This thing was Juju's fire seed. The moment it hit the ground, it went to work with a vengeance, swelling within two breaths into a giant python as thick as a bowl, coiling tightly around the monster from head to foot without leaving any room for resistance.
Earlier, Juju had been bound by the grand formation again and could not strike directly at its foes. But now that the formation core was broken once more, it and its fire seeds were back in their element.
How many things in this world could withstand the incineration of subterranean true fire? Not even this monster with its copper skin and iron bones could endure it. The fire serpent squeezed tighter and tighter, searing it until it hissed and sizzled; He Lingchuan immediately caught the stench of burning flesh.
A few breaths later, the small monster pitched forward and ceased to move.
Its vitality had already reached its end. Having expended its last breath, it perished.
Only then did He Lingchuan climb back onto Zhu Erniang's head and call out to Juju, "The Spirit Gathering Grand Formation is broken! The rest is up to you!"
Juju gave a low chuckle. "Rest easy, I will honor my promise!"
Having regained the upper hand with great difficulty, there was no time to lose. They would not give the Heavenly Palace a moment to react.
Zhu Erniang left the formation core and leapt into its palm.
Juju burrowed into the ground, its colossal form and soaring flames vanishing in an instant.
Only the raging flames atop Kaiyang Peak remained to bear witness to its rampage.
Juju was a mountain spirit, unconstrained by spatial bounds when traveling through Mount Xu.
Clutching the formation core in hand, the rock-fire monster controlled its temperature with precision. Even though roaring flames enveloped it, He Lingchuan and Zhu Erniang only felt a bit of dry heat.
Looking out through the gaps between the rock-fire monster's fingers, all was pitch black around them, occasionally wading through magma—they were traveling through the belly of the mountain.
He Lingchuan paid no mind to anything else, swallowing several pills one after another and hurrying to regulate his breathing.
The fierce fighting and unforeseen turns just now were merely the prelude; what came next was his main event for tonight!
A few breaths later, they saw the open sky once more.
Juju had already arrived at Tianshu Peak and surged out of the magma pool within Zhaixing Tower!
With a roaring, triumphant laugh, it gripped the formation core like a weapon and smashed it furiously against Zhaixing Tower—clang, clang, clang!
Worth mentioning was that the lightning restriction on the outer layer of the backup formation core had never vanished, because it did not rely on the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation for its power supply.
Using it to batter Zhaixing Tower's barrier was a case of using their own spear against their own shield—both were prized masterpieces of the Heavenly Palace.
Now to see which one was prouder.
In an instant, lightning surged and crackled across Zhaixing Tower's barrier, bathing the entire tower in radiant light and illuminating Chief Duyun Emissary's livid face.
Tonight's surprise raid had gone through twists and turns with two sudden reversals, yet in terms of time, less than the span of drinking a cup of tea had passed.
The reinforcements from below Tianshu Peak had not even reached halfway up the mountain, and it was hard to say whether Lingxu City's grand army had even begun assembling.
How could the situation at Zhaixing Tower have already become so dire?
Juju, meanwhile, was thoroughly invigorated.
The Splendid Picture of Mountains and Rivers had gone completely dim, which meant the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation was totally destroyed. Its greatest hidden danger was gone, and it could finally let loose and unleash its full might!
In high spirits, its smashing and pillaging grew all the more energetic.
After another seventeen or eighteen frantic blows, the formation core's lightning restriction fizzled twice and gave out.
Whether its energy had run dry or the restriction had been broken was anyone's guess.
What encouraged it was that Zhaixing Tower's barrier, which previously could not be pierced no matter what, wobbled twice like a soap bubble and burst as well!
Now, nothing stood between it and the gathered champions of Zhaixing Tower—the field was wide open.
"As expected, the Heavenly Palace's own things work best!" Juju tossed aside the formation core with a loud laugh and reached a colossal palm toward Zhaixing Tower.
