314: Chapter 312 Siege

The border of the Great Liang Kingdom flew past beneath Yun Ming's feet.

He flew very low, skimming the treetops, dimming his five-colored Escape Light to its absolute lowest.

The Fuli Heaven-Concealing Record completely concealed his aura, but he still didn't dare fly too high. Heaven knew if there were large forces of the Yao Race nearby, or if there were Nascent Soul Stage or even Soul Transformation Stage Yao Cultivators wandering around.

The Great Liang Kingdom was already in ruins.

The fields were desolate, villages abandoned, and cities collapsed. Yun Ming flew over a small city; more than half of its walls had collapsed, and the city gates were reduced to wooden splinters. The city was littered with corpses—some lying in the middle of the road, some hanging from broken window frames, and others nailed to the walls. They had died in various gruesome ways: some had their chests torn open by sharp claws, some had their skulls pierced by unknown objects, and others were completely shriveled as if drained of their blood.

Not a single corpse was intact.

Yun Ming did not stop; he continued flying north.

He flew over several more cities, and the situation was much the same.

In some places, embers were still burning, and billowing black smoke covered half the sky.

The air was filled with a mixture of burning and rotting smells, making him feel nauseous.

Occasionally, a few low-level Yao Cultivators were rummaging through the ruins. Yun Ming swept past above them, and his cicada wing sword unsheathed silently. With a flash of sword light, the heads of the Yao Cultivators slid off without a sound.

He did not linger, nor did he spare those corpses a single glance.

His Divine Sense remained spread out, searching in the direction of Linan City.

He arrived at Linan City.

The city walls had collapsed, and the city gates were reduced to wooden splinters. Most of the buildings in the city had collapsed, and the remaining ones were teetering on the verge of ruin. The streets were littered with corpses, their deaths even more gruesome than those he had seen before. Some were disemboweled, some torn into pieces, and some reduced to a pile of white bones. The blood had already dried and blackened, seeping into the crevices of the stones, covering everything.

Standing on the ruins, Yun Ming spread his Divine Sense to its full extent, scanning the entire Linan City.

There was no aura of any living person, nor was there any sign of Ah Yuan's aura. His heart sank, but he did not give up. He scanned again, this time no longer searching for the presence of living humans, but instead looking for traces of the Yao Race.

To the southeast, in a mountain hollow outside the city, there was Demonic Qi.

Yun Ming transformed into an Escape Light and flew toward that direction.

The mountain hollow was not large, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only a narrow path leading outside.

In the hollow stood an abandoned Mountain God Temple. It was not large, consisting of only a main hall and two side halls. Most of the courtyard wall had collapsed, and the courtyard gate was gone. The temple was packed with people—men, women, young, and old—all huddled in the corners, trembling all over.

In the open space outside the temple, a dense crowd of Yao Cultivators stood. A rough scan revealed there were at least a hundred of them.

Leading them was a Late Golden Core Stage Yao Cultivator. He was heavily built, two heads taller than an average man, covered in pitch-black scales, and holding a bone saber taller than a person. He did not attack, but merely stood at the temple entrance with his arms crossed, a playful smirk hanging on the corner of his mouth. The Yao Cultivators behind him, however, kept attacking, yet they could not break through the defense before them.

Yun Ming's gaze bypassed the crowd of Yao Cultivators and landed on the temple entrance.

Ah Yuan stood at the temple entrance, dressed in simple green robes stained with blood—both her own and that of the Yao Race. Her left hand held the array-breaking sword, the formation patterns on its blade already mostly dimmed, and the tip of the sword drooping slightly. Her right hand held up the xuanming heaven-covering umbrella, the eerie glow on its surface flickering unsteadily, clearly on the verge of collapse. Hanging from her waist was the needle pouch for the blood-transforming eerie glow needles, and the silver-white spiritual light of the moonlight flowing frost robe flickered faintly on her chest, though its glow was already extremely weak. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were astonishingly bright, like two burning fires.

Behind her was Ning Yuanzhou's family. Ning Yuanzhou was holding a five- or six-year-old boy whose face was pale and who was trembling all over, yet his eyes were still looking around. His wife held an even smaller girl, shrinking behind Ning Yuanzhou, trembling and not daring to look up. There were also dozens of other Mortals in the temple—elderly, women, and children—all of whom were commoners of Linan City.

Just as Yun Ming was about to take action, the boy suddenly spoke, his voice sharp and carrying a crying tone.

"Why haven't you killed them yet?! Are you useless?!"

