Capturing the Urn City

Yan Nu was acting according to plan, still considering how to deal with them.

Yet the young-generation talent of the Zhang family possessed truly exquisite moves.

Suddenly sliding forward and taking advantage of Yan Nu's inattention, he died right behind him.

Everything happened too fast.

In an instant, the entire scene plunged into dead silence.

Standing with his hands behind his back off the stage, Zhang Feng, who was rejoicing at having gained another fierce general, had his smile instantly freeze as if it had been flattened against a wall.

The wandering knights were also frozen like wooden carvings one by one, staring straight at that puddle-like corpse.

Huang Banyun tensed up even more in a split second, his toes curling and gripping the ground.

The atmosphere at the scene solidified so much that it felt as though everyone had even stopped breathing.

Ultimately, the first to break the silence was still Yan Nu.

"I really didn't mean to." Yan Nu felt wronged inside.

"..." Old Ghost Feng stopped thinking.

Yan Nu was actually extremely inept. If he didn't use Fierce Blast from the Sky, people could style on him so hard that he wouldn't even be able to touch a corner of their clothes.

Emperor Tai's White Jade Technique countered automatically, which was not originally strong, but the stress-induced triggering of forty-six thousand one hundred and seventy years of internal energy was simply not something an ordinary person could mess with.

Yet it just had to be a chilling and pliant true qi... If that youth had practiced righteous true qi, it would have gone straight into the sea like a mud ox, and he wouldn't have died.

If anyone was to blame, blame the fact that Yan Nu didn't know martial arts.

"Nephew..." Zhang Feng finally snapped out of it, calling out tremblingly to the youth on the stage.

Yet that youth had already been blasted by his own accelerated, rebounding, pliant palm force, causing his meridians to shatter completely, his qi and blood to reverse, and blood to flow from his seven orifices as he died.

He was flying into a rage. The Zhang family was recruiting troops and buying horses, and the young-generation talent had also entered the military, right about to make a glorious career for themselves in these troubled times, only to die just like that?

And Yan Nu still claimed he didn't mean to? Who could believe this?

Being able to counter-shock a first-rate expert to death—who would dare say he didn't use his full strength?

Actually, if they had truly fought inextricably and made a momentary slip of the hand, killing the person, Zhang Feng could have endured it. He would have seized the opportunity to use both benevolence and might to subdue a fierce general.

That way, although the Zhang family would have lost a young talented youth, they would also have gained an even stronger talented youth.

Yet how could the situation just now be a slip of the hand?

In Zhang Feng's view, it looked much more like Yan Nu had intentionally allowed himself to be hit by a palm strike, using that to lock true qi in a contest.

Then he seized the opportunity to launch a full-strength counterattack, using an exquisite method to shock the man to death.

What was this? This was a trap! This was premeditated!

"Dog thing, you dare pull a shady trick!"

With a shua, Zhang Feng jumped onto the stage. True qi could be seen visibly circulating across his surface—strikingly the Three Essences Body Tempering.

Clang, he drew his precious sword. The edge of the blade lit up with a cyan light, extending three feet of sword qi, condensed and unscattered!

"Speak! Who sent you?"

Zhang Feng figured that since it was premeditated, someone must have given orders, wanting to take the opportunity on the stage to kill the Zhang family's talent.

Yet Yan Nu said somewhat helplessly, "I went on the stage so I could gain your esteem and have you feast me in your tent..."

Zhang Feng laughed out of extreme anger: "You killed my nephew, and you still want me to invite you to dinner?"

"...Do you think I still have a chance?" Yan Nu gazed calmly.

"Too late!" Zhang Feng's gaze was cold.

He thrust his sword straight forward, determined to first severely wound Yan Nu and drag him into the dungeon to torture him slowly.

The cyan sword qi carved a straight trajectory through the air, subsequently exploding out goose-shaped sword qi that sealed off all of Yan Nu's dodging angles.

"Boom!"

The stage shattered, and the powerful shockwave instantly expanded.

Zhang Feng only felt a blur before his eyes, and a hand had already appeared right in front of him.

Everyone saw Yan Nu erupt with astonishing martial energy, abruptly dashing forward by two zhang to charge to Zhang Feng's side as he blasted out a terrifying punch.

"I'm done for!" This was Zhang Feng's final thought.

