"Is he really... just a Nascent Soul realm?"

Lu Xinglan stood atop the massive stone fortifications of the Spirit City, her breath hitching in her throat as she stared in absolute shock.

Her were fixed on the back of Shen Haoran, who was currently burning his way through the army of red-skinned barbarians like a war god descended from the Immortal Realm.

Every swing of his black blade and every pulse of his golden flame left a trail of cinders and bisected corpses.

Seeing him, he actually didn’t move like a cultivator engaged in a struggle; he moved like a force of nature performing a necessary cleansing.

’Why?’ She thought in deep, bitter dismay, her heart sinking with every display of his overwhelming power. ’Why is someone like him not the Crown Prince? Why does the blood of another clan produce such a genius, while the Imperial lineage gives us... this?"

She couldn’t help the wave of revulsion that washed over her.

Instead of a leader, they had this coward.

She then stared at the other geniuses, the Five Crowns, Jin Ci, Bai Wenxin, Hun Ming, Su Xishi, and even that bodyguard Leng Shuang—all of them fighting bravely in the front lines. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

They were like sharp diamonds cutting through a tide of rough iron.

Their movements were precise, their techniques were refined, and their courage was palpable.

They definitely deserve to be praised as geniuses!

They were not merely titles on a guest list; they were the apex of their generation, proving their worth in the most brutal crucible imaginable.

Their performance, so visible from the walls and the lower trenches, acted as a divine spark.

It inspired and boosted the morale of the Spirit Hall warriors to such an extent that the local soldiers, who had been on the verge of despair for months, let out a unified roar.

Reinvigorated by the sight of the Central Region’s elite shedding blood alongside them, they jumped towards the battlefield themselves, their previous fear replaced by a desperate, hopeful ferocity.

Yet... the Pope’s gaze inevitably drifted back to the wall.

She turned towards Xu Xiaojun and the other nobles who were cowering behind the battlements.

They were huddled together in the safest zones of the fortifications, their expensive artifacts and glowing robes serving no purpose other than to highlight their stagnation.

They were not even daring to attack even from a distance, despite possessing long-range spells and bows that could strike from kilometers away.

They watched the carnage with wide, terrified eyes, whispering about retreat and "strategic preservation."

"Even those alchemists are in the battlefield," Lu Xinglan noted, her voice a low murmur of disbelief.

She looked further down the line where Bei Nu and his sect mates were stationed.

They were behind the military lines, but they were well within the reach of stray barbarian projectiles.

They were working feverishly, refining pills in portable cauldrons and sending them straight towards the army via specialized delivery arrays or swift-footed messengers.

And those promiscuous-looking women from the Blissful Immortal Coupling Palace!

They also assisted them from behind, using their unique aura-buffing songs and pink-tinted mist to soothe the frayed nerves of the wounded and sharpen the senses of the fighters.

They were contributing, risking their lives in the secondary lines.

Lu Xinglan couldn’t help but sigh in a massive, heavy wave of disappointment that threatened to drown her spirit.

Indeed, she was not wrong in wanting to separate from the Empire.

"With an heir like this, the Eastern Region will just continue to decline," she mused, her grip tightening on the silver railing. "He is a hollow shell, a parasite living off the glory of his ancestors."

She remembered a certain scholar’s theory that she had read during her early years as Pope—a cold, cynical study of history which proposed that a dominating force can only last for about twenty to thirty thousand years before its foundation crumbles from within.

The Tian Yuan Empire was about thirty thousand years old and had already entered its inevitable age of decline.

The lack of vigor in the Imperial family was the first symptom of a terminal illness.

"It is time for them to give way to a new force," she whispered to the wind. "The era of the Xu family is drawing to a close, and a new sun must rise."

"Mother..."

Lu Xinglan turned towards her daughter. Qian Yunxi stood there, the flickering light of the distant explosions reflecting in her blue eyes.

She was now dressed in a white combat dress, reinforced with flexible joints and paired with shimmering golden armor that bore the crest of the Spirit Hall.

She held her rapier tightly, her Nascent Soul aura swirling around her in a disciplined hum.

"You want to fight?" Asked Lu Xinglan, her voice softening with maternal concern, yet tempered by the reality of their situation.

Qian Yunxi nodded, her eyes determined and devoid of the hesitation shown by the nobles. "Yes. I cannot stand here while our people die and guests do the work we should be doing. Please allow me to represent our Hall."

Lu Xinglan stared at her for a long moment, seeing her own youthful fire reflected in her daughter’s face.

She sighed and gave a slow, solemn nod. "Go. Show them the pride of the Spirit Hall."

