Chapter 483 - 118: Army at the Imperial Palace
As the three Gold Cultivators retreated, a dozen or so figures emerged from the Imperial Palace on the mountaintop. Jiangcun was at their head. He gazed at the dozen tightly positioned figures above the dense forest, his eyes finally landing on Yu Zuo.
SWOOSH!
The sound of something tearing through the air rang out, continuous and unrelenting. It was three Artifact Cultivators manipulating their Lifebound Spiritual Artifacts, trying to pierce the golden light screen and see the true situation inside the Imperial Palace.
CLANG.
A sound like the striking of a Bronze Bell echoed as the three Lifebound Spiritual Artifacts were blocked by an invisible barrier.
Jiangcun didn’t even glance at the three attacking Magical Artifacts. He looked toward the Xiao Shan Lord hundreds of miles away. It was obvious they planned to take a defensive stance and drag things out until the succession ceremony.
CLANG.
Another impact rang out, this one louder than the last. The three Magical Artifacts struck the invisible barrier, leaving ripples in their wake. The shockwave formed a massive surge, tearing the roofs off buildings outside the barrier. Rubble and broken tiles rained down the mountain, crashing onto the citizens of the North City District, who had been drained of their spirit. Though they were struck and bleeding, they remained in a daze.
Yu Zuo, directing from the center, sensed the strength of the Imperial Palace’s barrier through the Wood Spirit Qi emanating from the Magical Artifact above his head. He immediately understood the enemy’s strategy. He looked up at the sky, his gaze piercing through the projection of the Imperial Palace and the golden clouds to observe the sun’s position, mentally calculating the time.
’Full-scale assault!’
His thought was transmitted via the Magical Artifact above his head into the Spirit Sea of every Third Realm Cultivator around him.
The three Wood Cultivators were the first to act. They took out a pre-refined Combined Formation and activated it. Streams of turquoise light rose from beneath their feet before sinking into the forest below.
RUMBLE...
The earth was trembling. The forest, which had halted in the North City District, began to spread further into the city. Driven by the Combined Formation, it drew spirit and nutrients from deep underground. At the same time, its spreading roots devoured the dazed citizens, dragging them swiftly into the earth to become nutrients for the forest.
In just over a dozen breaths, the outermost edge of the forest began to show signs of desertification as the soil’s nutrients were depleted. The dense trees on the surface withered rapidly, consumed by surrounding vines and dragged deep underground.
In the blink of an eye, the entire North City District was completely submerged. The city’s people were dragged underground without a sound. In that moment, the prosperous Shangjing City became a thing of the past. The forest continued to spread, and soon, the Inner City District was also overcome.
But just then, from the swallowed districts of Shangjing City, brilliant golden auroras erupted, looking as if some terrifying existence was about to break through the earth.
’Retreat!’
Yu Zuo sensed the danger and immediately designated a direction for everyone to retreat.
Just as they scattered, a stream of golden light shot up from the area they had just occupied. All matter within the stream’s path was assimilated into nothingness.
The stream of light was gone in a flash, but it left a perfectly circular, bottomless pit in the earth. The forest around the pit was sliced as if by a sharp blade, leaving a circular cut mark that matched the pit itself.
"The aura of a Divine Country!"
the He Feng Taoist said with a chuckle. "Emperor Yuanding has awakened!"
The Xiao Shan Lord stared impassively at the Imperial Palace, which was shrouded in a golden screen of light, and commanded, "Continue the attack!" His voice instantly pierced through hundreds of miles, reaching the ears of Yu Zuo and the others.
Yu Zuo, having retreated, formed a hand seal for a Spell.
The next moment, the banyan tree above his head more than doubled in size. In the Inspiration Realm, the green threads extending from its branches also doubled. Most of them sank into the ground, attracting numerous True Spirits from the world to gather. Their distorted forms darted between the branches, trying to devour the threads. But the moment they touched the threads, their own bodies were devoured instead.
The three Wood Spirit Cultivators produced another compound formation, working together to activate it. The forest, which had halted in the Inner City District, continued to spread toward the Imperial Palace, followed by a thick, heavy mist.
The magnificent red walls and golden tiles of the Inner City District, like the North City and South City Districts, were silently pulled underground. It was as if the world had changed in the blink of an eye; the image of Shangjing City was no longer whole in one’s memory.
The Emperor’s last attack seemed to be a final act of defiance against fate. Afterward, he made no further moves, for his body no longer allowed him to act so willfully.
In the center of an altar deep within the Imperial Palace, Emperor Yuanding was enveloped in dense golden light. A behemoth inside him seemed about to burst through his flesh. His overburdened body could no longer hold, and the skin exposed outside his clothes was covered in a dense network of cracks. Fortunately, previously carved Divine Runes were constantly repairing them.
His body was trapped in a cycle of destruction and repair, and it was clear the rate of destruction was about to overtake the rate of repair!
’Have I lost the foundation of my ancestors?’
He lowered his head, looking at his hands covered in golden cracks. Then he looked up. Thick rays of golden light gathered at his will, forming a tattered map in an instant.
"Can your body still hold on?"
Xia Yao sat before Emperor Yuanding. She was to receive his inheritance here shortly.
Emperor Yuanding stared at the tattered map. His eyes were covered in golden light, his expression unreadable. The cracks on his face, constantly opening and closing, concealed his features.
"Has the temperature dropped?"
Emperor Yuanding felt a chill. This was a sensation from the Imperial Palace’s Divine Technique Formation. The forest had reached the edge of the Imperial Palace, and the ice formed from the mist within it had already covered the barrier outside, assimilating its spirit and energy.
"Oh, never mind. It’s not the temperature, it’s those rebels!"
Emperor Yuanding’s consciousness seemed somewhat unstable. He finally looked at Xia Yao, as if just now processing her earlier question, and replied, "Don’t worry. I can hold on until the time comes to pass our ancestors’ legacy into your hands."
After speaking, he turned his gaze back to the tattered map. "Their faith is so strong at this moment, but there are many dissenters. I am now using the five hundred years of fortune accumulated by our ancestors to appease them. When you inherit this legacy, what will you use to appease them?"
Xia Yao answered, "If today’s battle is unwinnable, I will retreat to the north. If it is winnable, I will give it my all!"
Emperor Yuanding looked at Xia Yao again. After staring for over ten breaths, he said, "Winnable or not, there is no place for us in the Central Plains anymore."
Xia Yao fell silent.
Emperor Yuanding let out a series of laughs. The cracks on his face spread rapidly with his laughter. When he finished, he said, "Regardless of whether the coming inheritance goes smoothly, retreat to the north as soon as it’s complete. This place no longer belongs to our Xia Family..." He pointed at the tattered map and said, "Right now, a True Monarch is already watching this place!"
Xia Yao was not surprised. She quickly buried the indignation on her face deep in her heart.
Emperor Yuanding then turned his head toward the Sacrificial Captains connected to him and said, "Are you all blockheads? The Rebel Army is already prying at the Imperial Palace’s walls!