Chapter 865

The Everlasting Fire Grand Formation! the Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign hidden among Wu Tie's great army sighed heavily.

Entities: Everlasting Fire Grand Formation (technique), Wu Tie, Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign.

The Everlasting Fire Grand Formation! Zhu Ganglie, also hidden in Wu Tie's great army, shuddered as his fatty flesh quivered.

Entities: Everlasting Fire Grand Formation, Wu Tie, Zhu Ganglie.

What do you have to say about this formation? Wu Tie stood beside Feng Xiao, while his three-corpses-three-spirits avatars were stationed in his own main camp. Hearing the sighs of the Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign and Zhu Ganglie, the Canghai Sea Daoist couldn't help but ask curiously.

Entities: Wu Tie, Feng Xiao, Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign, Zhu Ganglie, Canghai Sea Daoist. Also "three-corpses-three-spirits avatars" is not a name.

This formation... is quite elaborate. Zhu Ganglie initially looked worried, then relaxed.

Entities: Zhu Ganglie.

The Everlasting Fire Grand Formation not only protected Sui Du, but also, by utilizing the vast formation bases placed throughout the Sui Dynasty's realm, covered the entire Sui Dynasty.

Entities: Everlasting Fire Grand Formation, Sui Du, Sui Dynasty, formation base.

In every feudal state's capital, every prefecture's prefectural city, every commandery's commandery city, and every county's magistrate's residence, there were formation bases of various sizes, scattered like bonfires of different sizes, densely spread across the Sui Dynasty.

Entities: feudal state, capital, prefecture, prefectural city, commandery, commandery city, county city, county magistrate's residence, formation base, bonfire, Sui Dynasty.

This formation draws upon the beliefs of the Sui Dynasty's countless people, its power nearly boundless. The more concentrated and unified the people's faith, the greater the formation's might becomes.

Entities: Sui Dynasty, people, faith, power, grand formation.

This formation harms none of the Sui Dynasty's people, but any demon or monster from enemy states that steps into the Sui Dynasty's territory has its cultivation at least halved, then suffers constant Sui fire attacks, continually burning its body and destroying its soul.

Entities: Sui Dynasty, people, enemy state, demons and monsters, cultivation, Sui Fire.

The closer one gets to Sui Du, the greater the weakening and the stronger the attacks.

Entities: Sui Du.

The stronger the demon or monster, the more the formation weakens and attacks it. Similar to sovereign-level demons like the Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign and Zhu Ganglie, upon entering Sui Dynasty territory their cultivation is suppressed by ninety percent, and their five viscera and six bowels are seared by Sui fire daily, a power comparable to the frenzied attacks of a peak King God day and night.

Entities: demons and monsters, Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign, Zhu Ganglie, Sovereign-level, Sui Dynasty, cultivation, Sui Fire, King God.

The Canghai Sea Daoist stared in shock at the two great demon sovereigns: "In that case, why are you still mingling in the army and running to Sui Du?"

Entities: Canghai Sea Daoist, Demon Sovereign, Sui Du.

Zhu Ganglie lightly patted his belly, blinked his clever little eyes, and chuckled "hehe": "If you don't go crazy, you don't survive... Actually, these past few days we've entered Sui Du's territory several times, and the suppression and attacks we've faced aren't as heavy as in previous years."

Entities: Zhu Ganglie, Sui Du.

Zhu Ganglie softly said: "I suspect that Feng Rong has been slaughtering everywhere, destroying many of those formation bases."

Entities: Zhu Ganglie, Feng Rong, formation base.

The Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign lowered his voice and muttered: "So, the dead pig head suggests we just give it a try? Indeed, we've followed the great army all the way to beneath Sui Du's city walls—back in the past, if we dared approach Sui Du, the Sui fire blazing over our whole bodies would be visible to ordinary mortals."

Entities: Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign, dead pig head, great army, Sui Du, Sui Fire.

