Chapter 181: The Long Clan

The City Lord's words left everyone silent, their hearts heavy.

Clearly, they had reached the worst moment. The Gu Kings in the city were no longer able to resist Shi Haojun. The only way was to hold on to the death; if they couldn't drag it out until reinforcements arrived, they would die, and no one in the city would survive.

Long Xuan couldn't help but twitch his eyebrows. Good heavens, one meal every two days? They would starve to death. His focus was clearly different from a normal person's.

"Right!" Yan Pojun suddenly thought of something and hurriedly said, "The city-protecting array must be kept on all day to resist the plague, so we need a massive amount of spirit stones to fight this protracted war."

"We will discuss how many spirit stones each clan needs to pay later. For now, go and invite Qian Jinjin over."

The Qian Clan Merchant Association had just held a large-scale auction that shocked the Western Lands, earning a fortune. If there was one place in the city with the most spirit stones, it had to be the Qian Clan Merchant Association.

The auction of the living wood alone had fetched 40.1 billion spirit stones. This amount of spirit stones was enough for Black Stone City to hold out for a very, very long time.

And this money must still be in the hands of the Qian Clan Merchant Association; Shi Haojun couldn't have taken it.

Setting aside other wealth, he could openly take these 40.1 billion spirit stones now, and no one would say anything.

So he immediately thought of ordering someone to invite Qian Jinjin.

However, someone immediately showed a strange expression, slowly raised their hand, and said: "Reporting to the City Lord, she seemed to have smelled that Black Stone City was about to face a crisis, so as soon as the auction ended, she couldn't wait to roll up the money and run."

"Before leaving, she took all the wealth and goods, and many Qian Clan shops have closed. She is no longer in the city."

"What? She ran???" Yan Pojun's voice suddenly rose, his head full of question marks.

"She is truly cunning!" Yan Pojun felt an urge to vomit blood.

But he quickly calmed down. Even without the Qian Clan Merchant Association, the spirit stones in the city should hold out for a long time.

After all, the Qian Clan Merchant Association had just held a large-scale auction, attracting a large number of Gu Kings. Every Gu King carried a massive amount of spirit stones to attend the auction, and many Gu Kings hadn't even had time to leave yet.

For example, that Cai Xuan; he had at least 40 billion spirit stones on him; he had said so himself at the auction.

Yan Pojun suddenly swept a glance at Cai Xuan with his peripheral vision.

Cai Xuan's scalp suddenly went numb. He finally thought of something, and his expression turned bitter.

He really wanted to slap himself hard. Why did he stupidly come in? Why didn't he leave early?

He had to come righteously to eliminate demons, and now it was good; he was completely trapped here, and the spirit stones on him were about to be gone.

Black Stone City was now an isolated city, a dead city, cut off from water and food. The surrounding cities should have been wiped out, with no one coming to help. He was likely to be trapped here and die.

Looking at his own injuries and the loss of several top-grade Gu worms, Cai Xuan showed a miserable smile. Why bother?

Why didn't he leave early?

He regretted it. His intestines were truly turning green with regret.

Yan Pojun's demonic voice continued: "We must not only save water and food but also spirit stones. From today on, no one is to cultivate by absorbing the spiritual power of spirit stones. Those who disobey will be executed."

"The city-protecting great array must also turn off some unnecessary functions. The barrier will only be opened once during the day and twice at night to save spirit stone consumption to the maximum extent."

"Now everyone go to the city walls, turn off the two barriers outside the city, and clear all the plague corpses under the city walls. Do not let the plague corpses increase the consumption of spirit stones."

Following the City Lord's orders, the whole city took action again.

All Gu Kings, after being checked several times by the alchemists of the Dan and Yao clans and confirmed not to be carrying the plague, all ran to the city walls.

As soon as the two barriers outside the city walls were turned off, a large number of zombies instantly surged to the bottom of the city walls.

But they were met with attacks of various fireballs, lightning, and wind blades.

The last barrier on the city walls was clearly one-way; attacks from inside the city could pass through the barrier to attack enemies outside.

But attacks from outside the city walls could not penetrate the barrier and would be completely blocked.

Only I can hit you, but you cannot hit me.

Under such a defensive mode, it was extremely difficult to breach this sturdy city. Black Stone City was known as the sturdiest city in the Western Lands and had never been captured since ancient times; this was no joke.

Large swaths of plague corpses had actually already been burned by Yan Pojun's sea of fire, and not many survivors remained.

Not long after, the zombie horde under the city was completely wiped out.

With no plague corpses consuming the energy of the city-protecting great array, everyone felt much more at ease and slowly walked down from the city walls, returning to the city.

And Shi Haojun just watched quietly. Seeing that the people in the city had set up a posture to hold on to the death, the corners of his mouth curled up.

If they thought he only had this many plague corpses, they were truly mistaken.

He wanted to see how long the spirit stones in the city could last under the siege of his zombie horde.

Long Family Residence.

