223: Chapter 224 Promotion! Duke of Huacheng!!

On the windowsill of a towering treehouse on the outskirts of Flower City.

The middle-aged scholar Qu Lingjun was leaning against the wooden railing, several empty wine jars lying on their sides beside him.

His face was flushed, his eyes hazy with drunkenness; he was clearly very intoxicated.

The wind stirred his scholar's robes. Through the boundless night, he took a deep look at that flickering candle flame, then raised his murky wine and mumbled somewhat incoherently:

"Swift without arrogance, yet concerned for the hardships of the common people. To gain an inch of land and mourn for the living—such a benevolent ruler is rarely seen in a thousand years. Though I am dull and inept, I wonder... could I offer my humble services?"

After speaking, he tilted his head back to finish the wine in his cup, then leaned against the window frame and fell into a deep sleep.

...

City Lord's Mansion.

Zhou Yun sat upright at his desk, the dim candlelight stretching his shadow long.

On the desk, there were no gold or jewels, no city lord seal, only rough sheets of paper filled with the character "Person" written over and over.

As another stroke fell, Zhou Yun felt his wrist growing heavier.

But his expression remained unchanged as he continued with the next stroke.

Diligence can compensate for clumsiness.

Since I am dull-witted, I must think more.

If I cannot figure it out, I will keep thinking.

That is all.

I do not know how much time had passed, but the candle was nearing its end.

Zhou Yun had just finished writing another "Person" character.

After finishing, he gently placed the brush on the brush rest and fell into silence before the desk.

Small Cities have a special status; cities above the Small City level cannot declare war on them.

Once this step is taken, it will be an era of great contention.

At that time, he would no longer be a fledgling eagle protected in a novice village, but would instead be thrusting himself and these million lives into a meat grinder of great upheaval.

He understood, yet he was not afraid.

What he thought about more was how to face the cities he had now, and perhaps the even greater number of cities he might acquire through war in the future?

As long as war begins, casualties are unavoidable.

Regardless of victory or defeat, how should he face the increasing number of dead soldiers and their families who suffer the pain of bereavement?

As the victor, the winning side would naturally have many people singing his praises.

But in the eyes of those victims' families, it was also him who had taken the lives of their loved ones!

He had always been very resistant to war.

All along, he had been trying to avoid this as much as possible.

But living in troubled times, he realized he could not keep himself aloof.

He had no way to avoid it.

And since it could not be avoided, then...

He could only accept it.

Having figured this out, he whispered to himself:

"Whenever war arises, there will be casualties. In defeat, the people suffer. In victory, the people also suffer. With the world in chaos, only human life is of paramount importance. Since I am the Lord of Flower City, I shall bear all the sins and heavy responsibilities upon my own shoulders."

After speaking, he slowly raised his hand and took out from his bosom those slightly trembling city seals, which radiated an inexplicable Law-based pressure.

"Nuan Nuan, it is late, go back to sleep." Zhou Yun took a deep breath and said softly toward the side of the empty hall.

Outside the door, a faint and gentle response soon came:

"Yes, City Lord."

After those gentle footsteps gradually faded away, Zhou Yun's gaze suddenly became firm.

He clapped his hands together, and the city seals and the Flower City city lord seal instantly erupted with blinding, intense Law radiance, the authority of twenty cities merging into the Flower City city lord seal without reservation!

"Boom—!!!"

In an instant, an incredibly thick dark golden beam of light shot straight into the sky from deep within the City Lord's Mansion, violently tearing through the boundless night!

The black sky became as bright as day in this instant, and above the entire Flower City, the Void Realm trembled madly like ripples on water.

Between Heaven and Earth, it seemed as if the low, deep bell tolls of ancient primordial deities rang out continuously, the magnificent sound echoing like thunder in the minds of every living being.

Golden characters of Law, a hundred feet tall, appeared above the Nine Heavens accompanied by that sound:

[City Lord of Flower City, Zhou Yun, promoted! Duke of Flower City!]

Three times in a row, the sound shook the Nine Heavens!

After the third time, the hundred-foot-tall golden characters on the sky curtain exploded, turning into golden Law light spots like rain, scattering down into the entire city.

The entire Flower City, in this moment, was completely boiling with excitement!

...

On the other side, in the wilderness a thousand miles away from Flower City, iron hooves thundered, trampling on the cracked official road and kicking up a sky full of yellow dust.

The heavy armored cavalry under City Lord Xu Zhen was like a black torrent of steel, carrying grim killing intent as they madly approached their target.

"Faster! Flatten the city gates for me! Capture Zhou Yun alive!!"

Wang Shuai rode a single-horned scaled horse, his eyes bloodshot, his handsome face appearing somewhat distorted due to extreme hatred and excitement.

