Nine Astra Skies

The Golden Sun Condor flew for several days and finally arrived in Donglin County. Along the way, Ye Chen saw that the surrounding counties had been conquered by the Nanman Kingdom, which filled his heart with rage.

From time to time, thick plumes of smoke rose into the air. Wherever the Nanman Kingdom army went, all the counties, towns, and villages were reduced to ashes. Dead bodies of ordinary folks littered the ground and every valuable item was plundered while houses were burned down. They were like a plague of locusts.

In every direction, there were dead bodies and trails of blood. The Nanman Kingdom army was truly inhumane and evil!

Ye Chen finally realized how cruel the war in this world was. Millions of people were slaughtered indiscriminately. This realization made a great impact on his perspective.

"Big Brother Ye Chen, are these people killed by the Nanman Kingdom?" Little Wingsy was also immensely shocked by the carnage below. In his mind, killing people was inherently wrong.

Ye Chen's fists were so tightly balled up that his knuckles gave audible pops. Now, he truly understood what Great Emperor Mingwu had said before. The people of the Xiwu Empire would rather be ruled by Great Emperor Mingwu than be subjected to the Nanman Kingdom.

"They are a bunch of wild beasts!" Ye Chen cursed aloud. If only he had the ability, he would kill his way to Nanman Capital City and kill Tuoba Hongye, the Grandruler of Nanman with his bare hands! 'I'll let you live for now, but one day, I'll take your life!'

Ye Chen quashed the anger in his heart and urged the Golden Sun Condor to fly toward the Ye Clan valley.

"I wonder how the clan members are faring. Hopefully, they are safe if they stay inside the valley."

The Golden Sun Condor flew on. At last, they reached the sky above the Ye Clan valley. The Golden Sun Condor landed in a circular motion.

In the Ye Clan valley, a group of clan members saw the Golden Sun Candor in the sky and immediately knew that Ye Chen was back. The entire valley bustled with excitement.

"The Chief is back!"

"Great, the Chief has returned!"

As soon as the Golden Sun Condor had landed, a group of people gathered around them.

Ye Chen jumped down from the Golden Sun Condor's back and noticed that the number of people in the valley had dwindled. With a slight frown, he glanced at Ye Moyuan and asked, "Uncle Moyuan, why are there so few people in the valley? Where's my father and the others as well as Ye Meng and the rest?"

Upon hearing Ye Chen's words, Ye Moyuan's tears began to flow. In an anxious voice, he asked, "Chief, will you please save the Elders?"

"What happened?" Looking at the expression on Ye Moyuan's face, Ye Chen's heart sank.

Ye Moyuan hurriedly recounted the story. After Donglin County was attacked, countless people were dead or wounded. When Ye Zhantian and the others saw that the Nanman Kingdom army was about to conquer the city and that the messenger hawks they sent had failed to contact Ye Chen who was far away in the Capital City, they decided to gather all the combatants from Eighth Level and above. Together with some other prominent families in Donglin County, they evacuated the people from the city. However, the Nanman Kingdom caught wind of what they were doing and sent a large troop of soldiers to stop them.

As for Ye Meng, Ye Xuan, and the others, they were required to join the war. After being saved by Ye Zhantian and the others, they had been sent to the Central Empire.

All the clan members left in the valley were those who did not have considerable Celestial Chi cultivation base. They had been waiting for two days but Ye Zhantian and the others still had not returned. Naturally, they were anxious.

"Uncle Moyuan, I'm entrusting this place to you. Don't allow the clan members to leave the valley. I'll rescue Father and the others." Ye Chen mounted the Golden Sun Condor once again and rose into the air.

"Yes, Chief." Ye Moyuan and the rest looked into the air and saw that Golden Sun Condor had flown away in a hurry. They could only remain in the valley and pray for Ye Chen, Ye Zhantian, and the others to return safely.

Ganchuan County, Xilin Prairie.

Countless people were swarming toward the depths of Xilin Prairie like a colony of black ants.

Ye Zhantian, Ye Zhanlong, and the others soared across the sky on the Ashen Condors. Within the last few days, Ye Zhantian and the others had been escorting these people to safety. Initially, they headed north but they were intercepted by the Nanman Kingdom army. In the end, they had no choice but to head west, passing through the treacherous Yanshan Mountain Range and into the Xilin Prairie. Then, they would have to bypass Ganchuan and head north toward the Capital City.

This was the reason why, despite the fact that Ye Chen had just come from Capital City, did not see Ye Zhantian and the others.

In the beginning, there were only about two or three million evacuees, all of them from Donglin County. Later on, as they passed through a few counties, more people joined the evacuees until it became a huge, dense, horde of a billion people. There were so many evacuees that they covered more than half of the Xilin Prairie.

Along the way, people were dying. Some died due to exhaustion while others died of starvation. Although Ye Zhantian and the others kept distributing rations to the evacuees, due to the large number of people, it was no more than a drop of water in an ocean.

At the same time, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry would appear from time to time and kill the evacuating civilians. Ye Zhantian and the others would then ride the Ashen Condors and rush toward the battle location to fight the Nanman Kingdom cavalry. If not for the effort of Ye Zhantian and the others, these people would have been slaughtered a long time ago.

Nevertheless, after battling incessantly for many days, Ye Zhantian and the others were mentally frayed and tensed-up. They had reached their physical limits.