At this moment, there was only an enlarging fist in front of his eyes, along with a terrifying shockwave.

Then, the fist stopped right in front of him.

It turned out Yan Nu had burst forth with another wave of qi, wanting to kill Zhang Feng while simultaneously slowing himself down.

In a split second, Zhang Feng felt a roaring in his skull, went blind in front of his eyes, his feet left the ground, and his body uncontrollably flew backward.

His entire person was like wind blowing fallen leaves, spinning through dozens of consecutive backflips as he shot across horizontally.

The surging, turbulent qi wave washed outward for several zhang, spreading forward in a visible fan-shaped gale.

Huang Banyun, who was standing behind Zhang Feng, was also caught in the fallout.

He was first jolted upward, flying backward several zhang, then his waist sank as he took dozens of retreating steps with a deng deng deng sound, and finally planted one foot hard against the city wall to halt himself.

Looking over to the side, Zhang Feng had already slammed fiercely into the base of the city wall, the masonry covered in red cracks like a blood-infused spiderweb.

After a moment, blood actually flowed from the cracks.

"Hiss!"

The wandering knights present felt their scalps go numb and broke out in a cold sweat.

Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they stared at Yan Nu, who was maintaining his punching posture and still sliding backward.

Yan Nu plowed three zhang before finally standing steady.

"This, this, this, this!"

"A world-shocking martial artist?"

The wandering knights couldn't even speak coherently. In their view, killing a top-tier expert with a single punch—what was that if not a world-shocking martial artist?

At this moment, Yan Nu's hair fluttered upward, his lapels trembled violently, and fierce whirlwinds blew and buffeted all around his body.

"Could this be the legendary... aura soaring to the heavens, heavenly manifestations, convergence of dragon and tiger?"

"Has he already reached the Five Essences Body Tempering?"

Most of them were low-grade, a portion were third-rate, and only a tiny minority were second-rate experts.

Seeing Yan Nu's overwhelming imposing aura, they lacked experience and even suspected this was the so-called presence like dragon and tiger.

"Crap, Five Essences Body Tempering! He doesn't even have the second stage!"

"This brat simply has too much true qi! Right now he certainly has no backup momentum left. Release the arrows!"

A hairless, fair-faced middle-aged scholar was alarmed and angered. He saw that Yan Nu merely possessed an excessive amount of true qi, though just how much he didn't know.

Some factions used special methods to cultivate freaks with several hundred years of internal energy.

Back in the day, the number one person in the world, Wang Siwen, had five hundred years of internal energy and furthermore possessed Five Essences Body Tempering. That was already terrifyingly strong, and yet he happened to be a person from Swift Sword Manor, having learned the almost inconceivably profound Sudden Sword Dao, which allowed him to slay six immortals with a single sword, earning the moniker Immortals live forever, I am invincible.

Compared to that, Yan Nu didn't even have Second Stage Body Tempering; while his true qi was abundant, it was severely wasted. If they used a military formation to counter him, killing him was not out of the question.

The east city training ground, located on the inner edge of the city, was enclosed within an urn city.

Aside from the stairs leading up to the city wall and the battlements, the outward channels consisted solely of two small city gates.

Aside from the several hundred wandering knights and local braves who had come to enlist, there were also five hundred armored elite soldiers in the arena.

Atop the city wall, there were even two hundred archers.

Striving to remain calm, the middle-aged scholar immediately ordered the release of arrows.

"Swish, swish, swish!"

As the arrow rain fell, Yan Nu's martial energy surged once more, forming a visible shockwave that rippled outward.

"Spare my life!"

"This has nothing to do with me!"

"I just came here to grab a bite to eat."

The wandering knights were also caught in the arrow rain, wanting to flee.

However, the exits had already been blocked by elite soldiers. Upon closer inspection, every single one of them turned out to be a third-rate martial artist.

"Slay!" This troop formed a military formation, radiating killing intent as they advanced step by step.

With elite soldiers ahead and Yan Nu behind, the wandering knights were sandwiched in the middle, extremely helpless.

At this very moment, Yan Nu took a step forward, his fist drawn back.

His body abruptly turned red, resembling a glowing piece of iron until it shone brilliantly.

"Those of the Zhang family kneel, those who surrender drop prone, and those who have a death wish come and block me!"

