Li Zongyuan’s complexion slightly changed. He remembered that Zhao Wuye’s formation had obstructed a half-step Foundation Establishment cultivator!

Originally, the formation was so small… Now it was no less than a thousand meters!

Acting as nodes, each eye appeared like the reaper’s pupil, gazing at the people below.

“Get ready…” Xu Yangyi likewise controlled his breathing and raised a hand up. With the rise of his hand, all cannons and crossbows inside the Featherwood Guard’s buildings shot out piercing light in concert!

The Featherwood Guard had long since been ready for combat!

Rustle rustle rustle… Like the drum beat of a stomping death god, a tide of endless phantasms had already covered the surroundings of the Featherwood Guard where light and shadow became one.

Closer… the enemy was getting even closer. But as the Linghu Clan’s elites arrived, what welcomed them was the Featherwood Guard’s brightly lit lanterns! Loaded crossbows and cannons! Outside, a ring of golden light was faintly discernible!

In kind, there was no sound from inside, only the remaining harshness of battles experienced!

A cultivator was holding onto their Spirit Accumulation Cannon in a death grip. The tenseness before a great battle and killing intent solidly pervaded everyone’s chests. Yet all of a sudden in the darkness beyond, two dots of green light brightened. “Finally here…” he took a deep breath and his hand gripped onto his cannon even tighter.

But then, a second dot followed. Then a third… a fifth! The hundredth! Two hundred dots! Until there were finally…

3,000 dots!

Clatter… In his shock, the cultivator’s hand let go of his cannon. In the span of several seconds, the outside had already become a dark-green sea!

Under the dark-green, a snow-white expanse was shined upon. The white and green surprisingly formed a tide of darkness. As if… what they faced was not cultivators, but rather a great sea that captured the entire eye!

No city walls within ten thousand li of open plains and clouds, rain and snow swirling to the reaches of the great desert.[1]

“Those…” he gulped, unable to stop himself from swallowing, “are eyes…”

“3,000 pairs of eyes…”

“Daofather above…” Xuan Chengzi stood up in shock and drew his sword into his hand. He gently exhaled. “This… The Linghu Clan mobilized all their soldiers!”

Any means of retreat were no longer avail, cauldrons broken and boats sunk!

“Are they crazy…” At first still only nervous in his heart, Gao Ye shortly jumped down from a rooftop. He looked at the unending green sea outside and said in amazement, “How much fun is this going to be?!”

“Demon form…” Zhao Wuye gasped sharply, his face incredibly solemn. “All of them… are in demon form!”

This fight was to be a close-quarters battle, a plan to siege their stronghold with muscle and sinew!

However… the enemy didn’t set into action right away!

Swoosh… Green dots flickered. Three meters tall and covered in snow-white, a demon cultivator wearing a set of armor shining with talismans walked out.

He had already completely demonized. He had a tiger’s head and a human’s body. A thick layer of white fur covered him, not the slightest trace of an impurity present.

“Linghu Clan, the Young Clan Elder. Linghu Chaofeng.” The man clasped his hands. No one felt that a half-human, half-white-tiger person cupping hands was something to laugh about. As he appeared, dozens of green dots of light behind him suddenly reddened and unleashed thunderous roars!

“ROAR!!!”

Their voices shook space, and a small whirlwind kicked off from the ground!

“Behind me is all of the Linghu Clan’s elites of the Screaming Wind Legion.”

He finished speaking and a woman who hadn’t demonized walked over. “Eldest daughter of the Linghu Clan, Linghu Qian.”

She finished speaking and waved her long sleeve.

In moments, a tall silhouette bulged out from the expanse of green dots. It was nearly 200 meters tall and its shape was strange. It stood like a small mountain. Two enormous golden eyes snapped open. A massive, indistinct weapon was nestled on its shoulder. The feeling of intense oppression rose up without almost any omen.

“Linghu Clan’s Bladefang Division.”

“Linghu Clan’s Skyshock Division.”

“Linghu Clan’s Blood Clot Division.”

“Linghu Clan’s Bonebreak Division.”

Voices rang out. With each voice, a heart-shaking object was sure to rise. There was a similar giant beast. There was a puppet that was tens of meters tall. There was a magik artifact brimming with spiritual light… In barely less than three minutes, an unbroken hill of shadows was already standing in full force at the Featherwood Guard’s door!

Titanic oppressive force followed the night wind into each person’s chest.

“Their master lair only left behind cultivators who can operate the White Tiger Hall.” Chu Zhaonan lit a cigarette. Due to excitement, his finger was somewhat shaky. “Fuck… they really are daring. 3,000 people… this should be the Linghu Clan’s final surviving force! They got the cheek not to use ‘em on the direct battlefield!”

“The artifact spirits are out. You still think there are cultivators on the front line?” Lord Zhao’s complexion was gloomy. “Their certainty timing really is extremely fine.”

“And afterwards?” Not a sound was heard inside the Featherwood Guard. Xu Yangyi’s voice suddenly echoed, unstirred by billows, “Did you come to show off in front of me? Or tell me about how tragically the Linghu Clan’s been beaten down?”

The outside was a stretch of heart-shaking silence. Two seconds later, Linghu Chaofeng spoke out, “Open the door and surrender. Offer your command plate. The Linghu Clan will take mercy and not kill you all.”

