Afterward, Tusha stretched her hand out, summoned a long, double-edged battle-ax, then stepped into the air, riding a sanguine cloud on her way to the city gate. She wasn’t the only one. The Ominous Orchestra alerted all of the Liberation Temple’s experts. Senior army leaders such as Xin Zhong immediately cast their Spiritual Senses at the city gate, their lips curling at the idea that an eastern faction dared to attack Colorful Wing Supercity.
”Mhm, Lion brother, an opportunity to earn huge merit is knocking on our doors. Are you ready?” Xin Zhong asked the Armored Lion King who, half-awake, rolled in the grass.
”Merit? Did you say merit?!” Immediately, the Armored Lion King leaped from his semi-torpor and cast his Spiritual Sense into the distance, locating the rift that formed at the city gate.
”MERIT!” In recent times, merit opportunities had become scarce and elusive. Without merit, the Armored Lion King couldn’t get Diabolic Shards, commodities that he relied on for quick breakthroughs. For merit, there was no face that the Armored Lion King wouldn’t punch, no fire that he wouldn’t brave—granted of course that his life wasn’t at risk.
But this was Colorful Wing Supercity, the seat of the Liberation Temple! What danger could he possibly face? Without hesitation, brave lion-kun soared into the sky, rushing towards the city gates. Xin Zhong shook his head and sent his subordinates in the army a mental message.
’Intruders have come to court destruction. Let’s fulfill their wish and help them step into the underworld,’ Xin Zhong said and unfolded his feathered white wings—turning into a bolt of radiant light that shot towards the rift. Tens of thousands of bolts rose after him, joining the defense of Colorful Wing Supercity.
By now, Yan Le had made her round, notifying her fellow sisters of Tusha’s words.
”And here I was looking for an opportunity to test my new weapon. Let’s go…” Perched on a tree, Chun Xu nodded at Yan Le, then turned into a long steel sword, bolting towards the city gate. The other gals joined the dance, including Zi Feng, who arrived right after Tusha.
The rift opened, revealing an army of over 15,000 armored troops that dropped from the sky with a panoply of shimmering artifacts. Led by a middle-aged Wind Spirit, the enemy troops spread their Spiritual Senses out, scanning their surroundings as their hands wrapped around swords, bows and spears.
Exotic mirrors, shields and bells floated around them, rippling with formidable spiritual energies. At first, the troop descended with overwhelming momentum, but once their Spiritual Senses swept the target of this raid, and they witnessed the supercity’s splendor, their jaws dropped, and their eyes stretched—awed by this once-in-a-lifetime sight.
’Yes, only a place of this caliber is worthy of housing 20 million acres of immortal-grade Spiritual Farmland. Regardless of the price we have to pay, we must conquer this land. Only then will we have the means…to overpower the Zhenwu clan!’ The commander of this army, 14th elder of the Shentu clan, marveled at Colorful Wing Supercity, and unable to restrain his greed, licked his lips in expectation of the wealth he stood to snatch.
”Brothers and nobles of the Spiritual Aristocracy, no hesitation, no question, attack! Seize this territory, and within 100 years, the Spiritual Aristocracy will regain its rights!”
The world severely underestimated the pride of the Spiritual Aristocracy. When faced with the prospect of spending the tens of thousands of years to come under the leadership of a human clan, many of the eminent spirit clans refused to bend. On the surface, they paid homage to the Human King, but in the shadows, they never stopped plotting against the Zhenwu, preferring death to an East led by the human race.
Those spirit nobles now gathered around Shentu Shun—supreme elder of the Shentu clan—who from within his coffin, built a faction of loyalists devoted to overthrowing Zhenwu Shenquan. Regardless of rank or cultivation, all members of that faction pledged on their souls to not rest until the threat posed by the Human King had been suppressed.
And thanks to the tip and cooperation of the Heart-Wrenching Cult, they now had the opportunity to get all that they needed to secure the Spiritual Aristocracy’s future.
Tusha wasn’t incorrect. Aware that the Shentu clan possessed a secret heretical artifact that, in exchange for massive blood sacrifices, could open stable rifts in even immortal-tier formations, Qiu Meng tipped off the Heart-Wrenching Cult, using them and the Heart-Wrenching Demon Noble’s ambitions to send the Shentu loyalists towards Colorful Wing Supercity.
To give that artifact—the Void-Shredding Claw—enough power to open the rift, the Shentu clan sacrificed 150,000 spirit scions, an astronomical number that fueled the claw with such massive quantities of Evil Qi that it evolved into a fully-fledged demonic artifact.
But at the moment, the Shentu couldn’t care less.
Even if they had to embrace demonic stains, never would they miss the opportunity to regain their rights!
In tandem, the 13,000 soldiers of the Spiritual Aristocracy brandished their weapons, their cloaks falling off their backs to reveal radiant blue armors that only the elites of the Imperial Wind Army—those most trusted by the Shentu imperial clan—had the right to bear.
The 2,000 backups of the Heart-Wrenching Cult joined their hands in a succession of bizarre hand signs, prepared to support the Shentu offensive with spells, talismans and formations.
An orchestra of over 13,000 bells chimed in tandem, conjuring murderous sound waves that aimed to bypass Colorful Wing Supercity’s gates. Blue energy orbs formed at the mirrors’ centers, and as the Shentu loyalists aimed their weapons at the city gate, astonishing pressure rippled from their armors.
Not a single one of the enemy troops had less than a Divine Transformation cultivation base. Over, 13,000 Divine Transformation experts, including 3,000 at the peak of that realm. Add to that 200 Dao Revelation experts, 20 Void Tribulants, a peak-stage Integration realm elder, plus a demonic artifact fueled by the sacrifice of 150,000 spirits, and one could say that the Shentu deployed a formidable lineup.
This task force had one job: to access the enemy forces. Afterward, the main forces would use the rift to dive into the place and conquer it expeditiously. But stirred by the Heart-Wrenching Cult’s experts, the 14th elder’s ambitions overshadowed the mission. If he could conquer this magnificent city and present the Spiritual Farm to the supreme elder, his position in the imperial clan would undergo a complete overhaul.
”Charge at the gates with the Collapsing Wind Formation!” Spurred on by that idea, the 14th elder led the charge, and following a succession of mental messages, united his troops in a battle formation. Floating shields rotated each Shentu loyalist; a grand tornado formed around them all, brimming with overwhelming spiritual energy as over 13,000 experts at Divine Transformation or above united in a single strike.
The mirrors fired at will, unleashing thousands upon thousands of energy beams at the massive ruby gate that welcomed the intruders to Colorful Wing Supercity. With the 14th elder to lead the way, the Collapsing Wind Formation threw itself at the supercity’s gates. But before it could collide with the gate proper, shadowy mist poured out of two onyx watchtowers that stood at the back of the city gate.
A festival of lilac rays poured out of the walls, becoming a tall barrier that slammed into the hurricane while the towers’ shadowy mist sneaked past swirling winds and shields to infest all enemy troops!