For Such Hypocritical Glory, There Is No Longer Any Need
For Such Hypocritical Glory, There Is No Longer Any Need
This day, for Sky Deer City, was a day of despair.
Even the day when the many supreme experts of the Beyond attacked the city had not been nearly this despairing.
The entire ancient city was shrouded in an atmosphere of despair.
All the cultivators and Ox Spirits were restless and unspeakably terrified, watching as figure after figure streaked across the sky and departed, leaving Sky Deer City behind for good.
Even though some supreme experts issued orders strictly forbidding desertion in the face of battle, it was of no use.
These cultivators and Ox Spirits came from various clans and were not bound by the authority of these supreme experts.
On the contrary, after the order forbidding escape was given, even more cultivators and Ox Spirits fled. Everyone was fleeing Sky Deer City.
It was as if, so long as they left this place, the Beyond would not truly come attacking.
The human heart is treacherous and impossible to predict.
Over these many days, Sky Deer City had already lost nearly half of its cultivators and Ox Spirits, and this number was still continuously growing.
It likely would not be long before Sky Deer City became a dead city.
By the end, only the experts of a scant few clans still held firm. Among them were the Four Powerful War God Clans. They seemed to be the backbone of the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, of all of Sky Deer City. Having come to this point, they were, as if by prior agreement, still unwilling to retreat, determined to fight the Beyond to the death.
Scene after scene like this made many cultivators and Ox Spirits admire them, feeling that these were truly worthy of being the Four Powerful War God Clans—compared to them, the other clans fell short by who knew how many times.
As a result, the hearts of quite a few people were steadied.
Their prestige in Sky Deer City, and indeed in the entire Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains, actually rose severalfold thanks to this opportunity.
Many powerful rogue cultivators came one after another to pledge their allegiance.
“We are humbled by everyone’s great kindness, that you think so highly of our clans.”
“However, Sky Deer City’s army has now shrunk by nearly half. If Sky Deer City falls, I fear all of us will perish beneath the iron cavalry of the Beyond.”
“Even so, our clans are willing to defend this place to the death, for Sky Deer City, for the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains!”
Atop the tall altar at the very center of Sky Deer City stood several figures with incomparably terrifying auras. Every one of them was unimaginably ancient, radiant with light, exuding a mighty pressure.
At this moment, one of the figures spoke. His voice was aged, but his gaze was like a blazing great sun, righteous and austere, carrying a dreadful aura that none could look upon directly.
Beneath this altar stood everyone currently remaining in Sky Deer City. Looking out, they were like a great flood, all listening solemnly to these words, reverence rising in their hearts.
Compared to the other clans’ abandonment of the city, the conduct of the Four Powerful War God Clans filled them not only with admiration but with deep emotion.
Even having come to this point, they had not abandoned Sky Deer City, had not abandoned everyone. They were truly worthy of the name of the Four Powerful War God Clans.
“So this was the clan’s plan all along? How is this any different from surrendering to the Beyond?”
“All for this layer of hypocritical glory and face.”
But within the crowd below, a figure with a resolute face seemed to freeze in place. It was none other than Lin Wu.
At this moment, Lin Wu’s expression was complicated, his fists clenched tight. Naturally, he was among the crowd that had not retreated.
Listening to the words of that figure above, he could not help but feel a wave of coldness rise in his heart.
That terrifying figure was their clan’s True Daoist, of an extremely ancient generation.
Just a few days ago, he had heard the clan discussing how to safely avoid this calamity.
What they were considering was not uniting everyone to resist the Beyond together, but rather how, at this critical juncture, to survive safely without damaging the clan’s glory.
In other words, behind all the major events that had occurred in Sky Deer City these past few days, their clan had been secretly pulling strings.
The news that the various clans were going to abandon the city and flee had also been spread through their hands.
This made Lin Wu’s back run cold, and he suddenly understood somewhat why the powers and orthodoxies of the Beyond held the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains in such contempt.
