113: Chapter 113 The foundation collapsed, and the ancestor's palace became an unfinished project.

"Hold on! Hold it for me!"

Xiao Aotian pushed his hands desperately toward the sky, the spiritual energy gushing from his palms like a bursting flood, attempting to repair the golden light shield that was crazily cracking. His handsome face had turned the color of pig liver, and the blue veins on his forehead bulged, twisting frantically under his skin like dying earthworms.

The System's alarm blared in his head like an air-raid siren.

[Warning! External energy resonance frequency has exceeded the critical value! Formation structural integrity has dropped to 15%!]

[Warning! The host's Meridians are enduring high-frequency vibration backlash. Immediate disconnection is advised!]

"Disconnect my ass! This is the Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation I spent five million Prestige Points to exchange! If it breaks, it's all wasted!"

Xiao Aotian ground his back molars to dust, his eyes completely bloodshot. He didn't believe in bad luck; he was the Child of Destiny. How could he lose to a few loudspeakers on some broken trucks?

However, physics has no room for faith.

At the foot of the mountain, Gu Changan watched the red curve on the spectrum analyzer that was about to reach its peak. He raised his hand and coldly spoke two words into the walkie-talkie.

"Increase dosage."

Buzz—!!!

The power knobs of the ten sonic vibration source vehicles were twisted all the way to the maximum. The momentary shriek in the air felt as if it would tear a person's eardrums apart.

Crack!

A crisp explosion rang out, drowning out all other noise.

The golden light shield suspended in mid-air finally collapsed under the burden. Like tempered glass struck by a sledgehammer, it instantly shattered into a sky full of fine golden powder.

Pfft!

The moment the Formation shattered, Xiao Aotian, whose mind and soul were linked to the Formation's core, felt as if he had been struck by lightning. His entire body arched backward violently, and he sprayed a three-meter-high mist of blood from his mouth—a true surge of fresh blood.

"My... my Formation..."

Xiao Aotian crashed heavily onto the white marble floor, feeling as if his internal organs had all shifted out of place. He struggled to crawl up, only to find the ground shaking.

It wasn't the vibration caused by sound waves earlier, but a heart-palpitating, dull roar coming from deep within the earth beneath his feet.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several muffled thuds followed, like a subterranean giant beast turning over.

Xiao Aotian raised his head in terror, only to see the side hall to the left of the Lingxiao Palace suddenly drop in height. The red-lacquered pillars that had stood straight were now twisting and snapping like noodles.

"What's going on? An earthquake?" Xiao Aotian lay on the ground, watching the palace he had poured countless efforts into visibly tilting before his eyes.

Gu Changan stood by the command vehicle and lowered his binoculars, his tone as flat as if he were narrating an insignificant demolition job.

"Directional blasting successful. Load-bearing rock layer has been severed."

While the sonic vehicles were suppressing the Formation, the blasting experts from China Railway No. 3 Engineering Group had already followed the rock fissures to stuff small amounts of high-energy explosives under the Foundations of these illegal structures. It didn't take much; as long as those key mechanical support points were blown, gravity would do the rest.

Rumble—!

A massive plume of dust shot into the sky.

Xiao Aotian watched helplessly as his magnificent main hall slid slowly down the loosened mountainside like it was on a slide.

Glazed tiles clattered down, priceless Phoebe zhennan beams snapped in two, and the plaque with the three gold-embossed characters "Aotian Sect" smashed directly onto the ground, shattering into pieces.

In just a few seconds.

The originally majestic immortal blessed land had turned into a mess of ruins.

That visual impact was more painful than killing Xiao Aotian. This wasn't just a house collapsing; this was his Dao Heart crumbling!

"No!!!"

Xiao Aotian let out a shrill scream, kneeling in the rubble, clutching his hair and crying like a two-hundred-pound child.

"My Lingxiao Palace! My Pill Refining Room! My Spirit Gathering Formation!"

"Do you know how much prestige I spent to build these? Tens of millions! That's the hard-earned money I saved from acting cool day and night for the past six months!"

Xiao Aotian's hands trembled as he picked up a piece of broken glazed tile, his heart aching so much he could barely breathe. This stuff cost ten points a piece in the System mall, and now it was all trash.

Before the dust had even settled, Gu Changan had already led his people up.

