great-warnovel Chapter 174 Cross-Province Roll Call and the End of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion
Chapter 174 Cross-Province Roll Call and the End of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion
The air at the bottom of the deep well was so viscous it was almost dripping water.
Lu Yuan stood on the dark red, broken spine of the dragon vein. In his hand, he held the broken sword tip stained with blackened blood.
There was no outward display of emotion. No gritted teeth. No roaring to the heavens.
He simply and calmly turned his palm over.
The drop of Nine-Colored Star Domain Origin, the size of a soybean, floated quietly in the palm of his hand. This drop of top-grade essence, extracted by draining most of the Blood River Sect's main vein, emitted a high-dimensional fluctuation that subtly distorted the surrounding space.
Lu Yuan pressed the drop of origin onto the Nine Heavens Storage Ring on his left index finger.
This top-grade immortal artifact, which had accompanied his physical body across the void and whose surface was covered with fine void cracks, emitted an extremely sharp buzzing sound within 0.1 seconds of contacting the origin of the star field.
The sound scraped against my eardrums.
Standing a dozen meters away, Ye Qingcheng felt a sudden churning in her stomach. Instinctively, she clenched her back teeth, a hallucinatory taste of blood rising in her mouth.
She watched helplessly as the drop of nine-colored liquid seeped into the material of the storage ring instantly, like molten iron poured onto snow.
The deepest, most fatal crack on the ring's surface began to close at a visible speed.
Along with the repair of the cracks.
A surge of pure spiritual energy, long suppressed and belonging to the peak of the Mahayana stage, flowed from Lu Yuan's fingertips into his meridians like a flood bursting its banks.
The weakness he felt from enduring a miniature tactical nuclear bomb in the capital's prison and forcibly using the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron, which resulted in the complete depletion of his true essence, was brutally washed away at this moment.
The dried-up dantian was once again filled with golden true essence.
Not only did it fill him up, but the domineering medicinal power remaining from the origin of the star field directly cleared away all the blockages in his body caused by forcibly suppressing the Heavenly Dao Stealing Life Curse.
The gravity parameters within three meters of Lu Yuan became invalid.
The pebbles defied gravity and floated upwards, where they were ground into powder finer than flour by invisible true energy.
Ye Qingcheng's knees buckled, and she slammed heavily against the glassy rock wall. The sound of bones hitting stone was frighteningly crisp.
She couldn't even lift her head. The oppressive feeling wasn't directed at her; it was merely the residual power unconsciously emanating from Lu Yuan that made this former youngest Grandmaster of the Ancient Martial Arts Alliance unable to even breathe.
Lu Yuan casually tossed the severed sword tip into his storage ring.
"Back to top."
He didn't turn back to pull Ye Qingcheng. His Mahayana stage true essence burst forth, directly forming a vacuum shield around the two of them.
Lu Yuan bent his knees slightly.
boom!
The dark red dragon vein beneath their feet let out a mournful cry, overwhelmed by the weight.
The two transformed into a blur, crashing directly into the 500-meter-thick layer of rock and reinforced concrete above them.
There was no beating around the bush. There was no dodging.
With his physical body in the Mahayana stage and his true essence in full bloom, he treated the hundreds of meters thick strata of earth as if they were paper windows.
The soil, rocks, alloy pipes, and half-meter-thick load-bearing walls were all forcibly squeezed and pushed away by the violent kinetic energy the moment they came into contact with the vacuum shield above Lu Yuan's head.
The first floor of the underground air-raid shelter.
Lin Zhen was leaning against the dilapidated special lead-core door, smoking. His hand holding the cigarette was trembling like a leaf, and he couldn't flick the ash off even after three puffs.
Wang Jianguo was also tightly bound to the load-bearing column with several tactical cable ties.
The special envoy from the Astronomical Bureau headquarters had half his face swollen, from the slap he'd just received from Lin Zhen's bodyguards. But he was still shouting through the cracks.
