Chapter 2209.2: Golden Immortal

A silver shadow flashed through the air as soon as the young man gave the word.

“Was that… Senior Terra Demon?” Delight colored Situ Wenxian’s eyes when he saw the ray of argent brilliance.

Terra Demon had recovered long ago, but Lu Yun held him in reserve and bade him stand guard on the side. The young man vaguely sensed the existence of a terrifying personage within the Dark Orchid army. He remained unmoving so long as the other did so.

But since those of Profound Wing Empire were attacking them, Lu Yun had no choice but to send out Terra Demon.

“Mmhm.” The young man nodded. While he respected the Darklake emperor, it was the respect he would naturally hold for someone older. He didn’t think much of the man’s identity of emperor. “I’m probably the reason for the attackers at the eastern gate, so I’ll take care of that.

“Mengqian, you don’t need to participate in this battle. Return to the residence and focus on your cultivation.” His disciple’s cultivation was not yet stable since she’d just broken through to initial combination.

“Understood.” Kong Mengqian wasn’t the sort to indulge in her temper. She immediately returned to the Lu residence when she heard her master’s words as she indeed wasn’t suited to fight others at the moment.

“Be careful, Yun’er!” Lu Xiaochi solemnly cautioned. This war would decide the fate of the Lu Clan and the entire Darklake Empire. At his current cultivation level, he did not have the qualifications to be involved either.

Any Lu family member would immediately become everyone’s target as soon as they showed themselves. Lu Xiaochi was merely peak latter nascent soul—not even a grain of sand to the million strong army.

Thus, he held down the fort and kept the army’s movements in sight. That was his area of strength.

“Don’t worry, second uncle.” Lu Yun smiled at the man before vanishing on the spot.

……

The eastern gate of Dark City.

An enormous army of five hundred thousand cultivators was gathered in front of it. They were very different from the one at the western gate as they were all stocky, heavyset, and oddly shaped. All of them rode a powerful spirit beast as their steed.

The weakest among them was soul separation, making them several times stronger than Lu Tianling’s Azure Dragons.

Monster spirits.

The army assembled at Dark City’s eastern gate was the most terrifying army of monster spirits in Jade Ruins Realm. Monster spirit auras soared to the heavens and tinged the ambient qi within five hundred kilometers with an eerie air.

“You’ve got some nerve, monster spirits of the Barren Mountains. You actually dare come to my front door.” A limber young man in white suddenly appeared on the eastern city gates. A cold light glinted in his handsome features as he looked down over the attackers.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“It’s you!” Bi Chen brightened at the sight of Lu Yun. “We will withdraw as soon as you hand over the item.”

Lu Yun curled his lip contemptuously.

“Hoi hoi, so it’s the venerated empyrean immortal. Long time no see, sir.” He chortled when he saw Empyrean Immortal Jadecliff among the monster spirit army.

“Lu Yun, disaster is at hand for Darklake Empire. You would be better served opening the city gates to let us in. That will avoid plunging the land into misery. I can also say a few words for you in front of my lord—that may spare some of the Lus. Now wouldn’t that be the best outcome?” Jadecliff’s eyes twitched before he broke into an awkward smile.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Lu Yun sniffed. “It looks like after today, there will be only two left of the three great forbidden zones in Jade Ruins Realm.”

Bi Chen’s face darkened.

“Attack the city!” Although he was only an awakened cultivator, he possessed the battle strength of an empyrean immortal. There were numerous empyrean immortals within the monster spirit army as well—gathered by Jadecliff.

Apart from them, there were nearly one hundred monster spirit wandering immortals among their ranks. Their auras were expansive and imposing, not the least bit inferior to empyrean immortals. They were the true trump cards of the Barren Mountains.

There were no representatives from the Origin Sect among them. The monster spirit army surged as soon as Bi Chen gave the order and flung multicolored attacks at the city gates.

BOOM!

Dark City’s boundary shuddered intensely once again.

“So the mountains do actually amount to something after several hundred thousand years in the realm.” Lu Yun waved the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth into his hand. “I’ll have to trouble you this time, little guy.”