He wore a spotless uniform, his leather shoes crunching on the shattered debris. To Xiao Aotian's ears, that sound was nothing less than the footsteps of a demon.

"Finished crying?"

Gu Changan stood before Xiao Aotian, looking down at him without a shred of sympathy, only business-like indifference.

Xiao Aotian snapped his head up, his face covered in blood and ash, and roared hideously, "Gu Changan! You destroyed my Dao Foundation! You'll die a horrible death! This is a heavenly tribulation! You will definitely suffer heaven's wrath!"

"Heaven's wrath?"

Gu Changan pushed up his glasses and pointed to the geological expert nearby who was recording data.

"According to the geological survey report, to pursue your so-called 'Floating Immortal Palace' effect, you unauthorizedly cut the stress structure of the mountain and drove piles into the shale layer. This itself is a serious violation of operations."

"The landslide just now, from a physics perspective, is called the process of gravitational potential energy converting into kinetic energy. From a legal perspective, it's called eliminating safety hazards."

Gu Changan paused, a mocking curve touching the corner of his mouth.

"The so-called natural punishment is simply because you don't understand Newtonian mechanics. Don't go blaming everything on the Heavens; the Heavens don't have time to worry about your illegal construction nonsense."

"You're full of crap! That was reinforced with Qi by this seat!" Xiao Aotian roared hysterically. "That was an immortal method! It was you! You used despicable means to blow up my Foundation!"

"I did blow it up, so what?"

Gu Changan pulled a new fine notice from his briefcase and slapped it onto the broken stone in front of Xiao Aotian with a snap.

"Illegal mining of mineral resources, destructive mining. You hollowed out half the mountain peak under the Foundation to bury Spirit Stones, leading to instability in the mountain structure. Now that it's collapsed, it saves us the blasting fees for using heavy machinery for demolition."

Gu Changan pointed to the ruins behind him.

"Furthermore, these construction Materials, including your so-called spiritual wood and Spirit Stones, are all illicit gains and stolen goods from the illegal occupation of state resources. According to the 'Administrative Compulsion Law,' we will seize and clear them in accordance with the law."

Xiao Aotian looked at the fine notice, trembling with rage, a strange 'he-he' sound coming from his throat.

"Stolen goods? I earned these with my own abilities! This is my private property!"

"Your 'abilities' have not been state-certified," Gu Changan interrupted coldly. "On this land of the Qinling Mountains, every blade of grass and every tree belongs to the state and the people. Your unauthorized misappropriation is theft."

At this moment, Chen Xiaobei added a final blow: "Boss, the drone scan just showed that after his Pill Refining Room collapsed, a lot of industrial waste barrels were exposed underneath. It looks like the residue from his failed Medicinal Pills was dumped directly into the underground river."

Gu Changan's gaze instantly became even sharper.

"Very good. Environmental pollution, add another charge."

Xiao Aotian felt like his brain was going to explode as these charges were piled onto his head one by one.

In the novels he used to read, wouldn't the protagonist just slaughter his way out, killing gods and Buddhas alike? Why, when it was his turn, did it become listening to a legal lecture?

No! He couldn't just give up like this!

As long as he was still here, as long as the System was still here, he still had a chance to turn the tables!

Xiao Aotian stood up abruptly, wiped the blood from his face, and his eyes became sinister and vicious.

"Gu Changan, you forced me into this. Houses can be rebuilt, but today, I'm going to make you pay the price!"

He pulled a pitch-black Medicinal Pill from his robes, which emitted a nauseating smell of blood. It was a forbidden drug from the System mall—the Blood-Burning Pill. Swallowing it would allow him to overdraw his life force in exchange for a tenfold burst in combat power.

"You are the ones who forced me to start a massacre!"

Xiao Aotian tilted his head back, about to stuff the pill into his mouth.

"Sniper," Gu Changan called out faintly without even turning his head.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

The pill in Xiao Aotian's hand, which hadn't yet reached his mouth, was accurately shattered by a large-caliber bullet. Black medicinal residue splattered all over his face.

Xiao Aotian froze, keeping his mouth open like an idiot.

Gu Changan sighed and shook his head.

"I told you, times have changed. Who gives you the chance to charge up and transform these days?"

He turned and waved his hand toward the row of steel torrents at the foot of the mountain that had long been ready.

"Since he refuses to leave with dignity, then help him have some. Clear the area. Demolish."