The Mysterious Expert

Xing Yao's mouth twitched on the spot, leaving him utterly speechless.

He looked cold, aloof, and imposing, intimidating everyone present. Who could have imagined that his telepathic messages could be so obnoxious and mischievous?

At that moment, the square fell into utter silence.

Lin Chen and Lin Yue stared wide-eyed, their bodies still trembling slightly, disbelief written all over their faces.

The students who had just escaped death gaped, forgetting even to breathe.

The white-clad members of the Cloud-Soaring Squad, including their captain, Qin Lie, froze in place, their eyes filled with overwhelming shock.

Everyone was shaken to the core-

No one knew

that this mysterious expert who had suddenly torn through space, rescued Xing Yao and all the students with a single Teleportation, and overwhelmed everyone with his presence...

was actually Xing Yao's clone!

Now, amid the deathly silence, only the Red Lotus Demon General's furious roars remained.

Looking at the imposing yet secretly showy clone before him, Xing Yao could only feel helpless.

Meanwhile, at the back of the crowd, Qin Lie, captain of the white-clad Cloud-Soaring Squad, frowned deeply. His gaze stayed fixed on the figure wearing the Great King mask, his heart filled with extreme bewilderment and suspicion.

Without betraying anything, he quietly released a faint thread of mental power, tentatively probing the other party's cultivation tier.

The next instant, Qin Lie froze.

A Second Tier awakener... only a Second Tier awakener?!

His pupils contracted sharply at the result, tempestuous waves surging through his heart. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.

With Second Tier cultivation, how could he possess such terrifying spatial power?

How could he instantly save so many people from the Red Lotus Demon General's killing blow?

How could he radiate such overwhelming might and pressure the moment he appeared?

Qin Lie had fought for many years and seen countless experts battle above their level, yet he had never encountered anyone so outrageous, so contrary to common sense.

With the strength of a Second Tier awakener, he had displayed terrifying combat power of at least level five, perhaps even level six!

Filled with confusion, he stared at the masked figure with a complicated look, countless questions churning wildly in his heart.

Who exactly was this person?

Why had he suddenly appeared?

Why did his strength bear no relation to his level?

But with the battlefield before him and powerful enemies all around, Qin Lie ultimately suppressed all his curiosity and doubts.

He did not approach to ask questions, make a sound, or reveal that he had probed the stranger. He merely withdrew his mental power silently and continued watching the battlefield warily without a word.

Seeing its strike miss, the Red Lotus Demon General erupted with a fury that threatened to ignite the entire sky. Its scarlet eyes locked onto the clone wearing the Great King mask, and the Red Lotus Karmic Fire surrounding it suddenly swelled severalfold. Black-and-red flames surged like a tide, scorching even the air until it hissed strangely.

It stomped hard enough to shatter the void. When its enormous foot landed, countless savage cracks instantly split the square, and lava-like liquid fire spurted from the fissures. Its terrifying pressure bore down like a mountain, leaving everyone struggling to breathe.

"Lowly ant, you dare stand in my way!"

Its deafening roar reverberated through heaven and earth. No longer holding back, the Red Lotus Demon General swiftly brought its hands together before its chest, forming a gigantic flaming saber dozens of meters long, burning all over with Red Lotus Karmic Fire. Before the blade even fell, its searing heat waves had already melted and curled the paving stones.

Everyone's hearts leaped into their throats.

Lin Chen and Lin Yue were deathly pale, their abilities almost completely exhausted. They could only watch helplessly as that heaven-destroying, earth-shattering slash descended upon the clone.

Every white-clad member of the Cloud-Soaring Squad tensed. Qin Lie raised a hand, signaling the entire team to prepare to charge, but he knew that against an attack of this caliber, they would only be throwing their lives away.

Standing behind the clone, Xing Yao's gaze suddenly sharpened. He was about to summon his Origin power and move forward to support him when a telepathic message from the clone stopped him.

"Stay put and watch this great king perform."

His tone was as obnoxious and nonchalant as ever, but his movements showed not the slightest hesitation.

The clone wearing the Great King mask slowly raised his right hand and casually tapped a fingertip against the void.

Humm-!

The entire space instantly twisted violently. Countless transparent spatial barriers unfolded in overlapping layers before him, like the sturdiest crystal walls, shutting out every approaching heat wave and all the pressure.

Roaring furiously, the Red Lotus Demon General swung its saber down. Carrying the power to incinerate everything, the gigantic flaming saber crashed savagely into the spatial barriers!

BOOM-!!

An earth-shaking explosion erupted, its shock wave sweeping in every direction. An entire layer of ground was sheared away from the square's center, billowing dust surged skyward, and countless fragments of rock and showers of fire scattered outward.

Yet, to everyone's horror, those seemingly fragile spatial barriers did not budge at all!

The Red Lotus Demon General's all-out strike had not even touched the hem of the clone's clothes.

"That's all the strength you have? And you dare run your mouth before this great king?"