In the deepening dusk, the heavy armored cavalry, shrouded in rolling smoke and dust, finally smashed open the gates of the first city, which was Gu City.

On the way here, Wang Shuai had originally thought this would be a thrilling and fierce battle, and had even planned out how to cruelly crush Zhou Yun's resistance.

As it turned out, the city walls were completely empty; there wasn't even half a defending soldier.

It was as if punching cotton, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

But after the discomfort, his face revealed an expression of extreme disdain.

That trash, Zhou Yun, must have anticipated that I would bring elites for a crazy revenge, so he was already scared out of his wits and fled early with the Flower City troops!

"Fool, you sure run fast." Wang Shuai sneered in his heart.

As soon as he entered the city, Wang Shuai could not suppress the ruthlessness in his heart and roared at the accompanying officers:

"Fleeing in a panic, he must have left clues! Search! Question! Find out where Zhou Yun went!"

However, not long after, several lieutenants hurried over in a panic to report:

"Report, Young Master, there... is no trace of any Flower City troops in the city!"

Wang Shuai's brows furrowed tightly, and he barked impatiently:

"Then what about the people in the city? Even if Zhou Yun ran away with his remnants, the lowly commoners of Gu City couldn't have run! Find them for me, interrogate them strictly, and ask where the people of Flower City went! Interrogate them strictly, and you will definitely find clues!"

However, the reporting soldier hesitated and stammered:

"But, Young Master, there... is not a single person in the city, except for us."

"How is it possible that there is not a single person?!"

Wang Shuai was furious and roared in frustration: "Even though Gu City is small, it has a full sixty thousand citizens! So many people, could they just vanish into thin air?! Go find them! Find them for me!!"

As he said this, Wang Shuai's chest heaved violently, but beneath that soaring rage, his heart was uncontrollably trembling wildly, and an unspeakable panic suddenly gripped his nerves.

Because once before, he had anticipated the defeat of Qing City, so he had poisoned it in advance, leaving Zhou Yun with a dead city.

So he instinctively suspected whether Zhou Yun had also used some even crueler method to retaliate against him!

He suspected that the sixty thousand citizens of Gu City had also been dealt with by Zhou Yun to the point where not even their bones remained!

Thinking of this, he was both shocked and angry, his heart completely filled with endless rage and guilty irritability.

After the army searched the place thoroughly like plowing a field, the messenger hurried back, dripping with cold sweat:

"Young Master... we really searched everywhere, there is indeed not a single person in Gu City! Not only are there no living people, but the granaries, the City Lord's Mansion, and even the residential houses have been completely emptied; not even a single grain of chaff was left!"

"Then where are their corpses?" Wang Shuai was exasperated, his face twisted as he roared:

"Where are the corpses of sixty thousand people hidden?! I want to see them alive or dead! Dig them out for me!!"

The soldier, stunned by the shouting, looked terrified and answered in a confused whisper:

"Corpses...? Young Master, there are no corpses; the city is clean, there isn't even a drop of blood..."

"What? No corpses?"

Wang Shuai was instantly stunned, his mind going blank.

At this moment, City Lord Xu Zhen, who had been dismounted and checking the surrounding traces, walked over, his brows furrowed as he said in a deep voice:

"Young Master, it seems they must have relocated everyone. A city without people is no city; this is drawing the firewood from under the cauldron! Your opponent, this Zhou Yun, truly has ruthless methods."

Hearing the word "relocated," Wang Shuai's eyelids twitched wildly.

But in the moment he calmed down, it was as if he had heard some huge joke, and he suddenly laughed out loud:

"Hahahaha! Relocated? He actually wants to relocate all sixty thousand citizens?!"

Wang Shuai's handsome face was somewhat distorted from laughing, his face full of disdain for a fool, "What a fool seeking his own death! Carrying so many burdens of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, do you really think you can get away?!"

"Pursue them! Carrying so many people, their speed definitely won't be fast; they absolutely won't get far!!"

After roaring, Wang Shuai pointed at the City Lord's Mansion hall again and ordered City Lord Xu Zhen: "City Lord Xu Zhen! Occupy this city! Re-establish the seal and take Gu City back!!"

However, City Lord Xu Zhen, clad in heavy armor, looked troubled and said in a deep voice:

"Young Lord, it is not that this subordinate is disobeying orders, but I cannot occupy this city.

The iron Laws of the Heavenly Dao are above; I am a 'lower-level City Lord', and Gu City... is only a 'Small City' of the lowest grade.

All ranks above Small City cannot officially declare war on a Small City, nor can they use the authority of their own city to restart the city heart or change the registry and establish a new seal.

My leading troops to attack the city is already very sensitive.

