Heaven rewards diligence, but there are always fairies plotting against me.

Qianjing City, the power core of the Great Yuan Dynasty, has endured three thousand years of wind and rain erosion and magical reinforcement. Its city walls are over a hundred feet high and are entirely constructed of a mixture of North Sea sinking iron and third-grade lapis lazuli.

The surface of the city wall is densely covered with countless defensive runes designed to protect against light, dust, and fire.

Under the sunlight, the entire city wall reflected an almost cold, bluish-black metallic luster, resembling a giant iron dragon lying on the earth.

At this moment, the giant dragon was already firmly protected by a dense golden light shield.

The fifth-order protective array, "Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Array".

This was the foundation upon which the Yuan Dynasty was founded.

When the great formation is activated, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of a hundred miles will be forcibly drained, condensing into nine terrifying golden thunder pools above the city wall.

Within the Thunder Pool, streaks of lightning as thick as buckets darted about like dragons, radiating an aura of destruction.

On the city wall, the remaining 30,000 Imperial Guards were all pale-faced, but they still gripped their talismanic spears tightly.

Surrounded by several Golden Elixir Masters, Emperor Qian Yuanzi of the Great Yuan Dynasty stood trembling on the Qianqing Gate tower, gazing at the overwhelming, dark army outside the city.

Outside the city, at the Allied Forces' camp.

The war drums had stopped, replaced by a suffocating silence.

Tens of thousands of disciples of the Divine Sword Sect and more than 70,000 independent cultivators spontaneously formed several huge square formations.

They gazed at the towering city walls and the golden lightning dancing wildly in the sky.

Although their eyes held an instinctive fear of the fifth-order grand formation, when their gaze fell upon the dark figure at the forefront, all their fear transformed into a fervent fighting spirit.

Chu Chang, dressed in black, stood in mid-air.

Behind him, fourteen demonic puppets floated in mid-air like cast iron statues. Lin Wuwen stood at the very front, his dark gold demonic armor still bearing the bloodstains of the Wanjian Mountain elder from yesterday, emanating a pungent stench of blood and death.

"Supreme Deacon, this fifth-order grand formation is no ordinary one."

The sect leader of the Divine Sword Sect arrived beside Chu Chang on his flying sword, his expression grave: "This formation is connected to the spiritual veins beneath Qianjing. Without a method to break it through force, even if several Purple Mansion cultivators joined forces to bombard it for three days and three nights, they would still find it difficult to budge it in the slightest. Moreover, this Xuan Thunder is extremely destructive; ordinary magic treasures would shatter upon contact with it."

Are the earth's veins connected?

Chu Chang's expression was indifferent, and the rusty Dust-Broken Ancient Sword in his right hand emitted a low sword sound.

He slowly closed his eyes, and his immense divine sense poured out like mercury, instantly piercing through the void in front of him and striking directly into the ground of Qianjing.

After advancing to the peak of the Tongyou realm, his perception of the laws of heaven and earth had reached a profound and mysterious level. He vaguely sensed that deep beneath Qianjing, not only was a massive second-tier spiritual vein continuously supplying energy to the great formation, but also an ancient, weathered, and sharp sword aura was stirring restlessly beneath the formation's cover.

Those are the relics of an ancient sword immortal sealed by the royal family.

"Found it."

Chu Chang suddenly opened his eyes, and two black and white Tai Chi-like demonic lights flashed in his eyes.

"Bing Shen, Geng Yin, Jia Wu, these are the three strategic points. Divine Sword Sect, heed my command: bombard these three void points with the main cannons of your warships. The rest of the rogue cultivators, follow me to breach the city!"

"I will obey the Supreme Lord's decree!"

With Chu Chang's command, the silence was instantly torn apart.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The nine massive main warships of the Divine Sword Sect simultaneously emitted blinding light. Driven by a large number of top-grade spirit stones, the "Mystic Crystal Divine Cannons" at the front of the warships condensed destructive light waves with a diameter of several meters from their muzzles.

The next moment, nine thick, five-colored spiritual energy beams tore through the air, accompanied by sharp whistling sounds, and slammed into the three directions that Chu Chang had pointed out.

Rumble!

The pillar of spiritual energy collided with the outermost golden lightning pool in mid-air, unleashing a deafening roar.

The light that flashed in that instant eclipsed the entire sky. Endless lightning and chaotic spiritual energy raged through the air, transforming into violent shockwaves that instantly reduced vegetation within a radius of several miles to dust.

"Damn it! How could they have figured out our strategy so quickly?!"

On the city wall, the royal chief priest in charge of controlling the grand formation was deathly pale, and he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the formation plate.

Although the fifth-order grand formation blocked this wave of bombardment, cracks appeared in several underground array bases at the base of the formation, and the originally flawless golden light shield rippled violently.

"Change formation! Nine Heavens Mystic Thunder, cleave these traitors to pieces!"

Qian Yuanzi roared almost hysterically.

"Boom!"

Seemingly in response to the emperor's anger, the Golden Thunder Pool above Qianjing erupted in a complete uproar.

Dozens of golden lightning bolts, as thick as buckets, descended from the sky with an aura of destruction akin to a heavenly tribulation, densely striking the Divine Sword Sect's warship and the scattered cultivator formation below.

