At the Breach of the City

When Mi Lan was still in the Body Tempering Realm, he had been the weak link in Li Yuan's nineteenth squad. After breaking through to the Inner Force Realm, he was no longer the squad's weak link.

Mi Lan felt the inner force born within his body and was overcome with excitement. "I've broken through to the Inner Force Realm!"

"I've finally broken through to the Inner Force Realm!"

Li Yuan stood to one side, smiling as he watched Mi Lan. "All right. You should stabilize your realm now."

Mi Lan nodded respectfully. If Li Yuan had not happened to guide him just now, he would never have seized the chance to break through. He hurried to one side and familiarized himself with the new power that had appeared within his body.

There were many people atop the city wall. Seeing Mi Lan break through in the midst of battle, they clicked their tongues in wonder. The martial artists who were also in the Body Tempering Realm looked at Mi Lan with envy. Such a thing had not happened to them, and a faint sourness stirred in their hearts.

Mi Lan's breakthrough was merely a small interlude atop the city wall. It did not cause much of a stir, and Evil Creatures continued attacking the walls without pause.

Li Yuan stood atop the city wall. From time to time, he would slash out a sword, killing the zombies below. When the occasional evil ghost tried to float up and attack the formation's weak points, Li Yuan cut them down one by one with Sword Qi!

Every time he swung his sword, more than a dozen wisps of evil energy were absorbed by the black-jade Rune Artifact at his waist. Li Yuan glanced at it.

At a rough count, more than four hundred wisps of evil energy were swirling inside.

Even if each wisp of evil energy was worth only two contribution points, he would still have earned eight hundred contribution points!

For martial experts who had mastered true qi, a large-scale battlefield like this was the easiest place to earn contribution points.

They could casually earn hundreds or even thousands of contribution points!

While dealing with the Evil Creatures attacking from below, Li Yuan calculated how he should use the contribution points once they were in hand.

Unlike the several hundred Evil Creatures that had attacked the city just now, there were only a few dozen evil ghosts attacking the battlefield now. The intensity of the assault had dropped tremendously, and Li Yuan even felt a trace of leisure.

Li Yuan swung out another sword. The Sword Qi flew forth and killed more than a dozen Evil Creatures. He then turned to look behind him. Behind him lay the northern part of Meishan County.

The northern wall was several li away from him. Even from a distance, he could see the bursts of fire and the Sword Qi streaking through the air there.

Spirit Masters and True Qi Realm martial artists were resisting the Evil Creatures outside the city. The Spirit Masters' spirit arts and the martial artists' resplendent Sword Qi were clearly visible in the darkness of night.

Li Yuan's brows furrowed slightly. He noticed a detail: the flames in the north were growing more and more intense, while the Sword Qi crisscrossing through the air was becoming denser!

That meant the battle in the north was growing fiercer!

The Evil Creatures there were increasing in number!

The fierce battle in the north formed a stark contrast with the leisurely situation in the south.

"The situation in the north seems rather bad."

"Should we go over and provide support?"

Li Yuan murmured to himself. Zong Lin, standing not far away, immediately objected. "No."

Li Yuan tilted his head. "Why?"

"Because this could be a stratagem by the Evil Warriors to lure the tiger away from the mountain."

"With the battle in the north growing urgent, if martial artists from the other three walls rashly go to provide support, the defenses of those three walls will certainly become weaker."

"If the Evil Warriors launch a surprise attack while they are gone, there's a good chance they'll break through the walls!"

"We're reinforcements who came here from another commandery. We only need to obey orders. We must not act rashly."

Li Yuan nodded, agreeing with Zong Lin's view.

Kong Zhuohua and the others were the ones directing this battle. They naturally had their own judgment regarding the situation in each direction; there was no need for Li Yuan and the others to worry about it.

Li Yuan turned his head back and stopped paying attention to the north, focusing instead on dealing with the zombies and evil ghosts before him.

It was not only the Evil Creatures attacking the southern wall where Li Yuan stood that were sparse. The eastern and western walls were likewise not facing many attacks. Only the battle at the northern wall was growing increasingly fierce.

Time passed, one second after another.

After an hour had passed, the battle at the northern wall remained fierce, and it even showed signs of growing more and more intense!

Li Yuan gazed solemnly toward the north. The northern wall had endured the assault for too long, making people wonder how much longer it could hold out.

