Chapter 41

...to let the magic succeed without destroying it. At times like this, Su became immensely useful.

Sure enough, the knights had discovered the crisis. Quite a few of them were already taking up weapons and chiseling at the ice wall. Those with greater skill wrapped their blades in battle aura, producing even greater destructive force.

"Su, help, quickly." Yi Tianxing called for Su to stop her hail spell. Hail could not cause much damage to the Radiant Knights; it could only create an opportunity amid the chaos.

"Whoo." Su stopped blowing. She directly raised both hands high, tilted her head up toward the sky, her long hair and skirt fluttering ceaselessly, and waves of icy white chill radiated from her body, sweeping toward the frozen wall.

Judging from the Radiant Knights' counterattack, Yi Tianxing figured that if the experts in the knight order were not somewhere in the Dead City, caught in stubborn resistance and unable to break free, then they had not taken part in the entire knight order's rebellion. Yi Tianxing hoped it was the latter. After all, the Radiant Knights were the Thunder Eagle Empire's right and left arms, and had once been the empire's glory. Though His Majesty had already mentally prepared himself for the possibility that the Radiant Knights might rebel, now that it had truly happened, it still had to feel awful, Yi Tianxing thought.

In the blink of an eye, the frozen wall had been firmly reinforced by Su, completely covering the city walls on both sides of the gate. The ice wall was also studded with protruding spikes, making it even harder for the Radiant Knights to destroy it.

"Damn it, damned mage." The people inside kept shouting abuse, and a few had already grown tired from chopping and simply sat down.

"Why has the commander been gone so long without any news? Isn't Fields supposed to be away from the Dead City?"

"Exactly. If this keeps up, we'll be worn to death here."

"Don't tell me the commander and the others have run into trouble too?"

Several Radiant Knights discussed in low voices, their discontent quietly brewing in the dark.

Yi Tianxing's guess was not wrong. The Radiant Knights had not rebelled as an entire order, and the few powerful members of the order who had joined the rebellion were currently locked in battle with envoys secretly dispatched by the beastmen and hidden inside the Dead City.

A distance of thirty li took Aslan and Hal hardly any effort to run. While the forces on both sides of the city wall were locked in a stalemate, Aslan and Hal had already quietly slipped into the support unit.

"Is the lord up ahead? I have important news to report," Aslan asked.

"Where did you two run off to just now? Why didn't you come assemble?" The support unit captain, Pieru, also an upperclassman, scolded them.

"Hal and I went to ask for reinforcements. Hurry and take me to see the lord," Aslan said.

"Hmph. You two little brats should at least pick the right occasion to lie. We're on the front line right now. Falsely reporting military intelligence gets your head chopped off." Pieru did not believe for a second that Aslan could have found any kind of reinforcements.

"Senior, let me take them." A relatively short figure stepped out from the ranks. It was Yi Junshu.

Seeing that someone from the lord's household had spoken as well, Pieru could only nod.

"Let's go. You two come with me," Yi Junshu said briskly.

The three of them made a detour around the cavalry unit and walked to the front edge of the formation. Yi Tianxing and the Ice Elf Su were taking turns reinforcing the frozen wall. Of the six ice spheres that had originally circled around Su, only two remained.

From the corner of his eye, Yi Tianxing noticed the three approaching and opened his mouth to scold them. "What are you doing running over here? Get back, quickly."

After being shouted at by his eldest paternal uncle, Yi Junshu trembled, looking somewhat timid.

Aslan's expression remained calm. He patted Yi Junshu and said in a low voice, "Thanks, Junshu."

Yi Junshu's face was slightly pale as he nodded to Aslan in return.

"My lord, I am Aslan, a student of Saguli Academy. I have something to report to you," Aslan said, raising his voice.

Yi Tianxing noticed that Hal and Aslan were the very two students who had fled not long ago, and his expression turned very ugly. But neither of these two students was human, so it was not appropriate to lose his temper at them. He could only suppress his anger and ask, "What is it? Speak quickly."

Aslan and Hal walked closer to Yi Tianxing, but the Ice Elf Su suddenly blew out a stream of cold air to stop them from approaching.

"Su, it's fine. Focus on what you're doing. They're only students," Yi Tianxing said.

Aslan said to Yi Tianxing in a low voice, "My lord, we found reinforcements worth a thousand troops and ten thousand horses. Whatever plan you have, just give the order. Hal can tell him."

Yi Tianxing's eyes lit up when he heard this. Reinforcements worth a thousand troops and ten thousand horses?

"Could it be that mysterious summoner?" Yi Tianxing asked.

"What mysterious summoner?" Hal cut in.

"Forget it. Now isn't the time to discuss that." Aslan stopped Hal from asking further, then said to Yi Tianxing, "It's the Magic Beast Blood Mantis. He should already be lying in wait beneath the Dead City. My lord, tell us your plan."

"Good. Right now, we know absolutely nothing about the situation inside the city." Yi Tianxing looked at the city wall and said, "The urgent task is first to take the enemy—"

Lock them inside the city and don't let a single one escape. So please notify Blood Mantis to hold the western gate wall. I can assign him a few more troops to coordinate with him."

"The lord truly has a benevolent heart," Aslan said with a faint smile. "This plan may cause the fewest casualties. It is indeed quite good."

"Oh? Do you have another opinion? Speak freely." Yi Tianxing sensed that the young lionman seemed to have other thoughts, and encouraged him to say them.

"Yes. This student's idea is to strike from within and without, and catch them all in one net." Aslan revealed a mysterious smile, but a trace of blood could be scented in his words.

Dead City, before the City Lord's Mansion—