The Yunwu County Kingdom’s royal city had three walls in total, namely the main city wall, the inner city wall, and the palace wall of the royal palace.
In terms of defence, naturally the main city wall was the strongest, after hundreds of years of reinforcement, not only were the walls high and the masonry thick, but they also invited the formation masters of the Inscription Guild to lay out more than a hundred guarding formations and city protection formations.
In addition to the main city wall, as a guardian of the palace wall, although the wall is not too tall, but the layout of the guardian formation and attack formation than the main city wall is a little more.
In particular, the Palace Protection Formation “Dragon Turtle Sacred Armour Formation” was a fourth-grade formation with seven parts defensive power and three parts offensive power.
Once the formation was activated, it covered the entire palace, and even a Fish Dragon Realm martial artist would find it difficult to break through.
At the top of the palace wall, amongst the six formation towers, there was a Black Market formation expert sitting in each of them, and under their combined efforts, they finally activated the inscriptions of the Palace Protection Formation.
“Wow!”
The six array towers, each rushed out a white pillar of light that rose straight up a hundred feet high, passing through the clouds and scattering the clouds in the sky.
Subsequently, four palace walls and eight palace gates emerged with a formation pattern, transforming into a spiderweb-like shroud of light that wrapped the royal city in it.
Looking down from the sky above the royal palace, one could only see that the great formation was like a giant tortoise lying on its back. On the neck of the giant tortoise, it looked like a large green-coloured dragon was wrapped around it, coiling its head on the back of the giant tortoise.
Seeing the Palace Protector Formation open, Zhang Tiangui finally calmed down.
With the Palace Protector Formation guarding him, even if Zhang Ruochen was as powerful as he was, he would only be able to obediently retreat.
If he dared to forcefully attack the Palace Protector Formation, then it would be the best, and Zhang Tiangui would be able to take advantage of this opportunity to use the formation to subdue him.
“Zhang Ruochen, let’s see what you can do to me now?”Zhang Tiangui smiled coldly, revealing two rows of snow-white teeth.
The Palace Protector Formation of the Royal Palace had always been firmly in the hands of the County King. In the beginning, if Zhang Tiangui hadn’t brought the experts from the four directions county kingdoms into the royal palace and got rid of the royal palace’s formation master in advance, how could the royal palace have fallen so quickly?
The defence capability of the royal city of a county, even if it was only a lower grade county, was quite powerful.
The Four Direction County King fled outside the northern gate of the royal palace, stared at Zhang Tiangui standing above the palace gate, and yelled from afar, “Zhang Tiangui, quickly open the formation and let me in.”
Zhang Tiangui’s eyes were cold, revealing a few disdainful looks as he said, “Elder Huo was once the third ranked expert in the Sifang County Kingdom, how is it that he can’t even clean up a mere Zhang Ruochen? If the Young Lord knew, I’m afraid he would be very disappointed in you.”
The name of the Four Directions County King, Huo Tianjiu, was a high-ranking expert in the Black Market of the Heavenly Demon Ridge, and had been appointed as an Elder.
Hearing Zhang Tiangui’s words, the Four Directions County King’s heart sank.
The Four Directions County King had always looked down on Zhang Tiangui because he felt that his cultivation was far superior to Zhang Tiangui’s, so why should he take orders from a junior like him?
Because of this, the two of them were quite amicable on the surface, but privately, they had already accumulated conflicts.
The Four Directions County King did not expect that at such a critical moment, Zhang Tianwei would retaliate against him by stranding him outside the Palace Protection Formation.
Zhang Ruochen had also chased him down to the bottom of the palace gate and came behind the Four Square County King, the blood on his sword falling drop by drop as he said, “Four Square County King, where else are you going to escape?”
The Four Directions County King looked back at Zhang Ruochen, clearly just a young martial artist under twenty years old, but at the moment, he gave him the feeling of a god of death that was approaching him.
