Chapter 795: The Capital Beneath the Emperor, the Immortal Qin Daoists

But the bronze-faced figure on the Zhou Tian Starship merely glanced at him coldly.

Beneath the mask, as if countless gods spoke in unison: "Immortal Qin Daoists, by order of the First Emperor, have come in the Star Raft to meet the Queen Mother of the West, seeking the Elixir of Immortality!"

That voice seemed to transcend time, evoking a sense of stars shifting and seas turning to mulberry fields.

Dan Dan Chengzi stood atop the Tree of Immortality, facing the overwhelming, surging, tyrannical aura rushing toward him, yet could not help rising to his feet and saying: "But the Immortal Qin is already dead!"

From the lower decks of the Zhou Tian Starship, firing ports opened one by one, revealing colossal crossbows as large as lathes, all aimed at Western Kunlun Xu.

Twelve Rì Rì Jiān Xīng Nǔ slowly extended their bow arms.

The entire Zhou Tian Starship burned the magic power of one Nascent Soul True Immortal every moment; within it, the divine beings activated the Qin King's Bone-Reflecting Mirror, whose light pierced through the Nine True Void Divine Prohibitions, shattering all barriers and directly breaking the time-frozen Western Kunlun Xu.

Instantly, the spiritual souls of all Nascent Soul True Immortals were locked by the mirror's all-pervading light.

Then, the terrifying power of the Rì Rì Jiān Xīng Nǔ, capable of piercing stars, coalesced upon the magic treasure-class bolts.

This terrifying war artifact from the Immortal Qin finally bared its fangs…

At this moment, numerous Nascent Souls finally felt it.

What it meant to be like ants!

A term that should never have applied to any Nascent Soul now felt utterly fitting.

The many broken prohibitions of Western Kunlun Xu slowly rotated.

Amid the ruins, a grand divine city seemed to awaken once more, yet its scarred remains, the shattered mirror pierced through and destroyed in most of its surface, and the Zhou Tian Starship shared an inexplicable harmony.

As if Western Kunlun Xu and the Zhou Tian Starship, after crossing a million years, faced each other once again.

Within the Yao Tree, the shadow of the female immortal suddenly erupted.

From boundless immortal light, she stepped forth.

As if time itself had been sealed, the peerlessly elegant woman stepped out of the immortal radiance, still rendering the entire world colorless.

In her hand, she cradled a circle of mirror-light.

It seemed but a residual echo of time—only the light of the mirror's surface remained in her grasp; the original bronze ancient mirror's body had long abandoned her, leaving only a cluster of light.

"Immortal Qin Daoists?"

The immortal woman spoke slowly: "The Kingdom of the Queen Mother has fallen, yet the Immortal Qin never took the Heavenly Realm—instead, it followed closely into utter ruin?"

"I am but a lingering shadow within time, and you—who are you but a lost soul? The First Emperor is dead—why still seek the Elixir of Immortality?"

"In ages past, your Immortal Qin waged war upon my Kingdom of the Queen Mother: first for the Western Kunlun Mirror, second for the Elixir of Immortality!"

"To extend the life of your tyrant, the First Emperor, you invaded Western Kunlun, conquered Yingzhou, resurrected the sunken Zhūkū Zhōu, shattered twelve great worlds, slaughtered countless immortals and divine beings, and thrice annihilated the Heavenly Armies!"

"Even the Jade Emperor's decree once asked: Has the treasure mirror hanging outside the Southern Heavenly Gate ever witnessed the might of the Immortal Qin?"

"The Great Demon Warlord Bai Qi!"

"The Military God Wang He Jian!"

"The Chancellor, Legalist Li Si!"

"The Syncretist Grand Daoist Lü Buwei!"

"These last great spirits of the Hundred Schools—all their Dao Lords are long dead—who are you, this petty clown, too cowardly to even name yourself, daring to knock again upon the great gates of my Western Western Kunlun?"

The immortal woman raised her magic mirror high; its light seemed to span countless dimensions.

Behind her, the sealed capital beneath the Emperor trembled faintly within the stagnant time; beside the Tree of Immortality, countless prohibitions surfaced in the void.

