Chapter 118: The Attack From The Demon
Dubious looks were plastered on everyone's faces and hushed whispers were heard in the room. If someone else had mentioned these words, people would take them as a joke.
It had been a while since Hugh entered the Illuminating Soul Realm. Although he wasn't the strongest refiner among the people at the Illuminating Soul Realm, he would definitely be a great power in front of the refiner of half-step into the nature level. Those in the Illuminating Soul Realm and half-step into nature level differed in strength, as was the case with a strong tiger versus small ant. It was a common knowledge among the people.
However, when did the Illuminating Soul Realm refiners become so weak that a refiner half-step into the nature level could defeat Hugh?
So, people at present felt confused to hear what Yolande had said just now.
On the other hand, all of them knew Yolande very well. She wasn't born to tell a lie and she was honest by default. If she said that Hugh was almost killed by the boy half-step into the nature level, it must have really happened. They wanted to believe what she said, but they couldn't see how it happened.
“Are you serious, Yolande?” Spencer asked. He was surprised to hear that too, and he could only ask about it on behalf of all the people present with them.
“Yes, Hugh would have died had I not interfered,” Yolande replied in her usual calm tone.
Everybody fell silent again when they heard this. As they watched Zen again, a strange tinge of light shone in their eyes when they saw that Zen could defeat Hugh at the Illuminating Soul Realm by using only the strength that was just half-step into the nature level. What a strong and strange refiner Zen was!
Unlike the curious looks on most people, Hugh felt annoyed and shameful after Yolande's explanation as he was one of the heroes of the conversation. His face turned red like a mature persimmon. He flushed like the shade of cherries so deep that his skin almost turned purple. It seemed as though the blood would bleed away with a mere gentle press on his face.
“No, no, no, I wouldn't die even if Yolande did not intervene! I would only be seriously wounded at most,” Hugh explained hastily. He couldn't help but stand up as he defended himself.
However, after he had finished, he realized that he was too dumb and impulsive to say that. He would have cried, if there weren't so many important people among them. When Hugh thought of the whole thing, he felt that he wanted the ground to swallow him up instead, rather than just stand here under the curious stares of so many people.
The first time Yolande mentioned that, they still held doubts even if they all thought that she was telling the truth. After all, the fact that an Illuminating Soul Realm refiner couldn't match against someone of a lower level was simply ridiculous and unheard of.
Everyone remained quiet. When Hugh yelled rather defensively awhile ago, he had admitted that Yolande had been right after all.
To be seriously injured by someone from the younger generation who was only half-step into the nature level, and to be defeated to death? Was there any big difference between the two?
“Ehem…” a barely audible cough broke the silence. Finally, Lennie, who had been silent the whole time, felt that he had something to say to clear the whole situation. He spoke, “I was also there at that time. The boy half-step into the nature level is called Zen Luo, and he has a good relationship with my niece. Today for some reason, he had certain conflicts with Hugh. I think Hugh's defeat is not really because he was less strong than Zen, but because of the fact that he was so careless and overconfident that he underestimated his rival. Thus, it led him into defeat.”
After Lennie's speech, everyone looked at each other in doubt once again. Even after his explanation, they still couldn't fully understand the situation.
What? Since when did the powers of the Illuminating Soul Realm have to be careful when faced against the boy only half-step into the nature level? That was totally unheard of. It was simply preposterous!
When Spencer noticed Lennie's failure to solve the current dilemma, he ordered, “No matter what happened, the demon is now attacking our city. Yolande, you can't always take this boy with you, and he couldn't attend our Military meetings either. Could you let him go first? If this disciple from Cloud Sect, Zen, really did something wrong, he would be punished by the Military Office in the future.” Even if Spencer was also quite interested in Zen, he didn't want to waste too much time on the investigation of this matter, especially that the demon was about to lay siege to the city. The key for them was to talk through things and find a solution.
“No, Spencer. If I do not lock him up, he would run away,” Yolande said, shaking her head. Now, they were a bit lost on finding a compromise.
Even Spencer had no more ideas at this point. He knew that it was difficult to persuade her once Yolande had decided on one thing. He had to dissuade Yolande, he wanted to insist. But then again, he understood that fighting Yolande's nearly abnormally strong power, even though it was on par with his strength, wasn't an easy thing to do.
Furthermore, how could he waste his energy challenging Yolande when all of the imperial military forces had to deal with the demon's assault?
Now, the current problem was that Zen could not be allowed to attend their military meeting. Spencer therefore tried to think about alternative solutions. After a brief consideration, a smile broke on his face. “Yolande, how about I announce that I'm going to reopen the Military Office now? I'm going to ask the military officers to come here. You let Zen go and we could arrest him in the Military Office, where he couldn't escape,” he proposed.
