Shock of the Sacred Dynasty

The wicked-looking youth chuckled. "Just a nobody. But if you wish to pay a visit to our Great Qi Sacred Dynasty, I can show you the way." Sun Luyuan pondered for a moment, then cupped his hands. "In that case, I will trouble you, young friend." The sinister youth—Ou Shangtian—wore a meaningful smile. "Hold on tight." With a cool shout, his figure closed the distance in an instant, resting a hand on Sun Luyuan's shoulder. Sun Luyuan's vision blurred, and the very next instant, he found himself amidst the endless void. Ou Shangtian was already speeding ahead, leading the way. Sun Luyuan hurriedly followed. *This boy's flight speed is astonishingly fast,* Sun Luyuan thought, secretly alarmed. The dazzling, seven-colored light faintly radiating around the youth stirred in Sun Luyuan a sense of greed reminiscent of when he had first faced an anima of Heaven and Earth. He had originally been full of confidence about this journey, but by now his state of mind was somewhat rattled. After flying aimlessly through the void for a while, a magnificent sight suddenly emerged up ahead, as if rising from beneath the surface of water. A colossal cluster of light appeared, its inner details impossible to discern. Circling the light cluster were numerous stars, sparkling and resplendent. Every single star seemed to be a grotto-heaven world of its own. Even from such a great distance, Sun Luyuan was shaken to his core by the spectacle before his eyes. *This is the Daqi pocket world?* *How could any pocket world be this massive?!* Amidst his utter shock, Sun Luyuan suddenly snapped back to his senses. The youth who had been leading the way had vanished without a trace! "Senior Baihua, I caught a Dao Integration cultivator from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. He was sneaking around and obviously up to no good..." He could still faintly hear the boy's voice drifting from an unknown direction. "Wait!" Sensing that things had gone awry, Sun Luyuan was just about to shout an explanation. In the next instant, the scene before his eyes abruptly transformed. The magnificent world and grotto-heavens vanished. What suddenly materialized before him was a magnificent, spire-like palace. His body shrank dozens of times over, like an ant. Every step of the stairway leading up to the palace seemed like a mountain. The colossal structure filled his entire field of view, making Sun Luyuan catch his breath. What baffled him even more was that his entire cultivation had mysteriously disappeared. He felt completely like a mortal. *An illusion?* Sun Luyuan held his breath and focused his mind, trying to banish all stray thoughts. After a long time, his mood calmed, and he opened his eyes once more. Yet the scene before him remained that grand palace, without the slightest change. In fact... Sun Luyuan discovered to his horror that his body seemed to have shrunk a little more. *Is this... a formation?* As the thought crossed his mind, Sun Luyuan hurriedly brought out Ji Hongdao's array-breaking disc again. Sure enough, the disc shone with intense white light. It blinked continuously, spontaneously calculating and unraveling the formation before him. Just as Sun Luyuan was waiting with bated breath and rising hope, the flashing frequency of the disc grew faster and faster. In the end, as if it could no longer bear the strain and had reached its absolute limit, crack after crack surfaced across its face. Then, with a resounding boom, it exploded into nothingness, leaving not a scrap behind. Sun Luyuan was stunned. When he had borrowed the disc, Ji Hongdao had never mentioned that such a thing could happen. Soon, however, Sun Luyuan realized the truth. The formation was simply too intricate, vastly exceeding what the array-breaking disc could handle. *Since that's the case, I can only try to break it by brute force.* After waiting a while longer, no other anomalies arose within the formation aside from himself. Sun Luyuan took a deep breath, and a dark-red phantom floated out from the crown of his head. A Dao Integration cultivator's most formidable method stemmed from the anima of Heaven and Earth they had refined. The anima Sun Luyuan had refined back then was called Blood Shadow. The moment Blood Shadow appeared, Sun Luyuan's body seemed to dissolve into it, melting in an eerie fashion until only a layer of skin remained. Then, he assimilated completely into the crimson color. Like gushing water, it surged against the slope of the massive stairway in the formation, rushing upward with rapid force. Wherever the bloody liquid flowed, the ground hissed as if corroded, leaving behind scorched trails. Soon, however, the palace steps restored themselves. The bloody liquid flowed faster and faster, gradually coalescing into a beam of scarlet light. No longer needing to climb step by step, it shot straight toward the very top of the palace. Yet the palace itself underwent a corresponding change. The steps spontaneously multiplied without cause, stretching endlessly to both sides without end. Just as the two reached a deadlock, the furiously surging crimson shadow suddenly blew apart. It turned into a deluge of bloody rain. Harnessing the scattering force of the blast, it no longer stubbornly ascended, but fled in different directions across the space. Each droplet of blood acted like scalding magma, capable of searing even space itself. Wherever it scattered, void-like holes appeared throughout the formation space. The grand palace illusion began to tremble faintly. As the phantom gradually shattered, the bloody liquid that Sun Luyuan had transformed into slowly seeped through these holes and vanished. *I escaped!* Sun Luyuan was ecstatic. Killing intent welled up inside him as he prepared to settle scores with that wicked youth who had led him here. But the voices reaching his ears made him feel as if plunged into ice water. "It actually got broken?" "Now Master is going to punish me. After studying hard for more than half a year, I couldn't even trap a mere Dao Integration cultivator..." The boy's deeply exasperated tone did not sound feigned at all. *What does he mean? That terrifying formation just now was set up by that boy? It wasn't the defensive formation of the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty?* Sun Luyuan strongly suspected his ears were playing tricks on him. *And what did he mean by studying hard for half a year? Don't tell me he's just a beginner? A formation that couldn't be solved even after pushing an array-breaking disc to its limit was the result of him studying for just over half a year?* Sun Luyuan was dumbfounded. "Your formation is actually quite good. It's just that your cultivation is a bit too low. When he unleashed that blood-fire with all his might, I doubt even a Dao Integration cultivator of the Xuanhuang Realm could take it head-on. It's only natural that your formation couldn't withstand it." "You should still focus on cultivating properly. In the Xuanhuang Realm, realm overrides all else. Strange beasts, exotic abilities, formations—they are all merely supplementary." A gentle female voice sounded beside the boy. "Understood, Senior Baihua," the youth replied dejectedly. Amidst a flash of golden light, Sun Luyuan felt himself locked under a gaze. And the aura radiating from the other party chilled Sun Luyuan to the bone. *This is...* *A Longevity realm cultivator?!* Sun Luyuan's mind went completely blank. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that upon arriving at the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty, he would run headfirst into a Longevity Heavenly Venerable! *Baihua? What principle did she defy? Why have I never heard of her before?* "You are from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals? What is your purpose in coming to our Sacred Dynasty?" Daoist Baihua asked mildly. Intangible golden light had already enveloped Sun Luyuan. With just a thought, she could turn this Dao Integration cultivator into colored glass and crush him effortlessly. After all, so much source power essence had not been consumed in vain.