Chapter 2426: The First Siege Battle

"If you can't beat them, run. There's no shame in it." Yuan Xi suddenly winked playfully at Lu Ye, as if she could read his mind. "Once I take care of those two Path Integration realm experts, the remaining Dao Fusion realm cultivators won't pose a threat."

Lu Ye realized she was right. He immediately cupped his fists and said, "I pledge to follow you, my lady, wherever you lead!"

"It will take some time to reach Flowing Light. Cultivate diligently and accumulate more Dao power," Yuan Xi instructed, then turned and vanished again.

Yuan Xi City's first expedition was thus decided with just a few words, leaving Lu Ye with a rather childish feeling about the whole affair.

But since things had come to this, he could only leave it to fate. Yuan Xi's strength was trustworthy; she would deal with Flowing Light's two Path Integration realm experts, and Lu Ye only needed to contend with the Dao Fusion realm cultivators. Thus, there was likely no major issue regarding his safety.

He turned his head to glance at the Path Integration Orb beside him. Lu Ye blinked, feeling as though the Path Integration Orb was subtly different today than before, but upon closer inspection, he couldn't discern any actual difference.

Stepping out of the central hall, Lu Ye discovered that the entire Path Integration City was soaring rapidly in one direction. Lu Ye wasn't sure what lay ahead, but the destination of this journey was certainly Flowing Light Path Integration City.

Returning to his Grand Commander's residence, Lu Ye began his arduous cultivation.

Yuan Xi had only mentioned that it would take some time to reach Flowing Light, but she hadn't specified how long.

Lu Ye had initially thought it would take a long time. Although the inner realm wasn't as vast as the outer realm, it was still extensive in relative terms. For a Path Integration City to traverse the inner realm and reach another location was no easy feat, especially since Yuan Xi City was only a basic Yellow-grade city, meaning its speed wasn't high.

However, to his surprise, after only two short months, Lu Ye, who was diligently cultivating, heard Yuan Xi's summons: "Grand Commander, prepare for battle!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Ye quickly walked out.

There was a tall tower in Path Integration City, considered the highest structure in the entire city. At this moment, Yuan Xi stood upon it.

Lu Ye flashed over, landing not far from her.

Yuan Xi pointed forward and smiled, "Look, Flowing Light is over there!"

Lu Ye focused his vision and looked towards the indicated direction. In the depths of the hazy void, sure enough, a Path Integration City stood. It could only be Flowing Light.

He couldn't help but admire the intelligence gathering capabilities of Yuan Xi's old friend. The inner realm was so vast, yet Yuan Xi had managed to find her target. With such a powerful intelligence network, what secrets in the inner realm could they not uncover?

"When the battle begins later, you just need to take care of yourself. Don't worry about anything else," Yuan Xi instructed again.

"Understood!" Lu Ye nodded.

Participating in such a siege battle for the first time, Lu Ye was actually very curious about how Yuan Xi planned to proceed. After all, on the surface, Flowing Light Path Integration City's foundation appeared much stronger. Even if Yuan Xi was powerful, it wouldn't be easy for her to take down this Path Integration City single-handedly.

But he never imagined that Yuan Xi would directly steer her Path Integration City to ram into Flowing Light. As the two cities drew closer, Yuan Xi's Path Integration City showed no signs of slowing down.

The other side had evidently sensed their approach in advance. Thus, even before Yuan Xi's Path Integration City drew near, they activated their defensive formation. Instantly, a hazy aura enveloped the entire city.

The moment the two Path Integration Cities collided, Lu Ye felt a violent tremor. Immediately after, Yuan Xi City felt as if it had slammed into a rubber ball. The ferocious impact caused the defensive barrier to significantly dent, but it failed to break through.

The two Path Integration Cities then flew off in different directions.

Yuan Xi flashed out, and with a raised hand, summoned her Dao Weapon. The surrounding Dao power rapidly boiled as she unleashed a powerful strike.

Lu Ye didn't even clearly see how she made her move. He only saw that the defensive barrier, which had just withstood the fierce impact of a Path Integration City, rapidly dimmed a notch under her single strike.

"You're asking for death!" From within Flowing Light Path Integration City, an angry and deep voice rang out. It was most likely Flowing Light's Path Integration City Lord.

Anyone who was comfortably at home only to be provoked in such a manner wouldn't be in a good mood. How much less so for a powerful Path Integration City Lord?

As the voice faded, a figure boldly rushed out from the city. It was indeed the Flowing Light City Lord.

Upon seeing Yuan Xi's appearance, he was immediately taken aback. "How is it you?"

Months ago, when they were vying for the Path Integration Orb in the Honeycomb Marvel, he had personally witnessed Yuan Xi's formidable strength. Although he had been pursuing Yuan Xi with his Path Integration City at the time, that was only possible by leveraging the collective power of his entire Path Integration City.

Moreover, at that time, he had the amplification of his own Path Integration City, while Yuan Xi was alone.

From this, it was clear that in terms of individual strength alone, he was far inferior to Yuan Xi. He knew this full well.

Thus, upon seeing Yuan Xi show up at his doorstep to fight, he was immediately filled with dread. He had no idea how this woman had tracked him down. There had been no deep-seated enmity between them before; their only previous conflict had been during the scramble for the Path Integration Orb, but such conflicts were normal and didn't involve any personal grudges.

There was no need to chase him all the way here, was there?

As he spoke, he had already engaged Yuan Xi in combat. With this exchange, the Flowing Light City Lord grew even more alarmed. He knew Yuan Xi was powerful, but he never expected her to be so strong that he was almost completely outmatched.

