The wedding was livestreamed by the sister, revealing his identity as a Taoist priest.

Thousands of miles away, deep in the mountains.

Inside a natural cave.

"puff!"

The old man, who was sitting cross-legged in the center of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation, suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Before him, the array carved with blood was crumbling inch by inch.

"My destined Demon King!"

The old man let out a mournful howl.

Backlash!

His A+ grade monster, refined with a century's worth of lifespan and essence, was completely obliterated.

Not even a wisp of its soul escaped.

"Who is it!"

The old man braced himself on the ground with both hands, suddenly raised his head, and let out a low growl like a wild beast.

"Although the Seven-Star Lamp and the Mysterious Heaven Demon-Subduing Stele are sacred artifacts, they absolutely cannot kill my Ghost King instantly without a powerful expert activating them!"

He gritted his broken, black teeth and, leaning against the stone wall, shakily stood up.

"You dare destroy my century-old foundation of cultivation? I will tear your soul apart and refine it!"

He tore off the human skin pouch hanging from his waist.

The moment you take a step forward.

The air inside the cave suddenly stopped flowing.

An indescribable, terrifying pressure descended upon this mountain range without warning.

The old man's pupils suddenly contracted.

The vast, pure, and extremely masculine energy completely locks the entire cavern in place.

"thump!"

The old man's knees buckled, and he crashed heavily to the ground.

The sound of the kneecap shattering was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent cave.

He desperately tried to use the remaining Yin energy in his body to resist, but the extremely vicious evil energy couldn't even leave his body.

"What...what kind of power is this?"

The old man lay on the ground, struggling to turn his eyes toward the cave entrance.

Thick, dark clouds had gathered above the Ten Thousand Mountains.

The clouds were so low they seemed almost within reach.

Deep within the clouds, blinding pure white lightning moved silently.

That wasn't an ordinary thunderbolt.

That is the Nine Heavens Heavenly Thunder recorded in Taoist scriptures, which is used to punish the most wicked and destroy all evil!

The old man trembled violently, his anger instantly overwhelmed by boundless fear.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

He roared hysterically, his voice distorted with extreme fear.

"Even the old Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain couldn't summon heavenly lightning of this level! Who on earth could it be?!"

No one answered him.

Between heaven and earth, only one extremely plain yet absolutely cold word rang out.

"Destroy".

The sound wasn't loud, but it exploded in the old man's mind.

next moment.

The clouds tore apart.

A pure white lightning bolt, over ten meters in diameter, pierced through the sky and crashed straight down.

Lightning engulfed the entire mountain.

The cavern, the array, the human skin talisman, and the evil cultivator who had lived for a hundred years all vaporized the moment they came into contact with the white light.

Not a single speck of dust was left behind.

……

On the elevated ring road leading to the Yunding Villa District in Xicheng, Jiangcheng.

A black Maybach is speeding along.

Qi Liancheng leaned back in his leather seat, a smug smile on his lips.

"Master Zhao, judging by the time, your senior brother's methods should have taken effect by now, right?"

Qi Liancheng took a sip of red wine.

"With the Shen family destroyed, the Jianglan project will be in the Qi family's hands. As for those two sacred artifacts, I will arrange for them to be secretly transported away, without letting the people of Tian Shu find out."

Master Zhao sat beside him, closing his eyes to rest.

His hands were tucked into his sleeves beneath his gray robe.

"Rest assured, young master."

Master Zhao's voice was hoarse.

"My senior brother's natal Ghost King is so powerful that even that B-level expert from the Tian Shu branch couldn't stop it."

"After tonight, the Shen family will cease to exist in Jiangcheng."

Qi Liancheng nodded in satisfaction.

Sudden.

"Click."

A very soft, crisp sound rang out inside the carriage.

Master Zhao suddenly opened his eyes.

He ripped open the Taoist robe at his chest and pulled out a black wooden plaque from his pocket.

That was his senior brother's life chart!

At this moment, a crack is appearing in the middle of this hard, dark wood life tablet.

"not good!"

Under Master Zhao's horrified gaze, the life-saving sword exploded into a pile of wood chips.

