Chapter 250: 243 The Youth Finally Returns

High in the sky, Tang Zhao was currently dealing with the Demon Cave exit.

The sound was like the wind; one could not tell where it began, nor where it would end. The sound of the bell was even more like a storm, sweeping across all directions.

Ordinary people cannot catch the traces of the wind.

But a Sword Smith can.

Tang Zhao was not yet a Sword Smith, but he had already begun to use the Sword Casting Art to deal with this world.

For example, using the Sword Casting Art as a tool, he used "wind" to wrap around the "empty," and then folded it up.

Tang Zhao had originally thought this would be a very difficult task, but when it came down to it, it did not seem that hard. The key points were merely using Mental Power and the Sword Casting Art for fine control, and then it was just a matter of building with blocks.

This space that had just descended was extremely unstable, so the sound of the bell was unexpectedly suitable as a "wrapping cloth." The vibration of the sound could internally digest that kind of spatial fluctuation. And the wind could be used to "fold" it via the Rune Formula, ultimately forming a "package."

This kind of folding was like building a structure with blocks; without mortise and tenon joints or nails to secure it, one had to pay extra attention to the structural mechanics.

With great patience and stable, abundant Mental Power, Tang Zhao pulled the sound into sheets, wrapped the space, and then attempted to move it.

Making the space move was very strenuous, but as Tang Zhao increased his force, this package began to waver. Just like pushing a giant stone ball, the first push was difficult, but immediately after, it could roll on its own.

Seeing the space wrapped in layers and ready to be dragged, Tang Zhao used his Mental Power as a guide to pull the sound-sphere. With a *whoosh*, the package was like a ball that had been kicked, leaping forward.

Directly ahead was a pitch-black jar mouth. The package landed in the jar, and the lid was immediately added.

Jar-storage, complete!

After putting it in the jar, a "small" accident occurred.

That was, after the jar contained the sound-wrapped space, it actually could not shrink!

It seemed that the superposition between spaces followed a certain rule; although the Demon Cave was already contained within the sound, it was still space, and the jar was also space. The conflict between space and space meant that while it could be contained, it could not be flexibly adjusted in size.

The final result was that Tang Zhao had no choice but to make a jar as big as a small house.

This was something Tang Zhao had not anticipated before; when he practiced, he had calculated several contingency plans for when he couldn't drag the space, but he had never expected a problem to arise at the jar-storage step.

He certainly would not give up, nor was it easy to drag a small mountain of a jar everywhere—it would be fine in normal times, he could let Senior Brother... let Gui Ye... he could drag it slowly himself. However, Tang Zhao was waiting to support the battlefield and had no time to drag this big jar. At this moment, he also could not let others watch the jar. Once the jar suffered any mishap, no one else would be able to handle it.

Tang Zhao was in a dilemma, when suddenly a flash of inspiration struck, and he took out an object.

It was precisely the Lotus Pond gifted by the Sword Saint.

He dissipated the jar, wrapped the sound in another layer of Crown Flow Gang Qi, added "fire" as a medium, and then sank it into the Lotus Pond, finally attempting to shrink the Lotus Pond.

It was indeed a gift from the Sword Saint; that ball of Gang Qi entered the Lotus Pond, gurgled to the bottom, and after a few bubbles, it disappeared without a trace. Then, the Lotus Pond gradually shrank amidst a misty glow.

Success!

Tang Zhao breathed a sigh of relief and put the Lotus Pond into a palm-sized jar.

Empty-Wind-Fire-Water-Earth, a perfect nesting doll. According to Sword Casting theory, if the "empty" material in the middle were a Sword Seed, this set could barely be considered a crude sword if it took shape. Unfortunately, it was not a Sword Seed, and the materials were just simply stacked, so this thing had no use whatsoever.

The only useful thing was that it freed Tang Zhao from the rear, allowing him to rush to the front line.

The front line should have already begun the decisive battle, right?