"But we don't feel any pressure now." Zhu Ganglie waved his fist, his eyes flashing as he said: "Old Pig I still have about ninety percent of my strength to exert freely; the attacks I receive inside are only about equivalent to an ordinary person's spirit constantly attacking... Such attacks, to us demon sovereigns, are just a tickle."

Entities: Zhu Ganglie, Demon Sovereign.

The Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign chuckled: "Moreover, the most important aspect of the Everlasting Fire Grand Formation is the formation's core within Sui Du's territory, and the fire seed of the Sui fire controlled by the Human Emperor."

Entities: Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign, Everlasting Fire Grand Formation, Sui Du, formation core, Human Emperor, Sui Fire, fire seed.

"If the formation's core in Sui Du is broken, then this grand formation... is also broken." Zhu Ganglie's tone became uncertain: "As far as Old Pig knows, the Sui Dynasty perhaps has a few half-step sovereign-level old immortals, but they certainly have no true sovereigns."

Entities: Sui Du, formation core, grand formation, Zhu Ganglie, Old Pig, Sui Dynasty, half-step sovereign, old immortals, sovereign.

"In this world, humanity is not allowed to have sovereign-level beings." The Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign said solemnly: "This is the message the Holy Ancestor conveyed to us, clearly stating... humanity will not have sovereign-level beings... If it weren't for this Everlasting Fire Grand Formation, the Sui Dynasty would have long been breached by us."

Entities: humanity, sovereign, Golden Eyed Demon Sovereign, Holy Ancestor, Everlasting Fire Grand Formation, Sui Dynasty.

The gazes of the Canghai Sea Daoist, the Yin Yang Daoist, and the Five Elements Daoist also became flickering and uncertain.

Entities: Canghai Sea Daoist, Yin Yang Daoist, Five Elements Daoist.

The Five Elements Daoist said leisurely: "Old Pig, these past few days on our mountain peak, you just forced Xiahou Wuming to become sworn brothers with you? Our true selves have also been dragged into trouble by you."

Entities: Five Elements Daoist, Old Pig, Xiahou Wuming, true self.

Zhu Ganglie twitched his nose, hesitating as he said: "But Old Pig has some doubts... Could we really have been so lucky to find the person who is the reincarnation of the White Dragon Horse? That seems too coincidental... Moreover, look at Xiahou Wuming's unsightly appearance—could he possibly be the charming, handsome Little White Dragon?"

Entities: Zhu Ganglie, Old Pig, White Dragon Horse, Xiahou Wuming, charming and handsome, Little White Dragon.

"I think Xiahou Wuming might have been a black water snake in his previous life."

Entities: Xiahou Wuming, black water snake.

"Impersonating our little junior brother is a serious offense!" Zhu Ganglie's two large ears flapped up, stirring a gust of wind inside the great tent.

Entities: Zhu Ganglie, little junior brother.

The three Canghai Sea Daoists fell silent.

Entities: Canghai Sea Daoist.

Outside the great tent, Lao Tie, holding a spear and looking around, stood dazed for a moment, then let out a few cold laughs.

Entities: Lao Tie, spear.

In another great tent, Pei Feng, who was processing the piled-up official documents, glanced at the several fist-sized metal spiders lying on the table. She reached out and lightly poked the one whose eyes flashed red, whispering: "Keep a close watch... those wild boars and monkey heads are fine if they behave, but if they don't..."

Entities: Pei Feng, official documents, metal spider, wild boar, monkey head.

The core and most important Everlasting Fire Grand Formation of Sui Du has been broken.

Entities: Sui Du, Everlasting Fire Grand Formation.

This grand formation is not only Sui Du's city defense grand formation, but also the core of the Sui Dynasty's nation-protecting grand formation.

Entities: grand formation, Sui Du, City Defense Grand Formation, Sui Dynasty, Nation-Protecting Grand Formation.

