Feng Feiyun wore a dark expression and put away the order: “Not kneeling before the Divine King? This is an act of disdain towards the imperial authority, a crime worthy of death.”
Zhang Chonglin’s eyes had a black luster just like two abysses. He sneered and said: “Haha! Little boy, you think you’re a badass now? In the eyes of the big shots, you’re nothing since you’ll be dead in just one year. Are you even strong enough to kill me? Wait and train for a few more decades.”
He didn’t give a damn about Feiyun. He had cultivated for 400 years and was in this captain position for more than 160 years. He had several million elite troops under his command. Both his cultivation and roots at the capital far exceeded Feng Feiyun.
The guy at his current cultivation using the King’s Order couldn’t hurt him right now.
“I see, insulting the Divine King, only adding to your crime. I will have to make an example out of you first then report it later. Senior Ning, please take down this arrogant fool.” Feiyun was looking for an excuse to take down Chonglin but the guy decided to jump down the pit himself.
Ning Fengxian was a daoist but not one without emotions and desires. Those at his level all had hands stained with blood.
Chongin channeled his power and shouted: “Feng Feiyun, you want to kill me, boy?!”
“Bless be the Supreme, this daoist does not want to kill but unfortunately, I owe my friend Feng a favor. My apology.” Ning Fengxian’s eyes suddenly became stern and flashed with waves of lightning.
A thick ray of lightning suddenly descended and slammed into the wall.
“Nine Firmaments Lightning…” Chonglin gathered a monstrous amount of energy and unleashed nine dragon-tigers. Alas, his attacks were easily torn apart by the lightning and it slammed on his body.
“Boom!” His armor turned into dust as his body fell down the high wall and turned into ashes.
He simply couldn’t withstand this level of lightning. A gate captain went down just like that.
“Amitabha.” Buddha Maitreya placed his palms together and chanted.
The gate guards were horrified by the scene of their captain being killed. This Divine King was too ruthless, daring to kill just about anyone.
They kept kneeling on the ground without daring to lift their head.
Feiyun walked forward while holding his saber with a bloodthirsty aura: “Zhang Chonglin disrespected the royal clan so I have made an example of him. What are you all waiting for? Open the gate already. Are you trying to distract the royal clan too?”
Several soldiers at Heaven’s Mandate virtually pissed in their pants from horror. They got up and opened the gate, not wanting to follow Chonglin’s footsteps.
A massive army was already waiting outside. The moment the gate opened, they all kneeled and shouted in unison: “Greetings, Divine King!”
Their cries echoed for several hundred miles.
There were three Heavenly Marquises under the Divine King - Battler, Lion, and Elephant. They had seven hundred million troops under their command.
This particular battalion was under the Divine King and usually camped in his own land. When Long Chuanfeng abdicated, these marquises returned to the capital, afraid that Feiyun wouldn’t be able to take care of the situation because Chuanfeng has gone into isolated cultivation.
The three marquises were enough to make others wary of this faction once more.
They didn’t bring all the troops back, only ten millions for each of them for a total of thirty millions, camped outside the seventy towns near the capital.
Feiyun gave the order: “Battler Marquis and fellow soldiers, follow me to Beauty’s Smile. Lion Marquis, stay behind to watch this gate. Elephant Marquis, lead your men to watch over Earth’s End. If they dare to send reinforcement, kill first, talk later. March!”
These soldiers were the elites. They divided themselves into three sections. The one with the strongest aura was heading for Beauty’s Smile. Their bloodthirst was strong enough to create groups of black clouds looming overhead.
The ground quaked before their coming. The cultivators who trained in the morning were all scared out of their mind, thinking that the sky was falling down.
“Rumble!” Eighty thousand chariots rode in, all pulled by mighty bulls. They were crafted with refined steel, each weighing tens of thousand pounds and standing at nine meters tall. There were runes and formations on the surface in the form of fierce beasts.
A black banner hanging on a thick pillar fluttered with the wind. One word was written with blood on it, “Battler”.
“Pluff!” The banner issued a deafening noise as it fluttered.
A tall and burly man stood on top of the banner with muscles as tough as steel. His arms were as thick as a wheel. He wore an armor created by asteroids, weighing at 380,000 pounds.
“Where is the Divine King?!” Battler Marquis cried out causing several old buildings to cave down the ground.
