The Jia Wei stood like an icy iron tower. *,★It stepped forward, leveling its spear to block the high-level cultivators from the grand palace, preventing them from forcibly entering. It remained utterly motionless, save for the occasional eerie flash of red light in its eyes, a subtle reminder to the assembled cultivators that this was a "living thing."

Shi Hanyang glanced around at the surrounding cultivators, asking if anyone dared to step forward and test its strength.

The cultivators hovered in mid-air, falling into a momentary silence, none willing to risk themselves carelessly.

A Foundation Establishment stage, late-tier cultivator, clad in garishly patterned green and purple robes, suddenly darted forward. He announced loudly, “This Iron Armored Guard seems immensely strong. Let me, Miao Hai, try its power.”

Saying this, he unclipped the beast pouch at his waist and released a fifth-tier Green-Scaled Demonic Serpent.

The serpent’s triangular head was hideous, revealing fangs several feet long laced with venom. Its body was encased in hard, green, overlapping scales, flowing like water, extending over fifty feet in length.

This type of demonic snake was renowned for its extreme defense and innate brute strength. Its scales served as natural defensive magical artifacts; for any Foundation Establishment cultivator present, this was a formidable, not-to-be-underestimated beast.

The Green-Scaled Serpent fixed a malicious glare, flicked its tongue, and slithered toward the towering Iron Armored Guard before the palace entrance.

Before launching its attack, it paused uncertainly.

After all, it was merely a demonic beast; it could not gauge the true threat emanating from this cold, silent Iron Armored Guard. It had never encountered an opponent so devoid of life aura.

The gathered cultivators held back, watching the actions of the fifth-tier scaled serpent and the Iron Armored Guard, eager to see the true might of the sole guardian standing before the imperial mausoleum palace.

At the urging of the cultivator surnamed Miao, the Green-Scaled Demonic Serpent leaped fiercely, clamping its jaws onto the Armored Guard’s leg, its tail coiling around nearly half of the Guardian’s body. Despite its fifty-foot length, it still appeared diminutive next to the ten-foot-tall Iron Armored Guard.

The red light in the Iron Armored Guard’s eyes flashed—it finally moved.

Its movement was slow. Its wrist flipped, and the iron spear thrust down toward the serpent. That mottled, almost living meteoric iron spear was unremarkable, yet utterly indestructible. It pierced the serpent’s toughest scale atop its head with a single thrust, skewering the massive skull and pinning it immovably to the ground before the palace.

The Green-Scaled Demonic Serpent’s brain matter exploded in a spray of pink and red gore. Its body thrashed violently dozens of times, its tail slamming grooves into the stony pavement.

The Iron Armored Guard had struck only once, fiercely and cleanly, with no wasted motion.

The serpent convulsed for a long time before falling still.

“What tier of Jia Wei puppet is this? It killed a fifth-tier demonic snake in one strike?”

The assembled cultivators stared dumbfounded, drawing sharp breaths of cold air. Startled, they retreated several yards, each raising their magical artifacts defensively before them. A genuine dread bloomed in their hearts toward that unassuming spear of meteoric iron.

If this Iron Armored Guard could kill a fifth-tier demonic snake with one thrust, it meant that spear could pierce the chests of Foundation Establishment cultivators just as easily. Even with defensive barriers activated and wearing armor artifacts, they might not withstand that spear.

Especially the cultivator Miao Hai, whose face had gone pale. He had nurtured that Green-Scaled Demonic Serpent for nearly a century to reach fifth-tier strength. It had helped him achieve countless military merits. Now, it was killed by a single thrust from this Iron Armored Guard, effectively severing an arm; the loss was so painful he nearly vomited blood.

Ye Qin was shocked internally. This Iron Armored Guard was not a Foundation Establishment level puppet, but likely a Golden Core level puppet. No wonder Shi Hanyang had previously stated that the Jia Wei puppets inside the palace were far superior to the Flying Thunder Kites outside. A puppet of this caliber was capable of ending a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s life with one strike.

As he retreated with the other cultivators, his hand calmly rested on the storage pouch at his waist, ready to draw the Bat King Wings and execute the “Void-Splitting Flash” to escape. Against this terrifying Iron Armored Guard, his only viable path was flight; there was no room for luck. Let others fight.

Shi Hanyang was perhaps the only one among the cultivators maintaining composure. Seeing the Green-Scaled Demonic Serpent dead, he actually let out a small sigh of relief. Based on the single thrust the Iron Armored Guard had delivered, it hadn't grown much stronger than it was forty or fifty years ago. If they could defeat it then, they could do so now.

With this thought, Shi Hanyang gained some confidence.

“This is a seventh-tier Iron Armored Puppet. Its offensive and defensive power surpasses that of an early Golden Core cultivator. This Iron Armored Guard has overwhelmingly strong offense and defense. However, it has one single weakness: its speed is not fast, definitely not faster than us. Everyone attack with full strength! Be wary of its meteoric iron spear; getting too close means instant death.”

Shi Hanyang spoke, and a golden light erupted from his mouth, shooting out a magical artifact the size of several inches—the Sun and Moon Twin Wheels. The rapidly spinning wheels grew in size against the wind, becoming several yards across in a blink, roaring toward the Iron Armored Guard amidst a gale.

