357: Chapter 357 The enemy is at the city gates, their momentum overwhelming.

The wind had just died down, and the window frames stopped rattling.

But the ground outside the city began to tremble.

First, a yellow line rolled up from the distant wasteland, looking like an approaching sandstorm.

Then, the line rolled closer and closer; a rumbling sound drowned out the ringing in ears, and even the pebbles at the foot of the city walls began to dance.

The sentry at the South Gate watchtower suddenly stood up straight, his hand trembling so much he almost dropped his Spirit-Gazing Mirror.

"They're here!" his voice cracked. "The enemy is at the border! Due south!"

The patrol team below looked up in unison, a dozen pairs of eyes staring fixedly outside the city.

Three miles away, a dense mass of figures advanced. The front row consisted of heavy armored cavalry; the Red-Scaled Beasts beneath them had hooves treading on fire, plowing scorched marks into the parched earth with every step.

In the middle, saber-and-shield bearers were lined up in square Formations, their battle flags fluttering with twisted blood-colored patterns embroidered on them.

At the rear, casters in robes held staves, standing atop floating altars; the firelight turned half the sky red.

The man at the very front rode a pitch-black behemoth, his helmet topped with three bone spikes. Clad in blood-patterned battle armor, he dragged a long halberd on the ground, carving a spark-filled trench.

He looked up, staring at the gate tower, his lips curling.

"Chen Wuwang—" His voice exploded like a thousand gongs sounding at once. "Get the hell out here and face your death! Today is the day the Chen Family falls!"

Before his voice faded, the long halberd was suddenly raised, pointing straight at the city gate.

Boom!

A wave of sound blasted out, distorting the air. The iron plating on the city walls vibrated with a hum, and the gate latches rattled as if they would snap at any moment.

The axemen on the left wing immediately began to roar: "Slaughter nine generations! Leave no one alive!"

The horse archers on the right wing beat their drums three times; arrows were notched in preparation, their bowstrings pulled taut.

The casters in the back waved their flags to ignite fires; flames soared into the sky, tinting the clouds red, their faces looking as hideous as ghosts in the firelight.

Someone already burst out laughing. "I bet five Medium Grade spirit crystals that the Chen Family's treasury will be mine!"

"Bullshit! I saw it first!"

"Stop arguing, we'll just grab it later. I heard their newly refined mecha blueprints are worth a hundred thousand spirit crystals!"

Laughter, curses, and war drums blended together; the entire earth trembled under their ruckus.

On the city wall, there was no response.

The wind passed through the tattered corners of flags with soft snaps. The infrared scanning dots of patrol mecha quietly slid across the enemy's vanguard, silent and stealthy, like a night owl licking the edge of a blade.

Inside the city, the command hall.

Blue light reflected on the monitoring screens where dense clusters of heat signatures were slowly advancing like a colony of ants crawling toward a nest. Data streams scrolled quietly: temperature, Spiritual Qi fluctuations, movement speed... every metric was incredibly stable.

The cooling fans hummed lowly, like the breathing of some dormant beast.

In a corner, a young sentry gripped his communicator, his fingers turning white, and whispered, "Should... should we respond?"

Beside him, a veteran leaned against the wall without even raising his eyelids. "The Head of the Family has given the order—stand by in silence."

"But their insults are so foul..."

"Insults?" The veteran sneered, finally opening his eyes. "You think they're here to fight? They're here to intimidate. They think we'll be scared into opening the gates and surrendering, or that we'll rush out in a panic to our deaths."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the screen. "But don't you know what our Head of the Family is like? He loves it when others shout loudly. The louder they shout, the harder they'll fall later."

Another operator chimed in, "The leader's voice is quite loud; is he at the Nascent Soul Peak?"

"So what if he's Nascent Soul?" The veteran sneered. "Last time, three Nascent Souls from the Chuanyun Sect joined forces. And the result? Their bodies are still buried in the West Ridge, and the grass on their graves is already two meters high."

The room fell silent.

Everyone stared at the screens, fingers hovering over buttons like a drawn bow, waiting only for the command.

Outside, in the center of the enemy Formation.

Seeing no movement from the city, the leader frowned and turned to a Gray-robed man beside him. "Your intelligence is correct, right? Chen Wuwang is really here?"

The Gray-robed man stood with his hands in his sleeves, his voice gloomy. "He is. Not only is he here, but he just activated a global defense System, code-named S-9."

"Hmph," the leader snorted. "No matter how strong a Formation is, it can't stop hearts from wavering. I'd like to see how long he can keep up this act."

He suddenly squeezed the beast's flanks; the Red-Scaled Beast roared and took ten steps forward, crossing the red warning line.

