The entire process unfolded with unnatural ease.
Yet to everyone on Douluo Continent watching beyond the Sky Screen, it looked as though they had seen a ghost.
Especially when the old woman tucked that nearly flawless human skin into her clothes as casually as folding a garment, the crowd erupted completely.
On Shrek Academy's training grounds, Oscar felt his stomach churn violently.
Unable to endure it any longer, he covered his mouth and rushed beneath a nearby tree, where he retched with a gag.
Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu, the two girls, had gone pale with fright. They clutched each other's hands tightly and did not dare look at the Sky Screen again.
"W-what kind of dark sorcery is this?" Dai Mubai swallowed, his voice dry and strained.
As a prince of the Star Luo Empire, he had heard countless strange tales since childhood and seen plenty of evil Soul Masters.
But a method that allowed someone to wear human skin like clothing while perfectly concealing their true appearance and aura was simply unheard of.
Yu Xiaogang was utterly speechless by then.
As for his prized Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul, he did not dare bring them up at all.
A soul beast?
Some kind of illusion?
What soul beast wandered around wearing human skin and spoke to a human child in the tone of an elder lecturing a junior?
The waters of the Great Ruins ran far too deep.
So deep that the moment one so much as poked their head in, they would drown without even bones left behind.
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong, the Pope, wore an equally furrowed brow, deep wariness in her eyes.
It was not the human skin that had frightened her.
What truly alarmed her was the casual ease with which the old woman had killed Liu Dao before removing it.
There had been no Soul Rings, no Martial Soul, and barely any disturbance in the surrounding natural energy.
With nothing more than a light flick of her finger, a level-thirty-five Soul Elder had been separated from his head.
Even some Titled Douluo might not be capable of such exquisite control over their power.
And this was merely an ordinary-looking old woman from the Great Ruins!
Just as the entirety of Douluo Continent was left numb with terror by that scene,
the image on the Sky Screen gradually darkened.
Then, after the notification announcing Liu Dao's death lingered on the screen for a moment, it rippled away like water.
The scene shifted, and the perspective of the fourth participant lit up.
This time, standing at the center of the Sky Screen was Li Ziyang, a down-and-out noble from Fasnuo Province and a level-twenty-one Soul Grandmaster.
Compared to the previous people, Li Ziyang was dressed far more meticulously.
He wore a tailcoat washed somewhat pale and had combed his hair perfectly neat. Even in this utterly unfamiliar wasteland, he maintained the dignity expected of a noble.
Li Ziyang had landed in a vast, endless stony desert.
In the Great Ruins, the sun hung low and slanted at the horizon. Judging by the sky, it was already evening, and the setting sun had dyed the desert stones crimson.
Li Ziyang stood behind a boulder half the height of a person, cautiously observing his surroundings.
Though he was a fallen noble, his mind remained clear.
After arriving in this unknown place, he had not run about like a headless fly. Instead, he first found a concealed spot to hide in, intending to understand the situation before making a move.
Just as he was considering which direction he should head,
a tremendous roar suddenly came from the sky.
Startled, Li Ziyang quickly lowered himself and looked up.
The instant he saw it, he froze.
The clouds above the stony desert were violently torn apart, and an incomparably massive wooden tower ship descended from the heavens out of nowhere.
The tower ship looked exceptionally grand. Its hull was over a hundred meters long and carved with all manner of intricate patterns.
There were no sails and no wings, yet the entire ship hovered steadily in midair.
Along the ship's edges stood several dozen young people in identical white robes, both men and women.
Each carried a longsword on their back, their expressions proud and aloof.
"A ship that flies through the sky?"
Outside the Sky Screen, everyone on Douluo Continent sucked in a cold breath at the sight.
In their understanding, only Soul Masters with flying Martial Souls and extremely rare high-level flying soul beasts could fly.
Yet such an enormous wooden ship could fly as well? How much Soul Power would it take to sustain that?
In the scene, the imposing tower ship slowly descended onto a relatively flat stretch of desert.
Before the ship had even settled, the white-robed youths leaped from the deck more than ten meters above like dumplings dropping into a pot.
Li Ziyang hid behind a distant boulder, barely daring to breathe.
He quietly released his Martial Soul. A slender silver vine emerged from his palm, while two yellow century-old Soul Rings faintly appeared beneath his feet.
He intended to first use his Soul Power to assess these people's strength.
"No Soul Rings? Not even the slightest fluctuation of Soul Power?"
After probing them, Li Ziyang paused in confusion.
In his perception, although these white-robed youths had jumped from such heights without suffering a scratch, they carried no trace of Soul Power, just like ordinary people whose Martial Souls had yet to awaken.
"Could they just be ordinary nobles traveling with some kind of flying artifact?" Li Ziyang wondered inwardly.
But he soon discovered how disastrously wrong he was.
Several white-robed youths walked up to a pile of rubble, apparently finding the giant stones obstructive.
