Chapter 475: The sun cries on the Imperial Palace

While many provinces were receiving the information directly from the Main Hall into their own Major Halls in their capitals, the fight was still raging over the Imperial Palace. Cao Yun and the other alchemists heard a loud explosion. Then, they felt the earth shake. The very buildings were shaking as a shockwave traveled through the air. Many small objects and parts of the buildings as well as pavement were blown away by the explosion. Thankfully, it had not happened directly near the Everlasting Earth Palace. In fact, around the palace itself, array formations had been activated immediately. For a split second, there was a dome of condensed water so dense that even the shockwave wasn't able to go through it completely. Instead, the shock was sent back, amplifying the destruction around it sadly. But even this array formation couldn't cancel out such an explosion.

Looking in the sky, there were middle Spirit Warriors fighting the demonic cultivators. Even with his enhanced sight, Cao Yun was barely able to follow them. All around them were various Qi Manifestation. Here and there, Cao Yun also recognized Martial Auras and even Martial Intents.

One of the demonic cultivators was a slender woman wearing almost no clothes on her limbs apart from strange strips covered in writings. If he had been able to see them clearly, Cao Yun and Dian Mo would have recognized characters similar to the Moshenhua. Those strips seemed to be alive as they were moving all around her as though they were chains protecting her. Just as the characters were shining a bright red, the strips themselves were golden, reflecting the sun above.

That woman had incredible red hair going all the way to her waist. In her hands, she was wielding a battle axe. Its head was a double blade forming almost a full circle that was as large as her own trunk. When she swung it away, it caused powerful winds to assault her opponents.

At some point, her axe embedded itself into the chest of one of the guards. Just as he was trying to attack her despite the wound, she rotated the axe and his shoulder and left arm were completely torn apart. Then, the strips of clothe entered his wound while some were trying to choke him. Thankfully, another Spirit Warrior intervened and slashed them away. Even then, the strip pieces within the guard's wound kept on moving, as though they were living beings. Without much hesitation, that man created fire wit his right hand. In a deafening lion roar, he cauterized the wound and burned away all the foreign invaders inside.

The battle in the sky was simply incredible. Spirit Warriors were fully using their Qi Manifestation so all kinds of crazy things were fighting each other. Winged horses were trampling on fire snakes while a giant bronze cauldron was emitting a song that could destroy one's soul. Such a fight could literally level the entire Imperial City and it was going on above the Everlasting Earth Palace, the jewel of the Hongchen Kingdom. But even then, this wasn't the real fight yet.

Deep down, Cao Yun was looking for an opening. Despite the chaos, he had a clear goal in mind and he wanted to accomplish it. Amidst this chaos, he might finally have a chance of seeing through Yong Ke's disguise. But for that, he had to wait for the Everlasting Earth Palace's defenses to fall. There was no doubt that Emperor Weide and his daughter were both within the palace right now. Paradoxically, Cao Yun wanted the demonic cultivators to break those defenses so he could come in.

Finally the tide of the fight began to change. Indeed, Xiao Xuefeng was done. Thus, she could join the fray.

Everyone heard the elegant voice of a Cloud-Drifting Crane that was filling the entire skies above the Imperial Palace. Looking in that direction, Xiao Xuefeng was riding her own Qi Manifestation. Even Cao Yun wouldn't have been able to tell that it wasn't a real demonic beast if he hadn't known about Xiao Xuefeng's technique. The woman was calmly sitting cross-legged on the back of the 9-core demonic beast while playing her guqin, 'Crane Dancing on the Pillars of Heaven and Earth'.

Each and every musical note seemed to come from another world, completely separate from this one. In that world, there was only calm and serenity. The music was like ripples in the air but also in the souls of everyone hearing it.

'Cranes Travel to Infinite Realms'.

All the demonic cultivators fell victim to this technique. Since they were not prepared for such an attack, they became powerless for several breaths. Within their sea of consciousness, they could envision thousands of different worlds. They were desperately trying to fly away. But each time they moved, they found themselves in another world. The red-haired woman with the battle axe found herself in a world of pure water. All around her was a gigantic ocean whose water was as transparent as air. At first, she was disorientated and tried to fly upward before realizing that the notions of up and down had disappeared. Suddenly, she found herself in a sublime garden with many flowers and fruit trees.

By now, she had realized her plight. Someone had trapped her in an illusion within her own sea of consciousness. Without any hesitation, she stopped moving and recited the psalms written on her strip of clothes, her golden ribbons. In the real world, her ribbons were fluttering all around her, protecting her even without her giving them directions. The Spirit Warrior she had maimed and the one who had saved him were unable to get any closer. Even the flames of the first one were not enough to destroy those ribbons. And now that the demonic cultivator was focusing all her strength on them, cutting them was impossible.

Finally, a few characters flew from the ribbon and penetrated her Upper Dantian. The illusion caused by Xiao Xuefeng's melody was completely destroyed from within. Since this attack was targeting everyone, it was obviously less powerful than an attack directed to a specific target. Against Xiao Xuefeng's full might, this 5th-grade Spirit Warrior would have only been able to try to escape.

Now that Xiao Xuefeng had joined the battle though, morale was up and the guards were getting the upper hand. Ironically, Cao Yun wasn't too pleased by this development. Well, he was, but he wasn't at the same time. Feng Yingyue could tell that he was struggling. Of course, he didn't want the demonic cultivators to win or to destroy the palace created by Emperor Nuwa, but he wanted to get the opportunity to enter it and see Yong Ke.

Just as he was thinking that, it seemed as though the Demon King had heard his wish.

