The Floating Formation Plate showed its might! Now this was a real fucking Noah's Ark!

Watching the numbers soar, Lin Bei did not forget what he had to do.

Holding the man, he lightly tapped his toes against the flying sword.

The flying sword carried them both straight down toward the rescue air cushion the firefighters had already laid out below.

When they were still a few meters above the ground, he let go.

The man slammed squarely into the center of the rescue cushion, bounced high, then landed heavily again.

Though he had passed out, at least his life had been saved.

The firefighters below let out a long breath and hurried forward to carry him off.

Just then, a continuous series of screams suddenly came from high up in the building.

Lin Bei looked up.

From the thirtieth floor upward, the glass curtain wall had long since shattered under the terrifying heat.

Thick smoke billowed from the windows, and scarlet tongues of flame had already reached the thirty-fifth floor.

On the rooftop and beside the windows, the dense crowds of trapped people could no longer endure the roasting heat.

They had clearly witnessed Lin Bei catching a falling man with his bare hands.

Under extreme despair and panic, human reason simply ceased to exist.

Several middle-aged men and women driven into a corner by the flames looked at Lin Bei hovering in midair as though they had seen a living bodhisattva who could deliver them from suffering.

They actually climbed onto the completely unprotected windowsills, spread their arms, and closed their eyes, ready to jump!

"Immortal! Catch me!"

"Help!"

Lin Bei's face darkened.

He was only at the Qi Refining Second Layer now. He could catch one or two, but if a dozen people jumped at once, he could not catch them all even if he sprouted eight hands.

Do you really think I'm a human trampoline?

I can't let them jump.

Lin Bei sharply drew in a breath of true qi, and the spiritual power in his dantian surged through his meridians into his throat.

"All of you, stay put!"

"Get back to the middle of the rooftop! I'm coming up to get you right now!"

His voice carried the intimidating spiritual resonance unique to cultivators.

It was not loud, yet it was as though an invisible bronze bell had thundered deep inside the mind of every trapped person.

Those on the rooftop who had been about to jump felt their ears ring from the shock, their minds instantly clearing considerably.

That crazed impulse to survive was forcibly suppressed.

They scrambled down from the wall and huddled in the middle of the rooftop, gazing eagerly at the dark figure in midair.

With the rooftop situation stabilized, Lin Bei wasted no more time.

He pushed hard with his feet.

Trailing an azure streak, the iron sword shot straight toward the thirtieth floor, where the fire burned most fiercely!

The crowd watching below had barely breathed a sigh of relief when the sight sent their hearts leaping into their throats again.

"What's he doing?! He's charging into the fire!"

"That's the thirtieth floor! Where the fire started!"

"Those flames look terrifying even from here! It must be at least a thousand degrees inside. Even steel would melt. How can he go in there and survive?"

The livestream's barrage of comments boiled over even more violently.

"Sword Immortal, don't be reckless! You can't throw away your own life to save people!"

"Even helicopters won't dare approach a fire like that, and he's taking it head-on with his body? I don't believe it!"

Tens of millions of eyes stared fixedly at their screens.

Without showing the slightest intention of slowing down, the black-clad figure smashed straight through the last remaining pane of the thirtieth floor's glass curtain wall.

Crash!

Shattered glass burst outward amid tongues of flame.

Lin Bei's figure was instantly swallowed by the sea of fire.

Inside the thirtieth floor was another world entirely.

What had once been an upscale dining area had now become a veritable inferno.

The black smoke was as thick as ink, so choking that it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.

Decorative materials on the ceiling crackled as they burned, and flaming wooden boards occasionally crashed down.

The air was outrageously hot; even breathing felt like scraping the throat with knives.

The moment Lin Bei charged inside, he felt as though every hair on his body was about to catch fire.

"Fucking hell, you wouldn't even need to turn a sweet potato over to roast it in here."

Lin Bei cursed and activated his dantian without hesitation.

A faint azure membrane of light emerged against the surface of his clothes, instantly shutting out the terrifying heat and lethal smoke.

Flames licked against the azure light, but not even a spark could get through.

Visibility within the fire was practically zero. His naked eyes were useless.

Lin Bei simply closed his eyes and spread his Qi Refining Second Layer divine sense without holding anything back.

Every movement within a hundred-meter radius instantly appeared in his mind like a 3D projection.

Twenty-six people in total.

They were scattered throughout the corners of the private dining rooms and restrooms.

Most had already suffocated and fallen unconscious from inhaling too much toxic smoke, while a few were huddled together waiting to die.

Carry them out one by one?

That would take until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.

Lin Bei turned his wrist and took another treasure from his storage ring.

[Floating Formation Plate].

The thing looked like a dark, dingy compass, covered in intricate formation patterns.

