Chapter 128: Unwelcome Guests (1/2)

Dark clouds loomed outside the seaside stronghold. The ocean seemed undisturbed and tranquil on the surface, but a heavy weight pressing down made everyone short of breath.

Diexi stood atop a reef by the shore, solemnly staring at the thunderclouds over the water. Crimson light winked in and out of existence around her body.

“General Yuchi, my recklessness has brought trouble down upon you,” the zombie girl sighed morosely.

Yuchi Hanxing blinked and shook her head without a word.

“Yuchi Hanxing!” a solemn voice sounded ponderously from the sky. “You have one hour. If you don’t serve up five hundred thousand heads by then, my monster spirit army will assault the stronghold!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

Roar roar roar!

Tall waves rose from the ocean, powerful monster spirit soldiers howling and gibbering incessantly in every one of them. They were all immortals, incomparable to the regular soldiers that Diexi had slaughtered. Likewise, the remaining eight hundred thousand Dusk Phalanx in the stronghold wouldn’t be able to withstand the new attackers at all.

“In your dreams!” Yuchi Hanxing spat out, her jaw set.

“The Nephrite court ripped up the treaty first, Yuchi Hanxing,” the voice responded. “You sent in an arcane immortal and killed ten million of our kind. I demand only five hundred thousand of your soldiers in return—a generous enough concession, isn’t it?”

Yuchi Hanxing gnashed her teeth. With the increasing pressure from the sky over the ocean, she couldn’t make a sound even though her chest was violently heaving in an attempt to form words.

If the monster spirits wanted her head, she would cut it off without hesitation. But five hundred thousand Dusk Phalanx soldiers.... Their death would dispel the Heavenly Formation of the Black Tortoise, and even the grand formation in the stronghold would be affected. The monsters could then charge straight into Dusk Province.

Unlike Dusk Province, there was no restriction against powerful immortals in the North Sea. However, the North Sea monster spirits had an agreement with the Nephrite court. This locale was to be a mutual training ground, and both sides were prohibited from deploying immortals that were too powerful.

The Nephrite court couldn’t send their heavyweights to slaughter the monster spirits, and the monster spirits were prohibited from sending in anyone beyond golden immortal realm. Under those circumstances, if the monsters could still seize the fortress and conquer Dusk Province, the province would be theirs.

Over time, the seaside stronghold became a sparring ground for both sides. Both Nephrite Major and North Sea monster spirits sent budding youths here for training via life and death encounters. Among the ten million that Diexi had slaughtered, the majority were young geniuses of great potential, here for tempering through combat.

Losing them to an arcane immortal enraged the senior counsel of the race, so they wanted half of the Dusk Phalanx dead! There would certainly be geniuses from Nephrite Major in that half, which made for a fitting retribution.

……

“Cut the crap and fight.” Diexi stepped in before Yuchi Hanxing and manifested an orb. “I crushed your weaklings to refine an origin sphere. If you want revenge, come at me. Do you have to be so nauseating and involve the stronghold?”

She slowly took to the air and placed herself in front of the stronghold. Boundless oceans of blood and mountains of corpses could be found in her eyes.

“An origin sphere?! You used the blood of our children to refine an origin sphere!!” The authoritative voice exploded with rage. Something enormous shifted in and out of sight behind the clouds. It seemed to be a black dragon, or perhaps an enormous black snake. “Die, die, die! I want you dead!”

“You’re just all bark and no bite at the end of the day,” Diexi scoffed. “The pack of ants you’ll send ashore won’t even be enough for a swat. And you, a peerless immortal, don’t dare set foot on land. So why are you wasting our time here? Scram!”

Her last exclamation almost manifested physically. A tremendous bolt of thunder and lightning crackled over the North Sea, melting countless monsters into pools of blood.

Everyone shuddered. Yuchi Hanxing hadn’t expected Diexi to suddenly turn so forceful, either. The lady had hit quite a sore spot.

Monsters beyond the golden immortal realm didn’t dare make landfall, and those below that level didn’t even warrant a slap from her. Diexi was somehow an exception, an arcane immortal that the restriction within the ancient Dusk tomb allowed to freely walk about.

“You… you can’t stay here forever!” the powerful entity in the air growled with rage. “The moment you leave is the moment this stronghold will be destroyed!”