I can see the blood bar and my purity is extremely high

Chapter 621 The Oldest City of Mankind, Hardcore Infiltration
At the four blood-stained corners of the city wall and in the center of the city, the sacred flames of the ancestors that had been soaring into the sky slowly died out.

Even the blazing torches that had protected humanity for thousands of years could not evaporate the sorrow in Radiant City.

This ancient city is said to have stood on this land for over two thousand years and is still standing. It is said to be the oldest city built by humankind and a spark of human civilization in the past.

At least its inner city has really existed for that long.

As times change and human civilization develops, the number of ethnic groups grows larger and larger, and new, stronger, and taller cities rise from the ground.

This ancient city was gradually despised by the human race, who moved their core to other cities that were safer and had better geographical environments.

For example, that imperial capital located further north.

According to those powerful warriors at the Battle Emperor level, the cultivation environment in the capital is more comfortable, and the purity and concentration of spiritual energy are also higher. Perhaps there is a slight chance to step into the Battle Venerable realm that the ancestor Lieyan reached in the past.

What remains unchanged is the struggle between humans and ferocious beasts over the past thousand years.

This has been the case from the very beginning.

This remains true even today.

Even the sacred fire of our ancestors could not fully protect the city.

Only battle and slaughter are eternal.

This allowed the ancient city to withstand the onslaught of the beast tides, like a reef in a tsunami, time and again, preventing it from being swept away by the frequent beast hordes and reduced to ruins like those cities that have long since faded into nothingness.

On the walls of Radiant City, Qiu Shuang slowly sat down, leaning against the gap in the parapet, and ripped off the deformed, black helmet.

Physical exhaustion had caused her muscles to stiffen.

In addition, due to excessive blood loss caused by the injury, he looked extremely unwell, pale as a living dead.

"Shoot-"

Qiu Shuang untied the beast tendons that had turned purplish-red from her hands, forcibly tore the spear, whose tip was already chipped, from her hands, and placed it against the wall.

The intense battle that lasted all night had caused the ancient magical artifact to be stuck to her hand with congealed blood, and glued to the tiger's mouth that had been torn due to excessive force.

She reached for a water bag at her lower back, intending to rinse her wound with water.

However, they discovered that the water bag had been pierced by a broken monster tooth at some point, and the water had long since leaked out.

"General Qiu, use this."

A man wrapped in burlap sacks walked over, using a broken, half-broken gun (without the tip) as a walking stick, his steps uneven, and he was also carrying a small cow horn in his hand.

To be precise, it's a cow horn pot.

The man's gaze fell on the area of ​​Qiu Shuang's missing armor on her abdomen, where the fabric had been forcibly torn open by something, leaving a writhing wound that was still bleeding.

The aroma of the wine slowly spread out.

Qiu Shuang's nose twitched, and she waved her hand wearily: "No need, give it to the other warriors. The healing wine is useless to me."

"How could it be useless? This is a method passed down from the Fiery Flame Ancestor. I spent a lot of battle merits to buy it from the inner city. Hasn't it been used like this for thousands of years?"

The man muttered something under his breath, grinning from ear to ear on his blood-scarred face.

"Even the War King isn't made of iron. If he gets any unclean wounds, they won't heal well. At least rinse them with a little water, as Ancestor Lieyan said."

"Shut up! What use are these supplies meant for ordinary soldiers to me, a war king?" Qiu Shuang couldn't help but glare at him. "If you can still move, go to the doctors to help carry the wounded, or get some oak stone to melt down and repair the city walls, or..."

At this point, Qiu Shuang's voice became somewhat low.

It was as if all his energy and spirit had been drained in an instant; he slumped against the parapet, staring blankly at the sky.

The man's smile, which he had been able to force, gradually faded away.

He closed his eyes, sighed deeply, and then, leaning on the broken spear, limped toward the other wounded.

Qiu Shuang didn't speak, and the man didn't ask any further questions.

The two of them were perfectly aware of the unfinished sentence.

Collect the nameplates, clothing, and remains of the fallen soldiers, and salvage any remaining broken armor pieces.

Those who died in the beast tide could hardly preserve their bodies; most were swallowed whole by the ferocious beasts, disappearing alive into the beast tide.

Even if some are lucky enough to survive, their most important heads will be devoured by the ferocious beasts attacking the city.

