Chapter 356: Mount Hua Sect’s Surprise Attack
Wei Xiang walked out of the citadel in a bad mood.
The negotiation had failed. Liu Xuande refused to cooperate with his demand even though Wei Xiang offered all his money and wealth to hire them.
"Bastard! Aren't 10,000 essence cores not enough for you!? Do you think we're as rich as you, a bunch of silkpants from the Holy Land Continent!?"
Wei Xiang stormed off the citadel, returning to his men.
Because of his failure, Wei Xiang devised a new plan.
'I guess I should bring my men to occupy Xuan City first. Since it's a ruined city, there shouldn't be anyone in there other than weak cultivators and commoners. I should be able to capture more souls and use them.'
As it was about to reach the deadline date, Wei Xiang had to start preparing his forces before the Yuan Clan Army could reach here, so he wouldn't lose face when the main forces arrived.
…
After Wei Xiang had left the citadel, Liu Xuande stood at the balcony of the fortress, looking down on Wei Xiang and his demon servants.
Behind him, Jian Yong and Jian Meng cupped their fists and reported, "Our men have finished investigating Wei Xiang's purpose. His father has ordered him to be the vanguard of their forces, and he is supposed to probe Siren City's strength before the main forces arrive."
"Pfft. I bet it's Yuan Shaoqing's idea," Liu Xuande scoffed.
"Indeed. Yuan Shaoqing ordered Wei Huang to send a vanguard force."
"Then, where are Yuan Shaoqing's forces now? Why is he ordering other people around without contributing something?"
"They have gathered their forces at Tiger Cage Pass, my lord."
Liu Xuande raised his right eyebrow as if he was the Rock, surprised by Yuan Shaoqing's unknown motive, "What are they doing over there? Their forces could have overrun Siren City by now. What took them so long?"
"The thing is…"
Jian Yong brought out a scroll and handed it to Liu Xuande.
Liu Xuande opened the scroll. It was a map of strange underground passages and a series of dungeon floors.
"Is this a treasure map?" Liu Xuande was interested.
"This is a publicized map from the Yuan Clan. They are encouraging their men to explore this mysterious underground city and expand the map. Every contributor gets rewards from the Yuan Clan."
"And… what's in there?"
"So far, they've discovered rare metal ores, strange weaponry, and living metal-like organisms, such as metal dolls and walking explosives."
"Hoh?"
Liu Xuande nodded. If that was the case, this war might be more complicated than he had expected.
Also, all hidden dungeons, caves, and forgotten cities always concealed useful artifacts or treasures. If the discoverer was lucky, they could find a lost legacy of a powerful demon or beast.
As such, it would be a waste to not participate in this treasure hunt. Liu Xuande made his decision.
"Yunchang."
Guan Yunchang, who had been leaning against the wall, glanced at his sworn brother, "Hmm?"
"Let's go dig some treasures."
"What about the city? Who will protect it?"
"We can leave it to Yide."
"Are you sure? He isn't a good protector. That lazy bum always spent his days drinking all day."
"Nobody is going to steal Chick Ann City any time soon. Heck, I doubt Zhao Bao has the guts to attack this city when his sect master just visited us and negotiated for a truce. Won't it break his monk's codes?"
"Ha. True."
Liu Xuande led his men away. He no longer cared about Siren City or his city since treasure hunting seemed more interesting.
…
Liu Xuande and 100 of his escorts, including Jian Yong, Jian Meng, and Guan Yunchang, departed from Chicken Ann City and flew east, heading toward Tiger Cage Pass.
Meanwhile, Ling Tianlong, Ling Cao, several elders, and inner disciples from Mount Hua Sect rode a giant flying sword, moving west.
All elders and inner disciples respectfully gazed at their leader, Ling Tianlong, who had been piloting the flying sword for the sect members.
Several days ago, Ling Tianlong defeated and captured traitors among them, who were his fellow inner disciples and a 7th-stage cultivator, including Ling Cao's son, Ling Tong. He also showed his divine techniques to all elders of Mount Hua Sect, earning the respect of all elders. Combining with his exceptional skill and contribution, he became an unofficial leading figure of the sect.
Unlike Yuan Shaoqing, Liu Xuande, or Wei Xiang, Ling Tianlong led his colleagues and rushed to Siren City to finish the war by themselves. After all, he had no tolerance against demons, demi-humans, or the beast races.
