Tianming controlled the flow of enemies while the formation continued mowing them down. Wherever the starlight fell, blood splattered. The warriors of Nonahall continued collapsing one after another.
What was even worse for the invaders was how the Origin Phoenix and Arcana Sword Legions had begun their charge, locking them into a pincer attack with n.o.body being able to do anything about it. Their three-million-strong force was being culled at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Tianming had used Vitasteal a number of times from the walls, which considerably drained him. He seemed completely pale and exhausted from the sheer exertion of his own vita. Once his vita went dormant, his terra would enter his body. Now, he had to support himself by holding onto the walls to be able to stand properly. Even so, he felt it was worth it as long as Nonahall could suffer enough casualties to the point that their force collapsed.
"The sky plunderer race really has some amazing tricks." He looked at his Plundering Eye with a strong desire to know the origin and fall of his mysterious clan.
"My father said that we’re the only two that still live. The rest of the clan is long gone by now. We"re as good as extinct." There was no way he would be able to meet anyone else from the clan aside from Li Muyang. "I guess we"ll see!"
He shook his groggy head and forced himself to keep his eyes open. Despite how weary he seemed, he kept his sight firmly on the enemy and used Vitasteal once more. Millions of enemy corpses had collapsed before the city walls, numbering as much as half of the six million troops. Even though the three million elites had been meant for conquering all the cities in Archaion, almost all of them had perished at the south side of Tianming City. They had barely just set foot into Archaion.
All that had frustrated Si Ling to no end. She was solely responsible for how this had turned out, and there was nothing she could do about it. n.o.body could have predicted Tianming would be able to do something like this. She witnessed her troops being surrounded and completely eviscerated time and time again.
"Jian Wuyi, f.u.c.k right off!" she snapped.
"It isn’t time for my exit yet." The moment he said that, the formation sun controlled by Yi Xingyin came cras.h.i.+ng down again, forcing Si Ling away.
"Heartscourge fiend!" she cried. The beast had wanted to avenge its master by killing Tianming even without the orders from Si Ling, but now it was in a really disadvantageous position, with the formation"s power free to be channeled to things other than defense.
The moment the heartscourge fiend tore its way out of an Infinite Starnet and homed in toward Tianming, the formation moon came cras.h.i.+ng down all of a sudden, slamming directly against its head.
The moon shone so brilliantly that the surroundings seemingly whited out for a brief moment. When the light dissipated, people from beneath looked up, only to see that half of the great beast had been blown away. Even so, its vitality was amazing. Even with half its body gone, it still wriggled about, as if it had something like the Greenspark Tower healing it.
"Kill it!" Tianming cried.
Ying Huo, Meow Meow, and Lan Huang leaped on that opportunity. Coupled with Xian Xian, who was dealing with the heartscourge worms with its countless vines, the beasts had been keeping the broodmother and its children completely at bay. With the bombardment of fire, lightning and grinding of the Kilofold Rings, they had completely suppressed the heartscourge fiend. Under their desperate efforts, the last surviving lifebound beast of Ghoul King Xue Yi was finally killed.
"It"s hard to imagine how difficult Xue Yi would be to deal with without the sealing formation." Tianming gave the battlefield a look over after the beast"s death. Now, there was no other significant threat apart from Si Ling. They had more or less secured victory for the southern side.
Though, before he could even catch a breather, Yi Xingyin cried out urgently to him. "Tianming, get into the city now! A million enemy troops just entered. Ghoul King Fu You heavily injured Xuanyuan Xie and they"re flooding in! The east and west gates have also been lost!"
"Alright!" He quickly racked his brains.
"Big Brother, can we still hold on?" Feiling asked with a weary voice. She"d lost count of the number of times she"d used her temporal powers.
"Yes. Let"s go." He called out to Ying Huo and the rest and moved his heavy body back into the city.
......
Far above the formation, the Archaionfiend watched the youth at the south gate as it devoured caeli nonstop, the eye in his left arm in particular. The beast"s eyes were filled with anger and a rage so potent that even its scales shook with tremors. Its heavy breaths even contained b.l.o.o.d.y lightning bolts.
"Shameless thief! You have to die! Even if you offer up your caelum to me, I"ll make sure to torture you for eternity!" It felt hatred simmering in its gut.
"There’s still more than twenty million caeli in the city. If that thieving brat wins, all of that will go to waste. Forget it. Even though I promised Di Zang and Po Suo I would only show them my powers at Taiji Peak Lake, their original plan has already been ruined anyway. They can"t blame me for sneaking some benefits for myself."
It flapped its wings and flew north, entering the formation from there. The defenders were at a disadvantage at the north, east and west sides, so no one could stop the Archaionfiend now. Even though a few first-origin tribulation elders attempted to intercept it, it easily blasted them into smithereens with a breath of b.l.o.o.d.y lightning.
"Do you all think I ate tens of millions of caeli for nothing? If it weren’t for this pig, I would"ve recovered enough power to rival an ascendant! d.a.m.n this symbiotic cultivation!"
The Archaionfiend coldly smiled as it came to the walls of the city. The feeling of being unstoppable was one to relish in. It squinted and looked around, seeing around a million Nonahall warriors charging into the city toward the ten million civilians. Some of the defenders went back inside and blocked the invaders’ way with their own bodies.
"Come on!" The Archaionfiend flew into the sky and blacked out the sun. "Shameless thieves, let me show you the new Archaionfiend move I just reawakened—Fiendblood Vigor!"
All of a sudden, millions of blood-colored lightning bolts appeared on its body, striking down on the Nonahall warriors and their lifebound beasts and turning their eyes red immediately. Their blood seemed to boil and their demeanor completely changed. They lost all reason and turned into beasts that feared not even death, their powers further boosted by Fiendblood Vigor.
Even though both the Archaionfiend and Primordial Chaos Beasts had become lifebound beasts, the main difference between them was how Ying Huo and the rest seemed to have their memories sealed, as if they had been completely born anew, while the Archaionfiend remembered everything. That was why it had so many tricks up its sleeves.
"I did mention I could make their sect stronger, and I wasn"t joking around. Not to mention, this is only a small part of my a.r.s.enal. Naturally, those affected by Fiendblood Vigor will be my puppets from now on... hehehehe...."