Chapter 2626: Maddeningly Charging Forward

In the Inner Realm, Zenith-tier cities were not numerous. Each had undergone long years of change and accumulation, making their foundations incredibly strong, beyond the imagination of ordinary cultivators.

Therefore, even with the current low number of cultivators in Blackblood City, as long as two Deputy City Lords were stationed there, Blackblood had no concerns about the city being breached. This demonstrated the confidence of an experienced Zenith-tier City Lord in his own Union-tier city.

As the numerous white pieces invaded this grid square, many magic arrays within the magnificent city hummed to life, enveloping the entire city in a solid protective light screen. Blackblood glanced at the defenses and nodded slightly. Though the city's current protection couldn't reach its peak due to a shortage of personnel, it was still at least fifty percent effective. Such a level of defense was enough! Moreover, such a massive city possessed not only protection but also counter-attacking power. For the white side to simply take Blackblood City like this was pure fantasy.

The many white pieces entered from various directions, immediately looking around. They quickly located Lu Ye and began gathering around him. This was, of course, due to Yuan Xi's prior instructions. After just a few breaths, the many white pieces had gathered. Countless eyes looked on with curiosity; Lu Ye was unfamiliar to them all, and they wondered about his background, especially how he possessed the authority to be appointed by their player as the siege commander, instructing them to follow his orders. However, since their lives were entirely at the player's whim within the chess game, they could only obey, despite their internal doubts.

Lu Ye swept his gaze across them. Judging by the Union-tier cultivators' expressions, he knew they weren't optimistic about this siege. He offered no further explanations, simply waving his hand and saying, "Follow me!"

Among the crowd, a Union-tier cultivator spoke up: "Fellow cultivator, should we first decide on a siege strategy? That way, we can coordinate better."

The others all nodded.

Lu Ye looked at the speaker and raised an eyebrow: "So it's Deputy City Lord Jing Lei!" He hadn't expected to encounter a familiar face here—Jing Lei from Thin Bamboo City. Lu Ye had met him before when he accompanied Yuan Xi into Thin Bamboo City to settle accounts. Back then, Yuan Xi had given him a terrible beating...

Among the Union-tier cultivators present, not many actually knew Jing Lei, though most had heard his name. After all, Thin Bamboo City was a Capital City, and Jing Lei, as a Deputy City Lord, held considerable power and influence throughout the entire war zone. Upon hearing that it was Jing Lei in person, they all saluted him.

Jing Lei had no time for pleasantries with them. He simply looked at Lu Ye and asked, "Fellow cultivator, City Lord Yuan has instructed us to cooperate with you, but I wonder what excellent plan you have to breach the city?"

"Our strategy is to charge straight through," Lu Ye said concisely. Seeing that Jing Lei was about to say something else, he immediately let out a low shout, "Enough talk! All of you, charge with me!" With that, he was the first to charge towards Blackblood City. Their turn had already begun. Every moment wasted here meant one less moment for the siege, so it was naturally best to act quickly.

Behind him, the many cultivators, led by Jing Lei, exchanged glances. They felt that their player had entrusted the command to the wrong person this time. Facing a colossal entity like Blackblood City, even with a considerable force gathered, how could merely charging achieve anything without a proper counter-strategy? However, Lu Ye had already moved, leaving them no chance to voice their opinions. They could only look at Jing Lei, seemingly hoping to make him their leader.

Jing Lei's brows furrowed. After a moment of hesitation, he finally waved his hand and said, "Follow along!" Others might not know Lu Ye's identity, but Jing Lei had seen Lu Ye by Yuan Xi's side and knew he was Yuan Xi's trusted confidant. Since Yuan Xi had specifically appointed him as the overall commander for this siege, they could only obey. He certainly didn't want to provoke Yuan Xi again, lest he get another brutal beating. A dignified Zenith-tier Deputy City Lord like him surely had some dignity to uphold!

However, he also quietly reminded them, "Everyone, just proceed with caution." The implication was not to put too much effort into the siege, as it couldn't be breached anyway; just go through the motions. Their player was likely using this to divert some of the black side's energy and probably didn't expect them to actually capture a Zenith-tier city. All the Union-tier cultivators understood.

Amidst a humming sound, Blackblood City vibrated. As Lu Ye led the many white pieces rapidly closer, Blackblood City's counter-attacking magic arrays began to unleash their power. A massive beam of light was unleashed from somewhere within the city, rocketing straight towards Lu Ye, who was leading the charge.

Jing Lei was secretly startled. Hailing from a Zenith-tier city himself, he naturally knew how powerful these counter-attacking magic arrays were. Even if Blackblood City's arrays couldn't be fully activated due to insufficient personnel, this single beam of light was still not something an ordinary Union-tier cultivator could withstand.

"Fellow cultivator, be careful!" he quickly shouted, warning Lu Ye, mainly because he saw Lu Ye actually charging straight into the beam with no intention of dodging whatsoever. And almost at the exact moment the beam struck Lu Ye, the Mountain-Cleaver Blade at his waist was already unsheathed. The long blade pointed straight ahead and slashed down forcefully. A momentary pause, then a brilliant blade light split the beam in two. Its remaining momentum continued forward, striking directly at Blackblood City's grand array light screen before finally dissipating.

