The Capital.

The greatest city within the Empire and also where the Royal Family presided.

Peace within the Capital was to be expected as often as the sun would rise each and every day. To the residents of the Capital, civil unrest was never a topic of concern, not even as Wu Hao was leading the rebels across the other provinces and cities. Life was still the same as always here.

At the heart of the Capital, within the magnificent Imperial Palace.

Behind one of the grand halls stood what was known widely as the Imperial Garden. Only a few people would stand guard here since beyond the Imperial Garden was a restricted area where even the workers of the palace were often forbidden from getting too close.

Very few knew about this place and how it ‘housed’ a very special soulbeast, one known as the Guardian Beast of the Royal Family.

If one were to enter this area, then one would be met with a glorious spread of fauna and a unique ‘mountain’.

The yellowish-mountain was about a hundred meters tall and had uneven edges running all over its surface in a vine-like pattern.

There were also six giant ‘holes’ in the ‘mountain’ that looked very strange in their placement.

……

“Boom…”

Suddenly, the ‘mountain’ began to rumble at its base. Grass and stone dislodged from its surface as it began to…move!!

A strange aura began to rise from the mountain and spread throughout the land!

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Four ‘pillars’ extruded from the two holes on both sides of the mountain. Then from the front hole, two bright spheres of light appeared before the head of a dragon came extending forth!

—This wasn’t a ‘mountain’, it was a giant tortoise! And the six holes of the mountain were just the legs, head, and tail!

From appearance alone this tortoise was an extremely large one and strangely enough had the head of a dragon instead of a tortoise. It was a strange soulbeast that exuded a regal air as if demanding respect from all those who felt its presence.

A soulbeast from antiquity, a Dragonic Black Tortoise!!

A legendary soulbeast said to have protected the Royal Family since the founding of the Tianhun Empire. Bai Yunfei once recalled such a being was once brought up before when he was with Xiao Qi and the red magiboar. It was when the fifth princess said the name ‘Da Huang’.

For two thousand years, the Dragonic Black Tortoise never left the Imperial Palace and mostly lived a life of isolation and meditation. Today, for some reason, the Dragonic Black Tortoise looked like it was completely awake now!

“Angh……..”

A low-pitched growl erupted from the Dragonic Black Tortoise mouth to spread throughout the entire Capital!

At this same exact moment in a small building somewhere else, an elderly man with white hair opened his eyes abruptly as if in shock.

Likewise, the ruler of the Tianhun Empire, Wu Hong, also reacted similarly in the palace. Standing upright, he turned to the direction of the sound.

In Zheng Manor, in a small isolated courtyard, sat an elderly figure with a terrifying scar on his throat. His eyes snapped open at once to stare toward the direction of the Imperial Palace.

All over the capital, multiple Soul Emperors were all having the same exact reaction…

……

The ‘warning’ the Dragonic Black Tortoise gave off was heard only to those where Soul Emperors or stronger, meaning only a very small portion of the Capital heard it.

But the rest of the Capital all felt something, a premonition of sorts. Whether they were soul cultivator or commoner, they all found themselves turning their heads to the sky…

But the change they felt was something different, it wasn’t the warning from the Dragonic Black Tortoise. Something in the skies was causing a change…the world was darkening around them more and more until…the skies cracked!!

Multiple fractures were appearing all over the skies. Like shards of glass, they splintered off as if the sky was truly ‘collapsing’!

The sun couldn’t even be seen anymore. The darkening of the skies and the giant ‘hole’ had plummeted the entire Capital in a shroud of darkness!

And several moments after that…pandemonium broke out!

Screams, cries, howls, noises of all kinds exploded out from the Capital as its inhabitants began to panic…

“Bzz…”

And while everyone was screaming and trying to understand what was going on, a loud explosion caused everyone to then turn their attention to the giant ‘sun’ that was ascending up from the heart of the Capital.

That was where the Imperial Palace was! The sun transformed into a golden dome of sorts to surround the palace!

“Rumble…”

All sorts of light rays sprinkled down from the skies the moment the dome went up. One after another like a torrent of rain, the rays slammed into the dome!

“Boom boom boom boom boom…”

Each light ray that made contact with the dome exploded with a deafening rumble and brought a cascade of color all over the golden dome. The majority of these attacks were aimed at the dome itself, but there were a few that hit the areas surrounding the dome as well.

In a single moment, countless buildings were being demolished one after another as if undergoing a natural disaster!

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

Multiple beams of light flared to life from differing areas in the Capital. A few of them took flight to intercept any stray beam from colliding with the Capital, but there were also multiple others that were traveling to any nearby afflicted building to rescue the people there.

Soul cultivators!!

The countless soul cultivators living in the Capital were all beginning to stage their rescue operation against this ‘disaster’.

……

While the chaos was spreading down in the capital, a giant vortex of darkness had fully formed up in the skies. Throngs of people were floating down from it to stare at the Imperial Palace.

They were directly above the center of the Capital and had an unobstructed view of the Imperial Palace and the tortoise-shell shaped dome that protected it.

“It was but a mere tortoise before. And now it is a mid-stage class nine? How foolish it is to think it can protect the entire palace!!”

In one particular group, two individuals floated higher up in the skies than everyone else. One person was Wu Hao.The other was a man dressed entirely in black and a sinister sneer on his lips. It would appear that this person had dislike for the Dragonic Black Tortoise.

“Divine ancestor,” Wu Hao spoke respectfully, “there is also an Early-stage Soul Saint left in the Imperial Palace along with the Dragonic Black Tortoise. There may also an ancestor that has been in deep meditation for two hundred years, but we are unsure if he is still alive or not. If he is, then he may already be a Mid-stage Soul Saint…We don’t believe there will be any other Saints other than that. Should your esteemed self…”

The one known as the ‘Divine Ancestor’ interrupted him at once, “Worry not. Whether it be that Mid-stage Soul Saint or anyone else, I will kill them all…All of Wu Tianhun’s descendants shall die! My only concern is that I will be unable to see your restoration of our Liang Dynasty…everything will be on your shoulders…”

Sorrow flickered across Wu Hao’s eyes. “Please be at ease, Divine Ancestor! The restoration will be everything our founding fathers wanted! The world will be ours, glory to the Liang!!”

He turned his attention back to the palace beneath him. Venomous, his glare was almost enough to kill—the plan to restore the Liang had been a plan two millennia in the making. Everything was kept silent and in the shadows until his generation, but now that plan is being stopped in every way possible! They didn’t even have the option of retreating anymore, everything had to be settled in this battle! But the price…was a heavy one. His Divine Ancestor would have to give up the rest of his life for this!!

Wu Hao didn’t originally plan on having the Divine Ancestor lend a hand, but it couldn’t be helped!

“Kill them all!! Everyone in the Imperial Palace must die!!”

Wu Hao roared. All at once, multiple beams of light shot out from beneath him to rain down onto the Capital and the palace!