The Nether Bone Dragon dominated the skies!
The Mountain Corpse stood towering over the battlefield!
Rotting corpses, Corpse Generals, skeletons, Bone Generals, evil ghosts, Ghost Generals, countless undead blanketed the earth like an endless tide.
On the city walls, the Ancient Capital's leaders were horrified, but they quickly forced themselves to calm down.
Now was not the time to dwell on why the undead could roam during the day.
The priority was surviving the undead siege and protecting the civilians still trapped within the Outer City Walls.
The defensive perimeter surrounding the Ancient Capital stretched for an enormous distance.
Against an undead army led by two Supreme Monarch-level monarchs.
There was simply no way to hold it.
All they could do now was delay the enemy for as long as possible and buy enough time for the civilians to evacuate.
The next moment Han Ji, President of the Clock Tower Magic Association, and Lu Huan, Commander of the Imperial Guards, struck simultaneously.
Brilliant Star Palaces illuminated the heavens!
World-shaking magic descended from the sky.
"Ice Magic: Forbidden Curse of the Ice Queen!"
"Water Magic: Catastrophic Deluge!"
The mournful ice and snow froze everything in their path, while the overwhelming tidal waves swallowed the undead horde.
The frozen wasteland and the surging torrents were enough to leave anyone breathless.
For the first time, even the Nether Bone Dragon and the Mountain Corpse halted their advance.
This was the true might of humanity's supreme mages.
Not even an undead apocalypse could overshadow their brilliance!
At the same time, the other Super-tier Mages also joined the battle.
Super-tier Spells erupted one after another, while High-Tier Magic was cast as effortlessly as breathing.
Thus as time passed, the civilians successfully retreated to safety, and the Super-tier Mages withdrew behind the Inner City Walls.
That also meant the entire Outer City had been abandoned.
It was only a matter of time before the undead completely occupied it.
However the crisis facing the Ancient Capital had only just begun.
Not long afterward.
Inside the Ancient Capital.
At the Clock Tower Magic Association.
Someone finally discovered the truth.
The reason the undead could roam freely during the day!
The rain falling over the Ancient Capital had been tampered with.
It contained a mysterious substance known as Nine Nether Dew.
That meant the catastrophe engulfing the Ancient Capital was not a natural disaster.
It was entirely man-made.
Just then, a mysterious figure dressed from head to toe in gray-white robes arrived.
Having received permission from an influential figure, he revealed himself before everyone in the Ancient Capital.
His appearance unraveled the mystery.
It turned out, everything was the work of the Black Vatican.
Furthermore, he revealed that the disaster in Bo City years ago had merely been a rehearsal for what was happening in the Ancient Capital.
A... rehearsal?
That had been a catastrophe!
A river of blood had flowed through the city!
An entire city had been thrown into the jaws of demons, left to be slaughtered without mercy.
And all of that had merely been a rehearsal.
A rehearsal for the far greater conspiracy unfolding in the Ancient Capital!
Everyone present was among the nation's highest authorities, powerful leaders, and supreme mages.
Yet after hearing those words, every one of them felt a chill penetrate straight to their bones.
A rehearsal, using countless innocent lives as a practice run.
Could there possibly be anything more cruel than that?
Cold rain continued to fall as everyone stared at the masked man who had exposed the truth.
The shock and horror in their hearts refused to fade.
"The Ancient King has yet to fully awaken, yet the Eight Undead Monarchs have already used this torrential rain to seize the Ancient Capital, intending to transform it into an even greater kingdom of the undead as the first gift for the Ancient King's awakening after a thousand years of slumber."
"The Eight Undead Monarchs are led by the Mountain Corpse. However, the Mountain Corpse is extremely cunning and never steps into the city lightly. Eliminating it and intimidating the endless undead tide is therefore incredibly difficult."
"So, unless something unexpected happens, the Eight Undead Monarchs will first occupy all the land outside the Inner City Walls and patiently wait for the Ancient King to awaken before destroying the Ancient Capital's inherited barrier in a single strike," the mysterious gray-robed man explained.
"If the Ancient King hasn't even awakened yet and things are already this bad, can the Ancient Capital really hold out?" asked Ling Xi, an Elder of the Hunters Association.
"Not the Undead Emperor, the Ancient King."
"The Undead Emperor has no authority to command the Eight Undead Monarchs. It can only be the Ancient King, the one who personally created this land of the undead," the mysterious gray-robed man declared with absolute certainty.
"The Ancient King??"
If one traced history back far enough, the creator of the land of the undead.
Undead had not originally existed as a species of demon.
It was only after the dead began returning to life two thousand years ago that they spread like a plague, gradually expanding from wandering only within tombs and mausoleums to openly roaming across the land as they did today.
