Chapter 551 - The Retreat Starts! (1/2)

However, the white light continued to drill inwards at an incredibly fast and stable rate. Even though it was making a super annoying sound, it was truly a sight to behold.

Streaks of light from the interior of the palace flew towards this white light as they attempted to destroy it.

However, it was during this short period of time when the white light suddenly froze before dipping downwards. Even though it did not penetrate the barrier, it was stuck on the surface of the palace’s protective barrier.

Just when the soul engineers who were responsible for defending the interior of the Palace were about to let out a sigh of relief, an even finer streak of white light drilled out from its tip before entering the interior of the Palace.

Even though the walls of the Palace were incredibly thick and firm, the white light was able to drill itself in without making any noise at all.

“Shit!”

Xu Tianran had been standing in front of his sleeping chamber, and had just witnessed the series of events which happened in the sky. He immediately knew something bad was about to happen the moment he saw the white light dip.

An intense purple light exploded from his body as a purple-gold human-shaped soul tool enveloped his body instantly. At the same time, Xu Tianran bent down and brought his limbs close to his body to minimize his surface area. He increased the intensity of the purple-gold light around him as he tried to use the light to protect his body.

He was able to do all of the above in an incredibly short amount of time. No one present would have been able to catch what he was doing with their eyes.

Just when Xu Tianran was finished, the entire Palace started to tremble!

“Booommm!”

A deafening explosion could be heard from the bottom of the Palace. Following which, a white pillar of light shot straight up into the sky from the ground.

This pillar was not very big initially. It was only about as thick as an arm. However, it rapidly expanded as it encroached into the space around it. In addition, it radiated white ripples towards its surroundings.

At this very instant, every single building in the Palace was enveloped in a golden barrier. The barriers were trying to shield the buildings from the white light.

However, the white light was just too powerful for the barriers, as it consumed the buildings with ease.

The palace guards were effectively useless against such overwhelming power. They were instantly vaporized when the white light enveloped them.

However, at this instant, the Sun Moon Empire started to show their trump cards.

Countless images lit up one after another within the Palace. Even though these images were of several different colors, all of them transformed into barriers as they launched themselves towards the white light.

At the same time, the protective soul barriers within the Palace started to concentrate their energy and contract. The sixteen golden pillars launched themselves towards the white light as they formed more barriers to contain it.

The place that the white light had landed in was the central area of the Sun Moon Empire’s Imperial Palace.

Right now, Xu Tianran could sense an incredibly frightening amount of soul power ravaging his body.

Countless streaks of light were exploding from his body. All of these streaks were coming from the defensive soul tools which had been designed for him by the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers. The soul tools were being destroyed by the invincibly sharp soul power as they put in their last bit of effort to defend their user.

Even though Xu Tianran was swept up in the powerful white ripples, he was ultimately able to survive because of his human-shaped soul tool, as well as the powerful defensive soul tools.

However, when he crept out from the white light, there were already several cracks in his human-shaped soul tool. On top of being covered with dirt, his leg prosthetics had also been torn to pieces. Hence, he could only use his arms and body to crawl out.

Outside of Radiant City.

Huo Yuhao was struggling as he tried to pass the gigantic silver barrel to He Caitou.

“Retreat!”

The three hundred heavy artillery pieces sped towards the Spectral Gate. At the same time, a golden light lit up from their sides and formed a golden barrier that enveloped all of the heavy artillery and the Spectral Gate.

Huo Yuhao bit the tip of his tongue lightly as he tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Tang Wutong was continuously injecting her spiritual power into him to stabilize the state of his body.

Li Ya silently appeared as she released Merfolk Control once again. Ripples of light dissipated from her body as they turned the interior of the protective soul barrier cloudy and opaque.

Just when they were about to be done with their preparations, streaks of light could be seen shooting up into the air from the distance as they headed for where Huo Yuhao and his peers were.

This reaction was expected of Radiant City! After all, it was the capital of the Sun Moon Empire, and the biggest city in the entire world.

After being repeatedly attacked, it was finally Radiant City’s turn to retaliate.

Even though they did not have the help of aerial surveillance soul tools to locate the precise position of Huo Yuhao and his peers, they could roughly tell where they were from the location where the stationary soul cannon shells shot into the sky. Hence, they decided to suppress Huo Yuhao and his peers with carpet bombing, and prevent them from continuing their attack.

