With a deafening roar, the entire palace trembled. Although the main structure of the palace remained largely intact, the outer walls had clearly lost their former brilliance, as if the golden glow had been shattered away.
The members of the Royal Guard shouted in excitement. Most of them had never actually seen the Dragon Cannon fired before. This was a secret technique passed down through the Dragon General’s family, and also the most powerful weapon of the Royal Guard. Legend had it that over the past hundred years, the Dragon family had used it only three times. Those who had been used as projectiles were two dead and one crippled—none had met a good fate. However, the Dragon Cannon, when silent, remained dormant, but once fired, was unstoppable. Before the unification of Remon Star, it had once destroyed an entire city with a single shot. Since then, the Dragon Cannon had become almost a forbidden word, deterring the nobles of Remon Star from ever entertaining thoughts of rebellion.
Before the Royal Guard could finish celebrating, the smoke at the main palace gate had already cleared. Everyone had assumed the gate would have been blown wide open, as nothing could withstand the Dragon Cannon’s power. But the grim reality was that General Dragon had already sprawled unconscious outside the gate. His armor had turned to dust from the tremendous impact, while the palace gate, which had taken the full force of the Dragon Cannon, merely bore a spherical indentation at its center—no more than a small crack the thickness of a sword blade.
Even with the immense power of the Dragon Cannon, the gate could not be fully opened. The strength of the main palace was simply beyond comprehension.
The swordsmen of the Royal Guard rushed forward, dragging General Dragon back. Amazingly, the iron-willed man was still alive, though every bone in his body was shattered, and he now lay unconscious.
“Enough! Even a tiny crack is more than enough!” Yang Hao shouted to the swordsmen. “General Dragon didn’t sacrifice himself in vain. I will avenge him with the lives of our enemies inside!”
General Dragon had risked his life merely to create a narrow opening, yet Yang Hao boldly claimed he could wipe out everyone inside. It seemed like an outrageous joke. The swordsmen of the Royal Guard drew their blades, their anger now directed not at the enemy, but at Yang Hao himself. If Yang Hao could not make General Dragon’s sacrifice meaningful, he would become the Royal Guard’s greatest enemy. Before even confronting the Royal Swordsmen Corps, they might turn on each other.
With the skills Yang Hao had previously learned, the most powerful were just a few major sword techniques. If he took some pills and relied on his flying sword, he could indeed hold his own for a while against those inside the palace.
However, even with a flying sword, it couldn’t be controlled without visual contact. At the very least, one needed to see the target to manipulate the sword. The narrow crack simply wasn’t enough for Yang Hao to control his flying sword. Worse still, he had already promised General Dragon to protect the palace, not damaging even a single pillar.
Therefore, most people had already concluded that Yang Hao was merely boasting. He simply had no way to deal with those inside the palace, and had already squandered the precious opportunity paid for with General Dragon’s life.
But that was only what others thought—not what Yang Hao himself believed, nor what his master Hun Yuanzi believed. This master and apprentice often came up with unconventional techniques.
This time was no different.
Yang Hao drew a long sword from his back. This sword had originally belonged not to him, but to Jinde, the vice-captain of the Royal Swordsmen Corps. After killing Jinde, Yang Hao had requested this sword from Emperor Danzhen. Now, he raised Jinde’s precious blade high. Adorned with numerous gems, the sword sparkled brilliantly in the light. Yang Hao suddenly infused it with true energy, and at the tip, a dazzling burst of five-colored light erupted.
It was as if a cloud of gemstone brilliance hovered over the sword’s tip. With his eyes closed, Yang Hao began chanting silently. As the light grew brighter and brighter, he swung the sword. The glowing mass shot forward, drifting steadily toward the entrance of the main palace, and precisely slipped through the narrow crack in the gate.
Only then did Yang Hao open his eyes and utter two words: “Aurora!”
Inside the palace, the besieged were truly elite warriors. By “elite,” they certainly weren’t referring to fighters of merely second or third level strength. The nearly fifty swordsmen inside the palace were the most formidable warriors under Wang Tao’s command. Each of them had a combat strength of at least fifth level. Wang Tao had always hoped this group would become the backbone of his future first-level swordsmen corps.
Though these swordsmen were holed up inside the palace, they certainly did not consider themselves defeated. They were merely holding their ground. These warriors firmly believed that they could hold out in the palace until reinforcements arrived. As long as they weren’t captured by Remon Star’s forces, they could summon the Imperial Army for aid. Once the Imperial fleet arrived, the entire planet could be destroyed—what was a mere Royal Guard compared to that?
These swordsmen had strong confidence in their ability to hold their position. More importantly, they had a powerful secret weapon, a technique that ensured their invincibility.
This secret weapon was the sword formation known as “Monarch.”
The concept of sword formations was an ancient one. It was said that even in the earliest days of human civilization, people had already begun studying sword formations. The essence of a sword formation was to combine several swordsmen and blades into a cohesive unit. This unit, whether on the offensive or defensive, would be flawless and could unleash power many times greater than its individual components.
The “Monarch Formation” was an ancestral sword formation passed down through the Wang family. Hundreds of years ago, when the Wang family organized the Wang Army, the power of this formation was fully demonstrated. At that time, the Wang Army, wielding this formation, was invincible and unstoppable. Later, to prevent the Wang family from growing too powerful, the Empire ordered the disbandment of the Wang Army and scattered its members across various posts. From then on, the Monarch Formation faded into obscurity for a time.
But gold will always shine eventually. This time, Wang Tao had taught his swordsmen the introductory version of the Monarch Formation, hoping to transform his swordsmen corps into another unstoppable Wang Army. Although it was only the introductory level, in actual combat, it had astonishing results. It could be said that even a few mediocre swordsmen, after some practice, could unleash the power of a high-level warrior.
Now, at least twenty swordsmen had formed two groups of the Monarch Formation, focused intently on the entrance. Whatever entered through that gate would immediately trigger the great sword formation, unleashing an immense sword force that would destroy everything in its path.
The swordsmen could almost see Yang Hao and the Royal Guard crying out in defeat under a storm of sword lights. Victory and defeat often turned on the edge of a moment.
At that moment, the swordsmen saw something enter through the narrow crack in the palace gate—a tiny bit of light.
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