A Warrior Emperor's senses could encompass up to several dozen miles. So acute that some cultivators even said that some Emperors were able to notice something even before it happened. And it wasn't so farfetched as it may appear to be, with the previous Warrior King realm being known as the one to break the level limit for senses, the one from which everything only depended on one's training.
_._._
Yi Lao continued to clash against the three attackers' auras. His domain had yet to catch any of them, but until now, he had not yielded a single inch. He even gained some control compared to when the battle started.
Following each movement of the attackers, avoiding their sudden lunges, skills, and the few attempts of the female and stronger one, the stronger of the three, at encircling him, Yi Lao's senses could be said to be working to the utmost.
Regretfully, Yi Lao was a Warrior Emperor, and no matter how concentrated he was on the battle, his senses caught and dispassionately informed him of every happening in the city. Of every started fight, of each drop of shed blood, and, no matter how he would desire to avoid knowing it, at least for now, of the people, most of them non-cultivator residents, that were losing their lives.
Any experienced cultivator knew how to maintain one's inner stability, as failure doing so rarely led to a long life, and Yi Lao wasn't an exception.
Thus, while he felt both guilt and shame for failing to prevent the start of this bloody event, one that he didn't even know why was happening, Yi Lao maintained his calm and continued fighting as before. Yet, his opponents, namely the woman, did manage to detect the contained, concealed thoughts of the City Lord, which led to a sudden change in the attackers' tactics.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*
Each attacker released a barrage of techniques and skills. Neither carried any threat to a Warrior Emperor, but none was aimed at him either.
"YOU DAMNED BASTARDS!" The City Lord roared, seeing how torrents of flame, water, and ice flew towards the sides, their destination the city below the fight. With the protective formation yet to activate, Grandmaster Yuan just having received the order and tuning the protective measure to leave the hostile Warrior Emperors outside - the destruction inflicted on the city and its residents would be enormous.
*Boom* *Swoosh* *Clang* *Snap* *Shatter*
Left with no choice, Yi Lao used all his ability to intercept the attacks. Some he destroyed with his domain, others he blocked himself, and some countered with the help of skills and techniques of similar level.
"What use is there in saving the lives of a few ants if one risks himself?" A cold, uncaring female voice was the only thing Yi Lao heard as he felt danger from behind, barely managing to dodge a fatal slash of a straight, unadorned sword.
"Ants?!" Angered more at opening himself and failing to notice the sudden attack more than at the words or the small cut on his shoulder, Yi Lao barked, as a heavy longstaff made of green, nearly alive, with a few small shoots visible on it, appeared in his hands. But there was more to his sudden outrage, the battles below...
***
Yi De and the eight people defending the Palace barely managed to contain the six attackers, and while unwounded, it was clear that the enemies held the advantage. Predominantly thanks to the leader of the hostile detachment, who had clashed with Yi De since the first moment. And by using a strange manner of fighting that combined a pair of claw weapons on his feet and a short spear in his left hand, this unnamed, masked man had sent the saber-wielding Yi De into a passive state. Sometimes even sending a few aura slashes against the other seven warriors of the [Yi Clan].
*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*
Blocking the successive attacks, Yi De retreated step after step, ending pressed up against the Palace entrance. He saw how his men were in a similar situation. Not having lost, yet neither having achieved anything but defending against the attackers.
{Prepare to retreat inside the protective formation. We will take a breather and form a strategy to counterattack.} Seeing no other choice and aware of the protective measures around the Palace being able to hold back a peak Warrior King, Yi De decided. It was shameful to run from a combat they entered as equals. And yet, it would be worse for him to lose the men left under his command, especially with no clear idea of what was going on.
But as Yi De prepared to give the order, which could later cost him much more than a reprimand, everything changed. With Cai Zhenkang's arrival at the City's Palace, the situation of the battle there was quickly overturned.
With the Earth realm having three steps for each level, the difference between a Warrior King of the 7th or 8th level and the weakest Emperor was abysmal. And Cai Zhenkang, even if weakened, unable to use even half of his strength, was still a peak 1st level Warrior Emperor.
Barely expanding his aura and using the minimum amount of qi, it took Cai Zhenkang a single punch to send a 7th level Warrior King, the first and only one to try blocking the Emperor's approach, flying away.
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{I will deal with this heavens damned dogs. Quickly inform Yuan Mei of-} Cai Zhenkang knew he could not fight for long, but he was sure of dealing with the few Warrior Kings. Thus, he passed Lord Yi's words and assumed position before the Palace's entrance, strands of aura sent against every one of the remaining attackers.
"Lord Cai!" Yi De exclaimed, surprised and thankful for the unexpected reinforcements, using the provided distraction to break out of combat and shouting a command as he crossed the glowing golden curtain of the active formation around the building, "Everyone, retreat!"
***
Yi Min was an above-average fighter, her cultivation and 5th Step of the Sword Path was proof enough. Yet, since the combat started, her opponent proved to be the same.
"Who the accursed ghosts of the Yellow River are you?!" As her sword blocked the claws of the fur-hooded attacker, Yi Min exclaimed, both wanting to hear the answer and as a distraction.
