A finger slid slowly along a Divine Crossbow bolt, pausing briefly as it passed over each of the talisman runes.
Gu Pan withdrew his finger and looked toward the Cloud Boats in the sky, his eyes holding somewhat complicated emotions.
He was now Deputy Commander of Chaoge City's Divine Guard Army. Though the title sounded much like his old one, he had actually risen several ranks and could be called a man of great power and standing. Yet he had come from the Zhongzhou Sect's outer ranks, and now bore the heavy responsibility of defending against an invasion by its Cloud Boats. However one looked at it, it was absurd.
But there were too many people like him in the Imperial Court and the army. The court could not remove them all from office simply out of apprehension toward the Zhongzhou Sect.
In a gate tower higher up, Zhang Yiai, Commandant of the Pure Heaven Bureau, was also watching the sky. His slightly narrowed eyes betrayed no extraneous emotion.
He too had come from the Zhongzhou Sect, but ever since the incident at the Demon-Suppressing Prison, he had drifted further and further from Yunmeng Mountain, becoming the Divine Emperor's most loyal minister.
More than a dozen enormous Cloud Boats cast a vast shadow over Chaoge City, and an equally vast shadow over everyone's hearts.
Clearly, the Zhongzhou Sect intended to crush them with overwhelming force. No matter how strong Chaoge City's defenses were, they could not withstand such an array. Besides, far too many in the Imperial Court favored Yunmeng Mountain. Who knew how many officials in the Pure Heaven Bureau, the Divine Guard Army, and the ministries would turn their weapons against them at the crucial moment?
Zhang Yiai remained silent, already prepared to die in battle.
Unlike the