"Cough, cough."
"Cough, cough, cough, cough."
Within Qingcheng Dao Palace, True Lord Qingyuan lay on the ground, his vacant eyes staring up at the smoke-wreathed heavens.
That strike from the Blazing Sun Golden Striker, driven to its absolute limit, had been far too earth-shattering. Even Qingcheng Dao Palace's Five-Elements Heavenly Light Formation had been unable to stop it.
In almost an instant, the Five-Elements Heavenly Light Formation crumbled like collapsing earth and shattered tiles. When the Blazing Sun Golden Striker descended, Qingcheng Dao Palace's pavilions and palace halls were reduced to ashes.
Gone. Everything was gone.
The palaces and towers stretching through the mountain ranges, the cloud-wreathed platforms and corridors, the immortal halls perched upon suspended peaks—all had been buried beneath that heaven-shaking blow of the Blazing Sun Golden Striker.
The countless disciples within Qingcheng Dao Palace, along with the Daoist Soldiers, spirit beasts, and all manner of magical artifacts and resources, had been vaporized by the crimson sun blooming in the sky.
Even True Lord Qingyuan, with his mid-stage Void-Refining cultivation, had suffered grievous injuries beneath that strike. More than half his Daoist crown had melted away, his robes had been scorched into tatters, and he could not summon even a shred of his mana. He could only lie amid these broken walls and ruins, watching the sprawling Qingcheng Dao Palace of connected mountain halls turn into rubble beneath the lingering aftershocks.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps approached.
Someone crushed the charred stones and shattered tiles beneath their feet, walking toward him step by step.
Though grievously wounded, True Lord Qingyuan was still a Void-Refining True Lord, a true immortal cultivator. His divine sense had not vanished.
With great effort, True Lord Qingyuan turned his head. A pair of Cloud-Calming Four-Directions Shoes, embroidered with auspicious ruyi cloud patterns, entered his