The Powerful Armored Warrior

The instant the armored warrior spoke, Yu Jin, the Pacification Commissioner, and the four chief eunuchs struck without hesitation, swift as thunder.

Wind rose beneath the five men's feet, leaving only streaks of afterimages across the great hall as they leaped up from several directions and charged straight at the armored warrior wreathed in black qi.

The roar of wind and thunder suddenly erupted. Yu Jin's right palm visibly swelled to the size of a cattail fan, martial true qi gathering around it into an azure palm seal. With the crushing weight of a mountain, it slammed down.

The four chief eunuchs, including An Quan, cultivated Yin Sunflower True Qi, which was incomparably cold and sinister. Whether fists, palms, fingers, or claws, their qi took shape outwardly as they all struck at the armored warrior's vital points. In an instant, the temperature throughout the hall plummeted, as though they had fallen into an ice cellar.

Clearly, when the armored warrior stopped concealing himself and truly revealed his strength, Yu Jin and the others had already sensed an immense threat from him.

Thus, they held nothing back. From the very first moment, they chose to join forces and besiege him, determined to succeed in a single blow. Once they captured the armored warrior as quickly as possible, they could interrogate him about his accomplices.

Yet, faced with the siege of five top experts from the Heavenly Brocade Guard, the armored warrior remained utterly unmoved. From beginning to end, he stood where he was, showing not the slightest intention of fleeing.

A mocking curve appeared on the face obscured by black qi.

The next moment, the phantom chains formed from mist began spinning rapidly with a clattering rattle. Rather than retreating, they surged forward like whipping long lashes, winding toward Yu Jin and the other five as they closed in.

"Careful. Do not let this Northern Qi Meditation Qi touch you."

Yu Jin warned them in a deep voice. Martial true qi surged out from his dantian, forming a layer of protective azure qi around his body.

Yet the palm seal descending from above did not hesitate in the slightest, crashing down upon the armored warrior's head wreathed in black qi.

At the same time, the four chief eunuchs did likewise. While releasing true qi to protect themselves, they struck the armored warrior's vital acupoints from four directions with Yin Sunflower True Qi.

However, to the five men's surprise, their attacks sank into the armored warrior's body like mud oxen entering the sea, raising not a single ripple.

The armored warrior before them still stood motionless. Aside from the blue-brick floor beneath his feet sinking half a foot and crumbling into powder, he appeared completely uninjured. The mockery on his face instead grew even stronger.

Yu Jin and the eunuchs were startled, immediately trying to pull away and retreat.

But the phantom chains condensed from black qi curled along their protective qi and wrapped around their bodies, binding them so tightly that they found it difficult to escape.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the armored warrior threw five consecutive punches, smashing apart and scattering all the protective true qi around Yu Jin and the other five.

Yu Jin and the others were instantly alarmed, hurriedly circulating the true qi within their bodies to defend themselves.

At that moment, Gong Lishan, who had witnessed this scene from not far away in the hall, suddenly became extremely grave and said,

"This man's Northern Qi Meditation Qi is far too formidable. Though he has not truly reached the Great Grandmaster realm, the sheer depth of his true qi is no weaker than that of a Martial Grandmaster."

"Then what should we do now?" Ji Feiyun frowned.

Gong Lishan did not think for long before saying,

"We must lend them a hand. Otherwise, the five of them will be worn to death by his Northern Qi Meditation Qi."

With that, he charged out first and called to the other experts in the hall who had reached the Innate Realm,

"Everyone, attack together! Do everything you can to wear down his strength!"

At his words, the guards and young eunuchs in the hall immediately attacked in unison, rushing toward the armored warrior.

At the same time, the protective true qi Yu Jin and the others had just condensed was blasted apart by another punch from the armored warrior.

"You can stand there and hit me all you like and still fail to kill me, so why rush to your deaths?"

The young armored warrior sneered, then turned and exchanged a blow with Gong Lishan, who had already reached him.

A thunderous boom rang out as their true qi collided, the shockwave shattering a wide swath of carved doors and windows around them.

Gong Lishan was clearly no match for him. His entire body flew backward, and he barely steadied himself in midair before stopping several zhang away.

Crack!

Ferocious fissures spread across the floor tiles, radiating from the armored warrior toward every corner of the hall.

Amid a series of sharp cracks, tile after tile exploded, fragments hurtling in every direction and tearing through the air.

Before the Heavenly Brocade Guard's guards and young eunuchs could even approach the armored warrior, they were struck by these tile fragments, which flew like concealed weapons. Unable to withstand their terrifying force, they were blasted away.

For a time, pained cries and miserable screams rose one after another throughout the hall. The young eunuchs and guards were sent flying in succession, all suffering serious internal injuries and vomiting clotted blood.

Seeing this, Ji Feiyun, who had been about to attack, hurriedly stopped. Instead, he flashed to Gong Lishan's side and said,

"This man is far too powerful. He is clearly a Martial Grandmaster. We cannot possibly be his match. For now, we must call for reinforcements."

With that, Ji Feiyun swept his sleeve. A bamboo tube flew out through a shattered window, activated in midair, and shot a trail of crimson smoke into the sky.

The armored warrior wreathed in black qi glanced in their direction, then gave a cold laugh.

"It seems I must hasten things before your Imperial Secret Police experts arrive."

As soon as the words fell, the armored warrior suddenly threw a punch. The true qi that erupted this time was even more powerful than before, directly sending all five of Yu Jin's group flying.

The phantom iron chains condensed from black qi clung to Yu Jin and the others like maggots gnawing at the bone, rapidly corroding their bodies.

At the same time, the armored warrior stamped his foot, shooting forward like a cannonball leaving its barrel. In the blink of an eye, he arrived before Gong Lishan and Ji Feiyun.

His fists roiling with black qi suddenly blasted out. The two barely reacted in time to raise their arms and block, but they could not resist at all and were violently knocked flying.

Black qi churned around the armored warrior. With a flicker of his body, he rushed out at even greater speed, appearing beside Ji Feiyun and Gong Lishan in midair.

Seeing the armored warrior preparing to continue punching down at their heads, Ji Feiyun and Gong Lishan revealed looks of horror.

Just then, a gray-robed old man appeared behind the armored warrior like a ghost and silently thrust out a sword like a venomous snake.

That sword was swift to the extreme, its killing intent chilling and impossible to evade. For the first time, panic appeared on the armored warrior's face. He only had time to circulate his true qi with all his strength and twist his body aside.

The next instant, blood sprayed through the air, and one of the armored warrior's arms was severed by a single slash.

"You are courting death!"

The armored warrior roared in fury. Northern Qi Meditation Qi, black as ink, surged into his remaining arm like a whale swallowing the sea, and he spun around to throw a punch at the gray-robed old man behind him.

A savage black tiger phantom, baring its fangs in ferocity, took shape within the surging Northern Qi Meditation Qi and lunged forth as though it would tear apart everything before it.

The gray-robed old man seemingly did not wish to let the Northern Qi Meditation Qi touch him either. He raised his palm and barely struck the black tiger phantom, borrowing the force to retreat rapidly backward.

Yet his brows suddenly furrowed, because the armored warrior was actually fleeing backward at an even faster speed.

The gray-robed old man hurriedly stopped, but in that blink of an eye, the armored warrior had already vanished from sight.