The raging lightning distorted the void, and wherever its power passed, even the air itself was ignited.

"what!"

Dozens of rogue cultivators who couldn't avoid the lightning were struck by a stray bolt of lightning. Before they could even scream, they and their magical artifacts were instantly reduced to charred remains and vanished with the wind.

"Take precautions!"

The rogue cultivators, especially those at the Golden Core stage, unleashed their most prized defensive magic treasures, instantly creating multicolored defensive shields above the allied forces. However, the power of the Xuan Lei was simply too great; with each impact, numerous magic treasures were damaged, and many rogue cultivators coughed up blood, their expressions becoming listless.

Just as the allied forces were beginning to lose their footing.

"snort."

A cold snort, like a resounding bell, exploded in everyone's ears, instantly suppressing the thunderous roar that filled the sky.

Chu Chang made a move.

His figure moved like lightning, directly soaring into the sky to meet the falling golden lightning.

"Has he gone mad? He actually dared to withstand the Nine Heavens Thunder with his bare body?!" The Yuan generals on the city wall exclaimed in shock.

However, what happened next was unforgettable for everyone.

Chu Chang stood still in the void, his right hand holding the Dust-Covering Ancient Sword, drawing a mysterious trajectory in front of him, while the Chaotic True Essence and the power of the Yin and Yang within his body erupted simultaneously.

[In the primordial chaos, all thunder returns to its source!]

An enormous black and white Tai Chi diagram unfolded behind Chu Chang, instantly growing to a size of a thousand feet, stretching across the heavens and earth. The Tai Chi diagram slowly rotated, with faint gray chaotic energy flowing within it.

Boom boom boom!

Dozens of destructive golden lightning bolts slammed into the Taiji diagram, but the expected explosion did not occur.

On the contrary, the violent lightning bolts, upon touching the Tai Chi diagram, seemed to be drawn by some kind of fatal attraction, and began to spin wildly along the trajectory of the Yin-Yang fish.

Black and white light flickered, and the golden lightning that was originally full of destructive aura was continuously decomposed and assimilated by the chaotic energy, and finally transformed into pure spiritual energy, which was fed back into the Taiji diagram.

"What...what kind of sorcery is this?!" Emperor Qian Yuanzi of the Great Yuan Dynasty collapsed to the ground.

"go."

Chu Chang pushed with one hand.

The thousand-foot-long thunder and fire Taiji diagram, assimilated by the chaotic energy and even more powerful, slammed back towards Qianjing's protective light shield with terrifying force, as if it could move mountains and fill seas.

boom!

This was a devastating blow.

The moment the Tai Chi diagram slammed into the golden light shield, the entire capital city of Qianjing trembled violently. Countless city bricks made of iron sunken from the North Sea disintegrated under this immense force, and the towering city walls began to collapse in large sections.

"Click..."

A crisp cracking sound echoed throughout the venue.

Amidst the despairing gazes of all the Yuan soldiers and civilians, the "Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Array," which had protected Qianjing for a thousand years, shattered like a giant mirror under the bombardment of the Taiji Diagram, dissipating into countless golden fragments.

"The great formation has been broken!"

"Charge! Kill all those damn dogs!"

Outside the city, the silent allied forces erupted in a deafening roar.

"Heavenly Demon Puppet, clear the way!"

Chu Chang stood in the void, his sword pointing at the towering city gate.

Swish!

Lin Wuwen and the other fourteen Heavenly Demon Puppets transformed into fourteen black lightning bolts, tearing through the billowing dust and slamming heavily onto the heavy city gate of Qianjing.

boom!

The Qianjing city gate, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms and made of black iron, was smashed with a huge hole by Lin Wuwen's punch, and then collapsed with a roar under the corrosive power of the Heavenly Demon Qi.

The great formation was broken, and the city gate was destroyed.

The last line of defense of the Yuan Dynasty was completely torn apart at this moment.

"kill!"

Like a tidal wave, wandering martial arts practitioners and disciples of the Divine Sword Sect, with red eyes and strange cries, rushed through the gap in the collapsed city wall and stormed into Qianjing City.

The 30,000 remaining Yuan soldiers on the city wall completely lost their will to fight in that instant. As they watched the fourteen demonic puppets wreak havoc in the army like gods of death, frantically reaping lives, they dropped their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy.

"Your Majesty, let's go! Quickly retreat into the inner city's forbidden area!"

The Grand Master pulled up the distraught Qian Yuanzi, and under the escort of several assassins, they fled in a sorry state toward the forbidden area deep within the palace.

Blood flowed like a river on the city walls.

The rogue cultivators frantically reaped wealth and lives, plunging the entire capital city of Qianjing into endless war and chaos.

Chu Chang stepped into the city, his feet treading on the void.

He ignored the killing and chaos around him, his gaze fixed on the forbidden area of ​​the Imperial Ancestral Temple deep within the palace.

There, an aura so powerful that it made the entire void tremble was rising wildly.

"Purple Mansion Stage One..."

Chu Chang gripped the Broken Dust Ancient Sword tightly, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"It's finally coming out."