Chapter 423: Da Lu Pass, the Battle to Shatter the Void!

Yu Ke saw the Kunxu Ding tremble.

Watching the pale-blue text scroll slowly across its surface.

His mind stirred with thought.

Lu Chen may not need to simulate another ten years this life.

It's ending!

"Lu Chen's life, dust has settled."

Simulation continues!

【Yu Ke and Lu Yu stood atop warhorses, gazing at the celestial anomalies churning across heaven and earth.】

【Lu Yu's face glowed with excitement; his long cry startled ten li.】

【Today, Beifeng Capital shall fall, heaven and earth shall change hands—this is already inevitable.】

【Tobashu Yi sat alone on the imperial dragon throne, holding a cup of poisoned wine.】

【On the twelfth of April, he drank the poison and died; in his final moments, only a long sigh remained:】

【"To be born in Lu Chen's age is my misfortune—and the misfortune of all heroes under heaven."】

【His son, Tobashu Hongyan, the Crown Prince, clad in sackcloth, held the imperial seal and documents, leading civil and military officials out of the city to surrender.】

【Tobashu Hongyan had once attempted to ambush General Wu Long of Qianyuan, hoping to earn favor through this act of loyalty. He pretended to be Tobashu Yi's emissary, inviting Wu Long to a secret meeting, with axe-wielding assassins hidden on both sides.】

【But heaven did not grant his wish.】

【As Yanbei troops arrived at Huanglong Prefecture, Wu Long had already led his remaining twenty thousand Qianyuan cavalry south under cover of night.】

【You did not pursue Wu Long; your returning soldiers had all resolved to die. Chasing them would only ignite their fury and resolve.】

【"Never chase a cornered foe!"】

【You gazed at today's strange celestial phenomena, yet remained calm, first organizing Beifeng's affairs, then turning your army southward.】

【In Beifeng, there was none of the rebellion or popular resentment you had expected; instead, a relative harmony prevailed.】

【For over twenty years, Yan's strength had been etched in their hearts, and all feared it.】

【Or rather, they had been broken by Yanbei troops.】

【After capturing cities, you did not slaughter as the old Beifeng had done; instead, you sent Liu Wen and other advisors to host banquets, pacify the people, and negotiate with local elders and great clans.】

【War is not merely slaughter—it must also soothe the people's hearts!】

【In Yuezhou, your first target, the people, under your organization, resumed farming and regained peace.】

【Yanbei troops enforced strict discipline; they never burned, killed, or looted, sparing the people.】

【Thus, in the war's later stages, many major cities surrendered at the mere sight of your army, and you welcomed them with high honors.】

【Later defectors numbered beyond count!】

【As for the many Beifeng soldiers who died on the front, Beifeng had long used the "Shijia" system: once enrolled, a family became hereditary soldiers, bound to fight for Beifeng generation after generation, permitted to marry only within military households.】

【Like state slaves.】

【Among these soldiers, some were former captives or conscripted refugees, forced into armor and onto battlefields.】

【Yet as Yanbei won every battle and shattered city after city,】

【The long-suppressed resentment of these Shijia households—their years of oppression, the whips of their superiors—】

【One man rose up, and others followed like clouds; they openly rebelled, fled back to their conscription lands, and watched the tide of events.】

【This act accelerated the collapse of the front lines; calls for peace within court and populace grew louder.】

【Even many great Beifeng clans led the way in defecting.】

【Tobashu Yi knew defeat was certain and irredeemable; he chose surrender, ending this protracted war.】

【He refused to let you see his disgraceful end, and met death willingly.】

【These nobles, long hidden behind Beifeng's curtain, now thrust to the forefront by circumstance, could not hide their deep terror of Lu Chen's authority or their dread of ancestral annihilation.】

【They gathered together and jointly elected Tobashu Hongyan—once Crown Prince, now powerless and harmless—as their leader.】

【They were negotiating the Treaty of Zhishui!】

【Tobashu Hongyan, the former Crown Prince, now discussed Beifeng's future and fate with the nobles—yet in truth, they were deciding whether to accept the terms you had laid out.】

【You first abolished the "Shijia" system, integrating all military households into the common populace, achieving equality of status.】

【Then you forged an alliance with Tobashu Hongyan and the nobles.】

【Beifeng was extinguished, absorbed into Yan, all now subjects of Great Yan.】

【You granted them limited autonomy under Yan's rule.】

【This alliance, called the "Treaty of Zhishui," clearly stipulated the taxes nobles must pay and the laws they must obey.】

【Beifeng's military and governance were now fully overseen and enforced by the Yan Prince's Court.】

