Chapter 700: Great Divine Might

Master Duyun frowned deeply. This crisis for the Heavenly Palace truly came out of nowhere.

New writing appeared on the Celestial Scroll:

"The spider demon possesses semi-immortal power. Sakuragi is no match. Quickly prepare the vessel of Baizhan Tian."

Bai Ziqi immediately said, "Venerable Baizhan Tianzun? That vessel might not be suitable for Venerable Baizhan Tianzun..."

Master Duyun cut him off. "Prepare it at once! At a time like this, suitability doesn't matter; as long as it can be used!"

"Understood."

Master Duyun then said, "Contact the Emperor! We need more primordial energy reinforcement!"

This time, the powerful enemies were no joke: an escaped rock-fire giant monster and a spider demon, both at a semi-immortal level. Immortals had been gone for over two thousand years, and now two had suddenly appeared! The Heavenly Palace was hastily responding with insufficient preparations, so they had to leverage their strengths.

Beijia was so powerful, and its abundance of primordial energy was rare in this world; if not now, then when would they use it? However, in Lingxu City, the Heavenly Palace could not freely allocate primordial energy; that power belonged to the Emperor and the four Grand Masters. Tonight's shocking event at Mount Xu had awakened the entire Lingxu City, and the Emperor would also dispatch troops here.

As soon as Zhu Erniang emerged, it headed straight for the teleportation array, reaching it in two long strides. The nearby guards attempted to attack it, but its demon-immortal body was excessively hard; despite their desperate slashes, they couldn't even cut off two bristles. Zhu Erniang withstood their attacks and viciously defaced the teleportation array on the ground, preventing any further ground reinforcements from arriving.

There were now over thirty Heavenly Palace guards on the star ring. He Lingchuan couldn't hold his own, so he simply hid beneath the giant spider's abdomen. Anyone attempting to attack him first had to contend with Zhu Erniang's eight long legs. Those eight legs were like eight oversized maces that could also shoot steel needles, so no one wanted to get close. As the saying goes, "many ants can kill an elephant." Zhu Erniang, being targeted by dozens of streams of primordial energy, felt quite uncomfortable. Its thick abdomen then sank, and it birthed a white egg sac.

"Hey!" He Lingchuan dodged quickly; otherwise, it would have precisely hit his head. Ever since transmigrating to this world, he had been especially wary of falling objects. He saw the egg sac bulging and wriggling as if something was about to emerge, so in the midst of the chaos, he sliced it with his Fusheng Blade—

A cave spider burst out and, without resting, immediately pounced towards the enemies to his side and rear. Although this egg sac was only the size of a round table, it behaved like an assembly line machine, with one cave spider after another bravely crawling out. Each was the size of an adult wild boar, and their sheer density would be a nightmare for anyone with trypophobia. He Lingchuan roughly estimated that over two hundred cave spiders had crawled out in total! Each had colorful markings, thick legs, and sharp chelicerae, clearly specially enhanced versions.

The methods of these ancient demon immortals were truly unfathomable. But he had received Zhu Erniang's blood amber, and since one amber could transform into three bloodfang guards and over a dozen spider guards, then an egg sac summoning a spider army didn't seem too outrageous, did it?

With the addition of this spider army, the thirty Heavenly Palace guards were immediately at a disadvantage, outnumbered seven to one. Even with primordial energy, two hands could hardly contend with fifty-six claws. Fighting and screaming filled the air, while Zhu Erniang looked down at He Lingchuan.

"Very good, you actually completed my task!" Its entrustment in the swamp was merely a test; it hadn't expected this youth to actually snatch its immortal exuviae, especially within the Heavenly Palace's numerous restrictions!

"I'm glad I didn't fail you," He Lingchuan said, shaking blood off his Fusheng Blade. "The difficult part isn't over yet; it's not time to leave."

Zhu Erniang looked around; Heavenly Palace guards were being encircled and annihilated by its spider army. Two guards, regardless of their lives, charged towards He Lingchuan but were flicked by Zhu Erniang's raised leg, sending them flying down the mountain.

"What else do we need to do now?"

"Lie in wait!" He Lingchuan said, looking around. "I hope my deduction is wrong."

Fang Canran had once mentioned to him that five years ago, an old collector contacted Dunyuan, wanting to auction a rare treasure that also featured a natural star map. An auction house like Dunyuan, with its renowned reputation, typically maintained communication with many high-ranking officials, nobles, and collectors of rare items to help treasures circulate among the upper echelons. Fang Canran was waiting for the treasure to be sent for appraisal, but then the other party suddenly decided not to sell it and remained tight-lipped about the reason. Fang Canran remembered this incident vividly, and He Lingchuan also paid close attention after hearing about it. Where did this treasure go? Could it be...?

"Where's the rabbit?" Zhu Erniang urged. "Time is precious; you're not going to wait here all night, are you?" Even though it had recovered its demon-immortal body, it had no confidence in fighting the entire Lingxu by itself. Moreover, this exuviae had a time limit for use. What it should do most right now is quickly escape Beijia. Mount Xu is north of Lingxu City; if it ran a bit faster, it might be able to escape before the Lingxu army arrived. Having finally retrieved its immortal exuviae, it didn't want to exhaust all its power at once.

The eyeball spider jumped back onto it and began a close exchange with its original master.

Suddenly, a fierce wind arose all around. More than a dozen spiders and several guards standing on the edge of the star ring, caught unawares, were blown off. He Lingchuan plunged his blade into the star ring to secure himself, preventing the strong wind from blowing him away. His hair was completely disheveled, but his expression was exceptionally solemn: "This is bad, something has emerged from the void."