The clone scoffed, making no effort to hide his mockery. A telepathic message slipped into Xing Yao's mind. "Watch closely, main body. Let me show you what true spatial control looks like."

As his words fell, the clone rapidly formed seals with both hands, and the spatial power around him erupted to its utmost limit!

An enormous spatial rift split open in the void beneath his feet. A terrifying devouring force poured from within, forcibly dragging in even the karmic fire surrounding the Red Lotus Demon General, which vanished without a trace in an instant.

Then the clone flicked a finger. Dozens of incomparably sharp spatial blades shot out like a torrential downpour, each moving at extreme speed and precisely slicing into the Red Lotus Demon General's scales and joints.

Shhk, shhk, shhk-!

Its indestructible demonic scales were easily sliced apart, and black-and-red demonic blood gushed out. The Red Lotus Demon General let out a shrill scream, its massive body retreating repeatedly as a trace of fear finally appeared in its eyes.

It could not understand how this seemingly insignificant human before it could possess such terrifying power.

The clone gave it no chance to catch its breath. His figure flickered, and he vanished from where he stood.

The next second, he was already above the Red Lotus Demon General's head, his Great King mask gleaming coldly in the firelight.

"It's over, scum."

The clone raised both hands high. In the void, a gigantic blade of light formed from pure spatial power, faint lightning and flames coiling around it. These were an extension of Xing Yao's Origin power, powerful enough to tear through anything.

Terrified beyond measure, the Red Lotus Demon General frantically summoned all the Red Lotus Karmic Fire in its body to defend itself, but it was already too late.

The spatial blade of light crashed down!

There was no earth-shaking crash, only a faint slicing sound.

The Red Lotus Demon General's massive body was cleaved straight in two, from the crown of its head to the soles of its feet!

The fiercely burning Red Lotus Karmic Fire instantly went out. Its demonic core was ground to ash by the spatial power, and its enormous body slammed heavily into the ground, utterly lifeless.

The Red Lotus Demon General that had ravaged the battlefield had been slain in a single strike!

The entire square fell deathly silent.

Everyone stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the scene before them, their minds utterly blank.

That terrifying monster, which had just been destroying heaven and earth with no one able to stop it, had actually been effortlessly killed in an instant by this mysterious expert wearing a Great King mask?

Lin Chen's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground, disbelief written all over his face.

Lin Yue covered her mouth, her eyes filled with shock and awe.

The white-clad members of the Cloud-Soaring Squad all stood frozen. Qin Lie's hand trembled slightly around his battle blade. He checked once more: the stranger truly was only a Second Tier awakener, yet this combat power had already exceeded the bounds of his understanding.

Xing Yao let out a long breath of relief, his taut body relaxing completely as the exhaustion of surviving a catastrophe swept through him. He sent the clone a telepathic message. "It's over... thank goodness you came."

The clone slowly landed and turned toward Xing Yao, still looking majestic and insufferably arrogant. Yet his telepathic message was so obnoxious it made one want to hit him. "Well, main body? Wasn't this great king handsome? Don't be so reckless next time, or I'll have to come all this way to save you again."

Xing Yao rolled his eyes helplessly, not bothering to respond.

Just then, the spatial rift in the sky began rapidly shrinking and closing. Without the demon general's command, the remaining monsters instantly fell apart and fled in all directions.

Seeing this, the Cloud-Soaring Squad immediately led the charge, working with the students who could still fight to clear the battlefield and slay the remaining monsters one by one.

The smoke gradually dispersed, and a brief calm finally returned to the bloodstained square.

Sunlight pierced the clouds and spilled over the earth, illuminating the devastation strewn across the ground, as well as that white-clad figure wearing a Great King mask.

No one knew his name, no one knew where he came from, and certainly no one knew that he was merely one of Xing Yao's clones.

All anyone knew was that this mysterious expert had saved them all from a desperate situation, slain the terrifying Red Lotus Demon General, and brought this devastating crisis to an end.

Qin Lie led the Cloud-Soaring Squad over to the clone and bowed slightly in greeting, his voice filled with respect. "Thank you for saving us. The Cloud-Soaring Squad will forever remember this kindness."

The clone merely nodded faintly without speaking, maintaining the air of a cold, aloof expert. In secret, however, he barraged Xing Yao with telepathic messages. "Look, main body! They're all worshipping me. Doesn't this give you serious face?"

Xing Yao's mouth twitched, and he chose to ignore this drama queen of a clone.

With the crisis completely over, the surviving students embraced each other and wept, the joy of escaping death filling every heart.

The smell of blood gradually faded from the square, and hope once again settled over this land.

After confirming that all danger had been eliminated, the figure wearing the Great King mask trembled slightly, then slowly turned into a streak of light and merged into Xing Yao's body.

Everyone merely felt their vision blur, and the mysterious expert vanished into thin air, as though he had never appeared.

All that remained was the devastation strewn across the ground, and the shock in everyone's hearts that would never fade.