【At the moment all was settled, you felt the celestial fate gathering like rivers converging toward you.】

【The north is pacified!】

【Yet even so, you could not break heaven's chains.】

【The celestial phenomena grew even more violent; the sky seemed ready to split in two.】

【You looked up at the sky, now split open on both sides, and a nameless urgency surged within you.】

【Time is short. Had you more, you could have handled Beifeng's affairs far more thoroughly.】

【Even Yan still had many unresolved matters.】

【Those lingering problems, like hidden currents beneath calm water, constantly threatened the state's peace.】

【Yet you understood: the rise and fall of nations are natural laws of heaven and earth.】

【No state can endure forever, unchanging through eternity.】

【What you feared for was the people!】

【The rise and fall of the world brings suffering only to the common folk.】

【But heaven granted you no more time.】

【The next day, you led your army southward in grand procession.】

【Behind you marched many former Beifeng soldiers, who followed you all the way to Beifeng's border.】

【From Huanglong Prefecture, you passed through Yan; along the way, more armies and volunteer militias joined you, swelling your ranks.】

【The people of Daqing lined the roads to welcome you.】

【They waved flags and shouted your name; your force grew ever larger, now seventy thousand strong, a mighty, unstoppable tide.】

【The Qianyuan army also marched northward, driven by their ambition to conquer the world.】

【The two armies met at Da Lu Pass on Daqing's border, facing each other, weapons drawn.】

【This would be a legendary battle, its significance far beyond a conflict between two states—it would decide the fate of all under heaven.】

【Looking back, this world had endured countless upheavals since ancient times.】

【Three thousand years ago, immortals ruled the world; all beings were their slaves, treated as livestock, with no freedom or dignity.】

【But the immortals lost virtue; all under heaven rose in fury. Mortals finally rebelled, setting the earth ablaze, driving out gods and immortals, seizing their own freedom and power, ushering in the age of ordinary mortals.】

【Then mortals formed tribes and states, forging their own path of civilization, thriving and multiplying.】

【A century later, the Yin clan of the Yellow River claimed descent from immortals and sought to reclaim power, restoring immortal rule and enslaving all mortals.】

【This provoked a united assault by all nations!】

【The Yin clan was destroyed!】

【Since then, every state coveted kingship, rising one after another to vie for supremacy, igniting war after war.】

【These state conflicts were the dawn of civilization: suffering and war taught mortals to think, to converse with heaven and earth, giving birth to the Hundred Schools of Thought, and gradually shaping human rites and morality.】

【After centuries of refinement, nine great states rose to prominence, known as the Nine Heroes; today, only two remain in rivalry.】

【These are Han and Chu, the two powers of today's five states.】

【The world has never been unified; now, this war between you and Qianyuan may be the decisive battle that determines heaven's mandate.】

【Great Yan has pacified the north.】

【Qianyuan has unified the south.】

【All under heaven watched Da Lu Pass, awaiting the outcome of this battle.】

【Yan's people prayed for their Prince; incense smoke from Mount Zhongnan never ceased.】

【As the two armies converged, the world was stunned to see the sky had split open completely.】

【Winds rose, clouds surged.】

【Above the north, winds and clouds coiled into a five-clawed golden dragon, majestic and mysterious.】

【Above the south, the sky's clouds transformed into a crimson divine bird, blazing and arrogant.】

【North and south faced off; heaven and earth changed color.】

【Da Lu Pass!】

【Though a rugged pass, it unexpectedly held a flat depression.】

【Surrounded by high ground, it formed a natural battlefield, large enough to accommodate both armies in grand formation.】

【To the north, seventy thousand Yanbei troops surged like a flood, overwhelming in might.】

【To the south, eighty thousand Qianyuan troops blazed like wildfire, unstoppable in force.】

【The two armies faced each other; war drums thundered, shaking heaven and earth.】

【At the peak of heaven, a dragon and a phoenix roared and battled without end!】

【In Jiangbei, Zhou Cheng, former Eighth Prince of Daqing, led fifty thousand elite troops, sworn to aid you in achieving hegemony.】

【By the Hexi River, Zhou Xuan also arrived with his army, supporting Qianyuan; the two brothers served opposing masters.】

No prolonged waiting, no tentative exchanges—both armies launched their charge simultaneously.

In an instant!

A heart-stopping battle began!

Chariots charged like a storm of wind and rain; the cries of men and horses echoed to the heavens, shaking heaven and earth.

Both sides engaged in a life-or-death struggle.

On the battlefield, shouts of battle rose and fell without end.

