Chapter 313

Midnight.

The thick clouds drifting in the high sky completely obscured the moon, the vast majority of residents in You Lai City had also fallen asleep, and the streetlights on the roads became the greatest source of light in the night.

"General, have we set out?"

In You Lai Inner City, in a barracks less than four kilometers from Naya Manor, the adjutant asked in a low voice.

The commander of the barracks was General Martin Lisbon.

He was about forty-five or forty-six, tall and sturdy, with dark brown hair, though his temples were slightly frosted.

At this moment, he looked at his adjutant and asked in a low voice, "Is everything ready?"

"Everything is ready; from the operation to the aftermath, all needed supplies have been over-prepared, even enough body bags."

"Lisbon then asked, 'Do the soldiers know their mission?'"

"The soldiers are about to eliminate a batch of councilors corrupted by extradimensional dark demons, and the leader of these fallen councilors is Naya."

"This is all the information the soldiers know; nothing more."

"Lisbon nodded in satisfaction: 'Very well, then let us begin the operation!'"

Over a straight-line distance of four kilometers, more than three thousand elite sky warriors could cross in at most five minutes.

Upon reaching the destination, they would, in less than ten minutes, send Naya's manor and all the stubborn councilors hiding inside down to hell.

Afterward, all corpses would be cleared, all blood washed clean, and even damaged houses would undergo simple repairs.

When the sun rose the next day, everything would be exactly as usual, and light missionaries would appear again on the streets.

The Light Divine Race would occupy the Sky Republic, and any voice opposing the Light Divine Race would be gradually drowned in the god's endless radiance.

At the general's command, the three thousand warriors took up their weapons, left the barracks silently, and began a forced march toward the objective.

They lived up to their elite title; the forced march was swift and silent, like a panther sprinting solely in the dark, not even startling the dogs by the roadside.

The first three kilometers went smoothly.

But, when they approached within the last 1000 meters of Naya Manor, something unexpected appeared.

"Thud-thud-thud~~ thud-thud-thud-thud~~~"

At some point, numerous defensive works appeared on the street, with many troops stationed behind them.

These soldiers' weapons emitted blue fire unlike the Nawat firearms, and their sound was completely different.

The soldiers at the very front, a bit careless, were hit one after another.

They rolled silently to the ground, their movements neat and uniform, like wheat being harvested in a field.

The soldiers behind were startled, immediately retreating into the darkness to hide.

"Conceal~~ Conceal~ Find a place to hide!"

"There's an ambush ahead, the firepower is extremely fierce!"

"Mage, quickly check what's going on!"

After a small commotion, the elite sky warriors quickly steadied their formation, and the scouting mages also figured out the situation ahead.

"Report, Commander, the street ahead is blocked by a force of about a thousand."

"They have sealed off all roads leading to Naya Manor, carrying exceptionally fine firearms; our soldiers' armor provides no protection at all."

The frontline commander immediately contacted General Lisbon in the rear, reporting the abnormal situation.

"Lisbon was slightly surprised, immediately asking: 'Have you figured out whose troops these are?'"

"Figured it out; looking at the unit designation, it should be the city guard of Chiliarch Amonke."

Chiliarch Amonke is not an impressive name; the city guard he commands is far inferior in combat strength to the elite of the inner city, and moreover, their numbers are only one-third of theirs.

"General Lisbon immediately said: 'Take them out!'"

"Yes, General!"

In the night, two forces began fierce firefighting on the streets of Youlai Inner City.

"Boom-boom-boom~~~" is the explosive sound of the Nawat firearms.

"Thud-thud-thud-thud~~~" is the unknown weapon emitting blue fire.

"Rumble-rumble~~ rumble-rumble-rumble~~~" is a kind of flying strange weapon belonging to Chiliarch Amonke's legion, with astonishing power.

"Hum~~ hum~~ hum~~~"

This is the spell of the elite sky combat mages; they are desperately attacking Amonke's soldiers.

The night is very dark, making it hard to see the effects of the spell attacks, but each combat mage faintly feels that the combat spells, which were usually very effective, tonight for some reason seem less effective.

The performance is also quite obvious; they clearly released many attack spells, but the enemy's attack frequency hardly changed at all.

It seems as if they were throwing splendid tricks rather than astonishingly powerful combat spells.

But regardless, the 3-to-1 troop strength temporarily masked the disparity in casualties between the two sides.

Both sides remained fiercely engaged, and for a time, neither could gain the upper hand.

In the void, the Moon Lord Shaer drew slightly closer to the mortal realm to closely observe the troops' battle situation.

