The charming widow of the Marquis's mansion: The stable boy carries the flag and raises the dra

Wherever the sword light passed, monsters fell in droves like harvested wheat, blood gushing out and limbs flying everywhere.

Ye Niannu followed closely behind, falling from mid-air.

Her spirit sword was drawn from its sheath, its light as clear as autumn water, leaving long, thin arcs in the air, slicing down all the demonic beasts that tried to flank her.

The garrison commander stood on the city wall, watching the gray figure descend from the sky, and then looking at the demonic beasts falling in droves amidst the golden sword light. He was frozen in place for a long while.

His adjutant beside him was trembling, and he almost dropped his long sword.

"Who...who is that?"

The garrison commander did not answer, because he did not recognize the person either.

After a moment, he took a deep breath, his voice hoarse but filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Reinforcements! Those are our reinforcements!"

On the city wall, the soldiers who had fought to the point of exhaustion heard these words as if they had been injected with a powerful stimulant.

Someone suddenly looked up at the gray figure moving through the beast tide as if it were nothing, and their eyes instantly reddened.

Golden sword light swirled and intertwined in the air, like nine golden lightning bolts, piercing through the most ferocious demonic beasts one by one.

The little bird hovered high in the sky, and golden flames poured down like a waterfall, burning the dense beast tide to ashes.

Ye Niannu guarded the other side of the breach. Wherever her sword light passed, those magical beasts that tried to bypass the main battlefield were cleaned up by her sword, one by one.

In less than half an incense stick's time, the tens of thousands of beasts had been mostly wiped out.

The remaining monsters turned around in fear, trying to escape towards the rift, but Wang Long blocked their retreat in advance.

He raised his hand and waved it, and dozens of swords imbued with literary energy condensed into form, like a golden rain of arrows that precisely pierced the backs of the fleeing demonic beasts.

When the last monster fell to the ground, the entire northern plains finally fell silent.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, and the scorched earth was littered with the corpses of monsters and shattered armor.

But the soldiers standing on the city wall seemed to have just woken up from a long nightmare, staring blankly at the battlefield below that had been cleared away.

Wang Long withdrew the nine Heavenly Gang Sword Lights, dusted off non-existent dust from his hands, and turned to walk towards the breach in the city wall.

When the guards saw him approaching, they instinctively took a half step back, then stood still in unison, their eyes filled with awe and gratitude.

The garrison commander had already strode down from the city wall, rushing to Wang Long in two strides. Before he could even put down the scabbard in his hand, he had already knelt down on one knee.

"This humble general, Zhao Wudi, the garrison commander of Canglang Pass, thanks you for saving my life!"

Behind him, the soldiers, covered in blood, also knelt down in unison.

"Thank you so much for saving my life, sir!"

Wang Long bent down and reached out to help Zhao Tiezhu up.

"No need for formalities. You held the pass and held us off until we arrived; you are the ones who truly worked hard!"

His gaze swept over the figures kneeling on the ground, and he saw that some people with broken arms were still struggling to stand, while others were covered in injuries but never retreated a single step.

His gaze shifted slightly, and he then took out a large bottle of Grade 9 healing pills from his storage ring and stuffed it into Zhao Wudi's hand.

"Distribute these to our wounded brothers; they can be used for both internal and external injuries."

Zhao Wudi looked down at the bottle full of pills in his palm, then looked up at Wang Long. His lips moved several times, but in the end he just clasped his hands in a deep salute, his voice hoarse.

"Thank you so much for your kind offer, sir!"

Wang Long patted him on the shoulder, said nothing more, and turned to walk towards the spatial rift that had begun to slowly close.

Ye Niannu had already sheathed her sword and walked to his side, her gaze fixed on the crack.

"My lord, this crack seems to be larger than the ones we've seen before."

"Um."

Wang Long nodded, carefully observed the residual spatial fluctuations at the edge of the crack, and his gaze narrowed slightly.

Are there any other unusual occurrences nearby?

Zhao Wudi quickly caught up and hurriedly replied.

"Mr. Hui, before the crack appeared, there was an unusual tremor in the mountains to the north. At that time, a sentry said he saw a red light flash on the mountain, but it disappeared quickly."

"At the time, I thought it was a wildfire and didn't pay much attention to it. Now that I think about it, it's probably related to this crack."

Wang Long looked in the direction Zhao Tiezhu indicated. The continuous mountain range to the north was blurred in the twilight, and there was nothing particularly unusual about it.

However, he could sense that there was indeed a faint trace of residual energy in that direction, very faint, but different from ordinary spiritual energy fluctuations.

"I'll go check over there. You all continue guarding the pass. If any more cracks appear, send word immediately."

Zhao Wudi quickly clasped his hands in agreement.

Without further delay, Wang Long and Ye Niannu leaped onto Xiao Qiu's back and flew towards the northern mountains.

Dusk painted the mountains in varying shades of gray, and the mountain breeze, carrying the scents of earth and vegetation, swept past beneath us.

After flying for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Wang Long's gaze suddenly fell on a mountain hollow.

There were traces of human activity there, which had been deliberately concealed, but the residual spiritual energy fluctuations could not fool his senses.

"Little Chirp, go down."

The little chick folded its wings and silently landed in a dense forest at the edge of the mountain valley.

Wang Long and Ye Niannu jumped down silently, concealing their presence to the extreme the moment they landed.

In the mountain valley, several figures were busy at work.

They were dressed in matching black outfits, and their faces were covered with masks, making it impossible to see their features.

One of them was squatting in front of a huge rock, holding an object that glowed with a ghostly blue light.

A thumb-sized, dark red crystal was embedded at the top of the object, now glowing faintly and projecting fine lines onto the surface of the rock.

The lines spread slowly across the rock, wriggling like living things, gradually eroding the rock's texture.

Wang Long's gaze fell on the dark red crystal, and his pupils contracted slightly.

He could sense that the energy fluctuations contained in that crystal were exactly the same as the residual aura at the edges of those spatial rifts.

"Are they deliberately creating cracks?"

Ye Niannu's voice was extremely low, but her peach blossom eyes were surging with cold anger.

Wang Long nodded without answering, but his body had already moved.

He moved silently, like a leaf blown by the wind, across the shadows at the edge of the dense forest, and landed a few feet behind those people beside a pile of rocks.

The person who was focused on manipulating the device seemed completely unaware of the strange occurrence behind them, and was even urging their companion to speed up in a low voice.

"The core of the formation is almost activated. Just a little more effort, and once this rift is fully open, those magical beasts will be able to bypass Canglang Pass and cut into the heart of the Northern Territory from the flank. At that time..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

A golden, elegant longsword was silently pressed against the back of his neck.

The man's voice abruptly stopped, and he froze in place, as if a pause button had been pressed.

The dark blue artifact in his hand trembled slightly, its light quickly dimmed, and even the spreading patterns on the surface of the rock stopped.

The other men in black also sensed something was wrong and turned around abruptly.

When they saw the gray figure that had appeared behind them at some unknown time, their eyes widened in horror.

"Who goes there?!"