Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 255: The Matrix’s Dimensionality Reduction Strike

As Zhang Xian’s voice faded, a massive, oppressive shadow drifted overhead.

The originally clear sky darkened abruptly. A profound, heart-palpitating blackness rapidly swallowed the airspace above the Guiyuan Sect.

The Sect Master looked up. Dark clouds blotting out the sun? What kind of celestial domain is this?

In the next moment, his pupils contracted to the size of needle points. For the first time, an expression of disbelief—bordering on absurdity—cracked his composed facade.

Above the Guiyuan Sect, at some unknown point in time, a fleet had arrived.

It was densely packed, overwhelming, and stretched as far as the eye could see. These were not traditional wooden arks. They were uniform, streamlined warships, their hulls shimmering with a cold, industrial metallic luster. Beneath the prows, rows of ferocious cannon muzzles extended like the unfeeling eyes of a predator, all calibrating in unison to lock onto the Guiyuan Sect’s protective array below.

The sheer number of vessels completely engaged the horizon, blotting out the sunlight.

“What… are those things?!”

Even with a thousand years of cultivation and a will of iron, the Sect Master felt his scalp go numb, his mind reeling.

“How can there be so many flying boats in the world? This is impossible!!”

The next second, under the despairing, glazed stares of every Guiyuan Sect cultivator—

The cannon muzzles of the entire fleet lit up simultaneously with a suffocating, pure white spiritual energy signature.

It was as if ten thousand stars had ignited at once, their energy capacitors charged to critical mass.

Zhang Xian’s voice, cold and mechanical like the pronouncement of a reaper, echoed clearly across the battlefield.

“Spiritual Energy Cannon Matrix. Target locked. Saturation fire.”

Above the Guiyuan Sect, the sky-obscuring fleet unleashed hell. The glow from the cannons turned the shadowed mountains into a blinding white world, stripping the vision from every cultivator who dared to look up.

Then, the flood of destruction descended.

It was not a single boom, but a continuous, tearing shriek of thousands of atmospheric ruptures.

VZZZT—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The earth convulsed. It felt as though the planet’s tectonic plates had been snapped by the kinetic force of the volley. Boulders rolled, and exquisite pavilions cracked and crumbled like children’s blocks.

The first to face the liquidation was the outermost Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation.

The massive light curtain, flowing with ancient, mystical runes, couldn’t withstand the industrial energy torrent for a single millisecond. It shattered with a thunderous crash.

The moment the shield failed, the mountain gate area was exposed to the raw, vaporization-level energy.

“NO!!!”

The Sect Master let out a heart-wrenching scream, his eyes threatening to split.

The giant archway—symbolizing ten thousand years of Guiyuan Sect glory—disintegrated at the molecular level. The welcoming plaza behind it, dozens of side halls, and even the side of the mountain peak itself were reduced to sub-atomic dust.

Smoke mixed with ionized spiritual light shot into the stratosphere, forming a mushroom cloud that dominated the horizon.

In a single volley, the face of the Guiyuan Sect and its outer foundations were wiped from existence.

As the light faded, the sonic booms continued to echo between heaven and earth.

The three Palace Masters stood frozen, their bodies cold. Their pupils trembled violently as they stared at the scorched earth. Their minds were blank. Their lips quivered, but not a single word could escape.

Founded nearly ten thousand years ago, the Guiyuan Sect had marched triumphantly to the pinnacle of the cultivation world under Grandmaster Taichu. When had it ever suffered such humiliation?

No. This wasn’t humiliation. This was a scene that had never appeared in the history of the cultivation world.

This was not a battle. This was a nightmare of a Dimensionality Reduction Strike. It was a higher civilization liquifying a lower one.

The Sect Master swayed, turning his head with great difficulty to look at Zhang Xian. His voice shook with extreme terror and rage.

“Just… who are you?”

This single volley had erased the sect’s outer spirit mines and infrastructure. The foundation had been shaken.

Zhang Xian remained expressionless, as if he had merely swatted a fly. He checked an invisible timepiece.

“Second volley. Calibration in progress. Firing in one hundred seconds. Target: Inner Sect Grid coordinates.”

He paused, his tone clinical and devoid of emotion. “You can use this window to order an evacuation. Survival probability depends on their speed.”

“What? There’s a second round?”

The Sect Master roared, his voice cracking into a high-pitched scream.

He instantly frantically transmitted his Divine Sense to the entire sect.

“All Elders and disciples at the Golden Core stage and above! Attack the fleet! Destroy those ships at all costs! Stop them!”

In an instant, countless streaks of multi-colored light shot into the sky. Like moths flying into a furnace, they fearlessly charged the suffocating steel ceiling above.

Palace Master Wen Yan and the Fugu Palace Master ignored Zhang Xian, moving to flash back to the inner sect for support.

Inside the second array lay the core of the Guiyuan Sect—the Scripture Library, the floating cultivation islands, the heritage secret realms. That was the sect’s jugular. It could not be lost!

“Leaving so soon?”

Zhang Xian snorted coldly. He had calculated their reaction. He raised a single hand and pressed it against the void.

HUM!

An incredibly thick, semi-circular, earth-yellow light shield condensed instantly, encasing himself and the three Palace Masters in an inescapable prison.

Heaven-grade Art: [Dark Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Monolith]—Activated.

BANG!

Wen Yan struck the shield with a full-power sword slash. The barrier didn’t vibrate a millimeter, but the recoil numbed her arm to the shoulder.

Cold sweat broke out on her forehead. A tidal wave of shock surged in her heart.

Top-tier Earth-element defensive divine ability? He has already displayed Metal, Water, and Fire… and now Earth? And a fleet that blots out the sun… When did the Guiyuan Sect provoke such a monster?!

Zhang Xian stood calmly within the dome. “What? Weren’t you just swearing to surround and kill me? Why the rush to leave?”

The hearts of the three Palace Masters sank into the abyss. They looked up at the sky.

High above, the Guiyuan Sect’s cultivators were desperately attacking the warships. Occasionally, a puppet emitting Nascent Soul fluctuations would intercept them—Zhang Xian’s last few Earth-grade decoys.

Through sheer suicidal effort, the combined force of the sect’s elites managed to breach the shields of a few frigates, turning them into fireballs that plummeted from the sky.

But these sporadic victories were a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of steel. Despair spread like a plague through the disciples.

The Sect Master keenly noticed the cannon muzzles glowing again. The white light was gathering. The hum of capacitors recharging vibrated in his teeth.

Calibration complete.

Just as Zhang Xian said, he had given them one hundred seconds.

The Sect Master closed his eyes in agony. When he opened them, they were bloodshot. Using the last of his dignity, he roared a hoarse command to the entire sect.

“Forget the ships! All disciples, abort the attack! Evacuate immediately! Clear the Inner Sect Grid! Run! Run as far as you can!”

After screaming the order, he slumped, drained of all strength.

His heart bled. What a humiliating command.