They seem to have a particular fondness for human heads.

After resting briefly on the city wall, Qiu Shuang, having regained some strength, stood up unsteadily.

After entrusting the task of cleaning up the battlefield and repairing the city walls to her adjutant, she went to the medical area to wash away the filth and blood covering her wounds with clean water, haphazardly stitched them up with needle and thread, and then returned home.

It was called a home, but it was really just a few barracks in the military camp behind the city wall pieced together, which could barely be called a small courtyard.

There are four other generals like her who have reached the War King level, each responsible for the defense of the city wall in one direction.

The flying beasts were the responsibility of the city lord who was stationed in the inner city.

The city lord's cultivation has reached the level of a Battle Emperor, and his combat power is unparalleled. He can fight against the Beast Emperor without being defeated.

In the decades prior, whenever Radiant City faced large or giant beast tides, the city lord would lead the War Kings, who had joined the elite squad, to fight against the Great Beast King and Beast Emperor who commanded the tides, repelling them and protecting the ancient city.

"Beast King."

After removing her armor, Qiu Shuang immersed herself in the bathwater brought by her servants, washing away the bloodstains from her body in front of a slightly blurry bronze mirror.

Some were ferocious beasts, some were her own, and some were her comrades-in-arms.

As he continued to scrub, the clear bathwater gradually turned into a murky reddish-brown, revealing the dense, crisscrossing scars on his body.

These were all left behind by ferocious beasts during the constant battles over the years.

The penetrating abdominal wound that had just barely healed wasn't even the most serious one.

A gruesome wound stretched from her left shoulder down to her right lower abdomen, almost tearing her whole body apart.

Qiu Shuang was lucky to survive.

The bull that had inflicted such a horrific wound was pierced through the skull by her spear, and the crystal core in its brain and its precious blood became the resources for her advancement to the Battle King realm.

"If I could reach the Battle Venerable realm that my ancestor, Lieyan, once attained, perhaps Radiant City would never again be ravaged by beast tides. I could join the city lord in slaughtering and eating that Bull King."

"Does the War God truly exist?"

"If this realm truly exists, why has no one except for Ancestor Lieyan been able to reach it for the past three thousand years!"

A moment later, Qiu Shuang suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly, feeling that she had overestimated herself.

He had only just stepped into the Battle King realm, yet he was already dreaming of reaching the Battle Venerable realm, a realm that no one had ever set foot in since the ancestor Lieyan. It was truly a pipe dream.

It would be more realistic to think about how to reach the level of War Emperor.

This requires a large amount of Beast King-level crystal cores and precious blood, and further advancement requires the assistance of bathing in the heart's essence blood of a Great Beast King. With no one to rely on, is there any chance left for him in this lifetime? Is he even capable of surviving the next beast tide?

Qiu Shuang stood up, wiped the dirty water off her body, changed into a clean set of short clothes, and walked towards the bedroom.

Perhaps I have a chance.

All she had to do was give up everything she had now, enter the peaceful inner city that countless people dreamed of, agree to become the wife of the city lord's son, and become a member of his family.

The inner city is practically sacred to the people living in Radiant City.

It is a place that almost everyone dreams of setting foot in.

Not only are there elite squads composed of several War Kings, but the city lord, the only War Emperor, personally guards the place, repelling countless attacks from ferocious beasts time and time again.

That place is synonymous with stability!
Living there, one need not worry about being separated from family by death one day, nor about the danger of ferocious beasts attacking the city, and can enjoy more abundant food and cultivation resources.

What place could be more beautiful than there?

Moreover, she was marrying the son of the city lord, who was also a war king.

With the powerful alliance and the backing of the city lord, she even has a clear path ahead and a considerable chance to step into the realm of the War Emperor, a position above all others.

This is a wonderful thing that many people would love to have.

It was a joyous occasion that made countless people green with envy.

However, Qiu Shuang was unwilling to enter the inner city and become the phoenix that flew to the top of the branch.

If she leaves, what will happen to the defense of the east side of the city wall?
There is no newly crowned War King who can replace her now!

None of the generals who joined the elite squads in the inner city were willing to return to the outer city to fight.

This will not only greatly slow down one's own cultivation progress and reduce the efficiency of acquiring cultivation resources, but will also gradually distance one from the core power circle.

