27: Chapter 27 My Lord, Times Have Changed

Luoxia Mountain, in the western suburbs of Yanjing.

This massive manor, marked on the map as "Private Property, No Trespassing," felt exceptionally oppressive tonight.

The usually arrogant bodyguards and vicious dogs were all huddled on the ground, trembling, not daring to even breathe loudly.

The ancestral hall, located in the deepest part of the manor, had a pair of bronze doors weighing a thousand jin.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the two bronze doors were blasted outward as if they were made of paper, crashing heavily into the rockery in the courtyard, sending debris flying.

A visible wave of Qi swept out from the depths of the ancestral hall; wherever it passed, the precious flowers and plants withered instantly, as if their vitality had been directly drained by some overbearing force.

An old man with white hair and beard walked out slowly.

He wore a dark red Tang suit, his feet hovering three inches off the ground; he was actually floating in mid-air.

A layer of faint, blood-colored Protective Aura swirled around him, and his cloudy old eyes burned with two flames of rage that felt almost tangible.

The Xiao Family Old Ancestor, Xiao Zhantian.

A Half-step Golden Core powerhouse.

In this current age of the decline of Dharma, he was a walking human nuclear bomb, the undisputed local emperor of the ancient martial arts world.

"Old Ancestor! You have finally come out of seclusion!"

Xiao Yuanshan, the current head of the Xiao Family who had long been kneeling outside the ancestral hall, brought dozens of core disciples with him, kowtowing so hard it made thumping sounds while weeping bitterly.

"Old Ancestor! If you hadn't come out, our Xiao Family would have been finished!"

Xiao Yuanshan raised his head, his forehead covered in blood, his face—usually pampered—filled with malice: "That brat named Gu Changan not only captured our supported 'Soldier King' Defendant Ye Tian, but also sent Divine Doctor Lin Chen to prison! He even froze the overseas accounts we used for... for capital turnover!"

"Now the entire Yanjing is laughing at our Xiao Family! They say we ancient martial arts families are just a bunch of toothless tigers, and that even a small office clerk can ride on our heads and defecate!"

"Presumptuous!"

Xiao Zhantian roared, his voice like a great bell, causing the eardrums of everyone present to ache.

"A mere lackey of the imperial court, how dare you bully me!"

He grabbed at the Void Realm with his right hand, and a hundred-year-old pine tree ten meters away was instantly uprooted, then crushed into a sky full of wood chips by the Internal Energy in his palm with a crack.

"I have been in seclusion for thirty years, contemplating the Heavenly Dao, and originally did not want to bother with these Mortal ants. But since this brat from the Gu Family is seeking death, he cannot blame me for being ruthless!"

Xiao Zhantian stood with his hands behind his back, his body slowly rising into the air, looking down at his descendants kneeling on the ground with a disdainful gaze.

"Laws? Rules? Those are shackles designed for the weak! In the face of my absolute power, all rules are a joke!"

"Tonight, I will personally pay a visit to that so-called Bureau of Anomalies. I will take off Gu Changan's head and hang it on the city wall of Yanjing to be exposed to the sun for three days! I want the world to know that the martial Dao cannot be insulted, and the Xiao Family cannot be bullied!"

"Old Ancestor is mighty!"

"Kill Gu Changan! Destroy the Gu Family!"

The Xiao Family disciples below were all flushed, roaring frantically as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

In their eyes, the Old Ancestor was a god. If a god wanted to kill someone, how could a Mortal stop him?

Meanwhile.

The Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, fifth underground level, special armory.

The air here was filled with the scent of gun oil and the chill characteristic of cold weapons.

The walls were covered with various modern firearms, from delicate Glock pistols to rugged Gatling guns, everything one could imagine.

But Gu Changan didn't even glance at these conventional weapons.

He walked straight to the farthest corner of the armory, where there was a black safe locked by a three-layer biological password lock.

"Beep—Fingerprint verification passed."