"Chen Wuwang!" he roared again, his voice even more powerful than before. "What kind of hero are you, cowering in the city? If you have the guts, come out for a duel! If you don't dare, then obediently hand over the technical blueprints, and perhaps I'll leave your corpse intact!"

The army behind him burst into laughter once more.

"Hahaha, did you hear that? Beg for mercy and you get to keep your corpse!"

"I think he's pissed himself; he doesn't even dare show his face!"

"Maybe he fled long ago, leaving an empty city to put on a show for us!"

The leader's lips curled up, and he was about to curse again when he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

Quiet.

Too quiet.

There was still no answer from the city walls, and even the flags were drooping; there was not a single sign of a counterattack. Yet it was precisely this silence that made his heart sink for some reason.

He narrowed his eyes and scanned the city walls.

No panic, no movements, no signals for assembly. Not even the defensive runes were glowing.

It was as if... they had known they were coming.

It was as if... they were waiting for them to step into some invisible pit.

His grip on the halberd tightened.

"Pass the order," he whispered to his lieutenant. "Halt the charge for now. Send three teams to scout ahead and test the city gates."

The lieutenant was taken aback. "But you just said..."

"Shut up." His gaze turned sharp. "This place is too quiet. Unbelievably quiet."

The lieutenant took the order and retreated.

The Gray-robed man stepped closer and whispered, "My lord, it might not be a trap. Perhaps there really is internal turmoil, and Chen Wuwang can't control the situation; he might be hiding in a cellar right now."

The leader sneered. "What the hell do you know? That madman Chen Wuwang would rather blow up the city than hide."

Staring at the city walls, he muttered, "The more silent he is, the more I feel like... we're the ones being watched."

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden commotion behind him.

A scout came galloping on horseback and knelt down. "Report—abnormal heat sources detected in the northwest! Suspected assembly of a mecha unit!"

The leader whipped his head around. "What? Didn't you say their main force was deployed on the southern line?"

"Unclear... the number of heat sources... at least three hundred!"

"Bullshit!" he roared. "Where would three hundred mecha come from? They've only been manufacturing them for a few months!"

The Gray-robed man's expression changed slightly. "Could it be phantom decoys?"

"Investigate!" the leader gritted his teeth. "Send two teams of horse archers to scout the rear, and have the caster group prepare for a fire rain cover!"

The orders were passed down, and the enemy Formation became slightly chaotic as the originally orderly ranks began to shift.

Just then—

On the gate tower, there was still no one.

But on the monitoring screens, a new set of heat sources was slowly rising from underground, located beneath the ancient riverbed to the southeast.

The operator's eyelid twitched as he reported softly, "Underground Tunnel Zone B, life signs detected, currently surfacing."

The veteran grinned. "Oh? Isn't that the 'Cyber Formation Eye' live bait being activated?"

"Quiet," another person reminded. "The Head of the Family said whoever speaks now owes a month's worth of rations."

Everyone fixed their eyes on the screens once more.

The things underground were still moving upward.

Meanwhile, outside the city, the enemy was still cursing, moving troops, and passing the buck.

"I'm not going to the rear! There's definitely an ambush there!"

"If you don't go, I should? Then you can collect my corpse!"

"What's all the noise! Everyone shut up!"

Riding the Red-Scaled Beast, the leader's face grew gloomier.

He suddenly raised his hand, silencing all the noise.

The entire field went silent instantly.

The wind swept across the battlefield, picking up a few withered leaves that slapped against the city gate with a snap.

Staring at the closed gate, he whispered, "This battle... isn't that simple."

Inside the command hall.

A sentry couldn't help but speak up: "They... seem a bit panicked."

No one replied.

But everyone's hands pressed more firmly onto their control keys.

Outside, the sun was tilting westward, casting long shadows.

The city gate remained tightly closed.

The enemy Formation remained stationary.

The Nascent Soul Expert leading them still stood on the back of the Red-Scaled Beast, three hundred paces outside the South Gate of the Chen Family's main city. Holding his long halberd with a contemptuous sneer, he waited for a response from within.

Having finished his challenge, he had not yet ordered an attack, remaining in a state of "provocative standby."

Other enemies were distributed throughout the siege array, either shouting cheers or maintaining their weapons. Overall, they were in a state of excited agitation, not yet having entered actual combat deployment.

The entire army was stalled outside the city, having not yet broken through the first line of defense.

On the monitoring screens, the underground heat sources had risen to the surface.

The scanning dots of the patrol mecha once again slid silently across the enemy's vanguard.

Inside the city, no one spoke.

Only the cooling fans continued their low hum.