Even if a new war king were to emerge, why would the other party accept the seemingly glamorous but actually arduous position of general?
What if she married into the city lord's family and continued to be the Western General?

That's even less likely.

The city lord had made this clear when he sent someone over.

The first thing she had to do after marrying into the family was to relinquish her position as the Western General and join the elite squad to assist the city lord.

In the end, he couldn't bear to leave the people in the outer city.

Thinking this, Qiu Shuang pushed open the door and returned to her bedroom, intending to take a nap and rest for a while.

The intense battle that had lasted all night had left her physically and mentally exhausted.

However, the moment she closed the door, she sensed something was wrong.

It seemed she wasn't the only one in the room.

This is an intuition honed through life and death!

"Whoever is there, get out!"

Almost instinctively, Qiu Shuang pulled a battle sword from the weapon rack on the wall, her blood and energy erupting simultaneously, filled with vigilance and aggression.

However, it does seem somewhat like a show of bravado masking underlying weakness.

Although the energy emanating from her body was fierce, it was like a rootless duckweed, just an empty shell.

Even if she had barely recovered a little after fighting all night, how much could she have recovered?

"It's over, it's over! The first person Fifth Brother entrusted to us has failed like this. How are we going to explain this when we get back?" A somewhat panicked female voice entered Qiu Shuang's ears. "Her senses are so sharp. I thought we had hidden ourselves quite well. This is the Shadow Bat's innate ability!"

“She is indeed perceptive. Perhaps she has cultivated some special method or developed a way to use her divine sense.” Another gentle female voice, quite different from hers, followed. “Before we came, didn’t Qinglin say that the people here are generally much stronger than those of the Lieyan tribe?”

"Stop cursing, stop cursing. We've already turned to the light, haven't we?" A male voice appeared, tinged with a hint of helplessness. "Actually, I think she hasn't discovered us at all. She's just bluffing. Like Fifth Brother said, it's a woman's intuition."

"So what do we do now?" the first female voice asked.

"Since you've already been discovered, just be direct! What else can we do?" The male voice was getting a little frantic. "Fifth Brother emphasized trying not to kill anyone, and why is your innate ability only half-activated? Didn't you notice that our voices have already been transmitted?"

"Oh, I got a little excited and forgot," the woman said somewhat embarrassedly.

Immediately afterwards, in the corner diagonally opposite the door, two women and a man slowly revealed themselves.

One of them, with her head down, was a young girl, looking apologetic.

In the middle is a tall man wearing a mask of pain, with a long, black spear on his back.

On the right is a woman who looks very young, but has a kind look in her eyes.

Qiu Shuang stared in disbelief at the strange combination that had appeared before her, completely stunned.

There really is someone!
How did these people sneak into our barracks?

They even deceived their own senses!

No, there's definitely something wrong with these three people!

They were definitely not from the city; you could tell from their clothes and the aura they exuded that was so different from yours!
Could it be the legendary transformed ferocious beast?

Qiu Shuang was startled, then shouted fiercely, "You audacious beast, how dare you sneak into Radiant City in broad daylight! Prepare to die!"

A knife is faster than words.

Before they could even finish shouting a few syllables, the gleaming longsword was already in front of the three of them, carrying almost all of its life force, and it was aimed straight at the neck of the man in the middle.

She attempted to strike her opponent in a sudden, unexpected attack.

How could I be a ferocious beast?

The man with the gun on his back looked constipated and raised his hand to block.

As his powerful blood and qi erupted, martial marks flashed on his arm, and his right arm suddenly turned as black as a spear, gleaming with a cold, metallic light.

"Keng!"

The long sword clashed against his outstretched palm with a metallic clang.

As sparks flew from the friction, the upper half of the long sword broke off with a crisp sound, spinning backwards and embedding itself into the wall.

Seeing Qiu Shuang, who was still struggling with all her might to try to pull the broken sword out of his hand despite her astonishment, Chi Yan sighed helplessly.

"Hey girl, don't waste your energy."

"Although you are a War King, you have just experienced a great battle and your blood and strength are severely depleted. You cannot possibly be my opponent."

"No matter what, I am a Seven-Seal Battle Emperor who has cultivated martial arts. Even in your prime, you would not be a match for me. I have just gone through a year of grueling training that was worse than death!"

(End of this chapter)