Chapter 566: Chapter 566. Ascending the City Hall
Unfortunately for Xuang Feng, he was not quick enough. The First Demon Army had arrived at the city hall before clashing with Khode soldiers coming from the eastern side. Khode soldiers were guarding the tower, but not too many. They dispatched those soldiers before forming a perimeter around the tower and securing the area.
Amon observed the tower, which was also Bright Rock City’s city hall. A soft humming could be heard from inside. A layer of barrier barred their entrance into the tower. Seeing the enemy applied such a defense here, he was certain his suspicion was correct. The enemy had something important stored inside.
"Xingzi, do it again," Amon instructed.
Gao Xingzi understood what Amon asked. She sent a mental instruction to the Yao Bird, and the bird released its black fog around the entrance of the city hall tower. Amon instructed his soldiers to move away from the fog.
"Stop," Amon said after the tower’s entrance was sufficiently covered. He entered the fog.
Inside the fog, Amon used his high-tier profound darkness element art, the Elder God Tentacles. He also used the fused aether from his mixed energy space. He summoned the tentacles at the tower’s entrance. He couldn’t see the entrance but had memorized its position.
The Elder God Tentacles was also the arcane art he used to create a hole in the barrier dome earlier and let his battle puppets enter the city. Its eroding power could affect the energy forming the barrier. Empowered by his fused aether, it only took the art a short time to pierce a hole inside the barrier blocking the tower’s entrance.
Amon could sense the eroding progress via his art. The Elder God Tentacles not only created a hole in the barrier, but they also damaged the words of power engraved on the tower’s door and the wall around it. This damage prevented the barrier from repairing the hole Amon had created.
Once the hole was big enough, he ended the art and called Gao Xingzi to remove the black fog.
The Yao Bird obeyed the command. The fog soon cleared. They could now enter the tower.
"Baili, don’t let the enemies approach this tower," Amon instructed. "Wuming, Wu Di, Qiang Dan, Xingzi, Zhong Yuan, follow me inside."
Gao Xingzi left the Yao Bird outside to help the army defend the tower. Amon entered with the followers he called and a squad of battle puppets.
Yong Baili organized security details around the tower before joining his sister, Yong Ling, who was fighting at the frontline. More Khode soldiers came to engage them once they learned the city was breached. Amon told Yong Baili there was a high probability that the enemies engaging Jiang Tong’s army outside the city would come running back to retake the tower. Amon told him to expect strong opposition the longer the time passed.
Amon couldn’t tell him how long he needed to complete their objective inside the tower. All Amon said was for him to do everything in his power to keep the enemy at bay for as long as possible.
Yong Baili experienced a weird feeling from all this. On one side, he was proud of the student he once tutored to have become such an essential person to the kingdom. On the other hand, he was a bit conflicted about being given vague and demanding instructions from someone whom he and his old comrades used to give vague and demanding instructions to.
He didn’t dwell long on the thought, because he could see their army was facing heavy opposition. Amon’s battle puppets took the brunt of the enemy’s assaults while their soldiers served as support. The enemies had very few Martial Realm at the moment, so they tried to capitalize on this as much as possible. Yong Ling and their other Martial Realm soldiers harassed the enemy’s army from the air while their ground troops formed an impenetrable defensive line.
Yong Baili charged in and caught the few Martial Realm enemies off guard. Without knowing what happened, the bodies of those few Martial Realm enemies were split into pieces.
"Brother, how long do we have to hold this line?" Yong Ling asked.
Yong Baili replied to her the same way Amon told him. "As long as it takes."
"I hope as long as it takes doesn’t take too long," Yong Ling pointed to the East. Yong Baili looked and saw many flying enemies approaching. Those must be the Martial Realm Soldiers who retreated from the outside battle.
*
Some enemies were inside the tower, but not too many. Amon sent the battle puppets ahead to engage any enemies they found while he made his way to the top. He was confident that the thing he was looking for was placed at the top of the tower. Still, he didn’t want to make a mistake due to assumptions. He split the battle puppets to search all the rooms on the lower floors.
As they ascended the tower, the more confident he was with his theory, because the number of enemies increased the higher they climbed.
"Who are you?!" A Peak Mystic Stage Khode soldier demanded as he blocked the entrance to the stairs to the higher floor.
