Ye Chen's Defense Shattered, Karmic Backlash Strikes

At the edge of the chaotic battlefield, behind a low-lying mound, Ye Chen was bathed in blood. His longsword was planted firmly into the ground, its blade already chipped and curled. He gasped heavily for air, his chest heaving violently as he barely supported himself from collapsing.

"How could this happen... how could this happen?!"

Ye Chen's eyes were wide open, filled with scarlet bloodshot lines. The corners of his eyes were even torn from extreme anger and despair, seeping traces of fresh blood. He looked at everything happening before him, feeling as if his entire world was collapsing.

Right in front of him, the core group he had built up with his own hands—the brothers who had once drank from large bowls and eaten large chunks of meat with him, who swore to help him overthrow the tyranny and create an eternal legacy together—were falling one by one like trampled ants amidst the roar of firearms.

"Big brother! Save me..." His most trusted deputy, Ah Niu, whose lower half had been pulverized by dense lead bullets, reached out a desperate hand toward him. Before Ye Chen could rush over, another volley of bullets swept past, and Ah Niu's head instantly burst like a watermelon, leaving no remains.

"No!!!" Ye Chen let out a heart-wrenching roar, his voice mixed with unwillingness, agony, and madness.

He could not accept this reality. He was the Child of Destiny! Since childhood, he had encountered endless fortuitous events: finding secret manuals after jumping off cliffs, buying divine artifacts while strolling through markets, and receiving guidance from experts and the affection of beautiful women wherever he went. His martial arts cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching the peak of the fifth tier of the Martial Dao, the Acupoint Opening Realm, at a young age. He was hailed by countless people as the favored son of heaven. His rebellion should have been met with overwhelming support, sailing smoothly all the way to the imperial capital, trampling that incompetent and tyrannical little emperor beneath his feet to achieve hegemony!

But now? He hadn't even seen the emperor's face, yet his proud army of tens of thousands had been slaughtered like pigs and dogs in front of ordinary soldiers wielding iron rods! This extreme disparity was more painful than cutting his flesh with a knife.

With the violent collapse of his state of mind, the aura around Ye Chen became extremely violent and disordered. He could clearly feel that the mysterious and always triumphant providence within his body was undergoing a terrifying upheaval.

The golden halo of providence that originally lingered around him, visible only to those who could observe qi, was now churning violently like a stormy sea. The golden light that had once warmed him, protected him, and allowed him to turn bad luck into good, began to flicker. It emitted overwhelmed cracking sounds, and pitch-black fissures unexpectedly split open across its surface.

As a Child of Providence favored by the Heavenly Dao, his life had been smooth sailing. When had he ever suffered such a devastating, dimensional-level strike? He had never experienced such a tragic, defenseless defeat, let alone watched all his loved ones die out in a single day. This despair deep in his soul and the complete collapse of his self-perception directly triggered a backlash.

"Pfft!" Ye Chen only felt a sharp pain in his chest and violently spat out a mouthful of black blood. The spiritual energy that had originally flowed smoothly around him now became like a runaway wild horse, restlessly rampaging through his meridians, madly tearing at his internal organs.

The backlash of providence!

"I refuse to accept this! I, Ye Chen, will never admit defeat!" Like a lone wolf driven into a corner, Ye Chen howled at the sky, descending completely into madness.

He violently pulled his longsword from the ground, ignoring the true qi wildly darting through his body and the piercing pain brought by the backlash. With scarlet eyes, he locked onto the dragon flag representing the Emperor of Great Xia, hundreds of meters away.

"Dog Emperor, I want you to pay for my brothers' lives! I will take you down with me!"

Ye Chen's figure exploded forward, transforming into a bloody afterimage as he charged madly toward Wang Hao at the rear of the firearms camp. He was, after all, a peak expert of the Acupoint Opening Realm. This sprint was incredibly fast, with sword qi crisscrossing, vowing to drag Wang Hao down to hell with him.

"Protect His Majesty!" The imperial guard commander was greatly alarmed.

However, in this era, no matter how high one's martial arts were, they still feared a barrage of gunfire.

"Bang bang bang bang—!"

