Chapter 242: Century Impact, Everything is Ready

Very quickly.

An appointment letter bearing the official seal of True Monarch Huanglong flew to the front-line position, and Lu Yuan had a new identity: Demon Patrol Immortal Official.

This position had not existed before and was newly established; its duties were even more focused on patrol and defense affairs in the areas surrounding the Immortal City outside the front line, with a scope that was extremely vague and flexible, leaving people somewhat confused.

This was, of course, done at the instruction of Lu Yuan's Nascent Soul cloning; in this way, he could enter and exit the Immortal City at will, possessing a high degree of freedom, and could go to the Yin Corpse Mountain Range to harvest whenever he lacked experience.

Without a doubt, this appointment caused quite a stir both at the front-line position and within Longshan Immortal City.

At the front-line position, War Hall Master Xing Tianding was incredibly suspicious and uneasy upon learning this news, not understanding why Lu Yuan, whose secret had only just been discovered, would instead gain the trust and recognition of True Monarch Huanglong; for this reason, he even specifically sent a secret message to inquire with True Monarch Liuyun.

And the reply he received was, naturally, that True Monarch Huanglong had already personally verified Lu Yuan's identity, and that there were no issues, and so on.

Seeing the other party, the Huanglong cloning smiled faintly:

It was precisely because of such experiences that both of them had such deep memories of the Century Impact.

"Heavenly Corpse King? Could it be that this group of evil obstacles is planning to launch a general offensive on certain defense lines again? But the last Century Impact was less than a hundred years ago." Above a Four-Tier Heavenly Corpse is a Fifth-Rank Heavenly Corpse King, whose strength level basically corresponds to a titan at the Deity Transformation level.

"Fellow Daoist Wei, what leisure brings you to my Linglong Peak today?"

However, this also caused the heartstrings of the few Immortal Cities closest to Dongyuan to become increasingly tense, fearing that the impact would suddenly launch one day, catching them off guard.

"Then, now only that Guest Monarch Wei Bufan remains; as long as we deceive him, we can sit securely on the fishing platform. I hear this person is a cultivator specializing in body refinement?"

And once they became the target of the Corpse Demons, even with the support of the Immortal Alliance, the fate of Longshan Immortal City would be extremely perilous; being breached and annihilated was by no means impossible.

"Does the Huangpu Family, from which True Monarch Huanglong hails, have any descendants who have come to pay respects to you, their ancestor, recently?"

"Good."

Saying this, he acted as if he were in his own cave dwelling, directly casting the 'Flying Body and Hiding Traces' technique to merge into the void, while the Huanglong cloning followed suit, opening the mountain-protecting array and letting the Liuyun cloning go out personally to lead a tall and imposing figure inside.

"Immortal City Lord Huanglong, something has happened. The reconnaissance cultivators of Dongyuan have discovered signs of frequent abnormal movements by the Corpse Demons, and a large number of Corpse Kings have begun to gather; even Four-Tier Heavenly Corpses are not uncommon!

The reaction within Longshan Immortal City was not as great; although the thousands of cultivators were also very curious as to why Lu Yuan, an outside guest minister, had gained trust so quickly, a Jiedan Late Stage cultivator had sufficient weight, so they were limited to sighs and astonishment, treating it merely as a topic of conversation.

However, it would not matter even if they saw it; Xiao Ruxue and He Zhenyue, these two direct disciples, had failed to notice anything different, so how could those clan elders who revered True Monarch Huanglong as a god possibly discover any clues?

And precisely because this person played a huge role on the front line, Lu Yuan, who himself wanted to refine this person into a cloning, ultimately chose to spare him and did not take action.

The matter of the Array Flags could not be rushed for the moment, and Lu Yuan nodded slightly:

The reason for sealing the news was, naturally, to avoid panic among the people and even the occurrence of desertion.

The cloning and the original body shared the same mind, so the Huanglong cloning naturally knew what Lu Yuan was thinking and immediately said:

"Please rest assured, Original Body, those two disciples have already begun to collect the Array Flag materials with all their might, and I believe they will be gathered very soon."

Lu Yuan then went to Linglong Peak alone for the first time.

The moment Lu Yuan stepped onto the mountain peak, the first thing he felt was the spiritual Qi that was concentrated to the extreme, as if even breathing a single mouthful would cleanse one's soul.

Just like this, under Lu Yuan's secret control, time flew by.

As for the other Nascent Soul in the Immortal City, the Immortal Alliance Guest Monarch Wei Bufan, he had no reaction to this matter at all, as if he did not care in the slightest.

"Let him in; I will just avoid him for a moment."

Xing Tianding was also an old man who had experienced more than one Century Impact; although he was shocked by this, he still remained calm and kept the news sealed, only increasing the intensity of patrols along the defense line.

Wei Bufan, whose figure was as burly as a Giant Spirit God, had a grave expression at this moment, and he got straight to the point as soon as he arrived:

The Juling Array is a common array for gathering spiritual Qi in the Yuanling Heaven cultivation world; although this array cannot create spiritual Qi out of thin air, it can cause spiritual Qi to continuously gather and compress, causing the spiritual Qi concentration, or spiritual pressure, between Heaven and Earth to rise, which has immense benefits for a cultivator's practice and even breakthroughs in cultivation.

