"What the―" Mu Chen and others stood in disbelief. They had barely managed to speak a word when cries and shouts echoed along the wall.

"T―the barrier! What happened to the barrier?"

"The barrier! It―it's gone!"

"How could this happen?"

"Did the formation stop working?"

The guards and other cultivators who had just relaxed, began to panic.

"Everyone! Stay calm and get back to your posts!" The Captain tried to maintain order. But the people seemed to have lost their nerves.

"Brother Li, did you do something? How could the barrier disappear?" Gao Ren looked at Li Kun. Li Kun was the one who had activated the key. His spiritual imprint was on the key. Only he should be able to stop the formation.

"Me? No way! Why would I do something like this?" Li Kun shook his head.

"The pillar of light has disappeared." Mu Chen said, looking in the direction of the city center. Everyone had been facing the direction of the walls, with the pillar behind them, so they didn't notice when the pillar had disappeared.

"Could it be," Liu Fengying frowned. "someone tampered with the formation?"

"We won't know if we stay here." Mu Chen said, and began to sprint towards the square. Liu Fengying and others didn't waste time and caught up with him.

"Damn! I should have stayed behind to look after the key." Li Kun cursed as they sped, where the pillar of light had been. The key was also the eye of the formation, so if anyone destroyed it, the formation would collapse.

When they arrived at the square, the square was empty as before.

"Where's the key? Did someone take the key?" Gao Ren looked around. The formation key was no longer hovering in the sky.

"There is no sign of any other person." Liu Fengying said.

"The key is in the basin―I can sense it." Li Kun said. The basin had turned dry revealing a large number of pebbles, sea-shells, conches, and crystals. Li Kun jumped into the basin. After a while, he came out with the key in his hand.

"How?" Everyone gathered around Li Kun.

"I don't see any sign of damage." Li Kun held the key up for everyone to see. It looked the same as when he had received it. He once again poured his spiritual qi into it. The key floated back to the exact spot it had been at when the formation was first activated. But no pillar of light came from the basin this time. After spinning a bit, the key lowered and fell gently back into Li Kun's palm.

"I don't think the formation was destroyed." Li Kun concluded.

"Then why did it stop working?" Su Rong asked.

"I don't know." Li Kun shook his head. "The formation is working correctly as far as I can tell. Go ahead! Try it yourself." Li Kun passed the key to Su Rong.

Su Rong tried to activate the formation. The key once again floated up, then fell. So she passed the key to Yi Hanying, who after failing to activate the formation, passed it to Ye Lanlan, who passed it to Gao Ren…

One by one, other than Mu Chen, everyone took turns trying to activate the formation.

"The formation hasn't been used for several hundred years now. Maybe it degraded?" Xia Ping sighed after failing to activate the key and gave it to Liu Ru.

"We are wasting our time here." Mu Chen shook his head. "None of us here is familiar enough with the formation to recognize the problem." The formation was just too big and they could only tell that the eye was functioning properly because they had the key. But if the problem lied somewhere else, they would be clueless.

"Then what?" Liu Fengying asked as she received the key from Liu Ru. She also tried to activate the key and failed.

"Isn't it the City Lord's duty to watch over the formation?" Mu Chen said. "If there is anyone who can quickly find the issue with the formation―it should be him."

"Brother Chen, the City Lord is still injured. Do we have to disturb him again?" Li Kun said, his face awkward. Next to him, Gao Ren's face also turned a bit embarrassed.

"Do we have any other choice?" Mu Chen asked.

Li Kun could only sigh. Nobody said it aloud, but everyone felt that the City Lord was indeed pitiful.

#

Once again, Mu Chen, Li Kun, and Gao Ren stood in front of the house where the City Lord was cultivating. Only this time, they were also accompanied by Liu Fengying and others.

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The door of the house was shut tight. It no longer had a barrier protecting it like before. So Mu Chen and others were able to walk close to the door.

"City Lord!" Xia Ping shouted, banging his palm on the door. "Please open the door." But even after waiting for some time, there was no reply.

"I think the City Lord can't hear us." Su Rong said. Although there was no barrier to prevent entry, sound and divine sense had been blocked.

"Looks like we need to use force once again." Gao Ren sighed.

"Should I do it?" Liu Fengying asked when neither Li Kun, Gao Ren, or Xia Ping made a move.

"I will do it." Li Kun said, taking a deep breath.

"Brother Li, let me handle it this time." Mu Chen said, placing his hand on his shoulder. Mu Chen knew Li Kun felt very guilty since they had disturbed the city lord causing his breakthrough to fail. Although the situation demanded it, and Gao Ren was the one who had used the talisman, it couldn't diminish his sense of guilt. After all, interrupting someone's cultivation was considered a taboo in the cultivation world.

Mu Chen raised a leg and kicked the door hard. The door was made of solid wood, but it couldn't withstand Mu Chen's kick. His kick knocked the door off its hinges and traveled far and split in the air as it hit the wall. The pieces fell flat on their side with dull thuds. But Mu Chen instead frowned on seeing how easily the door was kicked open. It simply meant there was no formation reinforcing it. Even if the City Lord was injured, he would have taken precautions to set at least a basic formation?