Just as his voice fell, his entire person charged like a meteorite, the airflow behind him resembling flying wings.

Seeing this scene, everyone was terrified. What on earth was this thing? He must be a monster!

The middle-aged scholar was terrified; he no longer knew how to tell how much true qi this amounted to.

"Block him! Quickly block him!" The middle-aged scholar gave orders repeatedly.

The wandering knights didn't care about him at all, collapsing to the ground in a rustling heap.

The five hundred elite soldiers, though strictly disciplined, also felt their scalps go numb. Daring not to fight him head-on, they scattered to both sides.

In a split second, this troop shifted continuously, splitting left and right into two phalanxes to clear out the middle.

Yet Yan Nu was not thrusting forward at all; halfway through his flight, he actually began to spin!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Yan Nu spread his arms, carving out crimson arcs and blasting martial energy from both sides of his body to make himself spin like a top.

At the same time, a stream of water descended from the sky, causing the vine armor to secrete grease as raging fire instantly ignited across his body.

That stream of water also vaporized into steam, expanding violently.

Using his martial energy, Yan Nu drove the flames and steam to form a fire-blazing whirlwind.

"Ah?" The elite soldiers who had been full of killing intent just a moment ago drastically changed expression.

Caught off guard, organized as they were in a military formation, they simply couldn't dodge far enough away, and the majority were sucked into the rapidly approaching flame top.

"Boom!"

A rock suddenly thrust forward, blocking Yan Nu and causing him to crash heavily into it.

Amidst the astonishing collision, shockwaves were further stimulated, sending gravel scattering in all directions.

Blazing flames, scorching steam, and swirling gravel and dust locked in mutual slaughter with the Zhang family's martial artists for a time.

People tumbled about, blown away while engulfed in flames, their armor and flesh bursting open like blooming flowers.

The center of the collision could truly be described as a storm sweeping away fallen leaves.

Lasting for a full several breaths, it only slowly dissipated.

Amidst the lingering aftermath of the whirlwind, Yan Nu was tattered all over, with disheveled hair and bare feet.

He pierced through the dust and slowly walked out.

"You... could you be Tu Fa Yak?"

The middle-aged scholar's expression shifted repeatedly, almost distorting. Who else could it be attacking the Zhang family army these days if not the Tu Fa Clan?

Seeing Yan Nu's combat power, he suddenly recalled the terrifying Battle of the Ji River in the north.

He had thought it was just exaggerated legends from a defeated army, but now it felt like it might actually be true.

"The Tu Fa Clan has actually fought all the way here? How is there not a single bit of news..."

"Why hasn't the alarm bell rung yet?"

Trembling, the middle-aged scholar turned his head and wanted to run.

Yet outside the passage behind him, two squads of vine armor soldiers with rigid, cold expressions suddenly walked in, blocking his path.

Looking back at the city wall, the archers who had been releasing arrows had already collapsed in a heap at some unknown point.

As for that alarm bell, it was firmly bound by a thick vine.

"Ah..."

"There are cultivators!"

Seeing this scene, everyone present felt their hearts turn ice-cold.

There were cultivators who disregarded the mortal world fire and actually took down the urn city?

In the north, some demons and monsters had joined forces with the Hu barbarians to seize cities and territory. The Tu Fa Clan—this really was the Tu Fa Clan coming!

"You, you, you..."

Seeing that he couldn't run and with Yan Nu approaching step by step, the middle-aged scholar finally couldn't hold up against the pressure.

He hurriedly dropped to his knees: "I am the Rear Army Sima for the Zhang clan, in charge of all provisions, equipment, and ordnance for the garrison inside the city. I am willing to surrender to the Tu Fa Clan to accomplish the royal cause!"

"I beg for my life! Your Highness, I beg for your life!"

Yan Nu stopped in his tracks, looked left and right twice, and really just turned around and walked away.

Overjoyed, the middle-aged scholar hurriedly stood up and followed behind.

Seeing that Yan Nu was walking toward the remaining martial artists who hadn't been sucked into the fire whirlwind, the middle-aged scholar shouted loudly: "Why aren't you paying respects to the Royal Highness of the Tu Fa Clan!"

The remaining martial artists no longer dared to fight. Seeing that their superior had surrendered, they could only kneel and bow their heads.

Postscript: Apologies.