Overwhelming Aura, Even a Last-Moment Breakthrough Is Futile

As Wang Hao's words fell, the shadows seemed to come alive.

An old man wearing a gray eunuch uniform, his face full of wrinkles, looking as if a gust of wind could blow him over, slowly walked out. He walked very slowly, but with every step he took, the surrounding air seemed to solidify a bit.

This was the trump card Wang Hao had specially gone to the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility to borrow from the Empress Dowager, Empress Chen—the Grand Eunuch Sun Li.

During the late emperor's reign, he was the number one expert in the imperial palace. His cultivation had already reached perfection, achieving the terrifying seventh tier of the Martial Dao—the second layer of the Astral Qi Realm!

In this world where reaching the Astral Qi Realm earned one the title of Grandmaster, Sun Li was an existence standing at the very top of the pyramid.

"Your Majesty is too polite."

Sun Li's voice was hoarse as he bowed slightly. "Protecting Your Majesty is this old servant's duty. This little flea has been making a fuss for long enough. It is time for him to rest."

Before his voice had even faded, Sun Li's figure disappeared from where he stood.

In the next moment, an explosive sound like a clap of thunder erupted in the center of the battlefield.

"Who?!"

Ye Chen, who was entangled in a fierce fight with three great experts, suddenly felt an unprecedented life-and-death crisis envelop his entire body. That feeling was a hundred times more terrifying than facing the volley of ten thousand arrows just a moment ago!

He abruptly looked up, only to see an old figure descending from the sky above his head like a goshawk pouncing on a rabbit.

There were no flashy moves, just a single punch thrown out.

However, this punch was covered with a layer of substantial white light—that was Astral Qi! Protective Astral Qi that could only be condensed by those at the seventh tier of the Martial Dao or above!

"Not good!"

Ye Chen's pupils violently trembled, and the hairs all over his body stood on end. If this punch landed solidly, he would definitely die!

Under the extreme oppression of death, the Nine Suns Formula in Ye Chen's body circulated to its absolute limit, even exceeding its load.

"Break for me!!!"

Ye Chen let out a hysterical roar, and it seemed as if something inside his body had shattered.

Boom!

An incredibly scorching wave of air erupted from his body. In this split second of life and death, he actually broke through in the heat of battle!

Fifth tier of the Martial Dao!

In this desperate situation, the Child of Destiny once again displayed his unreasonably heaven-defying talent, forcefully breaking through the bottleneck and stepping into the fifth tier of the Martial Dao!

"Old dog, die!"

After breaking through, Ye Chen's confidence swelled. He gripped his saber backhandedly, gathered all the newly surged power in his body, and slashed his blade right at Sun Li's fist.

However.

Reality was cruel.

The chasm between realms was not something that could be easily filled by a single mid-battle breakthrough. Between the fifth tier and the seventh tier Astral Qi Realm of the Martial Dao lay two entire major realms; that was a qualitative change from True Qi to Astral Qi!

Bang!

A muffled, loud crash echoed.

In front of Sun Li's fist aura, that long saber was as fragile as a piece of glass, shattering inch by inch.

Sun Li's withered fist did not lose its momentum, passing through the sky full of fragments and heavily smashing into Ye Chen's chest.

"Pfft!"

The wild joy in Ye Chen's eyes instantly froze, replaced by disbelief. He felt as if he had been hit head-on by a rampaging rhinoceros. His breastbone instantly shattered, and his entire body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing fiercely into a pile of ruins over ten meters away.

"Blergh!"

Ye Chen opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs, his entire person instantly withering away.

If he had not broken through to the fifth tier at the very last moment, and if he did not have that treasured soft armor protecting his body, this single punch would have been enough to blast him into a mist of blood right then and there!

"How... how is this possible..."

Ye Chen struggled, wanting to climb up, but found that the bones in his entire body felt as if they had fallen apart.

Up on the tower, Wang Hao could not help but be overjoyed upon seeing this scene, fiercely pumping his fist.

"Beautifully done!"

Sure enough, in the face of absolute crushing power, things like protagonist halos and mid-battle breakthroughs were all nonsense!

...

"Take his life while he's weak!"

Wang Hao deeply understood the principle that villains died from talking too much and from hesitation. Seeing Ye Chen heavily wounded, he did not relax in the slightest; instead, he grew even more tense.

