Blood qi surged into the sky. Below the city walls, it was as though a vision of hell on earth had been unleashed—hundreds of corpses lay strewn about, hundreds of severed heads stacked into a grisly little mound. The scene was nightmarish, and every martial artist watching from the surrounding crowd kept their mouths firmly shut.
Some among them had probably harbored the same thoughts as the Five Great Families, wanting to flee Tiger Roar City—that was why they had gathered here in the first place—but with the Five Great Families' several hundred people serving as a fresh and grisly example right before their eyes, no one dared entertain such ideas any longer.
This Palace Master who had come all the way from the Northern Territory's Lingxiao Pavilion didn't so much as bat an eye when killing people. He was practically devoid of humanity. Every person who looked at Yang Kai did so with a mixture of wariness and dread.
Yang Kai, however, acted as though nothing had happened, still idly toying with the array disc in his hand. He suddenly looked up at Gao Xueting. "Senior Sister Gao, have the Divine Temple disciples replace the ones operating the grand formation." As he spoke, he tossed the array disc over to her.
Gao Xueting nodded. "Understood." She immediately began making arrangements.
A city the size of Tiger Roar City naturally required more than one or two people to operate its protective grand formation—at minimum, several dozen people working together, each holding a subsidiary array disc. City Lord Lin Tong should have the main array disc on his end, capable of coordinating the entire thing.
With the situation involving the Five Great Families, it was necessary to guard against similar incidents happening elsewhere. But if the Divine Temple disciples were the ones operating the grand formation, such incidents could be prevented entirely. For Yang Kai, the martial artists of Tiger Roar City were ultimately outsiders after all—when it came to defending the city's protective formation, it was far more reassuring to have their own people handle it.
With the Demon Race army's assault imminent, pacifying internal threats came before repelling external ones.
Yang Kai took out a communication compass to contact Li Jiao and inquire about the status of the Demon Race army.
Just then, the protective grand formation suddenly rippled outward, and an unusual wave of energy undulated through the air.
Yang Kai turned his head toward the source, his brow furrowed. "What's going on?"
Gao Xueting shook her head, indicating she had no idea.
It was the Dao Origin Realm elder who had been operating the formation here who spoke up. "Someone has opened a breach in the formation at some point."
Yang Kai's expression turned cold upon hearing this. "Courting death!"
The very reason he had asked Gao Xueting to arrange for replacements was to prevent another situation like the Five Great Families—and now it had actually happened. Deserting in the face of battle and the effect it had on morale was catastrophic enough under normal circumstances, but in a situation where they were vastly outnumbered, morale was already fragile. If it dropped any further, Tiger Roar City would absolutely fall, and when that happened, everyone from the Blue Sun Divine Temple, the Li Long Palace, and the A Han Temple would suffer along with them.
"Where?" He turned to look at the elder.
The elder immediately pointed in a direction. "If my senses aren't mistaken, it should be over there!"
The words had barely left his mouth before Yang Kai had already vanished.
At a section of wall on the eastern side of Tiger Roar City, Yang Kai appeared abruptly and indeed found that the protective formation here had been torn open—a gaping breach, wide open. A figure roughly ten li away was fleeing outward at top speed.
The silhouette looked somewhat familiar. He seemed to have seen it somewhere before.
On the wall, Tiger Roar City's City Lord Lin Tong's face was ashen as he stared in the direction of the fleeing figure. Vice City Lord Ma Yin sat cross-legged with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, apparently injured, though the wounds didn't seem too severe.
"Who was it?" Yang Kai asked coldly.
Lin Tong's expression twitched. He said in a heavy voice, "Wu Zijin!"
Yang Kai realized with a start—no wonder the fleeing figure had seemed familiar. It was Tiger Roar City's Vice City Lord Wu Zijin. Even the Vice City Lord had deserted? This was absolutely unacceptable. If word of this spread, how could the local martial artists of Tiger Roar City possibly have any will left to fight the Demon Race?
As Vice City Lord, he should have been leading by example, yet this was what he did. Ma Yin's injuries were most likely inflicted by him as well—Yang Kai hadn't asked, but he could guess that Ma Yin had tried to stop Wu Zijin and been struck for her trouble.
He glanced around and saw that the Tiger Roar City martial artists nearby all wore expressions of panic. Wu Zijin's desertion had clearly had a severely damaging effect.
He suddenly recalled that this man had previously suggested everyone make arrangements to leave Tiger Roar City as soon as possible. Looking back now, he had probably already made up his mind back then.
Yang Kai felt a pang of disillusionment. Among the Tiger Roar City locals, the Five Great Families and even a Vice City Lord had no desire to stay and fight the Demon Race to the death—then why should the reinforcements from the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Territories bother staying either?
He turned to look at Lin Tong. "What are your plans, City Lord? If you wish to leave, there's still time."
Lin Tong glanced at him and replied evenly, "So long as the city stands, its people stand. When the city falls, its people perish."
Ma Yin also opened her eyes. "We humbly ask Palace Master Yang to lend Tiger Roar City a hand!"
Yang Kai grinned at her words. "Looks like not everyone in Tiger Roar City is a coward who fears death."
Ma Yin said angrily, "We are ashamed to share the same air as that old dog Wu Zijin! If I survive today, the next time I see him, I'll take his wretched life!"
Yang Kai nodded. "No need to wait for next time."
Before Ma Yin could fully process what he meant, she heard Yang Kai continue, "I'll be right back. City Lord, please repair this breach as quickly as possible!"
With a flicker of movement, Yang Kai vanished.
Ma Yin stared blankly, then looked forward and saw a figure flickering in and out of view, disappearing beyond her line of sight in the blink of an eye. Only then did she realize with a start. "He went after that old dog Wu?"