They still did not know about what had happened in the Capital City. They only knew that all the counties along the way had been conquered by the Nanman Kingdom and countless lives had been killed. Looking at the war-torn counties, their hearts were filled with despair.

The evacuees moved slowly, keeping their eyes on the Capital City in the distance. Great Emperor Mingwu was their only hope. All of them had hoped that Great Emperor Mingwu could protect them.

"Grandfather, who are these people?" An unkempt little girl looked up and saw a flock of gray condors soaring across the sky. On each condor stood a few people. The little girl asked the old man standing beside her in wide-eyed wonder.

"Their surname is Ye and they are our patron saints." The withered old man patted the little girl's head with dirt-caked hands. There was a glint of tears in his old, weary eyes. "Little Wen, if you arrive in the Capital City safely, you must remember these benefactors when you grow up. These people are risking their lives to protect us."

"Okay." The little girl did not understand much but the sight of tears in her grandfather's eyes was deeply imprinted inside her heart.

Every time the evacuees saw the Ashen Condors flying above their heads, they felt deeply grateful in their hearts. They knew, through word of mouth, that these warriors who fought against the Nanman Kingdom cavalry day and night on their behalf, came from the House of Ye in Donglin County.

The Nanman Kingdom army had not received any orders from the Nanman Grandruler. There were approximately a few hundred troops as well as at least one hundred thousand horsemen trailing behind these evacuees. They acted like a pack of ferocious wolves, attacking at random times and killing a multitude of civilians before retreating in a flash.

The skilled combatants hailed from the House of Ye as well as Donglin County and the surrounding vicinities. There were around three thousand eight hundred Seventh Level combatants, one thousand six hundred Eighth Level combatants, and eight hundred over Ninth Level combatants. As for Tenth Level, there were nine of them including Ye Zhantian. Since Ye Zhantian was slightly stronger than the others and had an Earthly Adept Ashen Condor, he became the leader of this team.

In terms of equipment, they were also admirable. The House of Ye had many Tier One spirit artifacts and Ye Zhantian was generous enough to distribute some of them to the other trusted family masters such as Xu Jian.

They had engaged in dozens of battles with the Nanman Kingdom cavalry, so both sides sustained losses and injuries. This was the reason why the Nanman Kingdom cavalry was merely trailing behind them for the time being and did not launch a large-scale attack. However, after passing through a few counties, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry was growing steadily bigger and reached two hundred thousand strong. Once the evacuees had entered Xilin Prairie, a vicious battle would begin.

A prairie would give the cavalry a massive edge.

Although Ye Zhantian and the others were extremely reluctant to lead the evacuees into the prairie, they had no other choice. All the other roads had either been blocked or were mountainous terrains filled with mystical beasts.

From the very beginning, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry had intended to drive the evacuees into the Xilin Prairie and launch their siege.

"Big Brother, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry has almost been completely assembled," Ye Zhanying steered his Ashen Condor toward Ye Zhantian and said with a worried look on his face. Ye Zhanxiong had gone to the Capital City to search for Ye Chen while Ye Zhanlong was escorting the juniors in the clan to the Central Empire. The rest of the Zhan cohort were present and accounted for.

"We should have guessed. The reason they drove us into Xilin Prairie was to launch their final attack." Ye Zhantian looked at Ye Zhanying and the rest of the Ye clan members. "Men of Ye Clan, I, Ye Zhantian, bow my head to you. Truly, none of you have brought shame to the Ye Clan."

"Big Brother."

"We're willing to live and die with you, Big Brother!"

The Zhan cohort held tears in their eyes yet their gazes were completely resolute.

Ye Zhantian slowly lowered his Ashen Condor and addressed the various masters gathered below. "Behind us are millions, maybe even billions of evacuees. If we retreat now, they'll lose their only hope. Therefore, we cannot turn back. Today, our world is in chaos and our country is broken. Gentlemen, thank you for fighting alongside me. I, Ye Zhantian, cannot express how grateful I am to all of you. In the next life, I'm willing to be your brother in life-and-death once more!"

"Ye Patriarch is too kind."

"Loyalty to the country is our duty as martial art practitioners."

"Ye Patriarch is able to leave yet you chose to stay behind to fight with us till the end. We'll not fear death!"

Below them, Xu Jian and the others declared loudly. After enduring so many arduous battles over the last few days, they truly respected Ye Zhantian from the bottom of their hearts. Many of them had put the thought of life and death out of their minds. After all, death was a certain outcome of their mission. If they could kill one person, it would be a draw. If they could kill two people, it would be a bonus. These martial art practitioners were getting enthused.

On a high mountain far away, a Nanman Kingdom man dressed in golden armor was watching them. Seeing the dense black dots of evacuees, a sinister smile appeared on his lips. This man was Wei Guyan. He was one of the Commanders of the Nanman Kingdom and was responsible for five hundred Nanman Kingdom cavalry in the vicinity.

Under Wei Guyan's command, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry had conquered thirty-one cities including three counties. All the way, the Nanman Kingdom cavalry had been undefeatable.

After learning the news that Donglin's Ye Clan was organizing an evacuation, he began to surround the evacuees and drive them into Xilin Prairie. Then, he gathered a cavalry of two hundred thousand elite and prepared to slaughter the evacuees.