The Dragon Court's Wrath

The sonic boom clouds above Mount Beimang had not yet completely dispersed when five figures, resembling ancient demon gods, had already crossed thousands of mountains and rivers. Carrying terrifying sonic howls that tore through the void, they descended upon the airspace of the Great Zhou's recognized number one orthodox sect—the Qingyun Sect.

The Qingyun Sect was built against the mountains, its rolling mountain ranges shrouded in dense clouds and mist year-round, resembling a mortal fairyland untouched by worldly dust. Thousands of disciples cultivated diligently here, considering themselves superior to others. On normal days, if they encountered court officials, they wouldn't even spare them a straight glance. In the eyes of these people beyond the mundane world, imperial power was nothing but a worldly nuisance, and only the martial dao was the true orthodoxy of heaven and earth.

However, today, this immortal aura was thoroughly torn to shreds.

Emperor Wuzong of Zhou, Wang Jingyuan, hovered in the sky at a height of ten thousand feet. With slightly lowered eyelids, he showed no emotional fluctuations at this moment, as cold and indifferent as if he were looking at a nest of ants about to be scalded to death by boiling water.

"So this is the Qingyun Sect?" Wang Jingyuan sneered. "The Great Zhou has been established for a thousand years and has given these so-called martial world sects enough face, allowing them to establish sects and pass down the martial dao. But they have taken the court's tolerance as capital to act recklessly, and even dared to reach their hands toward the emperor!"

The most hot-tempered Third Grandpa, Wang Jingxuan, heard this and his eyes widened, with what seemed like tangible flames burning in the depths of his eyes. "Why waste words with this bunch of ungrateful, white-eyed wolves? Bullying our precious grandson and assassinating the reigning Son of Heaven—their nine familial generations must be exterminated and their bones ground to dust! Big Brother, let's make our move!"

There was no testing of the waters according to the rules of the martial world, nor was there any opening speech of courtesy before resorting to force.

Wang Jingyuan merely raised his right hand slowly, his five fingers suddenly spreading wide. Aiming at the sect-protecting grand array below, which was claimed to be able to withstand an army of thousands, he pressed down fiercely!

The eighth level of the Skysoaring Realm! The terrifying pressure of the eighth realm of the martial dao!

In an instant, the air between heaven and earth seemed to be sucked dry by an invisible giant hand. A giant palm of true qi, spanning thousands of feet, crashed down toward the Qingyun Sect like the collapse of the heavenly dome.

"Boom—Rumble!!!"

A deafening, earth-shattering roar instantly tore through the thousand-year tranquility of the Qingyun Sect.

That layer of sect-protecting grand array, radiating a cyan halo and regarded by all Qingyun Sect disciples as an absolute safety barrier, was as fragile as a poked window paper before this giant white palm. It couldn't even hold on for half a breath before countless teeth-aching cracks frantically spread across the array's surface. Following a muffled "bang," the entire grand array explosively shattered into a sky full of dissipating rain of light.

A berserk shockwave swept down. The magnificent buildings with carved beams and painted rafters on the main peak of the Qingyun Sect collapsed and shattered in swathes, like sandcastles meeting a tsunami.

"Enemy attack—!!"

"The grand array is broken! How is this possible!!"

Below, the thousands of Qingyun Sect disciples who had originally been practicing swordplay in the plaza or refining pills in the alchemy rooms were all plunged into panic. They looked up in horror at the five figures in the sky, who looked like gods descending to enact punishment. Many disciples with low cultivation bases even felt their legs give way under this Skysoaring Realm pressure, dropping directly to their knees with a "thud," their entire bodies trembling violently uncontrollably.

"Insolent! What madmen dare to run wild in my Qingyun Sect!" Three old yet majestic figures shot up into the sky from the forbidden grounds at the back mountain of the Qingyun Sect. These three were the foundation ancestors of the Qingyun Sect, who usually stood high above, enjoying the reverence of tens of thousands.

These three were precisely the foundation ancestors of the Qingyun Sect, all peerless masters at the early stage of the eighth realm of the martial dao.

However, when these three furious Qingyun ancestors aggressively charged high into the sky and saw clearly the attire of the five people before them...

The anger on the faces of the three ancestors instantly froze.

"Five... five Skysoaring Realm experts? The unique dragon-patterned cloud robes of the Great Zhou imperial family? It's that bunch of murderous brutes from the Wang family."

The Adam's apple of the leading Qingyun Grand Patriarch bobbed with difficulty, and a chill rushed straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

"Hasn't the Great Zhou imperial family always been holed up in the imperial mausoleum? Why would they suddenly come out in full force?"

However, reality gave him no time to think at all.

