Chapter 56: Fighting to the Final Chapter

"Refusal? Then die, you ungrateful, shameless idiots!"

Jiang Chen waved his hand. "Brothers, tear these two fools apart, then trample Jiayuguan and annex the entire Great Xia Nation!"

The seven demon kings laughed wildly and frantically, launching an even more ferocious attack once again against Xiao Chen and Lin Zhengyang.

This time, Xiao Chen had truly reached his limit. Facing the successive assaults of three demon kings, the halo of the Northern-Defending King seemed to have dimmed. Finally, struck by Hong He's Thousand-Feather Annihilation, his entire body was pierced by steel-like feathers and nailed directly to the city walls of Jiayuguan.

Boom! The human martial artists on the city wall looked down and vividly saw Xiao Chen at death's door.

"The Northern-Defending King!"

Despair permeated the heart of every human martial artist.

Was even the Northern-Defending King about to perish here at Jiayuguan?

Boom! Hong He descended from the sky, a pair of sharp, scythe-like claws plunging into Xiao Chen's shoulders.

Xiao Chen shuddered violently, his aura fading even further, and his head drooped slowly, leaving him without even the strength to lift it.

He had truly tried his best.

A single ordinary demon king could match three martial artists of the King Realm.

Yet today, he alone faced three demon kings, which was equivalent to paying a ninefold price to fight them.

The outcome of the battle: Hong He's wing was broken and he was heavily injured; Hu Zhang's claws were shattered and he was heavily injured.

Having severely injured two demon kings and lightly injured another, Xiao Chen had already reached his absolute limit.

Even his trusty Great Snow Silver Dragon Spear, which had accompanied him in battle for decades, had broken into several pieces and scattered across the battlefield.

"Xiao Chen! Even if you hadn't come to Jiayuguan today, we would have gone to Mobei to find you another day!" Dragging his broken wing, Hong He pressed his forehead against Xiao Chen's, screaming hysterically at the top of his lungs, his eyes stained with an extreme, enraged scarlet. "Weren't you arrogant, you scum? Weren't you hailed as the Northern-Defending King? Didn't you boast that you could hold back the Mobei demon race for thirty years? How come you've turned into this ghost of a figure now? Speak! This king tells you to speak, go ahead and be arrogant to me again!"

"Xiao Chen, do you regret it?! Do you regret running blindly to your death in Jiayuguan?!"

Xiao Chen laboriously raised his blood-soaked head, his lips moving.

"What did you say?"

"I said... I am your father..."

Hong He screamed up at the sky, frantically unleashing the feathers from his wings, driving them toward Xiao Chen like a torrential rain.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff...

With the piercing of the rain-like feathers, Xiao Chen's body shook violently.

The head that he had so laboriously lifted finally lowered in complete silence.

***

When Hong He's venting barrage finally ended, Xiao Chen no longer made any movement; there was only incoming breath, and none outgoing.

This scene was witnessed by Xiao Ruoyu from the ramparts of Jiayuguan. The battlefield beauty covered her mouth, tears swirling in her eyes, yet she was powerless to save her own father.

"Let's go, Your Highness!" an urgent voice cried out from one of the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry. "Jiayuguan cannot be held! Of our thirty thousand iron cavalry, over five thousand have already died; if we keep fighting, we'll all die here! Let's go, Your Highness! Return to Great Wu, return to Northern Defense City, let's stop wading through this muddy water!!!"

The rest of the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry clenched their teeth as they looked at Xiao Chen. They wanted to save their Northern-Defending King.

Yet they also clearly realized that the Northern-Defending King was likely beyond saving—no matter how many lives of the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry were sacrificed, he could not be saved!

Not only could the Northern-Defending King not be saved, but every single soul in Jiayuguan today could not be saved either...

"Let's go, Your Highness!!!" shouted the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry in voices verging on tears.

After a brief moment of numbness, Xiao Ruoyu displayed an extraordinary spirit. She wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her battle armor vibrating, her long spear gripped tightly. Despite death looming right before her eyes, she calmly said, "If we flee to Northern Defense City, can we somehow escape the entirety of the Eastern Lands? My father is a hero, is his daughter a coward?"

The gazes of the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry froze. In their eyes, this princess of theirs suddenly appeared towering and majestic.

