Chapter 2659 - 2660: The Sky Barrier

"What’s going on here again?"

Feng Yuan squinted, his expression not looking good, because the sudden and exaggerated anomaly in front of him was too unexpected. Feng Yuan did not believe they were so lucky that the Bloody Maze would just happen to manifest in the area of Cha Mu Town.

"I don’t know, this thing is appearing all over the world."

Veronia put away her playful attitude. This abrupt appearance of the Qi Realm Maze affected the entire world; you could say that no matter where one was in the world, they could see that thing.

With such a massive coverage area, what on earth has occurred in the Qi Realm, and what kind of disaster will it bring?

It’s hard for anyone to believe that the Qi Realm would make such a spectacle just for show, but even knowing there’s an issue, they have no means to tackle it.

Until now, Feng Yuan’s understanding of the Qi Realm is not particularly deep, let alone the Qi Realm Maze— he’s only seen such a thing in the soul projection of Qi Realm Dou Yanlan.

"Hold on, what’s that..."

Suddenly, Feng Yuan noticed a peculiar white light flashing in the gaps between the maze’s phantom, and upon closer inspection, it seemed like...

"That light, it looks a bit like the annihilation ray of the Holy Roaring Lance. Could it be the Imperial Timeline seizing this chance to attack?"

Rubbing his chin, Feng Yuan muttered, while Veronia, having also noticed that comet-like white light obscured by the Bloody Maze’s phantom, understood better what exactly it was.

"No, it’s the Sky Cover from Qikaras Vientiane Sky Wheel. How did they manage to seize such a weapon?!"

Normally, relics from the Mythical Era should be more inclined towards lifestyle-use Divine Artifacts like the Astrolabe, so what’s up with this siege weapon?

Because she hadn’t paid attention before, Veronia was really unaware of what Divine Artifacts the Imperial Timeline had seized, but how could they not properly safeguard such a powerful siege weapon?

"No, the Qi Realm Maze seems to be pulling in that power? Could it be..."

Noticing the odd descending path of the destructive white light, Veronia thought of a possibility with a shocked expression. As a siege weapon, its unleashed power generally wouldn’t be pulled and guided— it would accurately hit the target.

Yet, this comet with a trailing tail clearly was being tugged by a special force, forcibly changing its landing spot.

Even though estimating due to distance was impossible, this tugging force couldn’t help but make her suspect they were trying to forcibly redirect the Sky Cover’s fall into the Qi Realm Maze.

Veronia’s gaze was fixed on the slowly descending meteor, without even noticing what Feng Yuan was saying, and at the moment the comet’s tail disappeared into the back of the Bloody Maze, Veronia was speechless.

"Is the Qi Realm’s shelter attribute also effective in the Main World? No, it might directly prevent cross-world attacks."

Unlike Veronia, Feng Yuan, while surprised at the Qi Realm Maze blocking the Imperial Timeline’s attack, didn’t find it incomprehensible, since the Qi Realm’s greatest Guardian is the Qi Realm itself.

If an attack from outside the world falls into the Qi Realm Timeline, this barrier is bound to appear, and now the Main World is also under its protection, which Feng Yuan feels is not utterly beyond comprehension.

After all, the Qi Realm already covers the Main World; it’s known that the stream of time itself has a lower status than the Main World, or rather, the stream of time exists parasitically on the Main World, and theoretically, it shouldn’t be able to turn around and invade the Main World.

Such is the reality; the Qi Realm covering the Main World does not mean it’s the Qi Realm Timeline’s erosion. On the contrary, it’s a sort of unique union.

Every world’s Qi Realm probably belongs to their respective world, but because of the Qi Realm’s own uniqueness, they connect with one another, forming a situation akin to unification.

This bizarre union generally allows the Qi Realm to have an advantage because the Qi Realm Timeline harbors the soul projection, which potentially possesses the ability to mobilize the Qi Realm’s power.

Regarding different worlds’ Qi Realm, they do not hinder outsiders from using their respective powers, but the condition is that such power cannot be used to destroy the corresponding world.

Otherwise, it would trigger the Qi Realm’s world protection mechanism, just like now, where the Qi Realm, clearly dangerous and faintly standing against humanity, suddenly manifests to stop an attack when the Imperial Timeline initiates a cross-world strike.

