Chapter 327: Book Eight: The Fall of Lancheng

After assimilating the City-Building Seal, Luo Feng returned to his cave’s meditation chamber and devoted himself entirely to cultivation.

Though he still allocated a fraction of his mind to control the “Great Array of Birth and Death” and dispatched avatars to assist in ambushing infiltrator squads, with the “Hundred Trials Heart Core” now boosting his mental speed by three thousandfold, over ninety-nine percent of his consciousness remained focused on cultivation.

“Fusion of Birth and Death…”

Luo Feng was rapidly refining and perfecting the concept in his mind.

Yet as a fused Dao, it has reached its current realm, its vastness surpassing even ordinary “semi-Primordial-level Daos!” Elevating and integrating it to trigger a qualitative transformation is terrifyingly difficult.

Fortunately, Luo Feng had already reached the threshold of breakthrough, allowing him to attempt using artifacts to surge past his limit within a single day!

“It’s still too hard to perfect it completely within one day! If only I had a few more days, I’d be certain of success.” Luo Feng knew time was critical and pushed himself to improve at the fastest possible pace.

Suddenly—

“Luo Feng, since you assimilated the City-Sealing Seal, Yulan City has lost another fifteen Elders.” The Yuanxiang Hall Master appeared helpless, “The city’s defense system is on the verge of collapse—your array must assist in defending the city.”

“Has it become this severe?” Luo Feng’s heart trembled.

Despite the Elders uniting and Luo Feng’s team systematically eliminating hidden infiltrators, the “Ultra-Limit Mindworms” and five squads of leader true bodies continued to hunt down and kill Elders one by one.

Their mental assassinations naturally obliterated all of each Elder’s incarnations across the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm.

“We must hold back the external army! If we fail, their invasion will mean total annihilation.” The Yuanxiang Hall Master transmitted his message, “Your array must also help repel external attacks.”

“Understood.” Luo Feng knew.

The army must be stopped outside the city—once it breaches the walls, it can instantly kill Elders one after another, causing Yulan City’s defense system to collapse rapidly. At that point, the entire city will be left to slaughter.

“Hum—”

Luo Feng mentally controlled the Array of Creation and Destruction, channeling its power to reinforce the entire city’s defenses.

Luo Feng’s array was equivalent to the combined strength of forty to fifty Elders’ arrays—Yulan City’s defensive pressure instantly eased!

“The Hall Master’s array is now forced to resist the external army.”

“The hidden infiltrator squads inside the city can only be intercepted by the Elders.”

Many Elders appeared helpless.

“Hahaha…” The leader-level infiltrators, seeing the Array of Creation and Destruction fully occupied with external defense, erupted in wild delight.

“All infiltrator squads, regroup and exterminate the Elders!” The King’s command echoed once more.

The originally scattered eighteen elite infiltrator squads rapidly converged. With no array targeting them from above and possessing absolute speed superiority, they felt utterly confident facing the Elders’ ambushes.

They all felt victory drawing ever closer.

“Kill.”

The most ferocious force within Yulan City was the King’s true body.

As an Ultra-Limit entity, the King’s power was terrifyingly immense! With most of Yulan City’s defense system devoted to resisting the external army, nothing could stop this “King”—the city could only attempt to delay him.

As long as the King couldn’t be killed, he could strike repeatedly; his techniques were so advanced that even the Elders’ careful coordinated defenses still left some vulnerable to his attacks.

The King’s efficiency in slaying Elders rivaled that of five leader squads combined.

……

Each leader squad consisted of six leader true bodies working in unison. With all three Hall Masters absent and no powerful arrays launching attacks, no one could threaten these squads.

“Stop!”

One of Luo Feng’s patrol incarnations instantly transformed into a sea of blood, blocking a leader squad.

“It’s Luo Feng.”

“We weren’t targeting him—he came to us.”

“Unite and destroy him.”

These leaders were also annoyed; they had no intention to waste time on Luo Feng, who wasn't even an elder. But unfortunately... Luo Feng transformed into an endless sea of blood, vast in scope, instantly engulfing them.

“Destroy—”

The six leaders each unleashed their mental attacks.

