Equality Country is nearly at odds with the present world, existing as a presence that all hegemonic countries view with hostility.

Once King Zhao’s true identity is revealed, regardless of what kind of existence it is, the foreseeable outcome will invariably be tragic.

"Hahaha!" King Zhao laughed heartily: "You pretentious fool, you’d better possess such abilities."

At this moment, there was the sound of tearing silk from the sky.

The star map that covered the night sky was being torn apart from the middle!

The star patterns formed above Tiger Platform suddenly blazed brightly, connecting earth and sky, and for a moment beams of light reached the heavens, forming walls of starlight, forcibly supporting the star map.

Initially meant to mend the rift caused by King Zhao, it naturally formed into a formation at this moment, as if King Zhao himself had become a part of this array.

Thus, it swept the power of heaven and earth, unleashing a massacre on King Zhao!

The sky descended with strands of starlight, the ground rose with curtains of star walls.

All rules were shattered and reshaped.

Thus, the sky collapsed and the earth cracked, time and space misaligned, the five elements reversed, transforming the real into the illusionary!

This was the Nine Heavens Star Transformation Void Array.

As this array evolved to its extreme, it could even dissolve a True Monarch’s "Dao"!

And Ruan Qin naturally arranged it, without a hint of disturbance.

From the beginning, Ruan Qin’s every step had long-term considerations. As if behind each action lay infinite strategies, leaving people overwhelmed and unable to fathom. When it comes to calculations, who would the True Monarch of Gua Dao fear?

The terrifying rules touched the Dao Body, around King Zhao’s body, blue thunder like coiling dragons and snakes appeared. It wasn’t some powerful technique, but a reaction to the Dao Body enduring the force of the formation.

He watched as Ruan Qin unveiled the Killing Array, merely reaching out with his large hand.

Rumble!

The ground shook and the heavens trembled!

Beneath the star-patterned Tiger Platform, something great clearly wavered. The surrounding world rules had already shattered one after another.

Amazingly, King Zhao, facing Ruan Qin’s assault, sought to forcibly uproot the Sī Xuán Underground Palace!

Such overconfidence, such dominance!

The reason he chose this course was primarily founded on his terrifying strength, he indeed could endure. Secondly, he couldn’t entangle with Ruan Qin for long here, as other experts from Qi Country could arrive at any moment. This was why he hadn’t bothered to take extra measures to kill Shi Mingcheng and Su Guanying on the spot before.

Uprooting the Sī Xuán Underground Palace would mean victory for the mission.

If he couldn’t take the Sī Xuán Underground Palace, even if he killed Shi Mingcheng and Su Guanying, the mission would be a failure.

Thus he risked damage to his Dao Body to forcefully achieve this matter.

Of course, the extent of Dao Body damage was entirely within his control and tolerable.

As for whether there were True Monarch level experts from Qi Country hidden in the South Border, he naturally had speculated, yet he still embarked on the mission. Because he was confident, even if the worst outcome occurred, he could still achieve his goal.

Precisely because Qi Country had stationed True Monarch level experts, it was even more unlikely for them to anticipate his plot for the Sī Xuán Underground Palace!

The Sī Xuán Underground Palace, deeply buried underground and situated below Tiger Platform, was already connected tightly to the Nanxia Governor’s Mansion.

If a few more years passed, waiting until the South Border had harmony and alignment from top to bottom, uprooting the Sī Xuán Underground Palace would be like uprooting the Nanxia Governor’s Mansion, requiring a showdown with South Xia’s national power.

By this reckoning, today was indeed a rare opportunity.

Ruan Qin sighed: "As expected of King Zhao, reigning over the world for so many years, so many heroes wanting to kill you yet unable! I indeed can’t stop you. But—"

King Zhao looked at the highest achiever of Eastern Region’s Star Divination Technique before him... But?

But what?

He soon found out what the "but" was!

The Sī Xuán Underground Palace, which he tried to uproot with supreme power, suddenly emitted a vast force, formally resisting his invasion!

For the first time, King Zhao was surprised.

How could it be?

The Sī Xuán Underground Palace had long been broken, from then until now, never restored, where did the power come from?

If it had already recovered, if it still had power, why wasn’t it deployed in the Qi’s campaign against Summer Country?!

Rumble!

The ground shook and the heavens trembled even more intensely.

All the rules of this world shattered, and entirely new rules were being born.

A great palace suddenly appeared in the high air.

It happened to appear at the rift torn open in the star map sky vault, as if filling the vacancy, possessing the power to suppress a whole era.

Inside the palace, leveraging the power of the underground palace, came a majestic voice—

"Sī Xuán Underground Palace Master Ming Shouqi, pays respects to King Zhao!"

Understood!

King Zhao suddenly understood everything.

The story of "Xie Huaian quickly subduing the Sī Xuán Underground Palace with a thunderous force, besieging but not attacking. Then launching a full assault on the city named ’Noble City’, forcing An Lebo to surrender, and then returning to take over the Sī Xuán Underground Palace..." narrated by Su Guanying to Jiang Wang, already publicly known by Qi Country.

It was merely a "drama" after all.

The true process was not such.

In fact, it was the Sī Xuán Underground Palace master, True Man of the Age Ming Shouqi, who had secretly surrendered to the Qi Court long ago!

Back during the first Qi Xia War, the Emperor Qi had already successfully won over Ming Shouqi, positioning him for a sweep to capture Guiyi City. But at that time, Empress Dowager Xia acted decisively, with Yi Tian Observatory descending first, countless Taoist Sect experts’ presences arrived, and Jinguo’s might suppressed the world!

Emperor Qi had to retreat, falling back to the Eastern Region, relinquishing all the Southern Territory lands.

But he left Ming Shouqi behind.

The broken Sī Xuán Underground Palace, the heavily wounded and dying Sī Xuán Palace Master Ming Shouqi, remained in the equally shattered, equally tottering Summer Country.