This grand formation

Entities: grand formation (generic), foreign enemy (generic), various monsters and demons from all directions (generic), enemy state (generic).

But today, the Grand Formation of the Eternal Flame, which has been passed down through generations, was finally destroyed from within by its own people.

Entities: the Eternal Flame Grand Formation (generic).

Feng Rong raised the Imperial Jade Seal high in his hand, shouting hoarsely: "Activate the formation… Apart from the Eternal Flame Grand Formation, open all other formations… Let's fight them to the death, fight to the death!"

Entities: Feng Rong, the Imperial Jade Seal (generic), the Eternal Flame Grand Formation, grand formation (generic).

Feng Rong was a little panicked.

Entities: Feng Rong.

The Eternal Flame Grand Formation is his greatest confidence; as long as it remains, even if the enemy outside has hundreds of times more troops surrounding the city, he believes he can easily withstand it.

Entities: the Eternal Flame Grand Formation, outside the city (generic), troops (generic).

But…

Entities: none.

Inside Sui Du, at the strongholds where the foundations of the City Defense Grand Formation were established, the foundations of one grand formation after another collapsed with a deafening crash.

Entities: Sui Du, City Defense Grand Formation bases (generic).

If Xiahou Wuming could order the destruction of the foundations of the Eternal Flame Grand Formation, how could he possibly leave these ordinary City Defense Grand Formations intact?

Entities: Xiahou Wuming, the Eternal Flame Grand Formation, foundations (generic), ordinary City Defense Grand Formation (generic).

Without hesitation, Xiahou Wuming directly dismantled the Sui Dynasty's defense system.

Entities: Xiahou Wuming, Sui Dynasty, city defense system (generic).

Even on the walls of Sui Du, massive runes flared up, then quickly faded and cracked, spewing thick black smoke.

Entities: Sui Du, city wall (generic), runes (generic), black smoke (generic).

One after another, the huge, heavy metal city gates blazed with blinding light; in the next instant, the defensive seals on the gates collided and surged, and a tremendous energy backlash tore apart those heavy gates.

Entities: metal city gate (generic), defensive prohibition (generic), energy backlash (generic).

Before the righteous army poised to attack, the majestic, solemn walls of Sui Du—never breached since the state's founding—crumpled like a child's folded paper, twisting and deforming, then huge cracks split them apart, shattering into pieces amid a shrill tearing sound.

Entities: Righteous Army (generic), Sui Du, founding of the state (generic).

Moreover, some city gates were scorched by terrible heat, turning the metal gates into flowing molten metal that flooded the ground, the heat even burning away the walls and gate towers above the gates.

Entities: city gate (generic), metal city gate (generic), high temperature (generic), molten metal (generic), city wall (generic), gate tower (generic).

Several city gates erupted in flames; gate towers a hundred zhang high blazed fiercely, flames shooting up hundreds of zhang, like frantic torches.

Entities: city gate (generic), gate tower (generic), torch (generic).

Inside Sui Du, countless citizens cried out in alarm.

Entities: Sui Du, inside the city (generic), common folk (generic).

Feng Rong's decree arrived, ordering all civilians to arm themselves and fight the great army outside the city.

Entities: Feng Rong, imperial edict (generic), civilians (generic), outside the city (generic), great army (generic).

Forcing civilians to fight trained troops is already a lunatic order—what's more terrifying is that the soldiers and officials urging them to organize quickly told them they had no weapons, no armor, no crossbows…

Entities: civilians (generic), troops (generic), soldiers (generic), officials (generic), weapons (generic), armor (generic), crossbow (generic).

With no military equipment at all, they forced civilians to organize, grabbing household items like wooden sticks, door bolts, kitchen knives, and fire tongs, to go out and fight the fully armed, elite soldiers outside who were armed to the teeth—a suicidal mission.

Entities: military equipment (generic), civilians (generic), livelihood tools (generic), outside the city (generic), fully armed (generic), armed to the teeth (generic), elite soldiers (generic).

