Raid on the Core City

After Gu Changyuan left, the remaining Emperor-grade Immortals began discussing which of the Celestial Wardens each of them would handle.

With Zhenyue already dead and Lanxing's whereabouts unknown, only ten of the Imperial Court's twelve Celestial Wardens remained to be dealt with.

Using the intelligence Gu Changyuan had provided, the Emperor-grade Immortals had long since memorized the abilities and traits of each Celestial Warden.

So they directly assigned the Emperor-grade Immortals best suited to counter or suppress each Warden to the task.

Meanwhile, in the rear courtyard of the Heavenly Palace.

Gu Changyuan sat on a stone chair in the side courtyard, with thirty-three disciples standing before him.

He did not speak while seated. Instead, he rose to his feet, swept his gaze across each familiar face, and briefly explained the current situation.

After hearing him out, the disciples fell silent for a moment.

No one said, "I want to go too."

Because they knew that a battle at the Emperor-grade level was not something they could take part in.

It was a war that crossed the chasm of cultivation realms, a war concerning the laws of heaven and earth. If they went, they would only distract their master and make him divide his attention in battle.

"Wait for us to return."

Gu Changyuan said softly.

His voice was quiet, but his gaze was serious.

The disciples said nothing. They simply nodded.

Four hours later.

Darkness had not yet fully fallen. The clouds at the horizon were dyed a faint crimson by the last light of the setting sun.

At the center of the Heavenly Palace, more than thirty Emperor-grade Immortals had gathered. Each one's aura hung in the evening breeze like condensed mist—heavy, yet restrained.

No one spoke. Some were inspecting the formation patterns on their artifacts, some had closed their eyes to focus their breathing, and some stood silently in place.

Gu Changyuan walked into the great hall, let his gaze pass over every face, then raised his right hand and swept it down gently.

"Move out."

The light of the teleportation formation flared, shrouding the thirty-plus figures within it, then suddenly contracted—vanishing together with the light and the silhouettes in an instant.

The Central Continent.

The core city of the Imperial Court.

Thirty Emperor-grade Immortals appeared before the core city without any warning. The outer formation of the city sensed the intruders the very next moment. A dark-golden barrier rose abruptly from the city walls, layer upon layer of formation patterns lighting up within the barrier.

But Gu Changyuan moved faster. The moment he descended upon the Central Continent, without the slightest hesitation, he raised his right hand and then swung it downward fiercely.

A colossal sword silhouette burst forth from his palm, like a heavenly blade wielded by a giant. The sword's body was pitch-black as night.

It stretched tens of thousands of zhang, carrying an aura that tore the sky apart, and struck directly toward that dark-golden barrier.

The moment the sword silhouette collided with the barrier, a muffled sound of shattering rang out.

The dark-golden barrier trembled violently under the impact of the sword shadow, but it did not break immediately.

Yet cracks spread rapidly across the barrier's surface, like glass being struck, branching out in every direction.

Then, the formation patterns between those cracks began to dim. The light shifted from bright to faint in an instant.

Before the sword shadow had even landed, Gu Changyuan had already used his divine sense to precisely locate the core formation pattern and shatter it.

Deprived of its core support, the defensive formation gave way under the sword shadow's second strike like thin gauze, shattering into a thousand pieces of dark-golden fragments that scattered wildly in all directions as spiritual energy shards blasted outward.

The remaining momentum of the sword shadow carried on, slamming into the core city and leveling thousands of buildings to the ground. Rubble flew, dust and smoke rolled.

The core city was jolted awake from its slumber in that single instant.

Cultivators of the Imperial Court swarmed out from every direction. Some had just been shaken from their cultivation, some did not even know what was happening.

Their figures scattered across the sky, trying to form defensive lines, trying to intercept the descending silhouettes, trying to find a commander amid the chaos.

But no one could give them orders, because the command system had already been paralyzed the moment the teleportation and the sword strike occurred.

And on top of that, after a thousand years of comfort and a thousand years of arrogance, those cultivators who thought themselves above the heavens—who among them could have imagined that someone would dare to launch a direct assault on the core city?

The thirty-plus Emperor-grade Immortals wasted no time.

Xing Pojun struck first, weaving dark-red killing aura into a blockade in midair, cutting down the first wave of Imperial Court cultivators in a single sweep.

The other Emperor-grade Immortals followed suit, slaughtering every Imperial Court cultivator within their reach.

In particular, the Emperor-grade Immortals from the five great clans of the Central Continent—at the sight of these Imperial Court cultivators, they felt only the searing pleasure of vengeance, showing their enemies not a sliver of mercy.

The upheaval at the core city spread through the entire Imperial Court communication network.

Several immensely powerful auras erupted into the sky from within the core city at the same time.

Those were the Celestial Wardens stationed in the city. Their figures cut through the rubble and smoke, charging toward where the fighting was fiercest.

Immediately after, the void tore open with crack after crack. Celestial Wardens in other regions had sensed the chaos at the core city and were now tearing through space at maximum speed to arrive.

Xing Huang's gaze locked onto one of those figures.

Her form transformed into a streak of flowing light, charging toward that region. The starlight condensing in her hands was aimed squarely at Dingchen, pinning his attention within the star-veiled sphere she had created.

The other Emperor-grade Immortals each locked onto their assigned targets as well. The sky above the core city of the Imperial Court was carved into ten separate battlefields by ten different rays of light.

After unleashing that sword strike, Gu Changyuan did not linger, nor did he look behind him.

His gaze crossed the smoke and fire of the battlefield, crossed the figures clashing and colliding, and settled on the tallest palace at the center of the core city.

That palace was dark-golden all over, wrapped in layers of defensive formations, maintaining an eerie calm amid the chaos of battle.

With a flicker of his form, he passed through the gaps of the battlefield and headed toward that palace.

The black longsword turned in his hand, tip pointing forward, runes on the blade beginning to glow.

He swung his sword again. A sharp sword-qi burst forth and surged toward that dark-golden palace.

At that very moment, a beam of golden light descended from the heavens. It poured down like flowing water, enclosing the entire imperial palace within it.

The golden light gathered, coalescing into a curtain of pure golden radiance, spreading open as a barrier before the palace gates.

A golden figure stepped out from behind the barrier.

He was tall and slender, clad in a dark-golden robe with no excess ornamentation—only a natural, uncontrived majesty.

His eyes were pale gold.

And at the corner of his mouth, the moment he laid eyes on Gu Changyuan, a slight curve formed.

Gu Changyuan stopped the instant the golden light surged forth, suspending himself in midair before the palace.

He looked down, his gaze landing on the figure emerging from the golden light. He felt that oppressive aura rolling toward him—far beyond the scope of any Emperor-grade Immortal—but his expression did not change. Only his grip on the sword tightened.

The Emperor.

He looked at Gu Changyuan, and the curve at the corner of his mouth widened slightly, like a man who had finally found the one he was looking for.

"Who would have thought," he said, "that we would meet like this."