Zhongdu—north and south indistinguishable, the greatest city under heaven!
From a distance, the colossal city of Zhongdu resembled a primordial beast lying dormant on the earth, its silent, desolate aura inspiring awe in all who beheld it.
A streak of green light halted in midair, fifty li from Zhongdu. Three figures materialized—Yang Kai, Li Rong, and Han Fei.
"There's actually a city this massive here too?" Li Rong's eyes widened in surprise, and she gasped aloud.
Even on the Profound Sky Continent, a city of Zhongdu's scale would be extraordinarily rare. Li Rong could scarcely imagine how many years the native inhabitants had spent to construct such an enormous metropolis.
"But it looks like there are signs of destruction," Han Fei said, her delicate brows furrowing.
"Mm. Over a decade ago, the ley line beneath Zhongdu erupted and the entire city was annihilated. When I left back then, everyone was rebuilding. More than ten years have passed, but from the looks of it, the restoration still isn't complete." Yang Kai gave a slight nod.
At this moment, Zhongdu appeared relatively peaceful. Despite the fifty-li distance, Yang Kai could still make out the traces of quite a few people moving about within the city.
Suddenly, points of brilliant light bloomed from one corner of Zhongdu, dazzling his eyes.
"Master, it seems someone's fighting over there," Li Rong said in a low voice.
"Let's go look!" Yang Kai steered the Flying Sky Shuttle once more, and it vanished from its spot in a flash.
At the main southern gate of Zhongdu, a group of Transcendent Realm warriors fled in a panic, their faces twisted with terror.
The main southern gate was the Yang Family's exclusive entrance—all direct descendants of the Yang Family passed through this gate when departing or returning. When Yang Kai had returned to Zhongdu years ago to participate in the succession battle, he had taken this very path.
The Transcendent Realm warriors now fleeing were, for the most part, elite fighters from the Yang Family's Blood Guard Hall.
They ran with all their might, desperate to escape Zhongdu.
But behind them trailed two enemies of incomparable strength.
"You rats scurry pretty fast. Let's see where you run now!" One of the pursuers, a middle-aged man with a single eye, followed at an unhurried pace behind them, making no immediate move to strike. His voice dripped with mockery, and his eyes brimmed with amusement, as though a cat toying with mice. "A mere pack of Transcendent Realm insects daring to act bold in front of me? Run, run to your heart's content—just don't let me catch you, or you'll wish you were dead."
Every one of the fleeing warriors gnashed their teeth, their eyes red with fury. Yet they all knew the enemy's terrifying power and dared not stop to fight. Instead, they launched martial techniques over their shoulders while running, trying to slow the pursuer down.
But those attacks struck the one-eyed man and accomplished nothing. Only faint ripples appeared around his body before the strikes vanished without a trace, like stones dropped into the ocean.
The sight drained whatever hope remained in the fleeing warriors' hearts.
"Chou Xu, stop playing. Sect Leader Wu is waiting for our report. Catch them quickly and be done with it." From another direction, a voluptuous, beautiful woman spoke in a flat tone, offering the one-eyed man a reminder.
Chou Xu glanced at her from afar and gave a soft snort. "I don't need you telling me what to do."
Then, in a barely audible voice, he cursed: "Little slut, think you can order me around just because you've latched onto Wu Zheng's coattails? Look at yourself—disgusting. Bad luck, I swear."
As he spoke, his expression turned savage. He barked a harsh command downward: "Run, keep running! Whoever I catch first, I'll make them suffer every torture under the heavens. You'll learn what it means to wish for death! I was being generous—seeing you lot had some skill and could be of use, I thought I'd put you to work. And you dare try to escape? You really don't know your place!"
The words of the man and woman drifted down to the warriors below, making their faces darken even further.
In the crowd, a burly man shouted in a low voice: "Everyone, scatter! Our fates are in heaven's hands— whoever makes it out, you must survive! Find the Young Master and tell him what happened here!"
The others nodded in unison and called out together: "Good luck!"
In the next instant, every one of them scattered in all directions.
The man and woman pursuing them watched this unfold without the slightest hint of surprise. The one-eyed man called Chou Xu sneered: "They've got a little brain after all. I thought they'd stop and fight me. Turns out they're not completely stupid."
"Enough games—if they get too far, it'll be troublesome. Cut off their path ahead; I'll seal the rear!" the voluptuous woman snapped. Simultaneously, a surging, ocean-like force erupted from her body. An invisible barrier materialized behind the fleeing Transcendent Realm warriors, blocking their retreat and surging forward at tremendous speed, compressing the space they could move in.
Seeing that she had already acted, Chou Xu wasted no more words. He deployed the same technique, cutting off the warriors' path forward.
Boom, boom, boom—
Figures slammed into the invisible barriers, and layers of ripples shimmered in midair. The warriors, dazed and disoriented, were forced back, their faces ashen.
Two sword-sharp auras bore down on them from the front and rear, compelling them to huddle together once more, backs pressed against one another, glaring up in fury at the man and woman in the sky.
No path to the heavens, no road into the earth—under absolute overwhelming force, they could only be toyed with by their enemies, utterly powerless to resist.
"Xiu Li, I'll just kill one to let off some steam—no problem with that, right?" Chou Xu turned his lone eye toward the voluptuous woman.
The woman called Xiu Li furrowed her painted brows, displeased. "Their strength is nothing. What's the point of killing them? The reason Sect Leader Wu spared their lives is to make them submit and serve us. Once this group surrenders, the rest will be easy to handle. The spiritual energy here is thin and the resources are scarce, but there's no shortage of people—digging mines and doing manual labor, they'll come in handy."
"Oh, I know what Sect Leader Wu wants. But... if I don't crush their spirit a little, this frustration won't leave me." Chou Xu slowly shook his head.
Seeing his manner, Xiu Li felt a wave of disgust but didn't want to waste time arguing over this. She gave a reluctant nod. "Fine. But you're only allowed to kill one. If you dare take more, I will report it to Sect Leader Wu."