One boy, who looked no more than fourteen or fifteen, did not even furrow his brow. He pressed two fingers together and casually formed a strange hand seal toward the front.
Clang!
In an instant, a clear sword cry rang out.
The longsword on the boy's back suddenly flew from its sheath on its own, becoming a blinding streak of white light. It circled through the air before fiercely slashing toward the pile of boulders.
The next second, a deafening boom sounded. Those hard rocks, each pile together as large as a small house, were instantly sliced into fragments that scattered through the sky by the flying sword!
After cutting apart the stones, the sword arced through the air as though it possessed a spirit and landed steadily back in the boy's sheath.
Throughout the entire process, the boy had not moved a single step.
Li Ziyang was dumbfounded.
Even the silver vine Martial Soul in his hand, meant for self-defense, trembled faintly from his shock.
"W-what kind of technique was that?"
"He didn't release a Martial Soul or use a soul skill, yet his sword flew out and cut through the stones by itself?"
Beyond the Sky Screen, Sword Douluo Chen Xin of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect nearly had his eyes pop out.
He was a sword fanatic who had spent his entire life pursuing the ultimate path of the sword.
Yet that fourteen- or fifteen-year-old brat in the image had completely shattered his understanding of swords with that technique of controlling a sword from afar.
"Controlling a sword with qi... This is actually the legendary art of controlling a sword with qi!"
More than that, he could sense that what flowed through the boy's body was not Soul Power at all, but a force far more tyrannical than Soul Power!
And among that group of white-robed people, there were at least dozens of youths capable of splitting boulders with a single sword strike!
Meanwhile, just as the people of Douluo Continent were utterly stunned by these mysterious swordsmen,
an old man with a goatee stepped down from the deck of the tower ship.
The old man wore a green robe and appeared quite imposing.
The moment he came down, he raised his head and anxiously glanced at the setting sun on the horizon.
"Quick! Stop dawdling!"
"The sun is about to set! Hurry and unload the Golden Dragon Pillars from the ship, set them up, and activate the Evil-Warding Talisman Array!"
At the old man's shout, the previously somewhat lazy-looking youths instantly changed expression.
In a flash, dozens of unfathomably powerful swordsmen who could control swords barehanded became like startled quails. They scrambled back onto the ship, hoisted thick golden pillars onto their shoulders, and desperately laid foundations around the camp.
Some frantically pasted up yellow talismans, while others ran so hurriedly that they fell to the ground.
The old man stood to one side, his forehead beaded with cold sweat as he kept urging them, "Faster! Move faster!"
"If the array isn't finished before it gets completely dark, we'll all die in the darkness of the Great Ruins today!"
Meanwhile, Li Ziyang, hiding in the distance, stared at the scene with a face full of confusion.
He looked up at the sky. The glow of sunset still lingered, and it had only become slightly darker.
"These people are so powerful. Any one of them would rival a high-level Soul Ancestor, so why are they acting this terrified just because evening has come?"
Li Ziyang began to have doubts.
At this moment, he knew nothing of the terror of night in the Great Ruins.
When he had arrived, it had still been daylight, and unlike Wang Xiu, he had never personally encountered the monsters lurking in the darkness.
Nor could the explorers trapped in this situation communicate with one another. They had no idea how the previous participants had died.
As Li Ziyang watched the busy white-robed swordsmen, a bold idea suddenly emerged in his mind.
"Since these people can travel here by flying ship, they must be a major force in this world."
"They're urgently setting up camp right now. If I take the initiative to approach them and make acquaintance, then with my strength as a Soul Grandmaster and my noble etiquette, I might find myself a powerful patron in this higher-dimensional world."
With that thought, Li Ziyang straightened the somewhat wrinkled collar of his tailcoat and took a deep breath.
He felt that he had stumbled upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Then Li Ziyang stood up and strode out from behind the boulder. Wearing what he considered his most perfect noble smile, he walked toward the goateed old man.
At that moment, the final trace of sunlight sank below the horizon.
The darkness of the Great Ruins silently pressed in from every direction.
Li Ziyang adjusted the somewhat wrinkled collar of his tailcoat once more.
Then he took a deep breath, clasped his hands behind his back, and put on the reserved yet friendly smile that only nobles understood.
He stepped out from behind the massive boulder where he had been hiding.
"Ahem, friends who have traveled from afar, I am Li Ziyang of Heaven Dou Empire's Fasnuo—"
Li Ziyang had barely begun speaking, intending to use an elegant opening to introduce himself and establish ties with these powerful white-robed swordsmen.
But before he could finish, it felt as though something had clamped tightly around his throat.
The last ray of sunlight completely disappeared beneath the western horizon.
The sky went dark.
Night in the Great Ruins had never made sense. There was no transitional twilight, as though someone had suddenly covered the entire world with an enormous black cloth.
Li Ziyang's vision instantly became pitch-black.
Then came an eerie sensation.
"Activate the array! Activate it now!"
Several dozen meters ahead, the goateed old man saw this and immediately shouted.
Before you continue