Despite flying above the cloud and facing the cold wind, these 100 cultivators' expressions didn't change. They were determined to destroy the demons and the beastmen of the rumors. Then, they would share whatever legacies, techniques, or wealth of Siren City for the human race, according to Ling Tianlong's influence and belief.
Ling Tianlong gazed at a distance, thinking of the bitter experience when he had been struggling in an immortal realm, the First Karmic Heaven Planet.
Human cultivators were the minority there while the major population was gargoyles, minotaurs, and bloodthirsty children of Kishin Douji. The human immortals banded together to resist Kishin Douji's goons and the latter's ambition, but they were eventually trampled and slaughtered.
In this life, for the sake of promoting this planet into a homeworld for human immortals, he had planned to eradicate all demons and beastmen first. Then, he would lead the humans to take over other planets to establish the human forces to take down Kishin Douji and his dao god allies.
Ling Tianlong would gather more allies, such as Jiangdong White Tiger Sect, to destroy Wei Huang and the Yuan Clan.
But first, his current target was Siren City!
"Brace yourself. We'll reach Siren City shortly. Take out your talismans and prepare for battle!"
"So soon?" Ling Cao was surprised.
"I'll head down to take out their top experts first. You and others can pick off the stragglers and injured demons. Remember, leave no prisoner, even if they are children! Orcs, beastmen, and demon worshipers are vengeful. If you let them live, they will come back and bite us in a decade!"
"I know," Ling Cao chuckled. The other elders also nodded in agreement.
"Alright," Ling Tianlong turned around and jumped off the flying sword. He also transformed into earth dragonewt and spread his giant wings to glide.
Ling Cao immediately injected his Qi into the giant sword to pilot it. He also lowered the altitude, planning to land the sword somewhere below the cloud.
As soon as they descended below the cold cloud, they could see the dark dome, which had been concealing Siren City's interior. However, it didn't hide several structures outside the city, where many beastmen and human cultivators had built.
WHHHHHRRRRRRRR
The sharp sound of the siren was audible even though Ling Cao and everyone were a thousand feet above the ground.
As soon as the alarm echoed throughout the city, someone shuttled from the inside of the concealment array and flew toward the diving dragonewt.
Both men threw their fists and both fists collided!
BOOM
The impact caused a massive shockwave, which cracked the defensive array of Siren City.
Seeing the opening, Ling Cao bellowed, "Draw your weapons and talismans! Attack the arrays first!"
…
Siren City
Every day in Siren City was peaceful. Beastmen came in and out of the city, bringing food and the city's spring water out to trade with the human cultivators outside the walls.
Without realizing it, werewolves, werecats, and many beastmen had settled down and started their own businesses by using the city's specialties as their main products. They sold Siren City's unused spring water, Blood Salt, Blood Bamboo Shoots, and small monster fishes from the Blood Sea to outsiders.
Each day, the beastmen made 50,000 to 60,000 refined stones of profit, and they paid 10% of their earning as the city tax.
Jia Shan and Ma Ping, who had been managing the city in Miaomiao's stead, was happy with their job. As the income flowed in, their motivation to protect the city increased. They stopped cultivating and began training their city guard beastmen in earnest.
Meanwhile, Ma Moxi was in charge of the army of Siren City. He had already hired several non-combatant beastmen and orcs to increase the army size and familiarized them with modern weaponry.
At the moment, Ma Moxi was the only general of a 1,000-man reserve platoon with Ma Shoucheng and Pang Lingming as aides. Tang Fan and Pao Luo were also promoted as squad captains.
Wei Yuan and Miaomiao's wives acted as the coordinators between the locals, the militias, and the towns outside the city walls. They were in charge of city planning, project managing, and resource allocation. They also got help from Huangjin Monastery's monks, who volunteered to be watching over the rogue cultivators outside the walls.
As for the most powerful guys of this city, Zhao Bao took no part in the management as he was in charge of educating orcs and Miaomiao's children. As for Lu Fengxian, he always sat on top of Miaomiao's pylon tower, cultivating all day.
As for the other hidden powerhouse, Lu Fengxian had already reached the late stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. It was a matter of time before he could advance to the next stage with abundant Qi and Life Essence within Siren City, which had already surpassed the Holy Land Continent's.
Without Miaomiao's presence, his allies, friends, and family members continued to protect the city and enjoyed their slow life.