Yolande blinked her eyes and nodded without expression. “That's fine.”
“That's good,” Spencer said and promptly ordered the man beside him to inform the military officer to come here.
Yolande gently waved her hand. Her magic made the six pieces of indestructible transparent enchanted barriers which wrapped around Zen disappear immediately without a trace.
Once all the barriers left, Zen suddenly felt relaxed and comfortable. The imperial army still seemed to have reasonable people among their ranks. Perhaps, this imperial army governor wasn't that bad after all!
His joints popped in a satisfied sound when he stretched his body out, and then he stood up. He had to move his limbs for a bit before his stiff body returned to its usual state.
“Zen, you just have to go with the officers of the Military Office...” Zen heard someone whisper close to him.
It was Lennie, who closely approached him and secretly muttered in his ear, then gave him a knowing wink.
For most soldiers, the Military Office was a dangerous place. However, Lennie was confident that he could rescue Zen from that place. Josef, who was a counselor for the imperial army, was actually killed by Zen.
It was easy for Lennie though, to protect Zen through the Military Office.
In turn, Zen nodded to show his understanding. Soon enough several Military Office officers came in. Two of them carried out Spencer's command to take Zen out. They escorted Zen out of the room and quietly shut the door.
After Zen and the officers had left, Spencer began to arrange the Imperial Army's combat plan.
The remaining people in the room gathered around Spencer and the discussion started. “This time, the demon must have planned the attacks for long. Since the demon dares to attack the city at this moment, we must not despise them and must be extremely careful in the fight,” Spencer said as he analyzed the current situation. The demon never started a fight without extensive preparation and unless they were fully confident to win.
For example, the Heaven Tower and the Earth Tower had been built so long ago that they had never been attacked head - on by the demon.
Last time, however, the demon came well-prepared and surprised the imperial army. The demon had successfully occupied these two towers with only one fight.
And now, they were planning to attack the White Emperor City. Who could know what the demons had prepared and on what great power were they going to rely?
To avoid making the same mistake of the imperial army protecting the Heaven Tower and Earth Tower alone, all of White Emperor City's people took it upon themselves to act accordingly. They dared not lower their guard and seriously took the demon's attack.
“The four demon kings who attack the White Emperor City this time are very strong, especially Aldrich and Oceiros. The power of these two demon kings is currently unknown and unfathomable. If the war starts, I suggest that some of us try to hinder Aldrich....” Spencer continued and recommended some guys among them. All the officers, especially those who were mentioned listened attentively.
As he spoke, Spencer gently pressed his hand flat before him on the tabletop. Then, in the middle of the table appeared some screen pictures. The said table was a huge Picture Slab. Displayed on the slab were the names of the four demon kings, and their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Based on this information, they started to discuss and work out their plan of action. Suddenly, Spencer's face changed, and his lips curved up into a wry smile. “It seems the meeting couldn't continue. I felt a few giant evil spirits flying straight to the White Emperor City!”
He didn't have to explain anything further. All of them knew that the huge, incoming evil spirits must be from the four strong demon kings Spencer had just talked about.
“In that case, let's just knock them down first!” an old man said. He had been standing nearby and hadn't said a word the whole time, until now.
Spencer nodded in agreement and said, “Let's get ready and fight!”
All of them obeyed Spencer's order and stood up to get ready. They dashed quickly out of the room, and some of them flew out from the roof of the governor's house like fast streams of light.
Meanwhile, Yolande did not move and stood in her original place. After a while, she too flew out with a tilt of the head, as if to remember something. But instead of flying through the roof opening, she rushed out through the house door and hovered low on the ground's rocky surface.
On the other hand, Zen and the military officers with him walked not too far away.
“You have to wait in the office these days when the demon attacks the city. Don't worry. I can see that the governor doesn't want to make trouble for you,” one of the officers said.
When Zen heard the words of the officer, he nodded his head. It was better than staying with Yolande, regardless of where he went. It was really difficult for Zen to stay with Yolande as his body suffered to the point of curling up limply for a long time. He'd rather die when he thought about this possibility.
But suddenly, Zen heard a whistling wind behind him. His heart pounded nervously. His sense of danger prompted him to turn around and look, and there he saw Yolande flying towards him. Before Zen and the officers were even able to react, Yolande stretched out her little fist and punched Zen in the belly.
Although Yolande looked light, with a weight of less than a hundred pounds, her fist was really powerful and packed a punch.
