Am I the only one who didn't ascend?

"Sword, return it to its sheath!"

With a clean command, hundreds of warriors wearing black armor all put their swords back into their scabbards. At the same time, a mountain-like sword shadow slowly dissipated in mid-air.

Not far away, on a piece of gravel hilly ground, a straight crack thousands of meters long was opening. There were countless tiny sword shadows flickering in the crack, and around the crack, a group of extremely vicious wild beasts left their companions in pieces. The corpses retreated like a tide.

Chang Feiran's eyes glowed, staring closely at the backs of those wild beasts. Only when he was sure that they had completely retreated into the shadows of the hilly forest did he heave a sigh of relief.

"Team 9, return to Yuan!"

After simply giving instructions to change the formation, a hundred swordsmen gathered in a circular formation. After a short rest, Chang Feiran slowly descended from the sky.

As soon as his footsteps landed, he heard a burst of brisk applause and cheers.

"What a beautiful sword formation! What a decisive command!"

In the middle of the circular formation, Nan Yingying sincerely praised the Zhu Wangbing King and his comrades around him, which immediately attracted silent chuckles from the pioneering warriors. A few brave veterans even winked directly at Chang Feiran. The meaning of narrowness is beyond words.

Fortunately, Chang Feiran was experienced in this and turned a blind eye. He just lowered his head and sighed: "A mere hundred-man sword formation is really making people laugh in front of the Mahayana Lord... And my performance just now is far from perfect. I I miscalculated the five elements here, and the sword shadow was only 90% solid, just enough to allow the leader of the beasts to escape with his life."

Nan Yingying shook her head and said with a smile: "A hundred golden elixirs can wield the combined sword. This is a technology that is simply unimaginable in Xinheng. The professors with the most radical theories there can only deduce a sword formation that is barely half as effective as yours." ...Although we have been imitating the Xianmeng, we are still far from the real thing.”

Chang Feiran was silent for a moment, no longer pretentious about the difference in strength between them, but smiled back: "It is also because Duke Feng's guidance in the past few days was very effective, otherwise today's sword shadow will only be able to condense at most 80%. Can it be It’s unknown whether you can defeat the enemy with just one sword, and I’m afraid you’ll have to take action yourself to save the siege.”

Nan Yingying said: "Why are you so polite? We are comrades-in-arms. The natural changes and the migration of wild beasts in Mozhou are not only a threat to Tongming Road, but also a threat to my hometown. I just got the news in the morning that the borders of Leijun in the four southern counties are I'm obviously feeling the pressure... So, I'm going to leave the battle for a while and kill the leader of the herd who is about to become king in advance, lest it go westward and grow even more uncontrollably."

Mentioning the leader of the herd, Chang Feiran, a battle-experienced soldier, couldn't help but feel a little palpitated: "That thing does grow very fast. When Captain Zheng Liming was attacked by it last month, it was just a beast facing more than ten people. It was a little beast that even a small team could not confront the enemy... In just one month, it was able to command thousands of desolate beasts and besiege a hundred-man sword formation head-on. This kind of desolate beast was unheard of when I was studying in the Military Academy. …”

Nan Yingying smiled and said: "Really? It seems that your Immortal Alliance's military academy does not teach history very much, otherwise you must have heard similar stories, because even I have an impression."

Chang Feiran was stunned, and then suddenly realized: "History? Ah, the Battle of Desolation!? But..."

Nan Yingying nodded again: "Yes, it was the Battle of Dinghuang. According to your orthodox historical records, in just a few decades, a large number of incredible heroes of Dinghuang emerged... Although the leader of them was a true immortal who jumped into rebellion. , but their strength declined after the war, but among mortals, there are many heroes who, within ten years, went from entraining energy to becoming a god and even becoming a body, and then made breakthroughs in the battle of life and death, leapfrogging the enemy... In the eyes of the immortals, it must be a completely unreasonable and absurd tragedy."

Chang Feiran was silent.

Nan Yingying said: "As the saying goes, heroes emerge in troubled times, and myths emerge in the apocalypse. For the wild beasts in Mozhou, now is the apocalypse... The Immortal Alliance has broken the boundaries that have not been broken in the past thousand years, and has taken the pace of pioneering. On the central axis, Rong City marched westward and wiped out tens of millions of wild beasts in a decisive battle initiated by the Immortal Officials. For the survivors, you are the biggest disaster they can do. Before being destroyed by the catastrophe, the little beast king had grown to such an extent in just a few months and probably wouldn't have more than a few months left to live, so I'll give it a break after a moment."

