Sky Gazing Tower in the Inner City, Abandoning Lin Jiang Ward

Gao Liu Inner City.

Sky Gazing Tower.

This building was grand and immense, towering and magnificent.

Rumor had it that this lofty tower had been built upon the foundation of Lord Liu's true form, spreading outward in all directions. Its carved railings and jade masonry gleamed in gold and splendor.

The tower stood a hundred stories high and had taken eighty years to build. Countless craftsmen had been employed during that time, and the dead and wounded were beyond number.

At its highest level stood eight divine mirrors, responsible for reflecting the eight directions.

The middle levels housed the document archives, where sixty-four registrars recorded movements from all quarters at all times, sorting and compiling them into registers.

"Outer City northern wall, one hundred and sixtieth position: the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp has gone out!"

"Outer City northwestern wall, fourth, sixth, twenty-fourth, and ninety-second positions: distress flares have all been sent up!"

"Outer City eastern wall, seventy-second position: a Patrolling Squad has filled the breach and relit the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp."

"Outer City eastern sector, Twelfth Ward: one Lesser Demon and three Wandering Spirits that previously broke into the city have all been slain!"

"Outer City southern sector, the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamp at the one hundred and twentieth position has been relit, and Patrolling Squads have filled the breaches separately."

Reports from every direction arrived one after another.

Everyone wrote with astonishing speed.

Among them sat a man of roughly fifty. His beard was black as ink, and his eyes were slightly closed, as though he were resting his mind.

The Temple of Lord Liu had twelve temple priests.

Sky Gazing Tower, meanwhile, had one temple priest stationed there to preside over the overall situation.

They rotated once every three months.

Today's priest was the seventh priest of the Temple of Lord Liu, known as Seventh Master Liu.

He had just returned from the altar and taken command at Sky Gazing Tower.

"The southern Outer City wall, from the sixty-first to the seventy-second positions—does something seem to have happened there?"

"That stretch falls under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Supervision Department's branch stationed in Lin Jiang Ward, in the southern Outer City."

The young man delivering the report said in a low voice, "The Banner Bearer was only recently replaced, but he cleared out all the men under his command and is guarding the city alone."

"Are there any abnormalities at present?"

"None of the twelve Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps in that period have gone out so far. No demons or evil beings have been discovered entering the city for the time being."

"Oh?" Seventh Master Liu's brow eased slightly. "It seems this man is quite capable!"

"No!"

At that moment, a middle-aged man rushed in from outside.

His position was responsible for observing the divine mirror facing due south. There were sixteen people assigned there in total.

His face was filled with terror as he said, "Seventh Master, from the fifty-fourth position to the sixtieth, the light of the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps... is fake!"

"What?"

Seventh Master Liu rose to his feet, his expression changing drastically.

The middle-aged man spoke rapidly. "The lamps are still lit, but the lamp oil inside the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps has been replaced with ordinary oil..."

Only when paired with the lamp oil from the Temple of Lord Liu did the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps possess the power to intimidate the darkness.

Neither could be lacking!

"When the divine mirror reflected them earlier, the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps seemed perfectly normal, so we failed to notice anything amiss! But just now, it seemed that demons and evil beings forcibly broke into the city beneath the lamps' illumination!"

Seventh Master Liu's gaze abruptly turned icy.

His first thought was that someone had lined his own pockets, swapping out the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps along that stretch of wall and pocketing the silver.

But the next instant, he realized something was wrong. In a low voice, he said, "They were only just replaced! Someone must have drained the temple lamp oil from inside and substituted ordinary oil..."

Because if they had been fake from the start, demons and evil beings would have already poured into the city in great numbers!

Yet only now were demons and evil beings beginning to break in one after another. Clearly, the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps had been genuine before!

Someone had extinguished the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps, replaced them with ordinary lights, and deceived Sky Gazing Tower!

But they could not deceive the demons and evil beings lurking in the darkness after all!

Soon, another person stumbled in, shouting, "Lin Jiang Ward, the outermost ward in the southern Outer City, has been breached by six evil spirits and three demons, one of them a Bear Demon!"

"That Bear Demon has already torn apart two Patrolling Squads sent to intercept it!"

"There are no martial artists nearby capable of matching the Bear Demon. The outermost ward of the southern Outer City... I'm afraid it is about to fall!"

The man's face was deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down him.

Seventh Master Liu stood and said solemnly, "Notify the Prefectural Governor's Mansion at once. Send word to the Heavenly Supervision Department. Deploy personnel to reinforce Qing Shan Ward and establish a new defensive line!"

"What about Lin Jiang Ward?"

"Lin Jiang Ward is finished!"

Seventh Master Liu's tone turned grim as he said coldly, "There's no time for rescue. We can only reinforce Qing Shan Ward's defenses at once! Otherwise... if those fiends continue pushing deeper, even Qing Shan Ward will become a purgatory for demons and evil spirits! Go, now!"

Lin Yan had already advanced six hundred paces.

Slaying demons and exterminating evil all the way!

Wherever he passed, he rekindled the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps.

He also left behind stacks of paper. With a casual flick of his hand, they transformed into knife-wielding figures identical to himself!

In this dark night, he had already carved out a fearsome reputation through slaughter!

As he continued onward, he found that the lamps ahead were still lit, yet Wandering Spirits and monsters from the darkness were once more crossing over the city walls!

"Fake!"

Lin Yan's heart sank slightly as he thought, Using ordinary lamp oil to fill the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps and fool the Sky Gazing Tower?

He strode forward, refilled the oil, and continued leaving behind false bodies made with Paper Cut into Horse.

"Grandfather, which one is him?"

The childish voice in the darkness asked in astonishment, "Every one of them seems exactly the same!"

Beneath the light of the Willow Branch Night-Illuminating Lamps, the demons and evil spirits could not see the knife-wielding figures clearly.

They only knew that someone stood there with a blade in hand.

Every one of them seemed to be him!

Every demon and evil spirit that had previously tried to cross the city wall had, without exception, been cut down beneath the blade.

As a result, the evil beings in the darkness now retreated, scattering to either side and trying to attack the city from other sections of the wall.

"None of them is him."

The aged voice said slowly, "But no one knows where his true body is!"

"After all, you saw it too—anyone who tried to cross the wall was cut down..."

"This man's ferocious might is truly overwhelming. Even I, Grandfather, am somewhat afraid of the savage Sha Qi he carries."

At this point, the aged voice chuckled. "Wandering Spirits and Lesser Demons may not be particularly clever, but even ants possess the instinct to survive. They know to avoid dangerous places."

The childish voice suddenly understood. "So he frightened off the evil spirits and Lesser Demons. That means he has held these three hundred and sixty paces."

"Probably..."

The aged voice suddenly turned startled. "No! Look to the left—why has his thirteenth figure appeared there?"

Then the aged great demon seemed to turn its gaze farther left.

"Not just that... fourteen, fifteen, sixteen..."

"He left behind this many figures?"

"Could all the city walls over there have fallen?"

"He left the defensive position he was assigned... no, that's not right. It should be said... he expanded the area under his defense?"

The aged voice grew increasingly grave.

The childish voice also seemed frightened.

Only after a long while did it say, "Then the stretch he is currently guarding exceeds a thousand paces?"

"Perhaps even more!"

"Guarding such a long stretch of city wall all alone—if he has to keep running back and forth, wouldn't that exhaust him to death?"

"But it seems like... he held it?"