The Fortification Realm martialist's skin turned oddly translucent, resembling the surface of jade. Treasure Jade Garment was a unique defensive wonder. Unlike the increased base defense and damage mitigation of Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal, the wonder functioned more like an additional shield for its user. As long as the shield was active, no attack could damage the user in any way.

Upon taking enough damage, the Treasure Jade Garment would shatter and infuse hidden power into the limbs of the wearer, healing the injuries they've sustained and raising the purity of the wearer's spirit qi and their bodily constitution. Slumbering within the jade was a treasure that came bursting out to grant new life.

The withered man observed the blood-covered An Jing and said, "You're only at the Aura Realm at the end of the day. Do you really think that you'd be able to take down everyone in the entire place alone?"

Footsteps could be heard approaching from a distance. The martialists that were posted nearby received word of the enemy assault and were regrouping to capture An Jing.

He didn't really care about Guo Chang, however. He squinted and used some actual spirit power for the very first time since the assault began. Thanks to Yvelbane's perception that allowed it to see through walls, he was able to locate Lu Jin, who was busy preparing a human sacrifice in an attempt to restore the luster to the heavenly fiend's idol.

After ascertaining that it would take at least ten to twenty more seconds before the ritual would kick off, An Jing lowered his head and turned his bloody, blazing gaze back to the Fortification martialist who seemed rather mad about being ignored.

The martialist was right. An Jing was only at the Tide Aura Stage. Though he had thirty-nine streams of Evenstar lethal qi and the was strengthened by the seals, which was functionally identical to a wonder that strengthened his physical body until it was as tough as a Fortification Realm martialist's, he wouldn't be able to rampage through the entire Honor Pavilion with his own power.

He had other means, however. He raised the sword case that hung by his waist and fired it at Guo Chang. The next instant, the Treasure Jade Garment shattered, allowing the blasts to shoot through his fortified body, leaving two fist-sized holes in their wake! Guo Chang's face flushed red; he was still alive, but his skin paled rapidly from all the blood he lost. The blasts that pierced through him punched through the walls of the building, leaving trails of crimson fire. No cultivator from Skysource would ever dream of blocking the blasts of military-grade sword cases with their own bodies.

"What kind... of artifact is that?!" Guo Chang coughed out a large mouthful of blood with a stubborn look of unwillingness as he slumped to the ground. He had many more trump cards and had yet to use his lifearc's power. He also had a second wonder which he could use for a sudden attack. There was still so much.

An Jing didn't say a word. Why would he answer an animal's growls and barks? He raised his leg and stomped the head of the corpse flat to finish him off before heading toward the top floor.

There was nobody on that floor. An Jing located the hidden switch and triggered it, causing the dark pathway to appear. It wouldn't be dark for much longer; An Jing tossed the remaining ten-odd thunder beads he had brought with him into the pathway! What resulted was a cacophony of booms.

"Aaaaagh!" An agonized howl could be heard coming from the secret chamber, mixing with An Jing's wild laughter and the sound of falling rock. There was nobody in this world who could imagine a combat tactic as ridiculous as flinging a bunch of thunder beads at the same time.

"Curse you, brat! Die!" A charred figure charged out of the secret chamber. Lu Jin was so mad that he felt like he was going insane. How could anybody in Keensight get their hands on so many explosives and even know the exact points of Honor Pavilion to blow up to sabotage the arcane domain of his esteemed lord?

Lu Jin simply couldn't understand how someone could grow so rapidly powerful in such a short time. An Jing only seemed to be able to exchange blows with Constable Wang at most, yet he suddenly went on to demolish a squad of gray-cloaked thugs and even took out all the guards in Honor Pavilion! Did the Dustdawner kid also get some kind of blessing from his esteemed lord?!

And then there were all the thunder beads he had. Weren't those supposed to be so rare that even esotericists only used them as last resorts? He had tossed them out like he was scattering beans to blow up the secret chamber and the idol!

Lu Jin was filled with rage and confusion, but it didn't take long before he came to understand the reason for An Jing's rapid growth. When he emerged from the chamber, he saw An Jing with a sword case and a rifle aimed at his head.

"What?!" Lu Jin's eyes widened right before the weapons fired. His arms expanded rapidly into pure darkness surrounded by a metallic sheen as he used them to guard himself.

This was his wonder, Vajra Arms! Lu Jin was sent flying when the sword projectile impacted his arms, slamming him flat against the wall like a painting. He was still alive, but one of his arms was broken and twisted. He had somehow survived the shot!

"What a powerful sword case! If I hadn't regained my youth, I would've been killed by your shot!" He knocked a hole into the wall a bit above him and disappeared into it. Then, the sound of snapping joints and bones could be heard as his ruined arm rapidly recovered.

An Jing, however, could see through the wall without issue. Though he didn't have any such wonder, he leveraged his connection with Yvelbane to use Evenstar lethal qi for spirit sight to scan everything in his field of vision. Silver beams of light shot out of his eyes, revealing two dark shadows behind the wall of the top floor of Honor Pavilion. The building itself was already swaying and about to collapse.

The first shadow was Lu Jin, who was still healing up in hiding. The second shadow was a mysterious egg-shaped lifeform that pulsed like a heart within the secret chamber. As Lu Jin had overlapped with it earlier, An Jing didn't discover it. It was using fiend qi to recover rapidly from the damage done by the thunder beads.

Lu Jin must have charged at me so senselessly because he wanted to hide that being from me! It's not just because he didn't think I'd have a sword case! An Jing also noticed that while the Iceburst rifle was quite effective against Aura martialists, with the freezing effect working wonders even if the shot was blocked, it didn't do much to Fortification martialists.

It wasn't a matter of how damaging its shots were; it was bound to do less damage than the OverSight sword case. Rather, Fortification martialists were able to react quickly enough by using spirit qi or some wonder to resist the frost effect. The rifle did make a hole in one of the Vajra Arms, but the frost effect didn't seem to leave any significant mark. Only the OverSight sword case, when used with An Jing's Evenstar lethal qi and Yvelbane's fiendslaying sword qi, was powerful enough to wound Lu Jin!