130: Chapter 130 Killed

The voice suddenly pitched up several octaves, drowning out the surrounding cries and noise.

"Only I! Can lead Qing City—to glory!"

The last few words carried a hoarse tail, as if the throat had been split by something.

The surrounding noise died down.

The gazes of nearly ten thousand people were seized by the black city lord seal held high.

The chaotic crowd seemed to have been hit by a binding spell; the shoving stopped, the crying stopped, and everyone stared blankly at the thin man in the center of the platform holding the seal with both hands, his face twisted in wild laughter.

Only the hundred personal guards reacted differently.

The leading captain was the first to kneel, his knees slamming into the stone platform, his voice trembling with volume:

"My Lord! No—City Lord! Congratulations to the City Lord, for having your wish fulfilled!"

The hundred personal guards knelt in unison, the sound of armor plates clashing ringing out in a cascade.

City Lord laughed.

The laughter echoed under the purple-black thunder, half of it swallowed by the Void Realm, sounding distant and hollow.

But the laughter did not last long.

The corners of his mouth tightened, his eyes narrowed, and his gaze slowly fell from the held-up city lord seal, sweeping toward the bewildered civilians.

Nearly ten thousand people stood there, some still kneeling, some half-squatting, some supporting those beside them, their eyes filled with panic and confusion.

City Lord's gaze paused on them for two breaths.

Then it fell on the metal rings around their necks.

Orange-red.

Not red; it hadn't reached the final step yet, but it was already on the edge of the execution line.

These people—the old, the weak, some who couldn't even stand steadily—were all people marked by the metal rings.

Wang Shuai had picked them, not to have them fight.

City Lord's eyes changed.

Not cold, but empty.

Like looking at a pile of things left on the side of the road, without any value worth a second glance.

"You, why do you not bow?"

The voice was not loud, but the platform was extremely quiet, and every word could be heard clearly.

"Do you feel that this City Lord is unworthy?"

The civilians were stunned for a moment, then, as if triggering some instinct carved into their bones, they fell to their knees one after another.

The sound of knees hitting the stone platform was sparse, uneven, and dragging.

"Greetings, City Lord..."

"City Lord..."

The voices were scattered and weak, as if squeezed out from their throats.

City Lord swept a glance over the kneeling crowd, expressionless.

Then he waved his hand.

The movement was very casual, like shooing away flies.

"Kill them."

The voice was very light.

So light that the personal guard captain beside him thought he had misheard.

"City Lord?"

City Lord glanced at him, his brows slightly furrowed, as if finding the other's reaction slow and irritating.

"Was I not clear enough? Kill."

The personal guard captain's pupils shrank violently. He subconsciously glanced at the nearly ten thousand civilians kneeling on the ground, then at City Lord's face, his lips parting.

"But... we are on the battlefield!"

"Fool."

City Lord sneered, turned to face him, his voice still not loud, but every word was as clear as if carved.

"It is precisely because we are on the battlefield."

He reached out and pointed to the invisible other end of the stone bridge.

"Do you think we can win while carrying these things?"

The captain's mouth closed.

The Heavenly Dao opened the battlefield to let the two sides decide the outcome.

Only when one side wins, or the casualties reach a certain number, will the battlefield be lifted.

Win?

Carrying nearly ten thousand elderly and weak civilians with orange-red lights on their necks, facing sixty thousand Professionals from Flower City?

A fantasy!

Then only one path remained.

Actively create casualties.

Trigger the Heavenly Dao's lifting conditions.

And quickly.

The stone bridge is long, but it won't go on forever.

Once the people from Flower City arrive here—

The personal guard captain's palms were full of sweat.

He looked up at City Lord.

City Lord's smile was gone, and only a calm, almost business-like indifference remained on his face.

The captain took a deep breath and slowly drew his long blade.

The blade flashed under the purple lightning.

He turned around, his blade pointing at the civilians kneeling on the ground.

Behind him, ninety-nine blades were drawn simultaneously.

"Kill."

The captain's voice was very low, so low it was like he was speaking to himself.

Then he took another breath, and his voice rose—

"Leave none alive!"

...

The first scream was cut short before it could even finish.

As if someone had pinched off a section from the middle.

Immediately after, the second and third erupted simultaneously.

The civilians on the platform finally understood what was happening.

The crowd scattered like a punctured water bag.

But the platform was only so big.

Ahead was the stone bridge, on both sides was the abyss, and behind were one hundred drawn blades.

Someone ran two steps toward the stone bridge and was cut down by a personal guard.

Someone desperately tried to burrow into the crowd, only to be pushed by those surging up from behind toward the edge of the platform.

The ground beneath them vanished.

Before they could even scream, they fell.

The purple-black abyss was like an open mouth, silently swallowing everything.

The crying and screaming quickly diminished.

It wasn't that people stopped screaming.

It was that there were fewer and fewer people left to scream.

"Not fast enough!"

City Lord's personal guard captain slashed open an old man trying to hug his thigh and beg for mercy, glanced back at the end of the stone bridge, and clenched his teeth.

He gripped his long blade, infused his Qi into his whole body, and spun on his feet.

Blade Storm!

The human spinning top, wrapped in blade light, ground into the crowd; where it passed, it no longer splashed blood mist, but minced flesh and broken limbs.

The other personal guards followed suit.

One, two, five...

The spinning blades ground into the scattering, fleeing crowd simultaneously.

The crying on the platform seemed to be pressed down hard by something, becoming more muffled and lower.

City Lord stood in the center of the platform.

The hundred personal guards surrounded him, spreading out to slaughter, but his feet remained clean.

He was laughing.

At first, it was silent laughter, the corners of his mouth pulling up bit by bit, revealing a row of pale teeth.

Then the sound leaked out, surging up from deep in his throat, getting louder and more unbridled.

He tilted his head back, his laughter echoing in the purple-black thunder.

The image seemed to have already appeared before his eyes.

He stood on the high platform of Qing City's City Lord Mansion, ten thousand people prostrate, with the heavens above.

That position should have been his from the start!

...

On the other end of the stone bridge.

Ten thousand Flower City soldiers advanced in phalanx formation.

The stone bridge was wide enough for twenty people to pass side by side.

But ten thousand people stretched into a long dragon, extending forward and backward, with no end in sight.

The sound of armor plates clashing and footsteps mixed together, echoing dully in the Void Realm.

Zhou Yun walked at the very front of the formation, and Lei Lie was half a step to his left, hand on his sword hilt, his gaze vigilantly scanning the churning thunder on both sides of the stone bridge.

They walked for a long time.

The stone bridge had no end.

Ahead was only a straight, gray-white passage, extending to where the line of sight vanished, with nothing to be seen.

Zhou Yun's footsteps suddenly paused.

Lei Lie immediately turned his head to look at him.

"...Accelerate."