Lin Bei injected a stream of spiritual power into the plate and casually tossed it into the air.

Humm-

The formation plate spun once in midair, then abruptly erupted in a burst of white light.

Immediately afterward, an enormous transparent air cushion a full ten meters across appeared out of thin air, hovering steadily half a meter above the floor.

A faint halo flowed over its surface. It looked soft, yet exuded an indestructible solidity.

"Time to work."

Standing on his flying sword, Lin Bei rapidly formed seals with both hands.

He drove his Qi Refining Second Layer spiritual power to its limit.

Guided by his divine sense, several invisible tendrils of spiritual power slipped precisely into the burning private rooms.

"Rise!"

Lin Bei gave a low shout.

Amid the wreckage, a fat chef pinned beneath a collapsed table flew into the air, table and all, and landed securely on the transparent air cushion.

Next came a mother and daughter huddled together in a restroom.

Then several servers who had passed out from the smoke at the end of the corridor.

One figure after another was scooped up as though by an invisible giant hand and tossed onto the Floating Formation Plate like dumplings dropped into a pot.

The entire process took less than three minutes.

All twenty-six trapped people, without a single one missing, were neatly arranged by Lin Bei in a pile in the center of the cushion.

The Floating Formation Plate's original load limit was one ton, and these twenty-odd people already far exceeded it.

A teeth-grating creak came from the edge of the formation plate, and its light dimmed considerably.

"Hang in there, buddy. Don't drop the ball on me now."

Lin Bei gritted his teeth and poured every last bit of spiritual power remaining inside him into the formation plate, forcibly stabilizing the formation on the verge of collapse.

"Go!"

The flying sword beneath his feet turned. Guiding the enormous Floating Formation Plate remotely with his left hand, he charged straight toward the floor-to-ceiling window he had smashed through earlier.

Outside the building.

Time ticked by, second after second.

A full five minutes had passed since the black-clad sword immortal charged into the fire.

The flames on the thirtieth floor showed no sign of weakening. Instead, they burned ever more fiercely.

The crowd below was frighteningly quiet.

Not a single person spoke. Everyone stared fixedly at that shattered window, not even daring to blink.

The commander gripped his radio so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.

"It's over... He's been in there so long. Something must have happened..." a young firefighter choked out, his eyes reddening.

In the livestream, the flood of comments slowed as well.

The hearts of tens of millions of viewers sank little by little.

Just when everyone thought there would be no more miracles.

A dazzling burst of azure light suddenly erupted from the shattered window on the thirtieth floor.

Then a violent blast of air shot out, carrying sparks with it.

Under everyone's gaze.

The man in the black hoodie shot out of the towering sea of flames, riding that unsharpened iron sword!

Completely unscathed!

Not even a corner of his clothes had been singed!

But that was not the most astonishing part.

What truly made their scalps tingle was the thing behind him.

An enormous transparent air cushion ten meters across, like a Noah's Ark sailing through the sky, hovered steadily a hundred meters above the ground as he guided it remotely.

Twenty or thirty people lay sprawled across the cushion.

A few had already awakened in the cool air outside and were leaning over the edge of the transparent cushion, staring at the countless lights below in utter bewilderment.

The entire scene fell deathly silent.

A full ten seconds passed.

Someone started clapping.

Immediately afterward, deafening applause and cheers erupted beneath the World Trade Center.

"He's out! He brought them out!"

"Holy shit! What is that thing? A flying carpet?!"

"Now that's a real fucking Noah's Ark! The sword immortal is fucking awesome!"

The commander ripped off his cap, tears spilling from his eyes in his excitement, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Quick! Medical team, get ready! Get the air cushions ready!"

In midair.

Several people who had awakened on the Floating Formation Plate finally understood their current situation.

Looking at the back of the man ahead, standing on a flying sword and shielding them from all the flames and toxic smoke, their tears instantly poured down.

An older woman dropped straight to her knees on the transparent cushion and, heedless of everything else, kowtowed three times toward Lin Bei's back with resounding thumps.

"A living bodhisattva! Thank you for saving our lives, living bodhisattva!"

With someone taking the lead, the other conscious people also knelt, kowtowing as they cried.

The sight sent a tingling across the scalps of both the crowd below and the viewers in the livestream.

The livestream's barrage of comments instantly erupted on an unprecedented scale.

Tens of millions of people typed on their keyboards at the same time.

Across the entire screen, densely packed and overlapping, only a single phrase remained.

"The sword immortal descends, his merits boundless!"

"The sword immortal descends, his merits boundless!"

In Lin Bei's mind, the system notifications had already merged into an unbroken stream, refusing to stop.

Ding! Sensation Points +50,000!

Ding! Sensation Points +100,000!

Ding! Sensation Points +300,000!

The string of digits representing his sensation points was soaring at a frenzied pace.