Chapter 416: The terrifying background of the Yan family, shrewd and deliberate
"Your Excellency."
Ni Chong, then the deputy general of Shandong, looked at the mysterious formation that enveloped the entire city of Jinan and said to Yan Jizu in surprise, "Is this the formation that protects your Yan family? It looks too powerful!"
"The most rare thing is that this is a movable protective formation. It is more than one level stronger than the outer Jinan City protective formation."
He is a man of wide experience and has fought countless battles in his life. Compared with the good-for-nothing Liu Zeqing, he is much stronger in every aspect.
During the Denglai Rebellion four years ago, it was he who led the garrison of Jinan Prefecture and firmly blocked the rebels' attempt to enter Jinan Prefecture, thus saving Jinan Prefecture from war.
His backers, the Yan family, were good at keeping a low profile, but they could not match the blatant power of Liu Zeqing's backer, Duke Cheng, Zhu Chunchen. That was why the position of General of Shandong fell on Liu Zeqing.
This time, because the Fuxing Army was coming with such force, there was a possibility of death and destruction of the family at any time. Faced with the crisis of life and death, the Yan family could not care less and directly used all the family's trump cards in an attempt to win this battle to defend the city.
The ancestor of the Yan family directly took out the clan’s most precious treasure and set up this super-powerful protective formation, which really shocked many people.
There was no way. These noble families, wealthy merchants, and officials had never heard of such a treasure that could form an array with just a thought, let alone seen it with their own eyes.
Even Ni Chong, the deputy general with the cultivation level of the late fifth level, saw it for the first time.
You should know that Jinan City is the largest city in the land of Qi and Lu, with a radius of 800 miles. Even in the Ming Dynasty, it is one of the top ten giant cities.
A magical treasure that can be used to create a super-large protective formation that covers the entire city of Jinan in an instant. Who would not be amazed after seeing such a magical thing?
"It's stable, it's definitely stable!"
Ni Chong, who is in charge of the command of this city defense battle, now feels very calm.
"Ah."
Yan Jizu stroked his long beard with his right hand, narrowed his eyes, and said complacently, "I also didn't expect that the family had such a powerful trump card."
"With this super protective formation here, I want to see how Li Dingguo's Fusion Army can break through it!"
Yan Jizu had been to the capital many times, so he had naturally seen the city defense formation of the northern capital.
But he dared to bet that even the capital's city defense formation, after losing the suppression of the national artifact Haotian Tower, would not be able to compare with the family's current clan defense formation.
It is no exaggeration to call the Yan family's clan formation the number one protective formation in the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, he had already guessed in his heart that the formation treasure that the family ancestor Yan Jingzhi dispatched was most likely the legendary innate formation artifact.
In the past, the Yan family had been keeping a low profile and had kept this formation artifact well hidden. Only the current clan leader and the ancestor knew about it.
Now that it was suddenly revealed to the public, even the core members of the Yan family were shocked.
This is enough to show that the Yan family, a leader in the literary world who is as famous as the Kong family, is not just a name, but has a terrifyingly strong foundation.
"General Ni."
Yan Jizu then continued, "This time the Restoration Army is coming with great force, and its brutality is unprecedented. Even with a powerful protective formation here, you must not take it lightly."
"As far as I know, before the fall of the Kong family in Qufu, they also activated the family's protective formation, but it was also broken by Li Dingguo himself, and the Kong family was massacred!"
"As expected, the Kong family's protective formation also has a magical treasure to suppress it, but it still can't stop Li Dingguo's attack. We can't be careless at all."
"If the double protective formation here is broken, your Ni family, which is one with our Yan family, will not be able to escape this disaster. You will definitely die and your clan will be destroyed."
"Also, His Royal Highness!"
He looked at Prince De Zhu Ciyin, who was standing uncomfortably, and said, "Doesn't your Prince De's Palace have 30,000 soldiers?"
"It's already this late, why are you still hiding it?"
"At this critical moment of life and death, you only sent 10,000 soldiers? Are you going to leave 20,000 soldiers to eat dust in the palace?"
Since he had already fallen out with the Prince De's Mansion, Yan Jizu no longer gave them face and scolded them loudly, "You must think clearly. If Jinan Prefecture cannot be defended, the Prince De's Mansion will definitely end up dead and exterminated!"
"We received the latest intelligence yesterday. The Fuxing Army has easily captured Jiyang City. In three days at most, their massive naval fleet will arrive outside Jinan City!"
"The other side has two level six golden eagles accompanying the fleet. It must be the two bandit chiefs Li Dingguo and Wan'er who have come in person!"
