Yun Jhin didn't linger in the underground for too much time, he grabbed Luo Shang by the collar and jumped towards the hole that they made into the ceiling then he got back to the surface.
The streets of the capital were empty as the houses of the top 10 families were the only ones that were still populated, Yun Jhin looked around and found that the army of the Bumi Empire increased again.
Yun Jhin frowned, he knew the former location of the launch pad formation and hoped that it would be in the same place as in his previous life, even though he rarely visited the 4 sacred beasts planets that didn't mean he was never here.
But first, he had to leave the capital...
To do that he had to either break the barrier and leave while things were chaotic or hope the army of the Bumi Empire broke it and do the same thing.
Yun Jhin knew that he couldn't wait for the Bumi Empire army to crack the barrier formation so he had to try himself.
Yun Jhin used his stealth technique and approached the barrier as he used his eye technique to analyzed the composition of the barrier and he frowned, he thought that he might be able to use Luo Shang's blood here but unfortunately, the deceased Emperor tweaked the formation to his likes and almost broke through from the bloodline shackles of the barrier, there were some vestiges of bloodline here and there but even if Yun Jhin drained Luo Shang of all his blood he wouldn't be able to trigger the vestiges of bloodline in the formation and control it.
There were just too few origin bloodline vestiges left so all he could do was try to use his pure technical skill to inflict damage on the formation to help the army to destroy it faster and he needed time for that, now he just hoped that the families would argue some more so that he could help the Bumi Empire break the barrier.
Yun Jhin's hands moved quickly as he touched the barrier and saw it's microscopic particles that made up the formation after he concentrated for a high amount of time, he would need to slowly grind away at the microscopic particles to lower the defense of the formation until the other side broke down.
Yun Jhin sighed as he went to work using his inner ki flame combined with his soul willpower to create a grinding formation that influenced the barrier formation slowly breaking it's defense away.
While Yun Jhin worked over the formation Luo Shang was recovering and protecting Yun Jhin at the same time, he kept one eye open while he sat in half-meditation while using some of the herbs he stashed that Yun Jhin gave him previously.
In the Zhu Family, the patriarch was both angry and scared, their younger generation deaths didn't affect him much, the elders' death affected him a lot and combined with the incoming stress from the war made him quite irascible, he also heard that Yun Jhin came back from the Bumi Empire and he didn't even come back to the Zhu Family to talk with him, he knew that the imperial family might have poached him but this was too much!
He sighed as he looked at his remaining elders and said:
"I'm not sure if we can survive this war, fleeing to other planets would be impossible considering the treaty between the four sacred beasts, since it's an internal war we would be shunned back to our planet."
The patriarch shook his head as his eyes started to glow with fiery energy, his gaze attracted all of the remaining elders' attention as the patriarch opened his mouth and told all of them:
"Since we can't escape we will fight till the end and hope the Bumi Empire will be generous enough to spare the younger generation, let's go and give our best for the glory of the Luo Empire!"
Similar situations were happening all around the other top 10 families, a bunch of elders from the top 10 families along with the patriarchs and even ancestors that came out of closed-door cultivation ran out near the barrier and prepared themselves for war, unfortunately, it seemed most ancestors failed to break through the peak of the god realm and returned to the embrace of the universe, only 2 or 3 ancestors remained and they were around the peak of the 8th stage of the God Realm, even though they were strong a peak God Realm expert could kill all of them in the blink of an eye.
Yun Jhin's eyes narrowed as he looked at the upcoming armies from the top ten families, he wondered why the imperial army wasn't here yet along with the Empress, maybe the injury from forcefully cultivating the fake technique worsened?
Suddenly as if on cue, the Empress appeared along with a bunch of eunuchs and golden armored sturdy men and women from the army.
Suddenly the Bumi Empire army stopped clamoring and attacking the barrier as a gorgeous woman appeared staying at the same altitude as the Empress, she had golden eyes and red hair that reached her buttocks. She wore a deep crimson suit that matched well with her hair, she had long ears and sharp canines that jutted out of her mouth, her face was angular and she had a small nose her skin was as white as it could be as she was almost pale, a pure aura was engulfing her and from what Yun Jhin could sense she was at the peak of the god realm, she must be the descendant of Bumi Ming's lineage!
Luo Shang eyed the woman with hostility but didn't do anything as he kept guard for Yun Jhin, fortunately, Yun Jhin was keeping both of them invisible with his stealth technique, and due to the heavy aura around combined with the tense situation no one decided to investigate the corner in which Yun Jhin was grinding at the barrier.
The golden-eyed woman came near the barrier and knocked it a few times as a playful smile appeared on her face, her smile showed her elongated and sharp canines even better and it gave her an intimidating aura even though she was quite a beauty.
She opened her mouth and said:
"Big sis, it seems your husband is gone, why don't you deactivate this barrier and let me in? After all, I sent you to the Luo Empire to take over it."
The Empress shook her head as a serious expression finally appeared on her face and she responded to her sister:
"Sister, I promised that man that I wouldn't let the Empire fall into outsider's hands if he was to ever die, please don't make things hard for me."
