The sky above Shengjing City, which had been shrouded in dark purple clouds, suddenly tore open to reveal the united banners of thirty-six sects fluttering in the wind. Above the clouds, spirit ships swarmed like locusts, obscuring the sun.
At the head of this group was Lei Zhentian, the Valley Master of Thunder Valley and a half-step Mahayana cultivator, who was wielding an Eight Desolate Thunder Hammer that crackled with purple-gold lightning. His voice, like thunder, shook the distant ruins.
'Xiao Wuchen, you dare defy the heavens and seize the spiritual veins of the world! Today, our thirty-six sects, in accordance with the will of heaven and the decree of the upper realm, vow to reduce your demonic city to dust!'
[System Scan: Enemy forces number 30,000, with 800 at the Nascent Soul stage or above.
[High Energy Warning: Enemy detected carrying a 'Cross-realm Location Talisman', suspected of summoning an extraterrestrial will.' Faced with this terrifying array, which is capable of wiping out any first-rate sect, the black-gold gates of Shengjing slowly opened with a dull groan.
There were no three thousand Dragon Guards surrounding them, nor any earth-shattering phenomena.
Xiao Wuchen emerged alone with his sword from the deep doorway, his dark gold armour casting a long shadow on the snow. With each step he took, the raging northern wind instantly subsided, as if even the wind feared his arrival.
He stopped a hundred feet in front of the army and raised his helmet slightly. His eyes flickered with purple flames of annihilation as he swept them coldly over the arrogant 'immortal' in the clouds.
'Xiao traitor, you still dare to put on airs even when you're about to die?' Seeing that Xiao Wuchen was alone, Lei Zhentian, though wary, raised his thunder hammer in defiance, relying on his superior numbers: 'All soldiers, listen to my command! Follow me and pacify this..." 'Kneel down.'
Xiao Wuchen's voice was soft, even softer than Xue Luo's.
At that very moment, however, the black-gold furnace beneath Shengjing City, which had fused with Lu Qingyun's divine essence, began to tremble violently. The laws of gravity within a hundred miles were completely reversed.
The thousand-plus spirit boats above the clouds were slammed to the ground as if by an invisible hand. Tens of thousands of cultivators felt their bodies become a million times heavier and heard their bones crack with a series of explosive sounds.
Those with weaker cultivation were instantly crushed into a cloud of blood mist upon impact. Even Nascent Soul elders were pressed firmly into the scorched earth by this terrifying gravity, their knees shattered and rendering them unable to move.
'What kind of sorcery is this?' Terror filled Lei Zhentian's face. He strained with all his might to maintain his half-kneeling posture. Holding the Thunder Hammer, he unleashed his final burst of purple lightning in a desperate last strike. 'Die!'
He roared, hurling the 'Eight Desolate Thunder Hammer', a weapon powerful enough to shatter mountains.
Xiao Wuchen neither dodged nor evaded, nor did he swing his longsword. Instead, he extended his purple-gold left hand, covered in dark gold scales, and swiftly grasped the air.
The raging Thunder Hammer was firmly grasped in Xiao Wuchen's palm. Purple-gold lightning, powerful enough to char a Nascent Soul cultivator, coursed along his arm, only to be instantly absorbed by his dark gold armour, making the patterns on the armour plates shine even brighter.
'This kind of acrobatic thunder dares to call itself divine might?' Xiao Wuchen stared coldly at Lei Zhentian. 'Crack!'
Xiao Wuchen exerted force with his five fingers and the quasi-immortal-level thunder hammer crumbled in his hands like dry wood, scattering dim debris across the sky.
Xiao Wuchen stepped across the chaotic ruins and approached Lei Zhentian.
'The three-day agreement has passed.'
Looking down at the overlord of the Northern Border, he said, "Since you don't want to kneel to receive the code, then lie down and become the cornerstone of my Great Qian."
He swung his right arm, and the Guixu Zhanma Blade traced a dark red arc through the air.