Tang Zhao had just released nine bell sounds in succession, all of which were the vibrations of the Gujian. He had made preparations early on; besides wrapping the Empty-Type Demon Cave, the bell sounds would only vibrate forward, specifically sweeping across the battlefield. Like a Grandmaster's aura, it was best at clearing out low-level cannon fodder. Under those nine bell sounds just now, the battlefield should have already been cleared; those small soldiers filling the ranks were mostly gone, and the enemy would either have to cut off their tails to survive and retreat, or they would have to reveal their trump cards for a decisive battle.

Going now to participate in the decisive battle was just right!

Below the city, the seven giant Fierce Beasts had already awakened. These stupid creatures were heartless and mindless; they had felt instinctive fear when the bell rang just now, but as soon as the bell stopped, they immediately forgot it. Relying on instinct, they stirred up their ferocity again, trampling over the white bones covering the ground as they charged forward.

And the Deputy Envoy, who had been watching the formation coldly from the city wall, had already made a decision.

"Falling Red Killing Array!"

The thousands of petals she had just retracted floated up again, turning into a rain of petals that struck rapidly toward the front of the formation.

The red and white petals danced in the wind, red as fire, white as snow; they were the most beautiful colors of Spring.

The sword wind blew up the falling blossoms, colorful and splendid; such beautiful scenery was intoxicating.

Beneath the beautiful scenery, killing intent lay hidden.

Every exquisite and fresh petal hid a sharp edge, and the sharpness of the edges could cut through metal and iron. If anyone were to wander into it, they would first be mesmerized by the beautiful Spring scenery, and then, without knowing it, be sliced into fragments by the tiny petals.

However... at this moment, those in the killing array were Fierce Beasts.

Fierce Beasts are savage and would not notice the scenery; Fierce Beasts are powerful and would not be easily injured by killing intent.

Under Mai Shiyu's manipulation, countless blossoms swirled around the Fierce Beasts like a vortex, brushing against their fur like flying knives, but they could only shave off patches of coarse hair, at most scratching a bit of skin, and could not even scrape off much of the Blood Qi or the Yin energy within the Fierce Beasts. Instead, the bones scattered on the ground were cut into even smaller pieces by the falling red, and some were trampled into powder by the Fierce Beasts.

Seeing the Fierce Beasts charge forward through the flying flowers after suffering only a few insignificant wounds, Mai Shiyu was not discouraged, but instead showed joy—

These stupid things had already entered the trap.

"Deputy Envoy!"

Footsteps sounded from behind; the person who arrived was not just one or two. It was the reinforcements from the Garrison Commander's office.

The city's original Town Guardian had been turned to dust along with the old city gate. Although Mai Shiyu's Sword Art could save the city wall, it could not bring the dead back to life. But there were still soldiers in the city. Mai Shiyu had sent Battalion Commander Zhou to the Garrison Commander's office to mobilize troops, while she guarded this gap alone.

However, the Garrison Commander's office did not have sufficient troops now; besides defending the city, they had been severely depleted by continuous martial law, and they could not assemble many people in a short time. Battalion Commander Zhou did not wait for the Garrison Commander to assemble the thousand or so troops in the city, but instead brought about a hundred soldiers from the Garrison Commander's office to the wall to assist in the defense.

Although these soldiers were few, they were all veterans, some even being the Garrison Commander's Personal Guards, and they were well-trained. The Shizhang were all Strongmen, the centurions were at the Knight-Errant level, and the Colonel leading the team was an even higher-level Knight-Errant. Once they reached the city gate, they directed the soldiers to take over various parts of the wall. This not only relieved the pressure on Mai Shiyu's front but also eased the pressure on the other city walls defended by the Land Inspection Division.

"Ah!"

Someone climbed onto the wall, looked down at the city, and immediately exclaimed in shock.

Those seven mountain-like Fierce Beasts were daunting even to Mai Shiyu at first glance, let alone these ordinary people. They were scared out of their wits on the spot. This caused others to look as well, and the city tower immediately became as restless as boiling water.