Although Zen's body was like spiritual weapon, the strong assault of Yolande's fist made him curl inward like a shrimp. The pain began to spread from his lower belly throughout his body.
“Pock! Pock! Pock!”
A few transparent enchanted barriers covered Zen once again and pinned him down on the ground.
Upon seeing Zen trapped again in the enchanted barriers, one of the officers who escorted Zen shot Yolande a disapproving look and said, “Yolande, it is the governor's order to keep Zen in the Military Office. What are you going to do?”
“I felt worried about this man. It's better for him to stay with me,” Yolande replied simply in return.
“But Yolande, the demon is attacking the city now. Are you sure you want to take this guy with you? How could you deal with those demon kings with such a burden?” one of the officials said. The official refused to give up and still wanted to persuade Yolande not to take Zen away. Otherwise, he did not know what feedback to report to Spencer.
“This is none of your business!” Yolande shrieked, stretching out her hand and waving towards Zen. Both of them hovered above the ground, and instantly flew away. Yolande flew deftly like a swift fairy and controlled the direction of Zen's flight.
“Ah......!” the sound of Zen's yell echoed loudly and then became distant bit by bit, as their flying figures began to disappear in the sky.
Up high in the atmosphere, Zen felt the sky and earth spin around in his vision and he saw White Emperor City below him. It became smaller and smaller until it was a tiny speck on the ground. They flew quite fast that they were already thousands of feet above the ground in a short time.
Zen turned back to face Yolande. He wanted to scold this woman severely. However, considering that she didn't care about anything, it would be useless to scold her. Zen decided to shut his mouth when he thought of this. Since right now he was like a delicate fish on the chopping block, he could only bear whatever Yolande wanted to do with him.
As they rose to a higher altitude, Zen could see the edges of the whole White Emperor City became ablaze with fiery red flames, and countless black spots began to rise up towards the city wall.
The black spots turned out to be fleets of demon soldiers and demon generals attacking the city.
Among the masses of dark figures, huge bursts of fiery flames continuously bombed everywhere. The imperial army's firing catapults and firing cannons sent balls of explosions to counterattack against the demon horde.
"Have the disciples of Drizzle Peak been evacuated or not?' Zen thought. He was deeply worried for his companions when he saw the horrible battlefield below. While the White Emperor City had never been broken through, there was so much uncertainty now. Even though the White Emperor City wasn't occupied, the strength of Drizzle Peak's disciples wasn't that strong enough and it was hard to ensure their own safety in combat.
Zen was still thinking of Drizzle Peak's disciples when he heard the sound of a tightly drawn bowstring, followed by a “t'chi, t'chi, t'chi” puff.
It was the sound of arrows being continuously shot from the longbows that greeted his ears.
The arrows apparently came from a flock of demon birds, who were just beside Zen and made him their target.
However, he did not worry at all when he saw the arrows coming at him. He did not know what kind of material the transparent enchanted barriers were made of, but seeing that his strength couldn't even break them, those arrows should have no impact on him and the barriers.
“Twang! Twang! Twang!”
Just as he expected, the arrows that were fired onto the enchanted barriers didn't leave any traces of damage. They all simply slid downward against its transparent surface.
Meanwhile, Yolande flew above Zen. Her snow-white dress billowed like a floating cloud around her. Her long, straight legs loomed below her dress, and her wooden clogs felt shaky on her feet. It seemed that the clogs would fall any moment now, but they still clung on to her feet.
The demon birds targeted her too, but the arrows all seemed to hit an invisible wall around her and fell down uselessly to the ground.
Suddenly, a faint light gleamed through the whites of her eyes.
She squinted her eyes in response. No one knew what kind of thing she had done. However, the transparent enchanted barriers around her body seemed to burst into pieces and began spread out. The fragments of the invisible wall broke into irregular shapes like triangles and circles. An invisible force pushed them towards the demon birds and scattered around them like crystal clear raindrops.
“Swish! Swish! Swish!”
The fragments immediately stabbed the demon birds. The crystal-like formations hacked the demons' bodies into pieces, their wings and other parts falling down in rapid succession.
“Clang-quack-clang-quack...”
Many demon birds burst into a shrill cry. They were even lucky to have had screamed out as most of them were instantly sliced and killed into pieces, their scaly limbs falling down to the battlefield below.
The sight of the falling demon birds made Zen shake his head. He took an almost gleeful delight in seeing the demon birds killed violently by Yolande. "Oh, demon birds, why didn't you find another rival instead? Why did you choose to provoke Yolande. You even did not have chance to fight!' he thought, and it made his heart feel somewhat happy.