Today as well, Wei Yuan, with Mao Xiaomiao riding on her shoulders, patrolled the inner city and greeted the female werewolves, who had been busy collecting the excess water from the reservoir.
"It floods again?" Wei Yuan looked at the giant lake before her. The unified element water in the reservoir was filled to the brim, and some of it began to leak out of the constructed dam.
"My lady, I think we need to construct more waterways and direct the water to the sea. At this rate, the water will start entering the underground soil and ruin the foundation of the city. The ground will eventually collapse if this keeps up."
"Didn't we just create another waterway to the sewer? Isn't that enough?"
"I'm afraid it's more complicated than that. All water from the sewer goes to the outside moat, and it will decrease the value of our local products. Currently, a 100cc bottle of spring water can be sold for 1,000 refined stones. If the rogue cultivators can get a lot of dirty spring water from the moat for free, the price will decrease."
The werewolves pointed out that they had been facing the oversupply issues as dirty water in the moat contained the same effect as their merchandise, the unified element water. Even though their products were cleaner, those rogue cultivators didn't mind resorting to drinking sewer water to gain power!
Wei Yuan sighed and took notes, "I'll contact Elder Jia to do something about it. For now, how many spatial rings do we have? Can't we store the water to our rings?"
"I'm so sorry, my lady. All our dummy rings are full of spring water. I'm afraid we can't…"
"I see," Wei Yuan grumbled and patted the werewolf girls. "I get it. I have an idea. I'll be right back."
Wei Yuan excused herself and brought her son home. Then, she visited the pylon tower to consult with Lu Fengxian.
…
A minute later, Wei Yuan flew to the top of Miaomiao's pylon tower. She landed on the flat rooftop and cupped her fist to greet the reincarnated immortal, who had been sitting cross-legged and meditating.
"Wei Yuan greets Senior Lu. I'm here to ask for your assistance once again."
Lu Fengxian slowly opened his eyes and looked at the woman with two small horns on her forehead. He deeply exhaled, "I heard about it. Was it the flooding spring water again?"
"Y-Yes, senior. It's getting overflow again. Could we ask you to produce more spatial rings for us? We need to store the water and release them to the Blood Sea."
Lu Fengxian shook his head, "I've told you before. Don't dump spring water into the Blood Sea. It will attract strong sea monsters here. Do you want to challenge Sea Emperors or Leviathans? They're as strong as a hundred 9th-stage cultivators! Everyone on this continent will perish if those things come here."
Wei Yuan had a bitter smile on her face, "Then, what is your suggestion?"
"I'll craft more spatial rings for you, but you need to store all water in the rings or exchange them into other valuable resources. We'll need a lot of this water in the future when someone needs to break through to the 8th-stage."
"I see. I get it," Wei Yuan understood what Lu Fengxian meant. The advancement from the 7th-stage to the 8th-stage was extremely dangerous as the fatality rate was over 50% statistically as they either needed to severe their karma or destroy their fleshly body to attain the soul body.
Having the supreme healing water was like having a sure-fire way to advance to the 8th-stage regardless of injuries they might suffer!
"If you understand, then, give me some trinkets or jewelry to work with. I've used up the previous batch."
Wei Yuan checked her spatial rings and system inventory. Then, she revealed a wry smile, "I'm sorry. I'm out of trinkets. I'll be right back when I bought some for you."
"Ah."
Wei Yuan jumped off the tower in frantic, embarrassed by her unpreparedness.
Lu Fengxian faintly smiled and slightly shook his head.
As he was about to close his eyes and continue cultivating, he sensed something flying toward the city at a frightening speed.
Lu Fengxian stood up and sent a voice-transmission to Ma Ping and Jia Shan's mind.
"Sound the alarm. Enemies are coming."
A few seconds later, the loud siren from the town speakers sounded siren as if they were about to be bombarded by A-10 planes.
WHHHHHRRRRRRRR
Lu Fengxian also leaped off the tower, flying toward the dragonewt, who had been gliding toward the city.
His instinct cried that this person was dangerous!
'A fourth stage cultivator with a large dantian size and a dragon bloodline… He's similar to Mao Miaomiao, but he picked the wrong target! Come! Let me use you to strengthening my foundation!'
Lu Fengxian gathered all his power and threw his right fist at the dragonewt, who also did the same to test the former's power.
Ling Tianlong and Lu Fengxian's fists collided!
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