49: Chapter 49: Just as Ling Yuxiu and her lover pledged their lives to each other, the Yankang army attacked.

"Fine, I'll go back with you to pay respects to your Imperial Father!"

Originally, Ye Xiu was still struggling with how to win over this plump Seventh Princess.

After all, affection and love are two different things.

But he didn't expect this little princess to be so proactive.

It saved him a lot of trouble.

In these two hours, the agreement between the City Lord, disguised by Si Youyou, and that General Qin hadn't even been reached.

But Ye Xiu had already won over the key figure.

He originally thought that this conflict could be easily resolved just like that.

But Ye Xiu seemed to have underestimated that State Preceptor of Yankang.

Was it that he didn't favor it from the beginning, or was he just impatient?

Just as the sky outside was approaching dusk.

A series of urgent horn blasts came from the outskirts of The Great Ruins.

Then he saw a dark torrent of steel pressing in towards them like black clouds.

It was the Yankang Army, launching their attack early!

"Woo—! Woo—! Woo—!"

That wasn't the sound of an ordinary ox horn.

That was the Yankang war horn, amplified by a Formation, capable of piercing through a hundred-mile battlefield and shattering the spirit of low-level Cultivators.

One blast faster than the next, like a life-reaping impermanence, instantly shattering the beauty and tranquility of the morning in Fallen God Valley.

"This... is this the full-army charge horn of the 'Divine Fire Battalion'?"

Ling Yuxiu, who was on Ye Xiu's back, saw her originally rosy little face instantly turn deathly pale.

As a member of the royal family, she knew all too well what this order meant.

This wasn't just an attack; this was a nation-destroying level of total war mobilization!

"Hold on tight!"

Ye Xiu's eyes narrowed, and he no longer had the playful mood from before.

A sword light flashed beneath his feet as he unleashed his Divine Ability, Shrinking the Earth into an Inch, to its limit.

His entire body turned into a stream of light, carrying Ling Yuxiu as he instantly rushed to the highest cliff of Fallen God Valley.

Standing on the mountaintop, he looked towards the outskirts of The Great Ruins.

Even Ye Xiu, who was used to big scenes, couldn't help but shrink his pupils and gasp in cold air at this moment.

Black clouds press down on the city, threatening to crush it.

On the horizon, the originally gorgeous evening sunset glow had been completely obscured.

Replacing it was a dense, sky-covering Formation of steel tower ships!

Not one, not ten.

But a full hundred of them!

Each tower ship was a hundred zhang long, cast entirely from profound iron, shimmering with a cold metallic luster.

From both sides of the hull, countless dark cannon barrels extended—the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannons.

Those muzzles were slowly charging, with crimson light gathering together, like hundreds of suns rising at once.

The terrifying high temperature emitted caused the space at the edge of The Great Ruins to begin to distort and deform.

But this was only the air force.

What made one's scalp tingle even more was the torrent of mechanical devices on the ground.

"Rumble!"

The earth was wailing, and the forest was collapsing.

Countless towering ancient trees were leveled like weeds.

In the rolling dust, countless mechanical beasts several zhang high were advancing at high speed.

They were made of refined steel, with eight sharp limbs like the scythes of the Grim Reaper, harvesting all life along the way.

Behind the army were heavy cavalry clad in heavy armor, riding mechanical exotic beasts.

And in the very center of the Formation were several mechanical giants, dozens of zhang high, like moving fortresses.

Each step they took triggered a small earthquake.

This was the result of the Yankang Reform.

This was the confidence of that State Preceptor of Yankang, known as the "First Person Beneath the Gods," used to oppose the gods and Buddhas of the heavens—the perfect combination of mechanics and cultivation!

...

Xianglong City, atop the city walls.

"Imperial Father... State Preceptor... have they abandoned me?"

Ling Yuxiu looked at the cannon muzzles covering them indiscriminately, her whole body trembling.

Although she was a bit clever and a bit of a romantic, she was ultimately a princess in an ivory tower who had been protected too well.

She couldn't understand why her beloved Imperial Father and the State Preceptor she admired would point their cannons at her.

"Silly girl."

Ye Xiu felt the trembling and coldness of the voluptuous body on his back and patted her with his backhand.

He looked at the arrogant Yankang Army in the distance, his eyes burning with unprecedented Battle Intent.

He untied the wine gourd from his waist, looked up, and drank the last bit of "demon god brew".