This incarnation of Luo Feng lacked the “Indestructible Heart” and “Palace of the Palm,” but as City Lord, he could still channel Yulan City’s power to protect himself, and had already activated the “Lie Yuan Technique” to shield himself—his understanding of this technique had deepened with his cultivation advancement.

“Boom—”

The six mental assaults, weakened by Yulan City’s power, were forcibly absorbed by Luo Feng.

Luo Feng felt illusions enveloping him, clouding his perception—but thanks to the “Lie Yuan Technique,” he remained “awake,” still clearly remembering who he was!

“Even six Divine Emperor Perfection-level low-level Primordial beings, if they strike together, cannot overcome me.” Luo Feng remained wary.

The sheer intimidation of a Divine Emperor Perfection-level being was this potent.

What of an Ultra-Limit being? The mental assault would be a qualitative leap.

“Get out of my way—”

“Break!”

The six leader true bodies, capable of shifting between real and illusory forms, now fully manifested as solid entities—their combined might, after their mental attacks were blocked, surpassed even the combined power of the Weiyang and Gaibao Hall Masters, instantly shattering the endless sea of blood.

Boom! The six leader squads broke free from the blood sea, uninterested in prolonged conflict, and swiftly departed.

“This Luo Feng must possess a powerful artifact—his mental defenses are extremely strong; his strength ranks among Yulan City’s top ten.” The leaders concluded.

They naturally didn’t know this was merely one ordinary incarnation of Luo Feng.

“These leader true bodies always move in groups of six—they’re truly troublesome.” Luo Feng watched them vanish into distant shadows, “Even if I used the Indestructible Heart and Palace of the Palm to double my power, I could at best match them in a stalemate.”

“If I can’t overcome these leader squads, no other Elder can either.”

Luo Feng could already foresee what would come next.

……

Many Elders sensed it too—but what could they do? They could only watch helplessly as events unfolded.

The number of Elders continued to dwindle; resistance weakened further—even eliminating a single elite infiltrator squad had become nearly impossible for the Elders.

“There are fewer and fewer Elders left.”

Among a large group of elders, the master of Guifang led seventeen elders, including the lord of Changqing Tower.

They gazed upward—the city’s defense arrays had already vanished by fifty to sixty, and the remaining ones struggled desperately to hold back the external army.

"Yulan City could fall at any moment," the master of Guifang gazed upward, "The fighting has seemed endless, yet less than half a day has passed. The reinforcements from the Dark Sacred Realm simply won't arrive in time."

“The only remaining variable is the Hall Master.”

“ Dianzhu ， Zhongjiushizhangwoliangtiaobanhunyuancengcidaodewudaozhe ！ Jibianbeiwuran ， Huoxurengyoupinmingshouduan 。” Guifangzhizhuxinxiang ，“ Ruodianzhunengchuangzaoqiji ， Yulanchenghuoketuoyanzhiyuanjundida 。”

Outside of Yuanxiang Hall Master, there was no hope left in Yulan City.

……

“Yulan City.”

Inside a humble cave outside the city, the Yuanxiang Hall Master looked up, sighing softly: “All the Elders look to me for salvation, but I know—I have no solutions left. Even the Array of Creation and Destruction is now under Luo Feng’s control.”

“I’ve done everything I can.”

“I’m sorry, cultivators of Yulan City,” the Yuanxiang Hall Master sighed.

Boom—

The low-level Primordial life legions from all four directions of the city suddenly erupted in full force! Sensing Yulan City’s defense system on the brink of collapse, they unleashed their maximum power under unified command, regardless of cost.

Even the four “Kings” poured out their full strength.

Instantly, endless attacks overwhelmed Yulan City’s defense arrays, exceeding their limits and shattering them with a colossal rupture—thousands of low-level Primordial beings flooded through the breach almost instantly.

“Hahaha, the city has fallen!”

“The city has fallen!”

Low-level Hunyuan beings surged in frenzied numbers.

As they poured in, Yulan City’s Elders frantically manipulated the arrays, desperately intercepting and slaughtering them—many of these invaders were Divine Emperor Early- and Mid-stage beings, and vast numbers perished under the arrays’ crushing force.

