Chentang Pass was utterly silent.
No, even silence itself seemed to have been completely erased after that single word—"Scram"—leaving behind pure, absolute nothingness.
The golden motes formed from the saint's decree drifted slowly through the air like fireflies on a summer night, carrying a trace of absurd beauty before finally vanishing into nothingness.
It was as though the purple qi stretching thirty thousand miles from the east, the saint's Heavenly Might that had suppressed the ages, had all been nothing but an illusion.
Yet the terror deeply imprinted into the Primordial Spirits of every living being frantically reminded them just how real and world-shattering everything that had happened was.
In the void, the Primordial World Great Powers who had been whispering among themselves and exchanging shocked Spiritual Sense messages all fell silent at once.
Their Spiritual Sense seemed to have been tightly clenched by an invisible hand. They did not even dare release the slightest ripple.
Run!
That was the only thought in their minds.
If they did not flee now, once that terrifying being began settling scores, none of them would be able to leave!
For a moment, countless exceedingly concealed strands of Spiritual Sense, like startled rabbits, tore through the void and fled madly toward their respective sanctuaries, none daring to take even one more look.
East Sea, Crystal Dragon Palace.
The Mystic Light Water Mirror, said to reflect the heavens and peer into the Four Seas, cracked with a "crack," spiderweb-like fissures spreading across its surface before it burst with a "bang" into a shower of water.
"Pfft!"
Ao Guang, the East Sea Dragon King who had been controlling the water mirror, suffered a heavy blow and spat out a mouthful of old dragon blood more than three feet away. His entire body withered.
But he had no time to care about his injuries. His aged dragon face was filled with unprecedented shock and terror, his dragon whiskers trembling wildly beyond his control.
"Big Brother!"
"Big Brother, how are you?"
Ao Qin, the South Sea Dragon King, Ao Run, the West Sea Dragon King, and Ao Shun, the North Sea Dragon King, appeared beside Ao Guang in an instant, their faces equally pale as paper.
They too had just witnessed, through the water mirror, a scene that would go down in the history of the Primordial World—no, a scene that would overturn that very history.
A saint's decree had been cursed away by a single word.
This realization was like a Chaos Divine Hammer, smashing their understanding of the world, built over hundreds of millions of years, into pieces.
Were saints not the strongest beings beneath the Heavenly Dao?
Did a saint's decree not represent absolute will, something that could not be defied?
Then what was this supposed to be?
Ao Guang shoved aside the brothers supporting him and practically scrambled toward the Dragon Throne. He grabbed a jade talisman representing the Dragon Clan's highest authority, poured all his Dragon Essence into it, and let out a heart-rending roar.
"Pass down my order!"
"All Dragon Clan members! All aquatic clans! All living beings under the Four Seas!"
"From this day onward, the sea region within hundreds of millions of miles around Chentang Pass is declared an absolute forbidden zone! Any dragon who dares approach even one step will have his dragon sinews severed, his dragon bones removed, and be forever imprisoned in the Dragon-Locking Well!"
The roar spread through the jade talisman, instantly reaching every corner of the Four Seas.
The trembling and fear in that voice were so real that every Dragon Son and Grandson who received the order felt it deeply. One by one, they buried their heads in the coral reefs and shivered.
Only after doing all this did Ao Guang seem to have all his strength drained away. He collapsed onto the Dragon Throne, gasping for breath.
"Big Brother, wh-what exactly is going on? Who... who is that man?" Ao Qin, the South Sea Dragon King, asked in a trembling voice.
Ao Guang gave a bitter laugh, his eyes hollow.
"How would I know who he is? All I know is that from today onward, forget one Nezha—even if everyone in Chentang Pass came to the East Sea every day to catch a dragon as a mount, we would have to wash our necks clean and greet them with smiles!"
"The Chan Sect? Saints?"
"To hell with the Chan Sect! To hell with saints! If they want to use our Dragon Clan as cannon fodder, not a chance!"
"That is a madman who dares trample a saint's dignity beneath his feet in public! Our Dragon Clan cannot afford to provoke him! We hide!"
The three Dragon Kings shuddered in unison and nodded fervently.
They had thought that by clinging to the Chan Sect's thigh, they could gain some benefits in the Investiture of the Gods Calamity.
Only now did they realize that what they had clung to was not a thigh at all, but a Chaos Divine Thunder that could explode at any moment!
Blood Sea, Nether River Palace.
Ancestor Minghe, seated upon the Twelve-Grade Karma Fire Red Lotus and holding the twin swords Yuantu and Abi, suddenly woke from meditation.
The Karmic Fire Red Lotus beneath him shook violently, while the Blood Sea, which had churned for hundreds of millions of years, raised towering waves for the first time in history.
"Thud!"
Ancestor Minghe lost his balance and nearly fell from the lotus platform.
He steadied himself, but none of the domineering coldness of the Blood Sea's master remained on his face. There was only deep shock.
