In Gigantic Willow City.
“Lockdown!”
There was a sudden, loud shout.
Countless armored Gigantic Willow troops were dispatched to set up blockades at all intersections.
A large number of Gigantic Willow Divine Guards were in Flight Stance and several Rank-6 generals had grave expressions.
“All life stones exchange shops, stop the exchange!”
A Peak Rank-6 general softly shouted. A large number of Gigantic Willow troops had begun to enter the various exchange shops to conduct inspections.
In the city, people were panicking!
Things happened one after another. First was the enforced martial law, then the lockdown. Even when they went to battle with Cretaceous City previously, it had never been like this.
Nowadays, even without seeing the enemies, the Divine Guards in the city were already in turmoil, and this was causing many people to worry.
What happened?
Outside the city, in a restaurant of sorts, Fang Ping sighed while sipping delicious fruit wine. “With the dispatch of the Divine Guards, no matter how serious the problem, they should be able to solve them.”
His words carried a bit of vague accent, but no one cared. The language of the Catacombs was unified, but each city had its own accent. They had grown accustomed to a variety of accents.
As Fang Ping finished his sentence, a Catacombs martial artist who was also wearing a Rank-3 medal said worriedly, “I am afraid that the Divine Guards will not be able to handle it. When the strong enemies attacked us yesterday, several chieftains had...”
“Be careful with your words!”
“Yes, yes, yes, we shouldn’t conjecture about the chieftains!”
The person who was talking slapped himself several times, though he still could not conceal his worries and whispered, “Is this another attack from the powerhouses of Foreign Territory? These two days, it is not too stable in Royal City. I still have a house in Willow Wood City...”
“Willow Wood City is not safe too, didn’t you hear about it? During the past two days, the surrounding cities have all been attacked, and several towns have been annihilated...”
“How many powerhouses have come from Foreign Territory? Can the king defeat the enemies?”
“Even with martial law enforcement, the people from Foreign Territory have entered the city again?”
“I wanted to try to get recruited for the Gigantic Willow troops. Now, forget about it. I heard that the casualty rate of Divine Guards is more than half!”
“...”
Everyone was still discussing, when Fang Ping suddenly shouted, “Powerhouses from Foreign Territory must be killed! Unfortunately, Royal City does not recruit people from other cities. If they did, even though I am a citizen of Gigantic Pine City, I would also want to serve the king!
“I heard that Gigantic Pine City has also begun to expand its army. When I go back in a few days, I will join the Gigantic Pine Army and wash the Foreign Territory with blood!”
Seeing him filled with righteous indignation and resentment, someone said, “Brother, you are courageous, but you are only Rank-3. To wash the Foreign Territory with blood would be difficult.”
Fang Ping looked angry, then he slammed the table fiercely and said angrily, “Although our strength is weak, we must not let the powerhouses from Foreign Territory succeed!”
“Ambitious!”
Some people praised him, while some shook their heads without saying a word. A Rank-3 martial artist was considered not too weak.
However, now that the powerhouses from Foreign Territory were invading them, the chieftain powerhouses were also in a terrible state. The day before yesterday, there were even venerable powerhouses who had fallen. No matter how audacious he was, what could a mere Rank-3 hope to achieve?
While they were talking, a Rank-4 armored guard walked in and looked around with a cold gaze.
Fang Ping got up and bowed. “Lord, can this servant be of service?”
The armored guard gave him a look, and his expression softened. He was outside just now and had heard the man speak. However, the context was that he was not from the city. Royal City would not recruit any outsiders.
Shaking his head slightly, the armored guard did not say much and regained his indifference. “If you see any aberrant characters, report it immediately! Anyone who dares to hide anything will be killed!”
“Yes!”
Everyone was affirmative and responded cautiously.
With a face full of regret, Fang Ping waited until the armored guard was gone, then slammed the table again, saying, “Such a shame!”
Everyone was speechless. Was he so eager to die?
However, with the heart to kill the enemy and to protect his city, his courage was commendable.
Fang Ping did not speak anymore. He sullenly drank the wine and stomped the ground with his feet, driving a high-ranked energy stone into the ground.
There were many people in the restaurant. If there was an explosion here, it could also cause some disorder.
Nevertheless, the response of the Catacombs’ martial artists was incredibly quick. He had only robbed two shops, and had already been discovered?
“After this time, Gigantic Willow City’s entry system may be changed.”
Fang Ping thought about it. He had infiltrated the city twice in a row. The next time, he would not be surprised if Gigantic Willow City found a way to specifically target him.
But... could it be done?
A large city that had millions of people, which was interconnected with other cities, would find it difficult to completely eradicate unwanted guests.
“I don’t know if there is a way for the powerhouses of the Catacombs to come up with a new set of identity verification procedures.”