The clans of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains had already rotted to this extent. The Beyond didn’t even need to come slaughtering—a few rumors alone could easily tear them apart.
“What point is there in guarding an Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains like this?”
Lin Wu gave a bitter laugh. Thinking of everything he had done during this time to survive, to save Lu Luo, the many tangled thoughts in his heart suddenly cleared, and in an instant he became resolute once more.
“Song Chan should be able to access the Formation Core by now.”
“As long as I get the Formation Core, I’ll leave Sky Deer City and go find Gu Changge. He promised me—at a time like this, he surely won’t go back on his word.”
Lin Wu gazed toward the depths of Sky Deer City, his eyes flickering with expectation.
He no longer held any hope for Sky Deer City or the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.
And while Sky Deer City was plunged into great chaos, everyone on the Beyond’s side was practically in a spectator’s mood. The experts of every orthodoxy and power had all noticed the armies and experts departing Sky Deer City during this period.
This left everyone greatly entertained. They had not expected that before Sky Deer City had even been breached, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains’ side would already begin abandoning the city and fleeing.
“Truly laughable. So this is the so-called Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains—the descendants of a bunch of exiles, with sin branded into their very bloodlines from birth.”
An ancient existence laughed coldly, his figure like a Skyward Gate Tower, incomparably towering and terrifying, standing at the edge of heaven and earth.
“It seems I won’t even need to act. This Sky Deer City will collapse on its own.”
Gu Changge had not expected the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains’ side to suddenly pull something like this either.
Although he had guessed that someone on their side would abandon the city and flee at a critical moment,
he had never imagined that before Sky Deer City had even been breached, the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains’ side would already fall into panic and begin scattering in flight.
But this way, breaching Sky Deer City would become even easier for him.
“Half a month at the latest, and Sky Deer City will surely fall.”
He narrowed his eyes, estimating in his heart when Lin Wu would bring him Sky Deer City’s Formation Core.
“Seeing this scene, what are your thoughts?”
Then, Gu Changge looked at the Sky Deer Goddess beside him and asked with a raised eyebrow.
She had been very silent these past few days, especially after witnessing everything happening within Sky Deer City with her own eyes—not uttering a single word.
“What I guard is the Sky Deer City my shifu left me. It has little to do with the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains.”
The Sky Deer Goddess’s crystalline eyes fell upon his face at his words, and she shook her head.
Even she could not clearly say what she was feeling now.
Before this, she had never imagined that the many clans who had always been united, resisting the Beyond together, would abandon the city and flee at a time like this, leaving Sky Deer City to its fate.
This disappointed her greatly, and more than that, left her sighing.
She did not blame those clans. After all, the life and death of Sky Deer City had nothing to do with them.
After fleeing, they still had places to go; they could still migrate with their entire clans. But Sky Deer City could not. When the city fell, its people would perish; when its people fled, the city would fall.
Apart from her, there was likely no second person in this world who cared so much about Sky Deer City.
“How truly pitiful...”
Gu Changge smiled faintly, reaching out to rest his hand upon her flawless cheek. “If not for me, how did you plan to protect Sky Deer City?”
The Sky Deer Goddess was immensely powerful, but in the end she was only a True Daoist—at most she could hold off a few experts of the Beyond at her own realm.
And once Sky Deer City was breached and the clans of the Eight Wastelands and Ten Domains retreated, she would inevitably be caught in a dilemma: either defend to the death and perish together with Sky Deer City, or likewise abandon the city and flee.
Though, given her temperament, she would surely choose to defend it to the death in the end.
The Sky Deer Goddess’s eyes lowered, seeming somewhat wistful as well, and she said, “I am useless. I cannot protect the Sky Deer City my shifu left me.”
Had she not chosen to submit to the Beyond, not only would she have lost her life when the time came, but Sky Deer City itself would likely have been reduced to a pile of rubble.
