An emperor in his later years is summoned by his sister to save the nation's fate.

At the same time, the number of bullet comments in the official Dragon Kingdom live broadcast room exploded.

Interspersed among them were a large number of arrogant South Korean and Japanese viewers.

"Hahaha! Lu Xueyao from the Dragon Kingdom is doomed this time!"

"This is the first wave of strange events! Other Chosen One territories are only a few dozen square meters, so they are relatively easy to defend."

Instead, she cleverly built a city wall, enclosing the entire black pine forest within a ten-mile radius! How is she supposed to defend such a large area?!

"Exactly! Not only is the defense line too long, but the forest she's encircled is also full of strange things."

Once the strange tide erupts, the combined attack from within and without will absolutely overwhelm the entire territory in an instant, leaving the city destroyed and its inhabitants dead!

Seeing these malicious and mocking comments, the Chinese viewers immediately launched a fierce counterattack.

"Bullshit! Lu Xueyao has two powerful protective formations! What do you know!"

"Sour! Just keep being sour! Our Lu Xueyao is a demonic cultivator focused on infrastructure development, does she even know what a 'Ten Thousand Souls Banner' is? What 'closing the door to beat the dog' means?"

Meanwhile, in the live stream of Liu Mengxi, another chosen one from the Dragon Kingdom, the atmosphere was completely different.

Liu Mengxi had already retreated to her lord's manor and locked the stone gate, which had been upgraded to level 2, tightly.

Listening to the wind outside, she wasn't afraid at all; instead, a smug, cold smile curled at the corner of her lips.

"I upgraded the city walls and gates of the city lord's mansion to level 2, and with Chu Renmei and the Ghost Fire, the defense is as solid as a rock."

As long as I hold onto this small piece of land, I'm sure I can get a high score this time during the strange tide invasion, maybe even make it into the top three on the leaderboard!

Thinking of this, Lu Xueyao's image couldn't help but appear in her mind.

Based on Lu Xueyao's previous announcement about obtaining the Yinming Stone and triggering its manifestation, she had already guessed that the other party had built a wall.

"Lu Xueyao, it's one thing for you to show off all the time, but this time you've been too clever for your own good by building a city wall. You're just asking for trouble."

To defend against the invasion of the strange tide, the larger the defensive area, the more openings there will be.

To expect a territory of this size to remain undamaged? That's utterly a pipe dream!

……

In Lu Xueyao's territory, inside the main hall of the city lord's mansion, Lu Xueyao sat cross-legged, her expression calm and composed, without the slightest hint of panic.

She certainly had the confidence to remain calm. Now she held the Ten Thousand Souls Banner in her left hand and the White Bone Banner in her right, with the A-level Ghost Bride guarding her inside and the Blood Transformation Array and Soul Refining Array protecting her outside.

It seems that they should be able to easily withstand this so-called small-scale strange wave.

Even if she were truly injured, her lord's manor contains a special spring built from the Nine Netherworld Water, which can quickly restore her to her original state.

However, within her sea of ​​consciousness, Lu Li's wisp of imperial divine consciousness was secretly pondering.

"Since it is a strange tide invasion as determined by the system, the number of strange entities must be considerable. As a result, the Blood Transformation Array and Soul Refining Array are only covering the area of ​​the City Lord's Mansion, which is already somewhat insufficient."

Of course, as the one who set up the formation, Lu Li had long anticipated this situation and left behind a domineering contingency plan.

Under normal circumstances, in order to save resources, the two large formations do indeed only cover the City Lord's Mansion.

But that doesn't mean their limits are limited!

The characteristic of the Soul Refining Array is that as long as Yin Souls are continuously poured into the array's core as fuel, the array's suppression range will increase wildly until it covers the entire territory within a ten-mile radius!

Even without killing enemies and infusing new souls, as long as Lu Xueyao temporarily draws upon the strange power already contained within the Myriad Soul Banner, she can force the formation to operate beyond its capacity for a short period, covering the entire territory.

As for the Blood Transformation Array, the method to expand its range is even simpler and more direct; all that's needed is to invest enough flesh and blood.

"With the invasion of the eerie tide, there will definitely be no shortage of flesh-and-blood monsters with physical forms."

A sinister glint flashed in Lu Li's eyes. After listening to her brother's analysis, Lu Xueyao immediately got up and began to arrange the defense deployment of the territory.

She operated her territory as a real war fortress.

"noob!"

She summoned the skeletal demon general, who had already evolved to over four meters tall: "Go and guard the Netherworld Stone City Wall in the south of the city. If you encounter any physical monsters, smash them and throw them into the Blood Transformation Array!"

The White Bone Demon General immediately flapped his bone wings and flew towards the south of the city.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Xueyao waved the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, and all sorts of strange creatures, such as the eerie hair, the eerie eyes, and the headless ghost, were sent to guard the city wall in the north of the city.

Subsequently, dozens of strange creatures, including the starving ghost, the water ghost, and the mourning ghost, which originally belonged to the ghost bride, were assigned to guard the western city wall.

Finally, Lu Xueyao turned her attention to the core combat force.

"Go and guard the east side of the city, which is where the main gate of the territory is located. Remember, do not let any monster cross the city gate even half a step."

Lu Xueyao gave orders to the ghost bride.

"Rest assured, Master." The Ghost Bride bowed slightly, her figure transforming into a streak of red light and disappearing from the spot.

This kind of troop deployment can be described as flawless and watertight.

Heavy troops and high-ranking mysterious figures are stationed in all four directions: east, west, south, and north.

Lu Xueyao herself used her Blood Escape Technique to personally climb the city wall on the east side of the city, standing in the wind and rain, ready to monitor the situation here in real time.

She can provide immediate support should any unexpected situation arise.

In his mind's eye, Lu Li watched his sister's skillful command of the demonic path and nodded secretly.

"This level of defense should be able to easily withstand the first wave of strange tides."

Lu Li judged in his mind: "Theoretically speaking, the strongest anomaly in this first round of invasion is at most a B-level, and it is almost impossible for an A-level anomaly to appear."

Xueyao could easily handle it herself; I didn't need to use cross-dimensional projection at all.

As time passed, darkness fell completely.

"Thump—thump—thump—!"

Just then, a dull, penetrating knocking sound suddenly rang out outside the massive Yinming Stone City Gate in the east of the city.

Standing atop the city wall, Lu Xueyao looked down and saw a bizarre creature covered in lividity and dressed in tattered burial clothes, mechanically raising its stiff arm and repeatedly pounding on the city gate.

This is a B-grade knocking ghost!

"I see..." Lu Xueyao pondered for a moment and immediately understood the purpose of this strange creature: "This is a vanguard creature! Its mission must be to use the rule that opening the door means certain death to forcibly breach the territory's city gate defenses!"

As the B-level knocking ghost continued to knock, waves of cold, deadly, and eerie power, like a tide, seeped through the Yinming Stone City Wall and continuously penetrated into the territory.

Even Lu Xueyao, who was standing on the city wall, more than ten meters away from the city gate, began to be affected by this supernatural rule.

She looked down and saw that faint bluish-black lividity was beginning to appear on the back of her fair hand, and even her skin showed signs of aging and decay.