Fang Ping felt that his existence was conducive to the development of the civilization of the powerhouses of the Catacombs. A good identity verification method was still extremely necessary.
It would benefit a stable society as it would increase the strength of the jurisdiction of the Catacombs toward ordinary people.
Willow King should thank him. His presence had made Gigantic Willow City realized that there were big loopholes in their defense.
For example, the underground drainage pipes should be blocked.
Also, the Willow Tree Monster should work out ways on how to strengthen the ends of the roots, as the current strength was insufficient.
Another lesson was that Rank-9 Willow King should stay put and not go out unnecessarily.
The presence of a Rank-9 powerhouse guarding the old lair—apart from the Willow Tree Monster which was a Monster Plant that could not move easily—would be a strong deterrence.
If Willow King was in the city, the Rank-9 powerhouse would have a wide coverage range of his Mentality, and Fang Ping would probably be less arrogant... His arrogance right now was so great that he dared to have a drink here when the Gigantic Willow troops were right beside him.
“But I also have some limitations... The accent of the Catacombs’ language is a bit heavy and I seemed sloppy. I’ll need to study harder.
“Nanjiang Catacombs have their own Nanjiang Catacombs’ accent. The next time when I go to the Magic City Catacombs, I need to pay attention to the changes and not go back with the Nanjiang Catacombs’ accent.”
“Besides, if I were to encounter any high-ranked powerhouses face to face, it would be easy to see through me. I need to be careful.”
It would still be alright if he were to conceal his aura and hide. If he were to appear directly in front of the person, he would easily attract attention. That was why there was constantly a condensation of energy particles on Fang Ping’s stats interface.
These energy particles were not within the range of the shield.
Middle and low-ranked ones would not be able to see anything. However, if he encountered high-ranked ones, they would be able to notice the problem if they looked closely.
“It’s okay to fight guerrillas. But if I were to reside in the city and were to encounter the high-ranks one day, that would be troublesome.”
Fang Ping realized the shortcoming; the energy shield was not omnipotent.
Of course, it was also very expensive. It consumed 6 hundred thousand Wealth an hour, which was not a small amount. If he were to reside here regularly, then it would be unaffordable.
As he buried a high-ranked energy stone, on the streets, Gigantic Willow’s troops seem to be lighter on their interrogations.
The Rank-6 powerhouses in the sky also disappeared at the moment.
Fang Ping gave a look full of contempt; who were you trying to fool?
Not surprisingly, these people were now in the most vigilant state. If he were to go out and rob the shops again, within 10 seconds, at least hundreds of people would appear in front of him.
“Child’s play, we shall see who will outlast the other.”
Fang Ping suspected that not only were the middle and low-ranked powerhouses on the lookout, but the Willow Tree Monster could be on guard too. In fact, there could still be some high-ranks left who were hidden in the city.
With the departure of several high-ranks’ aura who flew away previously, even with the deaths of a few, there were still many Rank-7 powerhouses left in Gigantic Willow City.
Fang Ping ignored these people and continued to drink.
After drinking for a while, Fang Ping came out of the restaurant. Not far away was the big plaza he saw when he came yesterday.
At this moment, there were fewer martial artists in the plaza compared to yesterday.
With the addition of martial law in the city, the number of people had been reduced considerably.
However, this was a place where martial artists from the surrounding towns came to trade. Even if there was martial law in the city, this side was temporarily not closed for the time being.
Nevertheless, there were a lot of Gigantic Willow troops around and these city guards were quite domineering.
As if they were looking at criminals, they glanced across the martial artists who were vendors.
When they saw those who looked frivolous, very quickly a large number of city guards would surround them. Fang Ping watched for a while; quite a few of the conspicuous ones were arrested and taken away.
“What does this mean?”
Fang Ping felt a little indignant. Why did they arrest the people who were just standing out a little?
Were they arresting people based on their looks?
With the arrest of several frivolous guys, the Gigantic Willow troops no longer attached much importance to this area. Some were left guarding the periphery and that was about it.
Fang Ping walked and looked around. Occasionally, he crouched down to look at the goods, but he was in fact burying high-ranked energy stones.
Not only high-ranked ones but Fang Ping also buried the low-ranked ones together. When he detonated them later, the high-ranked ones would explode and the low-grade ones would be scattered around. Would these guys think that it was an explosion of the energy mine?
If someone were to be greedy and thought that there was an energy mine below, it would be fun to watch them frantically dig further down.
This would be just like an explosion of the production line of the human pharmaceutical company. A large number of ordinary Vitality pills would be thrown out. Fang Ping felt that if he were there, he would think of the high-ranked pills inside and take advantage of the chaotic situation to grab some for himself... Would that be too much?
As for the energy fluctuations, the martial artists who were below the high-ranks, unless their strength was potent, would not be sensitive to the sensing of energy. Fang Ping was not afraid of being discovered.
