The Saint's decree descended, and heaven and earth submitted.
That pressure, towering above all Dao, was like countless Primordial Divine Mountains pressing down upon the Primordial Spirits of every living being.
The moment that familiar Saintly Might from his master descended, Taiyi Zhenren, kneeling on the ground, was instantly overwhelmed by the wild joy of surviving a calamity. All his fear and humiliation vanished.
His master had acted!
A Saint had personally sent down a decree!
He was saved!
Taiyi Zhenren abruptly raised his head, and a twisted, savage smile spread across his bloodstained face.
He stared fixedly at the figure who still sat as steady as a mountain, his eyes filled with vicious delight.
Did you see that?
Wild immortal!
This was the majesty of a Saint! This was the foundation of the Chan Sect!
No matter how strong you were, could you possibly be stronger than a Saint?
Before a Saint, you were not even an ant!
Once his master's decree suppressed him, Taiyi Zhenren would extract his Primordial Spirit and roast it with Samadhi True Fire for hundreds of millions of years, ensuring that he could neither live nor die!
And that wretch, that little beast who had dared humiliate him, had to be taken back to Jade Void Palace as well. His intelligence would be erased, and he would be refined anew, made to pay for today's arrogance for all eternity!
Taiyi Zhenren roared and vented madly within his heart.
At that very moment, the Yuanshi decree floating above the Nine Heavens seemed to sense Nezha, who bore Chaos Origin below.
Bzz—!
Golden light suddenly burst forth, more than ten thousand times more dazzling than before!
The entire decree seemed to come alive. That supreme Saintly Dao aura was no longer mere pressure, but had transformed into tangible power!
Before Taiyi Zhenren's ecstatic gaze and under the horrified Spiritual Sense of all the Great Powers, the golden decree began to twist and stretch, transforming into a colossal golden hand that covered the heavens and blotted out the sun!
That hand was so enormous that it seemed capable of seizing the entirety of Chentang Pass within its palm.
Every palm line upon it flowed with the traces of the Heavenly Dao Laws, while a terrifying aura of cosmic creation and destruction coiled around its fingertips.
Ignoring distance, ignoring every obstruction, it reached down from the Nine Heavens and grabbed at Nezha in Qin Feng's arms!
That grab seemed to represent the will of the Heavenly Dao and the course of destiny. It could not be resisted or evaded.
Below the Quasi-Saint realm, any who touched it would be reduced to dust!
"Ha ha ha! Excellent!" Taiyi Zhenren could not help bursting into laughter, his voice brimming with triumphant exhilaration.
Take him away! Take that wretch away!
Within the void, those Great Powers who had been nearly suffocated by the Saintly Might also sent out despairing waves of thought.
"It's over. The Saint is serious now. He intends to forcibly seize the Child of Destiny!"
"That hand contains a trace of a Saint's Dao aura. Who could possibly withstand it? That mysterious expert will likely perish here today!"
"What a pity, what a pity. A figure like him should never have confronted a Saint head-on!"
At the moment everyone believed the outcome had been decided.
Amid Taiyi Zhenren's wild laughter.
Within the utterly numb and despairing eyes of Li Jing and his wife.
The man who had remained calmly seated from beginning to end, Qin Feng, finally set down the cup of tea that had long gone cold.
Click.
The soft sound seemed exceptionally abrupt within the deathly silent world.
He made no elaborate movement, unleashed no overwhelming aura, and did not even rise.
He merely slowly raised his head, those deep eyes truly looking toward the sky for the first time.
His gaze passed through the colossal golden hand that covered the heavens and fell directly upon the decree's true form.
Then Qin Feng's thin lips parted slightly.
One word left his mouth in an even tone.
The sound was not loud, yet it was like the primal sound of World Creation, clearly spreading to every corner of the Primordial World and branding itself deep within the Primordial Spirits of all living beings.
"Scram."
Just that one word.
There was neither a fluctuation of Magic Power nor any manifestation of laws.
It was like the most casual rebuke from an ordinary man, yet it contained a supreme will that made Words Manifested into Law and commanded all Dao.
The instant that word left his lips, it seemed to become an invisible iron law of chaos, colliding in the most direct, savage, and unreasonable manner with the Saintly Dao aura that represented the will of the Heavenly Dao!
