The world turned a stark, pale white as a brilliant light enveloped the entire city.
Ming Daozi, positioned closest to the top of the great formation, had a look of pure terror in his eyes.
In this pale, white world, he was using every ounce of his spiritual power to maintain the array, his own strength draining away with every passing second. Yet the horror in his eyes was not for the immense power of the blast itself, but for something else...
Clang! Clang! Clang—
The Li family's Old Ancestor had already been turned to ash by that immense power, but Ming Daozi could not forget the scene from moments before.
The man in the black mist had torn open his own chest and stuffed cube after cube, each radiating an aura of annihilation, into his body.
Then, just like that, he had knelt on one knee directly above his head. For that brief, terrible moment, Ming Daozi could feel the man's savage ferocity.
"How could such a person exist? How is this possible?!"
Even with his senses distorted by the explosion, Ming Daozi was still profoundly shaken by that scene.
He knew with absolute certainty that in the brief span of a few finger-snaps after forcing the last cube into his body, the Li family's Old Ancestor was already dead. And yet, the man's hands had continued to wield the two longspears, striking with that same mad frenzy.
Doubt began to stir in Ming Daozi's heart.
He had cultivated his entire life at the Myriad Dao Immortal Palace and had met countless fellow Daoists, yet he had never encountered anyone with such an unbreakable Dao Heart.
He wondered, could a man like this truly be the great and wicked villain Prince Qian had made him out to be?
If a person didn't hold a conviction so strong that it forced them to persist, could they truly continue to act with such frenzy even after death?
The power of annihilation was still assaulting the Rank 4 great formation.
Ming Daozi poured his spiritual power into the formation in a continuous stream, but he could feel his strength being consumed at a terrifying rate.
Tens of thousands of cultivators were sustaining the array, yet he could sense that many had already exhausted their power.
The great formation was finding it increasingly difficult to withstand the assault of the annihilation energy.
He could even sense it. Under the white light of the annihilation that bleached the world of all color, Supreme Elder Puci at his side had already stopped channeling his power. And behind him... the oh-so-righteous His Highness, Prince Qian, had vanished without a trace.
Now, there were scarcely any people left maintaining the great formation.
He suddenly remembered Li Yunlin's savage expression as he had questioned him.
Can I truly tell the difference?
The disciples of the Three Great Immortal Sects had begun to stop channeling their power as soon as they were mostly drained.
They were panicking and scrambling to save themselves. But the Li family's Old Ancestor was still trying to break the formation even after death.
Between the two sides, who was truly good? And who was evil?
"I can tell... But can I truly tell the difference?!"
Ming Daozi let out a sudden roar, his hand pressed firmly against the great formation as he continued to pour his spiritual power into it.
His heart was filled with a bitter unwillingness to accept this reality.
He was the Palace Master of the Myriad Dao Immortal Palace.
It was he who had supported Prince Qian in defending the Duravia Trade Prefecture.
It was he who had judged the Li family and the people of Azure Cloud to be evil.
If the Li family's Old Ancestor had such resolve, then so could he!
At that moment, with a savage expression on his face, Ming Daozi stood alone, contending with the force of the Old Ancestor's power from outside the great formation.
...
An unknown amount of time passed.
The ground for miles around the city was collapsing. Outside the great formation, everything had been razed to the ground.
In that moment, the world was silent.
The great formation was still standing.
Ming Daozi's face was pale, showing not a trace of joy as his senses, distorted by the annihilation energy, slowly returned to him.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound was still echoing in his ears.
Ming Daozi stiffly turned his head.
He saw the cultivators of the Three Great Immortal Sects who had been lying in ambush within the city.
Amidst the apocalyptic scene, they were now cowering in terror, having formed yet another defensive formation inside the main one to protect themselves.
On the city wall, only the zither that Prince Qian had been playing remained.
His figure was gone. The prince's maids and servants lay dead beside the instrument, blood streaming from their seven orifices.
Most of the cultivators within the city were unharmed, as many had voluntarily helped sustain the formation.
Now, those same cultivators sat cross-legged on the ground, their faces pale with terror as they tried to recover their strength.
Supreme Elder Puci, who had been maintaining the formation right beside him, had silently withdrawn to stand behind the other members of the Aeternus Sect.
From across the city, the cries of the survivors who had narrowly escaped death rose to the heavens, reaching his ears with painful clarity.
"Hahaha, we survived! We made it through!"
"With the great formation protecting us, they can't touch us! They have no choice but to flee in disgrace! The morale of the Azure Cloud forces is shattered; they're no longer a threat!"
"Your Highness, Prince Qian, we've won! Claim the throne, claim the throne!!!"
"..."
They were reveling, celebrating a great victory.
But Ming Daozi felt not a shred of joy. He turned his head with mechanical difficulty, his neck creaking with the effort.
He clenched his fists so tightly that he nearly ground his own teeth to dust.
He hung his head.
The snow began to fall again, covering the razed earth outside the city in a dappled blanket of white frost. Before long, the land would return to its silver-clad state, as if nothing had ever happened.
But...
"Prepare yourselves."
Ming Daozi projected his voice with spiritual power. His low, deep words caused the faces of the reveling cultivators to change drastically, and they froze in place as if time itself had stopped.
Standing behind the disciples of the Aeternus Sect, Supreme Elder Puci's expression was grim.
"Senior Ming Daozi, pre... prepare for what?" a cultivator stammered.
"Ye-yeah, that person... he's not going to do that again, is he?" another asked in terror.
"Senior Ming Daozi, this is no time for jokes!" a third cried.
"..."
A clamor of panicked voices echoed in his ears. How noisy.
Everyone in the city was looking up at him, waiting.
But Ming Daozi's gaze was fixed outside the city, on the place where the Li family had retreated.
He could still see them: the distant thunderclouds, the spirit ark, and every single one of those familiar figures.
The disciples of the Three Great Immortal Sects inside the formation seemed to sense what was happening, but they were unwilling to believe it.
The Li family members, however, didn't know if the formation was truly broken or not. And yet, with absolute faith in their Old Ancestor, they were already charging back.
Just like me...
Ming Daozi stared blankly at his own palm as spiritual power seeped from it.
He had thought he could be like the Li family's Old Ancestor, that he could cast aside all thoughts of life and death and exhaust every last bit of his power to maintain the formation. But when eighty percent of his strength was gone, his body's instinct had chosen to retreat.
Crack.
A subtle sound echoed. As the Li family members charged back toward the city, Ming Daozi saw it—a hairline crack spreading across the surface of the great formation.
"Senior Ming Daozi!"
The cultivators on the ground were shouting!
Everyone began to panic.
The Li family was charging back. Li Yunlin, bringing his thunder tribulation with him, had appeared behind the city, the dense thunderclouds cutting off the escape route for the Three Great Sects!
"I told you to prepare yourselves! Do you hear me?!"
This was the first time. The very first time that Ming Daozi had ever roared at the other cultivators with such a savage expression on his face.
It was as if his voice was too powerful. The hairline crack in the Rank 4 formation began to spread, branching out like a spiderweb as it grew larger and larger.
Crack... crack... crack!
Everyone could now see the cracks spreading, just like the fragile hearts of the cultivators cowering inside the supposedly sturdy formation—shattering, bit by bit.
"The formation... the formation is broken!"