"Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!"
After cutting through the Divine Martial Gate, Zhong Shenxiu did not stop his advance but continued towards the deeper parts of the Imperial Palace.
The remaining Golden Scale Army, the guards of the throne, the palace guards...
Various elite warriors wielding long spears and crossbows continuously surrounded him, almost sacrificially.
A rain of thousands of arrows was unleashed!
A wall of spears thrust forward!
Sadly, to a Great Grandmaster like him, these were all futile.
Zhong Shenxiu merely cast his gaze over them, exerted a hint of his spiritual pressure, and ordinary elite warriors, even Blood Swapping Warriors, rapidly lost their fighting abilities.
With a puff of breath, arrows in mid-air all fell to the ground, walked over gently by him.
As for the shield walls, with a casual swipe from him, they split as if made of paper, and the armor-clad bodies behind them split similarly.
Sometimes, a Grandmaster still loyal to the court desperately came forward to stop him and was casually killed by Zhong Shenxiu, with bodies discarded by the roadside.
Inside the Imperial Palace, rivers of blood were already flowing.
On top of each palace gate’s watchtowers, panicked screams permeated as the sound of gates closing rang out incessantly, with all nine layers of palace gates closing one after the other.
But it was to no avail!
Zhong Shenxiu approached a large iron gate and with a light touch, the colossal gate shattered thunderously, revealing the terrified faces behind it.
Expressionless, he waved his hand casually, and immediately, the scene was filled with severe casualties and flesh turned to mud.
He broke through the Divine Martial Gate, cut through Han Baiyu Square, and stormed through three palace gates until he arrived at Taiyang Palace.
This was one of the foremost three halls, the place where the Emperor of Great Wu held court.
At this time, the Emperor was not here but had left behind a group of officials in vermilion and purple robes, uncertain whether they were Chief of Staff or Chief Ministers.
"This is a sanctum of the court, how dare you desecrate it? You, a mere martial artist, stand down now!"
As Zhong Shenxiu ascended the steps, he saw at the top an old scholar furiously denouncing him, "Rebel and traitor, committing acts of insubordination, you will surely be cursed through the annals of history!"
Next to him, a Historian was fervently recording everything.
Any power, at the brink of destruction, always has a few loyal and steadfast officials.
Although... they are very few.
Zhong Shenxiu didn’t spare them a glance, casually waved his hand, and the heads of the old scholar and the Historian behind him tumbled down.
"Please, cease your actions!"
Out from Taiyang Palace, another old official emerged, "His Majesty is keen on reforms, aiming to sweep away the decline across the land, now nearly successful, peace and prosperity for the common folk just ahead, yet you insist on plunging the realm into war, how can you bear it?"
"If the regime falls, chaos will rise throughout the land, millions of commoners will be displaced, suffering deaths and injuries too numerous to count... Although you are of the Demon Sect, the Demon Sect has its governance philosophy, not merely on destruction. Why not cease hostilities, let our court graciously welcome the talents of the Evil King Sect to serve within the regime..."
"For the innocent common people below, please consider the greater good..."
One after another, those sentences filled with righteous indignation indeed made Zhong Shenxiu fully feel what being condemned by thousands meant, ending without ailment.
These officials daring to confront him were naturally unafraid of death.
But they were insisting on imposing their logic onto Zhong Shenxiu.
"For the common people below?"
Zhong Shenxiu slightly halted his steps, making the learned scholars rejoice internally, just starting to muster their golden tongues to continue persuading, when they saw the blood-drenched Shura swing out his palm.
The palm wind passed by, and a batch of civil officials whose positions were unknown were reduced to bits of flesh scattered across the sky.
"Is the big picture what matters?"
"Why didn’t anyone tell me that before?"
Now that he had come, his mind was made up, and he regarded these words as mere farts.
People who do great things, loathe being indecisive.
For instance, two people almost succeeded in their supreme endeavor, but were trapped by the so-called greater good, selling blood and organs, sabotaging themselves and their subordinates excessively.
Zhong Shenxiu would never allow himself to become such a fool.
His hands, holding invisible blades, continuously burst forth, swiftly turning Taiyang Palace into a rolling ground of heads, then breaking out of Taiyang Palace, cutting through Central Yang Hall, Shaoyang Palace...
"Protect the Emperor!"
"Protect the Emperor!"
By the time he aimed to attack Qianyang Palace, even though they were terrified, loyal officials and righteous men crazily surged forward.
This was the last breath of the Great Wu Dynasty.
If Zhong Shenxiu had an ordinary sword, or even a divine weapon, his arms would’ve already been tired, and the blade’s edge rolled.
’I’m killing the Emperor for nothing, if the Imperial Family’s lineage isn’t cut off, killing one just means appointing another...’
Since entering the inner court, Zhong Shenxiu had followed a sensation, pursuing an aura.
That was the aura of a Great Grandmaster, also the court’s last Great Grandmaster, the Royal Grand Tributor.
The opponent’s aura was lofty, like a Heavenly God, superior and high above, and with just a slight sensing, Zhong Shenxiu knew that this was the most formidable enemy he had ever encountered!
Such a character, not joining hands with those three Great Grandmasters to attack him earlier, must stem from absolute confidence!
Confidence that he alone could handles the heavens and suppress him!
The Royal Grand Tributor, having occupied the top position in the celestial ranking for sixty years, the last stabilizing force of Great Wu Dynasty!
’If I don’t kill this man today, the mission won’t be complete!’
Zhong Shenxiu followed his senses and arrived in front of a palace.
Looking up, the placard carried the words ’Qianyang Palace’.
’It’s interesting, this Grand Tributor is right here, could it be he’s personally protecting the Emperor? Is the Emperor foolish? Why hasn’t he run away?’
Zhong Shenxiu thought of a guess, and stepped onto the staircase.
Atop the staircase, the originally dense ranks of armored soldiers, clutching their hearts, spewed out blood-stained viscera, falling en masse like harvested wheat.
In front of the palace gate, Zhong Shenxiu casually killed the last Grandmaster and rubbed his brow.
Since his spirit mingled with the world and reached the pinnacle, barely touching the threshold of shattering the void, his spirit had been highly activated.
At this moment, it was as if he regressed to an even more ancient era in the river of time, enabling the tracing of more information within the void.
Standing there, vague images automatically surfaced in his mind.
It seemed to be the heavy memories carried by this ancient palace from hundreds or even thousands of years ago!
Shadowy fragments, vague figures, and numerous screams and murmurs seemed to reach his ears...
’Having too sharp of an intuition really isn’t a good thing.’
Zhong Shenxiu muttered to himself and opened the gates of Qianyang Palace.
Unexpectedly, within the vast palace there was a deathly silence, with only a middle-aged man wearing a bright yellow dragon robe standing beside the Nine Dragon Throne, calmly watching Zhong Shenxiu enter.
His eyes, like bottomless dark wells with hints of purple, emitted an incomparable sinister force, and a very pleasant magnetic voice rang out, "You are not the Undying Evil Emperor, if the Undying Evil Emperor had half your ability, the Saint Monk and the Mad Daoist would have nothing to do with the celestial ranking..."
Zhong Shenxiu, showing no emotional changes from being seen through, simply asked, "Should I address you as the Royal Grand Tributor, or as the Martial Emperor?"