Under the dark veil of night, the whole area was deathly silent. The wave of darkness consisted of countless beasts that were ready to pounce, striking fear to everyone watching. When Tianming walked out of the building and turned back, he saw that almost every citizen of Tianming City was looking at him with passionate gazes.

"Imperial Son, we don't want to die...."

"There's still so much I want to do. My lover is at Gusu City, and I've promised to marry her."

"Imperial Son, I still have to apologize to my son. I've been a deadbeat most of my life, but I'd like to repent and make it up to him."

Usually, people thought they would live forever and keep delaying the things they really had to do. Only when they had a close brush with death would they truly regret not doing what they had to earlier.

"Relax, everyone." Tianming smiled at them like the child of the bright sun. Xuanyuan Xie and the rest had already given all sorts of motivating speeches countless times. There was nothing he could say or do other than step onto the battlefield.

He came to the south gate, where Jian Wuyi and the dozen third-origin tribulation elders were. The enemy would be attacking from all four gates. Tianming City only had a million troops defending it, and the south gate would be where the enemy would strike the hardest. Currently, around four hundred thousand defenders were stationed there.

The city had around two thousand second-origin tribulation elders and ten times as many first-origin tribulation elders. Jian Wuyi had the second-origin tribulation elders go to the battlefield to mount a strong resistance against the strongest of the enemy forces. He had the twenty thousand first-origin tribulation elders defend Sun-Moon-Star Formation with Yi Xingyin instead. With so many fourth-level samsarans and above holding the formation, it should increase its efficacy a few times over.

For now, Jian Wuyi himself was remaining at the south gate. According to their intelligence, Si Ling and her army were gathering outside. They could see the black masses of troops all the way from the walls. The east and west gates were defended by Beigong Linlan and Lin Qingtian instead. Fu You and Lan Yi's troops were positioned outside those gates. As for the north gate, it would be attacked by Fu You's men, with Xuanyuan Xie and Su Wanfeng defending against them.

"The way they're spread out is the most effective method for dividing up the defensive strength of the formation. It's geared to wear Yi Xingyin out. Not to mention, if they create a breach, they'll be able to flood the city with as many troops as possible. As long as any single direction is breached, they can send more and more troops to completely collapse the formation, find Yi Xingyin and the rest's location, and disrupt them. That's when the city will fall. Past that, there’s no way they will spare the civilians in the city," Jian Wuyi said expressionlessly. It seemed like total annihilation.

"How many enemies are in the south?" Tianming asked.

"Currently, there’s a million and a half beastmasters, four times our number. As for the other three directions, they each have eight hundred thousand troops, all also having four times as many as the defenders we have stationed there. The remaining two million are stationed further south to stave off the reinforcements from Fang Shenyu and Jian Qingyuan."

"If those two million turn around, we'll be facing off against three and a half million beastmasters."

"If that's the case, we'll have to hope Arcana Sword and Origin Phoenix can make it here in time."

They were all beastmasters, not mere corpse puppets. Coupled with their lifebound beasts, they numbered at least seven million.

"As long as the enemy breaches the formation, those two legions will immediately come to reinforce us. Yi Xingyin will be able to divert the formation's attack away from them to allow them to enter unharmed. Timing is of paramount importance. We have to hold on at least until they manage to pass the enemy’s rearguard before they'll be able to come to reinforce us," Jian Wuyi said.

Fang Shenyu and Jian Qingyuan's legions were the key to Tianming City's survival.

"Understood!" As long as they held on, they might yet have some hope. The question is whether they could endure it all.

Tianming took a deep breath. At that moment, the tranquility of night erupted into sudden and abrupt chaos and the ground at the south gate shook heavily.

"Warriors of Nonahall, breach the city and massacre them!"

The war cry was echoed by the north, east, and west sides as well. The three ghoul kings on the level of Jian Wuyi led their respective armies of eight hundred thousand, each with a million lifebound beasts or more, on a charge toward the formation. The south had the most troops, with more than three million beastmasters and lifebound beasts combined. Behind them were four million more units waiting in ambush for any potential reinforcements.

Tianming City erupted into chaos. The formation that had been on standby the whole time shone brightly and brilliantly, its light piercing through the darkest of clouds above. It was as if a pillar of light had descended from the stars above onto the Sun-Moon-Star Formation. The savage Nonahall troops were completely blocked and kept outside of the formation.

The millions of citizens and their lifebound beasts had once counted on the formation to change their fates. No matter how strong the enemy was, they didn't give up and fueled the formation with their life force, causing a large number of Infinite Starnets to appear and give the first wave of enemies a huge blow.

Many lifebound beasts and beastmasters were immediately cut into countless chunks, spilling blood all over, yet that didn't stop their comrades from stomping over the remains of the fallen as they passed through the formation's starlight attacks and advanced toward the walls. Their expressions were savage and motivated. As the invaders, they had the psychological upper hand. Si Ling's orders for them to massacre the city had caused every one of them to turn into fearless, demonic machines of war.

"Rather than resisting the torture, might as well get yourself killed quickly to spare yourselves from suffering!"

"We will take Taiji Peak Lake! Tianming City is a mere stepping stone! There's no way you can resist us! You’ve long been abandoned by your sect!"

"Die!"

The sheer number of troops seemed to rock this corner of the world. In almost an instant, piles of corpses and rivers of blood were formed. Tianming wasn't the least bit concerned about exposing his identity here. He was situated at the most well-defended spot in the city. The more enemies that came his way, the more that would end up dead.

"It's him!"

Whenever someone recognized him, they would charge straight in. It was the only chance in their life to gain fame and riches. It was a shame that even normal third-origin tribulation elders were doing nothing but suiciding by trying to kill Tianming.