Destruction

The collapse in this clash of divine minds had come with startling suddenness. It was so sudden that Qiao Man, captain of the sky-patrol warship, was momentarily dazed. He had no idea what had just occurred. Hadn't round after round of previous attacks proven that the Nine Cauldrons Sect's Origin Spirit realm cultivators couldn't gain the slightest advantage over theirs? How could everything... suddenly turn upside down? Yet as lightning flared violently in the direction of Longxiang City, the piercingly bright flash and his remarkable combat instincts snapped him back to his senses at once. In his field of view, the thousand-meter giant sword formed by the Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation had already breached the void of less than three hundred li between them at dozens of times the speed of sound. In just one or two breaths, it would slam heavily into their sky-patrol fleet. Furthermore, looking at this thousand-meter sword, whether in the intensity of its unleashed lightning or the stability of its overall structure, it was far superior to the previous attacks—not merely by a single tier. Jolted fully alert, he sent out a command that instantly permeated every corner of the warship. "Incoming flying swords!" A powerful ripple of divine mind jolted everyone's spirits, shaking them awake from the sudden defeat in the mental clash. "Counterattack! Counterattack! Hit them back!" Under the urgent orders, the sword cultivators of the Wuji Astral Palace reacted instantly. Brilliant sword lights soared straight into the clouds, spontaneously forming sword formations that were amplified by arrays before streaking out to intercept the thousand-meter giant sword screaming through the air. Yet... Unlike before, when they had possessed the precise guidance of Origin Spirit cultivators, this time, not only did they lack guidance, but they were also severely disrupted by the divine mind storm unleashed from Longxiang City. Under the battering of repeated divine mind storms, the operation of many formations slowed down noticeably by half a beat. Moreover, the sword cultivators who hastily unleashed their flying swords struggled to form effective sword formations amidst the chaotic interference. Worse still, the two sides were simply too close. A distance of under three hundred li was virtually instantaneous for a swarm of life-bound flying swords traveling at ten-odd to dozens of times the speed of sound. The flying swords launched in haste before they could even form formations were blasted aside by the lightning churning around the approaching swarm before they could even get close. A few sword cultivators managed to assemble sword formations, but disrupted by the Nine Cauldrons Sect's divine mind, their formations were lopsided and erratic, utterly incapable of unleashing much power. When they forcibly attempted to intercept the Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation, they were shattered to dust upon the very first collision. "How could this be..." Under Qiao Man's incredulous gaze, the thousand-meter giant sword laced with countless bolts of thunder tore through the intercepting flying swords launched from the sky-patrol warship like splitting bamboo, drawing... closer and closer, closer still! "Stabilize your true essence! Maintain control of your spells! Brace for impact!" Divine mind fluctuations laden with shock, fury, and disbelief instantly flooded the entire ship. He himself immediately pushed the power of the warship's strongest defensive formation to its absolute limit. Under these circumstances, everyone aboard the sky-patrol warship watched helplessly as the Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation, forged from the swarm of life-bound flying swords, slammed heavily into the vessel with thunderous might. *Rumble!* Blindingly brilliant light mingled with sky-illuminating lightning instantly overwhelmed the senses of all aboard. "Hold it! Hold the line!" Qiao Man roared, glaring fixatedly at the protective barriers formed by array after array. Ripples of visible shockwaves continuously ground against the defensive barrier shielding the sky-patrol warship. The impact of every life-bound flying sword tolled like a death knell in the minds of Qiao Man and the other Wuji Astral Palace cultivators aboard. With wide eyes, they stared at the formations overhead, unable to fathom why a battle that should have been an easy victory had suddenly turned upside down to this degree. *Buzz!* The warship listed. The horrifying force of impact and destructive power could not be countered even by the warship's built-in balancing and propulsion systems. The multi-million-ton vessel tilted, seeming as though it would plunge toward the ground. At the same time... *Crack!