Su Liu let out a sky‑shaking roar, his breath full and fierce; behind him stood heroes ready to swear their lives to defend Liaozhou City.
Excluding those on the walls, within the city, and on defense, there were still twenty thousand young soldiers!
Amid the pounding of drums and the cries of voices, the two armies at last met in direct battle beneath the city walls.
But twenty thousand against one hundred thousand, a fivefold gap... the only relief was that the spirit bridge over the moat broke under heavy trampling; otherwise, the sheer press of a hundred thousand troops could have crushed the twenty thousand to death.
Damn it, must you really force me to unleash my ultimate move.
Murong Yun was bound by the powerful five‑element aura within the killing formation, and at last could not hold back, spraying blood from her mouth.
She watched the soldiers of Liaozhou retreat step by step, corpses piled into mountains; she bit down hard, her eyes filled with hesitation and ruthless resolve.
Now it seemed she no longer had the power to fight; though she could draw down the thunder of Heaven’s Way, Heaven was no fool, and surely understood her repeated exploitation.
Yet each time, she would draw it down, only to smash the Thunder‑Controlling Stone, once more scheming to take her life.
Especially at this moment of her weakness, it was the perfect opportunity for that treacherous Heaven.
She knew that as soon as her will stirred, thunder would immediately descend; yet in her present condition, she could not be sure she would endure without dying.
At this moment, the Five‑Element Killing Array stirred; from each corner of the pentagonal formation, the forces of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth surged forth in even greater magnitude.
The spiritual energies intertwined and tangled, ceaselessly alive; from the edges of the formation they began to spin, and with each rotation, the dead branches on the ground and the falling snow in the sky were ground into powder‑like spirit particles that dispersed.
Murong Yun’s once‑wavering gaze hardened at the sight; damn it, if she didn’t block this, she would die without even a scrap left!
Rather than die in cowardice, it was better to fight in blazing glory. Having thought it through, Murong Yun’s quivering hand, shaking like one afflicted, reached up and pulled free the bone‑staff hairpin from her hair.
Then, with teeth clenched and face contorted, she forced a thread of aura from her exhausted meridians, dispelling the disguise of the bone staff and restoring it to its true size.
As she closed her eyes and her thought arose, she could feel some mysterious force high above the Nine Heavens, just waiting for her to recklessly curse it...
Just as she drew a deep breath to curse, the Five‑Element Killing Array faltered, then was broken by an external force; the fiercely entangled aura lost control, erupting into a massive spiritual riot.
The blast struck Murong Yun head‑on, making her scalp tingle and her face twist, dragging her straight out of meditation.
"Run, now—hurry!"
Su Liu sheathed his longsword, the sparks fading from its blade. To save this woman, he had lost many soldiers and suffered new wounds himself.
He even used the Fire Spirit Crystal he had treasured for years to restore his aura, and only then managed to cleave apart the Five‑Element Killing Array.
"Su Liu?!"
Murong Yun heard the noise and a familiar voice. Amid the riot of aura she half‑opened her eyes, not yet seeing clearly, when her arm was seized and pulled away. Then, with a sudden force, she was—no, truly was—flung out like a sandbag.
She landed directly in her own camp. The soldiers of Liaozhou, seeing that their deputy had hurled Murong Yun over, quickly raised their shields, caught her, and set her down on the ground.
“…Thank you.” Murong Yun, tugging her wound by accident, grimaced in pain, baring her teeth, and instinctively offered thanks to the young soldier who had caught her.
"Girl, go quickly—we’ll cover you!"
The young soldier who had earlier shouted madly for Murong Yun, now face‑to‑face with his idol, flushed red and hastily urged her on.
Murong Yun looked at the young soldier, then at the armored comrades surrounding her. They seemed only in their teens, younger than she was, yet they had to stay behind to cover her retreat.
If she truly left, then these youths—who in modern times would still be in school—would all die here, wouldn’t they?
But if Liaozhou City falls, the story will return to its old course, and everything she strove to change will end in failure...
“Girl, what are you waiting for? We’re already grateful for the time you’ve bought us. A cultivation genius like you shouldn’t die here—go!”
“Yes, yes—girl, run down beneath the wall! Two hundred meters ahead there’s rescue rope; from there you can climb up onto the battlements.”
“Once you’re up, girl, remember to cut the rope—we won’t be returning,” a soldier urged, eyes unwavering, a faint smile on his face.
Amid the cries urging her on, Murong Yun’s eyes brimmed with struggle. She clenched the bone staff tightly, and with each exertion her wound at the back bled more heavily.
“I won’t leave.”
Murong Yun heard her own voice ring out, clear and unmistakable: “I can still fight.”
“Today, no one will take Liaozhou! That’s my word!”
No one can stop her from defying heaven and changing fate!
“Girl…” The young soldiers encircling Murong Yun at last felt their eyes redden, moved with emotion.
If defending the homeland is the soldier’s duty, then why does this genius cultivator choose to stay?
It must be for the sake of great faith—she truly is our exemplar!
Amid the touched gazes of many soldiers, Murong Yun had no time to savor their admiration.
She didn’t know if it was from losing too much blood, or from being struck senseless—why did it feel as though the spiritual energy inside her was growing?
Or has her Taisu Technique already become frighteningly powerful?
Murong Yun, puzzled, stretched out her hand—tentatively unleashing the skill ‘Wusheng.’
In the next instant, from the shattered dead branches and leaves, several vines burst forth from the earth, lashing and flinging away many foes of Pingyun, then winding their way to Murong Yun’s side.
“What’s going on?"
Murong Yun’s eyes widened as she stared at the scene, her voice trembling with doubt: “Could it be… could it be… that I too am about to gain the legendary golden finger?”
Could it be that Heaven has opened its eyes?
“Truly worthy of being Nanchu’s god—this girl still has the strength to fight.”
The surrounding soldiers, seeing Murong Yun’s vines, though fighting bitterly and tensely, couldn’t help but toss her a couple of rainbow‑colored compliments…
On the other side, Su Liu—who had hurled Murong Yun away—was drenched in blood, some from enemies, but far more his own.
He no longer knew how many strikes he had endured; if not for the strength of a seventh‑rank cultivator’s body, he feared he would have died long ago.
But he could not fall; in his haze, Su Liu cut down one cultivator after another.
“Trash, all of you trash—one Su Liu alone has you stumbling!”
From afar, Gong Liu watched as more than half of the cultivator squad was cut down, seething at their incompetence. He had been using his water dragon to slaughter the Nanchu fighters, but seeing this, he could not deny that Su Liu of Nanchu was truly a formidable general.
It seems he has no choice but to enter the battle himself.
Gong Liu’s eyes were already blood‑red from killing, his hands stained with the blood of ordinary Nanchu soldiers. Planting a foot on a corpse, water‑element qi lifted him, and in the blink of an eye he was before Su Liu.
“Gong Liu!”
Su Liu had long known that the shameless Gong Liu was using spiritual power to butcher his soldiers.
But he knew he could not confront him directly; otherwise, he would lose even the time needed to wear down the opposing cultivator squad.
Unfortunately, after cutting down barely a hundred, his plan was already spotted by the enemy.
“Deputy General Su Liu—having fun with all that killing?”
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