The white dragon-scale granite of the Golden Dragon Bridge had borne the heavy parade of imperial triumphs for over three thousand years. Empires had risen, vassal kingdoms had knelt, and victorious generals had marched across its vast five-hundred-yard expanse under showers of golden flower petals.
Tonight, however, the ancient bridge knew only the terrifying silence of absolute defeat.
Twenty thousand elite Sun-Shield Knights lay prostrate along the sides of the stone thoroughfare. Their volcanic bronze armor, usually humming with ferocious thermal Qi, was now completely coated in a dull, milky frost. Their massive solar steel tower shields lay shattered into fine, metallic grit across the polished floor, transformed into useless sand by a single, passive wave of absolute zero.
The elite warriors of the empire did not dare to raise their heads. Their breaths came in ragged, terrified gasps, forming tiny plumes of white mist in the freezing night air. Every time the sole of Li-Wen's plain traveler's boot struck the stone—TAP, TAP, TAP—a phantom tremor ran through their meridians, as if a mountain of glacial ice were stepping directly upon their fragile souls.
Beside him, Xiao-Yue walked with light, energetic steps. Her small hand remained snugly tucked inside Li-Wen's broad, warm palm. In her other hand, the pink lotus lantern emitted a soft, ruby-red halo that pushed back the lingering frost around their feet, creating a gentle, warm sanctuary amidst the desolate, frozen bridge.
"Brother Li-Wen," Xiao-Yue murmured softly, her big, luminous eyes scanning the golden gates that loomed ahead at the end of the bridge. "The big doors at the end look like they are made of fire."
"They were built with stolen sun-stone, Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen replied, his voice calm, flat, and carrying the quiet weight of an eternal glacier. "They built a sun to hide from the dark, but they forgot that fire eventually turns to ash."
At the far northern terminus of the Golden Dragon Bridge stood the Golden Dragon Gate—a two-hundred-foot colossal archway forged from solid molten ore and inlaid with nine golden dragon relief sculptures. Normally, the gate radiated a blinding, solar glare that could blind an ordinary mortal from a mile away. Now, under the oppressive, looming presence of the Northern Sovereign, the golden glow flickered erratically, casting long, twisted shadows against the high palace walls.
Hovering twenty feet directly above the center of the archway were five imposing figures.
They did not belong to the ordinary military ranks of the empire. They were the Five Secret Palace Guardians—the ultimate shadow pillars of the Crimson Dragon Dynasty. Each of them was a Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereign who had spent over a century in death-seclusion beneath the imperial dragon veins, emerging only when the existence of the royal bloodline was threatened with absolute extinction.
To the far left stood Guardian Red-Drake, clad in burning scale mail, his hands gripping two flaming crescent scimitars.
Beside him hovered Guardian Iron-Rune, a towering monk whose golden skin was covered in intricate, spatial-defensive tattoos.
In the center sat Guardian Blood-Moon, a pale, phantom-like old woman holding an ivory bone flute that dripped with toxic crimson miasma.
To her right was Guardian Shadow-Fang, a wrapped assassin whose body constantly flickered in and out of the spatial folds.
And on the far right stood Guardian Sun-Crusher, an iron-jawed elder holding a massive golden sun-seal that pulsated with crushing gravitational force.
Five Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns! Arrayed in the ancient 'Five-Element Dragon-Lock Formation', their combined spiritual pressure locked onto the end of the bridge like an unyielding mountain range!
"Halt, nameless wanderer!" Guardian Sun-Crusher's thunderous voice echoed from above the gate, causing the air around the archway to warp violently. "You have destroyed the Heaven-Shatter Towers and disarmed the Imperial Guard! But this is the threshold of the Imperial Court! Step one foot further, and the Five-Element Array will grind your soul into fine dust!"
Li-Wen did not stop. His stride remained as steady and unhurried as before. He did not raise his eyes to look at the five Stage-5 Sovereigns, treating the formidable array before him as nothing more than a light breeze fluttering against his coat.
Ten steps.
Five steps.
