The central plaza of Winter-Frost City's upper district was a colossal, paved square constructed entirely from heavy, interlocking slabs of dark volcanic ironstone.
Surrounding the plaza were the towering, slate-gray mansions of the city's ruling elite, their tall granite balconies draped in heavy silk banners bearing the crests of the City Governor's Mansion and the Golden-Eagle Sect. High above, four massive, steam-powered warmth-conduits hissed incessantly, spewing thick white plumes of scalding steam into the freezing mountain air to keep the elite district free from snow and ice.
At the absolute center of the plaza stood the Grand Iron-Vault.
It was a terrifying, monolithic structure—a sixty-foot-high cubical fortress forged entirely from thick plates of refined Black-Iron Alloy and dark basalt stone. The vault had no windows, no side doors, and only a single, massive front gate forged from ten-foot-thick solid manganese steel, reinforced with nine glowing crimson locking spheres.
Etched deep into the outer iron walls of the vault were thousands of intricate, glowing blue runes that hummed with a terrifying, rhythmic vibration. This was the ancient Mountain-Cleaving Absolute Defense Array—a Stage-5 Peak defensive formation tied directly to the volcanic spiritual veins beneath the city. It could effortlessly withstand the continuous bombardment of ten Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns for three days without suffering a single scratch.
Stationed around the three-hundred-yard perimeter of the plaza were over six hundred heavily armored elite guards from the City Governor's Personal Brigade, all armed with long iron lances and heavy, repeating poison-crossbows.
Hovering calmly thirty feet in the air right above the iron vault were two imposing figures radiating the vast, heavy spiritual pressure of Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns!
The first was a tall, stern man in deep crimson plate armor, holding a massive, double-headed war-hammer that crackled with blue lightning—Commander Lei-Gong, the Chief Guard of the Governor's Mansion.
The second was a withered old man in gold-and-black feathered robes, resting his hands on a long, hooked wooden staff—Elder Eagle-Claw, the grand elder of the Golden-Eagle Sect's Western Branch.
"Keep your eyes sharp!" Commander Lei-Gong boomed, his voice augmented by thunderous spiritual Qi that echoed off the surrounding stone mansions. "The reports from the border are confirmed! The Northern Sovereign has crossed the mountain ridge! He atomized the tracking squad at the Frost-Bite Forest and is heading straight for the city!"
Elder Eagle-Claw let out a dry, rasping laugh, his sharp, predatory eyes scanning the crowded thoroughfares leading into the plaza. "Let him come! This plaza is enveloped by the Mountain-Cleaving Array! His spiritual Qi is ninety percent locked by the Void-Piercing Needle! On the open plains, he could rely on raw physical speed, but within this array, spatial pressure is multiplied by five hundred times! Once he steps onto these ironstone flags, his crippled bones will be crushed into powder before he can even reach the vault gate!"
At the edge of the central plaza, the dense crowd of citizens, mercenaries, and visiting merchants had retreated to the safety of the surrounding stone balconies and side alleys.
News of the impending confrontation had spread through Winter-Frost City like a wildfire in a pine forest. Thousands of spectators watched the iron vault from a distance with wide, terrified eyes, holding their breaths as the tense, suffocating silence grew deeper.
Through the quiet, cleared avenue leading into the plaza, three figures walked forward with slow, steady strides.
At the center walked Li-Wen.
His dark traveler's coat was unbuttoned at the top, fluttering gently in the warm draft blowing from the steam pipes. His broad chest rose and fell in a slow, rhythmic breath, and the massive, pitch-black heavy blade rested quietly across his back in its unadorned iron scabbard.
Beside his left boot was little Xiao-Yue, her small leather boots clicking softly against the dry ironstone flags. She wore her fluffy white sheepskin coat, holding her flickering pink lotus lantern high, her large, clear eyes looking around the grand plaza with innocent curiosity.
Walking calmly on Li-Wen's right side was Lady Mu-Qing.
The silver-haired alchemist had changed into a tighter, functional robe of moonlight-white silk, her long silver hair tied neatly behind her back with a dark jade ribbon. In her pale, delicate hand, she carried a compact, ancient pestle forged from translucent white jade—the legendary refining tool of her lineage. Her striking violet eyes remained completely calm, trusting the dark-coated man beside her with absolute, unwavering conviction.
As the trio stepped past the outer perimeter line into the open plaza, the six hundred armored guards instantly raised their iron lances and heavy crossbows!
"HALT! INTRUDERS!" Commander Lei-Gong's voice roared from the sky like a clap of thunder! He pointed his lightning-crackling war-hammer directly down at Li-Wen's head! "Northern Sovereign! You dare step into the upper district of Winter-Frost City?! You are surrounded by six hundred elite guards and protected by the Mountain-Cleaving Array! Surrender your heavy blade and the child, or be ground into dust!"