"Hm, using a Divine Artifact for a cross-world attack, they surely have ideas. It’s just unexpected that even the Qi Realm can affect the power of Divine Artifacts."

Even though knowing that the Qi Realm can influence Divine Beasts, Veronia hadn’t expected the Qi Realm to be effective against the Mythical Era’s Divine Artifacts, because those things were the trump cards of the Mythical Era.

With various Divine Artifacts at full power, there isn’t much difference compared to a Divine Beast’s all-out strike, and some Divine Artifacts subtly surpass most Divine Beasts’ full-power strikes.

In other words, the Qi Realm, when deploying the Qi Realm Maze, can forcibly block a Divine Beast’s full-force strike.

That’s pretty absurd, given that conventional Domains absolutely don’t have this capability— except for the Netherworld, due to its uniqueness, and the Data Domain, which can rely on nearly infinite space to forcibly dissipate a Divine Beast’s full-force strike.

However, the Blood-Colored Maze that the Qi Realm deployed didn’t adopt such methods; instead, it took the attack head-on like the Netherworld without being shattered.

This means the Qi Realm-deployed area can be considered a space with strength equal to that of the real world.

But this point puzzled Veronia, because back in the Qi Realm Timeline, its attacks didn’t give the impression that the Qi Realm’s spatial strength was equal to the real world.

Wait, could it be...

Recalling the world barrier that blocked her upon entering the deepest layer, Veronia suspected that, under normal circumstances, the Qi Realm’s spatial strength is massively weakened, only changing when necessary.

Or, the Qi Realm itself can autonomously adjust spatial strength to meet different needs.

This trait is unique, and the Netherworld doesn’t possess this ability; the Netherworld’s spatial strength maintains consistency with the real world, and it cannot change inherently.

Of course, no matter how unique, it scarcely imposes limitations on Feng Yuan. Even if the other party erected a world barrier, Feng Yuan could call upon Eclipse to tear down the walls if unwilling to act.

But if this thing automatically defends when the world undergoes cross-world attack, Feng Yuan’s words might turn into truth, which is that all cross-world attacks would be prohibited.

It’s not actually a prohibition of use, but a lack of effect, since attacks that traverse worlds would land directly within the Qi Realm-deployed Maze.

"So, the appearance of the Qi Realm Maze is due to the Imperial People’s attack then."

With a light chuckle, Veronia said, looking at the sky, rolling her eyes, Feng Yuan retorted irritably,

"How could that be, it should be a coincidence, or perhaps the two mazes are not the same."

Intuition told Feng Yuan that the Qi Realm Maze overhead is merely a simple world barrier, specialized to block direct attacks from outside the world, as for the Qi Realm Maze over at Kui Shan Town, that’s a whole other story.

The Qi Realm Maze projection came and went quickly, maybe because the Imperial People discovered that striking from their world had no effect, so they pulled back.

As the sky reverted to its former tranquility, Feng Yuan sighed and said,

"If possible, I really hope the Qi Realm doesn’t have this function, like the Temple; it seems like a good thing yet portends something rather ominous."

"That doesn’t really have much to do with you,"

Understanding Feng Yuan’s sentiment, Veronia chuckled and said, the Qi Realm’s defense might vaguely predict frequent cross-world strikes in the future, or that everyone would have such means.

Only it wouldn’t be useful, at least until figuring out how to crack the Qi Realm Maze’s interception, these attacks would be utterly ineffective.

Future warfare might see the development of weapons specifically for cross-world strikes and ways to bypass the Qi Realm Maze’s defenses.

Feng Yuan has no doubt the Qi Realm Maze’s defense is unreliable, after all, it’s not a normal world defense, nor has this round of timeline warfare triggered the Main World’s protection mechanism, or else the Imperial People wouldn’t be able to cause a commotion in the Main World.

Thinking it over, Feng Yuan decided not to dwell on the Qi Realm Maze’s defenses. Compared to that defensive Qi Realm Maze that came and went quickly, Feng Yuan’s interest was piqued by the Qi Realm Maze appearing near Kui Shan Town.

What’s that all about, Feng Yuan doesn’t believe that Qi Realm Maze just appeared for nothing; it likely brings some special things, much like the Blood-Colored Crystal Stone he previously knew nothing about.