He flicked the cauldron and awakened the resting Hadal Bird. It was peak august immortal when it broke free of the gourd’s confinement and was starting to feel around the barrier of divine immortal. After ten days of nurturing from the Nineheavens Brahman Formation, it could be regarded as a half step divine immortal.

Being a Hadal Fire Spirit and half step divine, it could fully hold its own against aether immortals. Once it fully came into its power, it would dominate aether immortals.

Aouu!

Excitement flashed through its eyes when it received Lu Yun’s message. It threw its head back with a long croon and manifested in the sky with the full three hundred meters of its flaming glory.

“What, what is that?” A tongue-tied Jadecliff stared at the fiery bird in the sky.

“It seems… to be spirit of a fire of heaven and earth…” murmured an empyrean immortal next to him.

Whoosh!

Jadecliff was already gone.

For someone as famously cowardly as him, he wouldn’t stay a single second after seeing that his opponent was a Hadal Fire Spirit that was almost divine. He fled without another word. Unease ruffled the monster spirit army in his wake.

“Split up and run!” Bi Chen ordered without any hesitation. He himself shifted as well, ready to retreat.

Whoosh!

An immense sea of black flames was already upon them, turning everything within five hundred kilometers of the eastern gate into a sea of fire. Countless flame sparrows danced in the sea and swallowed everything they encountered.

The five hundred thousand strong army of the Barren Mountains monster spirits was swiftly reduced to cinders. Many of the wandering immortals and empyrean immortals that Jadecliff had recruited also perished.

“Don’t give chase!” Lu Yun quickly called out to the sea of fiery sparrows after it swallowed most of the enemy after a dozen breaths. The Hadal Bird was one of his aces at his current stage. Dark City remained under siege, so the bird needed to stay.

Casting an dissatisfied glance at the escaping monster spirits, the Hadal Bird reduced another few hundred of them to ashes before reluctantly flying back to the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth.

Lu Yun took a deep look at the direction that Bi Chen had run in before returning to the city’s northern gate. Terra Demon was already back at his post. His cultivation was combination stage after baptism in Dao Comprehension Tea and taking the Shennong Life Restoring Pill. He was even a bit stronger than Mu Ge. It’d taken just a few moments for him to smack the Profound Wing army—helmed by a true immortal and a few empyrean immortals—out of existence.

Terra Demon differed from Mu Ge in that he truly possessed his body. His immortal king nascent spirit was damaged and limited by his physical body. Lu Yun’s pill healed most of his nascent soul’s injuries, but he was still curtailed by a fragile body.

The pill that Lu Yun refined wasn’t the true Shennong Life Restoring Pill, the young man’s cultivation was too weak for that.

As for Mu Ge, she must have suffered indelible injuries to her nascent spirit and body a very long time ago. She was essentially reborn after all of his efforts.

……

The two armies had mostly retreated from the northern gate. There were roughly two hundred thousand left of Dark Orchid’s and less than one hundred thousand Azure Dragons. Although Dark Orchid consisted primarily of golden core and nascent soul cultivators, there were still a few powerhouses hidden within.

Lu Tianling was covered with wounds as he stood in the air over the northern gate. He’d nailed one of the four august immortals to death. Bathed in divine fire, flames burned in his eyes. The halberd’s connection to him had grown increasingly stronger and he was utilizing it to his maximum capabilities.

However, Lu Yun could tell that troubles would result from how forcefully his grandfather deployed the weapon. It might recoil on the wielder at anytime.

A new army of less than ten thousand stood in the air beyond the northern gate. Their auras were inexplicably wondrous, as if they were one with the world. Red immortal light washed the city with red brilliance.

Empyrean immortal.

This was an army made of empyrean immortals.

“Enough of this nonsense, Lu Tianling, you’ve brought out all of your trump cards. Come quietly with us—you are our only target.” A figure in gold led the army of empyrean immortals. No one could make out his features through a haze of golden splendor.

Golden immortal.

Their leader was a golden immortal!

“Lu Tianling is taken from the battlefield only as a corpse, not a captive!” The Lu patriarch leveled his halberd at the golden immortal.

“Do you think nothing of the hundred million citizens of Darklake Empire and care only about your own interests?” the golden immortal replied calmly.