'Leng Wuxue, open the city! Today, the spiritual essence of these 30,000 people will be the first sacrifice on the Shengjing Command Platform!'
At his command, three thousand Undying Dragon Guards swooped down from the city walls like a black rainstorm. Amidst the blood-red ritual, the dark golden spear heralded the start of the carnage.
Under Xiao Wuchen's command, the wilderness outside Shengjing City was transformed into a spiritual energy graveyard.
Three thousand Undying Dragon Guards charged into the enemy ranks. Although they lacked the lightness and grace of cultivators, they displayed an extreme aesthetic of brutal force, like a heavy hammer crushing a walnut. Each time they thrust their dark gold spears, a strange suction force was released — the [Return to Nothingness Accumulation].
[System report: spiritual root recovery rate continues to rise.]
Current Conversion Energy: Enough to sustain Shengjing City for three hundred years.
[Attention: Lei Zhentian's primordial spirit is attempting to escape through the Thunder Hammer's broken fragments."
'Can it escape?' Xiao Wuchen stared coldly at the purple lightning bolt beneath his feet, which was attempting to vanish into the void.
Rather than lowering his head, he stomped his right foot heavily and a black ripple instantly spread out. The already shattered space was forcibly locked again. Lei Zhentian's primordial spirit let out a shrill scream as it was squeezed out of the void by the gravity, transforming into a tiny, transparent and twisted figure that trembled beside Xiao Wuchen's boots.
Apart from those unfortunate souls who had already exploded and died, the remaining thirty-six sect leaders and elders were all pressed down by this gravity, almost embedded in the earth.
They had once been powerful figures in the Northern Territory, but now even looking up at Xiao Wuchen was a luxury.
'General, spare my life,' cried a sect leader from a second-rate sect. He had personally led troops in excavating the Great Qian Imperial Mausoleum, and now the hands that had once held treasures were shattered by the gravity.
Xiao Wuchen stepped over Lei Zhentian's mangled body and walked towards the sect leader. The blade of his Guixu Zhanma Dao was lightly pressed against the back of the man's head.
"Three thousand years ago, you called the mortals of the Great Qian 'blood and flesh alchemy furnaces'," said Xiao Wuchen, his voice clear despite the wind and snow. "Now, I also want to see if your bones as 'immortals' are truly harder than those of mortals."
Xiao Wuchen didn't rush to kill everyone. Instead, he surveyed the land, once stained with blood. He took out a long, dark golden scroll from his robes — the Great Qian Return to Nothingness Law, which he had personally compiled.
He suddenly tossed the scroll into the air. Under the influence of gravity, the scroll slowly unfurled. Huge, blood-red characters were reflected in the retinas of everyone kneeling below:
'Mortals and spirits are equal. Cultivators who kill mortals will have their spiritual roots destroyed and their souls extinguished.
Sect Tribute: All spiritual veins in the world are to be managed by Shengjing. Those who illegally mine them will have their entire families exterminated.
Upper Realm Forbidden: Anyone who colludes with beings from beyond the realm or guides immortal envoys will have their entire family executed."
"Sign it." Xiao Wuchen looked at the trembling sect leaders and said.
'Sign it and you can survive as "energy batteries" for Shengjing. If you don't, the city's bricks are in dire need of tens of thousands of primordial spirits to reinforce them.' Just as several timid sect leaders were about to bite their fingers to sign the 'Divine Descent Contract', a sudden change occurred.
The fragments of the Thunder Hammer, which had dimmed due to Lei Zhentian's death, suddenly and eerily floated up, unleashing an otherworldly pressure.
The purple clouds in the sky transformed into a sacred, merciless pure gold. A huge, overlapping pupil slowly opened behind the clouds and stared coldly at Xiao Wuchen.
'Mortal ants, daring to trespass on the laws of the gods and establish a forbidden area without permission!' The emotionless voice instantly cracked the surrounding earth, creating countless bottomless ravines.