After a while, she discovered that the situation was very wrong.

"The casualties of the elite sky warriors are far higher than the enemy's, reaching an astonishing twenty-to-one!"

It takes killing twenty elite sky warriors to kill one Amonke soldier.

One can also see that as casualties increase, the elite sky warriors' combat strength weakens, and the casualty ratio grows ever higher.

Ultimate defeat is merely a matter of time.

Once the Sky Guard is defeated, the Amonke soldiers will retreat to defend Naya Manor, and tonight's raid plan will directly fail.

"Shaer immediately said: 'Light Assassin, now, charge into Naya Manor!'"

Thirty-six Holy Light Disciples transformed into flowing light, taking advantage of the chaos of the two armies' firefight, relying on the power of legendary strong beings, began to forcefully break through the defensive line formed by the Amonke soldiers.

However, Shaer once again underestimated the attack power of the Amonke soldiers.

These guys have astonishing defense, and the blue-flame weapons in their hands have even more astonishing attack power.

The first wave of Holy Light Paladins tried to break through, but immediately suffered three dead and one seriously wounded; the remaining paladins immediately gave up the idea of breaking through.

Full Moon Warrior Adali immediately reported the battle situation to Sha'er.

"Master, the enemy's attacks are too terrifying, they break spells and armor, they are numerous and precise, just the attack intensity alone is above Legendary 5, our defensive artifacts can't block them at all."

If he hadn't retreated quickly just now, he would be the one lying on the ground spurting blood right now.

As his words fell, a sharp whistle suddenly came, a streak of light and shadow flew swiftly toward Adali's hiding place.

Adali had already witnessed the tremendous power of that thing, and immediately shouted: "Dodge quickly!"

He immediately used a Flowing Light Phantom displacement technique, his body turning into a white cold light, quickly moving away from the hiding place.

"Boom—"

A violent shock came from behind, a blast of air mixed with dirt and metal fragments violently struck Adali's back, sending him flying over twenty meters, 'Bang!' he hit a stone wall.

Adali felt excruciating pain in his back, his whole body almost falling apart, but he dared not linger; he immediately rolled and ducked into a narrow side alley.

After taking cover, he immediately checked battle damage and found all his defensive artifacts were ruined; the Radiant Divine Steel Chain Armor he wore was embedded with many sharp metal fragments, some of which had sunk deep into the armor's seams, piercing his skin.

Looking at his previous hiding spot, two of the four Holy Light Paladins died on the spot, the other two were also seriously wounded, spitting blood profusely, likely not to live much longer.

Seeing this, he felt a chill and couldn't help shouting: "Master, the defending forces are simply too strong; we can't fight them!"

Sha'er naturally saw it, watching the Holy Light Paladins she had carefully cultivated being killed by a bunch of foot soldiers.

Her heart also bled, and a fierce fury welled up at the same time.

"We can fight! I'll open the way, you charge from behind!"

At the same time she contacted Judgment Lord Gaofulei: "What are you hesitating for? Come open the way with me!"

"Yes, Sha'er!"

Gaofulei immediately rushed out from his hiding place.

Two Void Gods, one 12th-level Mighty God, one 9th-level God, together approached the tenth law ring of the mortal world.

The two, relying on their immense strength, forcibly deformed the height of the already fragile law ring of the mortal world by squeezing it.

The law ring trembled violently, greatly affecting the souls of mortals.

For a moment, the warriors of both sides fighting in the mortal world had to temporarily cease fire due to the violent trembling of their souls.

"Now's the chance!"

Sha'er shouted loudly.

The master himself personally led the charge, Adali naturally surged forward with effort.

He led the remaining twenty-eight Holy Light Paladins, seized the opportunity to break through the defensive works built by the Amoke Warriors, and rushed at top speed toward Naya Manor over a kilometer away.

At the same time, clusters of hidden darkness surged swiftly, hiding in the shadows cast by the Holy Light Paladins' spell light, soundlessly and as fast as lightning following behind the Holy Light Paladins.

To a Legendary powerhouse, a kilometer's distance is practically right in front of them.

One sprint, and the Holy Light Paladins had already rushed outside the walls of Naya Manor.

Sha'er shouted: "Hurry, seize the time, kill everyone inside the manor!"

Killing these most prestigious, yet hardest-headed parliamentarians of the Sky Republic would leave the republic's determined combat faction without a backbone, allowing it to be split, dismantled, and eliminated one by one.

But just as his words fell, a massive pale-gold protective barrier suddenly rose atop the manor's main building.