A Long Clan Ancestor at the Gu King realm had fallen in this great battle. Now, the Long family was shrouded in gloom, and all Long Clan members looked sad and low-spirited.

White silk was hung everywhere in the Long family, and the whole clan held a funeral ceremony for this ancestor.

A sorrowful atmosphere enveloped the entire Long Clan residence, and in some places, sounds of crying could be heard.

Not just the Long Clan; all ten clans in the city had Gu Kings fall in this battle, and all clans suffered heavy losses.

At this moment, the entire city was filled with a sorrowful atmosphere, and white silk was hung on buildings in large swaths.

On this day, no one knew how many big figures had fallen in the city, and the whole city mourned.

Long Yuan held a massive skeleton in his hands and sighed heavily.

He had also been seriously injured in this battle and had lost a top-grade outer Gu.

With small insects everywhere in the air, releasing an outer Gu was certain death. The mutation domain implicitly possessed the ability to forbid opponents from using outer Gu.

But there was no other way at the time; he only had this fire dragon Gu to escape the disaster. In the end, he could only sacrifice the fire dragon Gu in exchange for a chance to survive.

The fire dragon Gu was the first Gu worm he had refined in his Gu cultivation career, and he had deep feelings for it; he had long regarded it as an old friend.

The loss of the fire dragon Gu made him heartbroken, and he kept blaming himself.

"Sigh! Old friend! Go in peace. My old bones don't have much lifespan left; I will soon go down to accompany you."

Long Yuan's eyes turned red. After placing the fire dragon Gu, which had been burned down to just a skeleton, into a small coffin, he waved his hand and had people carry it away for burial.

"Ancestor, please grieve in moderation." Long Yuanshan comforted him from behind.

"I'm fine. All clans suffered heavy losses in this battle. Our clan can be considered to have suffered small losses."

"Sigh! I had already overestimated the power of the plague demon Gu, but I didn't expect to have underestimated it by so much in the end. My and the City Lord's misjudgment of the plague demon Gu's power led to our heavy losses!" Long Yuan sighed.

"This matter is no one's fault. No one could have imagined how strong the power of a forbidden Gu would be. This is not anyone's responsibility. On the contrary, we have merit. If we hadn't detected Shi Haojun's conspiracy in advance, Black Stone City would likely have fallen by now." Long Yuanshan said in persuasion.

Long Yuan nodded. This sentence indeed made him feel much more comforted. He turned his head and said: "Tonight, take the clan's geniuses to the Far West Long Clan to take refuge."

"All the wealth and classics of the clan must be secretly transported over at night. No one must discover it."

"The matter of the space hut involves interests that are too massive. We have been hiding it, and not many people in the clan know about it, and no one from outside the clan knows."

"Once the matter of the space hut is exposed, the clan will definitely fall into chaos. In the face of death, everyone will scramble to rush into the space hut to escape. Then the trouble will be big."

"Most people certainly cannot be transferred. Once a large group of people from my Long Clan suddenly disappears into thin air, the various clans in the city will definitely notice something wrong."

"We important figures who often show our faces must never leave. We can only wait until Black Stone City is about to break, and then take as many as we can."

"In short, the secret of the space hut must be well hidden. The fewer people who know, the better. That terrifying Shi Haojun can hear other people's inner voices. The more people who know this secret, the easier it is to bring a disaster of extermination to the Far West Long Clan. Then the geniuses we left there will all be finished."

Long Yuan looked at Long Yuanshan solemnly, his face full of seriousness. Long Yuanshan nodded heavily. How could he not know the seriousness of this matter?

"Rest assured, Ancestor. The matter of the space hut will never be leaked. All those who know this news are the first batch of people who must leave."

"Even Long Qian, for the sake of safety, cannot be left here. Moreover, with his attainments in array formation, it would be a pity for him to fall here. His survival is the greatest help to the family." Long Yuanshan said confidently.

"Hmm! I am at ease leaving things to you. You go and transfer the family wealth now. I am going to the City Lord's Mansion for a meeting. It might be to discuss how many spirit stones each clan needs to hand over. Don't transfer the spirit stones away; there are plenty of those outside. Don't be stingy at this time."

After Long Yuan handed over the matters here to Long Yuanshan, he hurriedly walked toward the City Lord's Mansion.

Also rushing to the City Lord's Mansion were the ancestors with the highest authority from each clan. They were all the ancestors with the highest realm and strongest combat power in their respective clans.

The heads of each clan did not even have the qualifications to attend this meeting.

However, those attending this meeting were the highest helmsmen of each clan in the city, but the Gu Kings outside the city were excluded. No one knew what this ruthless City Lord Yan was planning again.

After a while, inside the City Lord's Mansion, the ancestors with the highest authority from each clan gathered together.

In the conference room, besides City Lord Yan Pojun, ten people were present, each at the late Gu King realm.

Yan Pojun needed to maintain neutrality on the surface, so the Yan Clan also had an ancestor at the late Gu King realm present.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat heavy. For a long time, no one spoke, and everyone had not yet walked out of the sorrowful mood.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 182 =====