"Your Majesty, Anding Gate has fallen! General Lan Yu has died in battle..."
"Your Majesty, Huihe Gate has fallen! General Qi Sheng has died in battle..."
"Your Majesty, Taihe Gate has fallen..."
A constant stream of reports detailing defeats flowed into the Imperial Palace, stripping the golden throne hall of its former majesty, leaving only panic and unease.
"Why is the Qin army's attack so formidable?"
Emperor Wei slumped onto his imperial throne. On the table before him, a large stack of memorials was piled high, every single one bearing news of defeat.
With all the military generals dispatched to battle, the grand hall was left with only a few civil officials, making it seem desolate and empty, adding a sense of somberness, as if foreboding something.
"Your Majesty, quickly awaken the Ancestors!" Gongsun Yan urged. The army alone was clearly insufficient to halt the Qin army's advance. Their only sliver of hope lay in suppressing the enemy with overwhelming martial power.
Why only a sliver of hope, you ask?
Because the Qin Dynasty also had numerous Heaven Realm martial artists. There was even a minuscule chance that the Qin Emperor had secretly broken through to the Holy Realm.
"Yes, we still have the Ancestors!"
Thus reminded, Emperor Wei's eyes lit up. He rushed out of the imperial hall, entirely devoid of his usual imperial bearing. Gongsun Yan and the other officials followed closely, their hearts pounding with apprehension.
After passing through several palace halls, Emperor Wei arrived at a vast plaza spanning tens of mu. At its very center stood a stone pillar, engraved with abstruse patterns and shimmering with spiritual light.
"I, the unworthy thirty-second generation descendant of the Great Wei Empire, kneel before our revered Ancestors!"
Emperor Wei knelt. From his robes, he drew a dagger. With a flash of cold light, he lightly sliced his palm, and ten drops of crimson blood floated into the air.
"The Qin have invaded, beacons of war blaze across three thousand li! The Imperial Capital is in peril, the nation on the brink of annihilation..."
"Today, I, with the Fortune of Great Wei, awaken you, our esteemed Ancestors, to resolve this national crisis, to repel the Qin menace, and to extend Great Wei's destiny, inexhaustible and everlasting!"
Having spoken, Emperor Wei performed three kneelings and nine kowtows. The ten floating drops of blood landed sequentially on the stone pillar.
This was the method: using the source blood of direct descendants to activate the Formation.
Ye City's surrounding terrain was flat, making it less than ideal for a capital. The Great Wei Empire had established its capital here solely because this stone pillar connected to a Mustard Seed World.
A so-called Mustard Seed World was a void, a pocket dimension attached to the main world. Such realms could contain all manner of things: vast resources, abundant Spiritual Energy, trial grounds, and more.
Most Mustard Seed Worlds occurred naturally, but some were created by powerful experts, either as residences or as burial grounds.
HUMMM...
After absorbing the blood, the pristine white stone pillar turned blood-red and began to emit a faint spatial power. A thousand zhang high in the sky, a vortex formed.
Seven white-haired old men emerged from the spatial vortex. Clad in grey robes, they exuded an aura of decay, like old, rotten-rooted trees whose time was short.
However, their strength was exceedingly formidable. The weakest among them had reached the mid-stage Heaven Realm, while the strongest was at the peak of the Heaven Realm.
"What has happened to make you awaken us?" one of the Ancestors asked. Perhaps because he hadn't spoken for too long, his voice was somewhat hoarse, and his eyes were murky, as if he hadn't fully awoken.
"Ancestors, please act and repel the enemy forces outside the city!" Discovering that seven Ancestors were still alive, Emperor Wei breathed a sigh of relief and hastily spoke.
"They've fought their way to the capital city?"
"Courting death..."
The seven Ancestors scanned with their divine sense. Discovering the Qin troops that had invaded the city, their killing intent surged. Carrying an overwhelming aura, they tore through the air and departed.
BOOM!
A terrifying aura spread for dozens of li, suffused with unparalleled killing intent.
Instantly, everyone in Ye City felt a tremor in their hearts, as if countless massive stones were pressing down on them. Looking up, they saw seven streaks of light flash past in an instant.