"Lin Zhen, you're dead. The array at the bottom of the air-raid shelter was a complex trap personally set up by Senior Brother Xu Changqing of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion. Even if that little beast Lu Yuan had three heads and six arms, he's already been sucked dry by the interdimensional passage!"
Wang Jianguo spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his eyes filled with madness.
"Although Director Zhou Ming of the Third Division of Headquarters is dead, the experts from the Wang and Ye families in Beijing have already surrounded the headquarters of the Celestial Surveillance Bureau. If you release me now and kowtow three times to me, I might still spare your life..."
Boom!
Wang Jianguo hadn't finished speaking.
The ground of the entire air-raid shelter bulged violently upwards.
The hard marble tiles were overturned as if by explosives detonated from below. A huge crater, five meters in diameter, exploded in the middle of the corridor.
Smoke and dust mixed with groundwater vapor rose into the sky.
Lu Yuan emerged from the swirling dust, one hand in the pocket of his windbreaker.
His clothes were spotless, without a speck of dirt on them. Ye Qingcheng followed behind him, her face pale, but her breathing was completely steady.
The temperature in the corridor dropped to freezing point in a second.
The half-smoked cigarette in Lin Zhen's mouth fell onto the floor tiles with a thud, sending sparks flying.
Without hesitation, he knelt down on one knee and lowered his head deeply.
A clucking sound, like a hen being choked, came from Wang Jianguo's throat.
His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he stared at the unharmed Lu Yuan, his cerebral cortex completely shutting down. A warm, foul-smelling liquid dripped from his trouser leg onto the floor tiles, pooling into a puddle of yellowish water.
"You...you put the formation..."
Lu Yuan walked up to Wang Jianguo.
He didn't look at the fat man's face, which was contorted with extreme fear, but instead glanced down at the yellow puddle.
"The dogs of the Sirius system. They're quite fat on Earth."
Lu Yuan raised his right hand.
"Mr. Lu, spare my life! I'm a special envoy from headquarters! I know about the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's plan! I know..."
Wang Jianguo's screams abruptly stopped.
Lu Yuan placed his index finger on Wang Jianguo's forehead.
No blood splattered. No headshots.
A barely visible wisp of blue flame burrowed into Wang Jianguo's scalp along Lu Yuan's fingertip.
Samadhi Fire
The flame didn't ignite Wang Jianguo's clothes, nor did it burn the support pillar binding him. It only burned one thing.
Living matter.
In less than a second, Wang Jianguo's body lost all its moisture and flesh support. His skin rapidly dried up and turned ash, and his bones, under the heat of the real fire, directly turned into the most basic carbon element.
A draft of air blew through the underground passage.
The tactical cable ties tied to the pillar were empty.
A large handful of grayish-white powder drifted in the wind into the puddles in the corridor, leaving not a trace of oil behind.
Lin Zhen lay on the ground, biting his lip tightly, not daring to make a sound.
He had witnessed Lu Yuan crush other people's heads and summon lightning to kill grandmasters. But the way Lu Yuan directly erased a living person from the physical realm, turning them into a handful of inorganic salt ashes, completely shattered his understanding of the world.
"Lin Zhen".
Lu Yuan's voice came from above.
"Yes, Mr. Lu, what are your orders?" Lin Zhen's forehead was pressed against the cold floor tiles, his voice hoarse.
"I've already cut off the pipes at the bottom of the air-raid shelter. Take that old blind man and Engineer Zhou to the hospital."
Lu Yuan turned around and looked in the direction of the air-raid shelter's exit.
"Also, pass on a message to Elder Li in the capital."
Lin Zhen quickly perked up his ears.
"The roof of the Astronomical Bureau headquarters is leaking. I'm in a bad mood today. I'm going to go and help them tear down the building."
The words had barely left his lips.
The air emitted an extremely muffled popping sound.
Lin Zhen suddenly looked up; the corridor was empty. Only a few scraps of paper were swirling in the air, whipped up by the violent air currents.
......
2 PM. Underground command center of the Beijing Defense Zone.
The piercing red alarm lights turned the entire hall blood red.