The Empress of the Bumi Empire shook her head as she put both her hands on her forehead and started laughing, then she pointed at her sister and said:
"Aren't you quite delusional? I don't care you are my sister, give up and I will let you and all of your civilians, subordinates, and people to live, if you decide to waste my time that I could use to break through above the God Realm I will destroy everyone along with the capital!"
The Luo Empress face paled, the aura of a peak god realm expert subtly breached through the barrier and attacked her, however, the impact of the aura was nullified by around 95% due to the barrier.
However that 5% attack made the Empress's face pale and she almost vomited a mouthful of blood.
The Bumi Empress continued to smile as she pointed at the Luo Empress head then said:
"It seems you have injured yourself by cultivating incomplete techniques, am I wrong dear sister?"
The Luo Empress remained silent as she closed her eyes to stop her internal injury from rampaging further damaging her insides.
Yun Jhin felt glad inside as he watched the two women bicker, he had ground quite a bit of the defensive ability of the barrier while they tried to intimidate each other, and soon if the army from the Bumi Empire would attack the barrier would crumble and he would be able to run away!
The Bumi Empress golden eyes narrowed as she glanced in Yun Jhin's direction so subtly that even Yun Jhin couldn't realize what she did, a small smile appeared on her lips as she turned her head back to her sister and put her hand forward as she pointed at the barrier and shouted:
"ALL TROOPS CHARGE, WHOEVER GETS THE HEAD OF MY SISTER WILL BECOME MY 'BATTERY' FOR A FEW MONTHS!"
All the males became so energized that they almost burst with the power of an extra stage of cultivation, the females were less energized but they also burst forward with a power of half a stage further as their eyes sparkled while they looked at their Empress.
The Luo Empress glanced at the army and shook her head, it should be impossible to break the barrier without attacking it fora few days.
Suddenly the transparent barrier started to make crunching sounds as a crack appeared on the barrier as soon as the army focused all of its ki attacks on it.
The Luo Empress's eyes started to widen becoming bigger than saucers as her mouth almost fell to the ground.
The Luo Empress backed away in fear as she looked between the barrier and her sister while she said while trembling:
"hey, sis why don't you uh... forgive me?"
The golden-eyed beauty looked at her sister and gave her another smile as she responded:
"Didn't you want to swallow the whole empire and continue to be Empress dear sister?
The Bumi Empress immediately saw through her sister's plans, the Luo Empress was sweating heavily as more cracks appeared in the barrier and she was ready to flee, but a sudden crack in the middle of the whole barrier let the golden-eyed beauty to step directly in the capital and appear in front of her sister.
The Bumi Empress grabbed the Luo Empress by the neck as her hands went down her body and said:
"It seems your cultivation didn't increase since I sent you here as a gift, it seemed you couldn't even please that old man Luo properly, tsk tsk, but it also seems you have enjoyed quite a few men yourself, why don't you let your sister see what you have been up to."
The Bumi Empress's free hand quickly made its way into the Luo Empress's head as it started to move through her brain and soul.
The Luo Empress started to wail in pain and anguish as she vomited multiple mouthfuls of blood, her internal injuries surfaced while her sister was attacking her soul, the Bumi Empress knew that she wouldn't be able to get her sisters memories due to the proximity of their cultivation bases combined with the fact that the Luo Empress wasn't willing at all to give her memories to her sister.
The Bumi Empress shook her head as she let the Luo Empress fall to the ground, she licked the hand that went into the Empress's head and suddenly appeared in front of Yun Jhin who was just ready to run away with Luo Shang.
He grabbed him by the arm as she quickly approached his neck at an extreme speed, her long red tongue came out of her mouth and licked his neck up to his face as she said in a seductive tone:
"Are you the little guy who helped me break into the capital, aren't you a good boy, let me give you a reward."
Yun Jhin tried to move but he was paralyzed, the Empress's lips quickly made their way to his mouth as she kissed him, the Empress giggled as she waved her hand and the whole army ran into the capital ki flaring and techniques thrown at the top 10 families of the Luo Empire which had almost no morale left after their Empress remained a twitching mess on the ground.
Yun Jhin wanted to talk but all he could do was move his eyes, The Bumi Empress moved slowly and looked down at Luo Shang who was in the same situation as Yun Jhin, she gave out a strange smile as she patted Luo Shang head and said:
"Why does my bloodline give out such a disgusting feeling when it senses yours?"
The Bumi Empress smiled excitedly as she looked at Luo Shang and Yun Jhin and stated:
"From now you two shall become my personal attendants!"
Yun Jhin didn't know what to do in this situation, it seemed the Bumi Empress could even see through his stealth even through the barrier effects, maybe it was because he weakened the barrier too much, while he tried to escape he didn't think that the Bumi Empress would give notice to such a small character like him but it seemed he shot himself in the foot now!
It was good that he was in the Empress's favor but he didn't want to remain on the azure dragon planet any further as he wanted to continue his journey to achieving the form of an artificial celestial caterpillar, and who knew how he would be treated by the Bumi Empress as her attendant?
But all he could do now was curse inside and smile outside as the Empress unfroze him, she looked at him precisely like how a hawk would stalk a hare if he moved a muscle in the wrong direction he was sure that he would be decapitated and unlike the situation with Bumi Ming, he would surely die here!