Wang Jingyuan stood with his hands behind his back, looking down condescendingly at these three terrified old fools, the disdain in his eyes undisguised. His voice wasn't loud, but wrapped in vigorous true qi, it clearly reached every corner of the entire Qingyun Sect, like the pronouncement of the grim reaper.

"The Qingyun Sect has taught poorly and harbors filth. You have indulged your disciples in assassinating the monarch of the Great Zhou, intending to commit treason and rebellion, and subvert the state of the Great Zhou." Wang Jingyuan paused, his tone suddenly turning bone-chillingly cold. "Today, representing the Great Zhou court, I sentence you all—your entire sect shall be executed, and your dao lineage eradicated!"

"No! A misunderstanding! Senior, there must be a massive misunderstanding in this!" The Qingyun Grand Patriarch was scared out of his wits. No longer caring about the dignity of a senior expert, he violently bowed his head in mid-air and eagerly defended, "The one who assassinated His Majesty was the outcast disciple Ye Chen. He was expelled from our sect long ago, and his personal actions have absolutely nothing to do with the Qingyun Sect! My Qingyun Sect has always been utterly loyal to the Great Zhou court, and heaven and earth can bear witness! I beg Senior to investigate clearly!"

"Misunderstand your mother!" The most hot-tempered Third Grandpa, Wang Jingxuan, cursed out loud. "Why didn't you say it was a misunderstanding when you bullied our Wang family's qilin child? Die!"

Before his voice had even faded, Wang Jingxuan gave the other party no chance to continue begging for mercy. His figure flashed, and he crossed a distance of a hundred feet as if teleporting, appearing directly in front of the Qingyun Grand Patriarch.

Without any flashy martial skills, Wang Jingxuan simply and brutally thrust out his right hand, grabbing the Qingyun Grand Patriarch by the neck.

The Qingyun Grand Patriarch's eyes nearly split open, the true qi of the third level of the Skysoaring Realm circulating madly within his body in an attempt to break free. He roared despairingly in his heart, "Move! Move for this old man!"

But before the absolute power of the sixth level of the Skysoaring Realm, the cultivation he took pride in was like a clay ox entering the sea, unable to stir up even a ripple. The domineering true qi emanating from Wang Jingxuan instantly locked all the meridians in his body.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound of bone fracturing rang out. The Qingyun Grand Patriarch's eyes bulged dead-on, filled with the fear of death and infinite resentment toward Ye Chen. He never could have imagined that after cultivating bitterly for hundreds of years, he would ultimately have his throat crushed like a chicken being squeezed to death, all because of a disaster provoked by a grand-disciple.

"Eldest Martial Brother!" The other two Qingyun ancestors saw this and were scared out of their wits. Knowing full well that today's matter absolutely could not be resolved peacefully, they exchanged a glance, a trace of madness flashing in their eyes.

"The Great Zhou imperial family pushes people too far! This old man will fight it out with you! Qingyun Disintegration Art—Explode!"

The two ancestors actually intended to burn their divine souls and essence blood, dragging these imperial old monsters down in mutual destruction. The auras on their bodies instantly skyrocketed, piercing blood beads seeping from their skin, making them look like two powder kegs about to explode.

However, Wang Jingyuan merely snorted coldly, not even giving them a straight look.

"The pearl of a grain of rice also dares to shine? Ridiculous."

Standing behind Wang Jingyuan, the Fourth Ancestor and the Fifth Ancestor sneered at the same time, both pointing out a finger from across the void.

Pfft! Pfft!

Two strands of golden finger-light, thin as gossamer yet condensed to the absolute extreme, instantly pierced through the glabella of the two Qingyun patriarchs at a speed completely imperceptible to the naked eye.

That violent power of self-destruction was destroyed from the inside by this domineering finger-light before it even had time to be released. The bodies of the two patriarchs stiffened abruptly in midair, the light in their eyes instantly dissipating.

There was no suspense; this was a one-sided massacre. In a mere three breaths of time, three patriarchs of the Eighth Realm of Martial Arts, who could shake a region of the martial world just by stomping their feet, had been reduced to three lifeless corpses.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The three corpses plummeted from high in the sky, smashing heavily onto the plaza of the Qingyun Sect and splashing up a cloud of dust and blood.

In the sky, a pattering rain of blood began to fall. That was the phenomenon triggered by heaven and earth following the fall of Skysoaring Realm experts.

At this moment, the Qingyun Sect was deathly silent. Thousands of disciples stared at the three corpses, their minds completely blank. Their faith, their indestructible backers, had been crushed as easily as ants.

And right in the midst of this despairing dead silence, two wretched figures suddenly stumbled in from outside the mountain gate.