As he walked around, he buried about seven or eight high-ranked energy stones.
In addition to the few that were buried outside the plaza, Fang Ping’s preparation was complete.
As he walked outside, Fang Ping was looking forward to it. It would be good if these guys would dig in, then the Willow Tree Monster would not even notice his existence right?
After he had walked about 10 meters from the place where he just buried the stones, Fang Ping unleashed his Mentality.
“Boom!”
A loud noise rang out. In the sky, seven to eight auras of Rank-6 powerhouses rose suddenly. There was even a stronger presence from a Rank-7!
“Sure enough!”
Fang Ping was not surprised. As the explosion sounded, the crowd started to panic!
Fang Ping rushed out quickly. At this moment, there were people everywhere running about, so he did not attract much attention.
As he ran along, the explosion sounded all the way!
As the high-ranked energy stones were exploding with quite some force, some low-ranked martial artists were bombed to the point that their flesh and blood was spraying in all directions.
“Life Stones!” someone exclaimed!
“The Mines of Life has exploded!”
At this moment, some people had not realized what had happened, thinking that the underground energy mine had burst.
Now, even in the noisy crowd, Fang Ping heard audible gasps.
For the martial artists from outside the city, the level of difficulty of obtaining these high-ranked life stones was too high!
The ordinary low-ranked energy stones, even though there were numerous, were also not easy to obtain. There were high-ranked monsters in the rich mines, and small mines were also occupied by low-ranked monsters.
Every energy stone, no matter high or low-ranked, was full of blood.
When some energy stones were blown out onto the plaza, some martial artists were tempted.
This was despite the many powerful presences rapidly making their way toward here in the air.
“Boom!”
The sound of the explosions did not stop. On the path that Fang Ping ran past, more than ten spots exploded continuously.
Some shops and restaurants were also blown up.
From the periphery, countless Gigantic Willow troops and Gigantic Willow Divine Guards quickly rushed over. Some martial artists who thought that the Foreign Territory’s powerhouses had launched their attack also started to run out. Immediately, they collided with the Gigantic Willow troops from the periphery.
The gruesome cries, the roars, and the rebukes of the military soldiers continuously rang out.
Meanwhile, Fang Ping opened a drain outlet at a remote place of the street and slipped in silently.
Just when Fang Ping had slipped in, over at the plaza, countless crystal-clear roots suddenly rose and turned into murderous weapons. In the blink of an eye, the roots pierced the bodies of countless martial artists!
The clamorous screams seemed to disappear instantly!
After a while, some general powerhouses and a Rank-7 powerhouse arrived.
After seeing the corpses all over the plaza and the blood that soaked it, the generals’ expressions changed slightly.
There were at least a hundred martial artists here, but now they were all killed!
The roots of the Willow Tree Monster could easily penetrate even Fang Ping’s body. Most of the people here were low-ranked martial artists who were killed immediately.
A small number of middle-ranked martial artists also found it difficult to hold their ground especially when Willow Tree Monster was in a state of anger.
Some Gigantic Willow troops in the periphery were also trembling.
The tutelary was enraged!
Royal City belonged to Willow King and the tutelary. At this moment, as Royal City was constantly being destroyed and attacked, in addition to the Life Essence being stolen, it was natural for it to be furious.
From the void, a gush of extremely powerful Mentality swept by.
It swept around the plaza and soon entered deep into the undergrounds and started to scan the area.
However, it did not continue for long and the Mentality retreated.
The distance to the inner city was far, and the consumption was too high. Furthermore, there were mineral veins underground. If it went too deep, the strong energy fluctuations would create too much interference.
With the retreat of the Mentality, the Rank-7 chieftain felt relieved and then shouted, “Rigorous investigation! Seal the city! Arrest all the people outside the city. Each person from Gigantic Willow City needs three people to act as your guarantor...”
After a series of orders were issued, the chieftain pondered for a moment and looked at the generals. “The tutelary has sealed off the inner city. Wood Cedar, take someone to Gigantic Armor City and invite Chieftain Earth Armor to come along with the Earth Armor Beast. Willow King will greatly reward them! ”
“Yes, sir!”
The general known as Wood Cedar did not hesitate. Although they did not get along with Monster Life Clan, if they could grant them a certain benefit, to get their assistance would not be a big problem.
The general who was referred to as Wood Cedar quickly led some people away, and soon someone whispered, “Chieftain, is it the same thief from yesterday?”
“Eight or nine out of ten, it is!”
The Rank-7 chieftain’s eyes were cold. Apart from him, who else could it be?
“The rest of you take some people to block all parts of the city. Also, block all the major roads leading out of the city... I don’t believe that he won’t show up!
“Also, strengthen the defense of the underground Mines of Life, and be careful of people infiltrating!