Feiyun was also shaken and nearly fainted from this cry. The guy’s power far exceeded Feiyun’s expectation.
He raised his King’s Order and shouted back: “Your king is here!”
Battler’s round eyes stared intensely at Feiyun for a bit with a rock-firm and unyielding pose. He asked: “Where to attack?”
“Beauty’s Smile Pavilion!” Feng Feiyun wasn’t afraid at all. The guy had sharp eyes; an ordinary person would go blind just looking at them.
“Rumble!” Battler pulled up the gigantic banner and propelled himself into the air. He turned into a ray and once high enough, he threw down the banner with both arms.
“Whoosh!” The banner cut through the sky and flew for thousands of miles before crushing Beauty’s Smile’s entrance. It drilled through the ground by more than ten meters.
The earth quaked again with explosive blasts. Several palaces inside instantly collapsed.
Battler floated in the sky and pointed towards the direction of the banner and cried: “Kill!”
This single word resonated like thunder in the night sky and woke up so many cultivators. The formations in the capital instantly broke down.
The Martial Army heard the order and crazily rushed forward as if they were possessed.
Ning Fengxian stroke his white beard and said: “Little Friend, you should have told me that this madman was coming back to the capital. I didn’t need to help at all.”
Feiyun had heard of Battler before, the number one among the eight marquises. However, he didn’t expect for the guy to be so fierce. If it wasn’t for the orderly yet wild formation of the army heading for Beauty’s Smile, he would think that Battler was sieging the city.
“Looks like he is at ninth-level Heaven’s Mandate too.” Feiyun said.
Ning Fengxian replied: “He’s already the number one monster beneath Enlightened Beings since 180 years ago. However, this person is arrogant with a fiery temper. He even offended the Jin Emperor and made a great mistake, nearly got decapitation as the punishment but the Divine King beseeched for his sake.”
“Great mistake?” Feiyun was surprised.
“It’s a long story, I’m not clear either. I only know that it has something to do with the Grand Chancellor.” Fengxian said.
The little monk who has been keeping quite the entire time said: “I know a little about this. The Grand Chancellor wanted to eliminate Battler so he tricked the marquis into entering a forbidden place in the palace and the emperor caught him. In his fury, the emperor suppressed the marquis and wanted to kill him. However, the Divine King entered the sacred ground of the royal clan and invited some ancestors to come out to speak for the marquis’ sake. The emperor finally conceded and spared the guy. Nevertheless, the marquis was imprisoned for eighty years before being released.”
“Because of this, the Divine King was affected too. He left the court on his own accord and went south to the pagoda for 180 years without taking a single step out.”
“After Battler got out of the prison, he killed his way into the Grand Chancellor’s mansion and killed the chancellor’s oldest son then threw his corpse at the entrance before leaving without giving a damn. He has been staying at the Divine King’s land for one hundred years without returning to the capital.”
Feiyun looked at the sky. The clouds of death have entered the capital like a tsunami. Battler was in the front with an unstoppable momentum.
“Fierce indeed! Daring to kill the Grand Chancellor’s firstborn and left the corpse by the door? I’m utterly speechless.” Feiyun was afraid that after trampling out Beauty’s Smile, Battler would send his troops for the chancellor’s mansion. This ferocious man could really do anything so Feiyun quickly headed towards Beauty’s Smile.
Though Feiyun didn’t like Beiming Moshou, this wasn’t the right time to attack the guy. Moreover, that faction was truly strong. An all-out fight would only result in heavy losses on both sides and others would take advantage of it. Furthermore, the capital would be in a state of chaos too - not something Feiyun wanted to see.
Fengxian and the monk glanced at each other before following Feng Feiyun.
“Rumble!” The massive army surrounded all of Beauty’s Smile and formed countles blockades. This has turned into a grand battlefield.
Every buildings in a two hundred miles radius of Beauty’s Smile were completely trampled by the war chariots.
Many cultivators ran away while others felt their legs giving in from having never seen such a big scene of battle.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!” The massive army chanted in union resulting in a thunderous noise. Dust and stones flew everywhere. Beauty’s Smile was a ship in the middle of the ocean, ready to capsize at any moment by the raging waves.
A banner continued to flutter at the entrance and scared the soul out of the cultivators and courtesans inside.
This was the army's murderous and battle intent, condensing into a soul that was much stronger than the aura of a cultivator. Normal people would lose all courage even before a fight broke out.