"Go and report to your father again. If we cannot stop the attack led by Li Dingguo, the consequences will be something your Dewang Mansion cannot afford!"
"Tell him to send the remaining 20,000 soldiers to help defend the city. We also need to double the supply of money, food and supplies!"
"If you can't even save your life, what's the point of keeping all those money and supplies? Are you going to take them to the eighteenth level of hell?"
Yan Jizu was speechless as Jinan Prefecture had to deal with such an eccentric prince.
At a time like this, he is still thinking about preserving his strength. He is even worse than King Heng of Qingzhou Prefecture. It is simply shameful.
"Hey!"
Zhu Ciyun sighed and replied, "I will report your opinion to my father, Futai Yan. I hope my father will agree."
Although he was the crown prince, he was powerless to refute at this moment.
There was no way. At this critical moment of life and death, Yan Jizu was telling the truth.
Once the city of Jinan fell, the 20,000 soldiers left behind in the palace would be completely useless. They would probably not be able to withstand a charge from the Fuxing Army and would completely collapse, and even cause huge chaos.
But Prince De Zhu Youshu doesn't care about so many things.
Now in panic, he wanted to keep an army of warriors to guard him so that he could sleep peacefully and not be woken up in the middle of the night with cold sweats.
But Zhu Ciyun knew better that with the current defense force of Jinan City, if it could not withstand the attack of the Fuxing Army led by Li Dingguo himself, even if 20,000 soldiers of the Royal Palace Guard were added, it would be of no use.
As Prince De Zhu Ciyun led a team of personal guards and leaped away, Yan Jizu stood on the city wall of the north city with his hands behind his back, looking at the Daqing River in the distance with flickering eyes.
The rumored Restoration Army had never been defeated so far, and even though the number of his own soldiers defending the city had grown to about million, he still felt uneasy.
After all, although they have a large number of people, these soldiers defending the city are all servants and guards from various families. They are truly a mob and cannot compare to the invincible Fusion Army.
Even though the enemy only has 200,000 men, the enemy's naval fleet is extremely powerful, and the concentrated fire attacks launched by countless psychic cannons and psychic crossbow carts are enough to offset their numerical advantage.
The only thing they can rely on is the super protective formation set up by the Yan family's inherited artifact. This is also the reason why Yan Jizu and Ni Chong are still calm now.
On the other side of the city wall, Yan Jingzhi, the ancestor of the Yan family, was surrounded by eight level five masters of the family.
The clan leader Yan Changsheng said respectfully, "Grandfather, this innate inherited artifact of our Yan family, the Hunyuan Golden Bowl, was obtained by our ancestors from a secret place in the Yellow River during the Spring and Autumn Period. It has tremendous power."
"After ten thousand years of continuous rituals and cultivation by our Yan family, six of the seals of heaven and earth have been broken. The power that can be exerted is not something that a cultivator in the Qi Refining Realm can contend with."
"What's more, with nine level five masters from our Yan family guarding the center of the formation, it would be wishful thinking for Li Dingguo to break through!
"Even if Li Dingguo has a divine weapon, so what? There is no need to worry."
He had personally witnessed the power of this inherited artifact of his own.
Four years ago, he and his ancestor took it and easily trapped and killed two large families that had always been against the Yan family, and finally secretly controlled the entire Jinan Prefecture in the hands of the Yan family.
As for the demise of the two families, they easily blamed the rebels of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, and no one knew about it.
Under the influence of this innate inherited artifact, even the cats and dogs of the huge hostile family were all reduced to ashes, leaving nothing behind, and the battle process was extremely easy.
It has to be said that an innate and top-grade artifact that can form a formation with just a thought is perfect for confiscating homes and exterminating families. It can easily kill all enemies within a radius of hundreds of miles.
"Changsheng, you must not be careless!"
Yan Jingzhi, the 170-year-old ancestor of the Yan family, shook his head and said, "Since Li Dingguo rose to power, he has won overwhelming victories in every war without exception. This is enough to prove that the innate divine weapon he possesses is extraordinary. It is very likely that it is not inferior to our inherited divine weapon, the Hunyuan Golden Bowl, and may even be stronger!"
"Otherwise, how could a small thief like him be able to do such a thing?"
"From what I know, the Kong family may have more than one inherited divine weapon, and its power is not bad, but wasn't it easily destroyed by Li Dingguo?"
"Although our family's inherited artifact, the Hunyuan Golden Bowl, is powerful, it is impossible to trap and kill a cultivator who has an innate artifact of the same level to protect him in a short period of time."