Suddenly, a yellow talisman hanging from Zong Lin's waist burst into flames. A voice emerged from it.

"The northern wall is about to fall, and we have discovered the bearer of a Blood Refining Bottle!"

"Zong Lin and Li Yuan, come quickly to provide support!"

It was Kong Zhuohua's voice. He had used a communication spirit talisman to send the two of them an order.

The northern wall was about to fall?!

Kong Zhuohua's voice was heard not only by Li Yuan and Zong Lin. The nearby martial artists and city guards heard it as well, and all of them were startled.

The situation at the northern wall had already reached a critical juncture!

Li Yuan and Zong Lin exchanged a glance before looking toward the members of their nineteenth squad. "You several."

Ao Shaoguang and the others immediately straightened. "We're here."

"Zong Lin and I are going to provide support. Be careful here and do not act recklessly!"

"Is that clear?"

"Understood!"

After they left, Li Yuan worried that something might happen to the squad members without his protection, so he specifically instructed them to act cautiously and never move rashly.

These people had all come from Jiujiang Commandery with him. He had to bring them back safely as well.

Once everything had been arranged, Li Yuan and Zong Lin moved together, vanishing from atop the city wall in an instant!

In midair, two figures sped toward the north of the city!

Zong Lin cast a spirit art to fly through the air. Her body was like a bird as she flew rapidly forward through the sky.

Li Yuan lightly tapped the void with the tip of his foot. Martial Arts True Qi exploded beneath him, and he used the burst of force to travel through the air. His posture was graceful, and he was as fast as a startled dragon!

Cloud Stream Sword Record: Cloud Dragon Seven Folds!

This was a lightness technique and movement art naturally contained within the Cloud Stream Sword Record. It was extremely profound, allowing one to borrow force repeatedly in midair. Not only was it incredibly fast, but it could also turn and change direction, making it difficult for an enemy to predict.

If cultivated to a high level, one could borrow force seven times in succession and streak an extremely long distance through the air!

Li Yuan's technique had long since reached perfection. Forget borrowing force seven times—even borrowing force dozens of times in a single breath would not be a problem.

Zong Lin was right beside Li Yuan. She stared blankly as he repeatedly borrowed force in the void, his posture graceful as though he were walking on level ground. She could not help crying out in surprise.

"Impressive!"

"This lightness technique is simply inconceivable!"

The spirit arts mastered by Spirit Masters came in all varieties. There were quite a few spirit arts that enabled people to fly as well. As a genius Spirit Master of the Zong Family, Zong Lin had mastered a flying spirit art long ago, and her flying speed was extremely fast—far beyond what ordinary True Qi Realm martial artists could match.

Yet she discovered that even after raising her speed to its maximum, she still could not shake off Li Yuan. The speed of Li Yuan's lightness technique was actually not the slightest bit slower than hers.

Faced with Zong Lin's praise, Li Yuan gave a faint smile. "A trifling skill, not worth mentioning."

Zong Lin rolled her eyes. If even this counted as a trifling skill, then the lightness techniques of all the other True Qi Realm martial artists amounted to nothing.

Spirit arts were far more powerful than the martial arts techniques cultivated by martial artists. This also caused Spirit Masters to feel a certain sense of superiority whenever they faced martial artists. Yet Zong Lin found that she could never find even the slightest sense of superiority when facing Li Yuan.

Li Yuan could always do things that violated common sense for martial artists. Wasn't that infuriating?

Zong Lin looked at Li Yuan with exasperation and amusement. Then she shook her head, cast the jumbled thoughts from her mind, and continued rushing forward at full speed.

The two of them were incredibly fast. In only a dozen or so breaths, they crossed more than half of Meishan County, and the distant city wall was already faintly visible.

Li Yuan's eyes narrowed. He had already seen zombies and evil ghosts break through the city wall's defenses and slip into the city!

The zombies and evil ghosts rampaged through the city. If they spotted ordinary civilians, those people were doomed; the Evil Creatures killed them one after another.

Some martial artists and guards were already rushing about to put out fires, doing their utmost to hunt down the zombies and evil ghosts that had broken into the city.

The situation had reached an extremely critical moment!

Li Yuan raised his hand and swept it out. From afar, a streak of Sword Qi slashed through the air, chopping several zombies wandering the streets into pieces and saving a group of unfortunate civilians driven into a street corner.

"Kill!"