All the officials and even the commander came out of the tent and hurriedly went up the wall and saw a massive shadow falling on the walls.
When they looked up at the sky, they saw a colossal flying beast, its wingspan stretching across the sky, vast enough to rival the breath of the city walls.
The commander's pupil shrank the moment he felt the beast's strong aura.
Even a single beat of its wings felt as though it could sweep every soldier off the walls, and his intuition was correct, as this was no ordinary beast.
It was a Skylance Roc, nurtured by the Drifting Mist Pavilion, and it is the strongest flying beast under their control.
Its strength had long surpassed the Golden Core realm, though it had yet to reach the Nascent Soul level. Yet it was enough to dominate the scene below.
Not only the commander, but even all the beasts rioting below had stopped in their tracks when the skylance roc appeared.
The endless swarm of beasts that had been clawing at the city walls suddenly froze as a glance from the roc made all the beasts below shiver in fear.
The roc hovered silently above the city.
Everyone below watched nervously, uncertain of what would happen next.
Some officials began to hope that perhaps reinforcements had arrived and were wondering how to welcome them.
Then the Roc shrieked.
A piercing, thunderous cry tore through the sky, and the beasts below scattered instantly. The tide that had threatened to swallow the city began to collapse, retreating in chaos.
Seeing this, cheers erupted across the walls.
The moments the beasts started to flee, some figures were revealed that were previously hidden among the beast tide.
Demonic cultivators.
Their weapons were stained with blood, their expressions twisted and maddened. Even as the beasts retreated, they showed no fear as their eyes remained fixed ahead, waiting.
Watching.
They continuously looked back, wondering what order was about to come, as even when they saw Roc appear above the sky, there was no fear in them.
At the center of the battlefield stood a massive beast.
A thunderhorn yak, and unlike the others, it did not retreat.
It stood firm, its gaze locked onto the roc, and atop its back sat a man in blue robes with a calm expression.
"It would make a fine mount," he said lightly, looking up at the Roc.
There was no fear in his eyes.
None at all.
The commander, watching from above, felt a chill run down his spine as his earlier assumption had been wrong. This was no elemental core cultivator on the verge of breakthrough.
This man was already a Golden Core cultivator, and his goal was far worse than expected.
He intended to sacrifice the entire city to step into the Nascent Soul realm.
The demonic cultivator knew that no nearby sect had any nascent soul cultivator, and those who had would not send their nascent soul cultivator on such short notice.
As a nascent soul, a cultivator is a huge asset to the sect, and no one would be so willing to send them. The yak he was sitting on was a thunderhorn yak and was one of the most resilient beasts found in the whole plane.
He had the confidence that the roc couldn't kill his mount in the time he could fight the rest of the cultivators and finish them.
He has even brought two elemental core demonic cultivators under him this time, and they are currently hiding among the rest so as not to draw any attention and surprise others.
The demonic cultivator stood up slowly atop the yak and raised his hand and pointed toward the Roc.
"Tell me who you are," he said with a hideous smile, "and I might spare you."
At the same time, he subtly signaled those hidden within the battlefield, and seeing this, the two Elemental Core demonic cultivators began moving toward the city.
An ambush prepared in advance.
The man stepped down from the yak, and a massive sword appeared in his hand.
He pointed it toward the sky.
"Let's begin," he said casually. "I don't have all day."
Above, Shen Chu looked down at him, and a trace of amusement appeared in his eyes.
So this was a demonic cultivator.
He had previously faced many demonic cultivators and knew that they were arrogant and short-sighted, as those cultivating demonic techniques were inherently stupid, and after gaining a little strength, they acted like big shots.
He had already sensed everything.
The hidden cultivators, the ambush, the plan.
All of it.
The next instant he disappeared from his position—no movement and no fluctuation—and then he appeared behind the demonic cultivator.
The man was still smiling.
Suddenly his expression changed.
Slowly, he turned his head and behind him stood an old man, hands clasped behind his back, calm and composed.
And before he could react, a hand moved.
A single, casual slap.
Splash!
The demonic cultivator's head exploded as blood scattered across the battlefield.
His body stood for a brief moment and then collapsed.
Silence.
The entire battlefield fell silent.
The soldiers, the cultivators, and even the remaining demonic cultivators—all of them stared in shock.
The war that had pushed them to the brink ended with a single strike.
The commander was the first to react. His face lit up with disbelief and relief.
"Kill the remaining demonic cultivators!" he roared.
"Leave no one alive!"
The soldiers erupted in a unified shout and charged forward.
The demonic cultivators panicked as their leader had been killed instantly, and there was no longer any will to fight, so they fled.
Even the two elemental core demonic cultivators started running back to the forest to hide. They had no intention to stay back and fight.
But before they could run far away, a sword flew from the sky and pierced the head of one, and the other one's head also burst open like the leader's.
With this, the strongest demonic cultivators have fallen, so the rest of the battle would be easy to end.
The old man then returned to the back of the roc and said, "Now that the things are done here, we should continue back on our journey."
Riven nodded, and the old man motioned the roc to fly away, but the roc intently looked at the yak below, who, unlike before, had now frozen in its place and now, with fear in its eyes, looked at the roc above.
Suddenly the roc shrieked.
Hearing this, the yak suddenly turned around and started to run back to the forest. The roc opened its beak, and qi started to gather violently around the roc.
Hundreds of wind blades formed instantly around the roc, which were unleashed towards the yak.
The blades were much faster than the yak running at its full speed. The wind blades easily sliced through the yak's skin and diced it into pieces before it could even escape.
By then the roc had already flown away, leaving everyone on the city wall with their mouths open.
On the city walls, silence lingered.
The soldiers and officials stood frozen, still trying to process what had just happened. The disaster that had nearly destroyed their city had been erased in moments.
Such a major threat to the city was easily solved, and before they could thank the other party, they had already left, meaning that they weren't even bothered and saved them as if it meant nothing to them.
Discussions soon erupted, and one of the officials said, "Did you see how the great cultivator finished the core cultivator in one slap? He must be the great nascent soul cultivator everyone dreams of becoming."
"And the flying beast, it too killed the thunderhorn yak in just a single attack. What kind of beast was it?"
Some officials calmly noted everything, and later during the discussion the topic was brought up.
"From the description, the flying beast must be a Skylance roc, one of the fastest and fiercest flying beasts."
"And there is only one sect that raises the Skylance Roc, Drifting Mist Pavilion."
Another one said, "Are you sure it was the one from the Drifting Mist Pavilion? We didn't even ask for help from them, as they were very far from us."
A third replied, "I think they were going somewhere else and saved the city on their way when they found that the one behind the attack was a demonic cultivator."
"Hmm, that must be it."
"But still we should thank them for this. Let's send some treasure to the Drifting Mist Pavilion from the City Lord Mansion. In order to save his life, he didn't even take his family with him and left with some money, only leaving everything behind."
Everyone agreed on sending gifts to the drifting mist pavilion after everything was settled in the city.
Meanwhile, back at the Drifting Mist Pavilion.
Elder Han stood outside the hall, waiting for reports. Every Skylance Roc leaving the sect was recorded.
Yet, he didn't find any name that he didn't know. There was no record of the one he had just witnessed.
There were around twenty Rocs in total, and each was assigned to elders or core disciples.
He knew every one of them.
He was confused and wanted answers from the highest authority here and asked if there was any roc that was taken out and wasn't mentioned in the records.