As his words fell, Xiling struck out with his palm. There was no buildup to the strike, yet in an instant, the sense of time throughout the entire karst cave seemed to collapse.
The Demon Empress's pupils contracted sharply. She watched Xiling's palm enlarge before her eyes. It was clearly not fast, yet she could not evade it no matter what.
It was not a matter of speed. Space itself was contracting. Her body, her Soul Power, and her cultivation seemed to vanish completely in that instant, leaving only her consciousness.
"Boom—!"
Spatial turbulence erupted completely beneath that palm strike. Blue-white fragments of light surged backward like an overturned heavenly river, and the entire cave seemed to be torn apart from within by an invisible giant hand.
The ice collapsed, bloodwater poured back in, and a muffled roar came from deep underground, as though the entire Far North were groaning.
The Demon Empress was blasted backward, smashing through dozens of ice walls and rock layers behind her before finally becoming embedded in a slab of stone.
She had not died.
Instead, she slowly crawled out from the shattered rocks. Blood trickled from the corner of her lips, and her peerlessly beautiful face was now pale as paper.
The clothing over her chest had been shredded by the spatial turbulence, revealing the bloody flesh beneath.
"Is this the power of a god?" She raised a hand, wiping the blood from her lips, her voice hoarse.
"A god?" Xiling gave a soft laugh and pressed his palm down slightly. The Demon Empress felt as if an entire world were crushing down upon her, her bones letting out overwhelmed groans.
"Gods are merely creatures who have mastered greater power."
"I know you have already begun secretly reconstructing the Blood River God-Slaying Array. Finish