129: Chapter 129 I am the true city lord!

A flash before his eyes.

A hard sensation came from beneath his feet; it wasn't soil, it was stone.

Zhou Yun steadied himself and blinked a few times.

After the red light dissipated, a world he had never seen before came into view.

Beneath his feet was a massive stone platform, grayish-white, with a surface so smooth it didn't look like a natural formation.

The end of the platform connected to a stone bridge that extended straight forward, stretching to the edge of his vision, with no end in sight.

Above him was a purplish-black firmament.

There was no moon, no stars, only streaks of purple lightning silently tearing, mending, and tearing again in the high sky. The light didn't illuminate; it pressed down—the entire sky was like an inverted cauldron, ready to crash down at any moment.

On both sides of the stone bridge was an abyss.

Purplish-black lightning also surged in the abyss, bottomless. Occasionally, a bolt of lightning would dart up from below, illuminating the rough rock walls on the side of the stone bridge before vanishing.

Minister Wang Fugui poked his head out and glanced down at the bridge.

Then, he quickly retracted his neck, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"This place... is it a bit too high?"

Lei Lie glanced at him: "Scared?"

"Me, scared?" Minister Wang Fugui immediately stiffened his neck and patted his chest. "I, the dignified Trade Department..."

"Then you lead the charge later."

Minister Wang Fugui's hand froze on his chest, his expression solidifying for a moment.

Then, he nodded righteously: "Leading the charge it is!"

As he spoke, he decisively took a step backward.

"Coward." Lei Lie shook his head, a hint of amusement in his voice.

He turned his head and cast a glance at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun looked at him and nodded.

Lei Lie took a deep breath, turned to face the ten thousand soldiers who had just steadied themselves, and shouted:

"Attention, all troops—form ranks!"

The voice struck the stone platform like a heavy hammer, reverberating through the Void Realm.

The reaction was shockingly fast.

Ten thousand people began to move almost at the same instant the order fell. The officers' voices erupted one after another, each more strident than the last:

"Form ranks!"

"Form ranks!!"

The sound of armor plates colliding merged into a dense torrent of metal, and the footsteps hammered onto the stone platform in perfect unison, each step carrying a tremor.

In less than twenty breaths, ten thousand people reassembled from their scattered state after teleportation into a strict square formation.

Horizontal rows, vertical columns.

Spear tips like a forest.

The purplish-black lightning reflected on their armor; ten thousand people stood silently in the Void Realm, like an iron-cast city wall.

...

On the other side of the stone bridge.

"Ahhhhh—!"

Screams exploded first.

A young woman crouched on the ground, covering her head with both hands, shaking like a sieve.

She was wearing ordinary coarse cloth clothes, no armor, no weapons, and her cloth shoes were still stained with mud.

"What's going on?! What's going on?! How did we get here?!"

A middle-aged man looked around frantically, stumbling, nearly falling from the edge of the platform into the abyss, before being grabbed by someone nearby.

"It's the decisive battlefield!" someone shrieked. "We've been teleported to the decisive battlefield!"

"Impossible! I didn't sign up! I never signed up!"

"Where's the army? Where is the army?!"

"Help! Help! Someone save us!"

...

The crowd exploded like a poked anthill.

Nearly ten thousand people were crammed onto the stone platform, pushing, running, falling, and screaming.

Some retreated desperately, some crouched on the ground hugging their heads and crying, some grabbed the clothes of those around them and wouldn't let go. When the purplish-black lightning struck, a louder shriek erupted from the crowd, and countless people curled up simultaneously.

No armor.

No weapons.

No formations.

There were only nearly ten thousand ordinary people who didn't know why they were here, under the purple lightning, like a group of landlubbers thrown into deep water.

An old man sat slumped on the ground, his cloudy eyes staring straight at the surging thunder overhead, his lips trembling, repeatedly muttering one sentence:

"I want to go home... I want to go home..."

No one heard his voice.

Because everyone was shouting the same thing.

...

"I... am the City Lord?"

Qing City Minister of Interior City Lord looked down at the large black seal in his arms.

His hands were shaking, not out of fear, but out of excitement.

The large seal was much heavier than he had imagined; the cold sensation seeped through his palms and straight into his chest, causing his heart to skip a beat.

"I am the City Lord."

He said it again, his voice a bit louder than before, as if to confirm this wasn't a dream.

The image in his mind was still as clear as if it had been engraved.

Just the moment before the red light of teleportation was about to engulf him, Wang Shuai suddenly reached out and shoved the city lord seal into his arms.

The movement was fast, so fast he couldn't even refuse.

Wang Shuai's face flickered in the red light, his lips moving, saying only one sentence:

"You are a smart person; you should know what to do."

Then the red light swallowed everything.

"Smart person..."

City Lord murmured these three words, his gaze moving away from the city lord seal in his arms and sweeping across the surroundings.

The platform was in chaos.

Nearly ten thousand people were pushing, crying, and running; the noise was as chaotic as a boiling pot.

No armor, no weapons, all were coarse cloth clothes and cloth shoes stained with mud.

His hundred personal guards formed a circle, shielding him in the middle, their swords already unsheathed, watching all directions vigilantly.

His gaze crossed the crowd and landed on the end of the stone bridge.

He couldn't see the end.

But there was something on that end of the stone bridge.

He couldn't tell if it was visual or intuition; it was vague, like a heavy lump of iron pressing at the end of his vision, and a sense of oppression silently transmitted from the stone bridge.

City Lord's expression began to change.

First, it went pale for a moment—that was instinctive fear. Then, the blood rushed back up, rising into an unnatural flush.

Yes.

He was a smart person.

So he knew why Wang Shuai had surrendered the city lord seal at the last moment.

Surrendering the city lord seal meant giving up the position of City Lord.

Why would a dignified S-rank City Lord give it up?

Because he was no match.

These days, the whole Qing City had been buzzing about it.

Flower City has sixty thousand Professionals, spiritual rice so abundant they can't finish it, and their equipment is all standard-issue sets.

With such an opponent, how can one fight?

Fight with their heads?

"Coward."

City Lord curled his lip, his eyes turning cold, his voice very low, audible only to himself.

"What a coward."

He added, a layer of contempt in his tone.

"Afraid before the battle even begins—you are unworthy!"

The last word "unworthy" was spat out along with saliva.

Then his expression changed.

The coldness faded, and the corners of his mouth slowly pulled open, revealing a smile.

The smile spread from the corners of his mouth to his eyes, widening and widening, until it almost reached his ears.

"But now, everything has changed."

He took the city lord seal from his arms and raised it above his head with both hands.

"I, am the City Lord!"