With the two warnings in place, the mercenaries began to hesitate. The hundreds of corpses before them proved that this was a battle in which they never belonged. From whichever angle one looked at it, there was no way their lives should ever have to intersect with Luo Bingfeng. Even if no one among them was afraid of death, their charge on the holy mountain would only serve to drain Luo Bingfeng’s energy a bit.
However, Song Zining raised his right hand and, once again, pointed at the holy mountain summit!
The crew aboard the flagship were observing Song Zining’s movements. Having received the order, a war-horn call once again echoed throughout the battlefield. The soldiers found their blood boiling because the bugle told them that their commander was charging at the van.
Thousands of soldiers found their morale surging as they continued climbing the holy mountain. The squads behind bore through the defensive lines of Tidehark to join the ranks of those ascending the peak. At this point, the Tidehark city guard had been suffering constant bombardment from the imperial warships, heavy cannons, and even experts. Morale was at its lowest, and Du Yuan was nowhere to be found. Without any backbone support, some of the soldiers were already starting to sneak away.
Luo Bingfeng was startled at the movement of the mercenaries. He had never imagined that the empire would actually send troops on the attack under such a situation. This was no different from stuffing his hands with the lives of mercenaries.
Luo Bingfeng was far from being a pedantic person. After that brief lapse of astonishment, his fury ignited once more and his brows knitted into an almost vertical frown. He shot out dozens of ring-shaped sword energies that carved a path of death along the passage. The mercenaries along the abyssal road would hardly have any corpses left as they were cut up into countless pieces. No matter how well Song Zining had equipped these soldiers, they couldn’t last a single moment against Luo Bingfeng’s sword energy.
Close to a hundred soldiers died again, yet Song Zining’s unwavering finger continued to point toward the summit.
Bugle cries echoed one after the other, stoking the soldiers’ will to fight as they charged the holy mountain.
Luo Bingfeng attacked several times, killing hundreds with each strike, yet he couldn’t scare the imperial mercenaries into a retreat. At first, he had no intention of killing the weak, but these ants kept offending his honor.
Luo Bingfeng shouted sternly, “Do you think I cannot wipe you all out?”
Luo Bingfeng pointed toward the sky and started condensing a wisp of sword energy at his fingertip. This strike contained a massive amount of power, just like the few he had launched previously. Apparently, he was truly furious at this point. All of a sudden, he noticed a certain officer through the corner of his eyes. This man was stomping his feet and shouting as he directed the soldiers toward the mountain ascent. His expression was so sinister that even his facial muscles were twitching.
For some reason, Luo Bingfeng felt an inexplicable hatred for this person. Without a second thought, his silhouette flickered as he appeared in front of this officer and sent his head flying with a slide of his finger.
This attack looked easy, and it rightly should’ve been—yet the city lord couldn’t help but feel a wave of discomfort in his heart.
He turned back all of a sudden and saw Qianye standing in a crowd of mercenaries about ten meters away. There, with his finger as a gun, he fired a glowing feather of light.
Time ground to a crawl as Luo Bingfeng looked down at the feather shooting into his body. He looked back up and pointed at the surrounding mercenaries. “You used thousands of lives as bait to hook me? And I thought you were a hero!”
Those words were powerful and resonating. Qianye opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but he ultimately let out a light sigh and vanished into a group of mercenaries.
Luo Bingfeng seemed completely nonchalant after taking yet another Shot of Inception. He flew back up into the air, saying, “Just come if you want to kill me, what’s the point of all these tricks?”
With that, he raised his sword to his eyes—the blade flickered several times like a dragon, killing several imperial experts in a single flash. These slashes came without a single trace, and there was simply no way to deal with them. These people couldn’t even muster up resistance before losing their lives to the blade.
Li Kuanglan was, at first, seeking an opportunity high in the sky when her expression changed all of a sudden. Luo Bingfeng somehow appeared in front of her and slashed thrice! Li Kuanglan moved like lightning. Cold Moon’s Embrace erupted in a mist of radiance and blocked all three slashes, but her face also turned pale in the process.
Luo Bingfeng sneered as he drew back his sword, ready to attack and end Li Kuanglan once and for all. All of a sudden, a crisp sound emerged from his blade—there was actually a new crack upon it.
Startled, he turned back to see that Song Zining had thrust his folding fan into the holy mountain with a stirring action.
“How dare you!?” Luo Bingfeng roared, his figure arriving in front of Song Zining in an instant. At this moment, Ji Tianqing dashed past and escaped with the seventh young master in tow.
But how could the city lord let them off so easily? He was just about to give chase when yet another crack appeared on the blade.
He looked up into the distance and saw an imperial expert swinging a war-axe at the holy mountain. The holy mountain was made of mere rock and soil, so how could it withstand a blow from an expert?
Silvery sparks flew out amidst the rock and gravel. Startled, that person grabbed them out of reflex. Opening his palm, he saw numerous rune-like objects in his grasp—he had no idea what they were used for, and neither did he spend a lot of effort in contemplating it. He squeezed the object into a ball and tossed it to one side.
“Crack!” Another crack appeared on Luo Bingfeng’s blade.
The city lord looked around and saw that the surviving experts of the empire were distributed all over the mountain, digging madly on their own.
His face became ashen with anger. He became flushed all of a sudden and spat out a large mouthful of blood.