Just now, he had sensed a supreme will that stood above the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World sweep across the entire Primordial World in a fleeting instant.
Before that will, his Great Dao of "as long as the Blood Sea does not dry up, Minghe will not die" was as fragile as a joke.
He had no doubt that with a single thought, the other party could instantly evaporate his Blood Sea and completely erase his true spirit.
"Who was it?"
"Did the Dao Ancestor act? No! This aura is older and more overbearing than the Dao Ancestor's!"
"Could it be that one of the Chaos Demon Gods said to have perished in the World-Opening Calamity has come back to life?"
Ancestor Minghe frantically calculated the heavenly secrets, only to find a haze of chaos.
His expression shifted constantly before finally becoming resolute.
"Pass down the order! Seal the Blood Sea! No member of the Asura Clan may step out of the underworld for a million years!"
Longevity Mountain, Wuzhuang Temple.
"Plop."
A crystal-clear Ginseng Fruit overflowing with Immortal Qi slipped from Zhen Yuanzi's hand and fell to the ground, becoming covered in dust.
Yet the Ancestor of Earth Immortals, who had always cherished Ginseng Fruit as dearly as his life, did not even glance at it.
He stared blankly toward the east, his usually calm face filled with dullness.
"The Dao... is wailing..."
"The Heavenly Dao is afraid?"
Zhen Yuanzi muttered as though speaking nonsense.
Qing Feng and Ming Yue, the two Daoist attendants beside him, were so frightened that they did not dare breathe loudly.
After a long while, Zhen Yuanzi finally came back to his senses and let out a long sigh. His face was filled with emotions too complex to describe—shock, fear, confusion, and even a trace of... envy?
"Close the gates. Seal the mountain."
"From today onward, Wuzhuang Temple will receive no guests."
Inside Fire Cloud Cave, the Three Sovereigns—Fuxi, Shennong, and Xuanyuan—opened their eyes at the same time, each seeing the shock in the others' eyes.
The River Diagram and Luo Script before Fuxi spun madly. The trigrams upon them fell into complete chaos before, with a hum, even their radiance dimmed.
"I cannot calculate it." Fuxi gave a bitter smile. "The heavenly secrets have been completely blocked by an incomprehensible force."
Xuanyuan furrowed his brow and said solemnly, "That will was domineering, tyrannical, and utterly unreasonable. I felt that it was ten thousand times more terrifying than facing the Demon Race Heavenly Emperor back then."
Shennong sighed. "Directly confronting a saint's decree and even sending it fleeing... what kind of cultivation is that? What kind of courage?"
For a time, the cave fell silent.
Only after a long while did a strange glint flash through Fuxi's eyes.
"Perhaps... this may not be a bad thing for our human race."
"A being who does not even regard saints highly, an anomaly unbound by the Heavenly Dao... this stagnant pool will finally be stirred up."
At the same time, in the Northern Darkness Demon Master Palace, Wa Palace beyond the Thirty-three Heavens, Western Mount Sumeru...
Every top Great Power in the Primordial World, whether in seclusion or traveling abroad, was alarmed by that supreme will at this moment.
After a brief deathly silence, the highest circles of the entire Primordial World erupted into an uproar.
"Investigate! At any cost, uncover that person's identity!"
"Azure Stone Palace Lord... Qin Feng? Where did this name come from? Why have we never heard of it?"
"Is he a reclusive Chaos Demon God? Or Hongjun, the Dao Ancestor's illegitimate son?"
"Either way, from this day forward, that name is the greatest taboo in the Primordial World!"
The entire Primordial World fell into unprecedented turmoil because of a single word from Qin Feng.
At the center of the storm, Chen Tang Pass Governor's Mansion.
Qin Feng still sat quietly on the stone bench, gently patting Nezha's back in his arms, as though he had merely crushed a noisy fly.
Before him, Taiyi Zhenren lay sprawled in the ruins, his eyes wide open and vacant. A glistening thread of drool ran from the corner of his mouth, while strange rasping sounds came from his throat.
This member of the Chan Sect's Twelve Golden Immortals, a powerful Grand Unity Golden Immortal, had had his Dao Heart completely ground into dust by that extreme terror and world-shattering impact.
He was not dead, but he was worse off than dead.
A Golden Immortal with a shattered Dao Heart had become useless trash capable only of breathing.
He had been scared out of his mind.
Behind Qin Feng, Shi Ji stood blankly.
She looked up at that seemingly ordinary back, which appeared to support the entire world, and the affection and gratitude in her beautiful eyes had completely vanished.
In their place was an almost fanatical worship, a desire to offer up everything she had.
A sense of security?
No, what this man gave her was no longer something as simple as a sense of security.
It was a conviction.
An absolute conviction that said, "As long as he is here, so what if I become an enemy of the entire world?"
This man was her heaven, her Dao, her everything!
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