The Scarlet Cauldron Imperial Palace was the most heavily fortified location in the entire Scarlet Cauldron Central Domain. Its defensive power even surpassed that of any one of the three great sects.
The elites of the three great sects, led by their respective sect masters, launched a fierce assault on the Scarlet Cauldron Imperial Palace. Yet before that outer defensive formation, wave after wave of attacks not only failed to breach it in the slightest—they actually lost quite a few people to hidden arrows fired from within.
As time wore on, though the attacks grew more ferocious with each successive wave, the tier of that defensive formation was clearly far above their expectations.
As their offensive power climbed, the formation's defensive layers seemed to rise in tandem.
For a time, the battle had ground to a stalemate.
The three great sects had initially adopted a fight-and-assess mentality, not committing everything they had. But as their elites continued to fall to the formation's restrictions and hidden arrows, frustration within all three sects mounted.
Yet no matter how the three sects attacked, the formation's defenses held with astonishing strength. It was as though countess palace walls surrounded them on every side—no matter how they bombarded it, they could never find a way in.
What truly inflicted devastating casualties were the various restrictions that periodically lashed out from the formation—fire dragons that roared forth, ice arrows that screamed through the air—all exacting a terrible toll on the three sects' forces.
The three sect masters, seeing this, gathered together.
"Brother Daoists, this can't go on. Our sects' elite disciples cannot sustain losses at this rate." The master of the Scarlet Flame Sect let out a mournful sigh.
"Bah. The Yan family has ruled the Scarlet Cauldron Central Domain for thousands of years, accumulating heaven knows how much wealth through exploitation generation after generation. This formation is absolutely built on a foundation of Ling Shi," the Heavenly Eagle Sect Master fumed in exasperation.
But the Myriad Buddha Sect Master shook his head. "Not quite. While the formation certainly consumes enormous quantities of Ling Shi, it is by no means the kind built purely through sheer wealth. This formation bears the hallmarks of an ancient design—extraordinarily profound. My guess is that even Young Master Jiang Chen himself would find it troublesome. Why else would he send us to be the vanguard? Put bluntly, he simply doesn't want to sacrifice his own people and would rather have the three of us serve as cannon fodder."
"Shh, keep your voice down. If they overhear that, it would be a disaster beyond imagining."
"Hmph, what am I afraid of? But let's be honest—the Scarlet Cauldron royal family brought this upon themselves. In the end, this mess was started by the Scarlet Cauldron imperial house."
"Exactly. If they hadn't willingly served as lapdogs for the Indestructible Heavenly Capital and been incited by them to attack the Myriad Realms Domain, would we be in this situation today?"
The three sect masters whispered among themselves, reasoning that with the battlefield raging with deafening noise, there was no way Young Master Jiang Chen could overhear their conversation.
Still, none of them dared speak ill of Jiang Chen directly. It was as though that young man had already established sufficient authority in their minds to inspire an involuntary sense of awe.
"That dog of an emperor—at a time like this, he still insists on dragging a whole host of people down with him?" the Heavenly Eagle Sect Master huffed, his hand shooting out to grasp a dark long saber. "Gentlemen, I'm afraid there's no other option—we'll have to enter the fray ourselves."
Watching their elite disciples fall in mounting numbers, all three sect masters felt their hearts bleed.
"Very well. We strike together, break through the outer formation, charge in, and drag that tyrannical ruler out to hand him over to Young Master Jiang Chen for judgment."
"Well said—let's all go."
The three sect masters personally entering the battle immediately drew a thunderous roar of approval from the ranks. Inspired by their leaders, the senior figures of all three sects also unleashed a variety of Divine Abilities and joined the fray.
In an instant, weapons whirled through the air, divine light scattered in all directions, and radiant energy sprayed like sparks.
The collision between the powerful attacks and the formation's defenses generated enormous shockwaves that shook the surrounding earth endlessly, the ground trembling without pause.
…
Within the palace's inner courtyard, Commander He of the Imperial Guard stood at the core of the outer formation, watching the three great sects' crazed assault upon its outer barriers.
Even the three sect masters themselves had stripped down and entered the battle. That gave even a man as defiant as Commander He a flicker of apprehension.
Any single one of the three great sects was inferior to the imperial family—that was beyond dispute.
But with all three joining forces to attack the outer formation together, once their collective momentum built, they could pose a genuine and severe threat to the outer defenses.
Sure enough, with the three sect masters attacking in concert, small flaws and minor weaknesses began appearing continuously in the outer formation's defensive layers.
Every one of those flaws and gaps required a steady infusion of Ling Shi to mend.
The consumption of Ling Shi was staggering.
Yet with each escalation in the assault, those flaws and gaps were bound to widen further. The day they grew beyond what even Ling Shi could patch would be the day the outer formation truly faced collapse.
Commander He clenched his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and glared at the three sect masters attacking like madmen beyond the barriers. He stamped his foot and barked: "Keep your eyes on the formation—I'm going to see His Majesty."
"What?" The Scarlet Cauldron Emperor was in the palace's inner courtyard, separated from the outer perimeter that Commander He defended by yet another inner formation line. Affairs beyond the outer barrier had to be relayed through messengers that Commander He continuously sent inside.
He had never expected that the commander would come rushing back personally with such startling news.