Mao Xueyan's sister must survive.
3. Mao Xueyan must survive.
Failure Condition (The quest will fail if one of these conditions is met):
1. Either Mao Xueyan or her sister dies.
2. Mao Xueyan's sister has been transported to another city other than Siren City.
3. Mao Xueyan's sister has been ravished.
Quest Reward: Unknown
Failure Penalty: Your Sponsor will drain 100 million liters of life essence from your system pool.
…
'Ah, shit. Here we go again.'
After reading the system prompt message, Cao Mao had a wry smile on his face.
He was fine if he had to lose 100 million liters of life essence to save his skin. However, being cucked during this event was not fine.
'I'm the only one that has the rights to NTR every protagonist in this world, not the other way around, dammit! Only my D can conquer the heaven and all the pussies! All of you villains should just sit at home and fap to Zhang Junyi or something! None of you deserves to reproduce!'
His direction of motivation was wrong on many levels, but he got motivated nonetheless.
"Alright, fine! I'll go save your sister right now! You're going to need to fight too if shit goes south!"
"I know! I've recovered a bit of my strength. At least, I can easily kill several core pillar guys for you."
"What about the nascent soul monsters?"
"That… I can't fight them yet. We'll have to run away from them."
"…"
Cao Mao hesitated if completing the side-quest was the right choice. Yet, he activated his stealth skill and carried Mao Xueyan back to the auction theater.
…
Inside the theater, Tang Deming and his workers stopped the auction. Everyone dashed toward the treasury room behind the stage to collect everything.
"Hurry! We need to get everything and get out of here!" Tang Deming panicked as he had never thought that Liu Bian would have retaliated so soon.
"Gong Qi!? Where is Gong Qi!?"
While the merchant was ordering his men, he was also looking for his hired bodyguard, the only nascent soul expert that he had employed.
Unfortunately, Gong Qi wasn't around with Tang Deming. The latter couldn't find the expert anywhere.
"GONG QI, YOU SON OF A BITCH! DID YOU DITCH ME!?" Enraged, Tang Deming screamed.
However, his worry was unnecessary. A few seconds later, Tang Deming was slapped to the face even though no one was in front of him.
Gong Qi had used his domain power to warn his boss. He also sent Tang Deming a voice-transmission.
'I'm still here. Don't cuss me again if you still want me to keep working with you.'
"Oh… Err… Sorry."
Tang Deming broke a cold sweat. He almost had a heart attack.
'Anyway, you should get the treasures and get out of here now. Those demon lords and Sun Wentai are trying to expand their domain toward our direction. I'm doing my best to block their domain from reaching there. If they find out about you, they will surely kill you during the chaos and rob everything!'
"O-Okay!"
The merchant and his 20 employees stored all auction items and essence cores from his customers.
Also, Tang Deming had already given the element pallets to Sun Wentai and got 60,000 essence cores on him. He was planning to run away with the money without giving them to Cao Mao.
After all, the first cannonball landed on where Cao Mao had seated. Tang Deming thought that the former had died in the incident.
"S-Sir, what about this beast?"
While everyone was busy, one of the workers pointed at the 5-meter-tall beast cage, which trapped a giant white tiger with two tails inside.
The beast glared at everyone without hiding her killing intent. If it wasn't for the glowing choker on her neck, she could have killed everybody here with her light element Qi.
"Leave it! We can't take it with us!"
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone abandoned the beast and sprinted toward the staff's toilet, which had a hanging sign, [Broken], on it. Tang Deming got inside and pressed the flush in rhythm. Then, a trap door opened after the 13th push.
The secret path led to the underground passage, which had been built for a decade. Everyone could leave the Xuan City via this passage, and there were many exit paths to trick the pursuers.
Tang Deming collected all spatial rings from his employees. Then, he gave everyone an essence core.
"You guys can follow me, but you will have to take a different exit path, okay?"
The employees nodded and took the essence core in glee.
…
While everyone was plotting and scheming, Ma Moxi had successfully infiltrated a carrack warship, which belonged to a reserved fleet behind the vanguard fleet. He snuck into the supply cabin and started looting per Cao Mao's instruction.
It only took Ma Moxi a few minutes to loot all cannonballs and miscellaneous items from the ship. Strangely, there was no food supply in there, and Ma Moxi hadn't noticed the anomaly yet.
'Easy pay, easy job. Welp, time to go for another ship.'
With his ethereal form, Ma Moxi's body passed through the walls and rooms of the warship undetected. He flew from the first warship to another.
'30 spatial rings won't be enough at this rate. I need to steal more rings from someone…'
Ma Moxi started scanning for a weak cultivator to kill and steal some spatial rings.
And then, the ex-protagonist had finally noticed something odd.
He couldn't sense any life signature from the second ship that he had sneaked in, but there were definitely ship crews inside.
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