Azure Cloud Gorge was the most perilous natural stronghold in southwestern Qingzhou.
Cliffs rose on either side like walls hewn by blades and axes, piercing the clouds, with only a narrow passage several li wide between them.
Normally, clouds and mist wreathed the gorge, and fierce astral winds swept through it. Easy to defend and difficult to assault, it was a strategic position every army coveted.
Today, however, a suffocating veil of blood-red light had completely shrouded Azure Cloud Gorge.
"Move faster! Push every defensive formation to its maximum capacity!"
At the highest point of the gorge's fortifications, a middle-aged cultivator in sumptuous golden robes stood with his hands behind his back, his expression haughty.
He had narrow, triangular eyes and a sinister face. At his waist hung a white jade token representing the Ji Clan, one of the Divine Capital's foremost aristocratic clans.
He was Ji Yun, an elder of the Ji Clan's direct line and the court-appointed special envoy overseeing the army on this expedition.
Behind Ji Yun, three thousand Divine Capital City Guards stood proudly in regulation dark-gold chain mail, holding high-grade spirit-weapon spears.
These three thousand cultivators were elites ranging from the late stage of Qi Refining to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Strictly disciplined, their auras faintly joined into a single whole, radiating a lofty, murderous presence far beyond that of the local garrison.
"Your Excellency, we have completely replaced the defensive formation abandoned by the Heavenly Abyss garrison during its retreat with the Divine Capital's Demon-Breaking Talisman Formation."
A Golden Core Stage retainer stepped forward and reported respectfully, "Chu Bai truly is a crude rogue cultivator from the backwoods. The formation he left behind was riddled with flaws. Had we not taken over in time, Azure Cloud Gorge would likely have fallen already."
Ji Yun