Dozens of radar operators frantically typed on their keyboards. On the enormous holographic projection screen, a red dot of light was hurtling towards the capital from the direction of Jiangnan Province at a speed defying the laws of physics.
Chu Jianguo pushed open the door and strode to the control panel.
His square face was so gloomy it looked like it could drip water.
"Has the target been identified? Is it an intercontinental ballistic missile from overseas?"
The radar supervisor turned around, sweating profusely, his voice trembling.
"Reporting, sir! It's not a missile! There's no exhaust plume or heat source! No metallic features with a radar cross-section!"
The supervisor swallowed hard and pointed at the fluctuating data on the screen.
"Target altitude: 3,000 meters. Speed... Mach 15. And it's accelerating. This size and thermal characteristics... resemble a person."
The entire command center fell into a deathly silence.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
Mach 15. 3,000 meters low.
This means that the object completely ignored the thousands of degrees of heat generated by air resistance. At this speed, even a titanium alloy meteorite would have been burned to ashes long ago.
Chu Jianguo braced his hands on the control panel. The veins on the back of his hands bulged.
He recalled the top-secret message Lin Zhen had sent back from Jiangnan via an encrypted channel half an hour earlier.
"The roof of the Astronomical Bureau headquarters is leaking..."
Chu Jianguo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Cancel the lock on all anti-aircraft missiles. Order all air force aircraft along the route to immediately return to base and land."
The radar supervisor was stunned.
"Commander! The target is heading straight towards Xishan! That's where the Tianji Pavilion headquarters and some of the retired cadres' sanatorium are located! If we don't intercept them..."
"What can you use to intercept them!"
Chu Jianguo suddenly opened his eyes and slammed his hand on the alloy tabletop.
"Are you going to pay with human lives?! That 5,000-ton tactical nuclear bomb in the dungeon didn't kill him! You think anti-aircraft missiles are nothing to him?!"
Chu Jianguo grabbed the red secure telephone on the table.
"Help us get to the headquarters of the Astronomical Bureau. And to Elder Li."
The phone rang three times before being answered.
"This is Chu Jianguo. Notify everyone within a ten-mile radius of the Xishan Tianji Pavilion to evacuate within three minutes. Those who do not evacuate will be treated as if they were involved in a mudslide natural disaster."
hang up the phone.
Chu Jianguo looked at the red dot on the holographic screen that had crossed the Yellow River defense line and gave a wry smile.
"Those arrogant families in the capital, they have no choice but to mess with that living devil."
......
Western Hills of Beijing. Headquarters of Tianji Pavilion.
This is a vast complex of ancient buildings in the style of the Tang Dynasty. Hidden deep within the feng shui formations of the Western Hills, it is perpetually shrouded in a thin layer of white mist.
The Heavenly Mystery Hall is located at the deepest part of the complex.
In the center of the main hall, a sunken pool with a diameter of ten meters was excavated. The pool was not filled with water, but with highly toxic liquid mercury.
Above the mercury pool floated a huge bronze astronomical instrument. It was engraved with the stars of the heavens, each star adorned with the finest spiritual blood, emitting a faint red glow.
Zhao Changkong, the current head of the Tianji Pavilion, was sitting cross-legged by the mercury pool, wearing a purple-gold Taoist robe embroidered with Bagua patterns.
Sitting opposite him was Wang Hai, the younger brother of Wang Zhentian, who was now in charge of the Wang family in Beijing.
There was also Liu Zhengfeng, a deputy director at the headquarters of the National Astronomical Observatory.
In front of the three people was a tea table made of fine Phoebe zhennan wood, with steaming tea.
"Sect Master Zhao."
Wang Hai picked up his teacup and gently blew on it.
"Any news from Jiangnan? My elder brother paid such a high price in the Heavenly Prison, even sacrificing his life, to cover Zhou Ming's cutting off of Panlong Mountain's signal. When will we receive the Foundation Establishment Pills promised by the Sirius Star Region?"
