Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

Faced with these killing machines left behind by ancient civilizations, the flesh and blood of mortals seem so fragile.

Shen You was tightly protected by two old soldiers behind him. As he retreated, he anxiously observed the array patterns on the ground.

"Commander Chen! This formation is powered by the earth's ley lines fire; we must destroy the spiritual energy hub in their chests to stop it!"

Shen You loudly reminded him.

But in this chaotic battle, the stone sculptures were tall and powerful, and it was no easy task to accurately shatter the fist-sized pivot point on their chests.

In an attempt to cover Shen You, an old soldier was struck by the giant blade of the stone sculpture, his arm severed at the root, and he fell to the ground in a terrible state.

"Shen Jiansheng, hurry up and go!"

Tiger, holding a musket, his eyes bloodshot, fired repeatedly in an attempt to stop the approaching stone sculpture.

Seeing that the scout camp was suffering heavy casualties and was about to be completely surrounded and annihilated by these ancient puppets.

At this critical moment.

About a hundred feet from the street, on a high, broken wall.

Li Changqing was sitting cross-legged on a huge rock, holding a wine gourd in his hand.

He watched the fierce battle below in silence and sighed softly.

"When mortals clear land, bloodshed is inevitable. However, since we've stumbled upon this place, these lives shouldn't be wasted in this dead city."

He didn't get up, but simply stretched out two fingers and casually picked off a small pebble the size of a fingernail from the boulder beside him.

His deep eyes narrowed slightly, locking onto the stone statue that was at the forefront, raising its giant blade to cleave Chen Hu in two.

With a slight tremor of the wrist, he flicked his finger.

"Whoosh."

The tiny pebble, the instant it left my fingertip, transformed into a blurry shadow that was impossible to detect with the naked eye.

There was no leakage of qi, no sound of thunder; it was as if it had transcended the constraints of space, instantly traversing a distance of a hundred feet.

"Click."

A crisp cracking sound suddenly rang out on the noisy battlefield.

The stone sculpture, which was about to cleave down with its giant blade, had its extremely well-hidden, dark blue spiritual energy hub on its chest struck precisely by this pebble.

The hub was instantly covered in cracks, and then it exploded with a deafening roar.

The ghostly fire in the stone sculpture's eyes suddenly went out, and the giant blade that had been raised high fell limply to the ground.

After a violent tremor, its massive body collapsed with a loud crash, turning into a pile of rubble.

Chen Hu, having narrowly escaped death, stared in astonishment at the pile of rubble before him, momentarily unable to comprehend what had happened.

And on the broken wall.

Li Changqing did not stop.

He did the same, tapping lightly on the boulder with his fingers and flicking them repeatedly.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Each pebble, with unparalleled precision and penetrating power, weaves an invisible web of death across the streets of this ancient city.

"Snap! Snap!"

The sound of shattering echoed continuously.

Under the astonished gazes of Chen Hu, Shen You, and the others.

Those ancient stone golems, which were invincible and impervious to swords and spears just a moment ago, seemed to have suddenly been bewitched.

One after another, they stood frozen in place, then their chests exploded, and they collapsed into piles of rubble.

It only took a dozen or so breaths.

The dozens of ancient puppets on the street had been completely cleaned up.

Apart from the scattered pebbles and billowing dust, there was no other sound.

The survivors of the scout camp, panting heavily, helped each other to their feet.

They looked around in surprise and doubt, completely unaware of who had secretly come to their rescue.

"What... what's going on?"

Hu swallowed hard, gripping the musket tightly in his hand.

Shen You, however, was the quickest to react. He strode to a pile of rubble, squatted down, and rummaged through the remaining stones on his chest for a moment.

When he saw the extremely tiny, smooth, and flat through hole at the hub location.

In Shen You's mind, a figure in a blue robe, holding a tattered folding fan, flashed like lightning at a tea stall in the capital.

"A flick of the finger breaks the formation from afar... It's the Master! The Master must be in this ancient city!"

Shen You suddenly stood up and shouted loudly at the dark ruins all around him, disregarding everything else.

"Sir! Your student Shen You is here! Thank you so much for saving my life!"

Shen You's voice echoed through the empty ancient city, but received no response.

Chen Hu stepped forward and asked suspiciously, "Shen Jiansheng, who is this 'sir' you're talking about? We don't have anyone like him in our scout camp."

Shen You shook his head, his eyes filled with awe and gratitude.

"Commander Chen, that gentleman is an unparalleled master from beyond the mundane world. Since he is unwilling to show himself, we need not force him. The puppet formation in this ancient city has been broken. Let's quickly transport the wounded back to the cliff and send someone to report to Commander Wang immediately!"

Chen Hu agreed wholeheartedly and immediately ordered the cleanup to be completed, leading the wounded soldiers back up the rift valley via ropes.

And on that broken wall.

Li Changqing had already put away his wine gourd.

He looked down at the retreating Ming scouts, smiled slightly, and gently tapped his mottled Xiangfei bamboo folding fan in his palm.

"The soldiers and generals of the Ming Dynasty are certainly not lacking in spirit. Now that the ruins of the New World have been discovered, the Imperial Academy and the workshops of the court will have plenty to do."

"The game of chess in this world grows ever grander with each game played, so as not to waste these hundred years of time."

He stood up and dusted off his blue cloth robe.

The night wind blew, and the heavy snow gradually stopped.

A man in a blue robe, upright and honest, takes a step forward.

Instead of returning to the Zhenhai Fort camp, he strolled leisurely towards the deeper and more distant unknown lands of the New World, stepping on the cool, clear snow.