67: Chapter 67: Stripped of Immortal Status! Due to the criminal's exceptional physical condition, it is recommended that he be sent to the west to work as a laborer.

The wind stopped.

The sky over Yanjing, which had been deafeningly noisy, was now so deathly silent that even the sound of a heartbeat could be heard.

That arrogant, thousand-foot-tall Golden Dharma Body had completely vanished, replaced by a hundred-meter-wide crater in the center of the Bureau of Anomalies plaza.

The bottom of the crater was smooth as a mirror, a terrifying scar left behind after being instantly annihilated by antimatter; not even a speck of dust remained.

The battle ended faster and more brutally than anyone had imagined.

Faced with an absolute technological gap, the so-called powerful Cultivators were like natives charging at a machine-gun position with spears; they were torn to shreds before they could even see the enemy's face.

Seven figures lay miserably on the edge of the crater, their originally ethereal robes now as tattered as rags, their bodies covered in festering wounds from radiation burns.

And in the very center of the crater, Sect Leader Xuanjizi, who was at the Half-Step Soul Transformation stage, was left with only the part above his chest.

There was no gory scene; his wounds were sealed by some unknown energy, presenting a strange, grayish-white color.

This Kunlun Old Ancestor was currently twitching powerlessly at the bottom of the pit, like a stray dog with a broken spine.

"Is this… the end?"

It was unclear who first posted that comment in the online live stream.

The next second, the entire city erupted.

There were no tears of relief from surviving a disaster, but rather a unified, sky-shattering roar and cheer. Countless citizens rushed into the streets, waving red flags, and some even brought out New Year's firecrackers, setting them off with a crackle toward the sky.

"Director Gu is awesome!!"

"What kind of bullshit Immortal? Can you handle my Dongfeng Express?"

"This is Huaxia! This is the forbidden land of Gods! Whoever comes here dies!"

The tidal wave of cheers conducted through the air to the center of the plaza, shaking the surviving Elders until their faces were pale and their bodies couldn't stop trembling. Their proud Dao Heart had shattered along with their Golden Dharma Body the moment that black missile exploded.

Click, click, click.

The sound of leather shoes stepping on the hardened ground was clearly audible.

Gu Changan walked out of the command hall, followed by two teams of fully armed Special Police. The tailored uniform on his body remained spotless, not even his tie clip was out of place, as if he hadn't just commanded a battle to slaughter gods, but merely had a cup of afternoon tea.

He walked to the edge of the crater, looking down from above at Sect Leader Xuanjizi, who looked like a maggot.

"I refuse to accept this…"

Sect Leader Xuanjizi's originally cloudy old eyes were bloodshot, his voice hoarse like a broken bellows: "This is a Demonic Technique… it is evil magic! If it were a fair fight, how could I have lost to you, a mere Mortal… You used despicable hidden weapons…"

"Loss is loss, why so much nonsense."

Gu Changan coldly interrupted his groaning, casually flicking away non-existent dust from his cuffs: "You Cultivators don't follow the rules when you kill people and seize treasures, but now that you've been blown into cripples by an antimatter missile, you start talking to me about fairness?"

He raised his hand, and a red light that made the Souls of all the Cultivators present tremble appeared in his palm.

The System interface flickered wildly on his retina.

[Detected high-risk target has lost the ability to resist.]

[Initiate final authority: Heavenly Dao Enforcement · Deprivation?]

"Confirm."

Gu Changan's voice was devoid of any warmth, like a grim reaper reading out a verdict.

"Criminal Sect Leader Xuanjizi, it has been verified that you have violated the Criminal Law, the Anti-Secession Law, the Anti-Terrorism Law, and 108 other serious crimes."

As his words fell, a golden crack suddenly opened in the sky. It was not Spiritual Qi, but a force of rules from a higher dimension, representing absolute order.

"In view of your particularly egregious circumstances and lack of remorse." Gu Changan stared into Sect Leader Xuanjizi's terrified eyes and announced word by word, "This Bureau hereby imposes the highest sanction on you according to the law — stripping you of all cultivation, removing your Immortal status, and forbidding you from ever Cultivating again."

Clatter!

A golden chain shot out from the Void Realm crack. It ignored spatial distance, ignored physical barriers, and directly pierced fiercely into Sect Leader Xuanjizi's glabella.

"Ahhhh—!!!"

Sect Leader Xuanjizi let out a more miserable scream than when his limbs were annihilated earlier. That was the pain of his Soul being torn apart.

Everyone clearly saw that golden chain pull outwards violently.

An irregular sphere covered in cracks, emitting a faint golden light, was forcibly dragged out from Sect Leader Xuanjizi's crown. That was his natal Golden Core, which he had cultivated for eight hundred years, the source of all his power.

"Give it back to me! That is my life! I am an Immortal! I cannot turn back into a Mortal!!"

Sect Leader Xuanjizi reached out with his remaining hands like a madman to grab it, but the chain was cold and ruthless.

Gu Changan grasped the air from a distance and squeezed hard.

"Crack."

A crisp sound of shattering echoed across the plaza.

That Golden Core, symbolizing the Half-Step Soul Transformation stage, was like a fragile glass bead; under the strangulation of the golden chain, it instantly collapsed into powder, dissipating into the air.

"No—!!!"

As the Golden Core shattered, Sect Leader Xuanjizi's body underwent a terrifying, visible change.

His skin, which had been full despite being incomplete, instantly shriveled up like dried orange peel. His full head of black hair turned snow-white in a second, then became withered and fell off. In just three breaths, he went from a dignified middle-aged Daoist to a dying old man with age spots all over his face.

Without the support of Spiritual Qi, the backlash of time descended instantly. If the Bureau of Anomalies medical team hadn't promptly administered a shot of high-tech life-extending agent, he probably would have died of old age on the spot.

Gu Changan watched Sect Leader Xuanjizi, who was like a pile of mud, with cold eyes, then turned to look at the remaining seven Elders.

"Thump!"

Without any hesitation.

The seven Golden Core Elders, who had just been boasting about being superior, now knelt on the ground in unison, kowtowing with loud thuds that even cracked the ground.

"Director Gu, spare our lives! Director Gu, spare our lives!"

"We were all forced by Sect Leader Xuanjizi! We are willing to surrender!"

"Don't cripple my cultivation! I'm willing to work like an ox or a horse! Even being a guard dog is fine!"

Looking at Sect Leader Xuanjizi's miserable state, their psychological defenses completely collapsed. For Cultivators, death was not scary; what was scary was losing their power, turning into the Mortal ants they once regarded as worthless, and having to endure the backlash of time.

Gu Changan looked at this group of weeping "Immortals" and a meaningful arc curled at the corner of his mouth.

He took out a document he had prepared long ago from his pocket and threw it in front of everyone.

"Work like an ox or a horse? That won't be necessary."

Gu Changan pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone so gentle that it made one's hair stand on end: "The country is currently working on a 'Spiritual Qi Revival version of the South-to-North Water Diversion' project, and we happen to be short of a batch of Advanced labor force with good physical fitness, strong endurance, who don't need a salary, and can work 24 hours a day."

He pointed to the terms on the document.

"Sign it. Use the rest of your lives to contribute to socialist construction. This is also a different kind of… accumulating merit and doing good, isn't it?"