Chapter 268: Ascending the Heavy Tower

A loud bell rang, heavy and urgent, like the waters of the Yellow River flowing from east to west, ceaselessly.

Chen Ji stood in the courtyard and heard the bell. He suddenly turned his head and looked into the distance, just seeing a large border army flag slowly falling from the battlements of the wall, as if the city itself was collapsing with it.

He waited for the bell to stop, wanting to see how many times it would ring this time.

But after a long wait, the bell never stopped, and it became more and more urgent!

Chen Ji’s heart suddenly became alert. He climbed onto the roof along the eaves. Standing on the roof ridge, he gazed towards the city gate and saw that the previously tightly closed gate had somehow opened wide. The yellow soil and scorched black mountain ranges outside the gate were visible at a glance!

The next moment, countless black iron cavalry appeared on the horizon, like a forest of countless black long blades!

The person leading them wore heavy armor and rode a majestic warhorse!

That person held a fluttering black banner in one hand, like the banner of a victorious general!

The Jing Dynasty's Tian Ce Army.

Chen Ji’s heart gradually sank to the bottom of a valley. He didn’t expect the moment of opening the gates and surrendering the city to come so quickly!

He looked left and right, searching for a higher building to climb, wanting to see more clearly!

In the wind and sand, he saw the black iron cavalry, like a flood, getting closer and closer, finally rushing into the city unrestrainedly!

The border army soldiers stood by the roadside, throwing away their long halberds and pu dao, and removing their rattan armor!

According to the agreement, as long as Hu Junxian surrendered Gu Yuan City, the Jing Dynasty's Tian Ce Army would no longer slaughter the city, and the pass from now on to Ning Dynasty’s inland Tai Yuan Fu would cease to exist!

Chen Ji watched silently for a long time. Hu Junxian finally chose to tarnish his posthumous reputation to preserve the common people of Gu Yuan.

He had to return to Long Men Inn as soon as possible to meet Xiao Man, Zhang Xia, and Zhang Zheng, and leave the Crown Prince and the Yu Lin Army!

But just as Chen Ji was preparing to leap down from the roof, a sudden change occurred!

The general holding the black flag stopped his horse and stood still. He shook the banner with one hand, then pointed it towards Gu Yuan City: "Kill."

A border army deputy general blocked in front of the banner, waving both hands and shouting something, but the general holding the banner rushed past without regard!

The long tip of the banner fiercely pierced through the border army deputy general's body. The Jing Dynasty general used the flag to pick up the border army corpse and wave it in the air, like showing off, turning his horse in place: "White bones cover the field, red ground for a thousand miles."

The other Jing Dynasty iron cavalry patted the heavy armor on their chests, emitting rumbling sounds: "White bones cover the field, red ground for a thousand miles."

In an instant, all the Tian Ce Army iron cavalry raised their long spears and rushed to kill the border army who had thrown away their weapons!

The last words of the Jing Dynasty's first king were true. The Tian Ce Army would break their faith and abandon righteousness, and slaughter the city.

Gu Yuan was finished.

As he watched the border army fall in batches, someone among the Jing Dynasty iron cavalry blew a loud horn!

The sound of the horn echoed, and more and more Jing Dynasty iron cavalry rushed into Gu Yuan City!

The Tian Ce Army pulled iron chains between them. As they passed the earth houses of Gu Yuan, the iron chains, like pushing rotten wood, tore down one civilian house after another, burying the common people under the rubble!

Some common people escaped from their houses, but were caught up by the Tian Ce Army iron cavalry and stabbed to death with a spear.

Chen Ji looked everywhere. Where was Bai Long? Where was Hu Junxian? Where were the firearms?

At this moment, urgent footsteps came from the street surface of Tao Hua Fang. Chen Ji stood on the roof and looked down, suddenly seeing more than ten assistants from Yuan Cao Tang who had previously been tricked into Duo Ku Fang, holding knives and killing their way here!

Someone lifted their head and saw Chen Ji on the roof, immediately raising their hand and pointing their pu dao: "That boy on the roof, kill him."

Chen Ji frowned and quickly jumped back into the courtyard!

He reached into a box and quickly touched each branch of ginseng!

The ice flow that had swirled in his dantian for a long time poured out. Each branch of ginseng turned into crystal clear beads, which Hei Yun swallowed in large gulps from the box!

The massive ice flow previously obtained from Jing Wang, Jing Fei, and Yun Ji had always been unable to dissolve. Now, finally, there was an opportunity...

This was the first time Chen Ji had obtained so much ginseng.

A grand and majestic melting flow feedback came, igniting a furnace fire in his body!

One lamp, then another lamp, as if a long river of stars was ignited in his body. Chen Ji's blood seemed to be burning up, his power like sprayed mist, evaporating, evaporating, evaporating.

Inside Chen Ji's body, it was as if stars were hidden, rolling hot, scorching.

With a bang, someone used a knife to chop open the door panel of the grain and oil shop: "He's just inside, don't let him run."

But among the shattered wood chips, Chen Ji had already come to his front!

A Yuan Cao Tang assistant chopped with a knife. Chen Ji bent down to avoid the blade and struck the inner side of the opposite person's knee with one palm!

With a crack, the assistant's left leg twisted irregularly, and his body fell towards the left side!

Before his body even hit the ground, Chen Ji struck his temple with another fist!