Mu Chen and others entered the house. It was just a tiny room with no windows. There were slits on the sidewalls close to the ceiling for ventilation. A small spirit lamp was mounted on the wall of the room opposite them. But its light was barely enough to reach the center of the room. A square cushion was placed at the center of the room.

"The City Lord?" Liu Fengying and others looked around. But there was no trace of the City Lord. "Where's the City Lord?"

"He is not here?!" Li Kun asked, looking around.

"Wasn't he injured? Where did he go?" Xia Ping asked.

"Hmm? What's this?" Under the dim light, Mu Chen saw that several lines had been engraved on the stone floor. The lines formed a complicated design but seemed to converge at the center of the room where the cushion was placed. Mu Chen kicked the cushion aside revealing the complete pattern. The design was very faint and faded―if not for Mu Chen's eyesight, he would have missed it due to the poor lighting condition.

"Huh? There is something on the floor." Mu Chen said, drawing everyone's attention.

"What's this?" Liu Fengying flipped her palm and a small bright flame burst into existence, illuminating the room.

"It looks like an array?" Li Kun said, trying to get a better look. "I think it looks a bit familiar?"

"Ah! Right, it looks familiar." Xia Ping nodded.

"It's a spirit extraction array." Gao Ren said, looking at the design.

"A spirit extraction array?" Everyone exclaimed.

"No wonder I thought it was familiar." Li Kun said.

"But why is there a spirit extraction array here? There is no spiritual vein in the city." Liu Fengying frowned. A spirit extraction array could extract the spiritual qi from a vein that was deep underground and bring it to the surface for use. Once it was brought to the surface, it was easier to use other formations or channels to distribute the qi as needed. But all the spiritual veins in the region had already been monopolized by major clans or sects. So such an array would be useless here.

"There is no spirit vein here, but there is something else." Mu Chen said as a thought flashed through his mind. "I think we found out the reason why the formation won't work." Mu Chen sighed, his tone somber.

Everyone looked at each other, their faces turning ugly, thinking of one possible scenario.

"Maybe―maybe we are thinking wrong?" Xia Ping suggested. "The City Lord won't do such a thing? He must just have had a lot of high-quality spirit stones?"

"Don't fool yourself." Mu Chen said. There was no need to use such a high-level array to extract spiritual qi from spirit stones when a basic formation could do the job just fine. "When he gave us the key, do you recall where he took it from?" Mu Chen turned to Gao Ren and Li Kun.

"He took it out from within his robes." Gao Ren said, think about their meeting with the City Lord.

"The City Lord has a spatial ring. Why would he carry the key on his body?" Mu Chen said. "I don't think it's a coincidence he forgot to hand over the key. He must have been using the key to manipulate the city's defense formation and use this array to extract the spiritual qi from the formation. So of course, he had to bring the key with him even during seclusion."

"Ugh! So The formation doesn't have any problems―it just ran out of juice." Xia Ping said. "Brother Chen, you really have a crow's mouth."

"The formation had enough resources for it to stay active for a week. Just how long has the City Lord been leeching off it, for it to run out of spiritual qi?" Liu Fengying said. The amount of spiritual qi needed to sustain the formation was huge. It was comparable to the annual income of a large sect.

"Hmph! Men will always be greedy and selfish!" Yi Hanying scoffed.

"Hanying, could you at least consider the situation for once?" Su Rong was exasperated.

"The city lord has been managing the city for several decades now. Who knows how long he has been doing this?" Mu Chen sighed. "It's no wonder he was close to a breakthrough." With such a huge amount of resources, even a person with average talent could rapidly improve.

"Damn that bastard!" Li Kun cursed, "I was feeling sorry for him, but he had been screwing us all this time!"

"Brother Li, look at it this way. At least, we don't have to feel guilty about wronging the City Lord." Gao Ren said smiling, patting Li Kun's shoulder.

"Haha!" Li Kun said feeling elated, "You are right!"

"But what do we do now?" Liu Ru asked. "Without the formation, the beasts will soon enter the city."

Li Kun and Gao Ren were happy about not having to feel like they owed the city lord. However, this feeling was short-lived as they once again had to face the reality. The atmosphere turned grim again.

"Let's go outside." Mu Chen shrugged and left the hut. Others followed.

Mu Chen looked at the sky. High up the battle between the cultivators and the scavengers was in full heat. Although the cultivators were not suited for aerial battle, they had better teamwork and techniques. But casualties were unavoidable. And while the number of beasts killed was several times more than that of the cultivators, the number of beasts was also equally large.

"Mu Chen!" Liu Fengying said. "I just spoke with the Matriarch. They have their hands full. Although she promised to send help on our way, it will take time. We will have to fend off for ourselves."

Mu Chen nodded, but didn't speak. It would only be a matter of time when the cultivators got rid of all the flying beasts. But unfortunately, time was no longer a luxury they could afford. Mu Chen's hearing was sharp and he could listen farther than anyone present. And from the cries and howls of the beasts and guards, one thing was clear.

The monster beasts had broken through the wall.