"The Ancestors have emerged! All generals, follow me to slay the enemy!" Emperor Wei shouted loudly. Holding a battle sword, he Led by Example, charging towards the enemy. Bolstered by the nation's Fortune, he displayed the strength of a mid-stage Heaven Realm cultivator.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Meanwhile, Wei Youqing and Wei Daoyi, who had been hiding, also descended upon the battlefield, seeking opponents.
At this moment, the Great Wei Empire was firing on all cylinders.
"We finally forced them out!"
On a city tower captured by the Qin army, Bai Qi stood with his hands clasped behind his back, observing the ten figures rapidly approaching. A faint smile touched his lips, but his expression remained otherwise unchanged. It was as if these ten Heaven Realm martial artists were not even worthy of a second glance from him.
"Great General, allow me to go and slay them!" Zhang Gan volunteered, his war blade in hand, its cold light glinting. His face was filled with bloodlust, and the strength he revealed had astonishingly reached the peak of the Heaven Realm.
"You are not their match alone. All of you, attack together!" Bai Qi commanded calmly, his body unmoving, showing no intention of acting himself.
"Yes, sir!"
Meng Tian, Sima Cuo, Li Xin, and Ren Xiao stepped forward, savage smiles on their faces as they soared into the sky. They exuded a terrifying aura. Although there were only five of them, their combat strength was no less than that of Great Wei's assembled experts.
Zhang Gan, Meng Tian, and Sima Cuo all possessed peak Heaven Realm combat strength.
Though slightly weaker, Li Xin and Ren Xiao also possessed late-stage Heaven Realm strength.
As for the Great Wei Empire's martial artists, only one was at the peak of the Heaven Realm, and three were at the late-stage Heaven Realm; the others were all mid-stage Heaven Realm.
Emperor Wei's expression changed drastically after sensing the strength of Zhang Gan and the others. He instinctively looked towards Bai Qi. If the Deputy Generals are this powerful, just how terrifying must Bai Qi, the Great General, be?
Could he also have broken through to the Holy Realm...? A terrifying thought surfaced in Emperor Wei's mind, causing him to shake his head repeatedly. This is impossible!
Including the Qin Emperor, the Qin Empire would then have two martial artists who had reached the Holy Realm. If Bai Qi had also reached the Holy Realm, that would mean that of all the Holy Realm experts in the East Ancient Domain, the Qin Country possessed half.
Is this possible? Impossible!
"Kill!"
"Heavenly Blade Annihilation!"
The seven Ancestors of Wei Country ferociously attacked. They had lived in seclusion for ten thousand years and were unaware of the current situation in the outside world, presuming the Qin Empire had gathered its entire nation's strength to attack the Great Wei Empire.
Besides, just because the enemy was strong, should they flee without fighting?
As the Ancestors of the Great Wei Empire, could they flee?
"Fight!"
Zhang Gan and the others were no pushovers either. Wielding their weapons, they launched a terrifying offensive, engaging the ten experts of the Great Wei Empire in a chaotic battle, not falling into a disadvantage in the slightest.
Attacks streaked across the sky, dazzling and brilliant!
...
"Kill!"
Within Ye City, the cries of slaughter grew louder and louder.
Under Bai Qi's command, the Qin army split into six divisions, deploying Formations to continuously encroach upon the Wei army's positions and eliminate a large number of enemies.
The most terrifying aspect was that these six great Formations could merge, forming a super-Formation. Once connected, it would act like a millstone, grinding all enemies within the Formation to dust.
This was one of the reasons the other six nations were apprehensive of the Qin Empire.
In the entire East Ancient Domain, only the army of the Qin Empire could deploy such Formations.
Under the same realm conditions, one hundred Qin soldiers enhanced by a Formation could easily annihilate one thousand ordinary enemy soldiers.
Quantitative change led to qualitative change.
When a sufficient number of troops gathered to lay out an immense Formation, they could even slay powerful enemies across several cultivation levels.
Historically, there were records of the Qin army using Formations to slay Heaven Realm martial artists.
If Heaven Realm experts could be slain, then what about those in the Holy Realm?