The Imperial Guard commander charged towards Zhang Chen.
Although Zhang Chen's internal energy was unusable, the martial arts he learned from Qing Feng were sufficient to handle most opponents.
Furthermore, Qing Feng's martial arts had been proven through countless real battles, while the Imperial Guard commander's skills were being applied in combat for the first time.
The disparity in their strength was evident.
*Bang, bang, bang!*
As soon as they engaged, the Imperial Guard commander attacked Zhang Chen with the first move. In the following two moves, Zhang Chen forced him into a defensive posture repeatedly.
However, his divine iron armor could reflect 100% of the damage. Despite being hit by Zhang Chen's moves, he was not injured at all.
But being effortlessly pushed back in front of the Imperial Guards, retreating in utter disarray, was a severe blow to his pride.
On Zhang Chen's side, knowing that the divine iron armor possessed 100% power reflection, he dared not exert full force.
He mostly relied on redirecting the opponent's energy.
Thus, at the first exchange, it was a draw.
"Kill! Everyone, charge with me!"
Marquis Delas, seeing Zhang Chen engage the Imperial Guard commander first, assumed the battle had begun.
The Imperial Guard consisted of only about a hundred men, while his own forces were endless. Even a war of attrition could defeat them.
Fearing that Zhang Chen would claim the first merit in this battle, Delas roared and charged forward with his family's disciples.
The Red Enforcers were local militias, loyal only to Delas.
Seeing Delas charge, these enforcers also rode their unicorns and neighed as they charged forward.
The other nobles had been starving for a long time on their journey and only wished to find food in the imperial palace.
However, they did not expect the Imperial Guards within the palace to proactively attack them.
"They want to starve us to death!"
"These guards are insane, daring to attack nobles?"
"Let alone us not having entered the palace yet, even if we had, it would be with the Emperor's permission. We have that right, why are the guards stopping us?"
"These guards must have the Emperor under house arrest, we need to rescue the Emperor!"
"Give us food! We're starving, let us in!"
The hungry crowd's eyes gleamed with ferocity.
Delas and his group shouted about killing them all, the Imperial Guards yelled about rebels facing death, and the other nobles cried out to be let in and to rescue the Emperor...
Their cries were all different. If someone had listened and observed carefully, they might have been able to resolve the misunderstandings.
But everyone had already pre-determined their stance.
The Imperial Guards believed the opposing side were rebels, so no matter what they said, it was merely an excuse to storm the palace and stage a coup.
The other nobles, however, felt the Imperial Guards' words were excuses. They merely wanted food, and when denied, were labeled rebels, so why wouldn't they fight?
And so, a great battle erupted instantly.
The commoners charged forward with the nobles.
The enforcers, in order to protect the commoners, clashed with the Imperial Guards.
The scene became extremely chaotic.
Meanwhile, Zhang Chen, Keke, Silu, and the butler stood aside, looking at the battle with confused expressions.
"Why did these guys start fighting?"
"It shouldn't have anything to do with me..."
Zhang Chen muttered to himself.
"I don't know, perhaps these guys were heading this way from the start, and we were just on the same route?"
The butler also spoke with a bewildered expression.
"However... it's quite good to watch the fight!"
Zhang Chen closely observed the fight between Marquis Delas and the Imperial Guard commander.
They had little in the way of martial arts, mostly relying on physical attributes.
Delas at least had a few moves, which he repeated, and Zhang Chen had already spotted openings.
However, Delas's physique was superior to the Imperial Guard commander's, forcing the latter to retreat repeatedly.
Finally, the divine iron weapon scratched the Imperial Guard commander's arm.
"So that's how it is... ordinary strength can indeed be resisted and reflected by divine iron, so only divine iron weapons can overcome divine iron armor!"
Zhang Chen observed the noisy nobles fighting and discovered a clue.
In terms of combat power, their strength was inferior even to the survivors in the apocalypse.
However, with the use of divine iron, ordinary people indeed had no way to deal with them.
"Let's go. Let them be busy. It had nothing to do with us anyway. We're going to the divine iron mine, I want to study divine iron thoroughly!"
Zhang Chen said.
"Yes, esteemed sir, please follow me!"
The butler led Zhang Chen, bypassing the imperial palace, exiting the city from the rear. After walking a few kilometers, they arrived in front of the divine iron mine.
Along the way, Zhang Chen had imagined various forms of divine iron mines.
Perhaps open-pit mines, or mines that required layer-by-layer excavation like on Earth.
However...
What appeared before him was a massive pillar stretching towards the sky.
It was at least a hundred kilometers wide, and its end was out of sight.
The pillar was covered with crystalline mineral deposits.
"I didn't expect the divine iron mine to have no guards!"
The butler looked surprised.
Then, he walked beside the mineral vein and gently tapped a mineral deposit on its back. It immediately emitted a clear humming sound.
"It's divine iron ore, this is the divine iron mine, exactly as described in ancient texts!"
The butler said excitedly.
Zhang Chen looked up at the pillar of life, reaching towards the sky.
It was covered with divine iron ore.
Moreover, as it converged towards the center of the sky, the density of the ore increased, and its color changed.
At the lowest layer, the divine iron ore was silver-white. In the middle section of the pillar of life, the divine iron ore turned bronze, and at the very top, it became golden.
They formed a dense expanse, like a golden river frozen in mid-air.
Zhang Chen activated his absolute vision.
He saw that the divine iron mineral veins before him were indeed growing. Their ends were connected to energy networks that extended upwards along the pillar of life.
They finally converged at the center where three pillars of life met.
The light there was the most dazzling, even surpassing the brightness of the sun.
Zhang Chen merely glanced at it with his absolute vision, and his eyes felt scorched.
His body's energy was instantly depleted.
"There must be something there containing immense energy!"
"It is likely the origin of the meteorites!"
Zhang Chen gently stroked the massive pillar of life and said slowly.
Any rock from here entering the parallel world would be a disaster.
However, the rocks at the lower end had very weak energy, capable of causing only apocalyptic events like zombie outbreaks.
Meteorites capable of causing an apocalypse of that magnitude must have come from the top.
But who had dispersed those meteorites to the parallel worlds?!
Zhang Chen reached out, grabbed a piece of divine iron ore, and then pushed off forcefully, leaping two to three meters upwards.
"No matter what it is, I'm climbing up to see!"