Ah Yuan did not look back. The boy kept shouting, his voice growing louder and more piercing. "My mother is injured! You useless piece of trash! You promised my father you would protect us! Hurry up and kill them!"

Ning Yuanzhou's face darkened, and he barked, "Shut up!"

Startled, the boy shut his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes.

Ning Yuanzhou glanced at Ah Yuan's back and said in a low voice, "Miss Ah Yuan, these monsters... do you actually have a way to deal with them?"

His voice was not loud, and his tone was not particularly harsh, but that matter-of-fact, commanding tone made him seem like a completely different person from when he had previously begged Ah Yuan for help.

His wife also spoke up, her voice high-pitched and tearful. "Miss Ah Yuan, I beg of you, please think of something. The children are still so young, nothing must happen to them..."

Her words seemed to open the floodgates, and the other people in the temple began to speak up one after another.

Some were crying, some were begging, some were complaining, and some were blaming. The voices grew louder and more chaotic.

"Aren't you a Cultivator? Aren't Cultivators supposed to be very powerful?"

"Are you doing this on purpose? Do you want us to die?"

"What good does it do you if we die?"

"Lord Ning was so good to you, you can't be ungrateful!"

Ah Yuan did not speak, did not look back, and did not even move.

Outside the temple, the Late Golden Core Stage Yao Cultivator finally couldn't listen to it any longer. He burst into loud laughter, his raspy and grating laughter echoing through the mountain hollow. Pointing his bone saber at Ah Yuan, he shook his head.

"Humans are truly amusing." His voice was raspy and full of mockery. "You risk your life to save them, yet they complain you aren't saving them fast enough. If you don't save them, they call you useless. If you do save them, they take it for granted." He paused, his grin widening further. "Even I find it disgusting to watch."

The Yao Cultivator took two steps forward, resting his bone saber on his shoulder. "How about this, I'll give you a chance. Kill all of these people, and I will let you go. What do you say? One life in exchange for dozens of lives, not a bad deal for you."

The people in the temple fell silent instantly. Then, they exploded.

"Don't kill us! Miss Ah Yuan, we beg of you!"

"She is still young, she won't kill us! She promised Lord Ning that she would protect us!"

"Miss Ah Yuan, you made an oath! You can't break your word!"

"The children are still so young, do you have the heart to watch them die?"

The clamor rose again. The boy started shouting once more, his voice even more piercing than before. "Hurry up and kill them! Are you too scared?! You coward!"

Ning Yuanzhou did not stop him, nor did his wife. They merely stared at Ah Yuan, waiting for her to take action, waiting for her to save them and get them out.

Ah Yuan finally spoke. Her voice was very soft and calm. "I promised Lord Ning that I would protect you all. I will not break my word."

Ah Yuan ignored those voices. She knew these people were not worth saving.

But she had promised Ning Yuanzhou, and she would not break her word. It was not for Ning Yuanzhou's sake, but for her own.

She would finish what she had promised, and then leave. Her spiritual energy was completely depleted; she could no longer activate the array-breaking sword, the blood-transforming eerie glow needles could no longer be shot, and the spiritual light of the moonlight flowing frost robe was nearly extinguished.

She had held out until now solely by burning her Lifespan.

Ah Yuan took a deep breath and channeled the very last trace of her spiritual energy into the xuanming heaven-covering umbrella. The eerie glow on the umbrella's surface flared up suddenly, then dimmed again. It wasn't enough; her spiritual energy was insufficient. She began to burn her Lifespan. The life force within her body was forcibly extracted, transforming into spiritual energy that poured into the umbrella. The xuanming heaven-covering umbrella lit up once more, the eerie glow turning from dim to bright, and from bright to blinding, as if it were about to burst from the surface of the umbrella. Her face grew pale at a speed visible to the naked eye, wrinkles began to appear at the corners of her eyes, and several strands of hair at her temples turned gray. She stood there like a withered tree about to burn itself out.

The xuanming heaven-covering umbrella trembled violently, more and more cracks appearing on its surface as the eerie glow flickered. Ah Yuan knew that this umbrella was about to fail. This was the exact moment she had been waiting for. She stopped infusing it with spiritual energy, instead compressing all the accumulated power within the umbrella toward a single point—to detonate it.

The Yao Cultivator's expression changed.

He wiped the smile from his face, his slitted pupils contracting as he stared intently at the umbrella in Ah Yuan's hand.

He sensed danger; the power contained within that umbrella was enough to blow him and his subordinates into pieces.

He raised his bone saber and roared, "Kill her!"