* As Qiao Man's eyes widened in horror, the outermost defensive formation exceeded its threshold and went out in an instant... The corresponding area etched with formation patterns shattered directly, sending countless streams of light spraying into the air. And... that was only the beginning. As the remaining life-bound flying swords relentlessly drove their edges against the sky-patrol warship, four more formations extinguished and fractured in the same manner. Furthermore, without offering them a single moment of respite, the energy of the Annihilation Purple Light struck like a pillar of light spanning heaven and earth, crashing down upon the warship's remaining formations right behind the swords. Compared to the life-bound flying swords, the Annihilation Purple Light had poor penetrative power, but... the energy level contained within the spell was immense! Although it failed to breach a single layer of the formations, its energy—countless times greater than that of the flying swords—unleashed itself without reservation against the warship's defenses, placing an astonishing load and drain on every active array. If the life-bound flying swords of the Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation had smashed through five of the warship's defensive formations in one breath, the Annihilation Purple Light had effectively stripped away an entire layer of power from all the formations across the entire ship. It took a good while before Qiao Man finally regained control of the falling, nearly spiraling warship. Looking at the formation bases that had shattered under the excessive load, an irrepressible fury welled up in the captain's eyes. The Nine Cauldrons Sect! The forces of a mere single domain had actually pushed them to this point! Although the Jiuxiao Domain's stationed garrison had always been strong since it directly faced the East Sea, and even more defensive forces had been deployed due to recent unrest in the East Sea, still... it had always been the Wuji Astral Palace striking others—who had ever dared strike back at them?! The Nine Cauldrons Sect was rebelling against heaven! "Counterattack! Counterattack!" Qiao Man's order instantly reached every cultivator on the warship. "They only caught us off guard with an ambush! The sky-patrol warships of our Wuji Astral Palace are invincible! Launch a full-scale counterattack and destroy that city!" With the order issued, the cultivators of the Wuji Astral Palace sprang into motion. Compared to the Nine Cauldrons Sect, the Wuji Astral Palace held advantages not only in cultivation but also in equipment. Even if their numbers were currently smaller than the Nine Cauldrons Sect's, the combat power they could unleash was still enough to wipe any small or medium sect off the face of the Cangwu Great World. While the sky-patrol warship of the Wuji Astral Palace responded swiftly, Yaoguang's offensive was not a fraction slower. Without waiting for the sword cultivators' life-bound flying swords to return, he quickly took control of a second Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation, guiding the spirit cultivators and spell cultivators to launch a second offensive wave. Accompanied by a raging divine mind storm and a giant sword wrapped in blinding lightning streaking across the sky, a second clash erupted three hundred li away in the void. This time, even though the sky-patrol warship was prepared and unleashed its full combat strength, it still failed to withstand the initial clash of divine minds. At best... it was simply not as disastrous as the near-total collapse of the first exchange. When the giant sword formed by the Jiuxiao Lightning Tribulation Sword Formation came rolling in, one sword formation after another aboard the warship was shattered, and life-bound flying swords were pulverized. The residual might of the giant sword still crashed heavily against the warship's hull, breaking through another two layers of formations. Not long after the second wave arrived, the third round of attacks followed immediately, similarly shaving off another layer of the warship's defenses with superior momentum. If this trend continued, they might be able to exhaust this cohort of sword and spell cultivators to death, but their own... fate would be hardly any better. Lest they forget, they were currently in Nine Cauldrons Sect territory. Furthermore, reinforcements from the surrounding domains of the Nine Cauldrons Sect were rushing over at full speed. If they fought to mutual exhaustion under the walls of Longxiang City, once the forces of the other domains surrounded them... "Damn it!" At this moment, Qiao Man finally felt a chill in his heart. "It was a trap!" The Nine Cauldrons Sect's prior display of weakness had been