Chapter 336 - 335: Sha Luo (4)

Lin Yuan slowly raised his right hand. Golden-purple thunder gathered around his fingers, but he did not release it toward Sha Luo or the silver rings surrounding her. Instead, he allowed a single strand of lightning to descend toward the ground, where it spread through the soil and touched the roots of an ancient tree.

The tree trembled.

A few silver lines shifted around its branches, revealing a subtle reaction in the surrounding spatial network. Lin Yuan watched carefully, then allowed the thunder to travel toward another tree, a broken boulder, and finally the shallow depression where the rainwater had gathered after the earlier battle. Each point produced a slightly different response, but the responses shared a common feature.

The spatial connections did not change independently.

They responded to the structure of the ancient realm beneath them.

Lin Yuan’s eyes brightened. "I see. You can alter the relationships between the connections, but the changes still have to pass through the foundation that supports them. No matter how complicated the network becomes, it cannot escape the limitations of the realm in which it exists."

Sha Luo’s expression became colder. "You are learning quickly."

"I have always been a fast learner."

Lin Yuan closed his hand, and the golden-purple thunder vanished from his fingers. Instead, silver-blue rain began to spread across the entire battlefield, touching the ground, the trees, and the broken stones without causing any visible damage. The droplets did not attempt to penetrate Sha Luo’s domain, nor did they challenge the silver rings directly.

They simply observed.

Every droplet became a tiny point of perception, allowing Lin Yuan to monitor the way the surrounding environment responded whenever Sha Luo altered the spatial connections. The rain revealed the reactions of the ancient laws, while the thunder illuminated the points where the relationships changed, and Three Rebirths connected the observations into a continuous sequence.

Lin Yuan was no longer attempting to understand every connection individually. He was examining the principle that governed the network as a whole.

Sha Luo recognized the change almost immediately. Her eyes widened slightly as the silver lines surrounding the battlefield began to flicker, not because Lin Yuan had damaged them, but because his perception had started to follow the same circulation that sustained them. For the first time since the battle began, she felt that her opponent was no longer merely responding to her attacks.

He was approaching the foundation of her technique.

Sha Luo’s expression turned solemn. "You truly are an unusual cultivator."

She raised both hands.

The silver rings suddenly accelerated, and the entire network of spatial connections began to rotate. The ancient mountains seemed to slide across the horizon, while the forests folded into one another and the ground beneath Lin Yuan’s feet became a constantly shifting arrangement of overlapping regions.

Sha Luo had recognized that Lin Yuan was examining the underlying structure of her technique, and she intended to disrupt his observations before he could complete the process.

The battlefield changed again.

This time, the distortions did not move in a predictable sequence. Some regions expanded while others contracted, and several connections were severed before being reestablished in entirely different arrangements. The resulting fluctuations were violent enough to tear apart ordinary spatial passages, and the ancient laws of the Sacred Grounds trembled beneath the pressure.

Lin Yuan’s expression tightened.

Even with his improved perception, he could not fully track every change. The rain continued to reveal the surrounding relationships, but Sha Luo’s rapid adjustments made it difficult to distinguish stable patterns from temporary fluctuations. If he continued observing without taking action, the pressure would eventually force him into a defensive position, and the battle would become increasingly dangerous.

He needed to create an opportunity.

She had been standing several dozen feet behind Lin Yuan, observing the battle with a focused, unblinking expression. Until that moment, she had deliberately allowed him to examine Sha Luo’s techniques without interference, understanding that the spatial laws involved were complicated enough that an unnecessary, poorly timed attack might disrupt his fragile web of perception.

However, the latest changes had begun to spread beyond Lin Yuan’s immediate surroundings. The spatial tears were encroaching on their position, and she could clearly see that the suffocating silver network was preparing to close around the entire battlefield, aiming to crush them both into nothingness.

Bai Qingyue stepped forward, her pristine robes cutting a striking figure against the spatial chaos.

"Yuan, I will open a path for you."

Lin Yuan turned his head slightly. "Be careful. Her domain is connected to the spatial structure of the Sacred Grounds, and attacking the network directly may cause the surrounding region to collapse."

A faint smile appeared on Bai Qingyue’s face. "I heard you the first time. I have no intention of tearing apart the space around us, and I certainly have no intention of allowing you to take all the risks while I stand behind you."

She brought her hands together before her chest, her slender fingers forming a flawless seal, and the spiritual energy within her body began to circulate with a quiet but undeniable authority. A profound aura emerged from her, cold, distant, and undeniably majestic. It carried a trace of ancient, sovereign authority that caused the surrounding silver-blue rain to tremble in reverence.

Her cultivation had already advanced considerably, and the meridians that had once been shattered were now completely restored, allowing her to circulate her Qi without the restrictions that had previously limited her.

Her aura was an absolute manifestation of pure Heaven and Earth luck intertwining seamlessly with her flawless Golden Core. Unlike Sha Luo’s spatial force, which sought to bend and break the world to its will, Bai Qingyue’s aura resonated with the natural order. It did not fight the chaotic spatial lines; instead, it imposed a supreme rhythm upon them, demanding that the chaos align with the mandate of heaven.

Sha Luo’s crimson gaze shifted sharply toward Bai Qingyue, sensing an entirely new, unpredictable threat emerging on the battlefield.