Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

Hot air kept billowing out of the leader's nostrils.

His chest heaved violently, each breath producing an extremely heavy, rattling sound that even drowned out the sounds of moving things from the surrounding ruins. His eyes were completely filled with thick, red blood vessels, the whites of his eyes had vanished, and his bloodshot eyeballs bulged outwards, exuding a violent rage that was not of normal human origin.

The five fingers of his left hand suddenly tightened.

The commander grabbed Old Man Zhang by the tattered collar of his hempen coat and roughly lifted the paralyzed farmer into the air with one hand. He strode forward, his heavy black iron boots crushing the white jade fragments on the ground, turning the jade into a pale powder.

He carried the mortal man all the way to the very edge of the collapsed inner city formation.

Their steps halted. The commander lowered his head, looking down at the enormous, bottomless pit below.

The space deep within the array's core was extremely vast. Incredibly dense, pale blue spiritual energy surged violently at the bottom of the pit. Waves of energy surged upwards, crashing against the pit's rock walls. This immense, suffocating energy was the core source of the protective array that Xuanni City had painstakingly accumulated from the earth's veins over hundreds of years. Normally, this spiritual energy was tightly bound by the array's runes, but now, with the array broken, the unrestrained energy was overflowing wildly.

The commander's toes had just touched the rubble at the edge of the formation's core.

An unexpected change suddenly erupted.

The black, broken monument clinging tightly to the commander's inner chest armor suddenly erupted with an overwhelming, uncontrollable urge to devour. This urge carried a pure, predatory nature.

The broken stele completely bypassed the commander's will control. The dark red, barren patterns on the black stone surface shone brightly. An extremely savage suction force, centered on the commander's chest, directly slammed into the huge pit below. The broken stele completely ignored the physical limits of its owner and began to frantically absorb the massive amount of spiritual energy overflowing from the array's core.

The scene inside the deep pit changed drastically in an instant.

The pale blue spiritual energy, visible to the naked eye, was forcibly torn apart by this powerful suction. Large clumps of spiritual energy were brutally stripped away into countless pure blue threads. These threads defied gravity, soaring straight upwards. They completely ignored the thick layer of black iron inner armor on the commander's body, as well as his physical defenses, piercing straight through his skin and flesh, drilling into his chest, and surging wildly into the interior of the broken monument.

On the ruins high up not far away.

The leading array master witnessed this scene clearly. His initial disgust was instantly replaced by extreme shock. His expression changed drastically. The white jade array plate he held flashed wildly, its dense array patterns bursting with rapid, red warning light.

"stop!"

The formation master shouted at the top of his lungs. He was convinced that this was an act of stealing the essence of the formation, a suicidal act, and immediately tried to stop it.

The commander's Adam's apple bobbed violently, but he couldn't utter a single word in response.

The massive amount of pale blue spiritual energy had barely entered the broken stele before it was instantly crushed by the ancient, desolate patterns on its surface, without even lingering for a moment. The laws and attributes within the immortal spiritual energy were completely incinerated, transforming directly into immeasurable supreme blood and energy.

This extremely violent surge of pure yang energy, without any buffer, rushed back into the commander's body from his chest.

"Crackling and popping!"

Simultaneously, his entire skeleton emitted an extremely dense series of popping sounds. His joints shifted, stretched, and reformed wildly beneath his skin and flesh. His already imposing physique grew an additional half a foot in a very short time.

Human flesh and skin that have not been tempered and refined cannot withstand such immense power.

The skin and flesh were stretched to their limit, tearing inch by inch.

Countless bloody gashes burst open simultaneously on his chest, back, thick thighs, and neck. Scalding blood mixed with impurities gushed out, instantly staining his black iron leather armor red, and blood dripped wildly from the gaps in the armor plates.

Without any guidance from any ultimate cultivation method, this purely forced infusion brought the commander extreme physical pain, akin to being torn apart by a thousand cuts or subjected to slow slicing. Muscle fibers were brutally torn apart, and blood vessels were ruptured.

"Ughhhh!"

The commander finally couldn't withstand this inhuman torture and raised his head to let out an extremely mournful roar at the dark night sky.

Torn by extreme pain, he went completely mad, frantically reaching out his blood-soaked left hand to forcibly pull out the black tattered monument pressed against his chest.

He dug his fingers fiercely into the torn flesh on his chest.

My fingertips just touched the stone surface of the broken stele.

"Sizzle!"

The scorching hot monument erupted with terrifying heat. The commander's fingers were instantly charred black. The burnt flesh and sebum stuck directly to the stone surface, pulling out streaks of black, sticky liquid that were impossible to remove.

The formation master on the high platform, seeing this scene, naturally assumed that the commander had rebelled. A ruthless killing intent flashed in his eyes.

Without hesitation, the array master activated the rapidly flashing array plate in his hand, forcibly manipulating the moisture accumulated around the ruins. The moisture condensed rapidly in mid-air, instantly transforming into several thick and sharp ice spikes.

"Go to hell!"

The formation master pointed. The ice spike, accompanied by a piercing sound, pierced directly into the commander's unsuspecting back.

The ice spikes, enhanced by the city's protective formation, moved with incredible speed.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The ice spike, powerful enough to pierce through the heavy armor of the black iron, struck the commander's back with a deafening clang of metal striking metal.

The commander's torn skin on his back wasn't even scratched. Instead, the several thick ice spikes shattered into countless pale ice shards upon impact, scattering into the surrounding mud and water.

The commander stopped tearing at his chest in self-harm.

He slowly turned his head around.

The bones in his neck emitted a sickening grinding sound. The muscles dominating his face were contorted with extreme blood flow, to the point of being unbearable to look at. His eyes had turned completely crimson.

A violent and bloodthirsty aura erupted from his body. Human reason was completely erased at this moment, leaving only the most primal desire to kill.

In the pile of broken jade at the edge of the formation's core.

Old Zhang lay on the ground, his lower body submerged in blood.

The old farmer looked at the commander who had turned into this monstrous, inhuman creature, and then glanced at the self-important array master on the high platform.

Old Zhang suddenly parted his chapped lips, and a mouthful of black blood spilled down his chin.

With his last ounce of strength, he let out a wild, hoarse laugh, his voice cracking and rasping:

"You bunch of bastards, you think you're worthy to use mortal bones to reinforce the formation!"

The ear-piercing laughter echoed over the ruins.

The commander had completely lost his mind. He wildly swung his deformed, swollen arm, casually grabbing Old Man Zhang, who was blocking his way, and throwing him directly onto the muddy ground beside him.

He completely abandoned the task of throwing human stakes into the deep pit to fill the formation.

With a sudden burst of force from his black iron boots, the commander stomped a deep crater in the ground. His massive, twisted body, exuding a suffocating beastly aura, leaped high into the air, lunging directly at the array master high above the ruins.