High above, Elder Eagle-Claw sneered maliciously, his hooked staff glowing with a fierce, golden aura. "Look at him! He doesn't even have a single thread of spiritual Qi flowing through his body! He is forcing his physical marrow to maintain his footing! Activate the array! Crush him!"
HUMMMMMMM—!
The moment Elder Eagle-Claw slammed his staff against the iron roof of the vault, the thousands of blue runes carved into the fortress flared into a blinding, sun-like radiance!
A massive, semi-transparent dome of deep blue earth-gravity energy erupted from the vault, instantly enveloping the entire three-hundred-yard expanse of the central plaza!
CRUNCH—!
The spatial gravity inside the plaza suddenly skyrocketed by five hundred times!
The heavy ironstone flags covering the plaza groaned violently, cracking into millions of spiderweb fractures under the sudden, horrifying gravitational weight! The heavy steam rising from the warmth pipes was smashed flat against the ground, turning into a dense layer of hot water vapor crawling across the stone floor!
The six hundred elite guards—despite wearing special gravity-absorbing iron armor—were forced down onto one knee, their heavy lances clattering against the cracked stone as cold sweat poured from beneath their helmets!
"Hahaha! How does five hundred times volcanic earth-gravity feel?!" Elder Eagle-Claw cackled from above, his voice filled with hysterical triumph! "Even an ancient Stage-5 dragon would have its skull caved in under my array! You are trapped, Northern Sovereign!"
Down on the cracked, steam-covered ironstone floor, Li-Wen took another unhurried step forward.
His boot landed with the exact same, steady cadence as before.
His dark traveler's coat did not tremble. His broad shoulders remained perfectly level. To a man whose physical bone density contained the primordial mass of an ancient, cold star, five hundred times gravity was no heavier than a few stray raindrops resting upon his coat.
Beside him, Lady Mu-Qing felt a gentle, warm barrier of invisible kinetic force wrap around her body, completely isolating her from the crushing spatial pressure. She looked at Li-Wen's broad, unmoving back, her violet eyes shining with deep awe.
Xiao-Yue blinked, looking down at the warm water vapor crawling over her boots. "Brother Li-Wen... the ground is making funny noises. Is it sleepy?"
"It is just soft stone, Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen said softly, his raspy voice flat, calm, and undisturbed.
"WHAT?! IMPOSSIBLE!" Commander Lei-Gong's eyes bulged in pure, unadulterated horror as he saw Li-Wen walking through the five-hundred-fold gravity dome as if taking a morning stroll in a garden! "GUARDS! FIRE THE POISON CROSSBOWS! KILL HIM!"
SWOOSH—! SWOOSH—! SWOOSH—!
Over three hundred heavy, poison-tipped iron crossbow bolts were released simultaneously! Driven by compressed steam-springs and the array's gravity, the bolts tore through the air like a wall of roaring, black-and-green steel meteors!
Li-Wen did not even look at the descending storm of bolts.
He simply took a long, deep breath, pulling his left hand out from his coat pocket.
FLEX.
He subtly expanded his broad chest, letting out a single, low, raspy exhale.
BOOOM—!
A pure, invisible ring of physical shockwave erupted three hundred and sixty degrees outward from his chest!
The three hundred poison-tipped iron bolts struck the invisible physical ring ten feet away from his body!
CRACKLE—! SHATTER—!
The moment the iron bolts touched the physical shockwave, the immense kinetic energy stored within them bounced back instantly! All three hundred bolts snap-froze, turning into brittle, pale-blue ice shards before disintegrating into fine powder that drifted into the steam!
"FIRE BRIGADE—ERASED?!"
"HE DIDN'T EVEN USE HIS HANDS! WHAT KIND OF MONSTROUS PHYSICAL BODY IS THAT?!"
The six hundred elite guards on the ground completely lost their minds! Screams of pure, bone-chilling terror erupted across the plaza as dozens of guards threw down their weapons, desperately crawling backward through the cracked stone to escape the invisible monster!
High in the sky, Commander Lei-Gong's face turned as pale as a corpse. "Elder Eagle-Claw! Use the vault's core energy! We must strike him together with full power!"
"GOLDEN EAGLE HEAVEN-SEVERING SLASH!" Elder Eagle-Claw screamed in sheer desperation, burning fifty percent of his golden core blood! His hooked staff transformed into a colossal, five-hundred-foot phantom eagle forged from blinding, golden sharp Qi!
"LIGHTNING HAMMER OF THE THUNDER MOUNTAIN!" Commander Lei-Gong bellowed, channeling the entire thunder vein of the Governor's Mansion into his massive war-hammer, turning into a descending meteor of blue electrical destruction!
