Jiang Tianxing had hidden Jiang Ying largely to protect him. Whether among righteous cultivators or demonic cultivators, the very existence of someone with a Demon-Attracting Dao Body exposed him to serious danger.
Xu Ziyan believed Jiang Tianxing was wise enough to realize that having Jiang Ying follow the Xu brothers was the safest solution. The Jiang family was simply too small. Once Jiang Ying’s secret came to light, its power would never be sufficient to protect him.
That was precisely how matters unfolded. The sound-isolating barrier was soon lifted, and Jiang Tianxing announced calmly that, in recognition of his outstanding battlefield performance, ‘Jiang Ping’ would accompany Xu Zirong as a retainer cultivator for five years.
A retainer cultivator was effectively a cultivator’s bodyguard. The retainer entered into a contract with the master and was expected to prevent any threat from reaching the master, even at the cost of his own life. It was rather like signing away one’s freedom, and at first glance the arrangement seemed terribly unfair to Jiang Ping.
In reality, however, countless younger Jiang disciples envied Jiang Ping’s good fortune. Since retainers had to follow their masters, the latter supplied all the pills and resources needed for their cultivation.
Following an ordinary cultivator might not bring much benefit, but Xu Zirong was the direct disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator, with access to tremendous resources. The Xu brothers’ talents were plain for all to see. The prospect of serving masters like them in exchange for a mere five years of loyalty was an extraordinary bargain.
The other Jiang disciples simply envied Jiang Ping’s luck. Jiang Tianxing, by contrast, was shocked that Xu Ziyan’s group had discovered Jiang Ying, or rather, that Jiang Ying had somehow secured their patronage.
Jiang Tianxing’s feelings toward his son were deeply conflicted. As patriarch, he knew that Jiang Ying’s Demon-Attracting Dao Body alone could justify eliminating him. But as a father, how could he bring himself to kill his own flesh and blood?
He could neither abandon his son nor openly train him, and the conflict had long weighed on his heart. Fortunately, although Jiang Ying housed two souls in one body and had spent years confined, he did not harbor hatred. By the same token, he felt little attachment to the Jiang family. Letting him depart with the Xu brothers was a reasonable way to keep him alive.
Recruiting Jiang Ying as a retainer was merely a small interlude in the siege. Before long, the beasts launched their third charge.
The vanguard this time was an enormous black rhinoceros. Its hide had a faint metallic sheen, and a wisp of black light flickered around the horn on its nose.
“Concentrate your attacks!” Jiang Tianxing immediately spotted the massive beast and felt a crushing sense of danger from it.
The cultivators on the walls redirected their spells toward the black rhinoceros. A riot of colorful attacks struck its hide without leaving so much as a shallow scratch.
Jiang Tianxing’s pupils contracted. He raised his arm, and a group of early Meridian Condensation cultivators immediately stepped to the front of the ramparts and unleashed a torrent of spells below.
The Iron Rhino did not dare charge recklessly into the attacks of Meridian Condensation cultivators. Black light flashed over its body, intensifying the metallic shine of its hide. The small green bird perched on the tip of its horn spread its wings, shot upward, and gave a piercing shriek.
Bzzzz…
Every low- and mid-level cultivator within the bird’s range briefly lost contact with their own spiritual power. The disruption lasted only an instant, but their runaway spells immediately rebounded. More than half grunted in pain, flecks of blood appearing at the corners of their mouths.
The Meridian Condensation cultivators were at the center of the bird’s sonic attack. Six or seven out of every ten were injured.
The backlash wounds were not particularly serious in themselves, but their consequences were disastrous.
At the precise moment the green bird shrieked, the Iron Rhino seized its chance to accelerate again. Its massive body slammed into the city gate, making the entire tower shudder. The defensive formation flickered wildly, on the verge of collapse.
“Careful!” Jiang Tianxing had not anticipated such power from the Iron Rhino’s charge. The gate had almost been breached in a single blow. As he worried whether the defensive formation could withstand a second impact, a figure suddenly appeared beside the gate and sent a red streak of light slashing toward it.
“Hmph!” A gray-clad elderly woman holding a dragon-headed staff snorted coldly and slammed the staff against the ground.
A visible ripple spread outward across the earth, racing toward the base of the gate.
“Heh-heh, too late!” the shadowy figure laughed wildly and turned to flee. From that laughter, there was no mistaking him for anyone but the Jiang family’s Elder Qi.
The old woman smiled coldly, flicked her staff, and sent a tiny black shadow shooting from it straight into Elder Qi’s body.
