The gate of Linyuan City was opened, and I saw Wu Zhihe leading a group of main cadres to greet him with a smile. Zhan Chen saw Zhou Ziru's figure among several people at once, compared with a year ago, Zhou Ziru's spirit at this time was more restrained, his eyes were more obscure, and he was unfathomable, obviously the same as himself, he had also experienced a life and death experience, and he was qualified to stand beside Wu Zhihe with several high-level martial artists of the Martial Emperor, which also fully proved his strength and Wu Zhihe's importance to him.

Zhou Ziru also saw Zhan Chen, and immediately smiled at him, which was regarded as a greeting, and Zhan Chen was stunned for a moment, and nodded at him, but there was a strong battle intent in his heart.

At this time, Wu Zhihe had already come to Li Wei, arched his hand and said with a smile: "General Li, it's been almost a year since the two of us parted, is everything okay with His Royal Highness the Prince?"

Li Wei also smiled and said: "Very good, he wants me to bring troops to reinforce you, this is the handwritten order of His Royal Highness the Prince, please take a look." As he spoke, he handed over the prince's edict to Wu Zhihe.

Wu Zhihe took it and looked at it for a while, then raised his head and said happily: "This is really good! Now Linyuan City is short of manpower, His Royal Highness sent you, it is really timely rain and charcoal in the snow." ”

"Hahaha, the city lord of Wu doesn't need to be polite, in the future, he will be under the command of the adult, and when the time comes, I hope you can take care of it more. ”

"How can General Li say such an out-of-the-box statement, you are an expert in commanding troops and fighting, and I have to ask you for more advice! Okay, I won't talk to you here, let's go to the city, I have already sent someone to hold a banquet in the city lord's mansion, I want to treat you well, and we won't get drunk when the time comes!"

"Okay, don't get drunk!"

So, Wu Zhihe introduced them into the city. After entering the city, Zhan Chen looked around, and immediately found that Linyuan City was heavily guarded, and a patrol would pass through the streets and alleys from time to time, and the pedestrians on the road were also looking like they were vigilant and hurried, and the shops on the street were rarely cared for, and they were depressed.

Looking at this scene, Zhan Chen felt that this city was very abnormal, and there was a tense atmosphere everywhere.

After bringing the army into the barracks and settling down, Zhan Chen and other powerful people of the Martial Emperor were all invited by Wu Zhihe to enter the city lord's mansion to drink.

During the banquet, everyone talked happily, and it was considered harmonious, and after greeting for a while, Li Wei began to ask: "City Lord, before we came here, we heard His Royal Highness the Crown Prince mention that today's Linyuan City can be described as internal and external troubles, and meticulous work is rampant, but is there such a thing?"

Wu Zhihe sighed: "Yes, these situations are also known to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince that I reported. In fact, the situation may be more complicated than we know, since a year ago, we defeated the coalition forces of the Ghost Kingdom and the cult, but many of the enemies were not annihilated, but lurked in the city, waiting for an opportunity to destroy it. ”

"At first, their activities were frequent, but they showed an unorganized and scattered revenge, so it was easy for us to discover and frustrate, through which we eliminated a large number of evil cultivators; I'm so distracted by that. ”

"Hehe, city lord Mo Chou, since there is an organization, there must be a bandit leader, as long as we capture him, the internal worries will be eliminated. ”

Wu Zhihe still didn't seem happy, drank a cup of himself, and said: "I know all this, however, I'm afraid there is not much time left for us." ”

"Oh, why is that?"

"Because the external danger is coming, the army on the other side is also gathering. According to the news brought back by our spies, they have gathered 80,000 troops in the nearest city of Darkness, and they may attack at any time. When the time comes, there will be a strong enemy outside, a careful work inside, internal worries and external troubles, and the inside should be combined with the outside, and Linyuan City may be difficult to defend. ”

When Li Wei heard this, he was optimistic, and persuaded: "I don't think it's okay, the quality of our people here is high, and there is such a strong defense in Linyuan City, even if Youguo and the Cult send more than 100,000 people, we can defeat them!"

Wu Zhihe sighed: "I hope it is as General Li said." ”

After the banquet was over, Wu Zhihe arranged accommodation for everyone, Zhan Chen was assigned to a large mansion, and there was a team of more than 300 personal guards for him to deploy, he had always been used to being alone, and he was not used to it.

