Chapter 62: Formation of Heaven's Blade
Chapter 62: Formation of Heaven's Blade
The other three District Heads chose not to go against Rui Xucheng's decision, and thus they got to work immediately. Under their orders, their subordinates were urgently dispatched throughout Ivory Rock City.
"Orders from the District Head, everyone is to gather at the main square of the Officials District by noon tomorrow! There will be an important announcement to be made! I repeat, orders from the District Head, everyone is to gather at the main square of the Officials District by noon tomorrow! There will be an important announcement to be made!"
Despite the late hour, these men repeatedly shouted out at the top of their voice, the sound further amplified with Spiritual Essence.
Since candles were an expensive commodity in Ivory Rock City, most people had the habit of going to bed early.
This action of shouting in the night caused a huge disturbance among the populace, rousing them from their sleep.
Even so, most of them merely grumbled in their hearts before nonchalantly returning to sleep.
None of them had any idea that this particular announcement tomorrow was going to be one that would threaten to shake the very foundations of Ivory Rock City.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and dawn quickly arrived.
Lu Tianzi had spent the entire night personally watching over Hu Yuanbo, afraid that the latter would pull any tricks on him.
He had also taken Hu Yuanbo's communication ring and spatial ring away from him, carefully stowing them away.
As for the contents within Hu Yuanbo's spatial ring, Lu Tianzi was absolutely certain that it would be filled with valuable items.
However, Lu Tianzi chose to only inspect the spatial ring in the future when everything had been settled.
Having lived for much longer than Lu Tianzi, Hu Yuanbo was sure to have many tricks up his sleeves. Faced with such a character, Lu Tianzi dared not allow for even the slightest bit of distractions right now.
After all, Lu Tianzi knew very well that if Hu Yuanbo somehow managed to break free of his current predicament, it would be impossible for Lu Tianzi to subdue him once again.
It was not just that as well.
Once Hu Yuanbo managed to regain his strength as an Origin Core realm martial artist, their roles would immediately be reversed, and Lu Tianzi would end up being at the mercy of Hu Yuanbo.
The stakes were simply far too high!
Throughout the night, Lu Tianzi had periodically inspected Hu Yuanbo's inner world with his perception, causing the latter to almost vomit blood in exasperation.
Such an act was extremely intrusive, and it felt like Lu Tianzi was able to see into all of Hu Yuanbo's secrets. If it had been a female instead of Hu Yuanbo, it would even feel like Lu Tianzi was violating the very last vestiges of her privacy.
Thus, unless it was absolutely necessary, martial artists would usually not do such a thing. At most, they would stop at inspecting the other party's cultivation realm.
All martial artists had their own secrets that they did not wish for others to know of.
By inspecting another person's inner world, it would be tantamount to tearing off the last pretence of civility with the other party!
But in Lu Tianzi's case, he naturally had no need to take such matters into consideration.
The relationship between him and Hu Yuanbo had already escalated to a point where both of them wanted the other party dead. Further offending Hu Yuanbo would make no difference whatsoever.
In any case, as an Origin Core realm martial artist, Hu Yuanbo was more than capable of gradually recovering his strength if he was given sufficient time to do so. On top of that, the powerful lifeforce of his Origin Core realm physique would even naturally refine the poison within his body.
Thus, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to continually inspect Hu Yuanbo's inner world. That was the only way he could ascertain that the latter was still under the effects of his poison, even periodically feeding him more poison to maintain the level of toxicity within Hu Yuanbo's body.
Right now, Hu Yuanbo was completely helpless even as he was subjected to such an inhumane treatment by Lu Tianzi.
As if that was not enough, Lu Tianzi even prevented Hu Yuanbo from speaking by temporarily locking down his vocal chords with Spiritual Essence.
After Hu Yuanbo became the Lord of Ivory Rock City, he had always been the one in control of the situation, idolised by all humanity.
This was the first time since then that he had ever been reduced to such a pitiful state!
No, even before he became the Lord of Ivory Rock City, he had never experienced such torture and shame!
Yet even so, all that he could do was curse in his heart, swearing to take revenge should the opportunity ever arise.
Such strong hatred in his eyes certainly would not escape Lu Tianzi's perception, but Lu Tianzi simply chose to ignore it entirely.
After all, Hu Yuanbo was not the only one here who was bearing a grudge!