Before Ye Chen had charged fifty paces, dense volleys of gunfire covered him like a rain of life-chasing arrows. Hundreds of flintlock muskets simultaneously aimed at his rapidly moving form.

No matter how profound Ye Chen's movement techniques were, or how protective his true qi was, they appeared pale and powerless before an absolute net of firepower. Dense bullets blasted deep pits into the ground around him, sending dirt flying. He frantically swung his longsword, knocking away a few bullets with clinking sounds, but the massive kinetic energy still shocked the webbing between his thumb and index finger until it split apart, nearly causing the sword to fly from his grasp.

"Pfft!" A bullet grazed his thigh, taking a chunk of flesh and blood with it.

"Ugh!" Ye Chen grunted muffledly, stumbling as his speed instantly slowed down. Immediately after, more bullets sealed off his path of retreat, forcing him to back up repeatedly and roll awkwardly on the ground to dodge. His originally elegant young hero's long robes had now been shot into tattered rags, and his entire body was covered in mud and bloodstains.

He, a dignified peak Acupoint Opening Realm expert, was actually suppressed by a group of ordinary soldiers to the point where he couldn't even lift his head, entirely unable to advance even a single meter! Every attempt to forcefully break through would be beaten back by ruthless bullets. The bloody holes on his body multiplied, and fresh blood poured out endlessly, draining what little stamina he had left.

Wang Hao, who had been hiding behind the heavy infantry all along, watched Ye Chen jumping up and down like a monkey amidst the hail of bullets hundreds of meters away, looking thoroughly wretched. The corners of his mouth finally curled into an undisguised sneer of mockery.

He reached out and took a simple megaphone made of sheet iron handed over by a eunuch beside him. He cleared his throat, channeled his internal energy, and his voice transmitted through the megaphone, piercing the wind and gunfire to smash clearly into Ye Chen's ears:

"Ye Chen! What bullshit destiny? In front of my firearms, you are nothing but a moving lump of rotting meat! Can your laughable martial world loyalty stop my volleys?!"

Hearing these words, Ye Chen, who was lying prone in the muddy water, trembled all over. He spat out another mouthful of blood in anger, the light in his eyes growing even dimmer.

Standing on high ground, Wang Hao casually tossed the megaphone aside. He closed his eyes slightly, then suddenly opened them as an invisible, profound fluctuation radiated from his body.

"Son of Heaven's Qi Observation Technique, open!"

A resplendent golden light flashed deep within Wang Hao's pupils. In an instant, the entire battlefield changed its appearance in his eyes. An invisible sensation of qi permeated the air, and his gaze instantly pierced through the gunpowder smoke, locking firmly onto Ye Chen.

In Wang Hao's field of vision, the golden lotus of providence above Ye Chen's head, which had originally been as dazzling as the sun, was now ruined and dilapidated. The halo of providence churned violently. Inside, there was both the faint golden light of the Heavenly Dao desperately trying to repair its favor, and the thick black aura of death generated by his massive setback and mental collapse. That cluster of providence was being madly swallowed by darkness, its edges constantly dissipating.

"What a wonderful backlash," Wang Hao sneered repeatedly in his heart.

If Ye Chen had been at his peak, any forced attempt by Wang Hao to kill him would have undoubtedly triggered the violent intervention of the Heavenly Dao's providence. A gun barrel might suddenly explode, or a meteor might inexplicably plummet from the sky to crush the imperial guards. In short, he simply could not die. But now, Ye Chen's state of mind was shattered, his cultivation foundation was damaged, and his providence was in utter chaos. This was the exact, perfect moment to harvest him, the opportunity this villainous emperor had been waiting for so long!

Wang Hao slowly raised his hand, his grip tightening around the Son of Heaven Sword at his waist, the ultimate symbol of imperial authority. The Emperor's True Qi surged wildly around his body like an awakened, wrathful dragon.

"The Heavenly Dao? Today, We shall slay your favored son!" Murderous intent flared in Wang Hao's eyes. He prepared to completely harvest this mass of providence, extinguishing Ye Chen's last glimmer of vitality and eliminating the threat once and for all.