The Thousand-island Lake marched on like a swarm of locusts. Everywhere they went, all the Families in the cities were looted.
After three or four days, the Families along the way learned their lesson. They left the cities early with their family members' wealth and Mystical Materials. They would come back after the army left.
However!
The Thousand-island Lake army changed their route when they failed to get anything from two cities.
Moreover, they had started to divide their forces into ten armies, which then swept towards Yu Emperor City like ten sharp arrows.
This time, even more clans suffered a calamity. The area covered by the ten armies was too wide.
Where could they hide?
Many counties didn't have Teleportation Formations.
The three Royal Families didn't take any action. There were scouts lurking in the three Royal Cities all the time. Once the powerful warriors of the three Royal Families made a move, the scouts would notice.
Time passed on day by day. The Yu Emperor City was getting closer and closer. The Thousand-island Lake was getting livelier and livelier.
Many people made bets on whether the Yu Family would fight back or not.
How many hours could they resist?
They were betting that Yu Huashen would drag several warriors of the Eternal Realm to death with him …
Madam Yan was busier. Bai Qiuxue could only sleep for four to six hours every day.
Countless pieces of information were sent back. They needed to be analyzed and summarized before they were sent to Bai Xi.
This time, the Thousand-island Lake only had 10,000 warriors but the Bai Family sent out tens of thousands of scouts …
Information was everything!
The Heaven Martial Kingdom was someone else's territory. Without information, the Old Man of Heaven Prison would be blind.
To win the battle beautifully, the Thousand-island Lake must have the information of the entire Northern Desert.
Fortunately, everything was normal. The Yu Family didn't run away. The Fifth-rank Families and the three Royal Families were quiet.
If nothing went wrong, the Yu Emperor City would be leveled to the ground in a couple of days.
On the 12th day, the Thousand-island Lake army entered the region controlled by the Yu Family.
The 10 armies merged together. After all, the region belonged to the Yu Family. All the counties were dependent on the Yu Family. Battles were likely to break out.
As expected …
When they arrived at a county, a battle broke out.
When the Thousand-island Lake army was about to loot the county, they met resistance.
The Thousand-island Lake army didn't show mercy. They killed all the warriors of the Family after paying the price of more than a dozen casualties.
It was good that some people fought back!
If there was no resistance, then there would be a problem.
Bai Xi and the others ordered to march on. They rushed towards the Yu Emperor City and looted every city they passed.
However …
When they arrived at the next county, all the families in the county, big or small, had fled and all the scouts of the Thousand-island Lake hiding near the county were killed.
Bai Xi was enraged. He mobilized a few hundred people to chase after them, while the main army continued to advance.
The next city was the same. This time, not only did they escape, but there were also people lying in ambush to assassinate them.
There were quite a number of assassins, but once they missed their target, they immediately fled.
When the army sent out a few dozen people to chase after them, something unexpected happened. Those people were ambushed and killed in an instant.
When Bai Xi sent people to investigate, the ambusher had mysteriously disappeared.
Along the way, there were martial artists hiding and assassinating everywhere. It was as if the mountains and plains were filled with enemies.
It seemed that the Yu Family was going to drag some warriors of the Thousand-island Lake down with them. They were going to fight to the death.
Bai Xi was even more relieved when the Yu Family did this.
What other tricks could the Yu Family have up their sleeves if they even resorted to assassination?
Wasn't it just a last-ditch struggle?
The death of some warriors of the Soul Pond Realm was not a big deal. After all, the Bai Family had sent out warriors of the Fate Wheel Realm at the very least. Lu Li didn't care if the Bai Family warriors died.
On the other hand, the other Families were enraged. They sent out patrol teams.
Fate Wheel Realm warriors led the teams to search for hidden warriors all over the mountains and plains, killing every one they saw.
Assassins were everywhere, and fighting was everywhere. Many mountains and rivers were dyed red with blood.
This time, it was obvious that it was not only the Yu Family assassins. All the Big Families affiliated to the Yu Family had sent out warriors as well. There were too many warriors in hiding. The more they killed, the more they would find.
"Don't worry about the assassins. Full speed to the Yu Emperor City."