Elder Qi was appalled. He had committed everything to assisting the Iron Rhino’s attack and had expected to be surrounded the moment he struck. He had therefore prepared more than three defensive spells in advance. If he could hold out for only a few seconds, he would activate the Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman in his hand and escape. Yet he had failed to block even one attack from this old woman. The black shadow had not shown any immediate effect, but no one could believe her strike would prove harmless.
While the gray-clad woman pursued Elder Qi, Xu Ziyan paid closer attention to the gate. If it were breached, driving the beasts back out would cost at least three times as many cultivator casualties as they had already suffered. The formations set up within the city would not prevent the slaughter of ordinary residents.
“Roar!”
The ripple released by the old woman’s first strike moved so quickly that it reached the gate ahead of the red light. The ground rippled, and a huge spirit tiger emerged from below. It opened its mouth with a roar and released a beam of green light that intercepted the red streak.
The red light was tremendously powerful, and the tiger’s green beam quickly began losing ground. But the tiger was not fighting alone. Its intervention bought a brief moment, enough for Xu Ziyan’s lightning-spirit arrows and Xu Zirong’s blood vines to strike and entangle the red attack.
The gray-clad woman had trained her spirit tiger to be remarkably clever. Seeing Xu Ziyan’s arrows weaken the red light by half and Xu Zirong’s vines bind it, the tiger decisively withdrew its green beam. The beam was an innate ability. Powerful though it was, using it imposed a heavy cost on the tiger, so there was no sense wasting it. _(：з」∠)_
Under Xu Ziyan’s relentless lightning-spirit arrows, the red light soon dissipated. At the other end of the battlefield, Elder Qi lay dead, his skull split open and its contents spilled across the ground. A thumb-thick snake coiled atop his head, hissing.
At the sight of that little snake, Xu Ziyan’s instincts sounded an immediate warning. Small though it was, it posed a greater threat than even a late Meridian Condensation demonic beast.
The gray-clad woman beckoned without changing expression. The little snake flashed into a black shadow and merged into her body.
The people standing near her scattered at once. Elder Qi’s dreadful remains were still on the ground, and everyone was frightened of the snake from the bottom of their hearts.
The old woman strolled to the gate and sat down, her spirit tiger obediently crouching beside her. After what they had witnessed, everyone understood that anyone intent on sabotaging the gate would first have to get past her.
The Iron Rhino’s charge had nearly brought disaster to the west gate. If Jiang Tianxing had not stationed the old woman there beforehand, the beasts might already have entered the city.
The thought made Jiang Tianxing shudder. Elder Qi was a guest elder of the Jiang family. If he had been the insider and the west gate had fallen, the Jiang family would have borne the blame. If Jiang Ying’s existence were then exposed, the family could have been condemned as collaborators with demonic cultivators, a disgrace from which they would never recover.
With every passing moment, Jiang Tianxing felt more fortunate and increasingly regarded Xu Ziyan as his lucky star. Without Xu Ziyan’s early suspicion and warning, at least half of Wuti City’s ordinary residents might have been killed or injured that day.
His face darkened as he looked at Elder Qi’s corpse, wishing he could cut the traitor into a thousand pieces. Then another thought struck him, and he turned sharply toward Jiang Tianye.
Elder Qi’s attack had stunned most of the Jiang family, including Jiang Tianye. He gaped at the guest elder’s corpse, seemingly unable to believe that a man who had long supported him had colluded with demonic cultivators.
Jiang Tianxing stared coldly at Jiang Tianye. Recovering from his shock, Jiang Tianye found his elder half-brother looking at him with open suspicion.
His head rang as though it might burst. True, he had never liked this half-brother and had repeatedly schemed in secret to remove him as patriarch. But no matter how ambitious he was, he would never ally with demonic cultivators.
Their father had died at the hands of demonic cultivators from the Far Western Lands. However much Jiang Tianye wanted power, he could never conspire with the very people who had murdered their father!
Jiang Tianye’s face flushed red, the veins on his forehead bulging. His furious, bloodshot stare made it seem that Jiang Tianxing’s suspicion had stabbed him straight through the chest.
Jiang Tianxing narrowed his eyes slightly. His younger brother’s reaction actually put him at ease. Though they had different mothers, they had lived together for years and shared at least some family affection. Jiang Tianxing had always known about Jiang Tianye’s ambitions, but he was confident he could keep the man in check and had never cared much about his petty maneuvers.
Because Elder Qi had been Jiang Tianye’s staunch supporter, Jiang Tianxing had worried that his brother might have participated in the conspiracy. From the looks of it, Jiang Tianye had not sunk quite that low.
Jiang Tianxing gave Jiang Tianye a meaningful look and then withdrew his gaze. Jiang Tianye was so furious he nearly spat blood, but he could not protest. He was no fool. Elder Qi had been his subordinate; with the man exposed as a traitor, suspicion of him was only natural.