15: One-shot deal! Physical defense breach!

Qingyang City, South Gate. The flames of war raged, and the sounds of slaughter shook the heavens.

The dense beast tide was like a black flood, frantically battering this isolated city.

Countless low-level Yao Beasts filled the moat with their bodies, treading over their fallen comrades to scale the walls.

Right in front of the city gate, a gargantuan beast as large as a small mountain was wreaking havoc. An Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino!

It was nearly five zhang long, its entire body covered in a thick layer of black iron scales, each shimmering with natural Yao Runes.

Its single horn was a full three meters long, glinting with a cold, sinister light. No matter how many armor-piercing bolts the defenders fired from the walls, they only struck its body to produce a shower of sparks, failing to leave even a white mark.

"Roar—" The Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino let out a deafening roar, lowered its head, and charged once more at the already crumbling Steel City Gate.

Boom! The city gate shuddered violently, and the sound of the crossbar snapping under the strain rang out.

"Hold the line! Hold it even if you die!" The Garrison Captain, his face covered in blood, roared in desperation. "If the gate is breached, every citizen in this city will die!"

At that critical moment, a sound like muffled thunder suddenly drowned out the din of the battlefield, coming from the streets inside the city.

Following that, the soldiers on the wall felt the ground beneath them tremble. They subconsciously looked back and witnessed a scene they would never forget.

A bare-chested dark-gold giant, standing 2.2 meters tall, was charging forward like a human tank, carrying an exaggeratedly thick black iron pillar. With every step he took, a large crater exploded into the ground.

That rampaging Aura was actually even more ferocious than the beast tide outside!

"Is that... Lord Gu of the Demon Suppression Division?!" "What is he carrying? A pillar?!"

Gu Yang did not stop. He didn't take the gate's ramp; instead, using his momentum, he executed the Extreme Dao Burst Step and kicked off the ground with all his might.

Rumble! The stone bricks at the base of the wall shattered. Gu Yang shot into the sky like a cannonball, leaping directly onto the twenty-meter-high city wall!

He stood at the edge of the wall, the wild wind ruffling his short hair.

He looked down, gazing at the Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino flaunting its power below, a glint of greed flashing in his eyes. "That's a huge piece of meat..." "Extreme defense? Perfect, I like them tough!"

"Everyone, get back!" Gu Yang bellowed, and then performed an action that made everyone's heart stop.

He took half a step back, then suddenly lunged forward, leaping down from the twenty-meter-high city wall!

Extreme Dao Burst Step—Justice from Above! While in mid-air, Gu Yang adjusted his posture.

Both his hands tightly gripped the 13,500-jin "Zhenhai coiling dragon pillar," raising it high above his head.

With the acceleration of gravity, combined with his terrifying monstrous strength and the propulsion of the Burst Step, Gu Yang transformed into a falling meteorite at that moment!

Below, the Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino seemed to sense a fatal threat.

It jerked its head up, its small crimson eyes reflecting an ever-growing black shadow and that absurdly thick iron rod.

"Moo—!!!" It let out a terrified roar, its Yao power erupting as a thick layer of earthy-yellow halo appeared on its scales, attempting to withstand the strike.

"I heard you're tough?!" Gu Yang's voice exploded in the air, filled with endless madness. "Shatter... for me!!!"

Boom—!!!

An indescribable, earth-shattering explosion rang out. It was as if Mars had collided with Earth.

The moment the coiling dragon pillar made contact with the Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino's back, there was no stalemate, nor any struggle of strength.

The iron-armored defensive barrier, said to be impervious to blades and spears and even unpiercable by city-guarding ballistae, shattered instantly like a soap bubble. Next were the iron-hard scales, the thick spine, the massive internal organs... in the face of absolute mass, all defense was an illusion.

The 13,500-jin solid iron pillar, carrying world-destroying kinetic energy, forcibly smashed that mountain-like beast directly into the depths of the earth!

Splat!

Flesh flew and bone fragments scattered everywhere.

The ground instantly collapsed into a giant meteorite crater ten meters in diameter.

A powerful shockwave mixed with blood mist spread outward. Dozens of unfortunate low-level Yao Beasts nearby were directly killed by the blast, blood leaking from their orifices.

A strange, deathly silence fell over the battlefield. Both the defenders on the wall and the Yao Beasts below were terrified by this single strike.

What kind of power was this? Was this something a human could achieve?

As the dust settled, Gu Yang stood in the deep pit, his feet planted on a puddle of meat paste that no longer resembled its original form.

Iron-Armored Dragon Rhino? It should be called "Iron-Armored Meat Pie" now. Its proud defense was a joke before this single strike.

Gu Yang pulled the coiling dragon pillar out from deep underground with one hand, bringing up a spray of viscous blood.

He shook the blood off the pillar and curled his lip in dissatisfaction: "That's it?" "I thought it would be tougher; my hands didn't even go numb."

He bent down, rummaged through the pile of meat paste for a while, and pulled out an earthy-yellow Yao Core the size of a washbasin, as well as the perfectly intact single horn.

"Not bad, a great supplement." Gu Yang stowed away the Yao Core and the horn, then swept his gaze over the trembling Yao Beasts around him.

Carrying the pillar on his shoulder, he took a step forward. Thud! A heavy footstep rang out.

The beast tide, which had been incredibly fierce just moments ago, actually retreated a step in unison.

These mindless animals were actually frightened back by a single human!

"Scram!" Gu Yang roared, his voice like thunder.

"Whimper..." Countless Yao Beasts tucked their tails and turned to flee.

Was this a siege? This was clearly a delivery! There was a monster playing whack-a-mole with a pillar!

Gu Yang didn't bother chasing those small fry.

He turned around, dragging the horn and Yao Core, and looked at the several tons of rhino meat in the pit, feeling a bit regretful that he couldn't take it all.

"Extra meal tonight."

"Braised rhino palm, steamed rhino whip."

Carrying the pillar, he strolled back toward the city gate under the gazes of thousands of soldiers who looked upon him as if he were a god.