"The entire army continues to fight!" Xiao Ruoyu commanded angrily. "If we cannot hold it, we fight while retreating, dragging the demon race into urban warfare! But fleeing is not the backbone of the Northern-Defending people!"

Instantly, all the Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry were inspired; they pounded their chests with their fists in unison, responding to Xiao Ruoyu's command.

The Northern-Defending Iron Cavalry, previously demoralized because Xiao Chen had been pinned to the city wall, once again twisted into a single rope, fiercely engaging the demon race in battle.

"Xiao Chen..." Lin Zhengyang looked back at Xiao Chen pinned to the city wall, his eyes filled with boundless sorrow.

Brother Xiao, it is I who deceived you; I have failed you.

In Lin Zhengyang's mind, the years of fighting alongside Xiao Chen flashed past.

"Ahhhhhhh!!" Covered in blood, Lin Zhengyang plunged into a state of berserk frenzy, his long hair flying wildly in all directions. No longer caring about the gains and losses of battle, he fought Jiang Chen and the other demon kings like a desperate gambler, completely locked in a mutual-destruction state of trading injury for injury.

Right at that moment, a series of visible magnetic-electric shockwaves suddenly erupted from within the city walls of Jiayuguan!

Hum! Hum! Hum!

Three consecutive magnetic-electric shockwaves instantly swept across a radius of several thousand meters.

The demon kings felt no discomfort.

Yet Jiang Chen, who was engaged in a frenzied battle with Lin Zhengyang, suddenly clutched his chest, his body staggering a few steps.

And it was precisely these few staggering steps that allowed the frantic Lin Zhengyang to directly smash a dozen heavy, powerful punches into him!

Boom, boom, boom! Taken by surprise, Jiang Chen had his chest smashed open and collapsed onto one knee on the ground.

"Huh? Big Brother Jiang Chen?" Hong He's body trembled, feeling incredulous.

Surely not?

***

At this moment, Jiang Chen was covered in cold sweat. He felt as though his heart had gone mad—beating, contracting, beating, and contracting again!

So much so that his brain's cognitive processes became chaotic and unclear, as if his mind had turned into a balloon, swelling and shrinking by turns.

Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!!!

Five consecutive times! Magnetic-electric shockwaves!!

"Ptuu!" Jiang Chen spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, and upon closer inspection, the blood actually contained fragments of his internal organs and bones!

Why?! Why? Why?! Jiang Chen roared internally in his heart.

When he broke out of seclusion, he had actually vaguely sensed that his heart seemed more sensitive than usual.

However, he hadn't paid much attention to it, simply thinking it was caused by emotional fluctuations. After all, carrying the heavy, complex dual emotions of avenging his son and seeking a breakthrough, a slightly sensitive heart was nothing out of the ordinary.

Yet at this very moment, Jiang Chen felt as if his heart was about to explode! The amplitude and frequency of its beating had turned so frenzied that even he felt terror!

What was going on?!

Could there be something wrong with the Cangyao bloodline he had refined?

Even if there were a problem, why did it have to act up at this critical juncture?

Magnetic-electric...

Jiang Chen abruptly raised his head to look at the Jiayuguan city wall.

The very next instant, however, the berserk Lin Zhengyang pressed forward, raining down a flurry of heavy, formless punches—purely driven by brute force—onto Jiang Chen's head and body.

Boom, boom, boom! It sounded as if an angry deity in the heavens were operating a furnace, forging weapons and smashing the earth with an iron hammer.

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Chen was beaten beyond recognition by Lin Zhengyang, half of his facial bones shattered.

"Quick, help!"

The remaining demon kings were dumbfounded and hurriedly rushed forward to assist.

They had no idea what was wrong with Jiang Chen either; he had suddenly grown lethargic and feeble, only to be brutally hammered by Lin Zhengyang.

The other seven demon kings launched a ferocious attack on Lin Zhengyang in an attempt to block him.

Yet the crazed Lin Zhengyang seemed to have just unleashed the spirit and power of a contemporary martial king. Ignoring how he himself was being attacked, he focused entirely on pounding Jiang Chen with heavy blows.

Punch after punch, boom, boom, boom! Like an angry god wielding a hammer.