Flesh and blood flew through the air; the scene was horrific beyond words.

Lu Yu also plunged into the battle; clad in a white robe, he resembled a bolt of snow-white lightning, rampaging through the ranks, invincible wherever he went.

With one punch, he shattered five or six chariots instantly; men and horses tumbled down, chaos erupted!

The Qianyuan troops fled in terror at his approach; anyone he touched had their body shattered into multiple pieces.

At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared, blocking Lu Yu's path.

The man wore a grotesque demon mask, his hair tied back, his sword qi razor-sharp, capable of slicing through dozens of feet of earth.

With a single charge, she cleaved chariots into splinters.

The newcomer stood firmly before Lu Yu; beneath the mask, a pair of phoenix eyes glowed cold as frozen snow.

The Qianyuan Empress!

Seeing the Empress, Lu Yu halted.

Lu Yu glanced toward your direction; reassured by the protection of the Seven Masters of Zhongnan, he relaxed.

Lu Yu no longer hesitated; he assumed a fighting stance, and a qi of the Heaven-Man realm subtly formed.

In an instant, the space within dozens of feet around him plunged into a strange scene of black and white interwoven.

Heaven and earth dimmed; the Heaven-Man Outer Manifestation appeared!

Lu Yu had perfected the "Primordial Skill" to its ultimate peak, perfectly fusing inner and outer realms.

The Empress refused to yield; her aura surged like a tidal wave, and behind her, a golden sun blazed into the sky, radiant and dazzling, mirroring Lu Yu's power, evenly matched and unyielding.

This was the Outer Manifestation of the Qianyuan "Heaven-Conquering Scroll" at its highest level.

Wu Ying, as the second Wu family heir to perfect this art, had reached the Heaven-Man realm; like you, she bore a portion of the realm's fortune, her cultivation immeasurably deep.

As the two clashed, all around them instantly retreated, daring not to approach a single step!

Just as the Empress and Lu Yu battled, Huang Dao appeared.

Alone, he strolled through the battlefield as if in a tranquil garden; his spiritual energy flowed like razor-thin threads, slicing through every soldier—whether armored or helmeted—into fragments in an instant.

At this moment, the Seven Masters of Zhongnan had joined forces to fight; the battle grew fiercer.

Huang Dao arrived before you, bowed respectfully, his expression solemn, and spoke slowly:

"Huang Dao has come to demand the death of the Prince of Yan!"

You stared at Huang Dao—the foremost master of the demonic path, a Grand Master who had dominated the martial world for over forty years.

Seeing this, the Seven Masters of Zhongnan moved to assist, but were immediately blocked by Wu family experts, unable to break free.

At this moment, Huang Dao revealed his Heaven-Man Outer Manifestation for the first time.

Behind him, a vast vortex of darkness slowly emerged, spinning gently like a black maw, greedily devouring everything around.

It radiated a terrifying aura, as if capable of swallowing all things in the world—even light could not escape its grasp.

Huang Dao had fully integrated and transcended all techniques of the demonic "Heavenly Demon Scripture," innovating beyond the "Dao Heart Seed Demon" to reach an unprecedented realm.

At this moment, you too unveiled your Heaven-Man Outer Manifestation!

…

…

On the towering watchtower of Dalu Pass.

The Daqing Empress Dowager Zhou Jinyu, accompanied by the Crown Prince, now of age, and a host of civil and military ministers, had all arrived.

Their faces were grim, hearts filled with boundless anxiety and fervent hope, anxiously awaiting news from a hundred li away.

This great battle had already lasted three days!

Xie Chunan's family, including Xie Ling and Xie Mu, were also present.

Upon arriving, Xie Mu's gaze instinctively swept the battlefield, searching for Huang Dao's figure.

Though he knew little of Huang Dao's specific plan, he was certain it was intimately tied to celestial phenomena.

Such an extraordinary omen!

His father Xie Chunan had said that, in ancient Yin-Yang records, this was the "cause" of the Immortals' disappearance.

"After heaven tilted, spiritual energy vanished."

These words echoed in Xie Mu's heart.

Having followed Huang Dao for years, he understood the subtlety of spiritual energy—only a Grand Master could perceive it.

Ancient Immortals were born with the innate ability to sense spiritual energy and cultivate the Immortal Dao.

Now, spiritual energy had returned!

The "Heavenly Demon Scripture" recorded one phrase.

"When spiritual energy returns, martial arts shatter the void!"

To break through the void with a mortal body was the lifelong pursuit of every martial practitioner.

Heart and soul yearned for it!

(End of Chapter)