The scattered, broken remnants instantly merged with their echoes in time.

The flawless Zhou Tian Starship faced the restored capital beneath the Emperor of old!

"In ages past, when we invaded Western Kunlun, five Zhou Tian Starships marched under Wang Ben… Now, the Immortal Qin's mighty fleet that once dominated all heavens no longer exists."

"In ages past, the Kingdom of the Queen Mother guarding Western Kunlun, though losing the Western Kunlun Mirror, still had the descendants of Lu Wu, the Phoenix clan, the Queen Mother herself, and the Grand Priest—four Dao Lords."

"The Eight Palaces of Western Kunlun still held Xuanpu Palace, Langfeng Peak, Tianyong City, and Yuying Palace… Now they too are destroyed!"

The Hong Xuesheng Zangshan Laozu sighed faintly: "I never imagined I'd witness the continuation of that war today."

"Pity—back then, the Immortal Qin's generals and Daoists never wore masks, never hid their faces…"

This demonic great demon cast a pointed, mocking gaze at the terrifying Luo Tian artifact.

The bronze-faced figure gently pressed his hand against the bronze ghost mask.

He caressed the mask, as if remembering the eroded bronze rust of bygone eras, then suddenly tore it off—the bronze mask plunged into the void sea, revealing a head of snow-white hair; his face resembled an ordinary old man, yet his eyes remained piercing, especially his twin pupils—one large, one small, nested within, profoundly mysterious.

The old man's plain face bore the weight of ages, yet he gazed down with supreme arrogance upon all beneath the Zhou Tian Starship…

"I, Qin minister, Grand Daoist Xu Fu, by the First Emperor's decree, ask once more for the Elixir of Immortality from Western Western Kunlun!"

"Xu Fu?"

The myriad Nascent Soul True Immortals atop the Tree of Immortality could not help gasping—this name indeed came from a distant past.

Grand Daoist—how many years had passed since the Earthly Immortal Realm last heard that terrifying title.

Dan Gu Chenzi's heart sank; he spoke harshly: "The Grand Daoist Xu Fu, who led three thousand men on a distant expedition in the Zhou Tian Starship and vanished? The First Emperor, after your departure, flew into rage and buried over four hundred Daoist alchemists alive—you truly never died!"

Even the Nascent Souls of the Yingzhou Ten Thousand Divine Palace dared not leap now!

He had only heard rumors that Penglai possessed a terrifying war artifact inherited from the Immortal Qin, so upon seeing the unmatched aura of the starship, he had blurted out those words.

But in truth, the starship Penglai had deployed this time, though also an Immortal Qin war artifact, was like a small skiff compared to a true warship next to the Zhou Tian Starship.

Facing a Zhou Tian Starship that had barely unveiled its firepower, he felt like an ant, sweat drenching his brow, realizing he had mistaken his man.

The divine being of the Qitian Sect also opened its eyes coldly, gazing deeply at the war artifact.

Sun En could no longer remain a passive observer; golden lamps ignited within the halo of auspicious clouds above his head.

Rolling auspicious clouds instantly engulfed a hundred li; countless Yellow Turban Warriors and divine generals formed ranks within the clouds, as Sun En stood upon the Jade Court holding a talisman.

He gripped his nine-jointed staff, standing within the Huangting, facing the terrifying colossal warship: "I thought the mysterious ancient ancestor of Penglai and Yingzhou had come—yet it is a traitor of the Immortal Qin!"

"Xu Fu, the First Emperor is dead! You long ago betrayed the Immortal Qin—your claim of obeying his decree is a joke!"

Xu Fu, clad in tattered Daoist robes, stirred slightly—perhaps because of the words "you long ago betrayed the Immortal Qin," or perhaps because of "the First Emperor is dead"—his twin pupils trembled faintly.

In an instant, the merged pupils split apart, becoming one large and one small pupil on either side of his eyes.

But quickly, the twin pupils merged again.

A cold gaze, born of the twin pupils, pierced straight into Sun En's heart.

He calmly extended his hand; behind him, on the Zhou Tian Starship, a colossal golden figure slowly rose, extending its hand in unison with his motion.

