Chapter 231: Layin formation
Containment Zone.
The moment the skill settled into his mind, it didn’t come as vague understanding or fragmented knowledge. It unfolded completely, like a fully written script being read aloud inside his consciousness.
Wang Chen stood still, absorbing it.
Not just the concept—
But its limits.
Its reach.
Its absolute nature.
Within the range of his divine sense, all forms of escape would become meaningless.
Not slowed.
Not hindered.
They would just not work.
The idea itself was simple.
Its implication...
Anything but.
Wang Chen exhaled slowly, the faint trace of surprise in his eyes fading into something more measured.
A class that had started as a joke—a Sweeper—had now produced something like this.
He couldn’t help but feel that the system had a twisted sense of humor.
Or perhaps—
He had simply underestimated it from the beginning.
After a moment, Wang Chen closed the window.
His consciousness shifted.
And in the next instant—
His eyes opened in the real world.
A quiet stillness filled the room, but the air itself seemed heavier.
More aware.
A faint solemnity settled over his expression.
Then—
His divine sense spread.
It didn’t explode outward violently.
It expanded smoothly, like an invisible tide rolling across the entire Phoenix and Dragon Dojo, slipping through walls, passing over courtyards, brushing against every presence within its reach.
In less than a breath—
Everything was within his perception.
Nothing escaped.
Not a single fluctuation.
Not a single hidden corner.
The world around him felt... contained.
Controlled.
As if it had quietly folded into his awareness.
Within that invisible sweep—
Ming Yao paused.
Her posture stiffened ever so slightly as she felt something pass over her.
Not oppressive.
Not intrusive.
But something that could not be stopped.
The same was true for Demon Queen Zi Han.
Neither of them resisted.
Neither of them questioned it.
Wang Chen made no attempt to hide his presence.
There was no need.
His gaze moved calmly, observing them for a brief moment before shifting away.
Then—
It settled elsewhere.
Li Mei’s quarters.
The door remained closed.
Wang Chen’s attention lingered there a little longer.
A thought surfaced.
He could call her out.
A simple action.
But he didn’t.
Instead, his brows lowered slightly, and he shook his head.
Ever since his luck had improved, something else had changed along with it.
His intuition.
It had grown sharper.
More sensitive to the subtle ripples of cause and effect.
Even without actively trying, he could feel it—
The faint currents of the future brushing against his awareness.
And right now—
Li Mei was at a critical point.
A delicate threshold.
One wrong interruption...
And everything she had worked toward could collapse.
Wang Chen had no intention of interfering.
Not when the stakes were this high.
Not when the outcome itself intrigued him.
After all—
He, too, wanted to see what would happen if she truly succeeded.
A Divine Golden Core.
The very thought was enough to hold his interest.
...
Elsewhere in the dojo—
Ming Yao stood quietly.
The moment Wang Chen’s divine sense brushed past her, a subtle change appeared on her face.
Her lips curved.
A small, almost unconscious smile formed.
But undeniably present.
A thought, slightly unreasonable, surfaced in her mind.
Is this... how he likes it?
Her fingers tightened slightly at her sides.
Since truly realizing the gap between herself and Wang Chen, something within her had shifted.
The impulsiveness from before had faded.
The forcefulness had disappeared.
But her intention—
Had not.
If before she pursued him for the sake of her family—
Now—
She wanted him for herself.
That desire had only grown stronger.
And the presence of Demon Queen Zi Han had only intensified it further.
It pushed her.
Drove her.
Every day, she trained harder.
Focused more.
Pushed herself closer to her limits.
Now—
She could feel it.
The threshold.
The next realm.
It was right there.
Waiting.
Just one step away.
After confirming there was no immediate threat, Wang Chen finally let out a quiet breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
The tension in his chest eased, but it did not disappear completely. It never did anymore. Not after what he had seen.
His fingers brushed lightly against the ring on his index finger, feeling the faint, steady pulse coming from it. The connection to the upper realm was there—solid, reliable—but not perfect.
There was a delay.
Just a few seconds.