Li-Wen crossed the final stone slab of the Golden Dragon Bridge, stopping precisely three yards before the towering Golden Dragon Gate.
"Arrogant fool!" Guardian Red-Drake roared, his fiery scimitars igniting into two hundred-foot arcs of blazing solar fire! "You dare ignore the Five Secret Guardians of the Empire?! DIE—!"
"Execute the Five-Element Dragon-Lock!" Guardian Sun-Crusher bellowed!
BOOOOM—!
The sky above the golden gate shattered into five brilliant colors!
To the East, Red-Drake unleashed a roaring dragon of pure solar flame!
To the West, Iron-Rune slammed his palms together, summoning a hundred golden spatial seals that slammed down from the sky!
To the North, Guardian Blood-Moon blew into her bone flute, releasing a mile-wide tidal wave of corrosive, blood-red phantom spirits!
To the South, Shadow-Fang materialized out of thin air directly behind Li-Wen's back, driving two dark, poison-coated daggers straight toward his spine!
And from the Center, Sun-Crusher slammed his golden sun-seal down, unleashing a ten-million-pound gravitational domain designed to crush a cultivator's bones into powder!
Five Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns, executing a synchronous, lethal ambush at point-blank range!
The sheer force of their combined assault caused the white granite floor beneath the archway to disintegrate into powder! The surrounding air exploded into a boiling vortex of fire, poison, gravity, and spatial blades!
Facing the world-ending onslaught from five directions simultaneously, Li-Wen did not draw his heavy blade. He did not even turn around to look at the dagger striking at his spine.
He simply stood still.
The small, ancient Northern Rune beneath his dark traveler's coat pulsed once.
HUMMM—!
It was not a movement of Qi. It was not a defensive barrier or an array technique.
It was the passive release of his Abyssal Northern Aura!
SNAP! CHILL—!
In a microsecond, an absolute, void-like sphere of deep sapphire darkness expanded outward from Li-Wen's body for precisely ten yards!
The moment the five ultimate attacks entered that ten-yard sphere, all motion ceased!
Red-Drake's hundred-foot dragon of solar flame froze into a solid, motionless statue of blue ice mid-roar!
Iron-Rune's hundred golden spatial seals turned black and brittle, shattering into harmless metallic dust before they could even touch Li-Wen's hair!
Blood-Moon's mile-wide tidal wave of toxic blood spirits snap-froze in mid-air, turning into millions of tiny, ruby-colored ice crystals that rained harmlessly onto the floor!
Sun-Crusher's ten-million-pound gravitational domain was instantly neutralized, its gravitational lines frozen solid like rigid iron wires in space!
And behind Li-Wen, Guardian Shadow-Fang's daggers stopped precisely three inches from Li-Wen's coat.
Shadow-Fang's eyes widened in sheer, unimaginable horror. He tried to retract his daggers. He tried to merge back into the shadows. He tried to mobilize his Stage-5 core energy.
He couldn't.
The absolute zero aura radiating from Li-Wen had not just frozen his physical body—it had frozen his blood, his meridians, his spiritual consciousness, and even the very spatial fold he was hiding in!
"You... what... what are you...?" Shadow-Fang choked out, his voice sounding like dry glass scraping together as thin lines of blue ice rapidly crawled up his mask.
Li-Wen did not turn his head. His dark, indifferent eyes remained fixed on the golden gate ahead.
"Retreat," Li-Wen spoke, his low voice carrying a quiet, terrifying resonance that vibrated directly inside the skulls of the five guardians.
He took a single, calm step forward.
THUD.
A visible, circular ripple of sapphire shockwave erupted from beneath his boot!
BOOOOM—!
The five Stage-5 High-Grade Guardians were hit simultaneously by an invisible, unstoppable wave of pure spatial momentum!
"AARGH—!"
Guardian Red-Drake's flaming scimitars snapped into pieces! He spewed a massive plume of frozen golden blood as his heavy scale mail disintegrated, his body flying backward like a broken kite and slamming violently against the high palace doors!
