216: Chapter 217: He's naturally dead.

Zhou Yun looked at the million Yellow Turbans behind him, his gaze pausing for a moment on their tattered clothes and yellow headscarves.

"The people are the most important, the state comes second, and the ruler is the least important. Celestial Master, I deeply agree with your words."

Celestial Master's eyes flickered slightly.

Zhou Yun continued, "That is why Flower City abolished the execution line, opened Medical Tents, built shelters, and stockpiled grain. All we seek is to provide those with nowhere to turn in this chaotic world with a full meal and a roof over their heads."

"However, those Flower City aids are starving refugees seeking survival. They are definitely not thugs who coerce refugees to storm our gates and plunder."

Zhou Yun's voice remained gentle, yet it carried a hint of unbearable compassion.

"Since you, Celestial Master, have the heart to save the world, you could slowly settle the people and find other ways to survive. Why must you take this extreme path and place these million refugees in the midst of slaughter?"

"In the siege of a city, swords have no eyes. You are facing strong walls and sharp formations with a million unarmed people; the slightest mistake will result in rivers of blood. To seek survival by first rushing to death, causing the suffering common people to be devastated once more—Celestial Master, how can you bear it?"

Facing Zhou Yun's questioning, Celestial Master's gaze remained like stagnant water in a deep pool, without a ripple.

It was the calmness of absolute conviction in the Dao he walked.

He slowly tapped his bamboo staff on the ground.

"If the people do not fear death, why use death to threaten them?"

There was no fanaticism in his voice, only the desolation of one who has seen through the ways of the world.

"City Lord Zhou, it is not that I am extreme. It is that this man-eating world has long since left them no steady path to survival."

"These million people died once already when the cities closed their gates and the great famine descended. Rather than let their bones rot in ditches, it is better to seek life in death today. If we cannot break open your Flower City, then we shall simply consider it as dying on the road while begging for food."

Zhou Yun shook his head.

"Driving starving people as blades and trading blood for survival. This may be your way of saving the world, Celestial Master, but it is not the way Flower City exists."

"Celestial Master, Flower City also saves refugees and seeks peace."

"But I, Zhou Yun, am truly unwilling to use the lives of the masses as bargaining chips in a conflict between two armies."

Celestial Master gripped his bamboo staff tightly, and the tide of Yellow Turbans behind him let out a low hum.

The two stood separated by a city wall and a wasteland, neither taking a step back.

On the war chariot, City Lord Liefeng, seeing Zhou Yun completely ignore him and instead debate with a refugee leader, felt he had lost Face and was furious.

"Daoist Brother! Why waste words with them? Whatever the matter is, we can settle it after taking the city!"

City Lord Liefeng turned his head and stared fixedly at Zhou Yun, his eyes filled with surging murderous intent, while he loudly called for surrender:

"Zhou Yun! You are a smart man. Look at this sea of people beneath your city; what will you use to block them? Those mud-legged peasants who haven't even seen blood?"

"I respect that you built Flower City well, so I will give you a way out! Open the city gates, surrender, and hand over all supplies and spirit rice. I will personally spare your life and even grant you the position of Deputy City Lord!"

"If you dare say even half a word of refusal... today, when the city falls, my army will raze it, and not even a chicken or dog will be left alive!"

"Insolence!"

Just as the entire city's fury was about to become uncontrollable, a cold, majestic, feminine shout exploded on the city wall.

Wan'er stepped out from behind Zhou Yun. The usually gentle female official now had eyes surging with extremely cold Evil Qi.

"You Four Cities harbor evil intentions, and your wolfish ambitions are clear for all to see!"

Her voice ruthlessly tore away the fig leaf of the Four-City Allied Forces, spreading across the three armies.

"From the very beginning, you have been secretly plotting against Flower City, obsessed with the arms trade! Afterwards, you deliberately sent a large number of city residents who had fallen into the execution line, and even mixed in spies with ulterior motives, intending to disrupt the public order of our Flower City!"

"And now, you are taking advantage of our main force being away to stab us in the back and invade with a massive force!"

Wan'er's gaze scraped across City Lord Liefeng's Face like a knife.

"With such despicable and shameless conduct, what Face do you have left to bark in front of our City Lord?! Are you not afraid of being ridiculed by your own soldiers and the citizens of your city!"

Being scolded right to his Face in front of a million soldiers, City Lord Liefeng's expression turned instantly ashen.

"What a way to turn black into white and make false accusations! Since you are obsessed and refuse to repent, don't blame us for being merciless!"

"Fellow City Lords, join me in raising our city lord seals to declare war!"

