Just as the old patriarch forced me to my death, I achieved the unity of Dao and fruition.

"A bitch and a dog, a perfect match!!!"

As Aoki's voice faded, Princess Qiyang finally broke down completely.

"what!"

She screamed and threw the head out of her arms, then stumbled backward on all fours.

Her once meticulously applied makeup was now stained with blood, and her face was swollen high from eighteen slaps.

Her hair was disheveled, and her dress dragged on the ground; she no longer resembled a noble lady from a royal family.

"Don't come any closer!"

"I'm not getting married! I'm going back to Tianjing right now!"

"Father... Father will definitely forgive you, as long as you let me go back..."

She was incoherent and dared not even look at the heads of Prince Anling and Pei Zhaoye.

The palace guards around them looked at each other in bewilderment.

Several people wanted to step forward to protect the emperor, but the seven sword-wielding military spirits merely lowered their heads slightly, and those people were struck as if by lightning, their legs went weak, and their weapons fell to the ground.

click!

The armored chariot crushed a royal procession and slowly drove into the center of the long street.

Gu Changjin sat upright on it, calmly looking down at Qi Yang.

Killing a princess is easy.

But it would be a waste to kill her in the street just because she had humiliated this other self in the original timeline.

If the name is not correct, fortune will not gather.

Now, Beishuo and Hanchuan are in our hands, and the Seed of the Azure Sky has taken root in the mountains and rivers of the two states.

What he lacked was a reason that would convince everyone that he had no choice but to rebel.

Tianjing personally delivered this reason to him.

Gu Changjin could clearly sense that the scattered fortune in the two states was gradually gathering towards him as the roars echoed from the long street.

Swords can seize a city, but they cannot make the people of an entire state truly recognize their master.

If they could be convinced that it was the Heavenly Family who first treated Beishuo as slaves, and that it was Heaven that first abandoned the two states, then from then on, every time they expressed anger towards the Great Yin, and every time they cried out to Heaven, it would become nourishment for the growth of the "Ten Thousand Spirits Heavenly Law".

This is the true value of Qi Yang's head.

Gu Changjin slightly raised his five fingers.

Boom!

The entire street suddenly shook.

Countless verdant roots broke through the cracks in the bricks and stones, intertwined with each other, and in the blink of an eye, they supported a green wooden altar more than ten feet high in front of the Xuanwang Mansion.

Around the altar, the golden phoenix banners that originally belonged to the imperial family were rolled up by their roots and nailed to the ground below the altar one after another.

Before Princess Qiyang could escape, several vines wrapped around her limbs, lifted her high, and threw her into the center of the altar.

"No!"

She finally realized what Gu Changjin was going to do and began to struggle frantically.

Gu Changjin didn't look at her again.

His gaze swept across the long street, past the surrounding Northern Shuo Xuanjia, aristocratic officials, and countless commoners, and landed on the entire Northern Shuo royal city.

The Azure Emperor's Heavenly Register trembled slightly.

The next moment, his voice traveled along the roots of the plants in both states.

The seven prefectures of Beishuo, the numerous cities of Hanchuan Prefecture, the mountain villages, and the border military camps.

Wherever grass and trees grew, everyone heard Gu Changjin's voice.

"You have all seen it."

"Tianjing said this is a bestowed marriage, an act of grace."

"But this princess hasn't even stepped into the Xuan King's mansion yet, and she already wants to seize my residence, take a share of my ceremonial guard, and take over my seven grass and wood armies!"

"She even wants her lover to take control of the Northern Shuo military, so that the men of Northern Shuo will fight and die for her!"

Gu Changjin raised his hand and pointed to Qi Yang on the altar.

"Was she only humiliating me?"

"no!"

The veteran with the missing arm was the first to roar out in anger.

"She has insulted my Northern Shuo Army!"

"This is an insult to the 300,000 souls who perished in the Sunken Sands!"

"This is an insult to the entire Northern Shuo!"

More and more voices rose from both sides of the long street.

First came the former military officers, then the officials of the royal court, then ordinary people, and finally, they all converged into a wave of anger that shook the entire royal city.

"You have insulted the Northern Shuo!"

"You have insulted the Northern Shuo!"

Princess Qiyang turned pale and shook her head desperately.

"No... I didn't!"

"I can do without those troops, and I can live outside the East Garden!"

But at this point, who cares what she says?

What Gu Changjin wanted was never for her to confess.

Instead, the people of both states believed that the Heavenly family was guilty!

He looked up at the sky.

"Over the years, the thirteen states have been plagued by disasters, wars, and famine, leaving people displaced and starving everywhere."

"But what is Tianjing doing?"

"Emperor Yin exhausted the resources of the entire nation and drained the very essence of the land, all to build himself a nine-tiered celestial palace, solely for his own immortality!"