Wang Chen’s gaze darkened slightly.
For an ordinary cultivator, a few seconds meant nothing. But for someone at the level of a Domain Sovereign... a single breath was enough to overturn heaven and earth.
A few seconds...
That was more than enough to erase everything.
The thought lingered in his mind, heavy and cold.
Then he let out a soft scoff.
"The world can burn if it wants..."
His voice was low, almost indifferent.
"But the Phoenix and Dragon Dojo stays."
There was no fluctuation in his tone.
No pride.
No arrogance.
Just certainty.
The kind that did not need to be proven.
With that thought settling firmly in place, Wang Chen slowly closed his eyes.
When they opened again, something within them had changed.
Focus.
Sharp.
Unwavering.
His divine sense spread out once more, but this time it did not expand freely like before. It condensed, refined, turning into something thin and precise—like a needle drawn from pure intent.
He raised his hand slightly.
The air in front of him trembled.
Then—
He began.
There was no light.
No grand display.
No overwhelming aura announcing his actions.
Yet the space itself started to shift.
Subtly.
Almost imperceptibly.
Wang Chen’s divine sense moved through the void, carving into the very fabric of space as if it were something tangible. Each movement left behind a mark—runes forming silently, embedding themselves deep within layers of reality where no ordinary perception could reach.
One after another.
Each rune precise.
Each placement deliberate.
There was no wasted motion.
No hesitation.
The structure slowly began to take shape—not in the visible world, but beneath it, like a hidden skeleton supporting everything above.
His intention was simple.
He was going to cover the entire Azure Dragon Continent.
Not with walls.
Not with barriers.
But with absence.
An Absolute Concealment Formation.
Something that did not block—
But erased.
Blurred.
Distorted the very idea of existence.
The ring on his finger pulsed faintly, acting as the core, anchoring the formation to something stable, something personal.
Of course, this was not his skill.
It could never reach that level.
What he was building now was only an imitation—an incomplete echo.
But even that...
Was terrifying.
To a certain extent, it would erase traces of the continent itself.
Not just in the present—
But across time.
Past impressions.
Lingering echoes.
Even the faintest recognition.
Wang Chen paused for a brief moment, his divine sense hovering at the edge of expansion.
For a second, a thought crossed his mind.
The entire Seven Cloud Convergence World...
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Then he shook his head.
Not yet.
Pushing further would only collapse the entire structure.
So he restrained himself.
Focused.
And continued.
Time passed.
Days blurred into nights, and nights into days, though such distinctions no longer mattered. Wang Chen did not rest. His mind remained immersed in the work, his divine sense weaving through space continuously, adjusting, refining, reinforcing.
Whenever something was lacking—
He simply reached into the impossible.
The Non-Existent Authority stirred again and again.
Rare materials appeared out of nothing, torn from a state that should not have allowed existence at all. Each one was immediately broken down, refined, and integrated seamlessly into the formation.
The process was relentless.
Uninterrupted.
Until finally—
One month later—
The last rune settled into place.
For a brief moment, everything stilled.
Even the chaotic flow of energy in the world seemed to pause.
Then—
A low hum spread outward.
Deep.
Resonant.
Wang Chen’s sea of consciousness surged.
A vast wave burst forth from him, not violent, but overwhelming in scale. It expanded instantly, sweeping across the entire Seven Cloud Convergence World in the blink of an eye.
There was no resistance.
No obstruction.
Wherever it passed—
Something slipped.
Something faded.
In cities, in mountains, in forgotten corners of the world—
People paused for the briefest moment.
A thought lost.
A name forgotten.
A place...
Gone.
Not destroyed.
Not erased from existence.
But removed from awareness.
From memory.
From understanding.
No one questioned it.
No one noticed the gap.
Because to them—
Nothing had changed.
There had never been anything missing.
Wang Chen stood silently as the wave completed its spread.
The formation settled.
Invisible.
Untouchable.
Perfectly hidden.
From that moment onward—
The Azure Dragon Continent no longer existed in the minds of the world.
There were no seven continents.
Only six.