"Escape!"
The disciples of the Heavenly Puppet Sect made a decisive move, ceasing their entanglement with the five Chen Kingdom warriors. They suddenly soared into the sky, attempting to escape by taking advantage of their aerial prowess Core Formation Realm.
However, he forgot that among the Chen Kingdom Rune Artifacts, what traditional cultivators disliked most were not melee weapons, but ranged firearms.
With a bang.
A Spirit Particle Bullet flew with lightning speed, aiming at the chest of the Heavenly Puppet Sect disciple.
The disciples of the Heavenly Puppet Sect were at a time when their old strength was exhausted and their new strength had not yet been generated, so they had no time to dodge and could only try to twist their bodies to avoid their vital points.
Boom! The Spirit Particle Bullet pierced through the shoulder of the Heavenly Puppet Sect disciple. Although it was not fatal, it slowed his flight and greatly reduced his combat power.
The Chen Kingdom warriors below naturally wouldn't stand idly by; they leaped up one after another and launched attacks on him using their martial arts skills.
Surrounded by the crowd, he quickly fell to the ground, his body and soul extinguished.
"You scoundrels! Kill them!"
Although the Chen Kingdom warriors killed the Heavenly Puppet Sect disciple through their siege, their actions quickly attracted the celestial army's encirclement and suppression. Of the six Chen Kingdom warriors who attacked, only three escaped.
Boom! Clang!
In this attack on the Chen Kingdom, the Heavenly Puppet Sect mobilized its entire force. The Heavenly Puppet Sect leader personally led the expedition, bringing out many cultivators who had been living in seclusion in the Heavenly Puppet World, including two Supreme Elders who had already reached the Saint Level.
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Court sent three thousand heavenly soldiers. If these soldiers formed a battle formation and fought together, ordinary Saint Level experts would only be slaughtered.
Although the Chen Kingdom was heavily fortified with traps and formations, the area it had to defend was so vast that the defensive weapons around the city were constantly being destroyed, and the daily consumption of Spirit Stone to maintain the protective shield was enormous.
Left with no other choice, Chen Hongjie had to make the decision to evacuate all the residents of the capital city, shrink the defensive line, and place the main force in the Chen Kingdom's palace.
The outer city of the capital had become a chaotic battlefield, and any soldier who wanted to attack the palace had to pass through this area.
This city, which the Chen Clan has managed for many years, is filled with countless killing formations, traps, and firearms. Apart from peerless experts at the Saint Level or above, no one else dares to swagger over the city, otherwise they will easily be riddled with holes by countless ranged Rune Artifacts.
If they traveled by land, a large number of the Chen Kingdom warriors were lying in ambush here. They dragged out the battle between cultivators into a street fight, thus achieving the goal of defeating the strong with sheer numbers.
Countless Chen Kingdom soldiers sacrificed their lives to halt the enemy's advance.
Thump...! Boom boom boom...!
Outside the Chen Kingdom palace, Wang Xian'an, the sect leader of the Heavenly Puppet Sect, along with two Supreme Elders of the Heavenly Puppet Sect, cast a spell to set up a powerful killing array, relentlessly bombarding the defensive shield of the Chen Kingdom palace.
"Damn it! This defensive barrier is incredibly stubborn. Even though the Spiritual Power fluctuations aren't strong, it's impossible to break through it."
The three of them had been fighting here for more than ten days, and they always felt that the defensive shield would break at any moment, but they couldn't break it no matter what they did.
"Elders, although our attack is very arduous, the Chen Kingdom traitors have certainly suffered greater losses than we have. As long as we hold on, they won't last much longer."
While manipulating the magical weapon to attack forward, Wang Xian'an encouraged the two elders beside him.
The two elders are shrewd and experienced, and naturally cannot be swayed by Wang Xian'an's few words. However, their assistance is driven by self-interest, so they are unlikely to shirk their duties.
"Sect Leader, please rest assured! We will do our utmost and will not slacken our efforts."
They all knew very well that Chen Kingdom didn't even have a single Saint Level cultivator. The reason they were able to withstand their attacks was simply due to their formations and Rune Artifacts.
These external things are bound to be consumed, unlike Saint Level cultivators who can draw energy from the universe to replenish themselves, their energy being inexhaustible.
Therefore, they are all waiting for the Chen Kingdom's strategic resources to run out. Once Chen Kingdom's resources are exhausted, they believe that these people in the palace will have no choice but to surrender.
"This Chen Kingdom is truly remarkable. It has only risen to power in the last ten years or so, yet it has managed to cultivate such a powerful fighting force from a group of ignorant and stubborn people."
If they were allowed to operate for several more decades, who knows what they would become? No wonder the Heavenly Court is in such a hurry to eliminate them soon."
A female elder observed the fierce battle in the outer city and couldn't help but sigh.
Compared to the combined forces of the Heavenly Puppet Sect and the Heavenly Court, the foundation of the Chen Kingdom was far inferior. After all, the Heavenly Puppet Sect had accumulated thousands of years of experience, and the Heavenly Court Heavenly Court, needless to say, had seized at least 60% of the accumulated resources of the entire Pan Emperor Continent over the past ten thousand years.
Although the attack on the capital of the Chen Kingdom was launched in the name of the Heavenly Puppet Sect, the heavenly soldiers sent by the Heavenly Court played an even greater role on the battlefield than the three Saint Level experts.
The number of cultivators at the King level or above in Chen Kingdom is less than one-fifth of that in the Heavenly Puppet Sect's allied forces, yet they have survived until now thanks to their tenacious fighting spirit and auxiliary talismans. The ferocity of this battle was something the elders of the Heavenly Puppet Sect could not have foreseen at all.
"Hmph! So what if they have potential? Daring to oppose the Heavenly Court means they're doomed to fail."
Although Wang Xian'an hated the Rune Research Institute to the core, he also admired these people deep down. However, due to their different stances, he could only fight Chen Kingdom to the death.
The siege has lasted for more than half a month. The Chen Kingdom has lost nearly a million soldiers, while the Heavenly Puppet Sect has lost seventy to eighty thousand disciples, including nearly a thousand cultivators at the King Level or above.
By now, Wang Xian'an was starting to feel a little regretful.
Even though the Heavenly Puppet Sect has existed for thousands of years, the number of disciples within the sect is limited. So many of them died here at once. Even if the Chen Kingdom is conquered today, it will take at least a thousand years to recover its strength.
But it's no use regretting it now. He can only hope that the resources in the Chen Kingdom's palace will be exhausted as soon as possible, so that he can end this agonizing war.
Meanwhile, inside the palace, a towering pavilion stood in the center. The pavilion was a typical Chinese building, with complex Bagua patterns painted on the ground and a large number of battle flags standing on all four sides.
Countless runes emitted a blue light, swirling and dancing around the pavilions, making the place resemble a Daoist holy site.
This is the core of the palace's protective array. Taichu, Chen Hongjie, Chen Duo, and others are all here, using their own Spiritual Power to reinforce the array and resist the attacks from the Sage outside.