Chapter 43: Sea Beasts Attack, Defending the City Walls

On the sixth day of the seventh month, Luo Zhou rose early to make his preparations.

He stowed his spirit stones, dry rations, water, clothes, shoes, medicine, thirteen Dragon-Slaying Spikes, and a bundle of Spirit Birch wood into his Qiankun Bag.

As for the items in his home, those that needed to be hidden were hidden, and those that needed to be locked were locked.

In truth, Luo Zhou’s home was quite bare; aside from a cooking iron pot, there was nothing of value.

He had no time to tend to his pets. If the servant hired from the Flower, Bird, Insect, and Stone Market arrived to care for them, he would leave them in their care. If the servant did not come by evening, Luo Zhou decided he would release them all so they could live their own lives.

He dressed himself, tied a yellow kerchief around his head, slung three eyebrow-length staves across his back, and gripped a seasoned copper staff in his hand.

The Dragon-Slaying Spikes were concealed within the staves. This was a desperate gamble; in moments of life and death, whether to reveal his trump cards or not mattered very little.

After locking the main gate, Luo Zhou let out a long breath, wondering if he would ever return.

He headed straight for the East Gate.

Early in the morning, the streets were filled with cultivators like him, carrying blades and swords, everyone moving with haste.

The sea beasts were bound to attack the city today. Many cultivators and government officials were being summoned; village leaders were passing down orders, and everyone was rushing to their respective units.

Ordinary mortals were also mobilizing, handling various logistical tasks: lighting fires for cooking, transporting supplies, and moving the wounded.

All the doctors from the medical clinics gathered together, preparing to treat the casualties.

Every street and alleyway began to undergo modifications—building barricades and setting traps. If the city fell, street fighting would commence.

The City Lord's Manor was specially reinforced; should the city fall, it would serve as the final defensive fortress. The manor contained an underground hall where all the women, children, and elderly of the city would be hidden. Beside them would be piles of fire oil and timber.

If the City Lord's Manor truly could not be held, they would ignite the fires, and everyone would perish in the flames together!

To perish together in a final, suicidal stand! It was better than being captured and eaten by the Sea Race!

Luo Zhou arrived at the East Gate, and after signing in, he was guided by an official.

"Luo Zhou of Ping'an Ward? A relative of a martyr? Still just a child? Assemble at the 238th embrasure of the 37th Squad on the city walls!"

As Luo Zhou climbed the walls, he saw that various small squads had already gathered. The embrasures along the wall from north to south were numbered to facilitate assembly.

Luo Zhou ran toward embrasure 238, where over fifty people had already gathered. There were three Qi Refinement stage cultivators; the rest were all in the Body Tempering stage. Among them, over thirty were at the peak of Body Tempering, mostly in their thirties or forties. These were former students of the Dao Academy who had participated in the Immortal Ascension Ceremony; they had only awakened a post-natal spirituality. They had failed the ceremony, but their spirituality had saved their lives. However, having lost their true spiritual potential, they could only reach the peak of Body Tempering and could never advance to the Qi Refinement stage. In fact, members of the Dragon Tooth Regiment, like Cheng Wanli, Zhang Chuan, and Lu Yue, were in the same position.

The squad leader was a Qi Refinement cultivator whose protective true qi shimmered with multicolored hues, indicating a unique characteristic. Luo Zhou recognized this man. He was the one who had been sucked into the old Croc-Dragon's mouth and chewed on twice; back then, Luo Zhou had used a curse to freeze the dragon, allowing him to crawl out and survive. The two had even been sent to the same medical clinic for treatment. In just a few days, the injuries had already healed.

Luo Zhou approached to report: "Luo Zhou of Ping'an Ward, reporting for duty!"

The cultivator glanced at him and asked, "A Dao Academy student?"

"Third Class, Immortal Sprout Hall!"

"That seasoned copper staff doesn't look light. What is your realm and your spirituality?"

"Eighth level of Body Tempering, River-Turning Sea-Crossing Strength, with the divine power of nine bulls and two tigers!"

"Good, a tough one!"

This cultivator was named Cheng Peng, and he possessed the "Starry Radiance Qi" characteristic. The other two Qi Refinement cultivators were named He Yongqi and Liu Jing, but neither possessed a spiritual characteristic, making them ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators. However, Liu Jing was an Immortal Official Talisman Master, proficient in the Twenty-Four Talismans of the Eight Scenes.

As everyone gathered, they spent the time getting to know one another. Government laborers pushed carts filled with various weapons, armor, and shields.

Liu Jing shouted, "Everyone, come and choose. Don't pick plate armor; it's too heavy and hard to dodge. You'll suffer greatly."

"If you are skilled with bows and crossbows, we have Three-Jun Iron Raptor Bows and crossbows here. Come and pick yours."

Luo Zhou looked around and picked up a suit of chainmail to wear. With the yellow kerchief on his head, he could manifest the Golden Armor of the River-Turning Sea-Crossing Strength; though it wasn't incredibly powerful, it was better than nothing.