Following City Lord Liefeng's roar, the City Lords of Qinghe, Nanchang, and Maple Leaf also stepped forward with grim expressions.

Four city lord seals, radiating blinding light, were simultaneously raised into the air.

In an instant, four massive, blood-red arrows condensed in the sky, carrying a thick Aura of slaughter, pointing directly at Flower City!

"Siege the city—!!!"

Accompanied by earth-shaking roars, the shrill sound of horns instantly tore through the silence of the wilderness.

The roar of 1.5 million people, like a tangible wave of sound, shook the defensive light barrier of Flower City's walls violently.

The tens of thousands of Yellow Turban refugees at the very front, along with the vanguard battalion of the Four-City Allied Forces, were like a bursting flood, roaring and crazily crashing toward the gates of Flower City.

The earth trembled, and the dust rose like a Dragon.

The enemy troops charging at the very front were less than a hundred steps from the city wall; they could even see the terrified Faces of the defenders on the wall.

At this very moment.

Zhou Yun looked at the four blood-colored arrows in the sky and finally withdrew his gaze.

"Wan'er."

Wan'er lowered her eyes.

"This subordinate is here."

"Act according to Flower City's wartime laws."

"As you command."

The moment her voice fell, Wan'er moved.

Facing the massive, million-strong siege army, she took a step forward.

This step did not land on the solid city bricks but stepped firmly into the Void Realm!

Immediately after, came the second step, the third step.

In the incredulous gaze of hundreds of thousands of people from both sides, this female official who usually only approved documents at her desk was walking through the air as if on flat ground, stepping into the sky in front of Flower City.

A layer of pure and majestic silver-white radiance rippled out from her body.

There were no violent elemental fluctuations, nor any earth-shattering battle energy cyclones.

There was only an indescribable "heaviness."

It was the weight of law... accumulated from millions of ledgers, bearing the livelihoods of millions of people, and gathering the order of an entire city!

Wan'er stopped in mid-air, her right hand gently raised.

An extremely ordinary wolf-hair brush appeared at her fingertips, no one knew when.

Then, using the world as a scroll and her brush as a blade, she brandished it in the air.

Silver-white light gathered at the tip of the brush, and as her wrist turned, four strokes fell.

Between heaven and earth, it was as if a great seal was slowly descending.

There was no violent explosion.

Only an extremely transparent golden light curtain, over a hundred zhang high, seemed to fall from the Nine Heavens, silently standing between Flower City and the million-strong army.

On the light curtain, four golden characters flowed like iron strokes and silver hooks—[Those who trespass shall die]

The tens of thousands of troops charging at the front were startled by this sudden phenomenon, and their momentum subconsciously slowed.

"What the hell is that?"

"A defensive barrier?"

Celestial Master narrowed his eyes, and his bamboo staff tapped slightly against his palm.

"The offensive has begun; stopping now will only lead to our own chaos."

His voice sank. "Charge through."

Under the pressure of the rear supervisors, the soldiers in the front row gritted their teeth, raised their shields, and braced themselves to crash into the golden light curtain.

The next second. There was no screaming, no sound of impact, and no blood splashing.

The moment the bodies of those hundreds of living, aggressive soldiers touched the golden light curtain, the color on them faded away like a receding tide!

Their armor, skin, and weapons turned into thick ink of only black and white in the blink of an eye.

Immediately after, a dull sound, like a great seal stamping onto a paper scroll, seemed to come from the Void Realm— "Pop!"

Those hundreds of ink-colored figures, like someone erasing them from paper with an eraser, or like ink powder blown away by a breeze, instantly collapsed, turning into black ash that filled the sky, completely vanishing between heaven and earth.

Not even a single hair or a drop of blood was left behind. It was as if... these people had never existed in this world at all!

This scene completely terrified the enemy troops charging at the front.

Warhorses reared up in fright, and soldiers, Faces full of terror, retreated frantically, trampling over each other.

"Where are the people?! Where did they go?! What on earth happened?!"

Eerie. An incomprehensible eeriness that was more chilling than the most brutal slaughter.

"What are you panicking about?!"

On the war chariot, City Lord Liefeng looked at the chaotic lines ahead. Although a flash of shock passed through his eyes, he soon roared through gritted teeth.

"A mere Flower City doesn't even have a single Gold Rank! That bitch is at most a Silver Rank!"

"No matter how strong a Silver Rank is, can they block a million-strong army? This must be some kind of high-level illusion or a short-term spatial teleportation scroll!"

"Continue the advance! Mage Corps, blast that light curtain to pieces for me!"

