Chapter 248: Ruling the World (17)

The pillar of light faded and the spiritual light dispersed, revealing a tall, slender figure standing quietly in the center of the Teleportation Array.

The man wore a long robe traced with golden patterns. He stood tall and distinguished, his face handsome and refined—looking like nothing more than a young cultivator. Yet this seemingly youthful figure possessed an ethereal, boundless, and utterly unfathomable aura. Out of every cultivator present, not a single one could discern the slightest depth to his cultivation.

Neither the three Middle Nascent Soul Stage cultivators guarding the grand array nor the various experts hidden throughout the city spying on the anomaly could see through his foundation. The man's presence was entirely hollow—no spiritual energy leaked from him, and no fluctuations of Daoist arts rippled around him. He seemed no different from an ordinary mortal, a fact that made him terrifyingly bizarre.

Tremors of fear gripped the cultivators across the city as a quiet wave of whispers broke out.

"Just who is this person? Could the great array's anomaly that alarmed two realms have been activated solely for him?"

"Has some earth-shattering disaster occurred in Lingchuan? Did they specifically send this expert across realms to deliver a message?"

Speculation ran wild as the crowd harbored all sorts of thoughts, yet not a single person dared to step forward and disturb him.

The most terrified were the three Middle Nascent Soul Stage cultivators guarding the array. They had cultivated for a millennium and encountered countless individuals, usually able to judge the depth of a person's cultivation at a single glance. Today, however, their judgment failed them completely. This golden-robed cultivator seemed mortal, yet undeniably otherworldly. He appeared devoid of any cultivation, yet radiated a sense of extreme, lethal danger.

Suppressing the terror in his heart, the leading Nascent Soul cultivator forced himself to take a few steps forward. He bowed and clasped his fists, his posture the very picture of caution and utmost respect.

"Dare I ask, Your Excellency, are you a cultivator from Lingchuan? Why did you activate the two-realm Teleportation Array without authorization? Has some earth-shattering disaster occurred on The Continent?"

Jiuyou's gaze swept out lightly. It passed over the bowing man before him, then casually drifted across all the prying presences hidden in the dark.

He did not say a single word. Yet anyone brushed by his gaze felt a chill run down their spine and freeze their soul, as if they had plunged into a ten-thousand-year-old icy abyss. An absolute, suffocating pressure seized their hearts—the visceral realization that their lives were no longer their own, that this man could determine their life or death with a single thought.

The leading Nascent Soul cultivator felt his mind suddenly buckle, his consciousness slipping into a daze. In that mere instant, Jiuyou teleported through the void, appearing silently right before him. Two slender fingertips tapped forward lightly, landing dead center between his brows.

A boundless, invisible power violently invaded his sea of consciousness. The Nascent Soul expert felt the world spin. His soul grew heavy and drowsy, and all the majestic spiritual energy in his body completely stalled and scattered. His limbs turned soft and weak, leaving him barely able to stand.

Seeing this, the expressions of the two companions behind him drastically changed. Faces stern, they instantly summoned their natal magic treasures. Spiritual light exploded outward as killing intent surged, and they prepared to intervene.

But just at the instant their magic treasures were about to activate!

A soft yet incomparably tyrannical golden ripple quietly pulsed out from Jiuyou's body, instantly washing over the entirety of the massive Abyss Spirit City.

Wherever the ripple passed, the world completely froze.

Spirit birds gliding through the air froze mid-flight. Monster beasts swimming across the sea were locked in the motionless waves. The tens of thousands of cultivators and patrolling guards moving through the city suddenly went stiff, unable to move a single inch.

The two Middle Nascent Soul Stage cultivators who had been ready to strike were entirely imprisoned. Their spiritual energy was severed and their physical bodies locked down; they could not accomplish even the slightest movement, not even twitching a finger or rolling their eyes.

It was as if someone had pressed pause on every living creature in the world.

Everyone's consciousness remained perfectly clear. They witnessed everything before them with pristine clarity as monstrous waves of terror, panic, and shock crashed through their minds. Unable to express a shred of it, they could only stand frozen in place, forced to endure this absolute, overwhelming suppression of power.

A dead silence fell over the city; all noise ceased.

A moment later, Jiuyou slowly withdrew his fingertips and let out a faint, nearly inaudible sigh.

The next instant, the golden ripple vanished, and the lockdown over the world shattered.

Every cultivator instantly regained control of their bodies. They gasped for breath, dripping in cold sweat, their minds still violently trembling. But when they hurriedly looked over, the center of the Teleportation Array was already completely empty.

That golden-robed figure had vanished without a trace.

It was as if the earth-shattering anomaly that had rocked the entire city—that supreme, absolute power that had crushed every living soul—had been nothing more than a collective nightmare.

Jiuyou was long gone, yet the shock rocking the cultivators' minds took a long time to settle.

One Nascent Soul cultivator was the first to recover.

His face deathly pale, he roared, "Quick! Report this matter immediately!"

He rushed forward, steadily catching his fellow sect elder who had collapsed limply to the ground, knocked unconscious by that single finger. The other Nascent Soul cultivator, looking terrified beyond measure, hurriedly took out a communication jade slip. Spiritual energy frantically surged into his fingertips as he spoke in a rushed, chaotic tone. With trembling words, he recounted the recent anomaly, stating outright that an entity at the Deity Transformation stage had likely appeared in their world.

As his voice fell, the communication jade slip turned into a streak of pure white light. It tore through the air, shooting into the sky and vanishing over the horizon in an instant, carrying this terrifying intelligence up to the higher echelons of their sect.

Across the city, cultivators remained immersed in the terrifying, god-like coercion they had just experienced. They whispered among themselves, their faces etched with shock and uncertainty.

One man frowned in thought, as if grasping at fragmented memories.

He muttered under his breath, "Strange... I can't shake the feeling that the golden-robed senior's face was faintly familiar. It's as if I've seen someone similar in an ancient collection of portraits."

The surrounding whispers stalled slightly at those words, and an even deeper veil of shock and confusion quietly settled over the city.