Chapter 343: Undead
The battle stopped on all fronts, the emperor just defended the whole Palace with the defensive formation and blocked all the invasions at the same time.
But four hours is a lot a time and he was not sure whether he would be able to stop all their attacks for the next four hours.
He started slaughtering the minions who are in the front, to try and instill some fear into the people at the rear, but it turned out to be a futile action and the waves of people never stopped.
After more than half-an-hour, there was a first nick on the formation.
At that moment, a saber ray flew out from the emperor and hit the priest right in the chest.
The formation seemed to have an attack function too and its attacks are even amplified. The laceration on the chest of the priest is a clear show of might.
The priest raised his hand and stopped the advance of all the followers.
"Followers of the Guide, I priest request you to beseech me with the power to cleanse the sinners.���
With that, more than a hundred members of the followers who are not wearing any masks all sat cross-legged and all of sudden their bodies started turning black, the life started escaping from their bodies and soon, their bodies turned to half to their original weight and at the same time, there is no life in the eyes.
A weirdly formed energy escaped from their bodies and entered the body of the priest.
There is a sudden surge of might within the priest and he immediately made a move.
The formation started having cracks and a hundred followers who turned black and became like zombies suddenly stood up and moved towards the formation sluggishly as they started attacking it.
The Emperor looked at them recognized what they are in one single glance, they turned into undead, they don't have any form of intelligence left except for the fact they would listen to the orders of their in-charge and kill without thinking twice.
The formation was almost at its end and only two hours passed, two more hours needed for everyone to go.
At this moment, the hundred or so undead suddenly jumped at the formation and exploded. This is called undead explosion and there is a swirl of death energy that decayed the formation.
The emperor felt all his hopes lost.
"Ye Ting. I will take it from here, you go back and leave with the rest." An old voice was heard and the emperor turned around abruptly.
"Father? Why are you still here? You are in your twilight years, why do you have to push yourselves so hard? Let me handle this."
"Ye Ting, when did you become so disobedient, leave right now."
The emperor looked down in deep thought and teardrop rolled down from his left eye.
"I am sorry father."
The old man didn't reply as he watched his son leave the place, he took his son's place in the formation and behind him, a majestic beast walked to the front.
A three-tailed winged lion.
The Beast is also of a transcendent rank and along with the old man both of them faced off against the Priest and the followers.
The Beast is a trump card, but they had to let it out even two hours before. At least, if anything unexpected happens and the situation stays the same, they can still escape.
And even take this guy down.
The priest tried his best to fight the two of them. The old man is rusty with his skills as he was dwindling with age, but the beast is something else altogether.
He does have other cards that could help him deal with them easily, but that doesn't mean he wants to use it.
He doesn't know that the opponents only need two hours of time, so he is just playing the endurance game.
Time passed in a flash and soon there is only a few minutes left, the old man and the beast suddenly didn't care to hold up anymore.
The old man puked a mouthful of blood as he made smirked at the priest.
And before the priest could reach, he mounted the beast and flew into the depths of the imperial palace completely destroying everything in their way.
The Priest suddenly had a bad premonition, he is feeling reassured from the start only because he is sure that they couldn't escape through the space gate and why is he so sure? Because, he made sure that the imperial palace doesn't have enough spirit stones, this period of the year is the most vulnerable period for the royal treasury. This is the time, even the imperial treasury is waiting for the taxes.
There is no way they could transport all the people. But he understood that he is extremely wrong as soon as he entered the palace grounds, there is not even a sign of life within it.
Everyone is gone, he saw the old man escaping on the lion and gritted his teeth in fury. He felt like he was being played like a fool. He thought that the emperor took it upon himself just because there is no use in sending his soldiers.
He thought that the old man took over his son's position just to make sure that his son gets enough rest, but never did he expect that this would happen.
His whole body trembled in fury as he coldly commanded.
"Don't let them get away, we are going to chase them to the ends of the earth."
As soon as he said that, the masked individuals who are in the middle of the followers all sat cross-legged and their surrounding followers started turning into undead, giving them power, all the masked followers who are nascent stage cultivators, suddenly turned into Pre-transcendent cultivators and made their move.
The first they did is, pick up the undead and throwing them at the old man and the beast, the surroundings turned into a mess of death energy.
They didn't even care that the undead they are throwing in are the very beings that sacrificed themselves to give them energy.
Even the surrounding followers are cheering with anticipation.
Just like that, the old man was being tailed by the fifty Pre-transcendent stage cultivators and a Transcendent cultivator.
But he didn't even turn to take a look. When he reached the space-gate, there are two space-gates one that will lead to the Usaine sect and another one which will lead to the Island.
The emperor is loading the gates with the spirit stones and said to his father.
"Father, everyone is already gone, I suggest you leave to the island and deactivate the gate over there and I will go to the Usaine sect and inform the situation."
The old man nodded and entered the gate, the spirit stones turned into dust in an instant and the old man and the beast disappeared immediately.
The Emperor immediately attacked the gate as soon as the transportation was done, completely destroying it, and at the same time, he entered the second gate leading to the Usaine sect and activated the gate.
At this exact moment, a saber ray full of death energy entered the space gate and landed on the emperor who was barely able to escape with a wound.
The Priest looked at the destroyed space gate and then looked at the space gate that leads to the Usaine sect.
He was extremely angry, the completely intact space gate that leads to the Usaine sect almost seemed like the emperor mocking him.
Why did he destroy the former and didn't do the same with the latter?
Because the emperor knew that he shouldn't dare let these maniacs enter that island and he also knew that these maniacs wouldn't dare to enter the Usaine sect at the moment.
At this moment, in the Usaine sect. Emperor's son already arrived at the sect earlier and used painstaking efforts and his master connection to get an appointment with the Sect head.
At this moment, he was waiting for his father to come through the space gate and all of a sudden the space gate started shining and the wounded emperor came out of it.
There was extremely concentrated death energy oozing out of that scar and the emperor seemed visibly affected by it.
The Prince immediately hurried him to a healer, who skilfully performed surgery and saved the emperor in an hour.
The Emperor didn't even bother to take adequate rest and requested a meeting with the Sect-head as soon as he was conscious.
The Prince didn't stay for the battle and left the day before, so he doesn't know the horror of this church and the followers.
As soon as he was taken to the Sect-head, he explained everything without missing a detail.
"I noticed that the people who are wearing masks and the particular that priest who was once the ruler of the underworld of my empire are able to turn the followers into undead by absorbing their energy and increasing their cultivation.
He broke through the middle-stage Transcendent and reached the late stage in a blink of an eye, just by absorbing a few hundred people, there are hundreds of thousands of followers under him, I don't even dare to imagine what will happen if he could absorb all of them."