Lu Jun did not even spare a second glance for the Imperial Guards, who had fallen into stupor, terror, and disbelief.
The hand gripping his sword hilt did not draw the blade. Maintaining that posture, he walked steadily and calmly through the guards, who stood frozen in place like ice sculptures, like a traveler leaving no trace upon the snow.
A few guards at the edges, whose wills were somewhat stronger, instinctively tried to muster their remaining Soul Power or draw their backup melee weapons for one final struggle.
However, the instant the thought arose, an icy chill and absolute stiffness spread through the joints of their limbs.
Looking down, they discovered that, at some unknown moment, a layer of crystalline yet incomparably hard ice crystals had locked their wrists and ankles like the most exquisite shackles, even freezing their combat boots to the ground.
No matter how they urged their Soul Power, the ice crystals did not budge. Instead, they radiated a chill that devoured their Soul Power.
The God-Slaying Imperial Guard Legion, said to have been built with every resource the Federation could spare to counter god-level threats and composed of its most elite Soul Masters, had been wiped out before Lu Jun without even making him draw his sword. In a single thought, they lost all ability to resist, like clumsy puppets on a stage.
This was no accident.
Years ago, after Lu Jun's operation to attack Shrek City and after he once again displayed the might of his Martial Soul Avatar, his methods had already seeped in like the finest spores, quietly influencing a crucial direction in the Federation's Soul Tool Technology development.
That was the underlying framework of energy-source theory and the core formations of high-level Soul Tools.
The technical energy sources within the top-tier