By its own inclination, it had been unwilling to break completely with the Heavenly Palace; after all, they were immovable neighbors. Unfortunately, it had made a pact with He Lingchuan first and had to seize what lay inside the shrine.
If these fellows had just let him take it quietly, why would things need to become so embarrassing?
Completely freed from its shackles, the Mount Xu mountain spirit assumed a combat form nearly eighty zhang tall—over two hundred and sixty meters. It was the largest monster He Lingchuan had seen since arriving in this world.
Such a colossal stature was simply incredible in the present age.
A monster nurtured by subterranean true fire still enjoyed the bounty of the heavens even in this era of dwindling spiritual energy—a creature truly blessed by nature.
Though its energy consumption was immense, size had its advantages, and its strength grew exponentially.
The palace guards continuously shot arrows at it. The arrows themselves did negligible damage to Juju, but they were infused with origin power. Each hit felt like the sting of a venomous hornet, the origin power boring deep into its body accompanied by sharp pain.
An ordinary person stung several dozen times by a swarm of hornets could easily lose their life; while Juju would not die of it, the origin power invading its flesh was as stubborn as wasp venom, far from easy to dispel.
For now, it could still grit its teeth and bear it, not only because the enemy's numbers were limited, but also because after its prior ambush, the Heavenly Palace guards had stopped bunching up, breaking up into small units and acting dispersed.
There was no need for Juju to chase them down individually—that would only play right into the Heavenly Palace's hands.
The troops from the Garrison Palace were still climbing the mountain; it had already dispatched several small fire men to wage guerrilla harassment, delaying their ascent as much as possible.
Juju decided to vent all its fury onto the Heavenly Palace. That fist descended like a falling meteorite—swift, vicious, and detonating on impact—sending the crowd inside Zhaixing Tower scrambling in every direction.
The blazing fist was nearly as big as a roof; who dared face its brunt?
It had to be said that the build quality of Zhaixing Tower was exceptionally robust, reinforced by countless internal formations operating automatically. A punch from Juju managed only to smash half the roof.
Refusing to accept this, it hammered down like a pile driver a dozen-plus times—clang, clang, clang!—until it finally pulverized more than half of the structure!
This celestial, fairy-like pavilion, worshipped daily by tens of thousands, was now reduced to shattered ruins under its violent deconstruction. The sight possessed a strangely cruel beauty.
Yet dozens of divine abilities shot out from within Zhaixing Tower, targeting Juju directly.
Earlier, when the backup formation core activated and suppressed Juju anew, it had bought several dozen breaths of buffer time for the Heavenly Palace. Experts from other peaks rushed over to assist, so Zhaixing Tower's defensive force was now considerably more formidable than when the attack first began.
As Juju pushed aside the collapsed roof to grasp at the shrine, Chief Duyun Emissary pointed toward a dozen archers behind him. They immediately went to the lamp wardens and dipped their arrowheads into the candlelight.
When the roof caved in, seven or eight lamp wardens had thrown themselves over the Everlasting Lamps to protect them with their bodies, dying in the process. Even so, four or five Everlasting Lamps were preserved within the main hall. Once dipped, the arrowheads were immediately coated in a faint, eerie blue glow.
Then the archers drew their bows, nocked arrows, and fired at Juju.
With such a massive target, there was no way they could miss—especially since Juju made no move to dodge, reaching straight for the shrine.
This so-called shrine was an architectural structure inside the hall, akin to a wing alcove but roofless, standing a zhang higher than the third-floor landing. Its position was second only to the statue of Holy Venerable Lingxu. When the lamp wardens paid homage to the shrine, they even had to climb a ladder.
Inside the shrine rested two venerated items:
The Splendid Picture of Mountains and Rivers, and the divine object He Lingchuan yearned for day and night—the lid of the Dafang Pot.
At this sight, the divine emissaries turned pale with shock.
Previously, regardless of how Juju rampaged under the egging on of outside intruders, it could still be regarded as an internal dispute among their own people; after all, they knew Juju could not leave Mount Xu. No matter how fiercely they fought, they would eventually have to make peace.
