Atop the walls of Godwind City.
The joy that had come with Snow Empress's submission had vanished without a trace.
Feng Xiaotian gripped the bricks of the city wall so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
It was too fast.
It had all happened too fast.
They hadn't been given any time to catch their breath or prepare for battle.
That was the full might of the Sun-Moon Empire, backed by the entire army of Soul Beasts from the Evil Demon Forest.
With forces like these, even the Spirit Hall at the height of its power would probably have had to avoid meeting them head-on.
"All Wind God Guards, take to the skies!"
"Activate the defensive barrier!"
"Hold the line!"
Feng Xiaotian shouted, his voice hoarse.
Even knowing it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, he had no other choice.
He was the lord of Godwind City. Behind him lay his home and his people.
In the back garden.
The golden light around Qian Renxue grew brighter and brighter.
Her Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul possessed her, and a sacred aura swirled around her, trying to dispel the evil pressure surging in from the south.
She turned to look at the young man beside her.
To her surprise, Venti wasn't nervous like everyone else.
He was just looking at the empty wineglass in his hand, his brows faintly furrowed.
It wasn't because an army was bearing down on them.
He seemed troubled because he had run out of wine.
"Is this the freedom you wanted?"
Qian Renxue couldn't help asking.
There was a hint of urgency in her voice, and a glimmer of hope she didn't even want to admit to herself.
She hoped this young man could work another miracle.
Just like when he had moved the glacier moments ago.
Venti sighed softly.
He set down his wineglass and somewhat helplessly scratched the beret on his head.
"I only meant to find a home for the new neighbors."
"I didn't realize I'd use a little too much force and drag the nasty neighbors next door over too."
"This is troublesome."
Venti still sounded lighthearted, without the slightest sense of impending disaster.
Qian Renxue looked at him.
"This isn't just troublesome."
"That's war."
"A war where many people will die."
Venti blinked his emerald-green eyes, a bright smile appearing on his face.
"Yeah, war is the worst."
"It tramples all the lovely apple orchards and shakes the wine cellars to pieces."
As he spoke, he stood up.
His movements were light, like a feather drifting on the wind.
"Since I'm the one who upset the balance and brought them here ahead of time..."
"Then I should be the one to clean up this mess."
Qian Renxue froze.
Clean it up?
How?
The enemy had tens of thousands of Soul Cannon warships and a super Ferocious Beast with a cultivation of 790,000 years!
Even if her grandfather, Qian Daoliu, were here, faced with an army charging on this scale, he could only withdraw and avoid its sharp edge.
"Are you going alone?"
Qian Renxue asked instinctively.
Venti patted his cape. Somehow, a lyre shimmering with a green radiance had appeared in his hand.
"Who else?"
"Should I let a little angel who hasn't even grown up yet go and get herself killed?"
Venti turned back and stuck out his tongue at Qian Renxue.
Before Qian Renxue could get angry at the words "hasn't even grown up"...
The young man's figure vanished from the spot.
Only a gentle breeze brushed Qian Renxue's cheek, lifting a few strands of her golden hair.
Off the coast of Godwind City.
Two enormous continental plates were hurtling toward each other.
The seawater was compressed to its limit, and waves hundreds of meters high crashed wildly in every direction.
If no one intervened, the impact alone when the two continents met would trigger a massive earthquake capable of destroying the entire coastal region.
By then, even if Godwind City wasn't trampled flat by the army, it would already have been shaken into ruins.
In the sky.
The Evil Emperor's enormous eyeball was bloodshot.
He was still furious over the Sky Curtain's broadcast.
"What are you looking at?!"
"I'll gouge out every last one of your eyeballs!"
The Evil Emperor roared as countless tentacles whipped through the air, each one gathering a destructive ray at its tip.
Behind him, the Sun-Moon Empire's fleet was advancing at full speed.
The glow of the charging Soul Cannons lit up the sea as bright as day.
"Full speed ahead!"
"Ram them!"
"Let these backward natives see the power of technology!"
The Sun-Moon Empire's commander howled from the flagship.
Just then.
A green figure appeared out of nowhere above the point where the two continents were about to collide.
Before the countless warships and the Evil Emperor's tentacles blotting out the sky...
The figure was as tiny as a flying insect.
But the instant this "insect" appeared...
The wind between heaven and earth suddenly stopped.
It hadn't disappeared.
It had gone still.
Every current of air seemed to bow before that figure at that moment.
The Sky Curtain camera zoomed in at once, as if it knew exactly what to do, giving the figure a close-up.
The green outfit of a wandering bard. The two gradient-colored braids fluttering in the wind.
Everyone across the continent recognized him.
"It's Lord Venti!"
"What's he going to do? Is he going to hold back the entire Sun-Moon Empire army by himself?"
Exclamations rang out across the continent.
On the screen.
Venti glanced down at the continental plates about to crash into each other.
"Oh dear, they can't go crashing together like that."
"They'll shake all the flowers and plants in the neighbors' gardens to pieces."
He spoke softly to himself.
Then he slowly stretched out both hands and gently pressed down toward the empty space below.
Bzz—!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
But everyone clearly saw a ring of visible green ripples spread out from Venti, instantly sweeping across the whole sea.
The Sun-Moon continental plate, which had been hurtling forward at high speed...
It was as if an invisible giant hand had pressed down on it.
It came to an abrupt halt!
For that instant, inertia seemed to cease to exist.
The waves, which had towered hundreds of meters high, instantly died down as the green ripples passed over them, becoming as docile as a pool of still water.
Rumble...
A muffled sound rose from deep underground.
Under Venti's control, the enormous Sun-Moon Continent edged toward Douluo Continent with extraordinary gentleness, joining its border slowly, bit by bit.
Click.
It was like two perfectly fitted puzzle pieces being joined together.
No earthquake.
No tsunami.
Not even a loose brick atop Godwind City's walls fell.
This effortless display of power left everyone staring in stunned silence.
He had handled continental plates racing at high speed like building blocks, picking them up and setting them down with care?
Was he even human?
But that wasn't the most shocking part.
Ahead of the Sun-Moon Empire's fleet, which had been thrown into chaos by the sudden stop, the Evil Emperor was staring fixedly at the green figure.
"It's you?"
"You're the little bug behind all this?"
The Evil Emperor's enormous eye was filled with savagery.
That last display had made him wary, but he was a 790,000-year-old tyrant!
In this world without gods, he was at the summit!
What's more, millions of troops stood behind him!
"Stop your tricks!"
"Die!"