However, this has become a necessity in Linyuan City, because there may be hidden demon cultivators everywhere, harassing and assassinating the guards in the city, at this time, more guards are equivalent to many more eyes and ears, although they can't deal with the demon cultivators, but they can still play a certain early warning role.

Moreover, Zhan Chen had to take people to patrol the city every once in a while, and when the time came, these three hundred people would be his patrols.

After arranging everything properly, Zhan Chen went out, wanting to walk around the city and familiarize himself with the surrounding environment, after all, he would probably have to spend it here for a long time in the future, and the current situation is unstable, he should also familiarize himself with the surrounding environment.

Traveling through the downtown area, Zhan Chen actually had a trance-like feeling, he had almost never gone shopping aimlessly in such a calm manner, which reminded him of the time when he spent his honeymoon with Su Yun, and now that he recalls it, it is really a good memory in his life.

Unconsciously, he actually walked to the entrance of the west city, and was immediately stopped by the guards there, because he had just come to the city, everyone did not know him, so one of the guards said: "Senior, are you going out of the city? If you want to go out of the city, you must show the order issued by the city lord's mansion!"

Only then did Zhan Chen wake up from his memories and replied, "No, I won't go out of the city." ”

"Then please go back, now that the whole city is under martial law, this West Gate is even more defensive. ”

Zhan Chen couldn't help but ask curiously, "What is in front of you, why are you so nervous." ”

"Well, you can see for yourself, the opposite side of the drawbridge is the boundary of the Youguo, and now this place has been closed, unless there is an order to leave the city, you can enter and exit freely. The guard said, pointing to the front.

Zhan Chen looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a wide 100-meter suspension bridge erected between the two sides of the river, communicating things between the east and west.

Of course, at this moment, there are already people stationed near the suspension bridge, and there are quite a few of them, about a thousand people, and the leader is also a general with the middle-level cultivation of Emperor Wu.

Seeing this scene, he lowered his head and pondered: "It seems that Elder Wu attaches great importance to the defense here, and it is almost impossible for the idle demon cultivators in the city to force their way over to the other side. It can only be passed after going to the City Lord's Mansion to be examined and holding the so-called order to leave the city, which curbs the communication between the demon cultivators in the city and the opposite side to the greatest extent. ”

So, he turned back and walked in the direction of the military camp south of the city, where the base camp of the garrison in the city was stationed, with more than 60,000 troops stationed.

There was still some distance from the barracks, and Zhan Chen could see rows of tall and neat buildings standing in the distance, which was where the army usually camped, and the thunderous drill shouts reached his ears from afar, making people feel their blood boiling when they listened to it.

Zhan Chen couldn't help but speed up his pace, wanting to see how the army was drilling. When they came to the gate of the camp, the guards were allowed to let them go because they felt that they had stopped him, and Zhan Chen showed them his identity token.

Entering the camp, Zhan Chen walked around, and found that there were soldiers sweating like rain on the school grounds everywhere, Xu learned that Youguo was going to attack again soon, so everyone was training very hard. Sweat more in peacetime and shed less blood on the battlefield, this is a truth that every soldier understands.

"Boom!" Suddenly a loud noise came from a distance, shocking Zhan Chen, and hurriedly followed the sound, only to see a huge ring set up in front of him, on the ring, the figures of the two people rose and fell, flashing and alternating rapidly, obviously in a fierce duel;

"These two people who fight against each other have the cultivation of Emperor Wu!" Although they were far away, Zhan Chen could still see it at a glance, and he felt itchy for a while, thinking: "I haven't fought with anyone for more than a year, and my bones are rusty, why not take this opportunity to compete with those people?" Thinking of this, he couldn't help but speed up his pace and hurriedly walked towards the ring.

When he came to the ring, the winner of the duel had already been decided, and the winner was a middle-aged man with a beard and dressed in the costumes of other sects, with the high-level cultivation of the Martial Emperor. Zhan Chen looked at him, recalled it, and remembered that this person had met at the banquet, and his name was Xu Jie.

Xu Jie was very happy to win, and let out a hearty laugh: "Hahaha, I won, who is next!"

Zhan Chen was moved for a while, and was about to go on stage to face the battle, when suddenly he saw a figure flash from the crowd opposite, appearing in the ring, he couldn't help but be stunned, and shouted: "It's Zhou Ziru!"

