When that aged female voice descended from the Firmament, tens of thousands of Cultivators in the Square stopped breathing at once.
Zhou Xuan looked up.
A fissure split the sky.
A gaunt figure emerged from the fissure, her gray robes trailing behind her, fluctuations of law visibly bearing down from all around her.
The Purple-Gold Immortal Vein's Mountain Protection Array hummed and trembled before her, yet could not hold her back in the slightest.
It was the Court Guardian Pavilion Master.
The gaunt Old Woman whose strength stood above that of ordinary Longevity Realm cultivators.
The Cultivators on the Square's outskirts were the first to buckle.
Those farthest from the High Terrace went weak at the knees and dropped straight to the ground, their faces deathly pale. Some even bled from all seven orifices.
Those in the middle fared slightly better, but every one of them sweated like rain, unable even to circulate their spiritual energy.
Only near the High Terrace had the auras of the four Longevity Realm cultivators spread out in time, barely shielding the Core Area.
Emperor Jiang Wu moved first.
Crimson-gold national fortune power steamed up from his body, forming a translucent golden dome that covered the Public Trial High Terrace and a hundred yards around it.
The Alliance Leader's projection followed close behind, purple-gold laws unfurling into a curtain wall. Old Ancestor Xuanming and Old Ancestor Cangwu each held one side, ice-blue and Emerald law power rising simultaneously.
Together, the four forcibly held up the pressure pouring down from the heavens.
Only then could the Cultivators in the Square breathe again, but not one dared straighten up.
Zhou Xuan was watching too.
He was not looking at the Pavilion Master herself, but behind her.
Half a yard to the Old Woman's right, a man floated