This was a high-tier Ghost-rank dagger.
To the people of a Three-Star Main Town, a dagger of this quality was incredibly precious—priceless and impossible to buy. Even in the hands of the weak, a high-tier Ghost-rank dagger could pierce Ye Xuan’s body.
“Go ahead. Pick up the dagger and stab him,” Sun Zhenwu’s voice rang out again. “Don’t hold back. Don’t think of yourself as a bad person. You just want to survive, that’s all.”
There were many ways to kill Ye Xuan. Forcing the Ye Family to do it themselves might not have been the most efficient method, but it was the ultimate test of human nature. He wanted Ye Xuan to experience utter betrayal before he died. He believed that in the face of life and death, so-called familial love was nothing but bullshit.
The dagger struck the ground. None of the Ye Family members moved.
Suddenly, Ye Wen stepped forward and kicked the dagger into a corner. Holding his head high, he declared loudly, “You want us to kill our Patriarch? Impossible! The unity of our Ye Family is beyond your comprehension!”
“That’s right! We would rather die in battle than kill our own kin!”
“If you’re hoping for a good show of us killing the Patriarch, not in a million years!”
The younger generation roared in agreement. Ye Wen’s eyes remained remarkably resolute.
Sun Zhenwu’s expression, however, remained placid. “Is that so? There’s no rush. I’ll give you time.”
As he spoke, his rank-six Flying Beast landed atop the town wall. He was a full hundred meters away from Ye Xuan. After dismounting, Sun Zhenwu retrieved a few rattan chairs and a table from his Storage Ring and calmly began to sip tea.
The atmosphere suddenly turned bizarre. Despite the suffocating, murderous tension hanging over heaven and earth, no one made a move. Sun Zhenwu and the Sun Family Elders calmly drank tea and chatted, occasionally pointing down at the dense sea of heads below the town wall. It was as if they viewed this massive army as nothing more than spectacular scenery.
“What… what’s going on? They actually aren’t attacking!”
The Ye Family members exchanged bewildered glances. They wondered if the Sun Family was truly waiting for them to stab Ye Xuan.
“They aren’t holding back for our sake. They’re waiting for someone!” Ye Zeyun’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Waiting for someone? Is there another army that hasn’t arrived yet? The Sun Family has already rallied the military forces of all the Three-Star Main Towns! There’s no room left around here!”
A million-strong army stretched for miles. If more troops arrived, they wouldn’t even be able to squeeze in; they would be entirely redundant.
Before Ye Zeyun could answer, Ye Xuan’s solemn voice sounded. “They aren’t waiting for an army. They’re waiting for the Gongsun Family.”
The Sun Family clearly possessed the power to wipe out the Ye Family with a wave of their hands, yet they besieged the town without attacking. This was absolutely not out of benevolence. They wanted to use this opportunity to draw out the Gongsun Family. The massive commotion the Sun Family caused could be heard for thousands of miles around. If the Gongsun Family was hiding nearby, they would undoubtedly catch wind of it. Sun Zhenwu had set up numerous hidden sentries over a thousand-mile radius, just waiting for the Gongsun Family to appear so he could wipe them out in one fell swoop.
“Then… will the Gongsun Family actually come? If they do, they’ll just be marching to their deaths.”
“I don’t know, but if my mother hears this news, she will definitely come,” Ye Xuan replied, his brows tightly furrowed.
Gritting his teeth, he sat cross-legged on the ground.
Since the Sun Family was using this as bait to hook the Gongsun Family, it meant they absolutely wouldn’t attack in the short term. He had to use this time to consolidate his cultivation base and then break through. He needed to rapidly push his cultivation to the sixth layer of the Demon Spirit Realm.
Then, he had a completely crazy idea!
Slaughtering a million-strong army would indeed be exhausting. Cutting down that densely packed sea of people would probably take days and nights of non-stop killing. But why bother killing them at all? To defeat an army, first capture its leader! If everyone from the Sun Family died, would these soldiers even dare to make a move?
They might look like an awe-inspiring, million-strong army, but in reality, they were a disorganized mess of disparate factions. Once their leaders were dead, these troops would scatter like frightened beasts, fleeing in absolute panic.
