As soon as Su Chen said this, the hall fell silent for a moment.
Then a low murmur of discussion rose from the crowd.
"One drop of water can heal a serious injury and even make someone the strongest on the continent?"
A lone sword-wielding cultivator couldn't help shaking his head, a mocking smile tugging at his lips.
"Mr. Su tells a fine story, but that boast of his is a little too outrageous."
"Exactly. That wound was left by the supreme law. Even the gods were powerless against it. A drop of dew on a leaf can heal it? Does he think we're three-year-olds he can fool?"
A nearby sect elder stroked his beard and shook his head repeatedly.
"Stories are just stories. You'd have to be a fool to believe them. Since when has the world offered such a bargain?"
More and more Spirit Masters in the hall began whispering among themselves, their words full of disbelief.
In their eyes, the Perfect World Su Chen spoke of was indeed vast, and the Sacrificial Spirit called Willow Deity was certainly extraordinary.
But a story was still just a story.
To take something from a story and boast about it as if it were real, even claiming that one drop of water could create the strongest person on the continent—that was absurd.
Despite the stinging mockery around them, Bibi Dong, Xue Ye, and Dai Tianfeng, seated in the front row, were in startling agreement: not one of them chimed in.
All three were powerful rulers, deep and calculating.
Although they, too, harbored a trace of doubt about Su Chen's claims, the scene from the day before was still fresh in their minds: the Unique Cave Heaven swallowing the combined attack of six Titled Douluo.
Until they had thoroughly figured out Su Chen, they would never act like the fools behind them and volunteer to stick their necks out.
In a corner,
Di Tian listened to the chatter around him, his brows drawn tightly together.
He looked at Su Chen on the raised platform, a hint of struggle flickering in his eyes.
As the king of Ferocious Beasts, who had lived for eight hundred thousand years, he understood better than anyone how terrifying his Lord's injuries were.
They were an Origin Dao Wound, inflicted when the God King of the Divine Realm had struck down the Dragon God with a supreme divine weapon during the Dragon God's division.
Could a drop of dew really repair her essence and even allow her to evolve again?
Such a method was beyond the limits of his understanding. Instinctively, it felt unreal.
Could it be that I really was grasping at straws in my desperation...
Di Tian sighed inwardly and was just about to sit down.
Boom!
Just then, the sky outside Listening Rain Pavilion, clear only moments ago, suddenly darkened.
An intensely briny smell of seawater, mixed with a bone-piercing chill, swept in without warning from the end of the street, surging into the hall of Listening Rain Pavilion in an instant.
The temperature in the hall plunged.
The Spirit Masters who had been mocking Su Chen shivered and fell silent.
"What's going on? Where's that smell of seawater coming from?"
"What a powerful pressure!"
Everyone turned toward the open doors of Listening Rain Pavilion.
A thick blue mist had somehow spread across the street outside.
From within the mist came the steady, heavy sound of synchronized footsteps, slowly drawing closer.
"Su Chen."
A woman's icy voice, devoid of the slightest emotion, cut through the mist and rang clearly in every corner of the hall.
"You have repeatedly blasphemed the gods and uttered outrageous claims."
"Today, I represent Sea God Island and have come to make you pay for this blood debt!"
As her voice fell,
a mighty burst of Soul Power scattered the blue mist outside.
Bo Saixi, clad in a sea-blue robe and holding a Golden Scepter, crossed the threshold of Listening Rain Pavilion, her face like frost.
Seven imposing elders followed in neat formation behind her.
All seven wore blue. Though their Soul Rings were not visible, they made no attempt to conceal the crushing pressure of Titled Douluo pouring from them.
They were none other than the Seven Sacred Pillar Guardians of Sea God Island!
Eight Titled Douluo, and Bo Saixi, a peerless powerhouse at level ninety-nine.
With a lineup like that, the air in the hall seemed to freeze.
The Spirit Masters who had been laughing moments ago were driven backward by the pressure, all the way to the walls. Not one dared even breathe too loudly.
Bibi Dong and Dai Tianfeng exchanged frowns and looked toward Bo Saixi at the entrance.
"Bo Saixi, you were on your knees yesterday, and now you're back to get beaten again?"
Bibi Dong remained seated and didn't even turn her head as she tossed out the cold remark.
Bo Saixi paid no attention to Bibi Dong's taunt.
Her gaze swept past the crowd and fixed on Su Chen on the raised platform.
"Su Chen, yesterday I was careless and fell into your trap."