So it could not really be called fortune or misfortune.
Just as now—every power and orthodoxy of the Beyond knew she was Gu Changge’s woman, so even after breaching Sky Deer City, they would not dare to burn, kill, and destroy wantonly.
“I imagine even my shifu’s spirit in heaven never expected that in the end, I would preserve Sky Deer City by attaching myself to a man of the Beyond.”
The Sky Deer Goddess’s lips held a faint smile; it was hard to say whether it was self-mockery or a sigh.
“Then perhaps you should be glad that you met me.” Gu Changge smiled faintly.
The Sky Deer Goddess’s eyes were crystalline, her face flawless, her skin like congealed cream shimmering with a moving luster. She softly hummed in assent, then suddenly took the initiative to wrap her arms around his, leaning in close.
In the blink of an eye, half a month quickly passed.
Within a certain pavilion in Sky Deer City, misty with rain and shrouded in Array Patterns, two figures sat facing each other.
It was Lin Wu and Song Chan. At this moment, however, Lin Wu’s expression was extremely grave as he stared fixedly at Song Chan before him and said in a low voice, “Did you get the thing?”
Compared to Lin Wu’s gravity, Song Chan was much calmer and more composed.
At his words, she nodded and said, “I got it. However, Sky Deer City’s Formation Core has eight pieces in total. For now, I could only extract one of them. If the others are disturbed, it will inevitably draw the attention of the rest.”
Given her current identity as the Sky Deer Goddess’s disciple, she too had to be extremely cautious, not daring to make any big commotion.
As she spoke, she drew from her sleeve a mysterious object sealed within a special Bronze Box. A surging, vast aura emanated from within, wisps of worldly essence flowing through the gaps, radiant light brilliant and hazy, yet dazzling all the same.
“You only got one piece?”
Lin Wu frowned, but still breathed a sigh of relief and said, “One piece is fine. In that case, there’s no time to lose. Let’s go.”
He felt that whether it was one piece or several pieces of the Formation Core, it actually made little difference to Gu Changge.
Because as long as any single part of the Grand Array outside Sky Deer City developed a problem, it would cause the entire Grand Array’s operation to go awry.
Song Chan looked at him with a somewhat complicated expression and said, “If I do as you say, will I really be able to see Shifu?”
Although she knew there was a certain degree of self-interest in what Lin Wu was doing,
right now, the many clans and powers within Sky Deer City had already rotted to this extent. Even if they fought with all their lives to protect everything, in the end they would likely receive not the slightest bit of good reputation, and would instead be condemned and cursed by these clans and powers.
So she might as well follow her shifu’s decision.
A confident look appeared on Lin Wu’s face, and he said, “Rest assured. These past days I’ve already planned out our escape route. When the time comes, the two of us will leave through a Teleportation Altar and arrive directly at the shore of the Aether Abyss.”
“Once we’re there, I have a way to contact Gu Changge.”
He had not forgotten the mark Gu Changge had left in his mind back then.
Hearing him speak so confidently, Song Chan also nodded and set her heart at ease. In Sky Deer City now, she and Lin Wu were merely of the younger generation, inconspicuous and attracting no attention.
Afterward, the two left through a hidden passage within the pavilion, concealing their forms the whole way as they hurried toward a certain altar.
Meanwhile, atop Sky Deer City’s walls, the supreme experts of the various great clans that remained now appeared, standing there with surging blood qi like a heaving ocean, Chaos Energy shrouding their bodies, intending to issue a challenge for battle to the Beyond.
Even though they knew this battle held not the slightest chance of victory.
“No matter what, after today, we will have a legitimate reason to withdraw.”
“That way, no one will be able to blame us.”
Several existences with extremely ancient auras conversed among themselves, carrying confidence and cold smiles, having long since calculated everything.
However, it was all conducted through divine sense, the vast fluctuations manifesting between heaven and earth, radiating a terrifying, sun-like might.