Chapter 246: 239 Army at the City Gates

The night was drawing to a close; a sliver of sunlight slanted onto the skull, making the stark white bone seem to carry a hint of blood-red.

Yes, a skull.

A great army had arrived at the city walls, and a dense, tangled sea of skeletons lay before them. It was a spectacle that would make an ordinary person lose their nerve just by looking at it.

Mai Shiyu had never been to the Qianxian and had never seen armies pitted against each other, so she could not easily estimate the size of the sea of people. After a quick scan, she thought: Is there ten thousand? There shouldn't be several tens of thousands.

The quality of the skeletons was uneven, making them hard to estimate; some had all four limbs, while others were broken and dilapidated. The formation could barely be called orderly, and among them, massive Fierce Beasts exhaling black smoke anchored the formation and obscured the ranks. It was truly impossible to count, but a guess of ten or twenty thousand was likely not far off.

Despite such a spectacular sight, Mai Shiyu was actually relieved—this number was even smaller than she had imagined.

Back then, the Ancient Battlefield had buried tens of thousands of people at once; if one gathered a few mass graves, one could probably scrape together a hundred thousand, but the enemies attacking now were not that many.

Perhaps what truly limited the size of the skeleton army was not the supply of bones, but the ability of the Phantoms, or rather, the Spirit Officials.

Spirit Officials were not common goods; back in the day, they were a minority within the Great Wei Spirit Official System, and after so many years of hunting them down, there could not be many powerful Spirit Officials left. Perhaps there was only one in front of them.

For one Spirit Official to mobilize ten thousand skeletons was already extremely powerful; this person's strength was likely not inferior to a Sword Guest.

But from another perspective, since it was a numbers game, the quality could not be high; this was a universal truth. If all these skeletons had the strength of a Knight-Errant—no, even a Strongman—and were truly comparable to an elite army, then the Spirit Official would not be a mere Sword Guest; they would likely be stronger than a Sword Hero, approaching a Sword Immortal.

However, the upper limit of a Spirit Official was not that high. A Spirit Official's Mental Power could only be benchmarked against Qi, which was not as high-quality as Sword Essence. Therefore, their ability had its limits; divided into ten thousand parts, these skeletons probably only served as cannon fodder.

Mai Shiyu scanned the skeletons in the front row, then fixed her gaze on a few large skeletons that were intact and exceptionally tall, appearing to have the air of commanding officers. After evaluating them in her heart, she looked up again.

Behind the skeleton army, in the clear dawn, several massive black shadows stood like mountains. Those were the Fierce Beasts, each wreathed in black Qi. It was almost impossible to tell what kind of beasts they were, only vaguely discerning various sharp fangs, pointed claws, and ugly long snouts.

"Those general skeletons look formidable, but the power attached to them is limited; they are likely just a distraction. What we really need to watch out for are those Fierce Beasts. Do you see how much Yin Qi is wrapped around their bodies? This isn't just pollution; it's been specially reinforced. Behind the Spirit Official, there is at least one powerful Beast Spirit Official."

Mai Shiyu observed the battlefield and explained her judgment to Jiang Shenyi.

"Watch, the first wave to charge will definitely be these ordinary skeletons. Just like those barbarian thugs driving captured civilians to swarm the city, it's purely to exhaust our reserves. If you waste your big moves on them, you'll fall for their trap."

Jiang Shenyi nodded. Mai Shiyu was a half-baked expert, but he was a complete novice, so it was better to listen to her guidance. He said thoughtfully, "Makes sense... but swarming the city? Can these skeletons perform such high-difficulty maneuvers? They don't seem to have brought ropes or ladders; wouldn't they just get stuck under the wall? Or are they planning to push the wall over with their weight?"

Mai Shiyu was confused for a moment, then she reacted and said, "Those skeletons might be here to trigger traps. You know our battle isn't some ordinary war, but one involving Sword Guests, Spirit Officials, and Talisman Sword Masters. We might have set up layers of obstacles under the city, like your Thunder Symbol or my Falling Red Killing Array; wouldn't they be triggered once they step on them? Just by stepping on a few rounds of traps, they can neutralize our home-field advantage. These cannon fodder won't have died in vain."

At this point, Mai Shiyu sneered and said, "They wish. My Falling Red Killing Array can only be activated if I trigger it; what use is it for ordinary skeletons to step on it? Your Thunder Symbol is the same, right?"

Jiang Shenyi said, "No. It's passively triggered; it explodes as soon as it's stepped on."

Mai Shiyu:...

"Forget it, it's better to strike first."

Seeing the skeleton army approaching the front lines and about to step into Jiang Shenyi's Fu Array, the army suddenly stopped.

When they stopped, the entire force stopped. Although the formation was not orderly, the skeleton army's ability to obey orders was already comparable to an elite iron army.

The ranks parted, and an ugly giant beast crawled out. The beast had a shell on its back, its body was gray and slimy, and two limp antennae dragged on the ground; it looked like a snail. The only difference was that it had an extra mouthful of fangs compared to an ordinary snail.

Mai Shiyu couldn't bother to mock, "The turtle bandits only have a snail now; do they think anything with a shell is a turtle?", instead, she stared fixedly at the person on the snail's back.

There were two people on the snail's back, one sitting and one standing. The one sitting was an old man with white hair and beard, and the one standing was a stunningly beautiful woman whose features looked meticulously carved, without a single flaw. She was wrapping her hands around the old man's head, and the old man had his eyes closed, appearing to have lost consciousness.