“Zhang Tiangui, you are deliberately harming me!”
The Four Direction County King gritted his teeth and coldly glared at Zhang Tiangui on the city gates, saying, “If the Young Lord knows about this, he definitely won’t be able to spare you.”
Zhang Tian Gui sneered, and in his heart, he said, “What kind of character is Emperor Yi, you Four Square County King may still be considered a number one character in the Heavenly Demon Ridge, but after leaving the Heavenly Demon Ridge, what kind of thing are you?
Zhang Tian Gui firmly believed that even if Emperor Yi knew about this matter, he would definitely not do anything to him. Because, his value was much greater than that of the Four Square County King.
Zhang Tian Gui said aloud, ”Elder Huo, you are a prestigious martial arts expert, a mere Zhang Ruochen is not your opponent. You’d better show your might and behead Zhang Ruochen, and when the time comes, I’ll definitely go to the Young Lord’s face and give you credit.”
The Four Direction County King was so furious that his head was smoking, so he didn’t bother to pay any more attention to Zhang Tiangui and turned his gaze towards Zhang Ruochen.
Although Zhang Tiangui was an unapologetically sinister villain, his words just now had some truth to them. The Four Direction County King thought in his heart that as long as he was able to kill Zhang Ruochen, it would be a great honour.
He was a martial arts cultivator of the Heavenly Extremity Realm’s Great Extremity Position, and Zhang Ruochen had only just entered the Heavenly Extremity Realm, so if he was willing to put his life on the line, he might not be without a chance to kill Zhang Ruochen.
As the conviction in his heart grew stronger, the aura emanating from the Four Square County King grew stronger and stronger, and the bronze halberd on his back trembled violently, shattering the cloth and flying directly into his hand.
“Overlord Halberd!”
The Four Direction County King held the halberd with both hands, his legs spread apart, and he violently swung the halberd, stirring the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, as if the human halberd was united, forming a starting move.
“Boom!”
The end of the Overlord Halberd struck the ground, emitting a “popping” sound, striking out a crack in the ground.
That halberd, a ninth-order True Martial Treasure, had accompanied the Four Directions County King for decades and had killed many famous experts.
The Four Directions County King’s true qi was so deep that he activated the “fire” inscription in the Overlord Halberd, and the halberd was immediately wrapped in flames, coalescing into the silhouette of a flaming battle king in armour.
“Flying Bird Lingyun.”
The martial skill that the Four Directions County King had executed was called the Wind and Cloud Halberd Technique, which was a Spirit Grade Upper Grade martial skill.
This set of halberd techniques had a total of thirty-six moves, and once it was cultivated to a great completion, it could split mountains and rivers and penetrate the clouds, and it belonged to the Zhen Guo level of martial art secrets in the Four Directions County Kingdom.
Only, the Four Directions County Kingdom only included twenty-two moves of the Wind and Cloud Halberd Technique. That one martial skill secret codex could only be considered a remnant scroll, making it difficult to truly cultivate the halberd method to its great completion.
Of course, even if it was only a broken halberd method, if it was performed by an expert of the Four Square County King’s level, it would still be incredibly powerful.
A halberd struck out, transforming into a cloud of fire that pressed down from above.
A wave of heat came crashing down on his face.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t dodge or avoid it, and violently rushed up.
Inside his body, Green Void True Qi surged out, forming a layer of protective heavenly deities as he passed through the fire cloud and chopped at the Four Square County King’s wrist with his sword.
The Four Directions County King didn’t expect Zhang Ruochen’s sword technique to be so brilliant that it was just a plain sword that broke his Spirit Grade Upper Grade Halberd Technique.
This kind of sword technique could be called turning decay into magic.
The Four Direction County King immediately changed his stance, turning his arm and thrusting his halberd out once again, a wisp of flame seemed to coalesce into a single point, stabbing at Zhang Ruochen’s chest.
