"Crack, crack-"
The heavens were black as ink, shrouding the earth. Boundless dark clouds pressed overhead, thunder boomed across the sky, and lightning as thick as buckets repeatedly split the night, a terrifying sight.
On the ground, shouts, cries of alarm, screams, and dense footfalls merged into one.
The earth cracked. Huge fissures opened across its surface, swathes of buildings collapsed, and untold numbers of people lost their footing and fell into the cracks, their screams filling the air.
This majestic Imperial Palace, which had stood here for countless years and witnessed generation after generation of emperors, was reduced to ruins in less than an hour.
Countless people fled in terror.
And between heaven and earth.
Beneath those thunderclouds!
A white figure stood in midair like a god or demon that had endured since time immemorial, watching everything with cold eyes.
In his mind, a dense stream of system notifications rang out without pause.
His fortune had long since reached eight figures!
But the plundering continued!
How formidable was the fortune of an entire nation?
Although Great Qing's National Fortune had yet to reach its peak, it was already far beyond anything an ordinary small country could rival.
Otherwise, why was it the Great Qing Dynasty rather than merely the state of Qing?
A dynasty was a nation's rank.
Without a sufficient population, territory, domain, or even National Fortune, a country had no right to call itself a dynasty.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The system notifications in his mind abruptly stopped.
At the same time.
Below him, the five-clawed golden dragon representing Great Qing's National Fortune had become almost transparent. It lowered its head to look at the land it had sheltered for nearly a hundred years, let out a mournful cry, and finally dissipated completely.
"Whoosh,