"Even if Li Dingguo personally leads a large army to attack us, even if they enter the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation of the Hunyuan Golden Bowl, since his cultivation level is far superior to ours, it will be difficult for the formation to trap him."
The more Yan Jingzhi spoke, the uglier his expression became. "I just hope that Li Dingguo and the Fuxing Army cannot break through our Nine Bends Yellow River Formation."
"Otherwise, our Yan family is likely to repeat the mistakes of the Kong family."
His greatest regret in this life was that the great changes in the world came too late.
As the person with the strongest innate talent in the Yan family in hundreds of years, at this time when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is recovering rapidly, his life span is coming to an end and the life essence in his body is insufficient to promote his own cultivation to make another breakthrough.
If I could break through to level six, the current crisis would be solved.
Unless one can obtain an innate spiritual root, or one that can improve one's own qi, blood, and bones, one can reverse one's fate.
Unfortunately, their Yan family only has one acquired top-grade spiritual root, the Seven-Aperture Linglong Tree, which can only be of great use to enhance the spiritual power of practitioners, but cannot be used to make up for the continuous depletion of vital energy in the body.
This exquisite tree with seven holes is also the main reason why the scholars in their Yan family have extraordinary mental power and why there are so many talented civil servants.
"Ancestor, this is unlikely, right?"
Yan Changsheng, the current patriarch of the Yan family, said in disbelief, "No matter how strong Li Dingguo is, once he falls into our trap and is trapped in the Nine Bends Yellow River Formation, how can he break out of it?"
"This is the famous innate formation in the ancient mythological period!"
"Even with our current cultivation, we can't even activate one tenth of its power, and it's not something a Qi Refining Realm cultivator can withstand."
He had personally worked with the ancestor to activate this innate formation to trap and kill several powerful enemies of the family. He was well aware of how terrifying it was, so he was full of confidence and did not believe that Li Dingguo could compete with it.
"Changsheng!"
Yan Jingzhi shouted, "No matter how powerful the Hunyuan Golden Bowl is, what if it encounters an innate top-level artifact of a higher grade than it?"
"The ultimate weapon that Li Dingguo exposed, the dark yellow bell, is most likely the Dark Yellow Chaos Bell, one of the ten great artifacts in the ancient myths and legends!"
"If the guess is true, with Li Dingguo's sixth-level cultivation, leading a strong army to form a military killing formation, it will be enough to compete with our Nine Bends Yellow River Formation!"
"At that time, it was hard to predict who would win or lose, life or death!"
To be honest, if his family didn't have to fight a desperate battle, he really didn't want to face Li Dingguo.
This gifted child of destiny, at the age of fifteen, was able to stir up the Ming Dynasty and make it precarious. He was born to be a trend-setter of the times with great luck.
If you go against such a genius and evildoer, you will most likely become a stepping stone for him.
Facing such an unprecedentedly powerful enemy, even if the Yan family's trump card is powerful, they cannot truly rest easy. If they are not careful, they will die and their entire family will be destroyed. It cannot be too serious.
"Yes! Ancestor, I'll remember this and won't be careless."
Although Yan Changsheng was the head of the clan, the real person in charge of the Yan family was the old ancestor. He did not dare to talk back and quickly responded respectfully.
"Go and call Ji Zu over. I have something to tell him."
"Also, to be on the safe side, I asked you to arrange for some core clan members to hide in the Yan Family's courtyard outside the city. Once they find that Jinan City has been breached, they should leave immediately and quietly. How is that going?"
Since they already knew that Li Dingguo was personally leading the Fuxing Army to attack, how could a top family like them not prepare a way out for the family in advance?
"Reporting to the ancestor, everything has been prepared long ago, and I have arranged in advance for more than a dozen core clan members to hide in the family secret realm on Mount Li outside the South City. Even if something unexpected happens, there is no need to worry about the family's inheritance."
"With the acquired top-grade spiritual root in the Lishan Secret Realm, even if the family encounters a disaster, it can be guaranteed to recover in the future."
Yan Changsheng is certainly not a stupid person to be able to stand out and become the head of a clan. He must have made all kinds of back-up plans in advance to be a qualified clan leader.
After saying this, he bowed to the ancestor, then turned around and leaped away quickly to replace Shandong Governor Yan Jizu and wait for the ancestor's instructions and arrangements.
Although Yan Jizu held a high official position and had great power, he was inferior to Yan Changsheng and Yan Jingzhi in all aspects and could only be regarded as an ordinary genius.
If he is not explained clearly, he might miss out on important matters in the upcoming battle to defend the city.
(End of this chapter)