More than an hour before noon, Lu Tianzi brought Hu Yuanbo over to the main square of the Officials District and left him kneeling in the sun with a black cloth pulled over his head, his arms tied behid his back.
The announcement was set at noon, but even before then, the citizens had already started streaming into the main square.
As the citizens entered, all of them shot weird glances at this man who was kneeling in the middle of the main square.
No matter how one looked at it, the man kneeling in the middle of the main square seemed to be a criminal awaiting trial.
Never in their wildest imaginations would any of them even begin to think that this man was actually their beloved City Lord Hu!
Thus, what truly drew everyone's attention was the young man standing silently beside this criminal.
"That young man over there isn't he the Holy Guardian Lu Tianzi?"
"What are you talking about? How is that even possible?"
"It has only been one month since he was named as Holy Guardian, there is no way that I would recognise him wrongly!"
"Wait, you are right! It really is him!"
"He is back! Lu Tianzi is back!"
Lu Tianzi had long removed the piece of cloth wrapped around his eye.
Appearing with his full face exposed, even the people who were not too familiar with him started to recognise him. After all, he had once stood before the entire city on the day that he was named as Holy Guardian.
Seeing that it was truly Lu Tianzi, the populace of Ivory Rock City could no longer rein in their excitement as they started murmuring loudly among themselves.
How could they not be excited about this?
This was the first time that a Holy Guardian had ever returned to Ivory Rock City!
With this precedence, there was a chance for their loved ones who had left the city previously to return as well!
"All right, quieten down everybody!" a guard shouted out and the crowds did as they were told.
Even so, all they did was to lower their volume. They could not help but to continue whispering among themselves as they wondered about what they were going to be told.
It did not take long before noon arrived.
When Lu Tianzi finally stepped forward in preparation to address the crowd, everyone immediately fell silent.
"I am Holy Guardian Lu Tianzi," Lu Tianzi announced.
Facing such a huge crowd, he had to imbue his voice with Spiritual Essence in order to make sure everyone could hear him.
Although most of them were already sure of this, it was different when they heard Lu Tianzi personally confirm his identity. With that, the noise level started climbing again, along with the citizens' excitement level.
"It had always been my dream to be named as Holy Guardian of humanity, however!" Lu Tianzi continued, and the crowd quickly quietened down once more. "After being named as Holy Guardian, I came to know of a huge secret in our Ivory Rock City that had always been hidden from us. And that is, our Holy Guardians have never been treated with the admiration and respect that they should be given!"
His words cause another huge commotion among the crowds.
"Are you saying that someone has disrespected you?" someone shouted out from the crowd.
"If there is such a person, call him out right now! I will personally teach him a lesson!" another one added.
"Are you an idiot? He must be talking about the person kneeling over there!" another one berated the person who spoke earlier.
"Wow, such a treatment just for a crime of disrespecting the Holy Guardians? What on earth did he do exactly?"
Hearing this line, Lu Tianzi immediately turned to the old lady who just spoke, "You asked a very good question. Let me answer that for you right now."
"As many of you have guessed, the one I was referring to is this person beside me right now. Whenever a new Holy Guardian is named, he never fails to praise the Holy Guardian in front of everyone. Yet the very moment that everyone's backs are turned, he would knock out the Holy Guardian, even sending his subordinates to deliver the unconscious Holy Guardian into the very hands of the demons in exchange for nothing but a short period of peace!" Lu Tianzi continued before turning back to the old lady. "So do you think he deserves to be treated in this manner?"
The old lady was stumped.
If it was true that someone did such heinous acts, then that person definitely deserved to be punished in the worst way possible.
However, how would she not understand the implications behind what Lu Tianzi just said?
If this was true, then that meant the Holy Guardians in the past were not at all heroes who set out to roam the wilderness in search of others who required help. Instead, they were sacrifices made in order to prolong the life of Ivory Rock City!
Who would dare do such a thing right under their noses?
At this moment, the crowd started looking around for someone who could confirm what Lu Tianzi had just said. However, none of them managed to find the one particular person who had always provided them with the answers that they needed.
"And how is possible for you to discover this when no one else have any idea about it?" someone shouted doubtfully.
"Are you an idiot? He is one of the Holy Guardians, of course he would know if it happened to him!" another person shouted in reply.
"Where is City Lord Hu? We need him to come out and confirm this matter for us!"
"That's right! I only see the four District Heads, but where is City Lord Hu?"