After the other party had completely left Linglong Peak.

And the final result was that the defense line was breached by a million-strong Corpse Tide led by several powerful Heavenly Corpses; hundreds of thousands of cultivators lost their lives in that impact, and even the city-protecting array of Heisha Immortal City was eroded and broken by the torrent of corpse Qi that blotted out the sky, causing tens of millions of mortals on the outskirts of the Immortal City to completely fall as blood food, all buried in the mouths of the Corpse Demons.

Now that Linglong Peak could be considered his own station, Lu Yuan did not mind at all and nodded to signal:

Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.

In this way, it is better to let the other party play their due role.

The Huangpu Family has continued for over a thousand years and is a top-tier family in the entire cultivation world; it has produced more than one Nascent Soul True Monarch, and after experiencing glory and decline, it has reached the ninth-generation ancestor in True Monarch Huanglong.

Time flew by.

"That is good."

After returning to the Immortal City.

After all, True Monarch Huanglong's physical body had been completely brought under his control, and Wei Bufan, this Immortal Alliance True Monarch, had also failed to discover the slightest bit; compared to him, Xing Tianding could only be considered a small character who could neither discover the truth nor influence anything.

On one hand, the great cultivators stationed in the Immortal City never participated in the management of the garrisoned Immortal City; on the other hand, a Jiedan Late Stage cultivator was not much of a figure to a great cultivator of this level, so his appointment was naturally not worth caring about.

Therefore, Wei Bufan said in a deep voice:

"Indeed, this person specializes in the path of body refinement; his physical defense is formidable, his physical body is comparable to a Fourth-Rank Spirit Treasure, and he can fight Heavenly Corpses with his bare hands, possessing powerful combat strength."

There were already precedents for similar situations; after learning about the Century Impact in advance, many cultivators on the front line completely gave up resistance and fled in large numbers before the Corpse Tide arrived, causing the defense line to collapse completely without ever playing its due role, which led to the destruction of the Immortal Cities in the rear, with countless cultivators and mortals buried in the mouths of corpses.

True Monarch Huanglong had originally spent great effort collecting materials to refine thirty-six Mending Heaven Array Flags comparable to Third-Rank Spirit Tools; although these Array Flags could be used in the lower realm, to maximize the effectiveness of the Mending Heaven Array, forty-nine Array Flags were required.

And even if they could win every time, the cost of casualties brought by the Century Impact was still extremely great; the foundation and strength of Longshan Immortal City could only be ranked in the middle among the major defensive Immortal Cities, and once it faced the Century Impact directly, it would likely collapse in a single day.

Lu Yuan stepped into True Monarch Huanglong's cave dwelling and nodded:

The Huanglong cloning could not help but reveal a smile:

The Huanglong cloning nodded:

"Preparations should naturally be made, but if a Heavenly Corpse King really leads a Corpse Demon army toward this section of the defense line guarded by Longshan Immortal City, even if we burn like jade and stone together, it will be of no avail. I wonder about the Immortal Alliance side...?"

The defensive battle line currently set up in the Xiyanzhou stretches for hundreds of thousands of miles; the so-called Dongyuan happens to be close to the area where Longshan Immortal City is located, at a distance of only twenty to thirty thousand miles, so theoretically, the Century Impact has the possibility of affecting Longshan Immortal City.

"The Century Impact is just an approximate number; a few years early or a few years late is normal. Now, a trend has faintly appeared in the Longyuan area; regardless of whether it ultimately forms an impact, we must make preparations early."

During this period, everything on the front line remained as usual; although news of abnormal movements of the Dongyuan Corpse Tide occasionally came from other Immortal Cities, a true impact never formed.

This voice was none other than the Guest Monarch arranged by the Immortal Alliance to be stationed in Longshan Immortal City, Wei Bufan.

The Huanglong cloning sighed helplessly:

As for Bai Qianfeng and True Monarch Liuyun, the former was completely terrified by the impact and fled in a panic, while the latter also exhausted all his efforts to carve out a bloody path, nearly suffering a great loss.

Whether it was Bai Qianfeng or True Monarch Liuyun, both of their memories had a deep impression of the Century Impact; it was not that Longshan Immortal City had ever suffered a direct impact, but that both of them had gone to the Heisha Immortal City defense line twenty thousand miles away as reinforcements many years ago to resist the Century Impact.

Today, half of the territory in Xiyanzhou has already fallen, yet the endless Corpse Demons still eye the living spaces of the remaining cultivators and living beings with covetous glares, launching massive offensives every hundred years or so in an attempt to completely break through the defensive lines and sweep across the world; this is what the Immortal Alliance calls the Century Impact.

Before his words were finished, the mist atop Linglong Peak rippled, and then a heavy voice drifted in from afar:

"Immortal City Lord Huanglong, I, Wei, have something to report. Is it convenient for you to see me now?"