Now, however, Juju had reached its hand toward the divine object!
What did this mean?
This outburst had a clear objective—it had come for the Dafang Pot lid!
Even more, it showed that the intruders were connected to the Dafang Pot.
Anything related to the Dafang Pot was the celestial gods' untouchable reverse scale. Juju had well and truly poked a hornet's nest.
The dozens of arrows saturated with the tears of the Everlasting Lamps struck without a single miss, sinking into the back of Juju's hand.
Radiating outward from where the arrows struck, blue frost spread with frightening speed. In just three breaths, Juju's hand froze solid into a blue chunk of ice!
The raging flames on its fist were abruptly supplanted by thick frost.
"Awoo, it hurts, it hurts!" It hated celestial god power most of all, with human origin power a close second!
Juju was also astonished. Usually, it fought backed by subterranean fire and could draw on boundless geothermal heat; why would it fear a mere bit of frost?
Yet this frost proved tenaciously stubborn, chilling its hand to the bone.
It simply swung its frozen hand in a sweeping blow toward the entire shrine.
To its surprise, a dark glint flashed over the shrine.
What shattered was not the shrine, but Juju's fist!
The rock-fire giant let out an enraged roar. Although its hand was frozen stiff and lacked its usual power, the restriction shielding the shrine was shockingly domineering.
It had no idea such a thing was even there.
The Heavenly Palace and the gods had truly fortified their lair harder to crack than a turtle shell!
It had not suffered such a heavy injury in ages. Had it not sworn an oath, it would have backed down right then and there.
Right at that moment, He Lingchuan's voice sounded by Juju's ear: "Dig it out and pack it up to take with us!"
Ha, quite bold to order it around!
Juju grumbled internally, but the boy was dead right. The restriction could protect the shrine, but it could not protect the stone wall behind it.
For ordinary foes, these measures were the pinnacle of defense. Had it been He Lingchuan or some other great demon acting on their own, they would have had to ponder how to shatter or fool the restriction to steal the divine object within.
Yet Juju was clearly no ordinary demon; it had plenty of blunt, forceful solutions.
It clawed straight into the stone wall behind the shrine as effortlessly as scooping bean curd. In a few quick, deft motions, it peeled the entire shrine from the wall. The bedrock behind it was thick enough that the restriction could not harm it.
By now, Juju's severed hand had regrown completely. Cupping both hands together, it carefully cradled the entire shrine outward.
During the time Juju broke free of its bonds and unleashed its mighty rampage, Bai Ziqi had not remained idle. He turned and sprinted toward the Heavenly Palace's prison—
The Yang Palace.
Guards rushed up to meet him, but Bai Ziqi ignored them, barreling straight into the deepest depths of the dungeon.
National Preceptor Qingyang stood leaning against the wall, gazing outward. From her vantage point, she could not see how Juju was rampaging, but the firelight radiating from the rock-fire monster illuminated the entirety of Tianshu Peak—how could she fail to notice?
"Qingyang." This was no time for pleasantries, and Bai Ziqi got straight to the point. "The Demon Emperor has drafted an edict temporarily reinstating your position as National Preceptor to combat external enemies." With that, he tossed a medallion to her.
National Preceptor Qingyang turned and caught it cleanly.
This was the medallion she had surrendered upon entering the prison. To have it returned to her now stirred a tangle of mixed emotions within her.
When Lingxu City faced crisis, the first one the Demon Emperor thought of was still her.
"Let's go." Bai Ziqi opened the cell door. Without a single word of hesitation, she dashed out behind him. "Has Juju rebelled?"
Otherwise, how could the sky outside be ablaze with fire?
The last time Mount Xu had witnessed such a spectacle was over a decade ago, before the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation had been completed.
"Yes. Juju was incited by external enemies to attack the Heavenly Palace," Bai Ziqi answered succinctly. "It broke free from the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation's bonds, and the Demon Emperor has already issued an edict stripping it of its title as mountain spirit!"
Chapter 693