After saying that, Nan Yingying's figure was drawn into a stream of light, crossing the circular formation of nine groups of soldiers, flying towards the hilly and dense forest, and disappeared into a thick shadow.

It was a shadow that even the scorching sun of midsummer could not dispel, as if it were an ink block with substance. The shadow areas like these ink blocks are absolutely restricted areas for the people of the Immortal Alliance who are pioneering the front lines and opening up the bright road. Just on the third day after Zheng Liming's team suffered a sneak attack last month, an elite team from Zhou Guo - led by Yuanying-level soldier king, possesses a full set of woodland combat magic weapons, and the group combat power is also comparable to the team of fused monks , boldly went deep into the shadows to pursue the remaining enemies, but in the end the entire army was wiped out, and even the bodies could not be recovered.

Therefore, after that, the coalition forces issued a strict ban. No frontline team was allowed to cross the shadows. If they encountered a situation where they had to cross the shadows, they would have to call for fire support from the rear, similar to the Star Destroyer Excalibur, and directly kill them. Explode. If fire support is not available, then we would rather take a detour than die in vain.

However, this set of rules that restricts the warriors of the Immortal Alliance is obviously ineffective against the Mahayana Lord.

Not long after, a sharp and ear-piercing roar of wild beasts erupted from the hilly forest ahead, and not long after, the nearly solid shadow began to melt and flow, slowly fading deeper like a wounded beast, revealing a patch of land that was eaten away by the shadow. Corroded land. All the vegetation has disappeared, the earth has also lost its moisture, and the ground has been cracked with thousands of ravines, and there is a faint smell in the depths of each ravine.

Nan Yingying's figure flew out of the shadows lightly. She still had a bright smile on her face, but there were several vicious wounds on her body... Although there was a bright light of fairy magic on the wounds. , quickly purifying the residual poison, healing wounds, and even mending the damaged white clothes. However, the majestic Mahayana Lord was actually injured while chasing the wild beast, which was shocking enough.

In response, Nan Yingying just shrugged and showed a self-deprecating smile.

"Sorry, I'm the one making fun of you now. I thought it was a sure thing, but I didn't expect that there was its nest in the shadow, and in the nest was its newly born child... The female beast protecting her calf is in more trouble than expected. many."

Chang Feiran didn't know how to respond for a while.

Nan Yingying said: "Don't worry, I have given him a whole family. I also collected some souls and should be able to make a good set of son-mother swords."

Seeing Chang Feiran's expression of astonishment again, Nan Yingying changed the topic: "After that, at least there should be no threat in this nearby area. The mother beast can only grow up to what it is today by integrating - or swallowing several surrounding beasts." Once it dies, this land will become ownerless, and as long as the Immortal Alliance can bring down the third Desolate Fortress as soon as possible, the Desolate Beast will lose the soil for its growth. "

"...Well, thank you Duke Feng for your help."

"Haha, it's back to the old topic again. This is cooperation and mutual benefit, so there is no need to be so polite. I also relied on the power of the Immortal Alliance to eliminate some hidden dangers for Xinheng so quickly and efficiently. However, there is nothing we can do here. That’s all, after that…”

As she spoke, a not-so-bright smile appeared on Nan Yingying's face.

"After that, it depends on the ability of our Prince Ling!"

——

At the same time, in Fancheng, the capital of Xinheng, the high hall of the Temple of Heaven was as busy as ever.

As the actual center of a country with 200 million people, Gaodian naturally brings together the most powerful and prestigious decision-makers in Xinheng.

At first, it was just the academy professors headed by Tuobatian who worked here on a daily basis in the name of the aftermath team and reported the results to Wang Luo. But soon some courtiers in the court who were quick to awaken came uninvited. After that, in just a few months, after ruling Xinheng for six hundred years, the "Pingheng Palace" that symbolized the dream of countless bureaucrats became withered and deserted.

Emperor Gan Ai had long ignored the affairs of the court, and the important ministers who maintained the operation of the court could not hold on for long. After the first person came to his senses, the others seemed to have been infected, and they all abandoned him completely and went to the high hall to concentrate on serving. A foreign envoy came. This process was absurd but extremely fast, which ensured that the order within Xinheng would not be disrupted. Of course, the migration of ministers to the High Hall also brought about complex political struggles. Disputes among ministers, disputes between ministers and scholars, and theoretical disputes among scholars made the once peaceful Gaodian full of hustle and bustle. .