However, all of this was within Huo Yuhao’s expectations. Hence, he had deployed the linked defensive barriers he had looted from the Sun Moon Empire’s Eastern Sun City and the soul tool front at the Ming Dou Mountain Range.

These soul tools were the pride of the Sun Moon Empire. However, they were now protecting the people of Tang Sect with the support of milk bottles.

While the Heavy Artillery Soul Engineer Legion was retreating into the Spectral Gate, the Fort Soul Engineer Legion and the Tang Sect Soul Engineer Legion were in charge of sweeping the group and covering them from the rear. Huo Yuhao and the rest were scheduled to be the last few to enter.

Even though the carpet bombing method was effective at covering large areas, its attack was too spread out to strike anything effectively.

Although there were a few explosions above the barrier occasionally, they were not able to penetrate the barrier.

Very soon, the three hundred cannons had entered the Spectral Gate.

The eighteen doors had allowed them to retreat at twice the usual rate. It only took them ten minutes to completely retreat. This also meant that the rest of the people would be able to enter at an even faster rate.

After the enormous explosion, almost eighty percent of the Palace had turned into ruins.

Streaks of light rose into the sky above the Palace. Three of them flew straight towards where Huo Yuhao and his peers were. Their movement was so fast that they resembled bolts of lightning.

Huo Yuhao had been monitoring every single movement within the Radiant City with his Spiritual Detection.

After sensing the movement of those three different figures, he was mildly startled. Those three figures were radiating immensely powerful auras.

They were all Class 9 soul engineers from the Sun Moon Empires’s Imperial Shrine!

A pillar of light which consisted of two colors—silver and gold—suddenly fell from the sky and slammed into the linked defense barrier. The barrier instantly became bright gold and silver as it released a deafening screeching sound. As the barrier tried to fend off the attack, the soul energy stored in the milk bottles decreased rapidly.

This is…

The Sunmoon Divine Needle.

The Starsky Douluo was here!

Even though Huo Yuhao frowned upon realizing that, he was not afraid of him.

He had long foreseen that this would happen. No matter how sudden their attack was, they were only ten miles away from Radiant City. This distance was nothing for Class 9 soul engineers. Hence, he was expecting them to attack them as they were retreating.

This was why he had planned for himself and the stronger cultivators within the Tang Sect to stay at the back of the group.

Huo Yuhao ordered, “There are three Class 9 soul engineers coming our way. Wutong and I will take the Starsky Douluo. Eldest senior brother, you will take the Class 9 soul engineer on the left. Third senior brother, you will be in charge of the one on the right. Fifth senior sister and Ji Juechen, both of you will assist eldest senior brother. Guyi and Qiuqiu, both of you will help third senior brother. Fourth senior sister, you will help ensure that the rest can retreat smoothly. Second senior brother, I will need you to provide us with covering fire, and to assist us wherever necessary! Let’s move out!”

The destructive ability of three Class 9 soul engineers was definitely more than what three Titled Douluo could achieve. If they were to fight one-on-one, a Titled Douluo would not fear a Class 9 soul engineer. However, when the soul engineer was given sufficient time and distance, his or her destructive ability would be incredibly strong. Hence, Huo Yuhao and the others had to seize the initiative and attack them before they destroyed the barrier. If not, countless Tang Sect soul engineers would perish under their attacks.

The most important thing for the legions now was time. Huo Yuhao was definitely able to get the three legions to fight the three Class 9 soul engineers. In fact, the soul engineers would definitely not be able to defeat a single legion of two hundred soul engineers.

However, now was not the time for them to get entangled in a battle. If they were to continue to fight and delay their retreat, they might not be able to leave anymore when more reinforcements arrived.

It was important to understand that they were still within the attacking radius of the nearest soul tool installation. Hence, Huo Yuhao had decisively ordered everyone to retreat instead of bracing themselves for battle.

The three Class 9 soul engineers might be powerful, but so were the higher-ups of Tang Sect. If the Tang Sect’s high-ups were the only ones involved in the battle, it would also be a lot easier for all of them to retreat together. After all, they had developed impeccable chemistry after working with one another for all these years.

Ye Yulin stared coldly at the light barrier beneath him from afar. Because of how the light waves were bending around each other, it was impossible for him to see what was within the barrier. However, he could tell from the flickering of the light that there were a lot of people inside it. Nonetheless, he was unable to tell what they were doing.