"Three hundred thousand soldiers perished at Chensha Plain, and their compensation is nowhere to be found. The imperial court has sent neither food nor armor to the Northern Frontier, but instead has sent a princess, attempting to seize the last sword from our hands!"

"Is such a court still worthy of our loyalty?"

"Such a heaven can neither protect the people nor bring peace to the world; it only knows how to bind heroes with heavenly decrees and absorb the fortune of all living beings..."

"What's the point of keeping it!"

The last four words exploded like thunder!

Across the two states, countless plants and trees swayed in unison.

The green roots that were originally hidden deep in the sky also grew wildly at this moment, revealing their fangs to the blue sky for the first time without any concealment!

Gu Changjin slowly rose from the chariot.

He wasn't wearing any imperial crown, only a black royal armor still stained with the blood of Hanchuan.

But when he stood before the seven military spirits, no one in the royal city dared to look up at him.

"I, Gu Changjin!"

"Today, in the name of the Northern Northern Mystic King, the Governor of Hanchuan Prefecture, and the Daoist Master of the Azure Heaven Path, I offer this sacrifice to the mountains and rivers of the two prefectures and to all the people of the world!"

"From this day forward, Beishuo and Hanchuan will not obey the Great Yin edict, nor will they respect the Heavenly Capital's decrees!"

"The two prefectures will no longer supply a single grain of grain to Tianjing, nor will they conscript a single soldier for the Great Yin Dynasty, nor will they offer a single wisp of divine fortune to Heaven!"

"We will defend our city with our own swords!"

"Use your own life to earn your own peace!"

"I, Gu Changjin, hereby swear..."

"To establish a livelihood for all people, and to find a way for all people to survive!"

Gu Changjin clenched his fist, and the black iron longsword that had once slain the Liu family member fell back into his palm.

On the altar, Princess Qiyang struggled frantically.

"Gu Changjin! You cannot kill me!"

"I am willing to marry you! I can have my mother plead with my father on your behalf, and I…"

Gu Changjin slashed down with his sword.

Qi Yang's voice stopped abruptly.

The head, a symbol of the majesty of the Great Yin imperial family, rolled off the altar, its blood splattering onto the torn golden phoenix banner.

boom!

The seven sword-wielding military spirits simultaneously raised their longswords toward the sky.

Aoki was the first to kneel on one knee below the altar.

"Qingmu, disciple of the Azure Sky Path, pays respects to the Path Master!"

Thirty thousand Northern Shuo Xuanjia soldiers struck the ground with their weapons, the sound shaking heaven and earth.

"Greetings, King Xuan!"

Gu Changjin pointed his longsword straight at the sky and declared, word by word:

"Heaven is dead!"

"The heavens shall stand tall!"

After a brief silence, the entire Northern Shuo Royal City erupted in chaos!

"The heavens are dead! A just heaven shall rise!"

"The heavens are dead! A just heaven shall rise!"

The roar spread throughout the two states along the path of the myriad spirits.

The 60,000 surrendered soldiers of Hanchuan raised their weapons, the people of the seven prefectures of Beishuo came out of their homes, and the border generals looked towards the royal city, all shouting the same sentence.

In Hanchuan Prefecture, many people initially hesitated.

But when they saw that the heavens, which had been hanging high above them and collecting fortunes generation after generation, had not sent down any punishment, their hesitation began to waver.

If Heaven is truly inviolable, how could it not even subdue Gu Changjin?

The first-ranked general from Hanchuan lowered his old state flag and raised a battle flag adorned with blue branch patterns.

Then came the second person, and then the third person.

Soon, the shouts of the 60,000 surrendered soldiers merged into one.

Countless unseen wishes and aspirations of the people surged into the sky and flowed into the Azure Emperor's Heavenly Register.

Over the two states, that faint blue hue that had been extremely faint finally began to spread.

Until a corner of the sky is dyed blue!

Later historians referred to this day as "the Northern Frontier Sacrifice to Heaven".

The Annals of the Blue Sky records:

In the final years of the Great Yin Dynasty, the emperor lost his virtue and built the Nine Heavens Palace, exhausting the resources of the world in his pursuit of immortality. Qi Yang, acting on imperial orders, entered the Northern Regions, seizing troops with treacherous officials and humiliating an entire prefecture; An Ling, relying on the might of Heaven, pressured him, but Heaven did not respond.

King Xuan, Gu Changjin, angrily beheaded the Prince Zong, killed Zhao Ye, and offered sacrifices to Qi Yang in the royal city. He then established the Qingtian Dao, cut off the edict of Dayin, cut off the grain supply of Tianjing, gathered troops from the two states, and proclaimed to the world: "The Azure Heaven is dead, the Qingtian shall rise!"

From then on, the north turned against the north, and the cold river responded.

A patch of azure, born from the body of the heavens, revealed its brilliance to the thirteen provinces for the first time.

And so began the great struggle that would truly determine the fate of the world!