This barrier is extremely thick, looking over a meter thick at a glance.

It is also extremely condensed, showing a crystalline luster like solid crystal.

At the same time, a tall adult figure slowly emerged in the yard in front of the manor's main building.

It was Luosen.

And it was just him alone.

He watched the twenty-nine Holy Light Paladins charging into the manor and laughed heartily.

"A bunch of self-proclaimed holy hypocrites finally revealed their demonic nature!"

As soon as Sha'er saw Luosen, she immediately said: "It's him, the Emperor of the Natural Empire!"

"Everyone, kill him at any cost!" Originally thinking the opponent would carefully dodge, so we only took him as a secondary target; but we didn't expect him to charge forward, so naturally we made him the primary target to eliminate.

Because as long as this person is dead, with the strength of the Sky Republic, it's simply no match for the Holy Light Divine Race.

Adali unhesitatingly took the lead in charging.

He is a warrior, his weapons are two curved blades; at this moment the blades swirled with his swift movements, forming a light like moonbeams.

This moonlight followed Adali's charging steps closely, racing at extreme speed toward Luosen.

This strike has a name, "Moon God Gaze", its intensity focused on Legendary 15, and its scale is astonishingly huge.

Not to mention ordinary mortals, even a common Void Demon would die on the spot from this blow.

At the same time, the remaining Holy Light Paladins also took action.

There were ten Moon Holy Paladins, half of them Full Moon Warriors, charging with Adali.

The other half were Moon Mages, who were just summoning moonfire.

There were fifteen Blaze Holy Paladins, basically all mages, who at this time used the single-target Blaze Curse on Luosen.

Lastly, there were four Sun Holy Paladins.

Together they used the spell "Sun's Wrath" on Luosen.

At this moment, every paladin exerted their full strength.

In the void, Sha'er was not idle either; she locked onto Luosen's soul nexus at the eleventh law ring.

She condensed a long-handled Soul Moon Blade and struck down with full force.

Facing this renowned mighty mortal emperor, she dared not hold back any strength.

She also believed that, with everyone's combined attack, not only an ordinary mortal, but even Legendary 14's Atumen would have to retreat.

But in the next instant, Luosen actually severed the link of the magic rings, dodging Shar's attack.

At the same time, he lightly waved his staff, and actually summoned a tremendous mighty force.

From Shar's void perspective, she saw the Holy Light Paladins' power surge like a furious tide, crashing toward Luosen.

But after Luosen waved his hand, this 'furious tide' was like hitting a reef by the sea, and it directly rolled back.

Adali charged the fiercest, and thus he was hit all the harder.

He flew backward in a straight line along the original path, slamming hard into the ground with a 'clatter' that shattered the floor tiles; his momentum did not cease, and he continued to slide backward in the mud.

Thus, his body was like an iron plow, carving a ditch five to six meters long in the mud.

Then he lay motionless in the mud heap, alive or dead unknown.

Looking at the other 28 Holy Light Paladins, they too were flung backward or fainted, with not a single one left standing.

Shar's eyes widened sharply: 'How is this possible!'

All 29 Holy Light Paladins joined forces in an attack; the instantaneous burst was extremely fierce, so much that even she dared not confront it head-on.

Now, this mortal emperor actually repelled them with a casual wave of his hand!

How did he do that? Is he still a mortal?! But Shar had not lost hope yet, for she still had a hidden elite force lurking in the darkness.

But after waiting a second, her hope was shattered.

Because she saw those betraying Holy Paladins of Gefrei.

Nineteen Judgment Holy Paladins, not a single one missing, were all present.

They surrounded the Nature Emperor's body, constructing a magical barrier of astonishing strength.

After a glance, Shar knew that even she would need to exert some effort to shatter it, and it was surely enough to block the Night Knight's attacks.

Perhaps it wouldn't hold for long, but given the terrifying means the Nature Emperor had shown before, as long as he delayed even an instant, the Night Knight would immediately repeat the fate of the Holy Light Paladins.

So, the surprise attack plan had failed! In an instant, Shar felt somewhat lost and dispirited.

But she was ultimately a vast god, and in a moment she regained her composure.

'The opponent's power far exceeds imagination; even the void is not safe—I must leave quickly!'

A strong sense of danger welled up in her heart, with a premonition that if she did not flee immediately, she would be slain by the opponent.

Although she felt great sorrow for the loss of the Holy Light Paladins, she could not even protect herself, let alone rescue them.

She turned and moved away from the Eleven Law Rings.

