Chu Xisheng did not rush straight to the Northern Fortress gate.
His body flashed like a fleeting shadow as he swept through the stone fortress's first and second levels at top speed, hacking every last cell lock apart.
The poisonous fire was fierce and would soon spread upward.
When it did, not a single person in these cells would survive.
Those imprisoned on the first and second levels were only petty offenders who had committed trivial wrongs, nothing deserving death.
As for the third and fourth levels, those were where the Embroidery Guard and jailers rested and slept. Chu Xisheng could not be bothered with them.
Only afterward did he carry Wei Yang on his back and leave through the Northern Fortress gate with Chu Yunyun, mingling with the surging crowd.
Just then, a boom rang out high overhead. A powerful wave of Astral Wind swept over them, knocking many prisoners who had fled to the gate off their feet.
Chu Xisheng looked up and saw more than twenty high-ranking Martial Cultivators, including Cao Xuan, locked in a fierce melee thirty zhang above the ground.
But his gaze was soon drawn to the strip of crimson cloth fluttering among those powerful fighters.
The cloth was about one zhang long and six feet wide, with "Defying" on the front and "God" on the back. It was indeed shaped like a banner.
Judging by its dimensions, Chu Xisheng thought it seemed quite suitable for the flagpole at his home.
"This banner seems to be genuine?"
Lu Luanli gazed upward, her eyes complicated.
At that moment, five Fourth Rank Martial Cultivators each held a corner of the crimson banner and were pulling hard.
They were already exerting their full strength, sending arcs of astral energy streaking like rainbows through the sky and stirring