Arriving above them, the golden figure raised its arm and slammed down.

Sun En's nine-jointed staff blazed with light; behind him, countless Yellow Turban Warriors roared: "The Azure Heaven is dead!"

Yet in an instant, countless golden lamps were extinguished one by one.

The golden giant's palm shattered the auspicious clouds; wherever its terrifying power touched, all vanished into oblivion—the shockwave swept onward, reducing every Huang Jinlishi to dust.

The nine-jointed staff's spiritual light shattered; Sun En tumbled headlong into the dust.

The Celestial Master fell in a single strike…

Xu Fu raised his hand again; the golden figure punched straight toward the Tree of Immortality. Dan Gu Chenzi summoned his elixir furnace; nine flame dragons shattered into fragments under the punch, like tiny eels snapping in the brilliance of the golden figure's divine beings.

The magic treasure elixir furnace was struck directly on its body; the dull bronze sound echoed like a colossal bell.

"Dōng!"

The massive shockwave hurled Dan Gu Chenzi away; a colossal fist imprint, covering half the furnace, appeared on its surface; the divine beings within the furnace spewed divine blood from their five viscera and six bowels; their spiritual light contracted violently then exploded, their divine bodies disintegrating as the furnace flew backward.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Muffled explosions echoed.

The furnace smashed through mountain after mountain; Western Kunlun Xu's indestructible earth veins crumbled before it like fragile walls.

Dan Gu Chenzi spat blood from mouth and nose, flying out with the furnace's spiritual light; finally, he mustered strength to release the seven or eight disciples trapped within the furnace, who, amid frantic support, barely sat upright—he gasped: "I've been defeated!"

Then he turned his head and fainted.

The golden figure raised its fist again and slammed down; the Hong Xuesheng Zangshan Laozu shrieked and fled for his life.

The nine Immortal Demons leapt wildly, forming a formation to open a rift into Avīci Hell.

They somersaulted, still spinning the Great Array of Heaven-Turning Earth-Shaking—but beneath the golden fist, all of it was like a clown, like dwarfs tumbling in the imperial court of the Immortal Qin.

One punch—and the nine demons shattered.

Their immortal demonic bodies, along with the nine demon banners, were smashed into Avīci Hell, surviving only by a thread of immortality, barely reassembling.

Xu Fu reached back and seized the four-faced, eight-armed immortal demon body, standing upon a red lotus.

He crushed it into blood-mud within the golden fist.

He turned his head slightly; the Jiuli Great Witch lowered his bronze drum obediently; the Pure Good Dragon Maiden retracted her jade vase, forcing a serene, beautiful smile; the Nascent Soul of the Ten Thousand Divine Palace bowed deeply; Xiao Xie An of Southern Jin laid down his clan chronicle; Cao, the Imperial Uncle of Northern Wei, quietly stowed away the Ice Well Terrace; countless noble families fell utterly silent—not merely because of Xu Fu's terrifying power.

But because of the might of the Immortal Qin that followed…

Beneath the Twelve Golden Figures, what use were noble clans? Before the cannon muzzles of the Zhou Tian Starship, only families loyal to the Immortal Qin remained.

Yan Shu, atop the Tree of Immortality, struggled to rise, his heart numb.

Even Shaoying's sword-bone…

Against such a terrifying war artifact, a Luo Tian divine instrument that had overturned all—what use was a sword? What use was a sword?

Beyond upholding righteousness with the sword, it was truly useless.

This was Yan Shu's first doubt: could his sword path truly pierce through everything?

"Don't fear. Give him the Elixir of Immortality—he won't strike you."

Yan Shu instinctively gripped the jade tripod, countering the demonic voice within: "Give him the Elixir of Immortality? That's the only hope for my brother Brother Qian's resurrection."

"Xu Fu's power has already returned to its peak!"

"When he forged his Dao Fruit, alongside other Grand Daoists, they all swore to exhaust the path of creation. But in the end, he feared—he betrayed himself, his heart split, his Dao Fruit sank into ruin! What he truly could not face was his former self. Though he escaped the purge after the Immortal Qin's fall, his power regressed instead of advancing—so when he heard of the Elixir of Immortality, he would come. He seeks to make amends to his past self!"