Mai Shiyu could no longer hold back and shouted, "Town Guardian—"

"Bang!"

A sudden iron fist slammed into the chains; the chains vibrated incessantly and nearly snapped.

Not good!

Is it a surprise attack by a Heavenly Demon from the Empty-Type Demon Cave?!

Tang Zhao was startled and immediately activated the Rune Formula, tightening the chains.

The original seven chains thickened simultaneously, and seven more chains emerged from the jade, wrapping around the space once again. The seal immediately tightened, as if the gaps had been sealed with weatherstripping.

Bang—bang!

The fists struck the chains one after another; although the chains still vibrated, they were no longer as precarious as before.

"Come on, keep hitting. There's more where that came from. Let's see how many chains you can shake?"

There were forty-nine chains hidden in this Star Stone; they could be released all at once or in groups of seven. Once all forty-nine were released, the Star Stone would be completely ruined.

Although this Law Array was non-renewable, since it was a gift, it counted as free, so Tang Zhao didn't cherish it that much. He brandished the chains one by one; if the Heavenly Demon inside still had strength, then pressing down with all forty-nine chains at once would be fine too.

In any case, at this critical moment, the Heavenly Demon must not be allowed to come out.

The Heavenly Demon threw dozens of punches, but the momentum grew weaker and weaker, and then it stopped.

Suddenly, two large hands emerged, inserted into the gaps of the chains, grabbed the chain links, and pried outward, as if trying to widen the gaps to crawl out!

Tang Zhao raised an eyebrow; this time, he clearly saw ten fingers!

The fingers were thick, two sizes thicker than his own, but the knuckles and nails clearly looked like human hands. Moreover, the action of prying the chains showed that the opponent, despite its rage, still had reason. It knew this action was labor-saving, and its fingers were flexible, capable of performing actions like a human.

It wasn't that he was making a fuss; it was that he had only seen one Heavenly Demon, which was that flood dragon. That dragon-shaped Heavenly Demon was powerful, but it didn't seem very intelligent, possessing at most some spiritual sense; in battle, it relied only on instinct and brute force, no different from a cunning beast.

If that Heavenly Demon had been willing to think like a human back then, Xing Ji and Tang Zhao might have been done for.

So, was this Heavenly Demon a different breed?

As Tang Zhao thought this, he couldn't help but look at those hands again. Sure enough, because of the excessive force used to pry the chains, the veins on the back of the hands bulged, and the direction of the veins looked like human meridians. Looking at the details, the finger joints were thick, the knuckles had faint calluses, and there was slight body hair; it looked like a burly, strong man who had practiced martial arts.

A thought struck him: he had long heard that Phantoms were Spirit Officials from another world, and Heavenly Demons were the natives of another world. Was this seeing a Heavenly Demon human? What were the humanoid races of the other world called, Heavenly Demon humans?

This Heavenly Demon human was truly manic; the flood dragon hadn't been that manic before, only going mad after being hit. Looking at him, it was as if he were being chased by wolves and was desperate to escape from the Demon Cave.

However, reaching his hand into another world and just using brute force—was that really okay?

Tang Zhao had an idea, and two more chains flew out, wrapping around those hands. The hands felt the restraint and immediately reached back to grab, but two more chains wrapped in the opposite direction, tightening around its fingers and then its wrists. Four chains pulled tight simultaneously, shackling the hands to the chain railing.

This time, it was truly unable to move a muscle!

This was still Tang Zhao showing mercy in an instant; otherwise, if he had tightened them further when they first wrapped around, it would have been no different from a torture device, letting the Heavenly Demon taste the pain of fingers connected to the heart!

Fixing the hands to the chains, Tang Zhao felt slightly more at ease. His gaze passed through the blurry space entrance, wanting to see the appearance of this Heavenly Demon.

The space exit was like frosted glass; light distorted as it passed through, making it impossible to see the specific scenery on the other side clearly. But he could vaguely see that the Heavenly Demon was tall, yet only about the height of a person, barely taller than the space exit. Its hands were locked to the railing, and it seemed to be struggling and roaring, but not a sound could pass through.

With this guy's ability, once locked up, it couldn't escape!

Tang Zhao confirmed that the situation was under control. His focus gradually shifted to outside the city, and he heard the rumbling sound rising; it seemed that thousands of troops and horses had arrived outside. He reached back and pulled out Gui Ye.

"Oh oh... what is this?" As soon as Gui Ye saw the tug-of-war scene at the space barrier, he first shrank his head and said, "Where did you find this demon?"

Tang Zhao said hurriedly, "Gui Ye, I am entrusting a task to you. A great enemy is attacking outside the city now, but I am forced to watch over the Demon Cave here and cannot divide my attention. This will not do. You take this Concentric Jade, and we will be able to communicate, then you will..."

Gui Ye exclaimed in shock, "You want to go to the front to provide support, and leave me in the back to watch this ghost of a thing to prevent it from coming out? Aren't you overestimating me a bit too much?"

Gui Ye had many merits, but they certainly did not include outstanding combat power. To let it watch this Heavenly Demon alone—if the Heavenly Demon remained unable to move, that would be fine, but if a real problem arose, Gui Ye's old life would likely not be enough for those hands to snap.

Tang Zhao naturally knew its capabilities, and said, "It is exactly the opposite; I want you to go outside the city to watch for the right moment for me! I will stay here, and I can still kill the enemy at the front just the same!"