The assistant's head smashed towards the ground, a bone-cracking sound transmitted, and his skull had already shattered into slag!

The more than ten assistants outside the door subconsciously retreated two steps. Human bones are hard. Bare-handed bone cracking is something only innate realm experts can do.

One person among them composed himself: "Form the array. Even innate can be killed."

As the words fell, the Yuan Cao Tang assistants formed a Plum Blossom Array in pairs of two, with more than ten people in total. Every two people were one petal, and they rotated and assaulted Chen Ji!

Chen Ji retreated step by step. The people in front of his eyes were no longer assistants of Chen Cao Yao Tang, but clearly soldiers from the Jing Dynasty who had experienced a hundred battles, wearing armor and holding sharp weapons!

Chen Ji observed coldly while retreating. These soldiers' skills far exceeded ordinary people, but they had not yet reached the innate level!

At this time, almost all the furnace people inside his body were ignited. Seven hundred eighteen lamps... seven hundred nineteen lamps... enough to break the array.

Just as he turned around to meet them in an instant, the seven hundred twentieth lamp of furnace fire inside his body finally lit up!

Chen Ji’s body reached an unprecedented peak, as if one punch could kill a cow!

However, just as Chen Ji was about to make contact with the knife array, the furnace fire inside his body unexpectedly all extinguished!

The world was silent, heaven and earth were equally silent, followed by crackling sounds between his muscles and bones!

Instant destruction, instant rebuilding!

Chen Ji seemed never to have been so weak before, becoming an ordinary person again!

The knife array in front was like a meat grinder pushing horizontally. He was originally going to use a point to break the surface, killing two people first to break this Plum Blossom Array, but his punch was much slower than before and fundamentally couldn't break the array.

What happened?

Why, after igniting the whole body's furnace fire, did he instead lose power?

Chen Ji retreated hurriedly, stumbling between steps. The knife array almost brushed his abdomen, cutting a long gash in his clothes under his ribs!

While retreating, his whole body's muscles and bones sounded like thunder exploding, surprising and uncertain the Yuan Cao Tang assistants in the knife array: "Ascending the Heavy Building!"

The next moment, sharp pain came from Chen Ji’s ribs, as if something was growing out!

While retreating, he lifted open the cut seam of his clothes to check. Under his rib bone, a black pattern with tiger stripes had unexpectedly grown out, ferocious and hideous!

This tiger stripe grew from the spine and extended to the abdomen, like a knife cutting open skin and bones. All the rolling heat of the furnace fire was gathered here!

Chen Ji hastily dodged a knife and rolled in a disheveled manner, flashing to the other side of the knife array!

Wait!

As Hei Yun continued to swallow the crystal beads, the first lamp of furnace fire ignited again...

The second lamp, the third lamp... the ninety-ninth lamp.

The realm that had previously fallen all returned, and was even more prosperous.

So, the cultivation of Mountain Lords is precisely to ignite the whole body's furnace fire again and again, and grow fierce patterns to store power within?

But Chen Ji wanted to call upon the power inside the pattern but couldn't find a way, as if the melting flow of the furnace fire was locked inside, solidifying into black mountain rock!

No, that's not right. The always silent sword seed suddenly drilled into the pattern and kept roaming inside the pattern.

Before Chen Ji could figure out what was happening, in the middle of the knife array, one assistant saw Chen Ji struggling to cope and immediately shouted: "Dare to ascend the Heavy Building at this time! Take advantage of his illness, go for his life!"

Chen Ji shouted with a gray face: "Hei Yun, eat quickly!"

One lamp after another of furnace fire re-ignited. Chen Ji's power that he had just lost returned heavily to his body, although still not much... but enough.

In the blink of an eye, there were two knives in the Plum Blossom Knife Array, one left and one right, closing in. Chen Ji leaped lightly, his tiptoes touching the body of a chopping knife, actually leaping over the heads of the crowd and falling straight into the 'flower core' of the Plum Blossom Knife Array!

The sharpness of the knife array was directed outwards, but the inside was completely undefended. Chen Ji lifted his foot and kicked one person's waist. With a crack, the kicked person's spine fractured, and he flew out horizontally. A gap was forcibly kicked out of the knife array.

The Yuan Cao Tang assistants were surprised and uncertain. An innate expert who had just ascended the Heavy Building, why could he cultivate to this level again in an instant?

They had never heard of this before.

One person lifted his knife to chop, but before the knife fell, Chen Ji had already caught his wrist and chopped towards another person!

The person whose wrist was caught by Chen Ji was like a string puppet. He only felt a clever force transmit from his wrist. The two knives collided, and the heavy pu dao in the other person's hand fractured in response!

This person's pupils shrank. The knife just broke like that? What was that clever force on his wrist just now? Besides, this boy could actually use clever force through his wrist to break another person's knife?

"You..."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Ji had already held his wrist and wiped it backhand. The assistant cut his neck as if slitting his own throat, and fresh blood sprayed out.

Chen Ji suddenly seemed to think of something and said loudly: "Hei Yun wait, don't eat."

After Hei Yun swallowed a mouthful of crystal beads, its mouth bulged from the wooden box, and it looked up blankly at Chen Ji. One moment eat quickly, one moment don't eat, should it eat or not eat?

While thinking, the bead in its mouth had already turned into melting flow and entered its body. Chen Ji groaned. The furnace fire inside his body all extinguished again, and a second black pattern grew out from the middle of his spine.