"That's why I set this trap for him!"

The demonic wisdom murmured slowly: "Give him the Elixir of Immortality. Now he seeks to seize it and return it to the First Emperor—he wishes to lay down his past guilt, to face his former self again… How idealistic…"

"A moment of lost heart is not terrifying! What is terrifying is to twist oneself forever—Xu Fu still does not know what kind of man he should be."

There have been those who betrayed the resolve they held at the moment of completing their perfect Dao fruit, but some have surpassed their past selves, reclaiming greater ambition and grandeur, while others have spent their days in flight.

Now, facing his past self once more, his divided heart temporarily mended, and he reclaimed the power of his former self.

You may see now what a Grand Daoist Priest truly is!

The bronze moon palace of Guanghan Palace slowly descended; the mountain-splitting dragon whale of the Northern Pole Great Radiance Palace, before this world-sinking Zhou Tian Starship, resembled a small fish flicking its tail; the demonic sects bowed obediently as wise men of the times; all immortal sects from the overseas lands and central realms lowered their heads in submission.

Xu Fu slowly raised his head, gazing at the towering Tree of Immortality, then suddenly brought his hand down—twelve Sun-Slaying Star-Annihilating Crossbows on the Zhou Tian Starship fired in unison.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

A howling wind rose; under the detonation of the Meta-Magnetic Divine Prohibition, twelve bolts—forged from the Divine Prohibitions of Star-Annihilation and Sun-Extermination, each refined by countless deities and smelted in the creation furnace of the Zhou Tian Starship—shot forth.

Their arrowheads were forged from Miefashenjin, the divine metal born from the extinction of countless suns and stars across the myriad worlds; their shafts were cast from billions of star-iron fragments left after stellar destruction.

Each weighed ten thousand trillion jun…

Transformed into terrifying beams of star-collapse, the twelve Star-Annihilating bolts arrived before the Tree of Immortality in an instant.

The Western Western Kunlun immortal woman suddenly raised her mirror-light; in an instant, tens of thousands of years of time descended upon the Tree of Immortality, stretching time by one hundred and fifty million times—the twelve bolts slowed to a crawl.

The woman's formless, intangible mirror-light suddenly thickened, and an ancient bronze mirror fell.

"This is…" The woman's expression froze; she sharply raised the ancient mirror.

Since her fall from grace, the past of the Western Kunlun Mirror had become a blurred glow of light—otherwise, every holder could summon the Western Kunlun Mirror that had once rested in their hands.

Now, the ancient mirror from the past reappeared.

Accompanied by the Western Kunlun Mirror's light, the stagnant capital beneath the Emperor slowly descended from a time neither past, nor present, nor future.

First to descend was the Fan Tong layer surrounding Western Kunlun Xu.

Before the Kai Ming Gate, a jade divine tiger with nine heads all turned toward the Zhou Tian Starship; with a thunderous crash, a heavenly gate descended—taller than ten thousand blades, majestic and inviolable—and the twelve Star-Annihilating arrows were ground to dust by the gate.

Upon the heavenly gate, a portal slowly lowered, instantly severing the entire Western Kunlun Xu ruins from the world.

That portal was sacred and awe-inspiring; merely releasing a thread of immortal light, it swept across the void sea and annihilated countless beings.

Only when it struck the Zhou Tian Starship was it neutralized by the starship's divine prohibition—so densely layered, so incomparably intricate, as if composed of every single prohibition from the entire Earth Immortal Realm.

The annihilating immortal light upon the Zhou Tian Divine Prohibition stirred only the faintest ripple…

On the Zhou Tian Starship, three thousand Divine Thunder Towers suddenly materialized.

The myriad divine thunder techniques that the Shenxiao Sect had pursued their entire lives could be unleashed by the prohibition of but a single Thunder Tower; now, with each breath, the Zhou Tian Starship burned the magic power of thirty Primordial Spirit True Immortals, and the three thousand towers erupted.

