Chapter 163 - 162: A Firefly Defying the Sun
The shattered remnants of the Phantasm Veil Pendant drifted to the floor like glittering, dying embers.
For three long breaths, the Apex of the Celestial Summit Palace was plunged into a silence so absolute it felt as though the flow of time itself had been severed. Thousands of the Zhao Province’s most elite cultivators stared down at the center, their minds struggling to bridge the gap between the weeping Saintess they had just pitied, and the lanky, terrified male disciple now kneeling in her robes.
Then, the reality of the deception broke, as low murmur of disbelief rapidly swelled into a deafening roar of outrage and speculation.
"An illusion!"
"The Senior Disciple of the Pure Cloud Sect orchestrated a false testimony!"
"He paraded a boy in women’s robes to fool us!"
The sheer audacity of the crime sent shockwaves through the political elite of the province. To frame a junior was a common, dirty tactic. But to falsify the testimony of a Saintess in front of the Provincial Lord, the Sect Ancestor, and the gathered elite was political suicide.
In the center of the floor, Mu Tianyang staggered backward. His composure had utterly disintegrated. His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps, his eyes wide with a frantic, cornered panic. He looked at the trembling disciple on the floor, then at the shattered artifact, and finally at Lin Yuan, who stood before him with the casual, terrifying indifference of a lion judging an insect.
How? Mu Tianyang’s mind screamed, his spiritual sea boiling with chaotic, conflicting energies. The Phantasm Veil is flawless! Even Patriarch Yun did not see through it! How did a mere Nascent Soul cultivator shatter it with a single glance?!
Before Mu Tianyang could attempt to formulate a lie to save his life, the space behind him violently warped.
"INSOLENCE!"
A roar of pure fury erupted from the ranks of the Pure Cloud delegation.
Elder Yan, Mu Tianyang’s Dao Protector, launched himself from the eastern terrace. The old man’s face was twisted into a mask of rage. He knew the truth. He had been present in the garden when the trap was formed. But his loyalty was not to the abstract concept of justice; his absolute loyalty was to Mu Tianyang, the future of his sect.
With Mu Tianyang’s reputation crumbling into ash, Elder Yan made the only choice remaining to a cornered beast: eliminate the accuser and muddy the waters.
"Demonic arts!" Elder Yan bellowed, projecting his voice to drown out the crowd, desperately weaving a fabricated narrative on the fly. "You dare use demonic illusion arts to alter the appearance of our Saintess and frame the Senior Disciple?! Die, you vile!"
Elder Yan did not hold back. He ignited his Nascent Soul, burning a century’s worth of cultivation in a single strike.
He thrust both of his hands forward, executing the sect’s most devastating lethal technique: the Azure Cloud Annihilation Palm.
The ambient spiritual Qi in the amphitheater was violently sucked into a localized vacuum. Above Lin Yuan, a massive, thirty-foot palm materialized, its surface covered in runes that pulsed with terrifying power. The pressure radiating from the palm was so immense that the surrounding space warped beneath it, while the stone beneath Lin Yuan’s feet began to crack under the sheer force.
The palm descended with the speed of a falling meteor, aimed directly at the crown of Lin Yuan’s head, intending to obliterate both him and Bai Chen in one brutal strike.
The crowd screamed, many throwing up defensive barriers, fully expecting the Lin Yuan to be flattened into a bloody mist by the elder’s attack.
Lin Yuan did not run. He merely lifted his gaze, his deep purple eyes locking onto the descending palmstrike.
"A firefly attempting to burn the sun," Lin Yuan whispered.
He released his grip on the Great Tortoise Breath art by a single fraction.
He did not unleash the full might of his Spirit Severing realm, for doing so would have instantly injured Bai Chen that was near him. Instead, he channeled a thread of his Thunder Rain Dao Intent, weaving it directly into the ambient pressure of his Qi.
Wooooom!
The descending Azure Cloud Annihilation Palm froze dead in mid-air, a mere three feet above Lin Yuan’s head.
Elder Yan, hovering in the sky above the strike, suddenly let out a strangled gasp. The violent, rushing torrent of his Nascent Soul Qi abruptly stopped, as if his meridians had been instantly injected with liquid iron.
Lin Yuan raised his right hand, his flawless fingers pointing casually toward the frozen palmstrike.
He flicked his index finger.
CRACK-BOOOOM!
The thirty-foot palmstrike shattered into a million fragments of glowing dust, completely annihilated by a conceptual weight that defied mortal understanding.
The backlash of the shattered technique slammed back into Elder Yan. The old man vomited a massive mouthful of blood, his body violently hurled backward out of the sky. He crashed onto the floor, tumbling like a broken ragdoll until he slammed into the base of the terraces.
Silence slammed back down over the amphitheater, thicker and more terrifying than before.
The assembled elites stared in shock. A Nascent Soul elder, not just any, but a veteran who had cultivated for centuries, had unleashed his ultimate killing blow, and the mysterious guest had shattered it with a casual flick of his finger.
The entire amphitheater erupted immediately.
"What did I just see?!"
"He destroyed the Azure Cloud Annihilation Palm with one finger!"
"That was Elder Yan’s strongest killing technique!"
"How is this possible?!"
"He didn’t even use a proper technique!"
The voices crashed together into a deafening wave.
Some cultivators had instinctively risen from their seats, their faces pale with disbelief. Others stared at Lin Yuan as though they were seeing him for the first time.
Just moments ago, many had still regarded him as an unusually mysterious Nascent Soul cultivator.
Now, that assumption was beginning to crumble.
A few of the older cultivators exchanged solemn glances. Their expressions were no longer filled with curiosity or contempt, but with deep uncertainty. To shatter such a terrifying attack so effortlessly was not something an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator could accomplish.
"Who exactly is this Lin Yuan?"
"Could he be hiding some supreme treasure?"
"No... I felt that pressure just now. That was..." The cultivator’s voice suddenly trembled. His eyes widened as a terrifying possibility flashed through his mind. "No. It can’t be!"
"Are you thinking what I’m thinking?"
The other cultivator swallowed hard, his gaze fixed on Lin Yuan.
"Is he... at the Spirit Severing realm?!"
The question spread through the amphitheater like wildfire.
Even the great clans and sect representatives who had previously treated Lin Yuan as an insignificant newcomer were now staring at him with undisguised apprehension.
At the highest terrace, several powerful cultivators unconsciously straightened their backs.
Their eyes remained fixed on the figure standing at the center of the amphitheater.
Lin Yuan had not moved an inch.
His robes were still perfectly arranged.
His expression remained as calm as ever.
There was not even a trace of pride on his face, as though destroying a centuries-old Nascent Soul elder’s strongest attack with a flick of his finger was beneath his notice.
That composure was more frightening than the attack itself.
Elder Yan convulsed on the floor, desperately struggling to push himself up onto his elbows. His bloodstained lips trembled as he stared at Lin Yuan, his mind replaying the terrifying pressure he had felt just before Lin Yuan flicked his finger. Only now did his divine sense finally register the true nature of that overwhelming aura.
"Spirit... Spirit Severing..."