Guardian Iron-Rune's golden defensive tattoos burst into flames of blue frost! His Diamond-Iron body cracked like dry pottery, and he was hurled three hundred yards through the air, crashing deep into the marble courtyard inside the gate!
Guardian Blood-Moon's ivory flute exploded into powder! Her soul received a violent, icy backlash, and she shrieked in agony as her cultivation base collapsed, her body tumbling down from the sky like a dead bird!
Guardian Sun-Crusher's golden sun-seal turned into brittle frost-dust! He was thrown back fifty yards, his ribs shattering instantly as he hit the ground, sliding through the shattered granite until he hit the base of the golden archway, gasping for air like a dying dog!
And behind Li-Wen, Guardian Shadow-Fang didn't even have the chance to fly backward. The spatial fold around him collapsed into absolute zero! He turned into a solid block of blue ice before shattering into millions of glittering ice particles that scattered into the night breeze!
One step.
A single, passive release of his aura, followed by one step forward!
Four Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns severely wounded and crippled; one Stage-5 Guardian instantly atomized into frost dust!
The entire Five-Element Dragon-Lock Formation—the pride of the imperial shadow court—was completely obliterated without Li-Wen ever unsheathing his weapon, raising his arm, or using a single formal stance!
Silence returned to the Golden Dragon Gate.
High above, from the observation towers of the inner palace, the high ministers and remaining clan leaders who witnessed the scene through their projection mirrors fell into a state of utter, catatonic horror.
"Five... five Stage-5 High-Grade Guardians..." a grand scholar whimpered, dropping his jade tablet to the floor, where it shattered into pieces. "Defeated in a single step... without drawing a blade..."
"He didn't even use a technique!" another elder screamed, clutching his head in sheer madness. "That was just his spiritual aura! How can a human being possess such power?! Is he a god from the Upper Realm?!"
Down at the gate, Guardian Sun-Crusher lay against the stone pillar, his chest caved in, blood mixed with ice crystals pouring continuously from his mouth. His hand trembled violently as he looked up at the solitary figure in the dark coat approaching him.
"You... you monster..." Sun-Crusher gasped, his eyes wide with pure, unadulterated terror. "The Prime Ancestor... has unsealed the Nine-Sun Spear... You will... you will be burned to ashes..."
Li-Wen stopped beside the fallen guardian. He did not look down at him. His dark eyes simply stared at the colossal, two-hundred-foot golden gate before him.
"Your sun is already dead," Li-Wen said softly.
He raised his right hand, resting his open palm gently against the thick, molten-ore surface of the two-hundred-foot gate.
HUMMM—!
A single, faint blue snowflake pattern flared on the back of Li-Wen's hand.
In the next microsecond, the entire two-hundred-foot Golden Dragon Gate—a massive structure forged from volcanic steel and reinforced with thousands of imperial defensive arrays—turned completely pale blue!
SNAP—!
The glowing golden dragon reliefs lost their light. The ancient defensive runes flickered once and died.
Then, with a sound like shattering glass, the colossal two-hundred-foot gate dissolved into a massive, shimmering cloud of blue frost dust!
The night wind blew past, sweeping the frost dust away, revealing the vast, grand marble avenue of the Inner Imperial Palace that lay beyond.
The path to the heart of the empire was completely open.
Li-Wen lowered his hand, turning his head slightly to look down at Xiao-Yue.
The little girl was looking around the wide, open imperial avenue with bright, curious eyes. The lotus mark on her neck radiated a soft, comforting warmth, and her pink lotus lantern burned with an increasingly brilliant ruby flame, sensing that the true ancestral core of her clan was now just a few hundred yards away.
"Is the fire gone, Brother Li-Wen?" Xiao-Yue asked softly, holding his fingers tightly.
"The fire is gone," Li-Wen replied, his voice calm and steady as he took her small hand once more. "Now, we go meet their ancestor."
Together, the solitary traveler and the small girl stepped over the glittering blue frost dust, entering the inner sanctuary of the Central Imperial Palace.
See you in next chapter...