Rumble—!!!
This was not a clash of sounds, but a battle between Great Daos!
At the instant Taiyi Zhenren's wildly ecstatic smile froze upon his face.
At the instant every spying Great Power's Spiritual Sense trembled.
A terrifying scene capable of overturning the entire worldview of the Primordial World unfolded.
The invincible golden hand, which represented the will of a Saint and could crush any Quasi-Saint, abruptly froze in midair the instant the word "scram" was spoken.
Then.
"Crack..."
An almost imperceptible cracking sound came from the fingertips of the giant hand.
Immediately afterward, the crack spread like a spiderweb at an unimaginable speed, racing across the entire palm!
"Crack! Crack crack!"
Before the horrified gazes of everyone, whose eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
The golden giant hand formed from the Saint's decree, whose might had oppressed all ages, shattered inch by inch like porcelain struck simultaneously by countless Chaos Divine axes!
There was no earth-shaking explosion, only silent annihilation.
That supreme Saintly Dao aura was as fragile as ice and snow under sunlight before that single word, forcibly erased and transformed into brilliant golden motes that drifted through the sky.
Taiyi Zhenren's smile completely stiffened.
The muscles on his face twitched wildly, while the ecstasy and pride in his eyes were visibly replaced by emotions called horror and bewilderment.
Shat... shattered?
His master's decree, a Saint's method, had been... shattered by a single shout?
How... how could that be possible?!
He felt that his mind, his Primordial Spirit, and every bit of his understanding had all been thoroughly churned into a paste by a force beyond comprehension.
Yet this was not the end.
After the golden giant hand collapsed, the decree itself floating above the Nine Heavens suddenly began to tremble violently.
It let out a mournful cry unlike a dragon's roar or a phoenix's call, yet filled with pain and terror!
It was like the unwilling wail of an emperor standing high above all others after being publicly slapped across the face.
Then, the dazzling golden light upon the decree instantly dimmed, as though it had suffered some irreversible injury. Even the Saintly Dao aura flowing across it became chaotic beyond measure.
The next second.
Whoosh—!
Before Taiyi Zhenren's utterly blank gaze.
The Saint's decree that represented Yuanshi Tianzun's dignity transformed into a panicked streak of light. Without daring to linger for even an instant, it tore through space at a speed countless times faster than its arrival and fled miserably back into the Nine Heavens, vanishing without a trace.
It... it ran away?
The Saint's decree had been driven away?
No, it had not been driven away.
It had been cursed away by one word...?
That thought exploded through Taiyi Zhenren's consciousness like Chaos Divine Thunder, blasting away even his final shred of reason.
His mouth hung open, strange clicking sounds emerging from his throat, yet he could not utter a single word. His entire body went limp amid the ruins as if every bone had been pulled from it, his eyes empty and his expression foolish.
Heaven and earth fell into dead silence.
Li Jing and his wife, along with every guard in the manor, had completely lost the ability to think. They could only instinctively maintain their kneeling postures, like clay statues and wooden carvings.
Within the void, the Spiritual Sense of those Great Powers throughout the Primordial World collectively froze at that moment.
Within their worlds of Spiritual Sense, unprecedented waves surged into the heavens!
"I... what did I just see? The Saint's decree... was shouted back?"
"That was the word 'scram'? What Dao was that? What law was that? Why do I feel that even my Great Dao is submitting to it?"
"This is not Magic Power. This is the source power of Words Manifested into Law! His Dao stands above Saints!"
"Hiss—how is that possible?! When did such a forbidden existence appear in the Primordial World? Could a Chaos Demon God have revived? No... even a Chaos Demon God would not dare humiliate a Saint like this!"
"My Dao Heart... is about to shatter..."
The entire world seemed to have been paused, with only the golden motes continuing to drift slowly through the air.
Qin Feng remained seated upon the stone stool, as though he had merely done something trivial.
He did not even glance at Taiyi Zhenren, who lay limp like mud. He simply reached out and gently patted Nezha's back, soothing him softly after the boy had grown slightly unhappy because of the golden light.
That utter calmness formed an absurd yet terrifying tableau against the world's absolute silence.
Before you continue