How the undead came into existence was no longer much of a mystery.
"And what good does knowing all this do us now? I'd rather hear how we're supposed to stop this catastrophe," Ling Xi said calmly as he looked at the mysterious man.
"The rain is likely only the Black Vatican's first phase. The second phase is awakening the Ancient King. Once the Ancient King awakens, the Inner City will become a sea of blood. First and foremost, we must stop this rain," the mysterious man replied.
"We don't even know where the Nine Nether Dew came from. How are we supposed to stop it? Besides, how do you stop the rain itself?" someone asked.
"The complete annihilation of Hua Village wasn't caused by the undead uprising. It was the Black Vatican's doing. The Nine Nether Dew originated from the Kun Well Spring Water, which the villagers of Hua Village had protected and passed down for generations."
"During the Bo City disaster, the rain contained a Violent Spring that produced the exact opposite effect of the Earth Holy Spring, driving the Wolf Tribe into a frenzy and causing them to attack the city. The Nine Nether Dew was also refined from the Kun Well Spring Water, and both were created by the same alchemist, allowing them to blend perfectly into rainfall. Once the rain begins, the disaster follows."
"That is why they needed a rehearsal."
The mysterious gray-robed man revealed the truth in a single sentence.
"At the same time, the Kun Well Spring Water can neutralize the violent and deathly properties of the Nine Nether Dew. Although it can't completely counteract the Nine Nether Dew refined from the other spring waters, it can still buy us half a day's time."
"Whether it's finding a way to seal the Ancient King again or requesting reinforcements, that half day will be our most precious opportunity."
"But Hua Village has already been wiped out. We can't possibly obtain the Kun Well Spring Water anymore. Doesn't that mean we have no chance?" Zhu Meng asked with a frown.
"There's still one remaining source. One portion of the Kun Well Spring Water never fell into the Black Vatican's hands. It was taken by Fang Gu, the Village Chief of Yangyang Village," the mysterious gray-robed man replied.
Afterward, having answered everyone's questions, the mysterious gray-robed man departed.
However, as he was on his way to bring Fang Gu back, an unexpected incident occurred.
The person acting as his stand-in was brutally murdered along the way!
However, this had all been part of the mysterious man's elaborate scheme.
It was a trap.
A trap designed to determine whether Salan was hiding among the Ancient Capital's highest-ranking officials.
The Tribunal had been investigating Salan's whereabouts for years.
This time, they had finally uncovered a crucial lead.
Thus, Han Ji and the mysterious gray-robed man worked together to set this trap.
This time, they narrowed their suspects to the Ancient Capital's upper leadership.
Now, she had finally exposed herself.
Because of this, Han Ji would rather place more than a dozen Super-tier Mages holding important positions under house arrest than allow even the slightest chance for Salan to escape.
Outside, dark clouds pressed heavily upon the sky, threatening to crush the Ancient Capital beneath their weight.
The icy rain fell like countless arrows, soaking the city's very foundations.
Even more terrifying were the undead crawling endlessly out of graves, burial mounds, cemeteries, and mausoleums.
The rain-soaked earth had already been completely covered by them.
The once majestic Outer City Wall now resembled nothing more than a fragile dam, utterly incapable of withstanding the endless tide of undead.
The Outer City Wall was completely destroyed.
Massive stone bricks collapsed with deafening crashes.
The towering watchtowers crumbled like sculptures made of clay.
As for the buildings lining the streets, they fared no better.
Looking outward from the Inner City Wall, everything within more than a dozen kilometers of the Ancient Capital had already been swallowed by a black ocean.
Residential buildings, streets, plazas, parks, schools, and hospitals had all been overwhelmed by the undead.
Not even their ruins remained visible.
At last, the undead had entered the city.
They surged in from every direction.
Yet the most terrifying thing was not merely the overwhelming power of this undead tide.
Looking into the distance, beyond the advancing frontline of undead, there stretched an endless sea of black that continued for countless kilometers.
It was enough to make one wonder whether the humans were the true invaders of this kingdom of death.
"Tribes... Clans... Kingdoms... The Kingdom of the Undead... the Kingdom of the Undead..."
Standing atop the towering observation tower of the Clock Tower, Han Ji murmured in his aged voice.
It sounded less like quiet contemplation.
And more like a funeral prayer for the city.
The Ancient Capital had stood proudly for thousands of years.
Could it truly disappear from history because of a single rainstorm?
The undead had already swallowed the horizon and completely surrounded the city.
Could this golden barrier, really withstand an endless invasion of countless undead?
"President, the Ancient Capital will survive this calamity."
"I certainly hope so."
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