There were seven or eight figures hovering in the air or standing on the walls on the edge of the imperial palace. All of them were raring to go, and all it would've required was a single instruction from the emperor for them to swoop in on Li Er at once. 0

These old immortals and grandmaster martial artists were all very familiar with one another and could work together very effectively. On a one-on-one basis, they knew that none of them would've been a match for Li Er, but they were certainly not so honorable that they wouldn't exercise their numbers advantage.1

Outside the walls around the plaza outside the Hall of Martial Valor, the chief eunuch rose to his feet. At this point, his red python robes were already in tatters, and his lips moved slightly as if to communicate something.0

The emperor nodded in response as he cautioned, "Be careful."0

At the same time, there were things brewing in the entire imperial palace and the capital city of Great Sui Nation. Over at the Ministry of Astronomy, 12 shimmering golden-armored warriors had emerged from the earth in all directions. They were standing at 30 to 40 feet tall with runes inscribed all over their bodies, and each of them was holding a different divine weapon.0

Over at a monastery, a bell toll rang out, accompanied by the sound of Buddhist chanting. At the same time, purple mist was rising up from a Daoist temple to form a massive talisman, while a white flood dragon was emerging from beneath a stone arch bridge, climbing up along its side before rearing its head above the bridge's railing...0

Inside the imperial palace, the Dragon Wall formation was protecting the imperial family, while outside the imperial palace, there was another vast, all-encompassing formation that had been nurtured by Great Sui Nation over the course of several centuries. The formation's purpose was to protect the entire capital city so that it would be able to deal with formidable external threats.0

If this formation were to be activated, then all of the cultivators and martial artists within the capital city would be suppressed by the...0