Rocks flew, and golden light crackled like thunder as Sage Ruler Jin De unleashed a barrage of attacks upon the towering three-headed stone statue, bound by the pages of the "Book of Feminine Virtues".
The statue's body was riddled with cracks and its six arms were either broken or severed.
"Hahaha!" Jin De cackled, "As expected, as long as I personally take action, this Three Emperors Formation is nothing!"
"Break for me!!!"
With a shout, each page of the "Book of Feminine Virtues" erupted in blinding golden light, illuminating the summit of Mount Yunmeng as if countless suns had suddenly appeared.
At this moment, the full power of a third-rank Great Vehicle Realm expert was on display.
Hovering in mid-air, Jin De looked down upon the three-headed statue, Fan Li, and the others. Even Guiguzi was beneath her gaze.
The feeling was exhilarating!
Those arrogant men who thought they ruled the world were now all beneath her feet.
A smug smile curved Jin De's lips.
"Men, how utterly useless. Elder Sister was right. This world should have been ruled by a woman long ago."
She spoke at a normal volume but her words clearly audible to everyone present, including Fan Li with his mere Foundation Building cultivation.
"The battle isn't even over, and she's already getting ahead of herself?" Fan Li thought with amusement.
He could clearly see that although the three-headed statue was battered and bruised, its aura remained undiminished. The outcome of the battle was far from decided.
"Be careful, Sage Ruler," Zhuge Liang suddenly spoke up. "The statue is regenerating."
"Hmm?"
Jin De looked down and saw that the broken arms were indeed mending, growing back flawlessly as if made of flesh and blood.
"Hmph, even if it regenerates a hundred times, the result will be the same."
She snorted coldly, and the "Book of Feminine Virtues" once again radiated with golden light.
"Let me tell you something!" she declared as if the statue wasn't her enemy but rather Fan Li and the other men present. "This technique is called 'The Hen Crows at Dawn'!"
"ROAR~~~~~~~~~~~~!"
Suddenly, the head of Emperor Taizu roared in fury.
"The Great Ming will last for ten thousand generations!"
Taizu raised his arm, the one representing the sun, and a scorching sun materialized above Mount Yunmeng, its rays bathing the land in intense light.
The golden light emanating from the pages of the "Book of Feminine Virtues" was instantly suppressed by the blazing sun.
"Impossible!" Jin De cried out in shock.
Her face turned pale, and blood trickled from her nose and mouth. She was losing the battle against Taizu.
"So what if you managed to win a single exchange?" she spat. "You're just a broken stone statue! Every time you attack, you have to switch heads, don't you?"
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"Go ahead! Switch!"
"Let me see if Emperor Gaozu of Han or the Overlord of Chu can also use a technique like 'Ten Thousand Generations'!"
Jin De wasn't entirely arrogant. She had observed the characteristics of the three-headed statue during the previous attempts.
Each head represented a unique power of the three founding emperors. Taizu possessed the power of the sun and moon, which Gaozu and the Overlord likely did not have.
"As long as I avoid Taizu's attacks and focus on suppressing the other two heads, victory will still be mine!" she thought confidently.
However, Jin De had miscalculated.
Her taunts caused the three-headed statue to freeze in place. As it stood motionless, two headless stone statues emerged from within the barrier of the Three Emperors Formation.
The headless statues joined the three-headed one, and the heads of Gaozu and the Overlord detached from their original bodies, each merging with one of the headless statues.
"What the..."
"Three founding emperors attacking together?"
Fan Li's expression was a mixture of surprise and amusement, with a hint of sympathy for Jin De.
The three emperors attacked simultaneously.
The stone Overlord Spear swept through the air, conjuring images of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
The Heavenly Son Sword in the hands of Gaozu emanated an oppressive aura of imperial power, like Mount Tai pressing down upon them, making them want to kneel in submission.
The light of the sun and moon enhanced Taizu's strength and healed his wounds, while scorching Jin De with flames or chilling her with frost.
"Cheating!"
"They're cheating!"
"What are you all waiting for? Help me!"
Jin De screamed, her movements becoming increasingly erratic as her injuries multiplied. Even her natal Confucian treasure, the "Book of Feminine Virtues," had lost its brilliance.
However, no matter how much she pleaded for help, Fan Li and the others remained idle.
Assisting her?
Impossible.
The rules were clear: only one person could challenge the formation at a time. As for how many stone statues would attack within the formation, that was never specified.
"Pfft!!!"
The "Book of Feminine Virtues" was struck by the spear, the sword, and the light of the sun and moon, causing hundreds of pages to disintegrate into ashes.
Jin De's primordial spirit suffered a severe blow, forcing her to cough up blood and fall heavily from the sky.
"Tsk. Too bad she didn't die." Crown Prince Wanli observed the battle with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
He made no effort to conceal his words, and the injured Jin De, upon hearing them, coughed up another mouthful of blood in anger.
For once, Fan Li found himself agreeing with Wanli. It was a shame she hadn't perished.
"You... you..."
Jin De struggled to sit up, retrieving pills from her pouch and swallowing them while glaring at Fan Li and the others with resentment.
She knew that assistance from outside the formation was forbidden during the challenge. If anyone intervened, it would be considered a failure.
But she was furious!
Especially when she saw Fan Li standing there unharmed, she nearly spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Fan Li, it's your turn!" she growled through gritted teeth.
"No rush," Fan Li shrugged. "Someone is going before me."
Crown Prince Wanli of the Great Ming entered the formation.
As Fan Li had predicted, through their observations, Zhang Juzheng and Wanli had realized that there was no point in attempting to break the formation without the Mandate of Heaven.
Therefore, the Crown Prince personally stepped forward, and Zhang Juzheng didn't even need to test the waters for him.
"So... that's how it is?"
Jin De watched as Wanli entered the formation, and after a moment of contemplation, she finally understood the reason behind everything.
All this time, Zhuge Liang, Guo Jia, Zhou Yu, and she herself had been wasting their efforts?
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. With a 'pfft', she spat out another mouthful of blood.
"Fan Li!" she accused. "You knew all along, didn't you? You deliberately kept quiet, wanting to see us die, didn't you?" Jin De glared at Fan Li, her eyes burning with hatred.
"Sage Ruler, you overestimate me," Fan Li replied with a blank expression. "With my meager cultivation, how could I possibly decipher the secrets of the Three Emperors Formation? Do you truly believe that your knowledge and wisdom are inferior to mine?"
"I would never be inferior to you!" Jin De retorted, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
But as soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had no right to accuse Fan Li. With her anger bottled up and nowhere to vent, she turned her attention to the formation. She wanted to see how Crown Prince Wanli intended to break through.
The three stone statues represented the power of the founding emperors of Chu, Han, and Ming. Perhaps only a fraction of their true power, but Jin De had already experienced its terrifying strength firsthand.
‘Unless Elder Sister comes personally, no one can break the Three Emperors Formation!’ she thought to herself.
This time, Jin De was right.
The three emperor statues were indeed formidable opponents.
However, as Crown Prince Wanli entered the formation, all three statues simultaneously lowered their weapons.
The three emperors spoke in unison: "You... are... a... king."