Bo Saixi slowly raised her left hand.
A diamond-shaped blue crystal, translucent and gleaming, hovered in her palm.
The instant the crystal appeared,
a vast, terrifying aura descended upon Listening Rain Pavilion!
It was unlike Soul Power.
An awe-inspiring majesty that made people want to kneel and submit bore down on them, as though the weight of the entire sea had settled on their shoulders.
"This is..."
Xue Ye's face changed dramatically. He could feel that the Soul Power within him had completely stopped circulating under the pressure of this aura.
"Sea God's Wrath!"
Bo Saixi's voice echoed through the hall.
"This is a divine edict and token personally bestowed by Lord Sea God!"
"It contains a trace of the god's true intent!"
Bo Saixi looked at Su Chen, her eyes filled with resolve.
"You spoke so brazenly, belittling the gods. Lord Sea God has already grown furious."
"With this divine token here today, let's see whether your strange sorcery can withstand true divine might!"
At the words "divine edict" and "divine token," the hall erupted.
The Spirit Masters huddled against the walls looked terrified.
"A token from a god? That's real divine power!"
"It's over! Mr. Su was just boasting about creating a god with a drop of water, and now he's actually brought down the Sea God's punishment!"
"No one can insult the gods. There's no way that Grotto-Heaven of his can hold up now!"
Many in the crowd began looking around for an escape route.
The power of a god, even a mere trace of it, was enough to crush this teahouse and everyone inside into powder.
Dai Tianfeng also rose to his feet, his eyes fixed on the blue crystal as he secretly circulated his Soul Power to shield himself.
Di Tian narrowed his eyes.
He sensed the aura on the crystal. In his view, this so-called Sea God was no supreme god, but this power was indeed an overwhelming force for Douluo Continent as it stood now.
Everyone's gaze turned once more to the raised platform.
They wanted to see how this storyteller, who had always seemed so composed, would react in the face of true divine power.
Would he panic? Or fall to his knees and beg for mercy?
Yet Su Chen didn't even stand up.
He remained seated behind his table.
Looking at the dazzling blue light radiating from the crystal in Bo Saixi's hand, Su Chen slowly picked up the teacup on the table.
He lowered his head, blew on the tea leaves floating on the surface, and took an unhurried sip.
Then he gently set the teacup down.
It made a soft tap.
Su Chen lifted his head, his gaze passing over the hall to settle on Bo Saixi.
"A divine edict?"
Su Chen gave a soft laugh.
"You took a lousy stone with a trace of residual-soul aura on it and came here to flaunt it in front of me?"
His tone was calm, but every word struck home.
"I just told you about Willow Deity, and you didn't believe me."
"Now you've brought this so-called divine token here to die."
"And you believe in that?"
"Utterly ridiculous."
As he spoke, Su Chen slowly rose to his feet.
He picked up the Gavel from the table, his gaze sweeping over Bo Saixi and the Seven Great Elders behind her.
"Fine."
"Since you insist on putting your faces forward to be slapped,"
"then it would be rude of me not to oblige."
As Su Chen's words fell,
the blue crystal in Bo Saixi's hand erupted with light.
A vast divine pressure, like seawater made solid, instantly filled every corner of Listening Rain Pavilion.
Thump!
At the back of the hall, a lone cultivator with only the cultivation of a Soul Elder buckled at the knees and crashed heavily to the floor.
The dull thud was like the first domino falling.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
One after another, people dropped to their knees, the impacts filling the hall in rapid succession.
The Spirit Masters already pressed against the walls were crushed beneath the divine might, unable to lift their heads.
They sprawled on the floor, their bodies trembling violently like sieves.
Facing a power that surpassed the limits of mortals, their defenses crumbled in an instant.
"Mr. Su! Stop pretending!"
A middle-aged Spirit Master kneeling on the floor flushed red as he fought against the pressure and shouted up at the raised platform.
"A True God has descended! You'd better kneel and beg for mercy!"
A nearby sect disciple, his face full of fear, chimed in.
"You had your fun telling stories earlier, but now the divine token is right there! Why are you still putting up a fight?"
"Quick! Bow your head and apologize to Lord Sea God!"
"If you want to die, don't drag everyone in this hall down with you!"
The terrified Spirit Masters began shouting one after another, their words full of resentment and urgency.
In their eyes, Su Chen refused to kneel because he cared more about saving face than his own life.
When faced with a god, it was only natural for mortals to kneel and beg for mercy. What was there to be ashamed of?