“When the Earth Armor Beast arrived, we shall see him try burrowing into the ground!”
Glancing sideways at the giant tree in the inner city, the Rank-7 chieftain was slightly relieved. The tutelary was still in the city and the inner city was unharmed. Although the outer city suffered heavy losses, most of those deaths were people from outside the city, so it did not matter.
Without looking at the corpses, the chieftain rose into Flight Stance and quickly disappeared in front of everyone.
Once the chieftain left, the few Rank-6 generals were worried. Now, it was no longer safe even inside the city.
“If the king does not come back soon, it’s going to be a mess.”
This thought flashed through the minds of these people. The king was always away, and the Venerables were also absent. Although the tutelary was strong, it could only guard the inner city.
Now, the outer city was destroyed, and it was extremely serious.
If the king was in the city, the thief would not have been so bold.
However, at this moment, the king was still outside and the chieftain even had to seek help from Monster Life Clan. This time, Gigantic Willow City would probably become the laughing stock of Nine Southern Territory.
...
In the city, several generals were hoping that their king would return soon.
Outside the city, at the entrance to the passageway.
Willow King’s crown had fallen off, and cracks were appearing one after another on his golden jade-like body.
At this moment, Willow King was seething with hatred!
Did they not say that no strong people were coming from the Land of Rebirth?
Yes, there was not any supreme king coming over!
However, this newcomer, even if he was not a supreme king, was not far away from becoming one!
The bastards from the Restricted Area had fooled him!
Willow King’s anger was intense, but Zhao Xingwu was rather confused. Was this not supposed to be a siege of a few Rank-8s and dozens of Rank-7s?
Why was it only this guy holding on from the beginning till the end?
He had been told that the situation was so critical that they could not wait for another moment.
Why does it not feel dangerous at all?
If he had not deemed that Old Zheng who went back to report was trustworthy enough, Zhao Xingwu might have suspected that he had been reported false news.
It was not so critical at all!
Let alone the high-ranks, he did not even see the middle and low-rank army. The Nanjiang Catacombs did not seem to attach too much importance to the passageway.
At this moment, Zhao Xingwu probably did not expect that among the few unexpected intruders, three of them led away hundreds of Gigantic Willow Divine Guards. One false Rank-8 led away one Rank 8 and several Rank-7s.
Another one also stalled a large number of Gigantic Willow Divine Guards and a Rank-7 in the city.
If it was not for the misfortune that befell at the back, Willow King would never be here alone, there would at least be seven or eight Rank-7 powerhouses more.
Furthermore, the allied army of Gigantic Pine City, due to the fear of repeating the same mistakes, also had a large number of Rank-7 martial artists who stayed back in the city.
“This is nothing!”
Zhao Xingwu felt quite relaxed. It seemed that the situation here in the Nanjiang side was much better than expected.
The next moment, Zhao Xingwu let out a shout. The saber in his hand suddenly disappeared, burst through the air instantly, and a stroke slashed toward the tree shadow above the head of Willow King.
The looming gigantic tree sent its countless branches cutting through the air, constantly surrounding and attacking the saber.
Indistinctly, countless branches of the gigantic tree were cut off, and the broken branches instantly shattered. Every time one shattered, Willow King’s expression became darker.
He was no match for this human!
If he continued, he would probably suffer.
“How do the other territories stand against the Land of Rebirth?”
At this moment, Willow King was a little skeptical. The people in the Restricted Area had said that for the other territories, one city was sufficient to hold up against them. Why then, when it was his turn, were there continuous misfortunes?
What Willow King did not know was that Zhao Xingwu was also confused. Not only did the other party not have reinforcements, but he also had the upper hand at this moment, and it looked like there was not anybody coming from the Central Mountains. There were many irregularities.
Glancing at Willow King, Zhao Xingwu did not think much about it. This guy had average strength. Of course, he probably could not kill the opponent.
If it came to the critical moment, someone would probably come to the rescue.
However, even if the opponent could not be killed, he must also cripple the other party severely, at least to the point where he would be powerless to make a comeback and also to reduce the resistance on their city-building in the future.
Taking advantage that the opponent was alone, Zhao Xingwu did not hesitate and attacked with all his strength, cutting through the air continuously, producing bursting sounds.
Willow King was still struggling to resist when, in the distance, a loud noise shook the sky!
A giant tree that looked like it was penetrating through the sky erupted with an extremely intense light!
“Something happened!”
Willow King’s expression changed greatly, and he no longer cared about the passageway. To hell with the Land of Rebirth, the people in the Restricted Area should go and guard it themselves. He did not want to be involved anymore!
The next moment, Willow King turned and fled.
Zhao Xingwu froze for a moment before he hurriedly gave chase, a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes. What was going on, that even the tutelary monster plant had been unleashed?
This time... things were a bit serious!