Mai Shiyu felt helpless; this was why the Land Inspection Division did not want others to participate in Demon Cave operations. Even in Yunzhou, Sword Guests and Heavy Swordsmen were extremely precious resources. Except for the ace legions under the Lord, local city defense troops and constables were all composed of ordinary people. Although Knight-Errants and Strongmen knew martial arts, they were still in the category of ordinary people.

These local city defense troops could barely be considered second-line units; they had never even seen a proper enemy army, at most only suppressing bandits. When facing Yin Calamities or other horrors, besides breaking ranks, they would just stand there like wooden chickens. They were truly more of a hindrance than a help.

It could only be said that it was fortunate they arrived late and did not see the skeleton army; if they had really seen the army of the dead, they would likely have been scared silly on the spot and then fled in all directions.

Fortunately, the Colonel was quite experienced; he immediately beheaded the soldier who had first exclaimed, then shouted loudly to reorganize the soldiers and ordered the battle-supervision team to hold the line, finally managing to calm the hundred or so men down to continue defending the city.

Mai Shiyu said, "Tell them to guard the wall, don't worry about what's happening below, just guard it. Whatever comes up, whether it's man or ghost, just hack it. If nothing climbs onto the wall, then just guard your own territory and don't worry about anything else."

The Colonel was a man of the world; although he and Mai Shiyu were not under each other's command, he knew that danger was imminent and that the Land Inspection Division must take the lead. He immediately said, "I obey the Deputy Envoy's order. Deputy Envoy, there are still six Divine Machine Bows and one Sword Light Cannon on the city, all large Light Artifacts that soldiers can use, and their power is still decent. Shall we fire a volley to clear the way for you?"

Mai Shiyu raised an eyebrow and said, "Set them up and aim them. But... don't fire."

When she restored the city wall just now, she focused on the main body of the wall, and there were still parts of the wall that had not been fully restored. Most of the city defense equipment inside had only been restored in appearance; those bows and cannons had all become mere props. Firing them would be meaningless.

Originally, Fierce Beasts were mindless and unfeeling, unaffected by intimidation, so displaying it was meaningless, but she knew well that behind the horizon where light had yet to fully break, there was still a pair of eyes watching. If they sensed the emptiness of the city's defenses, the opponent would deploy even more methods.

She called over Thousand-Household Zhou and said in a low voice, "I am going down to finish off those seven. You keep an eye on things; they are ordinary people and won't be of much use, so if there is danger, you block it first. Also... that Divine Machine Bow and the cannon are both broken; don't let them fire, and don't let them know they are broken..."

At this moment, someone said, "Doesn't that mean I can be of use?"

Mai Shiyu was startled, then said with pleasant surprise, "Azhao has finally come?"

Sure enough, Tang Zhao walked up holding a palm-sized Time Jar and said, "Mai Jie, is there an Art Tool that is broken? Let me see?"

Mai Shiyu remembered that Tang Zhao was a Talisman Sword Master and felt a surge of joy, saying, "If you can fix it, that would be wonderful. But even if you can't, your coming here is already good enough."

She pulled Tang Zhao over, then pulled up Thousand-Household Zhou, and said, "Regardless, I must charge out now, and I leave my back to the two of you. The Divine Machine Bow and Sword Light Cannon—fix them if you can, and if you can't, then let it be. You must hold the city wall. Also... we are still in the Yin Calamity, and we are of the Land Inspection Division; we have a duty to protect the common people. The soldiers are also ordinary people, and we must protect them too. If there is danger..."

Thousand-Household Zhou laughed and said, "I will go first; this little brother is younger than me, so he will be behind me. Then it will be the others."

Tang Zhao smiled and said, "I humbly accept the order."

Having secured a reliable rear, Mai Shiyu no longer hesitated; she drew her sword from its sheath and leaped down from the city wall.

"Baihuamixinzan!"