Amid the pleas and protests filling the hall,
Dai Tianfeng sat in cold silence, frantically circulating his Soul Power to resist the crushing pressure.
Xue Qinghe supported Xue Ye, whose face had gone deathly pale, as the two stumbled backward.
Bibi Dong remained seated, her gaze fixed on Su Chen on the raised platform.
She hadn't knelt, but the aura was leaving her short of breath as well.
At the threshold,
Bo Saixi looked at the Spirit Masters kneeling throughout the hall, a hint of coldness flashing in her eyes.
She raised the blue crystal high above her head.
"Su Chen, do you see?"
"This is the power of a god. Mortals can only submit."
Bo Saixi stared coldly at the white-robed young man on the raised platform.
"Now it's your turn."
As soon as she finished speaking,
Bo Saixi bit through the tip of her tongue without hesitation and spat a mouthful of blood onto the blue crystal.
At the same time, the Seven Sacred Pillar Guardians behind her stepped forward as one, pouring their Soul Power into Bo Saixi without holding anything back.
Buzz!
Absorbing her blood and the Soul Power of eight Titled Douluo, the crystal burst into an eye-searing blue light.
The light shot into the sky, piercing straight through the clouds above Listening Rain Pavilion.
High in the sky,
a deep-blue phantom a hundred zhang tall rapidly took shape in the clouds.
The figure wore armor, its face indistinct, and held a gigantic trident.
Merely standing there, it unleashed an aura of world-shattering power that made all of Heavenly Dou Imperial City shake violently.
"The Sea God has descended!"
The Spirit Masters kneeling in the hall let out despairing wails. They buried their faces against the floor, not daring to look at the sky.
Bo Saixi raised a hand and pointed at the platform.
"Kill!"
The Sea God Phantom raised its trident, and with a roar that split the void, drove it straight down toward Su Chen!
The strike was incredibly fast.
Before the trident's tip had even fallen, the roof of the Listening Rain Pavilion had already exploded under the force of the gale.
Roof tiles and splinters filled the air.
The enormous trident was about to run Su Chen clean through.
On the high platform.
Su Chen still stood where he was, without so much as blinking.
He looked at the imposing Sea God Phantom in the air, the corner of his mouth curling into a faintly mocking smile.
"God this, god that."
"Today, I, Su, will teach you."
"What a true dimensionality strike looks like."
With that, Su Chen slowly raised his right hand.
He neither summoned the Unique Cave Heaven nor used the overbearing Thunder Emperor True Blood.
He simply extended one finger and lightly tapped the enormous descending trident.
Buzz.
As Su Chen's finger came down,
a faint green light, so delicate it was almost weak, quietly bloomed at his fingertip.
It was an extremely illusory willow leaf.
Before the sea of blue light and the godly might that could destroy heaven and earth, that tiny green leaf seemed utterly insignificant.
Yet the instant the willow leaf left Su Chen's fingertip,
time seemed to stop.
Everyone in the hall, including Bibi Dong and Di Tian, felt a shudder rise from the depths of their souls.
It was not pressure.
It was the most primordial law, one that stood above the rules of this world!
Whoosh!
The green willow leaf turned into a streak of light and floated toward the enormous Sea God Trident.
There was no earth-shaking explosion.
Nor was there a deafening boom.
The instant the willow leaf touched the trident's tip,
Crack.
A crisp sound of breaking rang out in midair.
The trident, imbued with the Sea God's true intent and regarded by the Douluo as indestructible,
was sliced cleanly in two by the willow leaf, as easily as a block of soft tofu!
"What?!"
Outside the door, Bo Saixi's eyes flew wide, her face filled with disbelief.
Before she could react,
the willow leaf continued on, pierced straight through the trident, and instantly sank into the forehead of the hundred-zhang-tall Sea God Phantom.
A breeze swept past.
The Sea God Phantom, towering a hundred zhang and radiating boundless divine might, crumbled inch by inch in midair like a sand sculpture scattered by the wind, dissolving into countless blue specks of light and vanishing without a trace.
Clatter.
The blue crystal in Bo Saixi's hand, a symbol of divine will, shattered into powder across the ground at that very moment.
Pfft!
As the crystal broke,
Bo Saixi and the Seven Sacred Pillar Guardians behind her all spat out great mouthfuls of blood.
Like kites with their strings cut, the eight of them were hurled away by an invisible force of backlash and crashed heavily onto the street.
Before you continue