After several days and nights of full-speed flight, Lin Xiao finally arrived at the Ji family’s Thirty-Seventh Division.
The Thirty-Seventh Division was located roughly a hundred li outside a small city of over a hundred thousand people. It housed several thousand clan members; Lin Xiao had already gathered this information beforehand.
The presiding elder was also a Ninth-layer Martial Emperor, posing no real threat to him.
The main problem was that a city lay right beside the Ji family branch. If he unleashed the full simultaneous assault of his skeleton army as he had done before, the shockwaves would inevitably spread for two or three hundred li, slaughtering countless innocents inside the city.
Most people there would never withstand even the residual ripples of such an attack.
Though Lin Xiao was no saint, and never showed mercy to anyone of the Ji family, he could not and would never massacre so many unrelated lives.
Thus, an instant annihilation strike was out of the question. He would have to attack head-on.
A direct assault carried the risk of some escaping.
Yet Lin Xiao was confident he would not let too many Ji family members survive.
All he wanted was to deliver a grand “gift” to the Ji family. A few escapees were irrelevant.
When he was still one or two hundred li from the city’s flank, Lin Xiao halted. He glanced around and roughly fixed the position of the Thirty-Seventh Division.
With a sweep of his hand, he released the skeleton army from his storage rings. The skeletons rapidly formed ranks. Lin Xiao flew to the front of the army and activated the Undying Skeleton Technique, ordering the host to advance.
“Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!”
The skeleton army moved like the wind. Even racing through the void, they barely stirred the air.
Yet an invisible chill permeated the entire area.
In no time, Lin Xiao drew close to the ancient city.
“Heavens, wh-what is that?”
“Skeletons, thousands, tens of thousands of skeletons!”
“The bones are moving, every one holding a weapon. My god, what is going on?”
“It’s a skeleton army!”
“There’s a person at the front of that skeleton army!” …
Countless people inside the city looked up, staring in utter disbelief at the sky ahead.
The soldiers stationed on the city walls began trembling in fear.
Before the army even arrived, a Sixth-layer Martial Emperor elder shot diagonally upward from the wall on the city’s flank. He flew forward and shouted at Lin Xiao, “This city is under the protection of the Ji family! Who are you to cause trouble here?”
The sight of over ten thousand skeletons had truly frightened him.
Still, remembering that the Ji family stood behind them, he felt much bolder.
The Ji family was the overlord of Yang Province. What demon or monster dared provoke them? Even someone commanding a strange army would never dare.
Besides, Ji family experts would emerge at any moment.
Lin Xiao gave the elder no reply. He stopped, and through the commander skeleton he ordered the entire army to halt as well.
He turned slightly towards the city and proclaimed in a resounding voice, “Today the Ji family will be destroyed. All uninvolved parties, leave the city at once. Otherwise, you bear the consequences yourselves!”
His voice rolled like thunder, reaching every corner of the city and even clearly audible throughout the entire Ji family compound a hundred li away.
The elder who had spoken, along with everyone in the city, stood stunned.
They had been counting on the Ji family to protect the city, yet the youth leading over ten thousand skeletons had come specifically to attack the Ji family?
If it were just one or two people, they would have laughed it off.
But this was an army of over ten thousand, composed entirely of dead skeletons. No one could disbelieve their eyes.
“Chi!”
As he spoke, Lin Xiao activated the Undying Skeleton Technique and ordered the leftmost of the ten elite skeletons standing behind the commander to attack.
Against a mere Sixth-layer Martial Emperor, a skeleton imprinted with Ninth-layer Martial Emperor battle power needed no support. That skeleton casually pointed its spear. A beam of white spear light shot out, piercing straight through the shouting elder.
The elder had no time to block. Blood sprayed from his chest, and he died on the spot.
To Lin Xiao, this elder was not truly an enemy.
Yet at this moment, someone had to be made an example of to demonstrate power and drive the crowd away.
Otherwise, far more would die from the shockwaves of battle.
Moreover, since this elder was a high-ranking member of the city guard, he undoubtedly relied on the Ji family. Killing him brought Lin Xiao no guilt.
After that single strike, Lin Xiao stopped the skeleton. It immediately froze, returning to awaiting the commander’s orders.
Then he activated the commander once more. The army resumed its advance, heading towards the midpoint between the city gate and the Ji family compound.
“Run! Everyone run!”
Someone shouted. The entire city instantly descended into chaos.
A single skeleton had casually killed a Sixth-layer Martial Emperor. How terrifying would ten thousand be?
Even if not every skeleton matched the power of those ten in the front row, they could not be weak.
If all ten thousand attacked at once, the whole city might be annihilated.
At the very least, those ten in the front row could each kill a Sixth-layer Martial Emperor with ease.
And there was one more ahead of them.
That one was probably even more terrifying.
Since the youth clearly intended to destroy the Ji family’s Thirty-Seventh Division, he must have absolute confidence.
Faced with such a bizarre skeleton army, many were already gripped by fear. The moment the Sixth-layer Martial Emperor died, their terror reached its peak, and they fled in all directions.
Those with strength flew straight out of the city. Countless ordinary people surged towards the gates or fled along both sides away from the walls.
Some even blasted holes in the walls, allowing masses to escape from every direction.
“Who dares speak such arrogant words against my Ji family!”
Lin Xiao’s proclamation reached the Ji family. Fury erupted among them. An elder shot into the sky and roared, his Ninth-layer Martial Emperor aura erupting without restraint, a terrifying pressure blanketing the entire city.
Someone had actually declared that the Ji family would be destroyed today. This was blatant contempt, touching the Ji family’s reverse scale.
Yet when this Ninth-layer Martial Emperor caught sight of the skeleton army, he froze in shock.
Meanwhile, countless people inside the city continued fleeing in panic.
Lin Xiao and his skeleton army had already reached thirty or forty li from the city gate. The army swiftly rearranged, back facing the gate, front facing the Ji family.
Several dozen li in front of the Ji family compound, not only the elder but many others charged forward.
But upon seeing the ten-thousand-strong skeleton army, they all stopped dead in the void, dumbfounded.
An army of ten thousand skeletons, how had this appeared?
“I’ve heard that Evil Valley contains such skeletons, and only one person can control them. You… you are Lin Xiao?” the elder cried out in alarm.
At those words, everyone from the Ji family and the city gasped in unison.
Lin Xiao’s name had already spread throughout Yang Province.
Recently, news of him killing Ji Ya, Yang Fengyi, Yi Xiaoxi, and several Eighth-layer Martial Emperors from both hostile powers had been circulating wildly.
Word had also spread that inside Evil Valley he controlled a squadron of skeleton cavalry.
Yet faced with an army of ten thousand skeletons, no one had immediately connected it to Lin Xiao. After all, the difference between a cavalry squad and a full army was enormous.
But the moment the Ji family’s Ninth-layer Martial Emperor elder shouted, everyone realised and instantly linked the two identities.
Among those who recently bore grudges against the Ji family and dared to strike them, there were only a few: Lin Xiao, Xi Yucheng, and the monk who had acted against the Ji family inside Evil Valley.
Only Lin Xiao would both control skeletons and boldly come to annihilate a Ji family branch.
It was said Lin Xiao possessed human-skin masks to disguise his face. Now wearing the face of a youth, it was obvious: this person was undoubtedly Lin Xiao.
Once his identity was known, the people in the city fled even faster. No one doubted that Lin Xiao had come specifically to deal with the Ji family, and that he would truly act.
This ten-thousand-strong skeleton army would absolutely strike against the Ji family members.