"I am Xin Wuming, General Amon’s sword!" Xin Wuming exclaimed. "I will cut anyone standing in his path!!"
Xin Wuming turned into a giant sword as he advanced. The sword cut into the Khode Soldier blocking the stairs before making a sharp turn and traveling up the stairs. All the enemies crowding around the stairs were sliced to pieces.
"Damn! That dude is on fire," Wu Di remarked. "I will not lose to him!"
He turned into the Saintly Ape and shot directly to the ceiling. The structure of this city hall was enhanced by words of power, but his brute force let him crash through the ceiling and directly enter the upper floor. His loud voice reverberated from above.
"You darned invaders think you can just invade our kingdom and violate our citizens? I will teach you to mess with Echos patriots!!"
Amon told Qiang Dan, Zhong Yuan, and the battle puppets still with them to ascend using the stairs. He himself flew up to the upper floor using the hole Wu Di made.
The enemies up here were even more numerous. Amon instructed Qiang Dan to stay on this floor to assist Xin Wuming and Wu Di, while he and Zhong Yuan forced their way to the next stairs. The next floor would be the last. Wu Di tried the same stunt of crashing through the ceiling to get to the next floor, but failed. The words of power protecting the ceiling were much stronger than those on the lower floors.
Amon sent a couple of battle puppets up first while the rest of the puppets barred the stairs to stop enemies from chasing them.
Before he and Zhong Yuan reached the upper floor, they heard crashing sounds. When they arrived upstairs, they saw the two battle puppets that had come up earlier had become scraps on the floor.
They were in a large empty room. Ahead of them was a wall with a large door. Words of power flashed along this wall. The intensity of the engraving on that wall was the same as the one protecting the ceiling below. Destroying this wall would be much harder than the other structures in this building. Guarding before the door was a large man. He had a mechanical left arm. Along his sides were eight large battle puppets.
Zhong Yuan could identify the grade of those battle puppets with a glance. He informed Amon, "Two of those battle puppets are mid-tier runic. The rest are low-tier runic grades."
"Who are you? How did you enter this place?" The man with the mechanical arm asked. From his aura, Amon knew he was at the Intermediate Spirit Stage.
Instead of answering, Amon released the five low-tier runic battle puppets he kept in his black space ring.
He then rushed at the man using Silent Swift Shadow Fist. The opponent wasn’t confused by Amon becoming invisible. He could sense Amon approaching.
"You overestimate yourself," the man punched, using his mechanical arm. The arm released fumes during the punching motion. The mechanism gave him higher power than a normal punch.
However, when his mechanical fist collided with Amon’s, he was forced back by the impact force until he hit the wall.
Amon himself took two steps back.
"Khode is indeed intriguing," Amon remarked. His mutated constitution made him stronger than normal cultivators. For someone to almost match his strength using mechanical aid showed that Khode possessed many techniques not accessible to the outside world. This reinforced his desire to invade that country.
The two mid-tier runic battle puppets came at him after their masters lost the exchange. Amon used the Body-strengthening meridian points technique and activated the Great Virulent Serpent. His power was now stronger than that of an average Peak Spirit Stage cultivator.
Amon revealed his ceremonial dagger and performed Infinite Phantom Slash. The slashes left many deep incisions on the two puppets’ hardy bodies. The slashes also knocked them back.
The man with the mechanical arm was astounded by Amon’s feat. The power Amon displayed was even stronger than when they clashed just now. He activated another mechanism in his arm. It produced an afterburning jet that propelled him forward.
Amon wasn’t flustered by the speed burst. His normal reaction was already fast. The Great Virulent Serpent enhanced his senses even more. He swayed just as the punch arrived. Utilizing the enemy’s speed, he caught the arm and performed a shoulder throw.
While the enemy was upside down, Amon delivered an accurate slice at the junction of the mechanical arm. The junction broke. The enemy tumbled to the ground without his mechanical arm.
The man quickly rose with a sense of panic. He was worried that Amon would come at him when he was unbalanced. However, his Spirit Sense registered a presence opposite of Amon, a presence directly behind him. It was extremely close. He didn’t understand how he hadn’t sensed this presence earlier.
When he was about to turn back to look at this presence, a cold dagger pierced into the side of his neck.