This was the Primordial Spirit artifact for which the Sect Master of Luori Sect, Shi Yang, was famous—the Sun and Moon Twin Wheels. The Sun Wheel was a defensive artifact, round and blunt. Hidden within the Sun Wheel was a smaller, dimmer Moon Wheel, famous for its razor-sharp edge and devastating attacks.

“A Primordial Spirit artifact.”

Seeing this, the cultivators present no longer hesitated. They unleashed their most potent offensive techniques and high-powered magical artifacts, bombarding the Iron Guard with everything they had.

As Ye Qin launched his Golden Sword artifact, he gazed curiously at the Twin Wheels. This was his first time seeing a cultivator wield a Primordial Spirit artifact. The radiance and imposing presence of the Sun and Moon Twin Wheels overshadowed every other artifact present.

The Iron Armored Guard’s red eyes flashed once. It swept its meteoric iron spear wildly.

But what happened next left all the cultivators stunned. With dozens of loud, dense clangs—Dang, dang—the Iron Armored Guard was knocked back several steps by the twenty-plus artifacts striking it. Looking closely, a distinct crack, several feet long and several inches deep, was left on its chest, courtesy of the Moon Wheel artifact. No other part of its body sustained damage.

The Iron Armored Guard looked down at its chest, its red light blazing fiercely, seemingly enraged. It was a high-tier Jia Wei puppet, possessing offensive and defensive capabilities nearly equivalent to an early Golden Core cultivator. How could it stand still and allow the assembled cultivators to attack it wantonly?

It suddenly crouched slightly, then leaped upward violently, soaring dozens of feet high. Clutching the meteoric iron spear tightly, it hurled it with immense force. Even though its movements were not swift, the speed of its attack was incomparable to that of ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Foundation Establishment cultivators were all floating in the air, deliberately maintaining a safe distance of nearly one or two hundred feet from the Iron Armored Guard before the palace. The Iron Armored Guard looked incredibly heavy; they assumed it couldn't fly. At such a long distance, they felt relatively safe. Even if this Iron Armored Guard was incomparably powerful, it might not be able to reach them.

Who could have anticipated the Iron Armored Guard would employ such a long-range spear-throwing attack? Seeing this, the cultivators were terrified and scattered wildly to evade the deadly, massive meteoric iron spear.

For late-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators, their speed was extremely fast, and escaping this spear was not too difficult.

But for low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators, this spear was too fast; their speed of escape seemed too slow.

Including Ye Qin, there were three low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators present. They could only watch helplessly as the dark, mottled iron spear grew larger and larger as it approached.

The speeding meteoric iron spear tore through the center of the crowd of cultivators. Several screams echoed mid-air. The five slowest reacting Foundation Establishment cultivators were struck by the spear and slammed onto the ground.

Two low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators were instantly pierced through and killed on the spot. Three mid-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators were clipped by the spear’s aura, severely injured, and crashed to the ground.

Nearly a quarter of the twenty-plus Foundation Establishment cultivators were instantly killed or wounded.

The remaining late and mid-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators, in their terror, flew even higher to avoid becoming targets of the Iron Armored Guard’s thrown spear again. Of course, they dared not stray too far from the inner palace, lest they attract the swarms of Flying Thunder Kites from the distant ruins, which presented another major problem.

Ye Qin flapped his snow-white bat wings, suspended in mid-air, heart still pounding.

When he saw the Iron Armored Guard begin to crouch, a sense of foreboding struck him. He had already summoned the Bat King Wings. As the Iron Armored Guard hurled the spear, this life-or-death moment spurred him without hesitation to beat his wings rapidly, executing the “Void-Splitting Flash” escape. Even exposing his treasured escape tool was worth it.

Among the three low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators who risked entering the inner mausoleum ruins, he was the only one to survive the calamity thanks to the Bat King Wings. The other two low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivators lay dead below.

The surviving cultivators were still shaken, glancing strangely at Ye Qin, then back at the icy Iron Armored Guard.

They weren't blind; they had seen the scene just moments ago. Just as the meteoric iron spear was about to sweep over Ye Qin, a pair of snow-white Bat King Wings appeared on his back. With a single beat, he vanished from his original spot, reappearing fifty feet away, becoming the sole surviving low-tier Foundation Establishment cultivator.

“Void-Splitting Flash.” That was an extremely high-tier Wind-element evasion technique, few other spells could compare.

In their strange glances, a hint of jealousy was unavoidable. Even if it was only a Spirit Artifact, it was an ultimate life-saving treasure, possessing extraordinary utility, especially at such a critical juncture—it was tantamount to an extra lifeline.

With a powerful enemy before them, they didn't have the leisure to dwell on other matters. Even if they harbored such thoughts, snatching the Bat King Wings from Ye Qin would depend on whether they had the ability to catch him. At least within these mausoleum ruins, they couldn't spare the time to attempt such a thing.

Shi Hanyang merely glanced at the winged Spirit Artifact on Ye Qin’s back, then looked away. His pursuit was breaking through the Golden Core bottleneck and advancing on the Golden Core Dao. This winged spirit capable of casting the “Void-Splitting Flash” spell was good, but merely good. It would be useless against a true Golden Core cultivator.

This Iron Armored Guard had killed and injured five of their members with one spear thrust; his expression had turned grim. Only by stepping over the corpse of this Iron Armored Guard could they enter the immense imperial mausoleum palace before them.