Suddenly, the sun turned black. There was still light but the sun itself now appeared pitch-black. For mere mortals and even Mortal cultivators, this looked like an act of a god. However, Cao Yun's group could tell what was going on. This was merely a Qi Manifestation causing this optical effect. Anyway, it was still incredibly powerful. There was no doubt in anyone's mind, this had been caused by a late Spirit Warrior.

In the center of this black sun, there were twelve men and women surrounding a single man. His complexion was incredibly pale, almost as if he were dead. But his eyes betrayed that he wasn't, they were injected with blood. Behind him, there were twelve bat wings. Not a single pair was identical to another. Some were huge while others were shorter than his forearms. And on both of those forearms, he was wearing gauntlet engraved with Moshenhua characters. Those two weapons were completed with claws at their extremity and spikes here and there.

"Weide! This is the day of reckoning! Today your reign ends! Humanity will strive under my rule!"

The twelve Spirit Warriors around the Demon King were all late Spirit Warriors below the stage of 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. With their might combined, they definitely could take down even a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. Besides, the Demon King himself was a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. And from what Cao Yun had learned, he had consumed the peach stolen from the Heavenly Silver Peach Tree. Right now, he should be at his most powerful. Xiao Xuefeng couldn't do anything against him apart from distracting him some time. Besides, she would have to face the twelve other Spirit Warriors.

Thankfully, she was not alone in her fight. Hua Fenfei could not stay idle by.

"Stay back! If this fight turns for the worst, run away as fast as you can. This isn't a fight you can hope to win!"

With those words, Hua Fenfei activated some protections around the young alchemists and flew in the sky toward her sister. Although she was only a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, when she was fighting side by side with her sister, their strength didn't just add to each other. And if they had Director Ge Ling with them, they would have eradicated several early Spirit Warriors with each move of theirs.

"Sister, you shouldn't..."

"If you die, no one will be able to protect those kids, or even me for that matter. So just shut up and accept my help!"

Hua Fenfei's voice was way more forceful than usual in her sister's mind. Even she couldn't hide her fear. Alas, Xiao Xuefeng knew that she was right to be afraid. She could feel an incredible aura coming from the Demon King. As soon as he had appeared, her music had become dull. She was forced to pour more and more of her Qi within the notes so they had any effect at all. And this was caused by his mere presence, not even an attack. Those twelve late Spirit Warriors around him were also an incredible threat.

Before the two women could do anything, they acted. Immediately upon their arrival, the 1st Imperial Brocade Guards had been mobilized. They too were twelve fighters. They rose in the sky toward that threat, ready to kill or be killed.

All of a sudden, the black sky split open, it was like a giant vertical eye that had been opened. Small tears of blood were flowing to the extremities of the eye. And the pupil contracted. If someone could have seen it from afar, they would have seen that this black sun was in fact between the ground and the real sun. And right now, a huge part of the sun's light and heat directed toward the Imperial City was being focused into that pupil. When it was hot enough, it pierced through the pupil.

A powerful spear made out of sunlight stabbed toward the Everlasting Earth Palace. At that moment, all the defenses got activated. They had been set up since the era of Emperor Nuwa and strengthened year after year, century after century. Even a Monarch would have had a hard time breaking through it. Right now, the Demon King with his twelve followers had been able to reach the strength of a late Sage, but he was still no match for the array formations. However, even those defenses wouldn't be able to resist indefinitely to the full might of the sun concentrated on a single point.

"Will I have to destroy mankind's heritage for you to come out of your hole?! Are you just a rat?!"

"Insolence!"

The 1st Imperial Brocade Guards were finally upon the Demon King and his followers. At the same time, Xiao Xuefeng and her sister were supporting them. Hundreds of white cranes attacked from all the directions as the two sisters were playing their guqin. The two most powerful demonic cultivators raised a barrier around the group. Then, the 1st Imperial Brocade Guards fired several arrows. They turned into lightning bolts and pillars of fire as they reached the demonic cultivators. The barrier collapsed immediately and the cranes invaded the inner circle.

Another man took out a whip. Striking around him, he cut off the beaks of many cranes in an instant. His whip didn't have a single thong, there were dozens of them. And they seemed to be able to move independently from one another. Those were lacerating the white cranes. Many were destroyed in an instant but a few still reached some demonic cultivators. They even were able to draw first blood.

But those white cranes were just a distraction. Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng had clearly identified that the real threat was that black eye in the sky. They had to take it down somehow. Rising in the sky while the 1st Imperial Brocade Guards were still engaging the demonic cultivators, they saw all the light that should have reached the Imperial Palace focused on a single point. The light there would have blinded any mortal and even weak cultivators. Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng didn't need to use their eyes to see it though, they could use their spiritual senses.

Unfortunately, amid this new chaos, the other Spirit Warriors who had fallen victim to Xiao Xuefeng's melody were now free. And they were trying to attack the 1st Imperial Brocade Guards from behind, forming a pincer attack. Of course, they were the elite guards of the Emperor, such a tactic was useless. Assuming a strange formation, a character appeared in the sky with them in key positions. This was the character for 'obliteration'.

From the ground, the young alchemists could feel the tremor of the Imperial Palace as the pillar of light was striking the protections of the Everlasting Earth Palace. As it was crashing down on the array formations, most of the energy within the pillar were dispersed away, striking down other parts of the Imperial City. Even if the Everlasting Earth Palace endured, everything else would be razed to the ground. In fact, the Everlasting Earth Palace was the only safe place in the Imperial City right now. Thousands upon thousands of people were dying right now, either killed by demonic cultivators or collateral damage of the violent fights.