Xiao Wuchen gripped the Guixu Horse-Slaying Blade tightly, feeling a chill run down his spine. It was 'planar suppression', a warning from the creator of this world to those who defied the heavens.
He looked up at the enormous pupil, a ferocious smile spreading across his face.
'After waiting so long, has the dog up there finally decided to peek out?'
Those enormous golden eyes seemed to be embedded in the sky, making it appear like a cold mask. With the arrival of the divine aura, the thirty-six sect leaders, who had been held back by gravity, felt their internal constraints begin to loosen.
'It's the Upper Realm... it's the Inspector General of the "Nine Heavens Thunder Palace"!' Lei Zhentian's primordial spirit nearly collapsed. He let out a wild scream of joy and began to kowtow to the sky frantically: 'My lord, save me! This fiend is slaughtering the immortal sects and forcibly stripping them of their spiritual veins! He's digging up the foundation of the immortal realm!'
[System Highest-Level Warning: Dimensional Penetration Signal Detected] [Energy Analysis: The opponent is not a true avatar, but a 'Celestial Avatar' projected using the coordinates of the Thunder Hammer fragments.'
[Weakness assessment: Cross-dimensional projection is rejected by the laws of the plane, and its strength is suppressed to the 'Peak of the Mahayana Stage'.'
Xiao Wuchen stood amidst a circle of kneeling cultivators, feeling the oppressive force descending from above with enough power to shatter one's soul. Unlike the others, he showed no awe; instead, he slowly sheathed his Guixu Zhanma Blade behind his back and opened his arms.
'Unearthing the foundation of the Immortal Realm?'
Xiao Wuchen laughed wildly, his voice piercing the golden thunderclouds. 'When Lu Qingyun died, you hid behind the clouds, trembling. Now these worthless beings are about to die, yet you dare to show your faces."
He suddenly clenched his fist and Lu Qingyun's head, which had been used as sacrificial fuel and had become almost transparent, burst into a chilling, ghastly green light.
'This is my "greeting gift" for you.'
It transpired that Xiao Wuchen had never intended it to be a simple sacrifice to the heavens. During his three years of rebirth, he had used the 'Core of Return to Nothingness' to plant three thousand 'Reverse Incantations' within Lu Qingyun's head.
With a low shout, the golden head flew towards the enormous pupil in the sky like a lit powder keg, instead of extinguishing. 'Explode!'
The Dao Fruit of a Mahayana-stage expert detonated completely in that instant. This explosion was not only of energy, but also of laws. The chaotic power of Return to Nothingness, mixed with Lu Qingyun's dying resentment, was spat out like phlegm onto the golden 'sacred' pupil.
'How dare you, you ants!'
The voice behind the celestial curtain wavered for the first time — it was filled with anger and humiliation. Golden blood (immortal energy) dripped down from the clouds. Wherever it touched, the earth corroded, leaving scorched pits.
Immediately afterwards, a blurry white figure forced its way out of the shattered pupil. It was a man with an indistinct face, long white hair and a pure white magic wand in his hand.
The moment he appeared, the snow and wind outside Shengjing City transformed into golden flames.
"I originally only intended to destroy your soul. Now, I will turn the area within a hundred miles of Shengjing City into eternal ashes," the white-robed immortal envoy said, his voice chillingly cold. Xiao Wuchen sensed his opponent's tsunami-like killing intent, but rather than retreating, he slowly drew the Guixu Blade, which had turned dark red due to excessive energy absorption.
"Leng Wuxue, all troops, switch to the 'Godslayer Battle Formation'!" "Yes, sir!"
Three thousand Undying Dragon Guards stepped forward in unison. The dark gold patterns on their armour turned a raging crimson. They brought their shields together and pointed their spears diagonally, forming a great wall of flesh and metal behind Xiao Wuchen.
"You dogs from the heavens, stop barking in the sky." Xiao Wuchen reversed his grip on his longsword, lowering his body slightly, his entire being resembling a fully drawn black bow.
'Now that you have come down and left your lives behind, use them as stepping stones to reach the gates of Shengjing City!'