At this time, the focus of the commotion was on the word "etiquette".

There are only less than two months until the emperor's abdication ceremony is scheduled to be held by Wang Luo, the special envoy of the Immortal Alliance, and Xinheng is still far from ready.

Transferring the imperial power to govern the country from the hands of the Gan family... Anyone who grew up under the old order would find it difficult to prepare in a short time.

Of course, strictly speaking, the imperial power had been transferred from the Gan family to people with other surnames as early as the time when the Queen Mother Yang Shijun was behind the curtain to listen to politics. But after all, the Queen Mother is just hanging the curtain, and the nominal emperor is still named Gan, and he is her biological son. But Prince Naling, who is about to ascend the throne, is completely a foreigner.

Of course, strictly speaking, Prince Ling was the lost illegitimate son of the late Emperor Gan Yinghua. His real name was Gan Fengxian and he did not have a foreign surname. But those who are qualified to join today's high palace—rather than those who are full of ambition and unwillingness to set up tents outside the palace and eye everything in the palace—will naturally know the truth.

To make matters worse, when the ministers were discussing and preparing for the abdication ceremony, neither Emperor Gan Ai nor Prince Ling Gan Fengxian found it difficult to cooperate.

Since his mother Yang Shijun passed away, Gan Ai has become foolish and stupid. He is obviously a giant man who is about to enter middle age, but his daily speech is like that of a five or six-year-old child. For such a child, even the most stringent courtiers would find it difficult to let him review the knowledge required for etiquette over and over again, and then completely take away the remaining traces of his ancestors from his hands.

What's more, the emperor's current infatuation is the legacy left by his biological mother.

In fact, in the earliest days, before the late emperor contracted the disease, his and Yang Shijun's children were only obese and ugly since childhood, but at least they had middle-to-high-level talents, were well-educated, and had an enterprising spirit. But when the late emperor fell early and the queen mother followed the imperial edict and closed the curtain, Gan Ai quickly became mediocre and dull. He had no other thoughts except being obedient to his mother. Some of this was natural, some disguised, and some cruel. Difficult to verify.

But at least this completely younger look is undoubtedly the work of Yang Shijun...Early before she prepared the ambush in Dongdu and even before she launched a mutiny to imprison the national teacher, she prepared a gift for Gan Ai, a pot of fairy flowers that would bloom on his birthday. It was an elegant etiquette that had been passed down for hundreds of years within the royal family to express the love of parents for their children. However, when Yang Shijun's fairy flower was in full bloom, it exhaled a spiritual breath, which dissipated most of Gan Ai's spiritual wisdom.

It is difficult for people today to fully understand the purpose of Yang Shijun cultivating this evil flower...Perhaps he was not satisfied with ruling behind the curtain and wanted to ascend the throne as an emperor as a woman, or perhaps he had long expected that after she lost power, a helpless and mediocre emperor would better behave like a child, so that he would have a better chance of living to the end of his life.

But in any case, the emperor's experience made it difficult for people to force him with a tough attitude. Even if it was difficult to cooperate, the ministers could only rack their brains to cooperate on his behalf. The emperor's side was already a headache, and Prince Ling's side was even more worrying.

As a newly promoted prince and the future emperor of Xinheng, he not only did not settle down in the palace of Fancheng, but immediately returned to the familiar Sang County and the Star Army soldiers who were loyal and ambitious to him.

Next, he would mobilize half of Xinheng's resources to expand his troops as a prince, and then build a defense line outside Liuyan City to meet the upcoming beast tide.

That was a terrifying beast tide with a scale of at least tens of millions, led by Xuehu Xuewu... It seemed that the wild beasts that survived in Ming and Mo states were all driven by a huge will from above, united together, and attacked Xinheng.

In the normal Xinheng, naturally, they would not be afraid of the wild beast tide, because even if we don't mention that the immortal officials of the heavenly court would not let their test site be destroyed, the flawless glass light that protected the entire Xinheng was enough to stop most of the wild beasts. Those beasts with inferior strength could be burned to ashes just by approaching the glass light. As for the few who could resist the Glazed Light, it would be difficult for them to deal with the fully armed border guards.

But now, the Glazed Net is already shaky and could fall apart at any time.

Without the protection of the Glazed Net, whether Xin Heng could resist this terrifying beast tide by himself... no one was sure.

Of course, this also included Gan Fengxian himself.