"This isn't a fight to the death—it's sending us to our doom!" bellowed a burly butcher, his voice hoarse with rage.

Entities: butcher (generic).

"If you won't fight to the death, you'll just die!" cried an imperial guard soldier, half‑mad, who flippantly drew his waist sword and cut down the butcher on the spot.

Entities: imperial guard soldier (generic), waist sword (generic).

Similar scenes could be seen everywhere inside Sui Du…

Entities: Sui Du, inside the city (generic).

Feng Rong's orders, the pressure from the righteous army outside, and the negative fallout from the collapse of the defense system made his officials and troops under his command grow somewhat unhinged.

Entities: Feng Rong, outside the city (generic), Righteous Army (generic), city defense system (generic), officials (generic), troops (generic).

"Of course, that's not crazy enough!" Qing Wu whispered, standing beside Wa Qingluan with a soft laugh: "Your Majesty, I have a treasure that can turn every soldier and official in the city into fearless warriors… enough for Your Majesty to sweep away the rebel factions outside."

Entities: Qing Wu, Wa Qingluan, Your Majesty (generic), officials and troops (generic), outside the city (generic), rebel traitors (generic).

Feng Rong has fallen into an extremely strange state of madness.

Entities: Feng Rong.

Or rather, after listening to Wa Qingluan's words and receiving the Divine Emperor's Throne from Feng Zhen, Feng Rong's nature began to change day by day, becoming increasingly twisted, until he was no longer himself.

Entities: Wa Qingluan, Feng Zhen, Divine Emperor's Throne (generic), Feng Rong.

Upon hearing Qing Wu's words, Feng Rong didn't ask for reasons or consider consequences; he simply waved his hand at her and said, "If you have a good plan, go ahead… Remember my promise: if you defeat the rebel army outside, I will enfeoff you as a king."

Entities: Qing Wu, Feng Rong, outside the city (generic), rebel army (generic), enfeoff as king (generic).

Qing Wu laughed brightly, pulling from his sleeve a black crystal ball the size of a human head and tossing it downwards.

Entities: Qing Wu, person‑head sized (generic), black crystal ball (generic).

In the distance, a pillar of light shot up from the Imperial City—the sole transmission formation within the city that had not been destroyed, located in the Qianyuan Hall and guarded day and night by the thirty‑six Qianyuan Divine Generals, making it impossible for outsiders to approach or damage.

Entities: Imperial City, inside the city (generic), light pillar (generic), Transmission Formation (generic), Qianyuan Hall, Qianyuan Divine Generals.

This transmission formation has now become the sole transportation link between Sui Du and the outside world.

Entities: Transmission Formation (generic), Sui Du, outside world (generic), transport channel (generic).

Bai Su Xin led a large group of White Lotus Palace disciples out of the transmission formation, shouting from afar: "How did things come to this? Your Majesty, Your Majesty, how could you be so unprepared? Sui Du has become an empty shell!"

Entities: Bai Su Xin, White Lotus Palace, disciples (generic), Transmission Formation, Your Majesty (generic), Sui Du, empty shell (generic).

Bai Su Xin's heart trembled.

Entities: Bai Su Xin.

Outside the city, a boundless army besieges; inside the city not a weapon nor a grain of rice remains; all the city's defensive grand formations have been destroyed; Sui Du has completely become an empty shell. The army outside is at least a hundred times more than the city's garrison and defense forces...

Heaven pities, Xiahou Wuming constantly sends troop transfer orders outside Xiaomo Cheng, and the Sui Dynasty has already seized half of its mobile forces under his control.

Using half of the Sui Dynasty's mobile forces to besiege Sui Du…… Xiahou Wuming really dares to do this!

"Your Majesty, this battle is surely lost; please, Your Majesty and this old man, flee quickly—we'll go north, east, south…… We'll gather the border troops; surely there will be loyal border armies to serve as royalists, to eradicate rebels for Your Majesty." Bai Suzhen rushed to Feng Rong's side, urging loudly.