“First, exterminate Yulan City’s Elders!”

“Kill those Elders!”

A colossal Ultra-Limit entity, shaped like a winding mountain range, stormed into the city. With a single command, the thousand Divine Emperor Perfection-level low-level Primordial beings accompanying it surged toward Yulan City’s core, aiming to crush the last resistance.

“Seal off Yulan City! Not a single cultivator is to escape!”

External legions were ordered to enforce the blockade.

“It’s over!”

“Yulan City is finished!”

Each Elder stared at the scene.

Though Elders had incarnations and could face death calmly, they felt the bitter loss of the city they had guarded so long—losing all accumulated resources, and the crushing defeat of impending massacre.

“No—”

“No, this can’t be—”

Hundreds of millions of cultivators within the city, too weak to fight, had watched the battle in tense dread. When the defense collapsed, despair consumed them all.

Over 99% of them were true bodies!

Death meant total annihilation.

“How could Yulan City fall?”

“Where are the three Hall Masters? Why didn’t they stop this?” Many cultivators couldn’t accept it.

Some cultivators gazed up at the terrifying supreme being above and at the countless leader-level entities, yet they laughed: "Ha ha ha! After all my cultivation, even transcending my homeworld and gathering here with billions of powerful beings from countless worlds, I never imagined I'd face such a catastrophe—tens of millions of cultivators marching together toward annihilation... This is the end of my cultivation path."

“My cultivation journey ends here.” Many cultivators accepted death calmly.

From the moment they stepped onto this path, they had prepared to die.

This day had finally come.

……

The city has fallen.

Inside Luo Feng’s cultivation chamber, Di Qing, Di Ming, and Di Fu all looked up.

Di Qing and Di Fu both possessed body duplication techniques, but Di Ming did not.

“I have a life-saving artifact, but under the blockade of the low-level Primordial life legions, I doubt I can escape,” Di Ming gazed at the sky. “I knew the world beyond the Source was dangerous. The day I left the Origin Continent, I prepared for death—only I never expected it to come so soon!”

Di Qing and Di Fu stared at Di Ming.

They were powerless to help.

“Why is Brother Luo Feng still in seclusion?” Di Qing looked toward Luo Feng’s meditation chamber; through faint karmic resonance, he could confirm that one of Luo Feng’s clones remained locked in cultivation, still unemerged.

The city has fallen—and he’s still in seclusion?

…

Inside the meditation chamber.

As City Lord, Luo Feng knew everything happening in Yulan City—he saw the low-level Primordial life legions storming into the city, saw the “slaughter” begin!

“The city has fallen—and I still haven’t broken through!” Luo Feng’s eyes turned bloodshot.

At this moment, his heart was filled with desperate urgency.

“Faster! Faster! Faster!”

“There’s no time left!”

Having consumed the “Hundred Trials Heart Core,” his soul had already endured the agony of near-death trials. But now, under Luo Feng’s fierce will and overwhelming emotion—his desperate craving to comprehend faster—the will poured in, and BOOM—

His soul shuddered violently—and the pain vanished.

Luo Feng felt an extreme sense of ease; his soul’s comprehension and insight now moved far faster than his original “three-thousandfold mental processing speed,” his insight reached an unprecedented peak, and flashes of enlightenment surged endlessly.

In this “mystical” state, Luo Feng’s efficiency in refining the Dao of Birth and Death surged dramatically. Deep within him, he knew instinctively what was right—no trial, no error—rapidly perfecting it.

Only a dozen breaths passed.

“BOOM.”

A completely transformed “Dao of Birth and Death” emerged in Luo Feng’s heart.

“Success! The Dao of Birth and Death at the Divine Emperor’s Late Stage!” Luo Feng’s heart surged with excitement—but instantly, his soul was ripped from that mystical state, and pain far stronger than before spread through his soul.

“It’s not too late,” Luo Feng paid no heed to the pain; his eyes burned with madness.

BOOM!

Luo Feng shot out of his cultivation chamber in an instant!

(End of Chapter)