If I were to forcibly raise a flag to occupy the city and change its allegiance...

The Heavenly Dao would not only fail to recognize it but would immediately record a penalty.

At best, the city's fortune would backfire and military momentum would be suppressed; at worst, the city lord seal would be damaged.

This cost is something I, and even the Wang Group, cannot afford."

After hearing this, Wang Shuai's expression froze instantly.

It was not that he did not know this, but just now he had been blinded by rage.

It was only at this moment that he realized Zhou Yun had not only left him a useless empty shell by relocating the people, but had also used the Heavenly Dao's "novice protection mechanism" as a shield, leaving him a huge quagmire that he could see but not eat!

"Damn it! Damn coward!!" Wang Shuai roared in frustration in the City Lord's Mansion, "I don't believe he really has the heaven-reaching ability to empty all the cities! Immediately! At once! Go search the remaining Ten Cities for me!!"

Under the orders of the furious Wang Shuai, the army began to rush through the night like mad dogs, searching for the remaining Ten Cities with frustration and mania.

Only...

The second city was empty.

The third city was empty...

As time passed, the sound of the army's horse hooves became increasingly dull and desperate in the endless night.

Zhou Yun had implemented the most thorough scorched-earth policy, and all the commoners had long since been evacuated cleanly through the Hongdao Array nodes of Flower City.

When the time finally reached late night and the exhausted army stepped into the square of the eleventh city, which was also the last empty city, Wang Shuai had completely collapsed.

He slumped on his horse, his eye sockets sunken, and roared miserably into the night:

"Where are the people... Zhou Yun... You coward! Turtle! You son of a bitch! Get out here!!"

However, at the very moment Wang Shuai's howling fell.

"Hum—!!"

Between Heaven and Earth, it suddenly trembled violently without warning.

A golden beam of light shooting straight into the clouds suddenly rose.

In this instant, the night sky of this last empty city was as bright as day!

Above the sky curtain, golden Dao marks of Law intertwined.

Under the extremely shocked gaze of Wang Shuai and the tens of thousands of troops, the hundred-foot-tall golden characters of Law appeared above the Nine Heavens with the peerless majesty of the Heavenly Dao:

[City Lord of Flower City, Zhou Yun, promoted! Duke of Flower City!]

"Rumble!!"

The entire city beneath Wang Shuai's feet shook madly, the dim defensive runes on the city walls were instantly lit up by golden flowing light, and the concentration of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within the city doubled in just a few breaths!

Heavenly Dao feedback!

The main city promoted, all cities rose together!

Zhou Yun was promoted to Duke of Flower City, and at this moment, the cities under his command were incorporated into the lower-level city domain of Flower City by the Heavenly Dao; their Spiritual Qi rose together, and they no longer enjoyed novice protection as independent Small Cities!

"Lower... lower-level city..."

"Duke of... Flower City?"

Wang Shuai stared blankly at the sky, his whole person struck by lightning, his pupils contracting violently, his mind a blank slate.

"Twenty cities! He actually already possessed twenty cities!!"

"My eleven cities actually served as wedding clothes for his promotion!!"

"This... trash! Scum! Beast! How dare he!!!!"

"Pfft—!!"

Extreme jealousy, despair, and rage turned into violent blood, surging up his throat.

Wang Shuai spat out a mouthful of blood, swaying violently on his horse, and howled miserably at the sky: "Zhou Yun!!! I swear I will kill you, ahhhhh!!!"

At the same time, the grand bell tolls of the Heavenly Dao resounded through Heaven and Earth. Even City Lord Xu Zhen and the numerous Silver Rank experts accompanying the Wang Group were completely shocked by this magnificent promotion phenomenon at this moment, their internal Spiritual Qi circulation experiencing a momentary stagnation under the pressure of the Heavenly Dao.

The defense of the entire elite army, in this instant, revealed the only extremely tiny gap.

Right at this absolute blind spot where the entire army was distracted, the phenomenon was rising, and Wang Shuai was howling while spitting blood.

"Swish!!"

In the shadow of an abandoned stable next to the City Lord's Mansion, a figure, like a bloodthirsty ghost hidden in the lowest depths of the Nine Netherworlds, suddenly launched an attack without warning!

There was no testing, no retreat, only the will to kill that had been accumulated for two full days, cold to the extreme!

Until the sword radiance pressed within three zhang of Wang Shuai, that roar, suppressed for two days, finally exploded in the golden light:

"Wang Shuai, you brat!!"

"Die for me!!!"

Blinding silver-white battle qi suddenly exploded around the figure, like a falling meteor, instantly splitting the heavens and earth, hacking towards Wang Shuai, who was despairing and spitting blood in the golden rain of light!