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

In less than half a day.

Outside the capital, at the Tongzhou camp, hundreds of massive spirit-patterned warships rose from the ground.

These colossal starships, originally intended for pioneering new continents, now blot out the sky, their hulls covered in a dense array of wind-controlling and floating patterns that shimmered in unison.

Like a dark cloud of steel, it surrounded the enormous royal flagship in the center, soaring into the sky towards Mount Tai.

At the foot of Mount Tai, there were already crowds of people.

The troops stationed in several surrounding provinces, merchants from all over the country, and countless folk cultivators who came upon hearing the news were all shocked by this extraordinary phenomenon and watched from dozens of miles away.

"Look! That's the imperial fleet!"

A gasp of surprise erupted from the crowd.

On the horizon, the Royal Fleet sailed in a grand procession.

The enormous warship hovered in mid-air around Mount Tai, protecting the majestic peak in the center.

On the flagship's deck, Emperor Chengping, Zhu Youzhen, clad in dark gold mountain-patterned armor, stood at the bow of the ship, escorted by Minister of War Shen You and other important officials.

He looked at the solitary figure in green robes atop Jade Emperor Peak, his eyes welling up with tears, but he forced himself not to utter a sound to disturb him.

Shen You was now a middle-aged man with a beard, and his official robes from the Imperial Academy fluttered in the strong wind.

He looked at the churning clouds of calamity, his expression extremely solemn.

"Set up the formation!"

Shen You drew his long sword from his waist and gave a loud command.

In an instant, tens of thousands of Ming soldiers and master craftsmen from the Imperial Observatory on hundreds of warships took action.

Boxes of high-grade spirit stones mined from Xinzhou were poured out and embedded into the array plates of the warship.

Countless intertwined beams of spiritual light shot out from the warship, forming a combined "Gathering Earth and Returning to Origin" and "Controlling Heaven" array halfway up Mount Tai, radiating a thick halo.

The Ming Dynasty gathered the most advanced cultivation techniques in the world and managed to erect a giant umbrella to protect Mount Tai under the pressure of heaven and earth.

On the summit of Jade Emperor Peak.

Li Changqing looked down at the massive fleet below, ready for battle, and at the ailing old emperor who was personally leading the expedition.

And Shen You, who had received his guidance at the tea stall.

A gentle ripple stirred in his usually calm and composed mind.

"You have truly forged the foundation of the Ming Dynasty."

He shook his folding fan and nodded slightly in the direction of the royal flagship.

Right at this moment.

The calamity clouds high in the sky had finally reached their peak.

"Boom!"

A thunderous roar, seemingly capable of tearing the world apart, suddenly exploded.

A bolt of lightning, as thick as a water vat and entirely purplish-black in color, carrying a terrifying aura capable of destroying everything, slashed down fiercely from the depths of the vortex, heading straight for Li Changqing atop Jade Emperor Peak.

The lightning bolts were incredibly fast, scorching the space along their path with dark cracks.

"Fire! Let's relieve Grand Tutor Lei Wei's burden!"

Although Wang Shouren had retired from officialdom, he stood beside Shen You in armor, his eyes blazing with fury, and he roared angrily.

The massive cannons with lightning and fire runes on the bows of hundreds of warships simultaneously unleashed earth-shattering roars.

Hundreds of blazing white beams shot into the sky, precisely striking the descending purplish-black lightning bolt.

"Bang bang bang!!"

Fire and thunder clashed wildly in mid-air.

The collision between mortal civilization and the laws of heaven and earth sparked an extremely magnificent display at this moment.

Although the Ming Dynasty's artillery fire was fierce, the tribulation lightning was a divine decree, and its power was terrifying.

After holding out for a few breaths, the pillars of light dissipated.

The remaining thunderous power slammed heavily onto the complex array light barrier halfway up the mountain.

"Buzz!!!"

The great formation trembled violently, and the light screen dimmed by a third in an instant.

Hundreds of warships suddenly sank several meters, and many soldiers with weaker cultivation on the deck coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground.

However, the Ming soldiers fought to the death and refused to retreat.

"Fill in spirit stones! Stabilize the situation!"

Shen You's eyes were bloodshot as he directed the craftsmen to fight desperately to maintain the array plate.

On the summit of Jade Emperor Peak.

Seeing this, Li Changqing knew that if the tribulation lightning were allowed to strike, the Ming Dynasty's fleet would likely suffer heavy losses.

He sighed softly and tucked the folding fan into his sleeve.

His green robe fluttered as he did not remain in place. Instead, he lightly touched the rocks with his toes and transformed into a streak of green light.

They defied the heavens and soared straight up against the overwhelming clouds of calamity!

"Grand Tutor!"

Upon seeing this, Zhu Youzhen gripped the railing at the bow of the ship tightly with both hands, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

In mid-air, Li Changqing faced the second, even thicker, golden lightning bolt that struck down.

He stretched out his long, fair right hand, his five fingers forming a claw, and grasped the lightning bolt in the void.

"Disperse."

A single word uttered carries the weight of law.

A vast and incomparable, pure and ultimate primordial power burst forth from his palm.

The golden tribulation lightning, powerful enough to cleave a Nascent Soul stage expert into ashes, was like a loach caught in its vital spot the moment it came into contact with this true power.

After struggling violently for a moment, it disintegrated into a shower of golden light.

Sunlight and rain fell on Mount Tai, bringing spring back to barren trees and causing exotic flowers and plants to grow wildly.

The millions of onlookers, including the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty fleet, were all stunned into silence by the miracle of crushing the heavenly lightning with one hand.

This is the Grand Tutor's true strength!

An invincible presence that transcends this world!

Jieyun seemed to be completely enraged by Li Changqing's provocation.

In the clouds, lightning of three colors—purple gold, pure black, and blood red—intertwined and converged, transforming into a phantom of a figure wielding a giant lightning axe.

The phantom was tens of thousands of feet tall, looking down on the ant-like mortal world. The giant axe, carrying the unparalleled ferocity to cleave through chaos, slashed down at Li Changqing in mid-air.

This attack has exceeded the limits of the laws of this world; it is intended to completely annihilate this outlier that cannot be tolerated by the world.

"The way of Heaven is ruthless, yet also inflexible."

Li Changqing remained calm despite the devastating axe blow.

He pulled the Xiangfei bamboo folding fan out of his sleeve again.

As the folding fan unfolds, the ink-wash orchids on its surface seem to come alive under the infusion of true energy.

Li Changqing held the folding fan, facing the towering phantom, and with an upward flick, seemingly slow but actually extremely fast, he lightly slashed.

"Sizzle."

A barely perceptible blue thread extended from the top of the fan rib.

These silk threads, though seemingly delicate, contain the supreme Daoist wisdom that Li Changqing has accumulated over the past century.

It effortlessly sliced ​​through the giant thunder axe, through the ten-thousand-foot-tall illusory image of the Heavenly Dao, and finally, it cut into the thick, leaden tribulation clouds that filled the sky.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Then.

Under the incredulous and shocked gazes of the entire world.

The towering, illusory image of lightning smoothly split in two, transforming into pure spiritual energy and dissipating.

And the heavy, apocalyptic clouds that had enveloped the entire land of Qilu were actually cleaved open by this one fan, creating a huge rift that stretched for a hundred miles!

Sunlight streamed down through the crack, illuminating Li Changqing's fluttering blue robe.

One door, and the heavens open!