Terrifying Mental Power and Time Manipulation

The moment the system's mechanical female voice vanished, Chen Xu, who was about to be caught by the taxi driver, felt a cool sensation flood his mind.

Seeing the thick wooden stick in his field of vision about to strike him, Chen Xu instinctively raised a hand to block it. At the same time, a thought moved through his mind, and everything instantly froze. Terrifying mental power surged from his mind, crashing aimlessly in every direction.

Because most of Chen Xu's mental power was focused on the taxi driver and his wooden stick, the two of them suffered the worst of it.

Ordinary people could not see the terrifying mental power. It instantly crushed the wooden stick and sent the taxi driver flying. By the time he hit the ground, he was completely still. His soul had been crushed outright.

The remaining people were unable to move under Chen Xu's terrifying mental power. They could not even maintain normal thought, as though time had stopped and frozen them in place.

Chen Xu took several deep breaths, calming the panic and exhaustion from his recent escape, then began curiously examining the people who stood motionless like statues.

He walked up to a burly man and kicked him, only to find that the man did not move or react at all.

Chen Xu was extremely excited. This ability was pretty powerful!

Chen Xu was very satisfied with the ability he had gained by risking his life, but a problem now stood before him. "How do I take it back?"

When Chen Xu thought about withdrawing it, the burly men who had been standing still like statues instantly returned to normal.

It was as though nothing had happened. Whatever the pedestrians had been doing before, they were still doing now.

For example, the two burly men and the taxi driver's two lackeys had been glaring at him menacingly before, and they were still glaring at him menacingly now.

"Hey, where's Boss? Where did he go?"

The driver's two lackeys immediately noticed something was wrong. Their boss had nearly caught that kid just now and was about to break his leg, yet now he had vanished.

"Boss, where are you?"

The other lackey saw the taxi driver lying motionless some distance away and instantly ran over to curry favor. "Boss, why are you lying here without moving?"

"Boss?"

The lackey shook him. Seeing that his boss had no reaction at all and looked like a corpse, the other lackey and the two burly men gave up surrounding Chen Xu and went over to see what had happened.

Chen Xu seized the opportunity. Perfect. Time to get out of here.

He walked straight onto the street and slipped away.

At the summit of the Himalayas stood Kamar-Taj, the legendary holy land of magic.

A bald man sensed a terrifying wave of mental power, and a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes.

That was right. This bald man was the renowned Sorcerer Supreme, Ancient One.

He then turned to look as three sorcerers approached his door together.

"Supreme Sorcerer."

The three sorcerers first bowed to Ancient One. Drumm, the astonished sorcerer from the New York Sanctum, asked, "Do you know what happened with that powerful wave of mental energy just now?"

"I don't."

Ancient One shook his head. "You felt it too?"

"I don't think it was just us. Even creatures from other dimensions must have sensed that powerful mental energy."

"We just don't know whether the owner of that astonishing power is friend or foe."

"Was this incident a warning, or something else?" asked another Sanctum sorcerer from the London Sanctum.

"The mental power erupted in Kathmandu."

Ancient One smiled as he looked at the sorcerers, who had always been calm in the past but were now visibly tense. "Let's go take a look together."

Ancient One then directly opened the Mirror Dimension and arrived at Jagannath Temple in Kathmandu.

Watching a doctor repeatedly examine the taxi driver's corpse without finding any cause of death, Ancient One and the three sorcerers could not help but change expression.

"This mental power is far too strong."

A sorcerer crouched down and observed the taxi driver's lifeless eyes for a while. "His soul was completely destroyed."

The Sanctum sorcerer from London shook his head. "This person is far too brutal."

Without relying on any external force, he had directly destroyed him with the most fundamental form of mental power.

"Too terrifying."

"Have you noticed a detail?"

As the guardian of the Time Stone, Ancient One had a special understanding of time and noticed something the three sorcerers had failed to observe. "Time in the surrounding area was stopped for a period."

"Time?"

Hearing Ancient One's words, the other sorcerers were incredibly shocked. Fortunately, they were in the Mirror Dimension, so it would not affect anyone else.

"Yes. A great power—time."

Ancient One used magic, intending to reverse time and see what had happened in the past. Yet he found that time, which had once run as mechanically as clockwork, had become abnormally violent. Even Ancient One, with the Time Stone, could not control it.

"It seems another extraordinary existence has appeared in this world. Even the future can no longer be seen clearly."

At that moment, Chen Xu, who had already run several blocks away, sneezed.

"Who's talking about me?"

Chen Xu rubbed his nose. "Could someone be cursing me?"

"That shouldn't be possible. I'm the kind of person nobody could recognize even if I were thrown into the middle of the street. No one should notice me."

"But now that I'm in Kathmandu, wouldn't it be a waste not to visit Kamar-Taj?"

Only then did Chen Xu remember this. After all, Ancient One is there. If I hang around behind him and play a supporting role, my life will at least be guaranteed!

"And this terrifying mental power can't go to waste either!"

Recalling the scene of using that terrifying mental power just now, Chen Xu had an idea. "Don't sorcerers all need mental power? My mental power is so strong. If I became a sorcerer..."

Thinking of himself with flames in his left hand, ice in his right, and robes flowing around him, Chen Xu could not help grinning foolishly.

"Ding. A new check-in mission has been announced."

"Please proceed to Kamar-Taj as soon as possible to check in and receive a system reward."

Hearing the system's female-sounding but emotionless mechanical voice, Chen Xu was delighted.

"Just what I needed."

He had still been hesitating, but now that the system had issued a mission, he might as well go.

He left immediately without any hesitation.

Following the same route, Chen Xu returned to the temple.

Chen Xu hid among the crowd of onlookers, watching the taxi driver who had been struck by his mental power and the two burly men threatening the doctor, then gave a contemptuous snort.

That contemptuous snort was heard by Ancient One and the other sorcerers, who were hidden in the Mirror Dimension.

"This person seems to have some connection to the deceased?"

"And judging from his appearance, he seems to know full well about this person's death. He isn't shocked at all, as though it was entirely expected."

"Could he be the one who caused that person's death?"

"He has traces of time on him."

"Only those who have controlled time would leave residual traces of time on their bodies. Could the person bearing that mark be him?"

"Probably."

"Judging by him, it seems he has something else to do. Let's keep an eye on him for now."

"Enough. You should return," Ancient One said, interrupting the sorcerers' conversation.

He then turned to look at them. "The safety of Earth rests on your shoulders."

The sorcerers also knew what they bore. If anything happened to the Sanctums they guarded, the consequences would be unimaginable.

They exchanged glances, then each returned to his own Sanctum to continue protecting Earth.