The divine thunder merged into one, forming a primordial void!

The ultimate divine thunder sought by the mastery of the Five Thunders—Lord Pangu Divine Thunder Cannon—the Doushen Thunder—manifested clearly.

The ultimate prototype of the Daoist Priest's calculated great technique exploded; rolling thunder fused into this solitary thing, becoming one, rushing toward the heavenly gate.

The collision between the Capital Beneath the Emperor and the Zhou Tian Starship—the two ultimate war artifacts—vaporized the void sea for countless miles around.

Even the golden turtle, forcibly matured by the Western Kunlun Mirror through countless eons, cowered, retracting its head into its shell; had Western Kunlun Xu not stood within the void sea as part of the Ten Isles and Three Islands Array, which channeled most of the force into the Gui Xu Illusory Sea…

Merely this collision would have cracked a corner of its shell…

"Grand Daoist Priest Xu Fu of the Qin Immortal Realm has come to Western Western Kunlun to claim the Elixir of Immortality for His Majesty!"

Xu Fu's voice remained calm, yet beneath it churned a storm of chaos.

The woman could no longer bear the pressure; though her ancient bronze mirror still radiated eternal energy, her temporal shadow had grown insubstantial. She spoke: "As long as you do not ascend Western Kunlun Xu, go and take it yourself!"

The heavenly gate slowly opened; the Kai Ming Beast withdrew.

Xu Fu gave a slight nod and stepped down from the Zhou Tian Starship…

Standing before the Tree of Immortality, he gazed upward at Yan Shu, waiting atop the tree for the Elixir of Immortality to be perfected.

Ning Ning Qingchen bit her lower lip, gripping the Taiyin Divine Knife tightly.

She was about to step before Yan Shu, but her senior brother quickly pulled her back.

"Are you joking? Are you that reckless? Even a Dao Jun dares you draw your blade?"

Yan Shu tossed out the jade cauldron: "The Elixir of Immortality is yours!"

Xu Fu took the jade cauldron, his right hand gently closing; the Wheel of Creation opened the sealed vessel. Within, a five-colored medicinal paste cradled five golden Elixirs of Immortality, and nine lesser jade-colored Yu Yu Changsheng Elixirs emerged.

"To beg Heaven to descend and refine this elixir—this is not Creation…"

Xu Fu said calmly, as if reclaiming his pride: "Creation means stealing Heaven's secrets, seizing the essence of all things."

"You are begging for medicine, asking Heaven to grant it… Emperor Qin Shi Huang performed the Fengshan rites on Mount Tai, seeking Heaven's gift of immortality. But the gods of Heaven, even the Dao itself, opposed his eternal life. No Four Spirits ascended for him; no Earth nurtured Creation for him; no Queen Mother of the West bestowed the mystery. Heaven itself had to refine the medicine for him!"

"Yet you can do it?"

"It seems even I dare not offend the one behind you…"

Xu Fu took the five-colored medicinal paste, resealed the jade cauldron, and tossed it back to Yan Shu.

Dan Dan Chengzi, just waking from his daze, let out a deep breath: Finally, you didn't take it! I'd never have stopped you!

Xu Fu said coldly: "True Immortal Creation lies only in these dregs—it is condensed from Creation that defied Heaven, the dross of Heaven itself. The rest, stained with your blood, clearly bears the mark of someone's guidance. Return them to you."

He gazed at the half-withered, half-lush Tree of Immortality.

Xu Fu nodded slightly: "It seems you've only refined half of this elixir! The lush half of the Tree of Immortality may beg Heaven to refine medicine—but what of the withered half?"

"Here lies the other half of the Elixir of Immortality."

"The Creation of the entire Tree of Immortality has been split in two; the other half is immortal yet dead, requiring defiance of Heaven to seize…"

Xu Fu walked to the withered half, looked down at the medicinal waters flowing beneath his feet, and declared proudly: "All alchemists, Daoists, and shamans who come here are useless. Only I, a Daoist Priest, can defy Heaven and refine medicine!"

Yan Shu secretly exhaled in relief.

"So… he's still just a little short… just a little short of catching up to Brother Brother Qian!"