After leaving Mingde Hall, Xu Tianyao returned to the imperial palace through the underground passageway.
Kong Deming followed closely beside him.
Both moved quickly. In the silent underground corridor, only the steady echoes of their footsteps rang out.
At this moment, the entire imperial palace had already entered the highest level of combat readiness.
Deep within the palace's underground complex, several hundred high-ranking Soul Engineers from the Consecration Hall had taken their positions in advance.
Clad in standard Soul Engineer robes, they sat cross-legged according to their assigned formations. A small Amplification Soul Tool Array floated before each of them.
Streams of Soul Power flowed continuously along the Soul Tool patterns on the ground before converging at the central core of the underground complex.
These Soul Engineers would not directly participate in the coming battle.
They had only one task.
Once the war began, they would use special Soul Tool Arrays to layer their Soul Power together and pour it all into Kong Deming.
This would allow Kong Deming to obtain Soul Power support far beyond his own limits for a short time.
This was also one of Xu Tianyao's greatest sources of confidence in choosing to make the imperial palace the battlefield.
At the same time.
Jing Hongchen had already left the palace with the imperial decree in hand.
Under Xu Tianyao's orders, he secretly mobilized a full four thousand fully armed elite Soul Engineers.
Two thousand of them had silently entered the outskirts of the imperial city. They were scattered through streets, alleys, hidden fortifications, and key points, forming an invisible net with one another.
Once battle erupted, they would immediately seal off the outskirts of the imperial city.
No matter who entered this area, they would not be allowed to leave easily again.
The remaining two thousand