It was none other than Ye Chen and his master, who had just fled back to the sect to fetch reinforcements!

As soon as the two stepped through the mountain gate, before they could even catch their breath, they were drenched in the face by the warm rain of blood. Ye Chen wiped the bloody water from his face and looked up. When he clearly saw the ruins on the plaza and the five royal ancestors looking down at him like demon gods in midair, Ye Chen was struck as if by lightning, freezing rigidly in place.

How... how is this possible?! Ye Chen's eyes instantly became bloodshot, his face twisting to the extreme in disbelief. He roared frantically in his heart, I am the Child of Destiny! I possess the ring of the ancient Medicine Venerable, I have a peerless inheritance! That incompetent tyrant Wang Hao is merely a villain destined to be trampled under my feet, on what basis could he invite so many old monsters of the Skysoaring Realm? This defies all logic! God, are you playing with me?!

Ye Chen's master, the usually confident elder of the peak Seventh Realm of Martial Arts who could come and go freely amidst a grand army, also had an ashen face at this moment. Looking at the corpses of the three patriarchs in the sky, his Dao heart completely collapsed.

It is over... everything is over... The old man's heart was filled with endless remorse. He had calculated everything, exhausting the timing, the terrain, and the human element, but the only thing he had not calculated was that the foundation of the Great Zhou royal family was actually terrifying to such a despairing degree. In the face of absolute power, the so-called trump cards of destiny, serendipity, and leapfrog challenges that he had taught Ye Chen were simply a massive joke.

The old man bit the tip of his tongue, abruptly slapped Ye Chen on the shoulder, and urgently transmitted his voice, Chen'er! Run! As your master, I will fight to the death to stall them for you! As long as the green hills remain, there will be no shortage of firewood!

Having said that, the old man frantically formed hand seals, preparing to execute a blood escape secret art that would deplete his origin to forcibly send Ye Chen away.

However, he sorrowfully discovered that the space within a hundred-mile radius had long been thoroughly locked down by the true qi of the five Skysoaring Realm mighty figures in the sky, as solid as an iron plate, without even a sliver of a spatial rift to be torn open.

Run? Where do you think you are running to?

Wang Jingxuan's sinister voice exploded by the ears of the two. In the next instant, he appeared before Ye Chen and his master like a ghost.

Old bastard, die! A flash of madness crossed Ye Chen's eyes. Drawing the longsword at his waist, he poured his entire body's true qi into it and thrust at Wang Jingxuan recklessly.

Wang Jingxuan looked at him like an idiot, not even bothering to dodge, allowing the iron-cleaving treasured sword to stab onto his protective astral qi.

Ding! The treasured sword instantly shattered into dozens of pieces of scrap iron.

With just this bit of ability, you dare to assassinate the Son of Heaven of my Great Zhou? An arrogant fool who overestimates his own strength!

Wang Jingxuan sneered, his hands turning into a sky full of afterimages as they respectively clamped down on the shoulders of Ye Chen and his master.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A dense series of scalp-numbing, bone-chilling sounds of shattering bones rang out. In merely the blink of an eye, Wang Jingxuan used an extremely overbearing technique to crush and sever all two hundred and six bones, as well as the eight extraordinary meridians, of Ye Chen and his master, inch by inch!

Ahhhh!!!

Ye Chen let out a shrill scream like a dying beast. His originally handsome face was now twisted into a knot, cold sweat pouring down like a waterfall. He collapsed limply to the ground like a dog whose bones had been extracted. The intense pain brought his consciousness to the verge of collapse, yet Wang Jingxuan deliberately used true qi to keep him breathing, making it so he could not even faint from the pain.

His master did not even let out a scream before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed limply.

The Child of Destiny whom Wang Hao had exhausted his wits trying to surround and kill was now being held by Wang Jingxuan, one in each hand, like lifting little chicks.

Grabbing the two by their hair and lifting them up, Wang Jingxuan turned his head and shouted to Wang Jingyuan high in the sky, Big brother, I kept these two chief culprits alive to take back so our good grandson can vent his anger!

Wang Jingyuan coldly looked down at the tens of thousands of Qingyun Sect disciples below, who were leaderless and paralyzed with fear on the ground, without the slightest pity in his eyes. The majesty of the royal family had to be forged with blood. Since these sects enjoyed extrajudicial privileges, they had to bear the consequences of being involved in assassinating the sovereign and rebelling.

I have said, the Qingyun Sect shall have its entire sect executed and its Daoist lineage eradicated. Wang Jingyuan's voice was as cold as if it came from the Nine Nether Underworld. Old Fourth, Old Fifth, do not leave a single one of these ants below alive. Raze this mountain to the ground for me.

Yes, elder brother!