Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

Beyond the high priest's corpse, the willow seedlings caused the hunched skin and bones to become even drier.

After absorbing all of its cultivation and life force, Ye Xuan's realm was completely stabilized at the peak of Foundation Establishment Perfection.

He clearly felt that there was a lingering aura of blue and white energy in his dantian, which was about to condense into a form.

I realize I'm only one step away from truly achieving the Golden Core stage...

Ye Xuan stood in mid-air, slowly retracting his right hand. His gaze swept across the city tower below, where all he saw was deathly silence.

Everyone looked up at the figure in the sky. Whether it was the royal offerings or the ancestral hall rituals, no one dared to move or speak.

He finally saw the boy below looking up, his eyes filled with worship and excitement. Ye Xuan landed gracefully and waved to Chen Qinghe.

"Let's go, and see who dares to stop us."

Chen Qinghe quickly followed, and the two of them stepped through the shattered city gate and entered the capital.

With their health-preserving exercises protecting them, the crude array near the city gate had no effect on them, and as for the garrison, no one dared to move.

Even those experts at the Foundation Establishment stage dared not act rashly, let alone these soldiers who were just holding halberds and wearing armor.

Wherever they went, it was as if they were walking on flat ground...

"Wait a minute! Do you really think the defensive array protecting my capital is just for show?!"

One of the royal retainers, regaining his senses, clutched tightly in his hand the talisman given to them by the high priest before his death, which was the key to activating the great formation.

Upon hearing this, Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks. He turned back to look at the elder who had spoken, his eyes filled with murderous intent, which made the man tremble.

He had just killed the highest-ranking high priest in the capital, and the city-protecting formation these people spoke of still gave them a glimmer of hope.

He really wanted to see just how powerful this city-protecting formation, accumulated over countless dynasties, truly was.

"You still dare to look down on us? You'll regret it..."

The talisman he gripped tightly gave everyone their last bit of courage. He gritted his teeth and frantically poured all his spiritual power into the talisman.

The talisman suddenly burst forth with a dazzling purple-gold light, transforming into a stream of light that shot toward the altar in the very center of the capital.

Almost simultaneously, intricate array patterns lit up the ground throughout the capital, drifting into the air and intertwining with each other...

The city-protecting formation in the sky was fully activated, and the golden light curtain, like an inverted giant bowl, enveloped the capital. The spiritual energy within the formation suddenly became filled with a chilling and murderous aura.

"Auspicious signs for the capital, a black tortoise reborn!"

The remaining worshippers and ritual performers on the city wall shouted in unison, taking up positions in five directions and connecting their spiritual power with the great formation.

Just then, a huge phantom slowly appeared in the sky, roughly the same as the two black tortoises that had been displayed on the city wall earlier.

Of course, the phantom of the Xuan Turtle that appeared in the sky above the dynasty could reach hundreds of feet in size. The purple-gold light emanating from its body, when it fell on the streets of the royal city, made the vast land outside look like a natural disaster.

After the illusory image of the Xuan Turtle completely solidified, a pair of huge pupils, like torches, looked down at Ye Xuan and the other person.

Chen Qinghe felt as if a mountain was pressing down on his shoulders, making it difficult to breathe. If Ye Xuan hadn't raised his hand and pressed down on his shoulder, sending a wisp of pale blue energy, he probably would have already collapsed to his knees.

"It's somewhat interesting."

Ye Xuan looked up at the Xuan Turtle radiating its aura in the air, a hint of interest flashing in his eyes.

This formation is indeed extraordinary, capable of gathering the accumulated fortune of a dynasty in the Short Life Realm over a thousand years, and its power has already faintly touched the Golden Core level.

If it weren't for the ancestral hall in the distance causing trouble, the power unleashed by this protective formation might have been even greater.

Ye Xuan remained unafraid. Whether it was a human or a ghost, real or illusory, as long as the limit was not broken, he was destined to be invincible among those in the same realm!

The Xuan Turtle roared, its massive forepaws plunging down, their tips crackling with streaks of purple-gold lightning. Wherever it passed, ripples spread through the space, as if it were about to tear the heavens and the earth apart.

The power of this single claw strike is comparable to the full-force attack of a high priest burning his lifespan, and it is even more domineering.

Ye Xuan neither dodged nor avoided, but simply took a step forward.

As he took this step, the faint phantom of a willow tree appeared behind him. As the willow branches swayed, the white flowers of the immortal willows by the lake in Shuitian Village, thousands of miles away, bloomed to their fullest extent. The powerful blue and white energies then crossed the void and poured in, transforming into a tangible halo around him.

He raised his hand, his five fingers spread, and made a grasping motion towards the descending tortoise claw.

"break."

Without any earth-shattering collision, the hundred-foot-long tortoise claw suddenly stopped three feet above Ye Xuan's head. The purple-gold lightning on the claw silently extinguished, and the golden scales peeled off piece by piece, instantly turning into specks of light and dissipating...

The five guardians who were in charge of the formation simultaneously spat out a mouthful of blood. Although they were not at the core of the formation, they were still horrified by the aftershocks alone.

"Dynastic fortunes are nothing special."

As soon as Ye Xuan finished speaking, he pointed his hand into the air.

A white light flashed at his fingertips, but it wasn't aimed at the Xuan Turtle in the air; instead, it shot towards the area below the central altar of the capital, which was the core of the city's protective formation.

As the white light penetrated the ground, the entire capital city trembled violently. The array patterns that had lit up on the ground quickly dimmed, and the golden light curtain in the sky shattered at the same time.

The hundred-foot-tall black tortoise seemed to let out a mournful cry of unwillingness, and its body disintegrated inch by inch, eventually turning into a rain of golden light that sprinkled onto the streets and rooftops of the capital.

This so-called protective array, which had accumulated the capital's fortune for a thousand years, ultimately proved unfit for its task.

At this moment, the people on the city wall were all ashen-faced and slumped to the ground.

The great formation they had activated with all their spiritual power crumbled at the mere gesture of the young man before them. How could they possibly turn the tide with such a disparity in strength?

"..."

Ye Xuan withdrew his finger and probed the depths of the palace to the ever-calm immortal shrine.

"Qinghe, keep up."

He strode forward, and wherever he went, soldiers and monks alike involuntarily stepped back, making way for a wide road leading directly to the palace.

Chen Qinghe followed closely behind, gazing at the figure ahead, his heart filled with turbulent emotions.

The Immortal Venerable thus walked step by step from Shuitian Village to the capital, destroying ancestral halls, beheading high priests, and now even casually breaking the great formation accumulated by the dynasty over a thousand years.

Compared to those so-called immortals, this is the true power of an immortal!

Meanwhile, Li Chong, far away in Shuitian Village, had also learned of everything that had happened in the capital through the token.

Before him stood the invincible willow tree, and behind him stood an immortal unmatched in his realm…

Holding a white jade bottle in his hand, the reigning emperor, who had intended to make a desperate gamble, slowly lowered his arms and stared blankly at the two willow catkins flying towards him.

"How could my capital, blessed with a thousand years of fortune, have come to this?"

In the final moments of his life, many things seemed to flash before Li Chong's eyes, from his birth, through his growth and ascension to the throne, to the moment when he held the "Longevity Manual" in his hands, and the lofty ambition buried in his heart for many years finally erupted...

But now, standing by the lake, it's too late for anything he says.