Only to see Zhang Ruochen’s footsteps move, appearing on the left side of the Four Square County King and slashing his palm towards the top of the Four Square County King’s head.
Sensing the rushing palm wind, the Four Square County King swung his halberd across and blocked it.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen’s palm knocked the Four Directions County King back seven steps, then, once again, he met him, and his right hand’s thumb pinched into a finger sword, pointing it forwards.
A green-coloured wave of cold and chilly sword flew out from his fingertip.
“Boom!”
The sword wave accurately struck the body of the Four Directions County King, and was blocked by the Four Directions County King’s Protective Heavenly Deity.
The Four Direction County King was not injured, but only took a step backwards once again.
Without giving the Four Square County King a chance to catch his breath, immediately after, Zhang Ruochen’s second sword wave struck out, finally breaking through the Four Square County King’s Body Protecting Heavenly Deity and striking the Four Square County King’s body.
The Four Direction County King let out a muffled sound as the robe in front of his chest was torn apart by the sword qi, and his body suffered a heavy blow as his chest was a bloody mess, revealing the white bones of one rib.
“Boom!”
The Four Direction County King fell to the ground, still refusing to give in, and struck the Overlord Halberd in his hand out, flying towards Zhang Ruochen like a crossbow arrow.
At the same time, he immediately released his Martial Soul and began to mobilise the aura between heaven and earth, and above his head, he condensed a huge flame vortex.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen swung his sword and sent that one Overlord Halberd crashing out.
He struck out a sword wave again, transforming into a bowl-thick pillar of sword energy light that struck at the Four Square County King who was condensing his power.
The Martial Spirit of the Four Directions County King, with both hands, pushed forward, striking out a huge vortex of flames.
In just an instant, the sword wave struck by Zhang Ruochen was swallowed by the flame vortex.
As the flame vortex continued to rotate, it became more and more gigantic, reaching a diameter of more than twenty metres, swirling the stone slabs on the ground and melting them into magma.
The magma turned into a crimson river, the vortex was flowing, emitting a “crackling” sound.
“Haha! Zhang Ruochen, now you know the difference between a Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artist who has cultivated a Martial Soul and one who hasn’t, right? I am able to mobilise the power of heaven and earth’s aura through my Martial Soul, I am the Martial Dao Myth, you are just a milquetoast brat. Fighting me, you will die a miserable death.”
The Four Direction County King let out a loud laugh, thinking that he had already grasped the victory.
The power of a martial soul was simply not something that could be resisted by those martial artists who hadn’t cultivated a martial soul.
“If you can exert the power of a martial soul, can’t I?”
Zhang Ruochen also unleashed his martial soul, a soul shadow that hovered above his head, and also began to mobilise the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth. Even Zhang Ruochen’s Martial Soul plundered the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that the Four Square County King’s Martial Soul had already controlled.
The Four Directions County King’s face changed drastically as his heart panicked, “How could this happen? No, you’ve only just broken through the Heavenly Extremity Realm, how could you possibly cultivate a martial soul as well?”
The Four Directions County King was at the Heavenly Extremity Realm and had been cultivating for thirty years before he had cultivated his Martial Soul. How long had Zhang Ruochen only reached the Heavenly Extreme Realm, how could he have already cultivated his martial soul?
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen’s martial soul seemed to be even more powerful than his.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen release his martial soul, Zhang Tiangui, who was standing above the palace gate, went crazy with jealousy, ”Zhang Ruochen has already cultivated his martial soul, how is this …… possible? Could it be that the gap between me and him is that great?”
Zhang Tian Gui had always been praised as the first genius by those around him, so he had always been high-minded and proud, not putting anyone in his eyes, even martial artists whose cultivation level was higher than his seemed to be inferior to him.
Until this moment, the confidence and pride in his heart was completely shattered by Zhang Ruochen.
With his talent, in front of Zhang Ruochen, it was like a firefly compared to a starlight, and he was not even qualified to mention his shoes to Zhang Ruochen.
