Three days prior, on the very day Lingyan City fell, far to the eastern edge of the Tianyuan Empire, near the East Sea where the Tianjiang River empties, a troop of cavalry clad in white armor thundered in from the northwest. Judging by their dust-caked appearance, they must have been on the road for days...

Upon reaching White Emperor City, they were halted by the city gate guards. Yet, these guards wore no military breastplates nor carried army crossbows; instead, they were outfitted in white martial robes, each sporting a three-foot long saber at the waist. Their eyes blazed with sharp light—every single one had attained the Martial Master realm. The small captain of the guard was, astonishingly, a master who had reached the Xiantian realm...

To employ such formidable experts merely to watch a city gate? Outside the Imperial Capital of Tianzhou, such a display of might belonged only to the Bai Family...

Tianjiang White Emperor City was the most peculiar settlement in the entire Tianyuan Empire. Its uniqueness stemmed from the absence of any standing army, any City Lord governance, or any branch of the Imperial Court. Even the Jin Yi Wei, the Empire's most formidable intelligence agency, dared not station a single informant here. It wasn't for lack of desire, but for lack of permission...

All this was because of one man: Bai Xiaodi...

Three centuries ago, the realm was fractured by chaos as the Xuanyuan, Nanfeng, and Tuoba families carved out a stalemate of power. Then, Xuanyuan Jue erupted onto the scene, mastering an unparalleled sword art that swept him to supremacy. He annihilated the Nanfeng Family and forced the Tuoba Family into retreat. In that era, his martial might was unmatched; even the Dragon Capturing Sect and the Hundred Flowers Gate suffered significant losses at his hands. Nearly every genius among the Ten Great Sects had tasted defeat against him...

Except for Bai Xiaodi, the young master of the Bai Family at that time...

In that incandescent age teeming with titans and heroes, Bai Xiaodi shone as a genius in his own right. Moreover, the Bai Family was already a major aristocratic house, ranked even above the Hundred Flowers Gate and the Dragon Capturing Sect, their martial arts renowned across the land. At the tender age of twenty, Bai Xiaodi had already broken through to the Grandmaster realm. During an early journey of exploration, he encountered Xuanyuan Jue, also only twenty at the time. Whether it was a mutual recognition of kindred spirits or a true meeting of hearts, the result was the same: from that day forward, Bai Xiaodi and Xuanyuan Jue became the closest of friends...

They ascended to the Martial Saint realm almost simultaneously. When the Xuanyuan Family finally launched its campaign to unify the world, Bai Xiaodi, who had by then inherited the leadership of the Bai Family, naturally lent his full support until the vast Tianyuan Empire was established...

It could be said that the Xuanyuan Family's success in crushing the Nanfengs and driving out the Tuobas owed an immeasurable debt to the Bai Family...

Later, Xuanyuan Jue, in his pursuit of ultimate martial enlightenment, personally put his beloved to rest, passing the throne to his descendants. Before his abdication, he bestowed the city at the source of the Tianjiang—then simply called Tianjiang City—upon the Bai Family, renaming it White Emperor City. He further decreed that the Bai Family would forever rule White Emperor City, and no agent of the court, under any pretext, was permitted to interfere in its affairs. In essence, White Emperor City became a nation within a nation, and the Bai Family, its sovereign royalty...

Bai Xiaodi naturally became the first City Lord of White Emperor City. While he held the reins, the Imperial Court never dared extend its grasp. But when he passed the Lordship to his son, and the court attempted to sow its influence, they discovered White Emperor City had already become an impenetrable fortress...

The current Lord is Bai Yunlan, Bai Xiaodi’s great-grandson, who attained the Martial Saint realm thirty years ago. No one knows the extent of his current power, but the world is certain: three of his seven sons have already reached the Martial Saint realm, and even one of his grandsons, Bai Jingfei, stands with one foot already inside the threshold, his full ascension to Martial Sainthood merely a matter of time...

It is fair to state that the Bai Family possesses the most publicly known Martial Saints, second only to the Xuanyuan clan. And White Emperor City is the location with the highest concentration of visible Martial Saints anywhere...

Beyond these four titled Martial Saints, the entire city is dedicated to martial cultivation. Masters of the Xiantian and Grandmaster realms are as common as weeds here. Even Grandmasters are accounted for by the dozen. This very saturation is why the Emperor of the Tianyuan Empire finds it impossible to penetrate the city’s defenses...

The Martial Saint realm is one of transcendence, of stepping into sanctity. When Luo Xiaofeng first reached Martial Saint, he dared confront the three great sects of Shu Yun Kingdom precisely because they lacked a Martial Saint anchor; sheer numbers of Grandmasters proved useless against him...

But the Bai Family is different. Setting aside the longevity of an old undying like Bai Xiaodi, the four visible Martial Saints alone are forces that no other contemporary power could possibly withstand...

Of course, ever since establishing their roots in White Emperor City, the Bai Family ceased involving themselves in court politics. Most Bai Family members dedicate their entire lives to pursuing the martial way, transforming White Emperor City into the martial holy land of the Tianyuan Empire, perhaps even the entire Eastern Continent. Every martial artist’s ultimate dream is to arrive here, hoping to hear wisdom on the martial path from the Bai Family's Saints...

However, there are exceptions. Some descendants of the Bai Family believe the battlefield is the superior proving ground for their martial prowess, and thus enlist in the Tianyuan Empire’s armies. Bai Xiaomo was one such individual, though fate dealt him a poor hand, pitting him against a monster like Ye Jingyu, who wields a sniper cannon...

Now, outside the walls of White Emperor City, more than a dozen guards, all above the Martial Master level, stood blocking this hastily arriving cavalry troop...

“Brother, I am Sima Xiongfeng, the Young City Lord of Lingyan City. I bring urgent matters and request an audience with City Lord Bai...” The leading cavalry officer was a man of striking handsomeness, refined features, perhaps twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Seeing that the gate guards were all Martial Masters only deepened the awe he felt for White Emperor City...

“Request an audience with the City Lord?” The guard captain, a Xiantian realm expert, had only meant to perform his duty and inquire about the riders’ origins. He never expected them to demand an audience with the City Lord immediately—wasn't that utter fantasy? The current City Lord was well over a century old. Even before the Emperor of Tianyuan passed away, anyone wishing to meet the Lord of White Emperor City required a formal invitation sent in advance. For a mere Young City Lord of Lingyan to demand a meeting—what else could it be but delusion?

“Indeed. It concerns the assassination of General Bai Xiaomo...” Before the guard captain could utter his refusal, Sima Xiongfeng pressed on. Since Bai Xiaomo’s death, Sima Xuan had dispatched men instantly to summon the currently deployed Sima Xiongfeng, ordering him to rush to White Emperor City and deliver this tragic news to the City Lord...

Although Bai Xiaomo did not serve under Sima Xuan’s direct command and such matters should fall to Yu Wuhen, Sima Xuan was certain that Yu Wuhen would never report the matter to the Bai Family before taking revenge on his own enemies. After all, everyone knew that Bai Xiaomo was the most beloved grandson of White Emperor City Lord Bai Yunlan...

At that moment, Sima Xuan had already foreseen the potential fall of Lingyan City, and the Bai Family—this powerful lineage that rarely concerned itself with military or civil affairs—might very well be their final trump card to hold the line at Lingyan.