"If what Lu Tianzi said is true, then the City Lord Manor has really neglected their duties by allowing such a thing to happen!"
"There is no need to ask further!" Lu Tianzi shouted in response. "The person you are looking for is right here!"
With a swipe of his hands, Lu Tianzi removed the black cloth that was pulled over Hu Yuanbo's head, revealing his face for all to see.
This silenced the crowd as everyone immediately drew gasps of shock!
Despite the pitiful state that he was in, Hu Yuanbo's face was impossible to be mistaken for someone else's. After all, he was the man who the entire city took as their idol and spiritual leader!
Of course they would have burnt the image of his face deep in their minds!
"The one responsible is exactly the very person whom all of us, me included, have always respected, the Lord of Ivory Rock City, Hu Yuanbo!" Lu Tianzi yelled, as if afraid that others would not be able to recognise him.
"All of us have been trusting in the wrong person! While we believed whole heartedly that he would never betray us, he was actually colluding with the demons, sacrificing our people to them in order to build an illusion of sanctity! Such a person does not deserve to be the Lord of Ivory Rock City! In fact, he is not even one of us, but an enemy of humanity instead! So here and now, the four District Heads will personally activate the Formation of Heaven's Blade to end this devil's life! Only when that is done would humanity finally be able to regain control over our beloved city!"
As Lu Tianzi completed his speech, the four District Heads walked over to each corner of the main square, ready to take action.
Many among the crowd were still baffled and confused by the sudden situation, most of them extremely uncomfortable that their beloved City Lord Hu was going to be executed. However, seeing that even the District Heads had agreed to this, none of them spoke out to object.
After all, this incident involved the lives of the countless Holy Guardians in the city's history, as well as the trust that the people had placed in their leaders.
There were underlying consequences that were far too severe for any one person to bear!
Who knew if they would end up as sinners of humanity by voicing out their objections?
As if they had practised it for countless times, the four District Heads simultaneously slammed their palms down onto the floor of the main square, driving their Spiritual Essence directly into the formation.
The Formation of Heaven's Blade was set up underneath the main square of the Officials District. From above, no one would be able to notice the existence of such a formation unless he was exceptionally well versed in such a field.
But the moment the four District Heads drove their Spiritual Essence into the formation, the formation lines immediately lit up with such brilliance that it pierced right through the floor of the main square.
This caused the startled crowd to hurriedly back away in panic.
From the air, the brilliant light emitted from the Formation of Heaven's Blade made it seem as if it was constructed directly on the floor of the main square instead of underneath it.
With the activation of the formation, the World Origin Energy in the vicinity was forcefully pulled into a storm above the main square. The thunderous howling of wind assaulted everyone's ears as the air was sliced apart by pure energy.
Just by standing near the formation, the crowd could feel a powerful pressure pressing down on them, seemingly trying to force them into submission.
Faced with this storm of energy, even Lu Tianzi felt a sense of trepidation as he carefully stepped away from Hu Yuanbo who remained kneeling in the centre of the entire formation.
As expected of the formation that was said to form the very foundation of Ivory Rock City's defence, the might behind it was truly fearsome!
In comparison to this overwhelming power called forth by the Formation of Heaven's Blade, he was still far too weak!
Lu Tianzi could not help but to wonder if even someone like Xihuang Yuanfeng would be able to withstand a full power assault from the Formation of Heaven's Blade.
Not that he would ever know the answer to that question.
At this moment, the storm of energy was rapidly compressed into the shape of a shining sword that hovered in the air above the main square.
This shining sword seemed to be one that had descended from the heavens itself, possessing an inviolable sword might that could pierce through the heavens. Just by looking at it, any martial artist who was trained in the sword arts would feel that they were far too lacking in comparison!
The Formation of Heaven's Blade was true to its name, even its attack took on the form of a heavenly sword!
Under the direction of the four District Heads, the sword turned to point towards the direction of Hu Yuanbo. Without further warning, it shot out directly towards the Lord of Ivory Rock City!
Even if Hu Yuanbo was at his peak, he would still be hard pressed to dodge an attack of such speed, not to mention the fact that he was completely incapacitated at the moment.
There was simply no way out for him!
It was as though the shining sword was sent down as judgement from the heavens, punishing him for his betrayal of the Holy Guardians' trust in him!
However, just as the sword was about to strike Hu Yuanbo, it suddenly changed its direction, heading directly towards Lu Tianzi instead!