Chapter 268 - 267: Gao Yuan City Out of Control

For Chen, the difference between the Dao Entry Realm and the Fusion Realm wasn’t significant. Even on this Blue Star, which lacked so much, he was still confident he could shatter the shackles of this era and reach the Fusion Realm. It would just be a little troublesome, that’s all.

But that wasn’t the point. For him, his current Realm at the Initial Tier of Dao Entry was already enough to sweep through the Northwest Province. The so-called Grandmaster experts were nothing to fear.

Compared to his Realm, what truly concerned him was the Great Dao—the Great Dao of Nine Elements Unification!

The Cultivation Technique he had obtained from the Exotic Realm granted him a Great Dao with properties that surpassed this Great Realm. As long as he could complete his Great Dao according to the method described in that Cultivation Technique, he would even have the chance to surpass his own peak in the future!

And now, his Great Dao was imperfect. He had to kill Jiang Qiu to fuse his Dao and have a chance to step into the Fusion Realm. Otherwise, with an imperfect Great Dao, forget about failing to fuse—even if he had astonishing luck and somehow succeeded, his path would not extend far.

At this moment, Chen was already flying toward Gao Yuan City, preparing to strike personally.

It wasn’t that he was worried Gao Yuan City could hold out. He just didn’t want Jiang Qiu to escape again. Chasing him from Gao Yuan City to Yongjiang City, the capital of the Northwest Province, would just waste more time.

If Jiang Qiu then fled to Jiangnan, it would waste even more time.

It was better to make a personal appearance now, lock down Gao Yuan City, and slaughter everyone inside!

...

RUMBLE—

The impenetrable dark clouds above Gao Yuan City still roared, and flashes of Thunder appeared and disappeared. A torrential downpour ravaged the Outer City District, which was already damaged beyond recognition.

Filthy water overflowed onto the streets. The clogged sewers could no longer contain it, and the roads of the Outer City were quickly submerged, the visible portions of the ruins steadily shrinking.

The soldiers stationed on the high walls of the Inner City gazed at this scene from afar, an apocalyptic feeling sending a chill down their spines.

"Why did it suddenly start raining so hard?"

A heavily injured Grandmaster stood atop the ruins of the city wall, his expression incomparably grave.

He was responsible for guarding the western section of the Wall. Having been severely wounded in the previous battle and needing to guard against another attack from the Demon Race, it was inconvenient for him to rush to the meeting in the Inner City’s Martial Arts Building, so he had remained here on watch.

From his observations, during the Kunlun Demon Clan’s previous major offensive, most of the Outer City District had been affected by various Secret Techniques and lingering Spirit Charm, resulting in constant downpours. However, those downpours were actually caused by the battle. Once the main Demon Race army retreated, the situation quickly eased, and the rain wasn’t an all-encompassing deluge like this.

’Something isn’t right. It’s as if some terrifying entity is about to arrive, and this part of the world is resonating with it, the rain weeping in response.’

’But what could possibly be capable of something like this?’

The Grandmaster hesitated. His graying eyebrow twitched, a sign of ill omen. He quickly instructed an executive committee member from the Military Department to report the anomaly here to the Martial Arts Mansion.

...

The meeting in the Inner City’s Martial Arts Mansion was still in session. Luo Beixing listened to everyone’s opinions on the full evacuation plan but did not state his own position.

One group of high-ranking officials, led by Grandmaster Lin Yu and primarily focused on research, believed they should decisively abandon a portion of the population. They argued for teleporting out the more important rare Secret Realm resources and data, since Gao Yuan City’s resources were running low and couldn’t support everyone’s departure. They were all high-ranking officials from the City Martial Education Department.

The other side, the Military Department, advocated for ensuring the evacuation of the entire city’s population. Anything could be abandoned, they argued, but not the hearts of the people. They wanted the world to know that Xia Country could guarantee that even in the face of a city-annihilating war, it would not abandon a single citizen!

Belief was an ethereal, intangible thing. If they gave up on evacuating all the ordinary people, the belief in Xia Country itself would suffer a severe blow. In the future, it would be difficult to find people with resilient wills, willing to shed their blood for their nation.

At that moment, Luo Beixing simply rested his hands on the conference table, silently listening to the two sides argue.

Suddenly, his eyelid twitched. He slowly raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the walls to the sky beyond. "Stop arguing. The Demon Race is likely launching a second attack. Their momentum is far greater than the first."

As soon as he spoke, the entire room fell silent. Even Lin Yu’s expression flickered, and he wondered in shock, ’How could their momentum be far greater than the first? Logically, the Kunlun Demon Clan’s first attack had been a surprise assault, and a full-scale one at that. The Ten Great Demon Marshals had all appeared, along with nearly a hundred Demon Generals. They had come with the sole intention of annihilating Gao Yuan City. One could even suspect that the Kunlun Demon Clan had deployed more than seventy percent of their strength at the time. Under these circumstances, with the Kunlun Demon Clan already having suffered considerable losses, how could they possibly muster momentum that exceeds the first attack? Did they mobilize more hidden Great Demons from Kunlun City or Kunlun Mountain?’

Xia Country’s assessment of the Kunlun Demon Clan’s combat strength had always been on the high side; they treated them as a formidable enemy and never dared to assume that the army that destroyed Tianshan City represented the entirety of the Kunlun Demon Clan’s power.

Therefore, it was highly probable that the Kunlun Demon Clan had indeed been holding back their true strength. After all, no one would be willing to play all their cards in one go.

VMMMM—

Suddenly, an electronic buzzing sound came from Luo Beixing’s wristband. He glanced down at it, his eyes widening slightly. "Heavy rain has started in the Outer City Districts in all directions. The Inner City is also starting to flood. Furthermore, conventional signals are being jammed. We’ve lost contact with the Outer Realm."

Everyone’s heart skipped a beat. They checked their own special communication wristbands as subordinates began to report more critical information.

It was now confirmed that Gao Yuan City had suddenly been hit by a strange, Realm-like interference. Its range was immense, grounding all aircraft. Moreover, communication with the Outer Realm had been severed, as if a giant dome had been placed over them.

Gao Yuan City had become an isolated island.

Then there was the torrential downpour. The continuous, high-intensity rainfall had caused urban flooding in an extremely short period, and the rain was only getting heavier. It might even be enough to flood the entire Inner City!

This was a phenomenon that hadn’t occurred during the first battle!

"What in the world is happening?"

Only now did the Grandmasters realize that the Kunlun Demon Clan possessed such an astonishing lockdown capability. They hadn’t used such a method at all when they annihilated Tianshan City.

BANG!

Suddenly, the sound of a fist slamming on the table shattered everyone’s thoughts. They instinctively looked over and saw it was Grandmaster Lin Yu, who had shot up from his seat. He stared at his wristband, his eyes wide. "Our Array is starting to fail! It won’t activate properly now. We can’t send out the remaining tens of millions of people!"

"Grandmaster Lin, what’s the reason for this?!" someone asked in terror, unable to believe such a situation could even occur.

The Demon Race hadn’t even come into contact with the Ancient Rune Array. How could they interfere with it out of thin air?

That was a teleportation method that used Ancient Inscriptions as a medium to travel to a Secret Realm! There was basically no point in the process where one could tamper with it!

At this moment, Lin Yu’s tone was heavy. "All the Secret Realms near Gao Yuan City can no longer be opened. It’s as if they’ve been obscured by something. We don’t have the coordinates for more distant Secret Realms. If we try to force a teleportation, we might send everyone into an uncontrollable Secret Realm."