Then Bai Suzhen shook her head and said in a deep voice: "Wrong, we can't go east; we can only go north and south."

Bai Suzhen's old face twitched.

Feng Rong just led his great army to East Border, slaughtering dozens of famous noble clans there, leaving heads rolling and both soldiers and civilians shaken. The eastern border armies were already unstable, and now the Eastern Demon Kingdom seized the opportunity to attack, causing dozens of important border defense positions to fall one after another.

If that fugitive Feng Rong runs to the east, isn't it possible that the eastern border army's general will directly lead troops to regicide?

So we can only go north and south!

As Bai Suzhen was speaking, the black crystal ball that Qing Wu had thrown down hit the ground with a heavy thud, shattering with a "crack". Then a dull boom rang out, and an extremely dense black mist erupted from the crystal ball with a "boom", spreading rapidly in all directions.

Bai Suzhen stared, then shouted angrily: "What is this? This thing's wicked energy shoots to the heavens, its yin evil is unmatched—what is this?"

Qing Wu smiled at Bai Suzhen: "Mountain Chief, this is my magic treasure for defeating the enemy and winning!"

Bai Suzhen looked at Qing Wu in astonishment: "Impudent! Even I, the old man, can't turn the situation around, and you're just a mere eunuch……"

Qing Wu narrowed his eyes, his pupils flashing with deep, secluded light: "Chief, what's it to you if I'm a eunuch? The pleasure of a eunuch is something you couldn't imagine…… Heh, want to try? Let me let the Chief also feel a eunuch's pleasure?"

A mere palace eunuch dares to speak this way to the Mountain Chief of the White Lotus Palace, one of the Three Divine Sects Protecting the State of the Sui Dynasty?

Such gross disrespect…… Bai Suzhen couldn't be bothered to look at Qing Wu, instead pointing at Feng Rong and shouting: "Your Majesty, is this how you train your servants?"

Wa Qingluan rolled her eyes and coldly said to Bai Suzhen: "Older brother, this servant is the palace's intimate aide; how to discipline her is not your place to comment."

Bai Suzhen stared, then looked at Wa Qingluan in astonishment.

One's own younger sister actually speaks like this? This, this, this—how in just a few months have Wa Qingluan and Feng Rong become so strange? And the whole Sui Dynasty has become so weird as well.

Black mist spread wildly throughout Sui Du.

Qing Wu murmured: "If there were a Fire Transmission Grand Formation, this 'Dark Soul Essence' would have no effect—the Sui Fire would burn it to nothing…… but this damned grand formation has finally been broken…… Hehe, the Earth Class Yi Five Battlefield will finally become our hunting ground."

The black mist touched the civilians on the street, the soldiers on the street, the bailiffs and clerks sent out by the government offices……

These people's pupils suddenly turned black, jet black, with no other color.

Their gazes became deep and sinister; an inexplicable extreme yin cold spread from within them, they looked up and laughed with a "hiss", and black mist sprayed from their bodies.

Breath, increasing.

Strength, increasing.

Burning blood essence, burning souls, burning lifespans—even an ordinary mortal, in an extremely short time, gains power, speed, and physical strength nearly equal to that of a Life Pond Realm body cultivator.

And cultivators who have trained a little possess the strength of a Life Pond Realm or even a Fetal Storage Realm body cultivator.

Of course, with such mutation, their lifespans are burned out, their flesh and blood are burned out, their souls are burned out……

With a "whoosh", bodies vanished one after another, leaving illusory, faint silhouettes; yet the shadows whose power had increased a hundredfold kept appearing in the black mist.

Black mist enveloped the entire Sui Du; inside Sui Du city, aside from Feng Rong and others floating in the air, nobody had time to react, and nearly everyone died at once.

Only countless black shadows darted swiftly through the black mist.