Because he saw that the originally dimmed golden dragon of destiny above Ye Chen's head, despite suffering heavy damage, was still stubbornly struggling, even faintly showing signs of wanting to make a desperate comeback.

This guy was not dead yet!

"Pei Jingzhe!" Wang Hao shouted sternly.

"This subject is here!" Pei Jingzhe, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had been standing guard under the tower as the final line of defense, immediately responded.

"Stop watching the show! Take your men and attack together! Cooperate with Companion Sun and chop him into meat paste for Zhen!"

At this moment, Wang Hao completely discarded any imperial demeanor or martial world rules. His current tactic was singular—a righteous gang beatdown!

"Understood!"

Pei Jingzhe drew his embroidered spring saber, his body erupting with the tyrannical aura of the third layer of the True Intent Realm, the sixth tier of the Martial Dao. He was not a flashy but useless prop like the late emperor's men; he was an Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander who had truly crawled his way out of piles of dead bodies!

"Embroidered Uniform Guards, hear my command! Form the killing array! Follow this commander to execute the rebel!"

Hundreds of the most elite Embroidered Uniform Guard experts surged toward that ruined pit like a black tide.

The battlefield lineup at this moment was outrageously luxurious:

One top-tier expert at the seventh tier of the Martial Dao, the Astral Qi Realm, Sun Li.

One Commander at the sixth tier of the Martial Dao, the True Intent Realm, Pei Jingzhe.

Three first-rate experts at the fifth tier of the Martial Dao, Cao Shaoqin, Cao Zhengchun, and Hai Dafu.

Coupled with thousands of eunuch operatives, Embroidered Uniform Guards, and Imperial Guards armed with strong crossbows and sharp blades.

With this kind of lineup, let alone killing a single Ye Chen, it would be more than enough to wipe out a medium-sized sect!

"Cough cough... Despicable... Shameless..."

In the ruins, Ye Chen looked at the enemies swarming over like a blanket covering the earth, his heart filled with despair and anger.

He was unwilling to accept this! He had clearly just broken through, he was clearly chosen by heaven's mandate, so why had he ended up in this state?

"Die!"

Sun Li did not give him any chance to catch his breath at all. He closed in once again and struck down with a palm, his Astral Qi transforming into a massive handprint. Pei Jingzhe also charged out from the flank, his saber technique fierce, aiming straight for Ye Chen's head.

"Ah!!!"

Ye Chen let out a roar like a trapped beast, using up his last trace of strength and overdrawing his life force to madly swing the broken saber in his hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

This time, Ye Chen no longer had the high spirits from earlier.

He truly was like a punching bag, being knocked flying back and forth by several great experts.

Sun Li broke his left leg bone with a kick, Pei Jingzhe slashed his back with a saber, and Cao Zhengchun imprinted a palm on his dantian...

Blood dyed the ground red.

But what made Wang Hao's scalp tingle was that this Ye Chen was simply an unkillable cockroach!

Every time he suffered a fatal heavy blow, the soft armor on his body would shimmer with a faint light, offsetting most of the damage for him. Every time he was about to breathe his last, that stubborn Nine Suns Formula within his body would sustain his final breath.

Even in the midst of being ganged up on, he took advantage of the chaos to stab a careless Eastern Depot leader to death with his broken saber.

"He's still not freaking dead?!"

Wang Hao looked at Ye Chen, who was covered in blood but whose eyes remained as fierce as ever, and an inexplicable chill rose in his heart.

Is this the terrifying power of a Child of Destiny? Even in this hopeless situation, even after being utterly crushed, the Heavenly Dao was still trying every possible way to keep him alive!

"No, I must completely obliterate his physical body!"

Wang Hao gritted his teeth and turned to Wei Zhongxian and Yu Huatian beside him. Although these two were only at the fifth stage of the Martial Dao, they were still capable fighters.

"You two, go as well! Forget about techniques, just go for the head! Chop his head off!"

If Wang Hao's own martial cultivation weren't so pitifully weak, he would have grabbed a blade and charged in to finish the job himself.

"As you command!"

Wei Zhongxian and Yu Huatian exchanged a glance and were just about to leap down from the tower to join the brutal gang beating.

However.

As expected, the unexpected happened.