The imperial experts might be fairly mediocre in strength, but all of them were quite experienced. Seeing the city lord’s state, how could they not know that the mountain was likely his lifeline? Although they didn’t quite understand the reasoning behind it, everyone started attacking the mountain with renewed fervor.
Luo Bingfeng brandished his blade and flew toward an expert holding a heavy weapon. This elder’s attacks were exceedingly heavy, every hammer boring a huge hole in the soil.
During his assault, a faintly discernible figure appeared beside him and threw a square punch at him. As if he was completely unaware, the city lord took the blow in its entirety. The impact was so great that Luo Bingfeng’s body sunk down from the force. Despite that, he arrived near the old man and managed to slash him into two.
However, that figure followed him closely and landed yet another blow on Luo Bingfeng’s back. The latter staggered from the blow as he flashed a hundred meters away. Ji Tianqing looked at her hands, hardly able to believe that she had managed to land two attacks in a row.
Ji Tianqing possessed powerful secret arts and her attacks were exceedingly heavy. Even Luo Bingfeng couldn’t quite digest the damage, going pale as a streak of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He simply wiped the blood away before pouncing toward a different expert.
There was no need to remind the imperial experts. They had long since dispersed in all directions to dig into the mountain. They kept running away in different directions upon Luo Bingfeng’s approach, continuing their geographical rampage in the process. Some others also found openings to attack the city lord from time to time.
Luo Bingfeng went around putting out the flames without a care for his own safety and received countless attacks in the process.
The disparity in numbers, however, was simply too great. The city lord might be peerless in a showdown, but there was no way he could stop everyone from attacking the holy mountain.
He was currently like a lone swordsman traversing the land, unyielding but in despair.
The cracks in his sword increased in number before it finally shattered into countless fragments and dispersed in the wind.
A serene little courtyard finally became visible on the summit.
Luo Bingfeng gazed at the courtyard—silent and unmoving—almost as though he had forgotten everything.
An aqua blue streak of sword light left a large gash on Luo Bingfeng’s waist and, at the same time, numerous transparent daggers nailed themselves onto the city lord’s back. However, the city lord seemed to be completely oblivious to the change.
Having taken a sure aim, Qianye raised his gun and a pair of lucent wings appeared behind him. Song Zining appeared beside him at this moment, saying, “Fire!”
Song Zining was the only one who could approach Qianye like this. The latter, who would always listen to the seventh young master, simply couldn’t find it in him to pull the trigger.
Luo Bingfeng’s daze lasted mere moments. He arrived at the summit with a single step and entered the courtyard.
This step was almost at the level of Qianye’s spatial flash. Those imperial experts who were waiting to take advantage of the situation all stepped back involuntarily, shocked out of their wits. This step, paired with a powerful killing move, would allow Luo Bingfeng to kill all the experts at the scene.
After entering the courtyard, Luo Bingfeng appeared in front of the side building. The door to the chamber was half-open, revealing the furnishings inside.
This was a spacious room with origin arrays covering the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. All the interweaving layers could easily make one’s eyes go blurry.
A lady was kneeling at the center of the room, her head lowered as she gazed at the blade piercing through her chest. There was astonishment in her eyes, but also some relief.
Rui Xiang was standing behind her, holding a long sword. He said softly, “Heavenly Monarch Zhang wishes you well on the way.”
“As I had thought, it’s him. Unfortunately, Bingfeng simply won’t listen to me regarding this matter.” The lady sighed softly, caressing the sharp edge. A stream of warm blood dripped down the blade; no one could tell whether it was from her chest or her hand.
Luo Bingfeng couldn’t endure any longer. He kicked the door away and said in a cold voice, “Rui Xiang, what gall! Do you think I can’t deal with you?”
A wisp of terror flashed through Rui Xiang’s eyes. He looked around and saw that there was no way to escape. As a fierce character, he simply braced himself and said, “You can’t save her no matter how powerful your abilities are and you, yourself, will follow soon. Why should I fear death with two people to accompany me?”
Surprised and furious, Luo Bingfeng asked, “I sealed these gates personally, how did you get in.”
Rui Xiang drew his blade out rapidly, eliciting a painful grunt from the lady as she fell down. Yet, she propped herself up on the floor without collapsing. The wound on her chest started to gush fresh blood. Shocked, Luo Bingfeng made to pounce forward, but he had no choice but to stop after seeing Rui Xiang pointing his blade at the lady’s back.
Rui Xiang stroked the blade with his finger and said calmly, “This sword is reinforced with the power of a heavenly monarch. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize it?”
Luo Bingfeng’s expression was ashen. He let out a mournful cry, saying, “I have never wronged him, why would he treat me so?”
Rui Xiang said coldly, “Since this woman appeared, your cultivation improved by leaps and bounds. You now have a greater chance of stepping into the heavenly monarch realm first. Do you think he doesn’t know your wolverine ambitions?”
Luo Bingfeng was livid. “Just because of this? Just because of this? Big brother is my benefactor, he’ll always be my big brother even if I become a heavenly monarch. Why the need for this?”
Seemingly sensing something, Rui Xiang’s tone relaxed. “When that time really comes, the people of the world will only remember you, Heavenly Monarch Luo. Who would think of Heavenly Monarch Zhang?”
Luo Bingfeng took a deep breath. “I was too naive.”
