The people with Venerable Sword Saint and Chi Xue—who were far stronger than Mo Ye and Yun Lingzi at their peak—were trembling with fear. Fortunately, Chi Xue and the others remained composed, especially when they saw that Venerable Sword Saint wasn't immediately attacking them.
It made sense. If Venerable Sword Saint could attack them, he wouldn't have wasted a single word; he would have launched straight into an assault. The fact that he hadn't only confirmed his guess: the Lord of the Universe wouldn't let Venerable Sword Saint attack them, or at the very least, not with this level of strength.
That was exactly what had happened. Venerable Sword Saint had arrived in a fury, but as he drew near Chi Xue and the others, he received a warning from the Lord of the Universe: he was not allowed to attack them. Even if he did, he could fuse no more than two golden cores.
At the warning, Venerable Sword Saint immediately deflated like a punctured ball. His anger vanished, replaced by confusion. This was the first time he had heard the Lord of the Universe forbid him from attacking Chi Xue and the others. They were only the second people the Lord of the Universe had expressly barred him from attacking—Ling Tian had been the first. Back then, the warning had been much the same, except that against Ling Tian, Venerable Sword Saint had been allowed to fuse three golden cores, while against Chi Xue and the others, he could fuse only two.
With only two golden cores fused, Venerable Sword Saint could barely reach the ninth Heaven of the Near-Saint realm. Though his cultivation was still somewhat higher than Chi Xue and the others', he wasn't confident he could deal with them, since quite a few of them