"Anyone who understands battle formations, come forward quickly! The Three Talents Formation is here, the Four Phases Formation is over there, and those who know the Seven Star Formation, come this way...!"

Luo Zhou had studied these at the Dao Academy and went over to help fill the numbers. However, he was quickly ushered out; most of the people were acquaintances, and his strength was too great, which would disrupt the balance of the formations.

Cheng Peng said, "Kid, just follow me. I'll take you as my assistant and protect you!"

"Thank you, Uncle Cheng!"

While everyone was preparing, someone suddenly screamed

"The water is coming! The water is coming!"

On the ground, water began to flow silently and steadily. Water rose from all sides, appearing out of thin air on level ground, defying common sense by flowing toward Cuiling City rather than toward lower elevations.

A burst of light erupted from the City Lord's Manor, instantly transforming into an atmospheric shield that expanded in all directions, enveloping the entire city of Cuiling. Beyond the city walls, there was a space of about three to five miles. In this space, the surging waters receded, but the ground was muddy, with some areas covered in a foot or two of filthy water.

In the void above, several people rose into the air on flying tools—about eleven in total. Among them were City Lord Fang Daoqi and Luo Zhou's teacher, Dean Zhao.

Luo Zhou watched in awe. Cheng Peng explained, "These are the eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators of Cuiling City! At the very center is City Lord Fang Daoqi and Dean Zhao of the Dao Academy. Beside them are the heads of the city's three great families: Zhang, Chen, and Liu. The three in the northeast are the three Great Commanders of the Fire Crow Army; the bald old man is Guo Yingxin, commander of the Sea Guard Camp; and the lady in white is the owner of the Spirit Market..."

From the memories of the many demons Luo Zhou had encountered, he knew who they were, and now he was matching the names to the faces.

"They are not our final line of defense. The city's Elder Enshrined, Perfected Yu Jing, is our true guardian deity." Cheng Peng spoke loudly on purpose to boost morale.

Luo Zhou immediately played along, asking, "Perfected Yu Jing? A Golden Core cultivator?"

"A Golden Core cultivator. Perfected Yu Jing commands the Yin-Yang Five Elements Lightning Law. However, the old master's lifespan is nearing its end; he won't act unless absolutely necessary. He will merely control the great array to prevent the third-tier sea beasts from invading."

Perfected Yu Jing was an elderly Golden Core cultivator who had come to Cuiling City to live out his final days. He would generally not fight personally; instead, he would maintain the spiritual array to keep the powerful sea beasts at bay. As long as the powerful beasts could not enter the city, the catastrophe would be largely averted.

However, the spiritual array could only block the powerful sea beasts. Beasts of the first and second tier, equivalent to the Body Tempering and Qi Refinement stages, could pass through the array. They would find the key talisman nodes of the array within the city and destroy them. If enough nodes were destroyed, the array would fail, allowing the powerful sea beasts to slaughter their way into the city, leading to total destruction.

This was the mission of Luo Zhou and the others: to block the first and second-tier sea beasts and protect the array's nodes. The Foundation Establishment cultivators were busy preventing third-tier attacks and would not easily intervene against the lower-tier beasts.

"Don't be afraid, everyone!" Cheng Peng began to rally them again. "As long as we hold the city for seven days, the water vapor will dissipate, and the sea beasts will disperse on their own."

Someone asked, "Can reinforcements come from the prefecture?"

Cheng Peng fell silent for a long moment before saying, "There is no way. This sea beast siege and the surrounding water vapor can only be broken by a Nascent Soul True Monarch. Furthermore, all eleven sea cities in the prefecture are being besieged simultaneously. The prefecture's strength is limited; do not count on them."

Luo Zhou was speechless. He had thought only Cuiling City was under siege. He hadn't realized that all eleven coastal cities in the entire prefecture were being surrounded. The protector of the Jellyfish Holy Son was truly deserving of death!

Suddenly, someone shouted, "They're here! They're here!"

The spiritual shield enveloped the entire city, leaving a space of three to five miles beyond the walls. One by one, sea beasts began to pierce through the spiritual shield and enter this space.

The sea beasts fell into two categories. One was the fish-beast form: Croc-Dragons, Siege Crabs, Death-Taking Turtles, Sea Elephants, Sea Lions, Great Octopuses, Giant Sharks... although there wasn't much water in this space, they moved as freely as if they were swimming, bolstered by a mysterious power.

The other was the humanoid type: Merfolk, Nagas, Shark-men, Whale-men, Seahorse-men... while the beasts outnumbered the humanoids, the humanoids were the leaders who commanded the beasts, attacking from all directions.

Cheng Peng let out a roar: "Everyone! Our families are right behind us! For Cuiling City—FIGHT!"

With that, he leaped up and was the first to jump from the city wall. The others followed suit, leaping down to charge into the fray. Those in formations organized themselves, while those without fought individually. Archers and crossbowmen began to loose their arrows.

Luo Zhou brandished his seasoned copper staff and charged out into the battle!