May I seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and live a long and prosperous life.

The rain is coming from the wind!

At this time, the Third Prince ordered a state of emergency in Yun City, and all the people around Yun City were to move into the city, giving them seven days to relocate.

Seven days later, the city gates will be closed, and no unauthorized personnel will be allowed to enter or leave.

Li Heng quickly mobilized all the villagers to move to the city for refuge.

In the end, most of the villagers in Lijia Village agreed to move to the city, including Li Hui and her son. Only a few families were very stubborn and unwilling to give up the place left by their ancestors, insisting on not moving.

A day later, several hundred more refugees rushed to Yuncheng.

But Yuncheng had already closed its gates, so hundreds of refugees knelt down and begged to open the city gates so they could enter.

To prevent any trickery, the Third Prince firmly refused, only allowing the rope to be lowered and the person pulled up.

Meanwhile, to prevent enemy warriors from infiltrating, the Third Prince ordered his own warriors of the fifth rank and above to take turns guarding the four city walls in shifts, day and night.

A month later, Chen Tianwang's 200,000-strong army successfully arrived near Yuncheng and set up camp on an open ground 15 miles away from Yuncheng.

Subsequently, Chen Tianwang's army set up camp here and manufactured siege weapons.

Before the main army attacked, King Chen sent several groups of martial arts masters to climb the city walls at night in an attempt to enter the city and cause sabotage.

However, all of them were exposed, leaving behind many martial arts corpses, before they finally retreated in defeat.

However, this was just a probing attack from the other side; the real storm was yet to come.

This probing continued for three days before suddenly stopping.

King Chen decided to organize a portion of his soldiers to launch a forced attack on the city.

On that day, about three thousand Liang soldiers, carrying siege engines, ladders and other siege equipment, attempted to forcibly scale the city walls, with archers providing cover from behind.

This siege was easily repelled. After leaving five or six hundred corpses at the foot of the city walls, Chen Tianwang's camp ordered a retreat.

Subsequently, King Chen organized several more sieges, but the Third Prince's side suffered very few casualties and easily repelled the Liang army. The enemy suffered heavy losses each time they attacked the city.

Later, King Chen organized several more sieges involving tens of thousands of soldiers, but each time he suffered a crushing defeat, with more than half of his soldiers killed or wounded each time, resulting in heavy losses.

Therefore, King Chen stopped launching a direct attack and instead adopted a siege as his main tactic.

In addition, King Chen would occasionally send his warriors to harass them.

The Third Prince had anticipated this and moved various strategic resources into the city early on. Moreover, there were thousands of acres of fertile land within the city, which could make it self-sufficient.

In addition, Yuncheng has not experienced a war for more than 300 years, leaving behind abundant resource reserves. Even without external support, it is not a problem to hold Yuncheng for 30 or 40 years.

During this period, reinforcements from other states suffered heavy losses because they were intercepted by the warriors under Chen Tianwang's command. The warriors of Yuncheng also dared not easily leave the city to help, for fear of being ambushed.

As a result, influenced by the uprising of King Chen, there were many small-scale uprisings in various states. The governors of the states were busy suppressing the uprisings and stopped sending reinforcements.

Yuncheng can be described as an isolated city.

However, although there were no reinforcements, there were quite a few warriors from various states who came to support them.

King Chen changed his strategy accordingly, using a large number of his own warriors as the main force, and during the day, he used a large number of archers to cover the warriors as they climbed the city walls.

At night, warriors were arranged to sneak into the city walls.

They attempted to use the powerful destructive force of their own warriors to annihilate the city's defenders.

At first, this strategy did work, and Yuncheng lost a lot of its defending soldiers.

Later, the Third Prince decisively summoned a large number of warriors from the city to secretly ambush them on the city wall, catching the other side off guard.

Furthermore, in order to maximize the enthusiasm of martial artists, the Third Prince ordered the collection of all martial arts manuals in the city, and made most of the first-class and below manuals available for all martial artists to see, while the more valuable first-class manuals were reserved and could be exchanged for based on battle merits.

Furthermore, martial artists are encouraged to offer up their martial arts manuals. The more valuable the manual, the higher the reward, and the person who makes the greatest contribution may even be ennobled!

The Third Prince invested so much for only one reason: he had to help Yun City fight against the opposing faction's warriors.

It must be said that the Third Prince's strategy had a very good effect, with a steady stream of warriors agreeing to come and help defend the city.

The free release of a vast number of martial arts manuals has indirectly led to rapid advancements in the skill levels of many martial artists, with quite a few breaking through in battle.

This greatly enhanced the strength of Yuncheng.

Li Heng was naturally a beneficiary of this strategy.

On the first day that a vast number of martial arts manuals were made available, Li Heng went to examine them one by one.

While studying these martial arts manuals, he combined them with his own skills, learning from their strengths and compensating for his weaknesses, thus achieving a comprehensive understanding.

At first, he made great progress.

Because he had always learned and cultivated on his own without a master, and had very few martial arts manuals, he was essentially a self-taught practitioner.

Now, it's like he has countless renowned teachers guiding him online.

With mutual corroboration, the answers to almost all the difficulties in martial arts training can be found in these manuals.

Soon, the minor flaws he had left from practicing the Blood Lotus Sect's techniques were gradually corrected.

This caused his cultivation level to break through to the late stage of the first rank.

But we should not forget those who dug the well when we drink the water.

Li Heng enjoyed the benefits, so naturally he had to contribute as well.

To this end, he devised a complete killing procedure.

Whenever he was about to kill a target, he would first observe the target martial artist fighting with his own martial artist for a period of time to make sure that the other party was not a grandmaster-level expert in disguise before he would make his move.

To avoid attracting attention, he always chose to make his moves at night.

The timing of his actions is not fixed; sometimes it's 9 PM, sometimes 11 PM, sometimes 1 AM, sometimes 3 AM, and sometimes 5 AM. If there isn't a suitable opportunity and target, he would rather not make a move.

The frequency of his attacks is also not fixed. Sometimes he attacks once every day, sometimes every two days, sometimes every three days, and sometimes every five days. In short, he doesn't let his opponent figure out when he will attack.

Moreover, he only kills one target at a time, not many. But one thing is certain: he only kills first-rank martial artists, or at least early-stage first-rank martial artists. He disdains to fight those below first rank.

Every time he makes a move, he always disguises himself, wearing black clothes and a mask.

Upon returning, he would not immediately go back to his residence in the city, but would first wander around the city several times to make sure no one was following him before returning to his residence.

And so, Chen Tianwang's camp and the Third Prince's side remained locked in a stalemate in Yuncheng for a full year.

Throughout the year, both sides tacitly agreed to only deploy martial artists to engage in repeated back-and-forth battles on the walls of Yuncheng. Moreover, neither side deployed grandmaster-level experts, and the main force of the battle consisted of martial artists below the innate realm.

During this year, many martial artists in Yuncheng also made a name for themselves.

Among them, the most interesting and resounding martial artist title is Night Emperor.

This Night Emperor only appears at night and never shows himself during the day.

He always appears dressed in black and masked, and no one knows his appearance or gender.

Their whereabouts are extremely elusive, and the timing and frequency of their attacks are unpredictable.

Every strike is a guaranteed kill; he has never missed.

Each attack only kills one target.

His targets were all martial artists of the first rank or above, and he had even killed many top-tier first-rank martial artists with very famous names.

The strangest thing is that the opponents he killed were all withered and aged, as if their lifespan had been drained.

Therefore, based on the above characteristics, the martial arts circle of Yuncheng called him the Night Emperor, meaning the king and enforcer of the night.

The Night Emperor, of course, refers to Li Heng himself.