Ye Yulin did not try to get closer to them, even though he was very confident in his abilities. After seeing how they were able to penetrate the defenses of the Palace, he believed that these attackers were fairly strong. In addition, he believed the last streak of white light must have been a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell which was built specifically to penetrate protective barriers.

Nonetheless, he also understood how the cannon shell must have expended a lot of energy to drill through the barrier. Hence, the explosion within the interior of the palace did not seem to possess the power that a true Class 9 cannon shell was supposed to have. However, it was still undeniable that the shell had dealt a lot of damage to the palace.

The mission for him and the other two Class 9 soul engineers was to delay these people. As long as they were able to delay them till the other reinforcements from Radiant City arrived, they would be able to launch an all-out attack on this group of people who had caused an incredible amount of damage to Radiant City.

To be honest, Ye Yulin was not overly enraged by the destruction around him. After all, the losses belonged to the empire, and not him. He was more curious about the person who was able to organize such a powerful sneak attack on Radiant City. This group of people was somehow able to take down all of the aerial surveillance soul tools above Radiant City! Also, they were able to suppress the four soul tool installations around Radiant City and prevent them from supporting the city. They had most definitely used more than a thousand shells in the attack earlier. This was not something that any small group could accomplish. It must have been organized by another empire.

On top of that, the Sun Moon Empire was somehow totally unaware of this force. They were completely oblivious the whole time this force transported their ammunition to Radiant City. Even if this group were to attack with stationary soul cannon shells, they would have to launch them somewhere close to the city. How did they manage to pull it off?

After releasing the Sunmoon Divine Needle, Ye Yulin began to recover his soul power through a milk bottle. Even though his soul tool was incredibly powerful, it tended to consume a lot of soul power. At this instant, he saw a few figures flying out of the linked defense barrier, and two of them were heading in his direction.

After letting out a cold grunt, Ye Yulin swung his right hand in the air as multiple streaks of light ascended into the sky. The way these streaks of light left his body made it seem as though they had grown out from him. As they climbed higher into the sky, they rapidly grew bigger before transforming into intensely bright balls of light. They were like stars that were floating above Ye Yulin’s head.

There was a reason why he was called the Starsky Douluo. When it came to pure fighting power, Ye Yulin was definitely one of the best in the Sun Moon Empire. After his stars gathered in the sky, he locked his spiritual power on the incoming enemies.

However, he suddenly felt an intense sense of danger within his heart. He immediately looked at the two cultivators who were flying towards him. He realized there was a purple-gold glow in one of their eyes.

His automatic spiritual defense soul tools were instantly activated. A necklace that was hanging in front of his chest suddenly exploded with blinding light as a spiritual barrier instantly formed in front of him.

“Bang!” A loud metallic sound could be heard. Ye Yulin naturally ducked his head as he looked at the state of his Sobering Necklace. Several cracks could already be seen forming on it.

What a powerful spiritual attack!

Even though his Sobering Necklace was able to negate a large part of the attack, the violet spiritual ripples still made Ye Yulin temporarily incapable of locking onto his opponent. Hence, his two opponents were able to get within a hundred meters of him with their incredible speed.

Ye Yulin was a Class 9 soul engineer who was skilled in fighting. Hence, he did not panic as he made a tapping motion with his right hand in a calm and collected fashion. At that instant, multiple streaks of light were released from the balls of light above his head. They collectively formed a huge net as they attempted to block his two opponents’ path.

At the same time, Ye Yulin retreated at an incredible speed. He left a sequence of faint figures that resembled him as he moved a distance of five hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

A soul engineer who specialized in long-range attacks must possess the following important skills: defending, reacting, and evading.

The two people who were charging towards Ye Yulin were none other than Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong.

Huo Yuhao had left Li Ya within the protective soul barrier to maintain the Spiritual Interference Domain, so as to maintain the secrecy of the entire force’s numbers.

Meanwhile, the few of them had rushed out to engage the Class 9 soul engineers.

Ye Yulin was truly very powerful. The streaks of light that were heavily intertwined in front of him contained an immense amount of destructive power. Even Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to just barge through the net. He could only pull Tang Wutong aside as they paused their attack. This allowed Ye Yulin to increase his distance from them.