It had to be said, Ye Xuan’s idea was utter madness. The crime of killing a City Lord was monumental! It would be akin to turning the entire Moyue Kingdom upside down. He would be relentlessly hunted by all the Sub-City Lords. And if the Sub-City Lords couldn’t kill him, the Main City Lords would step in.
But he was dead either way. If death was inevitable, why not go down fighting? There were many paths a Cultivator could walk. Since none of them were easy, he might as well choose the hardest one. Things were already unimaginably difficult anyway; he didn’t care if it escalated to hellish difficulty. Above all else, he had to survive first.
“Young Master…”
Hua watched Ye Xuan’s deeply furrowed brows. Beneath her mask, her eyes suddenly filled with resolve. She would cast her Forbidden Technique one more time for her Young Master.
Except, her cultivation base hadn’t recovered yet. If she forcefully restored her strength to its absolute peak through the Forbidden Technique now, the backlash wouldn’t be as simple as shattered meridians. Her Dantian itself might shatter. But for her Young Master, what did it matter even if she died? Once she unleashed the Forbidden Technique, obliterating a million people wouldn’t be that difficult. This deadlock could be broken.
Hua sat cross-legged as well. Executing her family’s Forbidden Technique required a considerable amount of time. She decided that this time, she would let her Young Master witness her true power.
Two days passed.
The Sun Family showed absolutely no signs of attacking. They continued to sit atop the town wall, sipping tea and chatting with smiles on their faces. However, this was pure torment for the million Cultivators below.
“Town Mayor, are we really just going to stand down here forever?”
“Bullshit! If the City Lord doesn’t give the word, how can we attack?”
“Sigh, what exactly is the City Lord trying to do? Isn’t this just torturing us? With this blazing sun, anyone who isn’t a Cultivator would have collapsed by now.”
…
Meanwhile, in Dapeng Town.
The Patriarch of a subordinate faction personally arrived at the Town Mayor’s Mansion to find Gongsun Yanran. “Town Mayor, something terrible has happened! Something terrible!”
Gongsun Yanran emerged from beneath the eaves and asked, “What is it? Why are you panicking?”
“Town Mayor, didn’t you ask me to investigate why that massive army passed by a few days ago, and where they were heading? I have news.”
“Speak quickly!” Gongsun Yanran’s brows shot up. The day she saw that army marching, she had felt a deep sense of unease. Right now, that feeling flared up with terrifying intensity.
“Town Mayor, that marching army… they were all heading to attack the Ye Family’s Three-Star Main Towns.”
“What! What is the situation at the Ye Family Main Town now? Does it still stand?”
“The Ye Family still stands. It seems those Main Town forces haven’t been able to take them down yet. But they haven’t retreated either; they’re waiting for reinforcements.”
The information this subordinate faction obtained was half-truth and half-lie. These rumors had been deliberately spread by the Sun Family. The Sun Family was extremely cunning. They hadn’t leaked the fact that a million-strong army was besieging the town; they merely spread word that the Three-Star Main Towns were attempting to attack the Ye Family Main Town. The Ye Family hadn’t been destroyed yet, but they were supposedly struggling to hold on.
They knew that only this kind of desperate news would draw out the Gongsun Family. If the Gongsun Family was indeed nearby, they would absolutely rush to help.
“Waiting for reinforcements? Hmph, do they think they’re the only ones with reinforcements?” Gongsun Yanran instantly flared with fury.
Even though she wasn’t currently at the Ye Family, she and the Gongsun Family were Ye Xuan’s strongest pillars of support. She absolutely had to go to Ye Family Town.
“Gongsun Wuji, Gongsun Yan, Gongsun Po, Gongsun Hao! Assemble in the main courtyard!” Gongsun Yanran roared.
She didn’t intend to bring all their clansmen as backup. Only those at or above the fifth layer of the Demon Spirit Realm were qualified to go. Besides, the Gongsun Family’s Flying Beasts couldn’t carry that many people anyway.
Soon, a rank-three Flying Beast soared into the sky.
“Wait for me, Xuan’Er. Mother won’t let anything happen to you.”