Under the heavy pressure of City Lord Liefeng, the Four-City Allied Forces' Mage Corps began to chant, and fireballs, Wind Blades, and ice spikes filled the sky, crashing down like a rainstorm onto the golden light curtain. At the same time, the refugees coerced from the rear were driven forward again.

However, something happened that no one could understand.

Whether it was violent magic, soldiers brandishing weapons, or even a Bronze Rank commander who considered himself valiant and tried to leap high over the light curtain...

As long as they crossed that line marked "Those who trespass shall die." Without exception. They faded and turned into ink.

Accompanied by those cold, ruthless "Pop! Pop!" sounds, it was like a vermilion brush striking out names one by one from a household register.

Hundreds and thousands of lives, like moths to a flame, silently annihilated into nothingness as ink ash in front of the light curtain.

That seemingly thin light curtain was like a bottomless abyss that could never be filled, coldly devouring everyone who dared to challenge the law.

On the city wall, even Minister Wang Fugui, who had managed money and grain his whole life and seen all kinds of storms, felt a chill run down his back.

He swallowed, looked at the clean battlefield below where not a single corpse remained, and looked up at Wan'er in mid-air with a trembling voice.

"director-general... where... where exactly did you teleport those people to?"

Wan'er hung quietly in mid-air, the brush in her hand hanging casually at her side.

She didn't even glance at the tens of thousands of disintegrated troops below, but spoke with a calm, matter-of-fact tone, just as she usually did when reviewing discarded ledgers at the City Lord's mansion.

"Enemies not recorded in Flower City's household register are all dead contracts. I crossed them out. Naturally, they are dead."

Minister Wang Fugui swallowed, the fat on his Face still trembling slightly from fear.

He looked at the empty space in front of the city gate below, then at Wan'er in mid-air, whose slight figure judged life and death like a god, his eyes full of disbelief.

"This... this is just too ridiculous..." Tieshan's eyes were wide, muttering to himself, "Judging from her Silver Rank strength, achieving the effect of instantly obliterating tens of thousands of people is just too unreasonable!"

This remark immediately drew unanimous agreement from those around him. Light flickered in Shang Youjun's eyes, but he couldn't understand Wan'er's methods at all. Minister Wang Fugui nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at rice.

Because the suppression Wan'er displayed at this moment—let alone Silver Rank, even if someone said she was a top-tier Gold Rank powerhouse, many would probably believe it!

Wan'er in mid-air seemed to hear the discussion on the city wall.

She turned her head slightly, glanced at everyone, and a faint smile curled at the corners of her mouth: "It's not as exaggerated as you imagine. If a Gold Rank powerhouse were to force their way in, they might be able to break a gap. My law of 'Those who trespass shall die' might not be able to stop that person."

Hearing this, everyone first breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately after, the shock in their hearts surged even higher like a raging storm!

Minister Wang Fugui gasped. Because the subtext of Wan'er's words meant... as long as there was no Gold Rank powerhouse among the invaders who could forcibly break the law, whether it was Bronze Rank, Silver Rank, or an army of hundreds of thousands, they were all like straw dogs before her, easily obliterated with a wave of her hand?!

What kind of terrifying Profession is this?!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, in the enemy camp, it was a different scene.

The Yellow Turban refugees in the front row who were caught up in the offensive and couldn't retreat in time, as well as the vanguard battalion of the Four-City Allied Forces, were still being driven by the supervisors, constantly crashing into the golden light curtain like headless flies.

However, the light curtain remained motionless. Everyone who touched the light curtain faded and disappeared silently like melting snow.

Celestial Master stood beside the war chariot, frowning slightly. His fingers gripping the bamboo staff tightened slightly, and a rare look of gravity appeared in his eyes.

And on the tall war chariot, the four City Lords of the Four-City Allied Forces were now uncontrollably shaken in their hearts.

"City Lord Liefeng!" The City Lord of Qinghe said with an ashen Face, pointing at the abyss that was devouring lives, asking through gritted teeth, "Didn't you swear before the battle that Flower City didn't even have a Gold Rank? Then how do you explain Wan'er's strength now?!"

The City Lord of Maple Leaf also chimed in: "This method of instantly making people evaporate from the world—let alone Silver Rank, I reckon even an average Gold Rank Professional couldn't do it!"

"Hmph!" City Lord Liefeng snorted coldly. Although his Face was ugly, he didn't give an inch. "Our Four-City Alliance has always been on equal footing, exchanging what we have. I haven't taken any extra benefits from you! Now that something has gone wrong, it seems you want to blame me?"

He swept his gloomy gaze over the three: "Besides, over the past six months, you haven't done few arms and grain trades with Flower City. Don't you know anything about Flower City's background yourselves?"