At the same moment that the Sun Moon and Moon teams and Shrek were about to engage in their final showdown at the arena on the eastern outskirts of Mingdu.
Western suburbs of Mingdu, West Mountain.
Xuan Zi's tall figure hovered in mid-air, his sharp eyes like those of a hawk, carefully scanning the rolling mountains below.
The terrain of West Mountain is not particularly steep, but it is Ye Mao, and crisscrossed by ravines, covering a rather vast area.
His powerful Divine Power, like an invisible tide, spread outwards from him, carefully sensing every inch of land and every tree, not letting go of any suspicious trace or abnormal energy fluctuation.
However, just as he was fully focused, something unexpected happened!
Not far ahead, in the mountains and forests, a grayish-white mist had quietly begun to rise.
The fog was initially thin, but it quickly thickened, churning and surging like a living thing, rapidly obscuring the view and shrouding large swathes of forest in a hazy mist.
"Um?"
Xuan Zi frowned, displeased that his view was obstructed.
Out of caution, he maneuvered himself and slowly descended from the air, landing on the ground with both feet.
But the moment he landed, his expression suddenly changed!
He was horrified to discover that it wasn't just his view that was obstructing him!
His immense Divine Power, which was originally enough to easily cover a range of a thousand meters, was as if it had sunk into an invisible quagmire the moment it came into contact with this strange mist. It was greatly suppressed and bound, becoming extremely stagnant!
At this moment, the effective detection range of his Divine Power was forcibly compressed to less than ten meters around him!
"This fog... something's strange!"
Xuan Zi's mind went on high alert, and his expression became extremely grave.
He knew better than anyone how powerful his Divine Power was as a Level 98 Super Douluo; ordinary mist could never produce such a terrifying suppressive effect.
This sudden appearance of mist over the West Mountain is definitely not a natural formation!
A strong sense of foreboding instantly seized his mind.
Xuan Zi sensed something was wrong and made a quick decision. He turned around abruptly, intending to rush out of this strange white mist area along the same route.
His immense Soul Power erupted suddenly, and he bent his legs slightly, ready to take off again!
However, just a few dozen meters off the ground, he felt as if the entire sky was pressing down on him!
An invisible yet terrifying pressure, as heavy as a mountain, descended from the sky, striking his entire body and forcefully pressing his rapidly ascending figure back to the ground, his feet even leaving two shallow craters in the ground.
Even flying is restricted?!
Xuan Zi's face instantly turned extremely ugly, and the ominous premonition in his heart almost materialized.
He quickly glanced at the swirling, seemingly endless gray-white mist around him, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
Since flying isn't allowed, then we'll just have to fight our way out on foot!
"Drink!"
He let out a low roar, his muscles suddenly bulged, and powerful Soul Power shone through his body, indicating that he had completed the Martial Soul Possession!
The next moment, he suddenly exerted force with his feet, and the hard ground cracked instantly. He was like an arrow of Destruction released from a bow, rushing headlong towards the direction he had come from!
With the blessing of his Martial Soul, he seemed to transform into a true "Invincible Destroyer"!
Whether it was dense bushes, thick trees, or jagged rocks, all obstacles blocking his straight path were utterly crushed and reduced to dust the moment they came into contact with the layer of violent Soul Power surrounding his body!
Boom boom boom boom...!
A series of deafening explosions echoed through the West Mountain. Wherever he went, he carved out a "vacuum" passage filled with debris in the most savage and direct way!
Nothing could stop him from breaking through at this moment!
Suddenly, Xuan Zi abruptly stopped running, the powerful momentum carving two deep grooves into the ground beneath his feet.
His chest rose and fell slightly, not from exhaustion, but from a gradually rising, chilling sense of dread.
He roughly estimated that, given his almost insane running speed, half an hour would be enough to traverse the entire West Mountain area. Logically, he should have already reached the western suburbs of Mingdu and even seen the outline of the city!
But right now...
All around remained the same deathly, swirling, gray-white fog, confining visibility to a suffocatingly narrow area.
The ground beneath my feet was still rugged mountain forest, and the texture of the grass and trees was exactly the same as before.
He seemed... seemed to have been wandering deep within the West Mountain the whole time, never even truly breaking out of the Core Zone of this mountain range!
A chill crept up my spine.
"But... how is this possible?!"
Xuan Zi stopped blindly charging around. He forced himself to calm down, slowed his pace to an extremely low level, and moved slowly while engaging all his senses.
Half an hour passed in the deathly silence.
Suddenly, he stopped abruptly, his pupils contracted sharply, and he stared intently ahead...
There stood a colossal tree that required several people to encircle, but now it lay broken and splintered on the ground, as if crushed by a violent force.
And the mark at the break, the faint ripples of Soul Power dissipating...
He clearly destroyed it himself half an hour ago to clear a path!
In an instant, a chilling cold, like countless fine needles, shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, making his blood feel as if it were about to freeze!
"Really... just going around in circles..."
The thick fog obstructing the view, the suppressed Divine Power, the imprisoned ability to fly, and this West Mountain from which there is no way out...
All of this intertwined into a web of despair he had never seen before and could not comprehend, trapping him, a Level 98 Super Douluo, within it!
The confidence that was originally based on absolute strength melted away rapidly, like ice and snow under the Yangguang.
Instead, an uncontrollable feeling called panic began to grow and spread wildly in his heart.
He recalled Cai Mei'er's worried reminders and admonitions from yesterday, and the mysterious, elusive messenger...
Now it seems that this was clearly a carefully crafted poisoned bait to lure him in!
Although he hasn't seen a single enemy yet, this unknown and invisible constraint makes him feel more apprehensive and powerless than facing a ferocious Limit Douluo!
He would rather have a powerful opponent appear right now, and fight a real battle than be like this, being played like a caged beast, unable to even touch the hem of his enemy's clothes!
He regretted it.
I regret being so stubborn, and why I let my pride and old grudges cloud my judgment.
If... if I had listened to Mei'er's advice yesterday and informed Kong Deming of the Sun Moon Worship Hall...
Given the opponent's expertise in spatial manipulation, they might be able to break this current "deadlock."
Moreover, even if Kong Deming's spatial abilities couldn't escape from here, being trapped along with his hated enemy would at least give him some peace of mind.
However, what Xuan Zi didn't know was that in this white mist, in another area of West Mountain, Kong Deming, whom he was "thinking about" all the time, was also trapped in this white mist.