The Collar of Suppression on its neck was already covered in cracks. Zu Ju effortlessly broke it into fragments with a slight struggle! Zu Ju let out a long howl, feeling immensely relieved. Suppressed by the Spirit Gathering Grand Array for over a decade, tonight, it was finally free! Its body suddenly expanded several times, and when it stood upright, it was almost as tall as Tianshu Peak. The guards in the Star-Picking Tower, seeing this, instinctively recoiled several steps in terror.

This was its true form: a monster born from the geothermal fires of Mount Xu, a rock-fire giant with flames steaming all over its body. Usually, it would shrink its form and sleep for years to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. But today, it was going to put all its strength into it and do something big. Zu Ju and He Lingchuan had made a pact with the Oath Shackles: if He Lingchuan helped it escape, it would have to help He Lingchuan attack the Heavenly Palace and seize the divine artifact. Now that He Lingchuan had perfectly completed his task, the baton was in Zu Ju's hands.

At this moment, the bells of Mount Xu rang urgently and loudly, but they no longer posed a threat to it. The days of being suppressed, manipulated, and bullied were finally over! The guards on the peak unleashed barrages of arrows and divine abilities at the rock-fire monster. Though not fatal, the primordial energy attached to them pricked Zu Ju like needles, causing considerable pain. Zu Ju had long hated these little creatures that constantly pranced on its forehead. With a single swipe of its palm, it flattened half the mountaintop. Under its immensely powerful force, the buildings, large and small, on the mountain were easily torn apart as if they were cakes. Buildings, solid rock, shattered wood, and burning people tumbled down the cliff. The scene was both spectacular and tragic.

The Star-Picking Tower was originally located on the volcano's crater. After Zu Ju's rampage, it caused the magma to erupt violently. Tens of thousands of tons of molten rock and volcanic debris shot into the sky, exploding into a sky full of red light against the dark night! The Heavenly Palace guard team from the Garrison Palace rushed over from beside the Hall of Adoration, but the magma erupting from the crater was like cannon fire, turning the short several-dozen-foot mountain path into a fiery bombardment, making it impossible for anyone to push through. Fortunately, everyone still had primordial energy protecting their bodies; otherwise, the poisonous gas released by the volcanic eruption would have instantly incapacitated many. Mount Xu's mountain spirit had come for revenge, and the consequences were severe.

The eruption of Tianshu Peak lit up the entire night sky, clearly visible to residents in the northern part of Lingxu City. A rumbling sound shook the earth. What they called "mountains collapsing and earth rending" was probably no more than this. The entire Lingxu City awoke from its slumber. Terrified people rushed out of their homes to see what was happening, only to see a sky full of red light to the north, as if they were back on the night of the great earthquake over a decade ago.

Zu Ju bathed in the magma pool, its body glowing even more fiercely with red light. As soon as it stood up, it landed two heavy punches, directly obliterating the teleportation tower next to the Hall of Adoration! The teleportation array connecting to and from Tianshu Peak was rendered useless. If the ground garrison wanted to support the Heavenly Palace, they would now have to climb up on foot. After cutting off the Heavenly Palace's reinforcement routes, Zu Ju then turned to attack the Star-Picking Tower.

"Some earthly dwelling of a god!" It had long found this dilapidated tower an eyesore. However, the Star-Picking Tower did not shatter into pieces like the guard camp on Kaiyang Peak. In fact, before Zu Ju's fist, over five zhang wide, even hit the tiles, a thin layer of light illuminated around the Star-Picking Tower, forcefully blocking this terrifying blow. It was a barrier. The greatest building in Lingxu City—how could it not have defenses?

"Hmph!" Zu Ju had already anticipated this. It attacked with both fists, delivering over a dozen meteor punches within two breaths! Its fists were enormous fiery rocks, each blow as powerful as a colossal meteorite falling from the sky, enough to flatten a mountain peak. What was even more remarkable was its incredible speed, striking so fast that bystanders were dazzled, seeing only afterimages. But the barrier before it, though swaying, ultimately blocked all attacks, and the Star-Picking Tower remained standing. Beijia's primordial energy was immensely powerful; resisting the attacks of a great demon like Zu Ju seemed only natural. The existence of primordial energy was, after all, originally for directly confronting such great demons.

Its attacks were ineffective, but a hint of cunning flashed in Zu Ju's eyes. It sent another punch. This time, its target was not the Star-Picking Tower, but Tianshu Peak beneath it! Just now, it had landed over a dozen punches; the barrier was fine, but the ground outside the Star-Picking Tower had cracked. The barrier only protected the building, not the entire mountain peak. This setup was very reasonable, as invaders usually only attacked the main hall; where would they get the ability to smash an entire mountain? But today, Mount Xu's mountain spirit had turned against them. The barrier redirected its power, transferring it to the entire Tianshu Peak to absorb. The problem was, the power of a mountain spirit was unique. The resonance it caused within the mountain made Tianshu Peak tremble.

With two loud cracks, as if the sound of tearing silk had been magnified countless times, the rock where the Star-Picking Tower stood cracked, and its northwestern corner collapsed. Zu Ju laughed triumphantly and slammed another fist onto the mountain's base. Anyone with eyes could see that it actually intended to break off the rock peak beneath the Star-Picking Tower and shove this entire abode of the gods into the magma pool! By then, in a world of high temperatures and rock-fire, how long could the Star-Picking Tower last? All barriers, arrays, and restrictions would succumb to the infinite erosion of the geothermal fire.