Bai Xi felt that something was wrong. Could the Yu Family be stalling for time?
It was pointless to send out those assassins. They couldn't kill too many people. The only thing they could do was buy time.
As the army moved forward at full speed, they encountered more and more assassins.
If the assassins could not be cleaned up, the army could not move fast.
"Leave some of you to clean up. The rest, go on, as fast as you can!"
Bai Xi decided to split up. After all, those warriors of the Soul Pond Realm couldn't do much. The main force was on the Iron-armored Ships.
As long as the main force was not split up, it would be fine. Bai Xi looked down on those powerful warriors of the Yu Family.
The Old Man of Heaven Prison alone could level the Yu Emperor City to the ground.
"Report!"
An hour later, a scout boarded the battleship and delivered an important message — all the powerful warriors of the Yu Family had left the city and were heading to the northeast at full speed. Their target should be a perilous place in the northeast.
"Haunted Hollow?"
Bai Xi looked at the map and frowned. The Haunted Hollow was one of the perilous places of the Heaven Martial Kingdom.
It was said that it used to be a region with a population of tens of millions. All of them were slaughtered by a powerful warrior. The ground caved in and countless dead people were buried there.
Those dead people turned into ghosts. None of those who went in could come out.
Bai Xi didn't believe in such nonsense. It might work to fool the common people.
Clearly, this was a secret base of the Yu Family. They spread the rumor to prevent people from getting close.
Why did the powerful warriors of the Yu Family abandon the city?
Why the Haunted Hollow?
Bai Xi couldn't figure it out. Scouts could not get into the Haunted Hollow. Bai Xi didn't know what was going on inside.
He thought about it and reported to the Old Man of Heaven Prison for a decision.
"Go to the Haunted Hollow!"
The Old Man of Heaven Prison gave the order without any hesitation.
Then he explained, "The Haunted Hollow is connected to a small world. The Yu Family wants to escape into the small world and cut off the connection with the outside world."
"Small world?"
Bai Xi ordered the Iron-armored Ships to fly towards the Haunted Hollow at once while the army rushed towards the Yu Emperor City.
Bai Xi ordered that if anyone in the Yu Emperor City resisted, they would be killed without mercy.
All the powerful warriors of the Thousand-island Lake were on the Iron-armored Ships. They were the main force. The ones on the ground were only here to smash, loot and burn.
At the moment, the Yu Family warriors were rushing towards the Haunted Hollow. They were going to enter the small world.
Bai Xi was sure that the Yu Family was going to escape after he remembered the previous assassinations and stalling.
They were going to enter the small world and cut off the connection with the outside world.
Small Worlds could be refined, and the refined Small Worlds were known as mystic realms.
Of course, only the most powerful warriors could refine small worlds. The Yu Family must have other means, which the Bai Family had.
After the Thousand-island Lake declared war, the Yu Family must have started to prepare. Now, they were about to refine the small world so they ran towards the Haunted Hollow at once.
The Iron-armored Ships were fast. The distance was not far. They arrived at the Haunted Hollow in just 16 hours.
According to the scouts, all the powerful warriors of the Yu Family had just gone in two hours ago.
The Haunted Hollow looked horrifying.
Looking in from the outside, the Haunted Hollow was shrouded in black fog. Nothing could be seen inside.
Before they got closer, a surge of cold qi and energy spread over. Many warriors of the Fate Wheel Realm felt chills on their backs.
"Go in!"
Bai Xi didn't mind at all. This was clearly an Inhibition Formation to fool people. With the Old Man of Heaven Prison here, what was there to be afraid of?
The more than a dozen Iron-armored Ships whooshed over. All the warriors went out to the deck, ready to fight at any time.
In just a blink, the Iron-armored Ships had pierced into the black fog and disappeared as if they were swallowed by a huge beast.
...
"Report —"
At the same time, there came an urgent report from the Bai Emperor Mountain.
A scout rushed to the outdoor pavilion, knelt to Madam Yan and Bai Qiuxue and said, "News from the Heaven Frigid Kingdom and the Heaven Cold Kingdom. The Family Patriarchs and Eternal Realm Patriarchs of the two Royal Families are all teleported to the Heaven Martial City."