Shi Yu accompanied Shen Yun through the city, eventually arriving at the southeast auxiliary gate. Drawing near, Shi Yu discovered that this so-called city gate was only about five feet wide and six feet high. Cut into the towering, majestic city wall, it looked like a miniature dog door.
Shen Yun explained, “This gate isn't meant for people to pass through.”
If it wasn't meant for people to pass through, why call it a gate? Shi Yu glanced over it a few more times. Seeing layers of restrictions carved into the gate and a heavy lock forged from meteoric iron sealing it tight, she had a vague guess: What is locked behind this gate must be a node of the city-protecting array.
All around, students dressed in Yellow Class attire ascended the city wall one after another, drawing their respective magic artifacts with expressions of tension or anxiety.
“Instructor Jiang ordered us to guard the southeast corner! Out of all four corners, the array barrier here is the most intact, so our battle pressure will be much lighter. Everyone, show them what you're made of—don't let others laugh at us!” a student from the Upper House of the Yellow Class called out loudly.
“Right! Today, we fight these beasts to the death!”
“Come on, let's head up to the city wall too!” Shen Yun drew a teal longsword, her expression solemn as she spoke. “Shi Yu, stay close to me. Stand behind me and act with caution. Be extremely careful.”
Shi Yu obediently followed right behind her, climbing the stairs to the city wall.
Halfway up, Shen Yun realized something was off. Turning her head back, she saw Shi Yu obediently following behind her.
“...”
“Senior Sister Shen, what is it?” Shi Yu blinked.
Shen Yun's lips twitched as it finally hit her—the person following behind her was a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator! Where did she get off thinking she needed protection? The Yellow Class was the lowest tier of the academy, making Shi Yu's cultivation standout among everyone here.
“...You come up front.” Shen Yun beckoned to her listlessly.
However, she only said it in passing. Even though Shi Yu's cultivation exceeded her own, Shen Yun still clung to her responsibility as a senior student, worried that Shi Yu had high cultivation but lacked actual combat experience, so she did not actually push her to the front.
Upon stepping onto the city wall, the edge of the city-protecting array was clearly visible. Layers of light barriers rippled like water, continuously bearing the impact of demon beasts raining down from above. Sissing sounds echoed as fissures periodically split open, only to rapidly repair and close again.
Shi Yu glanced upward. From the sun-blotting Blood God Parasol, countless blood-energy demon beasts surged forth incessantly. The sky seemed torn apart by the parasol's ribs, turning into a sea of bloody magma...
Demon beasts occasionally squeezed through the fissures before the array barrier could close. The students of the Yellow Class unleashed spells and magic artifacts all at once. For a time, five-element lights flashed and the clashing of metal echoed continuously. The occasional demon beast that managed to poke half its body through the fissure was immediately overwhelmed by a torrent of spells.
Even if the cultivators casting these spells were not particularly high in cultivation, with so many people blasting away at once, any demon beast squeezing through was naturally blown to bits.
Joy washed over everyone's faces as they cheered loudly, their morale soaring.
Whenever smaller or larger demon beasts were unlucky enough to slip through the formation, everyone scrambled forward, bombarding them with spell after spell.
Observing this, Shi Yu whispered to Shen Yun, “Right now, everyone's spiritual energy is plentiful, and the array's operation is holding up, so dealing with these scattered demon beasts takes little effort. But if we keep burning through resources like this...”
Shen Yun frowned, catching her drift immediately. Letting out a long breath, she said, “We will run out of spiritual energy, while the demon beasts on the Blood God Parasol are endless. Worse still, we don't know how long the array can last.”
Shi Yu nodded. “We should conserve our strength and rotate in shifts.”
The logic behind this method was simple enough: fighting in shifts, with half fighting while the other half meditated to recover, was the only way to sustain a prolonged defense. But the difficulty lay in the fact that all the Yellow Class students were crammed on the city wall, with no one stepping up to take command.
“Senior Brother Li Xu from the Upper House has the highest cultivation among the Three Houses of the Yellow Class. If he takes charge, everyone will listen to him.” Shen Yun's mind raced as she looked at Shi Yu. “Wait for me here and don't wander off. I'll go find Senior Brother Li.”
Shi Yu nodded.
