Dust and rubles surrounded on what used to be the grand Imperial Palace that outshined all the other buildings around it, known for its exquisite architecture and was designed using many rare materials and inlaid with many runic formations to support its majestic structures, causing the citizens in the Ethereal Winter city to become dumbfounded."Ahhh! What happened? Are we under attack?"
"Noo!! The Imperial Palace!"
"Is Her Majesty in danger? Someone, quickly go and check!"
The citizens clutched at their head in a frenzy as they watched these happenings in full disbelief.
How can the Imperial Palace suddenly exploded like that?
Could it be that the Royal family wanted to do a complete overhaul the easy way by dismantling everything in such a bombastic manner?
Meanwhile, on what used to be the throne room, Liu Gongsun Xiaojian"s mouth was fully agape, her entire mind wallowing in an agonized state!
Ah! My beautiful palace!
My throne!
Liu Sheng Duhai could only let out a helpless sigh, as if already expecting this result.
I already told you.. but you won"t listen..
On the other hand, the perpetrator, Duan Li, looked around him in astonishment before nodding in approval.
"Oho! This Imperial Palace is really quite st.u.r.dy than it looks! What novelty in engineering if I must so say myself!"
Pu!
The Liu Emperor staggered on her feet and almost keeled over from hearing Duan Li"s words.
Are you being sarcastic?
What st.u.r.dy? Is my palace still standing?
Tell me now, am I blind?
Actually, Duan Li was complimenting on how the Imperial Palace did a good job in absorbing the potent effect of his aura.
He then turned to Liu Sheng Duhai with a curious expression, "The runic formation within the walls of the Imperial Palace just now could absorb a cultivator"s aura?"
"Hmm? Well.. yes, but not really.." Liu Sheng Duhai replied as he paused for a moment before he continued;
"The main purpose of those runic formation was to actually absorb the impact from any Qi source including the aura from cultivators of higher realm, like the Nascent Soul realm for example..."
He then explained that it was made to protect the Imperial Palace from enemy attacks, not because it was crucial, but because its a building that symbolizes power for their emperor!
After all, if the place where their emperor live in were to crumble so easily, wouldn"t that meant that the emperor themselves wasn"t really that capable?
But now, that was exactly what was playing on in their minds!
"Since it absorbed your aura like a dampener, it probably reached its own limit tolerance in the process, leading the entire thing to explode because they could no longer contain it!" Liu Sheng Duhai said.
Fights between Nascent Soul realm could easily devastate an entire land and city, that was why they usually chose to do their battle high up in the atmosphere.
And in the event that their fights affected the ground surface, the runic formations could help shield the structures from collapsing. Otherwise, building a functional empire would be all but impossible if everything was destroyed again and again.
"I see.. that makes sense! It"s really admirable to be able to withstand 40% of my power until it exploded like that. It was a really fine work of art!" Duan Li complimented.
Pu!
Another stifled sensation swelled within the throat of the Liu Emperor from Duan Li"s "compliment".
At the same time, she could not help but to be alarmed, "40% strength should be double the power from the previous 20%. But by Nascent Soul realm standard, that should only be roughly around the strength of Middle stage cultivator at most!"
Therefore, how did he manage to explode her castle before?
That"s simply impossible!
After all, even she herself would be unable to do such a thing when she was already at the Pinnacle stage of the Nascent Soul realm, not to mention someone in the power level of the Middle stage!
"Your Majesty, have you not realized it yet? Try to cast your soul sense on him..." Liu Sheng Duhai replied.
"What do you mean-" She furrowed her brows in confusion and did as was told while thinking that there would be nothing out of it, before her eyes opened wide like a pair of flying saucer.
"T-T-Three... y-you actually... cultivated all three d-dantian?!"
The shock in her mind suddenly went past beyond the limit like the runic formations before, and she finally lost her calm composure as she staggered backwards!
Since Duan Li was not concealing his aura right now, the three different spiritual Qi source coursing through his meridians and Qi pathways became visible to those that possess the soul sense.
"No wonder... it all made sense now!" realization finally struck and answered all the numerous doubts she has regarding the anomaly behind the rumors about the Imperial Overseer in front of her, and how he was able to defeat even an immortal!
If the person in question was able to cultivate not two, but three dantian, how can it even be impossible for someone that defied death itself to destroy her palace with his mere aura?
Now, she finally understood it all!
"For your aura being able to destroy my palace like that, the pressure from that Qi alone are probably like the skill attacks from Nascent Soul realm cultivator!" Liu Gongsun Xiaojian said, her body shuddered from the sheer thought of it.
Duan Li cupped his chin when hearing this, nodding in agreement.
"Hmm... now that you mentioned it, that should be the case!"
Previously, Duan Li had never tried to unleash his power at that level onto his surroundings because he was afraid that people might get hurt and that was why he tried his best to rein his aura in close to himself at all times. Now, it was proven!
Turning to face the Liu Emperor, Duan Li curiously asked, "Pardon me for asking, but how confident are you Your Majesty, in terms of your power level when compared to the rest in the entire Tian continent?"
Of course, when Liu Gongsun Xiaojian heard this, she was a bit displeased.
"Hmph! Even though our two empires are small, an emperor is still an emperor! We stood at the very peak of power!" she snorted with a hint of pride in her voice.
She then continued, "Based on what I know, there are many experts around the world with strengths matching us. But as for my rank amongst them.. it should be in the top 30 at least!"
"Top 30?" Duan Li widened his eyes in disbelief.
I thought you would be in the top 10 or something...
"What is with that look? Are you looking down on me?!" the Liu Emperor snapped when she saw Duan Li"s disappointed look.
I"m the Emperor d.a.m.n it! THE Emperor! How can you humiliate me like this?
"Why don"t I prove it to you? Unleash more of your power, and I will still be able to stand here like it is nothing!"
"No! Your Majesty! What are you doing? Our capital city will not be able to withstand-"
"Silence! You have no say in my decision this time!" the Liu Emperor bellowed towards Liu Sheng Duhai for trying to get in her way with a wave of her sleeve!
Unseal!
BOOOMM!!
Since she challenged him, Duan Li then decided to entertain her without further ado. Additionally, since the capital city was also protected by the same runic formations, his aura shouldn"t harm the populace at all!
At 50% of his full power, the entirety of the imperial courtyard garden was squeezed to their last drop of honey from their stalk!
BOOOMMM!!
At 60% of his full power, the house of Great clans and aristocracts surrounding on what used to be the Imperial Palace began to crumble one by one.
BOOOOMMM!!
At 70% of his full power, the structures within 10 kilometer diameter from the Imperial Palace also began to tumble down like dominos!
"Stop!!!" the Liu Emperor screamed in horror.
Pant! Pant! Pant!
Eh?
Duan Li turned around and couldn"t see the Liu Emperor anywhere until he looked down.
"What are you doing on the ground? Pushups?"
Pu!
"I"ve seen enough! You are right, I am weak!" she said, her face almost seemed like tears would flow down her cheeks at any moment soon.
...
Two silhouettes ran across the wall with great speed while managing to evade the detection of the guards manning the border of the capital city of Ethereal Winter.
"Hahaha! It"s so easy to sneak in! As expected of this bunch of wastrels-"
BOOMMMM!!
A sudden loud explosion caught them off guard, causing them to lay flat on top of the wall on instinct!
Looking at the direction of the explosion, they saw some buildings getting destroyed one after another.
"What"s going on? Are we invading already?"
...