"How...how is this possible?"

The shattering of the life tablet signifies the dissipation of the soul.

His senior brother, whose cultivation was unfathomable and who was only one step away from becoming a ghost immortal, is dead.

"Master Zhao, what's wrong?"

Qi Liancheng sensed something was wrong and frowned.

Master Zhao ignored him.

An unprecedented sense of life-or-death crisis instantly enveloped his entire body.

He suddenly looked up at the roof of the car.

The Maybach's electronic instrument panel suddenly went completely black.

The engine lost power, and the headlights stopped working completely.

The car glided along the dark overpass, propelled by inertia.

"What's going on! Stop the car!"

Qi Liancheng roared and pounded on the partition of the driver's seat.

The driver frantically slammed on the brakes, but the braking system was completely locked.

Master Zhao pushed open the car door, intending to jump out.

But he found himself unable to move.

The surrounding air became harder than steel, binding him firmly to his seat.

The night sky brightened.

The once pitch-black night sky over Jiangcheng was suddenly torn open with a ghastly white gash.

Through the car window, Qi Liancheng saw the last scene he had ever witnessed in his life.

A bolt of pure white lightning, as thick as a water bucket, struck straight down from the heavens.

"No!"

Qi Liancheng's scream had just escaped his lips.

White light shone through the roof of the car.

The Maybach, gliding at high speed, disintegrated the instant it came into contact with the lightning.

Steel, leather, flesh, and bones.

They were all annihilated in the ultimate pure yang thunder and fire.

One second later.

The elevated ring road was deathly silent again.

……

Jiangcheng, Yunding Villa District.

The living room of the Shen family.

Qin Yuan and Zhao Yue stood in front of the grayish-white powder, speechless for a long time.

The tactical terminal on Qin Yuan's wrist suddenly started vibrating wildly.

He connected the communication and heard the anxious voice of the commander of the Tian Shu headquarters.

"Qin Yuan! How's the situation over there? The satellite just detected an S-class energy burst on the Jiangcheng Ring Elevated Road!"

Qin Yuan swallowed hard.

He turned to look at the red string on Shen Nianqing's left wrist, which had returned to its normal state.

"Headquarters."

Qin Yuan's voice was hoarse.

"Crisis averted."

"Remove? What about the A+ level anomaly?"

"He's dead."

Qin Yuan paused.

He was struck by lightning and turned to ashes.

Silence fell over the communication channel.

"besides."

Qin Yuan continued his report.

"The energy burst on the ring road, if I'm not mistaken, was probably caused by the same person."

"The same person? Launching lightning attacks simultaneously over such a long distance?"

The commander's voice rose eight octaves.

Are you sure?

"I'm sure."

Qin Yuan took a deep breath.

"Because that lightning bolt just struck right in front of me."

The capital city, the headquarters of Tian Shu.

Deputy Director Zhou Ce stood in front of the large screen, looking at the images of the three energy burst points transmitted back by the satellite.

Jiangcheng West Suburbs, Jiangcheng Elevated Road.

Two pure white lightning bolts precisely eliminated the target at roughly the same time.

Zhou Ce took off his glasses and rubbed his temples.

"check."

He issued the order.

"Activate all permissions and investigate!"

……

Taiqing Palace is located at the summit of the back mountain.

Chen Shidu lowered his raised right hand.

His eyes were colder than the biting wind at the summit.

The lineage of the Nine Infants.

Things that should have died out three hundred years ago still dare to come out and cause trouble.

They even set their sights on his people.

I heard hurried footsteps behind me.

Master Xuanmo arrived quickly with several elders.

They sensed the terrifying aura that had erupted from the back mountain just moments before.

"Celestial Master".

Master Xuanmo bowed respectfully, his gaze sweeping over Chen Shidu's calm profile, and his heart skipped a beat.

He hadn't seen the Celestial Master show this expression in a long time.

"Xuanmo".

Chen Shidu turned around, his voice flat.

"Please give your orders, Celestial Master."

"Ring the bell."

Chen Shidu looked at him.

Master Xuanmo was taken aback.

"What bell are you knocking on?"

"Taiqing Palace, nine claps."