But her opponent sidestepped her prepared counter with ease, remaining silent, only releasing a faint growl as he launched forward again, his claws shining purple, traces of lightning running all across the bone-like material they were made off.
Her men were in a similar deadlock with their opponents, and while a couple of drops of attackers' blood had fallen to the ground, the situation hardly was one Yi Min would call good.
***
*Slash* *Splatter*
"HOW YOU DARE TO KILL PEOPLE OF THE [GREAT FOREST SECT]?!" With his attendant, a young disciple of the Inner Circle, barely 18 years old, falling to the ground, clearly cut in two by a two-handed saber, Elder Dai Hong forgot about calm and politeness. He roared out as his hands danced around, forming seals, releasing talisman after talisman, sending them against the killer.
*Boom* *Boom* Boom* *Boom*
Explosions resounded, each talisman becoming a several-foot-wide flower of fire.
"Old man, you should have stayed behind a desk, not rushed to the frontline." A whisper was the only thing that Dai Hong would hear before falling to the ground, impaled from behind, his dantian shattered by a qi-covered spear.
*Cough* *Cough*
Coughing blood, convulsing on the ground, feeling how his cultivation started to fade, Dai Hong thought of nothing but that he had failed to inform the Sect of what was happening in time. Dai Hong had sent a message talisman right as Lord Yi felt the first hostile Emperor aura, but it would take several hours, nearly half a day, to reach its destination. Thus, the old elder, ill-fitted for combat but still held in high esteem by the Sectmaster and the High Elders, rushed towards the teleportation formation, intending to either personally or via his attendant quicken the news. But he failed.
Not only was he about to die, but Lou, the young man assigned to help him, and sixteen cultivators of the [Yi Company] had died, all in what would turn out as a futile attempt to defend the only gateway into the island.
Only the Warrior Emperors could have seen through the [Aura Concealing] talismans used by the attackers. And only one of the cultivators in the city, the City Lord Yi Lao, would have been able to save the now-dead 18 men who lay before the stone plate of the formation. After all, what could a group with the strongest cultivator, a 5th level Warrior King, Dai Hong, do against five peak Warrior Kings?!
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One could ask, what were the attackers' motives? Why would a group of powerful cultivators, with resources and training, cultivation and experience, means and treasures, attack [Zihoadao]? A city that not even the [Demon Worshipers Region] powers could find a grudge to bear against?
To know that, one would have to move a few weeks back to an event that greatly influenced the [Great Forest Region], and even the entire Plane, the siege of the [Void Palace].
The border between the regions known as the [Great Forest], [Demon Worshippers], and the [Ten Families] had always been a dangerous land. And this area where forests, mountains, and river-filled steppes converged was known as the [Shihai Wetlands]. For dozens of generations, two families or small clans ruled over them, the [Shi] and the [Hai]. But during the expansion of each region as they came under the rule of their respective overlord, or alliance of such, the [Shihai Wetlands] ended up controlled by one of the [Ten Families], the great [Man Family].
With a mix of protection and providing resources impossible to get for the smaller clans, the [Man Family], over several hundred years, had earned the utmost loyalty of the [Shi] and the [Hai]. And while other families considered it not necessary to spend in smaller clans, taking all the best resources for the main branch and dividing the rest solely among the branch families, the [Man Family] thought differently. After all, the [Shihai Wetlands] was also the place where two of the three land routes into the [Ten Families] region merged, and so it could become a trading spot rivaling [Shoumen].
And while this latter objective was yet to pass, the first and main one, of creating a wall against the two possible hostile regions, at least one for the territories that laid nearby, the ones of their own family, that one had succeeded perfectly. Something recently proved by a sudden invasion by several parties from the [Demon Worshippers] Region, which in their escape from a rampaging [Burning Forest], Ran Shao, the head of the [Southern Forest Sect], crossed half of their own region, and ended up invading, by will or not, the [Shihai Wetlands].
A bloody fight ensued, the [Shi] and [Hai] clans refusing even to speak with the demonic cultivators, who they loathed with all their souls. With losses on both sides, the result was no victory. And yet, it counted as a win for the [Man Family]. After all, the [Demon Worshippers] never entered the [Ten Families] region, all thanks to their vassal.
Still, with dozens of dead and hundreds of injured among the people they swore to protect, the [Man Family] had to react. And the successor of the main branch, Man Long, gathering a force of five Warrior Emperors and fifty Warrior Kings, had done so. Arriving as the [Demon Worshippers] started retreating, Man Long and the cultivators under his command obliterated every remaining demonic cultivator. And not content with that, or maybe intending to prove himself as the right choice to inherit one of the great Families, Man Long decided to raid the enemy region in retaliation.
As it would turn, it was a disastrous decision that would lead to thirty-four deaths, including Man Long's own. And while such heavy losses weren't something to scoff at, the death of the official successor was far a greater problem. After all, Man Long had not left any heirs, at least not in the [Ten Families] region. But, the proof of status, the treasured weapon that would make one be considered a possible candidate, did leave the family's treasury, being sent to...