After Shen Yun left, Shi Yu remained where she was without rushing to join in killing the demon beasts, as the others still had energy to spare. Her gaze swept over her surroundings—from the flow of the array barrier's runes to the fissures that periodically cracked open, and finally to the gate as small as a dog door.
The array looks intact on the surface, but the fissures are appearing too frequently. Something seems wrong...
Instructor Jiang assigned the task of guarding the southeast corner of the city-protecting array to the Yellow Class because the array here was the most complete and intact, meaning the pressure from the demon beasts would be the lowest.
However... Attempting to find subtle clues, Shi Yu shifted her gaze toward the rapidly circulating, flickering array runes, her brows knitting slightly.
Just as she was about to step closer to inspect it, a tall, thin cultivator beside her glanced at her a few times. Seeing that she hadn't made a move the entire time, he sneered, “A prospective student who just passed the evaluation? Scared out of your wits by a scene like this, aren't you?”
The tall, thin cultivator was at the seventh layer of the Qi Refining Realm. Given the vast gap in their cultivations, a single sweep of Shi Yu's divine sense laid bare all his details.
She had no desire to engage in a war of words with anyone at a time like this. Ignoring him completely, she prepared to step aside.
“Hey! What kind of attitude is that toward a senior?” Annoyed, the tall, thin cultivator was just about to teach Shi Yu a lesson about disrespecting her elders when her eyes abruptly narrowed. From out of nowhere, she whipped out a scimitar and hurled it directly at him.
Carrying an incomparably sharp momentum, the scimitar's tip blazed with roaring flames. It cut a distinct trajectory through the air, grazing past his cheek.
Caught completely off guard, the tall, thin cultivator froze in place, his limbs going stiff as a wave of chill surged from the depths of his heart. He instinctively reached out to touch his cheek, where a streak of blood had been left behind.
Looking up in terror and rage, he opened his mouth to demand why Shi Yu had attacked him, only to find that her gaze was not on him at all, but fixed on the space behind him.
The tall, thin cultivator snapped out of it, swallowing hard. Turning his head to follow her gaze, he saw a giant dragon-lion beast not far behind him. Half of its body had squeezed through a fissure in the array barrier, and a scimitar was lodged in its eye, causing it to cry out in agony.
The giant beast was covered in black scales from head to toe, with a pair of sharp horns atop its head. Its mountain-like body radiated an overbearing pressure. The tall, thin cultivator felt his legs go soft, and his body staggered back several steps beyond his control.
The people nearby scattered in panic, hurling various spells and abilities at it. However, the dragon-lion beast possessed thick hide and tough flesh; the spells landing on its body produced hardly any effect.
Thrashing its head in agony, the dragon-lion locked its single remaining good eye onto the tall, thin cultivator and Shi Yu with pure malice, taking massive strides toward them.
Pinned down by the pressure, the tall, thin cultivator couldn't move. Feeling the foul, hot stench blowing toward him from the beast's bloody maw, his legs trembled uncontrollably. “H-Help!”
The giant dragon-lion lunged in front of him, mere inches away from snapping its jaws around his neck. Letting out a shriek, the tall, thin cultivator hastily drew his long shuttle artifact. Yet no sooner had he brought it out than the dragon-lion swatted it away with a single claw, its gaping mouth coming down on him.
At the brink of death, his eyes remained locked open uncontrollably, a look of despair washing over his face.
Right at that moment, the young woman he had mocked earlier pivoted lightly. The next instant, a flash of fire erupted, and she vanished, reappearing out of thin air! Stepping off his shoulder to leap toward the dragon-lion, she accurately grabbed the hilt of the scimitar still embedded in its eye. Swinging her body up, she straddled the top of the dragon-lion's head.
Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, she casually struck the pommel of the blade with her palm.
Pfft! Without her seeming to exert much force, the hilt sank another three inches deeper into the eye socket.
A collective shudder ran through the crowd.
“Roar!” The dragon-lion let out a agonizing howl, turning even more frenzied as it violently thrashed its head, trying to shake Shi Yu off.
Shi Yu gripped one of the horns atop its head with one hand while twisting the scimitar with the other, her expression calm and her posture rock-steady.
Watching this, everyone felt a wince of pain in their own eyes.
Rate on N.U.