"Beep—Iris verification passed."

With a heavy hydraulic sound, the safe slowly opened.

There were no guns inside, only a few metal boxes emitting a faint blue light.

"Since I'm going to fight a boss, the wooden sword from the newbie village definitely won't cut it."

Gu Changan's expression was calm as he activated the System in his mind.

"System, exchange for [Spiritual Energy Explosive Bullets (Armor-Piercing Type)]."

"Exchange for [Individual Exoskeleton Armor (Anti-Cultivation Magic-Modified Version)]."

"Exchange for [High-Frequency Sonic Oscillators]."

[Ding! 15,000 Law Enforcement Points deducted.]

[Items have been issued to the host.]

Gu Changan picked up a bullet as thick as a thumb.

The entire bullet was engraved with tiny runes, and the bullet head was not a lead core, but polished from some unknown crystal, shimmering with a dangerous luster under the light.

Ordinary bullets hitting the Protective Aura of a Half-step Golden Core powerhouse would be like a mosquito bite.

But this thing was different; it was a "Demon-Breaking Arrow" designed specifically to tear through Spiritual Qi shields.

"Click."

Gu Changan pressed a whole box of bullets into a specially made extended magazine.

Then, he took off his suit jacket, revealing the black combat suit with smooth lines underneath.

He picked up the metal exoskeleton that looked like a spinal column from the safe and skillfully fastened it to his back and limbs.

After putting on this equipment, Gu Changan's entire aura changed instantly.

If he was an elegant superior while wearing a suit, then now, he was a steel god of death from the future.

"Zzz—Zzz—"

A sudden, rapid crackle of static came through the earpiece, followed by Chen Xiaobei's altered scream.

"Team Leader! Team Leader! Something big has happened!"

"The radar has detected a high-energy source! It's in the western suburbs! It's moving towards us at high speed!"

Chen Xiaobei's voice was trembling as if he had seen a ghost: "The speed is three hundred kilometers per hour! And it's still accelerating! There are no characteristics of any aircraft, the radar echo shows... shows that it's a humanoid object!"

"My god, is this a person or a missile? This isn't scientific! Newton's coffin lid is about to fly off!"

Gu Changan was adjusting a black heavy sniper rifle in his hands.

The gun was nearly two meters long, with a ferocious muzzle brake; just looking at it made one's heart run cold.

Hearing Chen Xiaobei's report, he didn't even lift an eyelid.

"What are you panicking about?"

Gu Changan finished calibrating the sniper scope, which emitted a crisp metallic clicking sound.

"That is an 'Immortal'."

"Ah? An... Immortal?"

Chen Xiaobei, on the other end of the earpiece, was completely dumbfounded, "Team Leader, aren't we supposed to be catching criminals? Why are we fighting an Immortal? Isn't this scope of business a bit out of bounds?"

Gu Changan lifted the fifty-pound sniper rifle with one hand and turned to walk towards the elevator.

His heavy combat boots stomped on the metal floor, making a rhythmic thud.

"In this country, there are no Immortals, only citizens."

His voice spread through the radio channel to every combat unit of the Bureau of Anomalies.

"Even if the Jade Emperor comes, as long as he dares to fly without a license, speed, or has obvious violent tendencies over Yanjing, then he is a criminal suspect."

"All personnel, level one alert."

Gu Changan pressed the button for the top floor of the elevator, watching the numbers jump continuously.

"Evacuate all civilians within a two-kilometer radius. Activate the building's level one defensive shield. All non-combat personnel are to retreat to the underground bunker."

"Yes!"

The rooftop.

The night wind howled, whipping Gu Changan's black trench coat, making it snap in the wind.

Yanjing's night was bright with lights, and the distant traffic converged into flowing rivers of light.

This was a prosperous, peaceful, and vibrant modern metropolis.

But in the western sky, a black Evil Qi, completely out of place with this city, was approaching at high speed, wrapped in rolling thunder, like dark clouds pressing down.