The two Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns, combining their ultimate killing techniques with the full power of the Mountain-Cleaving Array, plummeted straight down toward Li-Wen's head with enough force to level half of Winter-Frost City!
Facing the descending apocalyptic storm of gold light and blue thunder, Li-Wen finally stopped his forward step thirty feet in front of the ten-foot-thick manganese steel gate of the Grand Iron-Vault.
He slowly raised his right hand.
He did not draw the massive heavy blade from his back. He did not make a complex martial gesture. He simply opened his broad, calloused palm, facing both the descending Sovereigns and the monolithic iron vault simultaneously.
Deep within his spine, the dark-violet Void-Piercing Needle twitched violently, its void poison trying to pulse. But before a single micro-drop could escape, the microscopic shell of absolute-zero ice tightened instantly, completely pulverizing the poison's reaction into inert ice crystals.
Li-Wen engaged ninety percent of his primordial bone marrow density.
He pushed his open palm forward into the empty air.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!
It was not a explosion of spiritual magic. It was the absolute, catastrophic eruption of physical kinetic mass!
A compressed cylinder of vacuum-dense atmosphere—five hundred yards in diameter—erupted from his palm with the force of an collapsing mountain peak!
The descending five-hundred-foot golden eagle construct? Vaporized in a microsecond!
The crackling blue thunder meteor? Smashed into meaningless sparks of fading light!
Elder Eagle-Claw and Commander Lei-Gong—the two mighty Stage-5 High-Grade Sovereigns who had ruled Winter-Frost City for decades—were hit dead-center by the physical kinetic wall!
CRUSH—!
Their Sovereign defensive barriers, their legendary steel armors, their weapons, and their bodies were instantly compressed into two microscopic specks of pale-blue frost-dust that were violently blown five miles out of the city into the sky!
And the physical shockwave did not stop there.
It slammed directly into the sixty-foot-high, ten-foot-thick manganese steel Grand Iron-Vault and its ancient Mountain-Cleaving Array!
SHATTER—! CRUNCH—! REPRESS—!
The impenetrable Stage-5 Peak defensive array did not even have the chance to flicker—its thousands of blue runes were violently torn to pieces! The sixty-foot iron fortress, the ten-foot manganese steel gate, and the basalt stone walls were instantly ground into fine, microscopic metallic dust that erupted into a colossal mushroom cloud of pale-blue frost-steam!
In less than two seconds, the invincible Grand Iron-Vault—the proudest fortress of Winter-Frost City—was completely cleared off the face of the earth!
Where the sixty-foot fortress had stood just seconds ago, there was now only a perfectly smooth, three-hundred-yard circular crater lined with frozen, polished basalt stone.
Sitting at the absolute center of the crater, completely untouched by the physical shockwave, was a single, three-foot-tall stone pedestal. Resting upon the pedestal was an ancient, glowing mahogany chest reinforced with silver bands—the chest containing the Primordial Earth-Marrow Resin!
Silence—absolute, terrifying, and total silence—descended upon the entire upper district of Winter-Frost City.
The thousands of spectators standing on the distant balconies fell to their knees, their minds completely collapsing into pure, unadulterated shock and horror. Not a single person dared to speak. Not a single person dared to breathe.
Li-Wen slowly lowered his right palm and tucked his hand back into his coat pocket. He did not even look up at the empty sky where the two Sovereigns had vanished.
He turned his dark, indifferent eyes toward Lady Mu-Qing.
"The vault is open," Li-Wen said softly, his raspy voice carrying a flat, unyielding coldness that cut through the silence. "Retrieve the resin."
Lady Mu-Qing took a deep, shaky breath, holding her white jade pestle tightly. Her pale face was flushed with intense excitement, her violet eyes burning with absolute, unconditional reverence.
She walked down into the smooth stone crater, picked up the mahogany chest, and opened it. Inside lay a basketball-sized sphere of thick, golden-amber liquid that radiated a heavy, primordial earth aroma that instantly made the surrounding air feel three times denser!
"The ninth-degree Primordial Earth-Marrow Resin..." Mu-Qing murmured, her voice trembling with awe. She turned back toward Li-Wen, bowing her head deeply. "Senior Li-Wen! Give me two hours in my pavilion! I will refine this resin into the Ninth-Refinement Earth-Core Liquid! It will permanently dissolve the Void-Piercing Needle from your spine!"
Li-Wen looked at the golden resin, then reached down and picked up Xiao-Yue's small hand into his broad palm once more.
"Take your time," Li-Wen murmured, his dark, void-like eyes reflecting the golden light of the afternoon sun as he stepped out of the crater. "The road west is still long.
See you in next chapter....