entirely meant to lull them into complacency, luring them deep into their heartland to surround and crush them. Otherwise, there was no explaining why the gap in strength displayed before and after was so staggering! Considering the consequences he would face if he were defeated here... Qiao Man gritted his teeth. "We can't keep fighting, or else... every one of us will end up dead here! Even if we do fight, we must bring at least three to five more sky-patrol warships and form a proper fleet..." His divine mind surged, swiftly turning into a command that echoed in every corner of the vessel: "Retreat! Retreat!" This order left several Great Cultivators aboard the warship feeling resentful. How could the invincible Wuji Astral Palace retreat?! Driven back by the forces of a single domain of the petty Nine Cauldrons Sect?! Yet other Great Cultivators secretly breathed sighs of relief. Evidently, they understood as well that attempting to wipe out a powerful sect like the Nine Cauldrons Sect with a single sky-patrol warship was unrealistic. They could only... wait until more sky-patrol warships were assembled in the future to avenge this humiliation. Amidst the commotion, Captain Qiao Man's order was ultimately carried out. The massive vessel slowly turned and retreated toward the East Sea in noticeable disarray. Seeing this, the cultivators within Longxiang City were momentarily stunned. Immediately after, an irrepressible cheer erupted across everyone's divine senses and divine minds. "They're retreating! They're retreating! They pulled back!" "We won! We repelled the Wuji Astral Palace's sky-patrol warship! We won!" "Hahaha! All enemies are paper tigers! Victory will always belong to us!" Everyone—Zhao He, Qin Yi, Fang Jie, Xu Kong, Luo Yunhai, and the rest—could not help showing pleasant surprise. At this moment, the suffocating, despair-laden black cloud hanging over everyone's heads rapidly dissipated, and they all felt the sweet joy of surviving a catastrophe. ... Fleeing in fluster, Qiao Man seemed to sense the celebration wafting from Longxiang City, and his face darkened to an extreme degree. "Humiliation! An utter humiliation!" A frightening, sinister glint flickered in his eyes. A sky-patrol warship of the Wuji Astral Palace, actually driven back by a petty Nine Cauldrons Sect... He could already foresee what awaited him upon his return to the sect. "A bunch of clownish relics from the Artifact Sect! Why didn't they die when the Artifact Sect fell?! These remnants deserve to die—every single one of them!" His gaze shifted, landing on another location on the map of the Jiuxiao Domain. "They only barely managed to contend with our sky-patrol warship by relying on Longxiang City's Level 6 formation. But... our warship can move. Their cities can't, can they?" Qiao Man stared at one of the locations. "Besides, their Great Cultivators have all gathered in Longxiang City, which means the defenses of their other cities are wide open—including their so-called provincial capital, Jiuxiao City. Tell me... what would happen if we divert course right now and make a full-speed raid on Jiuxiao City?" Hearing Qiao Man's words, the adjutant froze slightly. Raid Jiuxiao City? Their objective was Longxiang City. Attacking Jiuxiao City seemed to serve little purpose other than venting anger... Yet stealing a glance at the captain's murderous countenance, he tactfully chose not to object. "Jiuxiao City would never be able to withstand an assault from our sky-patrol warship." "Then what are we waiting for?" Qiao Man sneered, opening his mouth to issue an order. Right at that moment, an urgent alarm blared across the entire ship. *Beep, beep, beep!* On the main screen, a crimson warning icon flashed frantically. "Attack approaching! Attack approaching! Origin: above the Nine Heavens. Energy level—Level 8." Qiao Man, who had looked vicious just moments before, froze. "Above the Nine Heavens?! Level 8 energy level?!" The next instant, an unprecedented chill gripped every corner of his being. He jerked his head up, his divine mind sweeping the heavens—only to see what appeared to be a blazing sun plunging from the atmosphere above the celestial dome, dyeing the clouds across the entire sky in fiery red! In that split second... Qiao Man roared at the top of his lungs: "A Golden Core is attacking!" A massive wave of divine mind swept like a tempest throughout the ship! "Abandon ship!" ... In less than a breath, the firelight that painted the heavens scarlet pierced the atmosphere. Like a planetary annihilation cannon fired from outer space, it accurately struck the high-speed sky-patrol warship! Silently... a fireball so colossal it resembled a sun blossomed, its sky-illuminating light swallowing the sky-patrol warship whole.