Zhao Changkong stroked his goatee and let out a smug chuckle.
"Patriarch Wang, please calm down. The Spirit-Suppressing Array at the bottom of the air-raid shelter uses most of the dragon veins of Jiangnan as fuel. Judging by the time, the reverse coordinates set up by Junior Brother Xu Changqing should have been activated long ago."
Zhao Changkong pointed to the bronze astronomical instrument floating above his head.
"Once the Seven Killings Star on the astrolabe turns completely dark red, it means the interdimensional passage is stable. The powerful beings of the Sirius Star Region will use the passage to send us what we need."
Liu Zhengfeng chimed in from the side.
"That kid named Lu Yuan thinks he can do whatever he wants on Earth just because he has brute strength. He has no idea what true strength is."
Liu Zhengfeng snorted coldly.
"By the time he realizes that the situation in Jiangnan is a dead end and tries to come back, we will have already obtained the resources of the cultivation world. At that time, any Divine Realm Ancestor can crush him as easily as crushing a bug after swallowing a Foundation Establishment Pill."
Zhao Changkong picked up his teacup, ready to drink.
Suddenly, a gurgling sound came from the mercury pool. A huge bubble rose to the surface.
Followed by.
The bronze astrolabe suspended in mid-air emitted a metallic scraping sound that made one's teeth ache.
The gears are stuck.
The celestial constellations above did not turn dark red. Instead, they began to rotate in reverse at an extremely strange speed.
"What's going on!"
The teacup in Zhao Changkong's hand fell to the ground with a clatter. The scalding tea splashed onto his Taoist robe, but he was completely unaware.
He stared intently at the planetarium.
Click.
The Ziwei star, representing the destiny of the Tianji Pavilion, cracked open on the bronze plate.
Followed by.
boom!
The entire bronze astronomical instrument, weighing over ten tons, was as if it had been crushed by an invisible giant hand.
Countless bronze fragments, mixed with highly toxic mercury, exploded radially within the Heavenly Mystery Hall.
The dozen or so internal energy martial artists standing around serving them didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were riddled with holes by the bronze fragments. The wounds, which had been exposed to mercury, quickly festered and turned black, and they collapsed to the ground convulsing.
Wang Hai's protective aura was torn apart by a shard, which grazed his scalp and sliced off half of his ear.
Blood instantly covered half of his face.
"Zhao Changkong! Didn't you say the formation was foolproof?! What's going on?!" Wang Hai covered his ears and roared hysterically.
Zhao Changkong's face was as white as a sheet of paper.
He ignored Wang Hai. He didn't even bother to wipe the blisters on his face caused by the mercury burns.
He lay prone by the mercury pool, frantically calculating on the floor tiles with his blood-stained fingers.
The resulting hexagrams were all in a state of extinction.
There is no chance of survival.
"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."
Zhao Changkong's lips trembled.
"The formation wasn't overloaded. It's the energy source at the other end of the passage... that's been drained. The coordinates of the Blood River Sect in the Sirius Star Region... have disappeared!"
Liu Zhengfeng grabbed Zhao Changkong by the collar.
"Stop playing tricks! What do you mean the coordinates disappeared! Explain yourself clearly!"
Before he could finish speaking...
A rhythmic roar came from the depths of the sky above.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
That wasn't thunder.
It was a series of sonic booms caused by some extremely massive and fast object forcibly pushing aside the air layer.
The entire West Mountain trembled under the shockwave of the sonic boom.
The outermost layer of the Tianji Pavilion, a feng shui array that was said to be impenetrable even by armor-piercing bullets, was struck by this sonic boom the moment it came into contact with it.
It's like a glass dome being hit by a heavy hammer.
With a crash, it shattered into countless streaks of light.
The raging hurricane ripped off the glazed tiles of the Heavenly Mystery Hall. The sturdy mahogany beams cracked under the strain.
The sky was revealed.
There were no dark clouds. There was no thunder.
Only a straight, white contrail, stretching for thousands of kilometers, resembled a sharp sword spanning the entirety of China, piercing straight into the sky above the Western Hills.