But as soon as her body moved, she sensed something was wrong.

A strange force was dragging her body.

It felt like diving headfirst into a dense mass of chaotic power.

The forward resistance was enormous, and the faster she went, the greater the resistance she felt.

"What is going on?"

Shar was puzzled for a moment, then immediately understood: 'Oh no, the Eleven Law Rings are about to contract!'

In the mortal realm, the Eleven Law Rings are fragmented and dispersing, so void gods and demons can come and go freely.

But now, I don't know what method Luosen used, yet he actually managed to mend the Eleven Law Rings completely!

Once the rings contract, she will be utterly trapped, and given the opponent's means, she will surely die! Shar surged forward with all her strength toward the high heaven void.

The resistance grew ever greater, and her speed became ever slower.

She could also feel that the void above her was growing increasingly blurry, as if a mass of mist were gathering.

"Ah——"

Shar shouted with all her might, exerting twelve times her strength, and her speed surged forward another notch.

If she kept struggling this fiercely, she might actually break free.

Luosen's heart stirred: 'Gefrei!'

At some point, the Lord of Judgment, Gefrei, had already escaped the Eleven Law Rings, and this time he was in the void outside the rings, watching Shar struggle to escape.

He looked at Shar and shouted, 'Don't panic, I'm here to help you!'

Shar also saw him, and her heart relaxed; the desperate, lone-wolf ferocity faded considerably, and her explosive power weakened as well.

She cried out, 'Help me quickly!'

Gefrei reached out his hand toward her.

Shar felt a surge of joy and reached out to grasp Gefrei's helping hand.

Just as she was about to grab it, Gefrei suddenly swung his arm, dodging her hand and slapping her hard in the face with all his strength; Gefrei's soul scale is less than one-fifteenth of Shar's, so under normal circumstances this strike would be hardly more than a tickle.

But at this moment, most of Shar's power was being used to resist the binding of the Eleven Law Rings, leaving her already at the end of her tether.

Having thought she had gained an ally's help, that desperate fighting spirit dissipated by half, only to receive betrayal instead; this plunged her into the depths.

"Crack—crack—crack—"

The eleventh law ring fully contracted.

"Boom—"

Shar struck the wall of the eleventh ring, causing the wall to emit flickering gloomy light, but she herself was flung back by the immense force, falling from the high heavens like a broken-winged angel.

"Gefrei, you traitor!"

Shar screamed hysterically, wishing she could devour that bastard alive.

Outside the wall of the eleventh ring, Gefrei looked at the trapped Shar, his face showing a most complex expression.

"Shar, I'm sorry, but I have to do this."

"Hahaha—sorry, really sorry, but just thinking that you too have today makes me want to laugh especially."

"Hahahaha, just wait to be tormented by the master, hahahaha—"

Gefrei laughed louder and grew more unhinged.

The mortal realm.

Having successfully captured the Moon Lord Sha'er, Luosen turned his head and stared into the darkness ahead, proclaiming loudly: "Night Knights of Alamanni, I have found you."

"I do not wish to make enemies of the great Night Overlord, yet I am not afraid to do so."

"So, if you wish to fight, then fight!"

"If you wish to retreat, I will also let you leave!"

In the night, clusters of coalescing shadows halted for a moment, then an aged female voice sounded.

"Since you have mastered the great power of the Frozen Ring and are willing to spare my saints, our past grievances shall be completely settled."

With those words, the shadows swiftly withdrew.

After a while, a phase‑shift ripple came from the outskirts of the city.

No more, no less—exactly ten.

The Night Knight squad departed very cleanly.

Luosen let out a quiet sigh, turned his head, and looked toward the Light Saints in the manor garden.

"Scholars, disarm them and capture them all!"

The golden scholars each looked at Luosen with utmost reverence and executed his orders meticulously.

Soon, Luosen had added twenty‑nine legendary prisoners.

He then turned his gaze once more toward Sha'er, trapped within the Eleventh Ring.

Half‑joyful, half‑worried in his heart: "Caught it, but the fish is rather big."

Sha'er, this fish, has an exact soul strength of 12.2, and its soul scale is 15.8 times that of Gao Fulei.

Binding Gao Fulei, Luosen remained relatively composed.

Binding Sha'er, however, proved somewhat arduous; without the aid of the Eternal Heart, he could not manage it.

To him now, this fish in the net is truly massive, with full force.

Killing it is not difficult, but capturing it alive requires effort; if mishandled, the fish's tail could slap his face.

A fish this big being slapped once would not be fun.

(End of chapter)