Yes, the person who took the lead was none other than Zhou Ziru, Zhan Chen's subconscious competitor. Xu Jie saw that it was Zhou Ziru who came on the court to challenge him, his face changed, revealing a touch of solemnity, obviously he regarded the other party as an opponent of the same level as himself.

Zhou Ziru still maintained his elegant demeanor, saluted Xu Jie, and said with a smile: "Elder Xu, let's ask you a few tricks from below!"

"Come on, Ziru!" "Ziru is so handsome!" At this time, there was a real cheering sound from the audience, and it was all young female cultivators shouting at him.

Seeing this, Zhan Chen had three more black lines on his forehead, and muttered: "This person is handsome, and some people like it!" But this is also human nature, if I were a woman, I would definitely be overwhelmed by his demeanor. ”

His appearance is extremely high, his strength is outstanding, and he is so young and promising, he can become the center of everyone's attention wherever he goes, he looked at Zhou Ziru who was chic and free on the stage, and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous in his heart.

At this time, I heard Xu Jie say: "Zhou Ziru, I have long wanted to compete with you, I heard that you have the ability to challenge beyond the level, even the high-level people of Emperor Wu can't beat you, let me try your skills today!"

At this point, he suddenly made a difficulty, the fire flashed under his feet, like a meteor catching the moon, and rushed to the front of Zhou Ziru, with both hands holding the knife, slashing down in one fell swoop, and there was a thunderous momentum;

Seeing his move, Zhan Chen frowned slightly, if he remembered correctly, Zhou Ziru cultivated the true element of the ice attribute, and it was a great disadvantage to encounter a fire attribute martial artist, and it would be a great disadvantage to see how Zhou Ziru dealt with it.

In the face of Xu Jie's sharp blow, Zhou Ziru still had an elegant smile on his face, and with a light tap of his long sword, he actually met Xu Jie's blade.

Everyone was very puzzled by his hard-hitting method, thinking that he was definitely going to suffer, Dudu Zhanchen looked at his sword, his eyes were burning and shining, and he seemed to have an understanding, because he had been invading Tai Chi sword intent for a long time, he keenly found that Zhou Ziru's sword was just aimed at the balance of Xu Jie's sword.

Sure enough, I only heard a "ding" sound, the swords collided, and Zhou Ziru's sword actually blocked Xu Jie's knife, and then without waiting for the other party to react, he took advantage of the situation to slip aside, and hit Xu Jie's right shoulder.

Xu Jie, on the other hand, stumbled forward a small step because of too much force, and was attacked by Zhou Ziru, so he had to try his best to block it, so he was not embarrassed.

Since then, the attack and defense have changed instantly, and Zhou Ziru's mysterious body technique has begun to unfold, and a long sword has never left the weakness of Xu Jie's body, blooming with a hundred cold stars.

Xu Jie suddenly felt that the snowflakes were fluttering in front of him, and the blood veins around his body were stagnant, and he had been deeply trapped in the artistic conception of Zhou Ziru's swordsmanship, his eyes could not see, and the arrival of his hands was also sluggish, so he could only rely on his martial arts instinct to resist it.

However, after a hundred secrets, he was finally caught by Zhou Ziru with a flaw, and a sword was pressed against his chest.

At this time, the snowflakes in front of Xu Jie's eyes disappeared and regained their clarity, and then he was ashamed to say: "Brother Zhou's swordsmanship is brilliant, Xu Jie lost." ”

Zhou Ziru smiled and said: "Brother Xu, it's just a fluke in the next game, and if you compare it again, you may not know who wins." ”

Xu Jie waved his hand irritably and said, "Defeat is defeat, I am indeed inferior to you, so I have to admit that Xu retired first." With that, he jumped down, and separated the crowd and left.

Zhou Ziru stood on the stage, and said to the bottom with a smile: "Zhou is not talented, which other brother is willing to come to the stage to teach?"

Zhan Chen stood below, and saw that he was looking at himself when he said this, with a trace of expectation in his eyes, which was obviously a challenge to himself, so the battle intent in his eyes suddenly burned, and he no longer hesitated, jumped into the ring and said loudly: "I, Zhan Chen came to teach Brother Zhou's tricks!"

"Okay, I already had this intention!" Although Zhou Ziru smiled at him, he didn't seem to be very "friendly" in the depths of his eyes.

The two have long wanted to fight, because both of them vaguely regard each other as fierce rivals, as the so-called two strong meet must have a fight!