The end of the blast wave.
A figure hovered in mid-air directly above the main hall.
The surrounding air, due to extreme high-speed friction, had become a visible plasma state. Dark blue arcs of electricity danced across the surface of the man's jacket.
Lu Yuan lowered his head.
His gaze pierced through the broken dome of the main hall and landed on the three people by the mercury pool.
There were no loud rebukes. There was no oppressive force of true energy.
He simply took a step out of mid-air.
The toes touch the air.
A visible, transparent ripple burst open beneath my feet.
Lu Yuan's body crashed into the Heavenly Mystery Hall like a meteorite falling to earth.
boom!
The remaining three walls of the main hall were directly destroyed by the shockwave from the impact. The exquisite golden nanmu tea table was reduced to dust.
The ground caved in, creating a large crater several meters in diameter. The highly toxic mercury was forced into the underground water veins by the violent kinetic energy.
The dust settled.
Lu Yuan stood in the center of the large pit.
In his hand, he still held the broken sword tip, covered in rust and stained with black blood.
Wang Hai was thrown more than ten meters by the blast wave, crashing into a stone pillar and spitting out mouthfuls of blood mixed with pieces of his internal organs.
Liu Zhengfeng's legs were crushed by the aftershocks of the true energy, leaving him kneeling in the ruins in an extremely twisted position.
Because Zhao Changkong was closest, half of his bones were shattered. Leaning against the edge of the pit, he watched the young man descend like a god or demon, and his last shred of sanity completely collapsed.
"Lu...Lu Yuan..."
Zhao Changkong's teeth were chattering, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
"The Heavenly Mystery Pavilion has a 300-year history... How dare you destroy my lineage..."
Lu Yuan walked up to Zhao Changkong.
He looked down at the Tianji Pavilion Master, who was sprawled on the ground like a dead dog.
The Mahayana stage divine sense directly locked onto Zhao Changkong's sea of consciousness. This involved information about the mole within the Heavenly Surveillance Bureau, the deal between the Wang and Ye families, and the coordinates of the Blood River Sect.
All the information was forcibly extracted by Lu Yuan in 0.1 seconds.
Zhao Changkong let out an extremely shrill scream. Black blood gushed from all seven orifices at the same time, and his cerebral cortex was completely flattened by this barbaric soul-searching method, turning him into a still-breathing lump of flesh.
Lu Yuan shook the blood off his hands.
He turned his head and looked at Wang Hai and Liu Zhengfeng, who were still crawling out on the ground.
"To trade the lives of the entire Jiangnan region for a few worthless Foundation Establishment Pills."
Lu Yuan raised his hand and held the severed sword tip up to his eyes.
The true essence of the peak Mahayana stage flowed from his fingertips into the broken sword. The originally rusty iron, under the infusion of true essence, burst forth with a dazzling blood-red sword light.
The sword's light flickered erratically, tearing through the surrounding space.
"I'm going on a long trip."
Lu Yuan's voice was completely flat. Yet, to Wang Hai and Liu Zhengfeng, it was more piercing than a death knell from hell.
"Before leaving, I need to stomp on all the cockroaches in the house."
Lu Yuan flipped his wrist.
The crimson sword light transformed into a vast, all-encompassing net, directly enveloping Wang Hai and Liu Zhengfeng.
There was no room for resistance.
A flash of sword light.
Before the two could even scream, their bodies were instantly sliced into thousands of perfectly uniform pieces of flesh.
Before the blood could even splatter onto the ground, it was evaporated into red mist by the true fire attached to the sword's edge.
Lu Yuan sheathed the broken sword.
He didn't look at the horrific scene on the ground. Instead, he raised his head and looked towards the center of Beijing.
That is where the headquarters of the Astronomical Bureau is located.
It's also where the last few names are located on this messy list.
The ruins beneath Lu Yuan's feet exploded once more.
His body transformed into a black lightning bolt, tearing through the night sky over the Western Hills and hurtling straight towards the heart of the capital.