Fortunately, at this critical moment, another Path Integration realm expert within Flowing Light City sensed the anomaly and quickly came to provide support. Only then was the situation barely stabilized.

The three Path Integration realm experts battled fiercely. Two of them, the City Lords, each had the amplification provided by their respective Path Integration Cities. For a time, the Dao power in the surrounding void became utterly chaotic.

On the other side, the two Path Integration Cities, which had separated due to the collision, slowly came to a halt.

Although a Path Integration City could amplify a City Lord's strength, there was ultimately a distance limit. Therefore, Path Integration City Lords would try not to exceed this range during battle. The extent of this limit also depended on the quality of the Path Integration City; the higher the quality of the city, the greater this maximum distance.

Flowing Light Path Integration City was able to stop, naturally, because the Dao Fusion realm cultivators left behind had exerted their power. On Yuan Xi City's side, it was due to Lu Ye.

His title as Grand Commander of the City Guards was not merely an empty one. Yuan Xi had actually long since granted him partial authority over the Path Integration City, with controlling the city being the most basic of these permissions.

Thus, for Lu Ye to stop Yuan Xi City was not a very difficult task.

He couldn't be of much help in a Path Integration realm struggle of this magnitude. Therefore, the only thing he could do was to prevent Yuan Xi City from drifting too far away, which might affect Yuan Xi's performance.

Although Yuan Xi City was only a basic Yellow-grade city, it could still provide Yuan Xi with a ten percent amplification of her strength. This was quite helpful in battle.

As for what grade Flowing Light was, Lu Ye didn't know, but its amplification was certainly higher than that of a Yellow-grade city.

However, Lu Ye clearly understood one thing: stopping Yuan Xi City here would lead to some trouble later.

Trouble, as expected, soon arrived.

From within Flowing Light City, more than ten figures flew out, rapidly approaching Yuan Xi City.

These were undoubtedly Flowing Light City's Dao Fusion realm cultivators. Their situation was similar to Lu Ye's: they couldn't directly participate in the Path Integration realm experts' battle. However, they could attack Yuan Xi City. If they could break through Yuan Xi City and destroy its central hall, they could negate the Path Integration City's power amplification for Yuan Xi, thereby indirectly affecting the Path Integration experts' fight.

Broadly speaking, battles between Path Integration Cities followed this pattern.

Path Integration realm experts clashed and fought each other, while Dao Fusion realm cultivators would target the opposing Path Integration City. Thus, in the inner realm, it wasn't worthless for Dao Fusion realm cultivators to attach themselves to Path Integration Cities. Path Integration Cities were also willing to take in capable Dao Fusion realm cultivators to serve under them.

This was also why Gong Mao had previously thought that if Lu Ye could win the upcoming battle he was orchestrating, he would gain immense benefits.

Because with reputation, many powerful Path Integration Orbs would proactively extend invitations. This was something Dao Fusion realm cultivators dreamed of.

Unfortunately, Gong Mao didn't know what Lu Ye truly sought. Lu Ye cared nothing for reputation, and even tried to avoid it.

At this very moment, Lu Ye still stood atop the tall tower, watching the enemies continually approaching. He showed no fear; instead, he felt a little excited.

The enemies had clearly realized that there weren't many Dao Fusion realm cultivators in Yuan Xi City. Thus, even though they had over fifty Dao Fusion realm cultivators, they only dispatched a dozen or so.

Under normal circumstances, this would be entirely sufficient.

Yuan Xi City didn't even have a defensive formation. A dozen Dao Fusion realm cultivators could easily march straight in and strike at the core. As long as they destroyed Yuan Xi City's Path Integration Orb, they would certainly earn great merit, and the City Lord would surely be generous with rewards.

However, these dozen-plus Dao Fusion realm cultivators were astonished to find that the enemy before them showed no signs of fleeing. Instead, he single-handedly charged towards them, looking quite elated.

"Beware of a trap!" a cautious Dao Fusion realm cultivator called out a warning. The situation with Yuan Xi City was too strange. Although they had observed that there weren't many cultivators left behind, there couldn't possibly be only one. He immediately concluded that this was just a facade, and perhaps other Dao Fusion realm cultivators were lurking in the shadows.

"I'll test him!" another Dao Fusion realm cultivator barked, taking the lead and stepping out from the group. This was a ninth-level Dao Fusion cultivator, a body refiner by origin. Crucially, his Dao Weapon was defensive. Therefore, even though he was only at the ninth level of Dao Fusion, he was confident he could withstand the attacks of a peak Dao Fusion cultivator.

Against such an opponent who was not in the Path Integration realm, he was inherently in an invincible position.

His other companions naturally knew his capabilities well, so they weren't worried.

In an instant, Lu Ye was already upon him. His Mountain-Shattering Blade was unsheathed, and he unleashed a furious slash!

He didn't use his full strength; he only channeled about three hundred strands of power.

It wasn't that he underestimated his opponent, but rather that he didn't know if the other party possessed a Soulbound Treasure.

Although he had already reached an agreement with the battle arena, and only needed to wait another month for the outcome, if he encountered an enemy with a Soulbound Treasure before then, he could prematurely confirm whether his and Liao's idea could come to fruition.

During the previous scramble for the Path Integration Orb, he had a rare opportunity to find a suitable candidate, but he killed them too quickly.

So, Lu Ye now dared not kill too quickly...

Three hundred strands of power were generally sufficient to deal with ordinary Dao Fusion realm cultivators. If he truly encountered a Dao Fusion realm cultivator with a Soulbound Treasure, with three hundred strands of power, Lu Ye would still have room to protect himself.