"In the eyes of those big shots, everything other than their hegemony over the empire is just a bargaining chip."

"However..."

Ye Xiu threw the empty gourd aside, and the demon-slaying dragon sword appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The sword body trembled, emitting a rousing Dragon roar, as if it too was yearning for the upcoming feast of blood.

"However, since you are now my, Ye Xiu's, woman."

"Then even if the King of Heaven himself comes, don't even think about touching a single hair on your head."

Ye Xiu held the sword in one hand, while his other hand tightly supported Ling Yuxiu's thighs, his body slightly crouched like a fully drawn bow.

"Hold on tight, Madam!"

"I'll take you to witness what it means to... one man, opposing a whole nation!"

But before this Heavenly Demon Sect Leader could fly out of the city.

Several aged figures suddenly appeared before him.

It was actually the Village Chief leading those grandfathers from Canlao Village out of the mountains.

"Little Friend Ye, you are a guest of The Great Ruins; how could there be any reason for a guest to take action in such a trivial matter?"

The Village Chief's words made a lot of sense.

After all, this land belonged to these old people who had lived here all along.

As a junior and also an outsider, Ye Xiu.

Indeed had to respect the locals' wishes!

"Watch closely, kid; with us old guys here, don't even think about Yankang breaking into The Great Ruins!"

Seeing the little girl beside Ye Xiu.

The Butcher also gave him an ambiguous smile.

Sure enough, young people have energy!

"Deaf Man, stop holding back, open the eyes of these little brats!"

The Butcher slammed his broadsword onto the ground, shaking the hard obsidian city wall until it cracked with several fissures.

He gestured to the thin, silent old man beside him.

The old painter, known as "Deaf Man", did not speak.

Because he couldn't hear the earth-shaking war drums, nor the terrifying roar of artillery fire, his world contained only absolute silence and focus.

Facing the sky-covering Yankang fleet, there was not a ripple on the old man's face.

He just slowly pulled a worn-out, bald-headed calligraphy brush from his bosom and casually grabbed at the void.

"Swish!"

Even though it was empty void, with his grab, it was as if an invisible, huge sheet of rice paper had been spread out.

Immediately after, an unbelievable scene occurred.

The old painter flicked his wrist, and that bald brush seemed to be dipped full of the thickest ink in the world.

He aimed at the charging Yankang fleet and laid his brush upon the void!

The first stroke, cursive script, freehand style!

"Whoosh!!!"

As that brush tip traced a vigorous arc in the air, the evening, which had originally only had a slight breeze, instantly changed color.

The ink marks that hadn't existed in the sky instantly transformed into materialized black gale winds!

That wind was no ordinary wind, but a "Ink Hurricane" carrying a strong scent of ink and wash!

It was born from nothing, surged with the wind, and in the blink of an eye, turned into a black tornado connecting heaven and earth.

Carrying a terrifying suction force capable of tearing the Void Realm apart, it whistled towards the steel fleet.

"This... what kind of Demonic Technique is this?!"

On the Yankang flagship, the commanding general looked at the chaotic magnetic field on the radar and roared in terror:

"Steady! Activate the gravity Formation! Charge at full speed!"

However, this was just the beginning.

The old painter's eyes were indifferent; his wrist turned again, his brush moving like a dragon and snake.

The tip of the brush in his hand heavily tapped the void, then wantonly flicked downwards.

Large clusters of black ink dots sprinkled like raindrops onto the sky that had been stirred up by the hurricane.

"Crack!"

"Rumble!"

The moment those "ink dots" touched the air, they all exploded, turning into streaks of thick, purple-black wild lightning!

This was not lightning from the natural world; this was the lightning of destruction containing the Law of the Dao of Painting!

"Ah!!!"

"Help! The shield can't block it!"

Only to see the sky full of lightning snakes, carried by the ink-colored hurricane, striking wildly at those steel tower ships as if they had eyes.

The moment the Yankang Kingdom's proud energy shields came into contact with this "ink lightning".

They were like rice paper stained with ink, quickly turning black, corroding, and then—shattering!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

One after another, the steel warships were pierced by the thunder, igniting raging fires.

Spewing black smoke and losing power, they fell from the sky like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

And the arrogant mechanical spider army on the ground was swept into the sky by the ink-colored hurricane, which cut like a knife.

In mid-air, they were twisted into scrap metal parts, clattering and falling down.

One man, one brush, drawing a prison on the ground, changing the heavens and the earth!