Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1193 The Crimson Palace

Following the path of flowing blood, Bai Qinghan gradually arrived at the center of the Imperial Court.

Theoretically speaking, this journey will be quite difficult.

The Xuantian Palace is vast, its interior a self-contained grotto-heaven. Layer upon layer of time and space, and intricate and mysterious magic arrays form the largest labyrinth in the Huaixu Realm. Each emperor adds to it according to his own preferences, and the next emperor continues to build upon and add to it.

Even Ling Xiao, upon arriving at the Xuan Tian Palace, would be suppressed by the sheer size accumulated over generations of the Great Chen Dynasty.
At his peak, Emperor Xuantian could change the fundamental laws of the Divine Capital Domain with a single word, much like the Heavenly Dao itself.

Even Lingxiao, who is at the peak of the Nine Heavens of Refining Dao, is unwilling to fight against Lingxiao of Dachen within the influence of Xuantian Palace. The other party has already opened up, so why bother playing a local battle with an Earthbound Spirit?

However, this only applies to external enemies.

When faced with an internal enemy, all of this becomes completely ineffective.

Bai Qinghan has not been suppressed in the slightest along the way.

All the magical restrictions and formations along the way lost their power under the imperial blood authority granted to her by You Ruhui, and even became her aid, allowing her to quickly cross the complex passage structure through teleportation.

Yes, You Ruhui was actually the daughter of the late emperor. In a sense, this can also be considered a kind of 'connection through mystery'.

Along the way, she saw many corpses.

There were palace maids, ministers, and imperial guards.

Most of these corpses were shriveled up, resembling mummies, and their expressions were filled with terror, as if they had never expected to die.

In addition, there were many strange corpses of monsters that seemed to be made of gnarled tree roots.

These monsters had blood-red branches and roots. Although they were dead, the leaves wrapped around their bodies were thick and full, like cacti, as if they had been soaked in blood.

Through the memories of the palace maids she had absorbed, Bai Qinghan learned what had happened inside the Xuantian Palace.

The moment An Jing arrived in Shenjing, Xuantian Palace fell into a state of self-isolation.

This was both a form of protection and a form of imprisonment. The vast majority of the less core Heavenly Officials, as well as the attendants and palace maids with Heavenly Official authority, and most of the imperial bloodline were 'protected' within the Xuantian Palace.

Xuantian Palace is indeed much safer than the outside world. In fact, without the protection of Xuantian Palace, most people would have turned to ashes the moment An Jing and Yin Gujin clashed.

However, this does not mean that the people protected by Xuantian Palace are very lucky.

In reality, they would have been better off dying at An Jing's hands and turning into ashes.

Because the 'Xuantian Palace' itself had begun its killing spree.

At some unknown time and in some unknown place, a strange monster made of bizarre tree roots appeared.

Unable to communicate, they immediately began slaughtering everyone remaining in the Xuantian Palace upon their appearance.

These monsters don't have any special abilities; they are simply incredibly strong and have bodies of steel. Theoretically speaking, let alone those with divine imperial blood, even palace maids wielding celestial official talismans could easily defeat these monsters.

However, the Heavenly Official's talismans are ineffective against these monsters.

They could not use anything, all spells would automatically dissipate, and the divine power of the Emperor's Blood would be suppressed to an extremely low level. Faced with these monsters, all the Heavenly Officials and Emperors became ordinary people, captured and held by them, and then had their blood drained from their bodies until they died.

Only those celestial officials who diligently practiced martial arts and a portion of the imperial bloodline were able to resist these monsters and managed to kill some of them. Even so, faced with the endless stream and ever-increasing number of monsters, their defensive line retreated again and again until it finally retreated back to the center of the imperial court, namely the Xuan Tian Hall.

That is, where Bai Qinghan is now.

On a whim, the door was flung open.

The blood flowed out from the crack in the door, making the blood surge even more.

The main hall was filled with corpses.

Thousands, or even more, of corpses were piled up in this once solemn hall. The vast majority of them were palace maids, but some were guards. Their bodies were mangled and their faces were contorted. They died with their eyes wide open, which showed how much hatred they had before they died.

But no matter how much we hate them, they are already dead, and only a very small number of people survived.

In the center of the main hall, within a temporary array constructed of various expensive spiritual materials—not part of the Xuantian Palace itself—dozens of imperial bloodlines bearing the surname 'Xuan' remained, warily watching what lay ahead.

These imperial bloodlines included both old and young people, but most of them were teenagers. They wore magnificent robes, while opposite them stood a group of celestial officials.

These celestial officials are confronting the imperial blood of these Xuan families. Between the two sides is a strange golden primordial energy, which is interwoven and merged with three layers of spiritual energy: light gold, bright gold, and dark gold. It vaguely forms an extremely complex talisman. Its existence itself is distorting spacetime, causing the surrounding void to exhibit strange curvature.

Centered around this talisman of vital energy, they were on the verge of exchanging insults, but just now all the sounds stopped, and they prepared to turn their words into action.

Not surprising.

The palace maids remembered this omen—the tree root monsters were chasing after the Emperor's Blood and the Heavenly Official, but to be precise, they were chasing after the 'Dragon Qi Authority' on their bodies. The power flowing in their blood and the talismans that were integrated with their souls were their targets.

Because the Xuantian Palace was sealed off, no one could escape. However, even so, some of the Emperor Blood noticed a loophole. Although the Xuantian Palace was perfect as a grotto-heaven, it needed internal and external interaction. They could use some loopholes in the Xuantian Palace to create a Taixu Formation to teleport out.

Although being teleported out doesn't necessarily guarantee a good outcome, at least you won't be caught by these monsters and have your blood drained... But here's the problem.

Where do the materials come from?

The Xuantian Palace has no shortage of spiritual materials. You can easily set up a magic array that meets the requirements by simply removing some decorations. However, the core of the magic array also requires 'authority'... Someone must contribute their imperial blood or dragon energy talisman as the base of the teleportation array.

Sacrifice, sacrifice... It takes someone to be slaughtered or to be willing to sacrifice themselves so that others can live.

The result is self-evident.

Those palace maids and servants were the first to be slaughtered by the combined forces of the Emperor's Blood and the Heavenly Officials. Their authority far exceeded that of the lower-level people, so they could naturally decide life and death at will. Their slaughter, along with the slaughter of the monsters, filled the Xuan Tian Palace with blood.

But then, an awkward thing happened.

not enough.

The palace maids and servants already had very low authority; even after killing so many, their combined authority was insufficient to activate the escape talisman.

If that's the case, then one side—the Heavenly Official or the Emperor's Blood—must have to make a 'sacrifice'.

No one would want to sacrifice themselves.

(End of this chapter)