Unsheathed

Inside the government prison located in Imperial Accompanying City, a strange ray of sword light that was far more pitch-black than the night sky pierced through the ground and drew an extremely thin and long black line through the sky, after which it rapidly soared into the distance.

As if in tacit understanding, both Ye Han, who was standing in the pavilion atop Black Glaze Mountain, and Fan Weiran, who was standing in the dragon palace under Verdant Bamboo Lake, issued a command in unison, ordering the disciples of their immortal forces to get ready to fight for the valuable treasure.

Like sprouting bamboo shoots after a bout of spring rain, hundreds upon thousands of people rushed after the black line in the sky. There were official immortals from a variety of backgrounds, vagrant cultivators who were attempting to snatch the treasure, and martial artists from the cultivation world who usually depended on Qi refiners.

After the pitch-black sword light soared fifty or so kilometers into the distance, a small monkey suddenly appeared in the sword light's path and swallowed it into its belly. Afterward, an elderly cultivator hid the small monkey inside his sleeve before turning around to flee.

A frenzied pursuit and a chaotic battle thus broke out.

Only an unremarkable cultivator from the Ghost Axe Palace rapidly sprinted toward Imperial Accompanying City.

Including the city wall, all of the structures taller than twenty-one meters in Imperial Accompanying City looked as if they had been decapitated by a single sword slash.

The young man dressed in snow-white armor leaped onto the severed city wall and hesitated for a moment before deciding against entering the city straight away. He walked along the city wall and circled around the entire city once, and what he saw was the city god temple which had already transformed into a pile of rubble. Many tall buildings belonging to wealthy clans had collapsed to the ground as well.

There was a cacophony of harsh sounds rising and falling in the city, including the deafening shouts and loud wails from countless people. Lights were blazing in almost every single house, and ever since the founding of Imperial Accompanying City, there had most likely never been a single night when everyone in the city had lit their candles and lamps in unison, regardless of how wealthy or poor they were. It was so bright that it almost appeared like day.

Du Yu gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He didn't dare to fly through the city, so he retracted his Divine Dewbearing Armor and placed the armor pellet inside his sleeve before quietly jumping down from the city wall. He didn't dare to walk along the main streets either, so he purposely made his way around the small streets and alleys as he sprinted toward the city god temple.

There was the incessant sound of wailing children as he navigated through the city, and the women were busy consoling the children as the men swore and cursed. Most of the elderly residents were reciting religious scriptures and kowtowing to deities at home, with some of them striking their wooden fish if they owned one.[1] Meanwhile, some bold hooligans were snooping around and hoping to find a chance to strike riches.

As for the wealthy families, they started to put up the talismans that they had spent huge sums of money to purchase from the shrines and Daoist temples, not caring about whether these talismans worked or not and simply focusing on getting them up first.