With that, six wings of pure, translucent purple light appeared on Qian Yunxi’s back, and with a sharp crack of displaced air, she flew towards the battlefield, a streak of silver and gold descending into the red tide.

Back to Shen Haoran.

He was moving a whirlwind of golden heat.

At that moment, he had just burned another twelve-foot giant into a pile of blackened charcoal when a massive, oppressive shadow suddenly covered him while the ground beneath him vibrated with a rhythmic, heavy thud.

He looked up, his golden eyes narrowing, and saw a giant about twenty feet tall.

This one was different; his skin was a deep, bruised purple, and his entire body was releasing steam as if he were a living boiler.

His tribal tattoos glowed with a burning hot intensity, and his presence was like a physical weight that distorts gravity.

"Are you the king?" Asked Haoran, his voice calm, almost bored, as he flicked the blood of a previous enemy off the edge of Azathoth.

"I am not!" The giant roared, the sound shattering the nearby stone ruins. "I am Oo’gah! One of the Four Great Generals of the Fire Giant Tribe! A 7th Stage Nirvana Rebirth realm warrior! And I will crush your tiny skull for the glory of the Wilderness!"

"Oh?" Haoran smirked, the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame flickering playfully around his fingers. "Then move aside. I have no interest in you. I am looking for the one who actually makes the decisions."

"How arrogant!" Oo’gah roared, his face contorting in a mask of primal fury. "You Central Region ants think you are gods because you have fancy toys! I will show you the strength of a true giant!"

At that moment, the rest of the geniuses were also confronted by other generals who had waded into the fray to stop the slaughter of their kin.

Shen Xun’er, Shen Ji, and Jin Ci stood face to face with a Giant General named Ah’Hu, a scarred monster who carried a club made from a dragon’s spine.

Hun Ming, Su Xishi, and even Bei Nu, who were just providing support from the secondary lines, found themselves confronted by a Giant General named Da’Er, who had managed to slip through the gaps in the formation, his eyes fixed on the "soft" targets.

And Shen Xinye, Shen Ying, and Bai Wenxin were confronted by a giant general named Luu’go, a female giant whose skin was covered in frost-resistant runes and who moved with a terrifying, lumbering speed.

Back with Haoran, the General Oo’gah didn’t wait for a reply as he cocked his massive, steam-emitting fist and struck downward with the speed of a falling meteor.

The air screamed as it was compressed by the strike, creating a sonic boom that leveled the nearby tents.

But at that moment, Haoran didn’t dodge, he didn’t even blink.

"Dragon Subduing Palm!" Haoran countered with a simple, upward palm strike.

Looking at them, the sight was almost comical.

A giant punching something as small as an ant in his eyes would make one normally think that the small one would get crushed instantly, his bones ground into the dirt.

The disparity in size was so great that it seemed like a fly trying to stop a mountain.

However...

"What!?" Oo’gah’s eyes widened in absolute shock.

He felt his fist connect, but instead of the resistance of bone and flesh, he felt like he had just hit a mountain of soft cotton.

All the immense, bone-shattering force he had put into his fist suddenly seemed to vanish into a void, absorbed by the tiny palm before him.

Then, at that moment, all that kinetic energy that had dissipated suddenly transformed.

It didn’t disappear like it normally would, instead it was redirected and amplified by Haoran’s internal qi and manifested into a giant, golden-translucent palm that erupted from Haoran’s hand and hit Oo’gah square in the chest.

*CRACK.*

"Cough!" Oo’gah coughed up a spray of thick, purple blood as his ribs buckled.

The twenty-foot titan was lifted off his feet and forced to take a massive, stumbling step back, his heels carving deep furrows in the earth.

The Dragon Subduing Palm, the one he used against Shen Xun’er during the tournament, which allows one to absorb and redirect the force thrown to the user by the attacker.

Of course, this doesn’t just make you invincible. For one, the user must at least use half the qi that the attacker used to completely absorb the attack, and second, the user must possess physical strength and durability to withstand at least half of that pressure.

Haoran has the Infinity Dragon God Physique, basically giving him absurd amount of Qi.

And he also cultivated the Unbreakable Diamond Sacred Technique, which gives him absurd amount of endurance and durability.

All this allowed Haoran to effectively use the Dragon Subduing Palm against someone two major realm higher than him.

Of course, if the giant actually has a battle technique to make use of his superior Qi Quality, then Haoran wouldn’t have been able to succeed.

Unfortunately, there is no "if".

Haoran smirked, his golden eyes glowing with a predatory light as he adjusted his robes.

"Giant General? Just so-so. I expected more from a 7th Stage Nirvana Rebirth expert. Is this all of you barbarians has to offer?"