Only My Way

It was a massive city situated on a vast plain.

Although its design was relatively ancient, its actual area was comparable to second or third-tier modern cities from Ling Wuyuan's previous life.

The continuous expanse of buildings could easily accommodate millions of residents.

Looking out, the city's gigantic walls, hundreds of meters high, were constructed from gray-brown stone bricks, each one meter long, half a meter wide, and half a meter high, weighing several tons, meticulously stacked together.

Even though the bricks themselves were as hard as metal, they were densely engraved with numerous runes, including defensive runes to enhance protection and anti-air runes to prevent enemies with incredible jumping abilities from scaling the walls.

Besides that,

the city walls inevitably possessed a considerable number of offensive capabilities.

They boasted thousands of giant rune crossbows capable of firing two to three-meter-long armor-piercing, bloodletting bolts, as well as a large number of rune cannons that could launch powerful special shells.

The garrison and strong individuals within the city were also numerous.

The White Mist Kingdom's court alone had 500,000 professional soldiers stationed here year-round.

Their sole task, not involving production, was to defend the White Mist Kingdom's border region, slaughter any subterranean creatures that dared to appear, and prevent them from infiltrating other areas of the country to wreak havoc.

However,

despite such high-level defenses,

the city lord felt a genuine headache as he gazed at the rune clock in front of him, which automatically counted down based on astronomical and terrestrial veins.

It was a feeling similar to, but far more severe and uncomfortable than, the imminent arrival of a period...

The city lord was well aware that while the surging tides of subterranean creatures were mostly under control,

occasionally,

these creatures would bring some extra surprises, unexpectedly big surprises...

In the history of the White Mist Kingdom, the North Wuchen Prefecture, which they were responsible for, had seen more than one instance of subterranean creatures with the strength of the Divine Power Realm, powerful enough to destroy cities and annihilate countries.

Although this city, as a border fortress, possessed formidable defenses and a degree of self-sufficiency,

logically speaking, it could maintain its internal needs even if besieged for over a decade.

But when facing opponents of that caliber... it would ultimately fall short.

It could very likely be breached head-on in a very short time.

Therefore,

unless absolutely necessary,

the city lord really didn't want to hold office here.

Especially as a member of the royal family.

As the saying goes, a wise man does not stand near a dangerous wall!

As a member of the imperial family, the current King's uncle, a strong individual who had long since reached the Understanding Intent Realm, how could he place himself in such a dangerous place??

Wouldn't it be better to just lie down somewhere and enjoy life??

If there were any way out,

he would have already left...

However,

ultimately,

he really couldn't refuse this task.

As a crucial border fortress and one of the pillars of the country's security,

this giant city had to be guarded and managed by someone of sufficiently high status, sufficient strength, and royal blood.

Otherwise,

this fortress-like city, its millions of inhabitants, its vast resources, and its hundreds of thousands of troops... would be difficult for everyone to trust.

The royal family simply couldn't fully delegate authority over such an important city to outsiders.

Currently,

the city lord was well aware that, according to regulations, he would need to guard this place for at least a century before a successor arrived.

This directly led to him feeling like he was rolling dice every time a large-scale subterranean creature invasion was imminent.

If he rolled well,

he could enjoy a few more years of peace.

If he rolled poorly...

then he could only hope that the royal family's support would be strong enough.

Otherwise,

his life would be difficult to guarantee.

It was a feeling of life and death being out of his control.

While he was frowning with worry,

his deputy city lord and the general in charge of the army also felt somewhat helpless about the situation.

Originally, the arrival of the subterranean creatures was already annoying enough.

But they even had a superior with a face full of bad luck??

Undoubtedly, this was making a bad situation even worse...

Although they didn't dare voice their true thoughts, that's what they both thought.

Then,

without making them wait long, the city lord quickly asked them:

"How many foreign experts are currently in the city?"

Although those subterranean creatures were very troublesome, crises were often accompanied by opportunities.

Therefore, whenever a surging tide of subterranean creatures was about to emerge, some cultivators from other continents of the White Mist Kingdom, and even from more distant countries, would come to hear of it and make a special trip to this place to take advantage of the situation, hoping to seize some subterranean resources that were extremely rare on ordinary days and only available at such times.

To facilitate their own actions and obtain more information,

those who came to take advantage of the situation, as long as there were no problems with their identities, would often register their identities and strengths.

After all, everyone's actual goal was the subterranean creatures, and they could team up to grind monsters.

And in consideration of the fact that they had a common goal, the city would open various doors of convenience and provide various conveniences to the registered experts.

Although it couldn't be said that they could figure out exactly how many experts were currently in the city,

overall, the official side could still know about seventy or eighty percent of the situation.

"As of now, 1,641 outsiders with the Qi Nurturing Realm have registered, 103 outsiders with the Source Gathering Realm have registered, 15 outsiders with the Spirit Containing Realm have registered, and only 2 outsiders with the Understanding Intent Realm have registered, and they arrived together..."

After listening to the deputy city lord's report,

the city lord felt very satisfied.

"Very good, the arrival of this group of guys can be considered as increasing our city's defense by a small margin."

"Now, I will directly delegate the material management authority of the city's military supplies warehouse to you.

What you need to do is to use the existing resources in the city as much as possible to issue tasks to those outsiders.

For some relatively difficult tasks, we have to find ways to let them solve those more troublesome problems for us, and try to ensure the safety of our own people as much as possible..."