There are several large cultivation families within the Immortal City, among which the Huangpu Family, backed by a Nascent Soul ancestor, is undoubtedly the greatest and can be considered the premier family of this Longshan Immortal City.

The news brought by Wei Bufan was not made public in the Immortal City; it was only secretly transmitted by the Liuyun Cloning to War Hall Elder Xing Tianding, requesting him to remain vigilant and to periodically dispatch reconnaissance puppets to monitor the movements in the direction of Dongyuan.

Behind him, the Nascent Soul Cloning and the Liuyun Cloning followed, and the former could not help but smile:

"This is not only because Linglong Peak is situated at the core of the Spirit Pulse, but also because this entire mountain peak has been set up with a superior Spirit Gathering Array, preventing the spiritual Qi escaping from the Spirit Pulse core from dissipating, which has caused the Spiritual Machine environment here to reach the Four-Tier level; not only can it supply True Monarch Huanglong himself for cultivation, but it is also more than enough to supply some of the elders and genius disciples of his family."

The Huanglong Cloning immediately smiled:

"If it were only that, it would be fine, but over half of the reconnaissance cultivators and deployed puppets in Dongyuan have suffered devastating blows, and according to the intelligence sent back by these cultivators and reconnaissance puppets, it is suspected that a Heavenly Corpse King has appeared!"

"I have troubled you, Immortal City Lord Huanglong."

Linglong Peak is the highest peak in the Immortal City, over a thousand zhang tall; this peak and the dojo cave dwelling on the mountain are more than ten times larger than those of Zizhu Peak.

"Since that is the case, I can rest easy. Later on, I will pass the word down to let the cultivators on the front lines be more attentive."

The passage between the two worlds is right within the Immortal City; if the Immortal City falls, the two worlds may never have a day of connection again, and there might even be corpse Qi spreading from here to the lower realm, bringing a terrible catastrophe. Thinking of this, Lu Yuan could not help but knit his brows:

Lu Yuan then said:

Although this Hall Master could not understand even if he racked his brains why True Monarch Huanglong would so easily trust an outsider cultivator, he could not dispute a decision made by a Nascent Soul Great Cultivator and could only accept it.

For this reason, he had to prepare for the worst.

Existences of this level are either evolved from the devouring of extremely special mutated Corpse Demons, or they are transformed from fallen Transformation Spirit cultivators or even Fifth Tier great demon kings eroded by corpse Qi.

The Huanglong Cloning's expression also suddenly turned stern upon hearing this:

"True Monarch Huanglong is the ancestor of a family and long ago issued an order that without special circumstances, the family must not come to Linglong Peak to disturb him at will; therefore, apart from those serving in the Immortal City, I have not yet seen other members of the Huangpu Family."

Just like that, after a few days, Lu Yuan left the front-line station and successfully took up his post; before leaving, he very naturally chose Qin Ruoning as his assistant and took her along.

Wei Bufan nodded and said:

"However, precisely because he specializes in the path of body refinement, he is relatively weak in spells, especially in divine sense, so..."

"It seems the pace must be quickened..."

It is no exaggeration to say that with such a concentration of spiritual Qi, even a pig would inevitably become a spirit or monster given enough time, and even grow into a demon king.

With the serious business concluded, Wei Bufan bowed slightly and immediately took his leave.

"Fellow Daoist Huanglong can rest assured about this; the teleportation arrays in several large Immortal Cities have already been activated. As long as there is danger, the Immortal Alliance cultivators from the inner regions, and even several Transformation Spirit Giants, will arrive to support at the first opportunity; dealing with this Century Impact will be no problem."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan's gaze could not help but flicker:

Every Heavenly Corpse King is not only terrifyingly fierce, but can also command a million-strong Corpse Tide; wherever it passes, the land is scorched for a thousand miles, with absolutely no life remaining.

And during the last Century Impact, there were as many as three Heavenly Corpse Kings leading over ten million troops to assault three different sections of the defensive line, and within a few days, they advanced over a thousand miles and wiped out several Immortal Cities. If it weren't for the timely arrival of several Transformation Spirit Giants of the Immortal Alliance, who spent a huge price to kill one Heavenly Corpse King and heavily injure the other two, the defensive line set up by the Immortal Alliance would likely have collapsed for ten thousand miles.

"As expected of the core of the Spirit Pulse, the concentration of Spiritual Machine here is at least ten times that of Zizhu Peak. I never imagined there would be such a huge difference despite being only a few dozen miles apart."

Not expecting the other party to pay a visit at this time, the Huanglong Cloning's gaze suddenly froze as he looked at Lu Yuan.

In the void, Lu Yuan, who had been listening the whole time without being discovered, revealed his figure and was lost in thought:

"Century Impact? This is far more dangerous than a regular Corpse Tide. Longshan Immortal City shouldn't be so unlucky, right..."

As for Lu Yuan, he was not that nervous; while remaining on guard, he waited silently.

Until one day nearly a year later.

Lu Yuan, who was meditating on Zizhu Peak, suddenly received a message from the Huanglong Cloning:

"The Array Flag has been refined; please, original body, come to Jieyin Peak immediately!"