But this wasn't the end. Following that first beam, more beams shot out from the city, continuous and densely packed. Lu Ye, however, was like a warship plowing through waves, advancing with unstoppable momentum. His long blade swung, producing streaks of blade light, each capable of destroying a beam. The many white piece cultivators followed closely behind him, experiencing an unimpeded path!

"This fellow cultivator... is truly formidable," a Union-tier cultivator exclaimed in admiration. Although he hadn't directly faced the power of Blackblood City's counter-attacking magic arrays, he knew from the power of the beams alone that they were not easily withstood. Yet, this unknown commander, with just one person and one blade, cut through obstacles, blocking all incoming attacks for them.

Jing Lei was also stunned. Although he had seen Lu Ye before, he hadn't paid much attention, and thus hadn't realized that Yuan Xi's confidant possessed such immense strength. But it was very strange... he couldn't detect any trace of Lu Ye borrowing external power. In any case, Lu Ye's divine prowess genuinely boosted morale. The Union-tier cultivators couldn't help but feel admiration, let alone the Integration-tier cultivators.

Lu Ye was unaware of the white pieces' thoughts behind him; he only knew that every moment was extremely precious right now. In a flash, he had already reached the front of Blackblood City. Lu Ye reached into his embrace and pulled out the Lotus Seed he always carried with him.

When he first acquired the Lotus Seed, Lu Ye had used it to breach a Barren-tier city. However, at that time, the Lotus Seed was nascent, and its potent venom wasn't too strong. After that incident, the Lotus Seed entered a period of weakness. But after such a long period of nurturing, the Lotus Seed had long since recovered; not only had it recovered, but it had also grown significantly. This was mainly due to it consuming many Dao Fish in Yuan Xi City. Lu Ye's battle with Spirit Eye in the arena had made everyone in Yuan Xi City incredibly rich. Since then, the city's cultivators spared no effort in feeding the Lotus Seed, especially Yuan Xi, who practically fed all her own Dao Fish to it. Others nurtured Lotus Seeds in their Dao Pools to increase the yield of Dao Fish from those pools. However, in Yuan Xi City, it was purely for nurturing the Lotus Seed itself. As for Dao Fish in the pool, far from increasing their yield, any Dao Fish that appeared were immediately consumed by the Lotus Seed. With vast amounts of Dao Fish invested, the Lotus Seed's growth was evident to all.

When Lu Ye pulled the Lotus Seed from his embrace, the creature immediately took on a resentful expression, its small face scrunching up like a bitter gourd. It was a being neither living nor dead, yet it possessed its own instincts, so it could probably sense what Lu Ye was about to do. This was mainly because just before, Lu Ye had used it against several Union-tier cultivators by mixing a small amount of the Lotus Seed's venom into his own blood sea, catching that group of enemy Union-tier cultivators off guard and achieving some gains.

Grasping the Lotus Seed and aiming it at the protective light screen of the grand array before him, he squeezed it hard. The small Lotus Seed was almost deformed by the squeeze... It opened its mouth and spewed forth a continuous cloud of verdant green gas, instantly enveloping a large area. Within this area, the protective light screen's glow immediately began to flicker wildly!

"Huh?" Blackblood, who had been leisurely observing the situation, instantly changed his expression. He looked down at the object in Lu Ye's hand and gasped, "A Lotus Seed?" Being well-traveled and knowledgeable, he naturally recognized a wondrous item like the Lotus Seed and deeply understood how terrifyingly corrosive its venom was to the protective grand arrays of Union-tier cities. Many years ago, the protective grand array of a Zenith-tier city had been breached due to the Lotus Seed's venom. Learning from past mistakes, Blackblood's heart couldn't help but pound wildly as soon as he saw Lu Ye actually pull out a Lotus Seed. It was true that this Lotus Seed looked underdeveloped, and its venom probably hadn't reached its peak. But his Blackblood City's defenses weren't at their peak either.

He finally understood why Yuan Xi, knowing she couldn't breach Blackblood City, had still been deploying troops and investing so many forces here. He had previously thought Yuan Xi had lost her mind and was happy to see it, but now he realized she had a trump card. A mere forty-plus Union-tier cultivators and over a thousand Integration-tier cultivators indeed couldn't breach Blackblood City as it stood. But if augmented by the Lotus Seed's venom... no one could say what the outcome would be.

"You truly are despicable!" Blackblood looked up, gritting his teeth as he stared at Yuan Xi. His main point was that he hadn't expected Lu Ye to carry a Lotus Seed all the time. Crucially, this thing was extremely poisonous; no cultivator dared to touch it casually, let alone have prolonged contact. He wondered how Lu Ye hadn't been poisoned to death!

Yuan Xi snorted coldly, "You're just foolish!"

"Do you think this is enough to breach the city?" Blackblood retorted breathlessly. "Have you forgotten that my Deputy City Lords are in the city and can maneuver it away at any time?"

"What?" Yuan Xi looked astonished. She looked up, startled, at Lu Ye, asking, "When did you transfer the Deputy City Lords back?"

Blackblood blinked, "Didn't you see?"

Yuan Xi's expression went blank...

Blackblood couldn't help but laugh, finding Yuan Xi's expression truly amusing at that moment. "You really didn't see, did you?" There was also such a possibility: although the player oversaw the entire game, there were too many things to pay attention to, so she might not necessarily notice every corner of the chessboard. She might truly not have noticed. This woman... how foolish!