“Your weak defense is in no way our opponent. The Clan Master can magnanimously disregard your murder of over a hundred of the Screaming Wind Legion. He will also disregard that because of you… the Linghu Clan has been ensnared into such an awkward predicament. As long as you surrender your command plate,” he gritted out and took a step forward. “Everything… Let bygones be bygones. We can even allow you to spend the last two days under the Linghu Clan’s protection.”

“Is this a suggestion?”

“No!” Linghu Qian said coldly. “It is a note of diplomacy.”

“A note of diplomacy to you, the Xingtian Legion that is the weakest.” Her name was the character for modest, but her speech was anything but modest and civil. “Even if our Linghu Clan is like this now, it is still not something that your Xingtian Legion can compare to!” [2]

“Were you not a Core Formation disciple, your corpse would be strewn across the fields right now!”

Xu Yangyi frigidly studied all of them and calmly said, “Then what’re you still waiting for?”

“Come, kill your way in.” At this moment, he sat on the highest pavilion. He surveyed everyone and arrogantly beckoned. “Let’s see who’s going to die here in the end!”

“What? Scared? You’re all worried that fighting will use up the Linghu Clan’s last sum of power. You want to conquer the heavenly paradise, but you can’t even defend?”

“I’ll give all of you a warning, as well.” His gaze was as icy as a blade. “Don’t make a stupid choice, you won’t be able to take the consequences.”

Lord Zhao looked at Xu Yangyi in astonishment. The Linghu Clan didn’t want to fight; they wanted the enemy to surrender instead of a clash of blades. This was within reason. By wasting the last of the fighting strength, they would no longer be a quasi-apex clan. Even if they had to stand firmly in these three days! But… did Xu Yangyi truly believe that the grand mountain-protector array could be depended on to resist the enemy? [3]

“There’s no strong city wall that can’t be destroyed. He’s not such a stupid guy.” Chu Zhaonan shook his head at Lord Zhao. “Since he’s so confident, he definitely has a contingency we won’t expect.”

“Then why didn’t he use it against the Reincarnation Puppet?” Lord Zhao said worriedly.

“Only one possibility,” Chu Zhaonan said without a moment’s delay. “It’s… a one-use item. And the Reincarnation Puppet… The bait wasn’t great enough.”

Not even a Reincarnation Puppet was great enough?

Lord Zhao wanted to say something. He looked at the vast chain of black mountains outside the Featherwood Guard and several thousand pairs of dark-green eyes.

Compared to 3,000 cultivators, the puppet was indeed not great enough.

Was there really such a one-shot item that could annihilate several thousand cultivators? He gritted his teeth and said no more.

“Good.” Linghu Chaofeng let loose a sigh of relief. His eyes had already turned blood-red. “You want the same as we do. You’re loathsome and resolute, moved by neither force nor persuasion. Did you know… I was afraid of you would agree just now. If that’s how it was…”

“How could we settle things because of you?! The anger that the Linghu Clan has now reached?” He spat fiercely on the ground. “You piece of dog shit.”

“Linghu Clan…” As if he was like a javelin, he stood at the forefront. He raised his left hand and slammed it down afterwards!

“All forces, ATTACK!!!”

“Wipe out these stupid dogs!”

“Use their crude lives to offer sacrifices to the 4,000 cultivators who died at the battle of the White Tiger Hall! And afterwards… pile up their heads for display! Suppress this doghouse forever!”

“ROAR!” Without the slightest delay, the first roar followed. In the darkness, a tide of half-man, half-tiger silhouettes were like a flood of intertwining black and white! They madly charged towards the Featherwood Guard!

Ruummble… The ground faintly trembled, and crushed rubble was jolted into the air. The clouds in the sky trembled in the wake of several thousand cultivators’ howls. The moon’s light dared not shine, the murderous aura below even distressing the celestial body above!

A collective assault of 3,000 people!

There was no formation whatsoever, ultimately just the purest and most vigorous spiritual force.

Fancy moves had been exchanged with the most direct clash of force!

It was now that Xu Yangyi took a deep breath and formed a seal. A qi construct of the Eight Trigrams plate suddenly appeared.

Closer… even closer… the wave of torrenting slaughter was surging towards the Featherwood Guard at lightning speed. In the instant both sides were on the verge of contact, he firmly pressed down on the Taiji at the center of the Eight Trigrams plate!

“ACTIVATE!!!”

With a swoosh, a limitless black curtain of light brightened all around!

Clink… The chains spanning across the Xingtian Legion suddenly burst with towering black light! Huuuummm! Profound talismans mingled in the air and built domains of terrifying qi. All of the buried weapons were attached to the talismans. Here and now, the scattered pieces formed a whole body! Like dense fog, infinite black qi saturated the Featherwood Guard in a flash, and ten thousand black rays leveled the ground and ascended!

The Taiyi Everlasting Array was unleashed!

1. A poem by Tang poet Li Qi (690-751 CE). Used to describe vastness/desolateness.

2. The character for modest is 謙. Her full name is 令狐謙.

3. “They wanted the enemy to surrender instead of a clash of blades”. The specific, specific text references on of Sun Tzu’s stratagems from The Art of War. Getting the enemy to surrender to preserve your fighting strength.