However, just a split second before all the attacks were about to reach the man—

He opened his eyes.

There was no world-shaking explosion, no blinding burst of light.

It was merely the act of opening his eyes.

Time seemed to have been paused by an invisible hand.

All the attacks mid-flight—the fierce blade light, the sharp ice spikes, the scorching flames, the freezing chains—

froze in mid-air, as if they had hit an absolutely invisible wall, unable to advance even a fraction of an inch.

Energy trembled and wailed within them, yet they could not break through that minuscule distance. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Immediately after, an indescribable aura quietly spread out, centered on the man.

It wasn't simple energy pressure, but a kind of... suppression of realm!

The air suddenly became as heavy as lead; every breath felt like swallowing viscous mercury.

Light seemed to be distorted and absorbed, and the space around the stone platform dimmed, leaving only the spot where the man sat appearing like the edge of an all-consuming black hole.

He remained sitting there, his posture unchanged, yet he felt as majestic as a mountain and /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ as profound as the starry sky.

A terrifying gap originating from the level of life and the essence of the soul submerged everyone's perception like a cold tide.

king-level peak!

No, even... more than that!

The aura was vast and ancient, carrying an afterglow left behind after weathering the ages and wielding supreme authority—one that had not been completely erased even after a fall from grace.

Like a once-brilliant but now dust-covered Imperial Artifact, its material and engraved laws were still far beyond what ordinary iron could compare to.

Bai Cheng felt the Scythe in her hand trembling slightly—not out of fear, but from a near-instinctive resonance and warning.

Qingniao's expression turned incredibly solemn for the first time, even a bit pale; as the strongest person present, his perception of this disparity in levels was the clearest and most stinging.

Leng Ningxue felt her frost power stagnate as if she had encountered a natural superior.

Veins bulged on the back of Ye Liangchen's hand as he gripped his blade, yet he felt the sharp intent from the blade being constantly worn down and dulled within that invisible aura.

Yu Nian, Liu San, and the others were even more shaken, their internal energy in disarray, making it nearly impossible to maintain a combat stance.

The man slowly raised his head, his calm gaze sweeping across everyone's horrified faces.

Deep in his eyes, there was no longer any trace of feigned kindness or deliberate pity, only an absolute, overlooking indifference.

It was the gaze of someone who had once reached the summit and, even after falling to the mortal realm, still remembered what the sky looked like.

"Now,"

His voice rang out—not loud, but clearly penetrating the roar of the rushing energy, directly etching itself into the depths of everyone's souls with a trace of imperceptible self-deprecation or perhaps a sigh,

"Do you... believe me a little more now?"

"What I said about the past was not a lie."

As his voice fell, all the attacks frozen in mid-air silently turned into the most primitive specks of energy and dissipated without a trace.

And the man, for the first time, slowly stood up from the stone platform with a sense of stagnation, as if burdened by heavy shackles.

The dark gold chains binding him clattered, but he wasn't breaking free.

Instead, as if pulled by his movement of standing up, more energy surged out from the chains. It no longer flowed elsewhere but poured back into his body like a hundred rivers returning to the sea!

His aura began to climb and solidify at a visible rate.

Although still restricted to the scope of the king-level peak, the quality of that power,

the understanding of rules and the precision of control contained within every bit of energy, had already exceeded the limits of Bai Cheng and the others' perception of the King level.

Merely by standing there without even making a move, the energy flow of the entire valley seemed to have found its sole Monarch, beginning to pulse slightly with the rhythm of his breathing.

The hideous activated tentacles, deformed elemental monsters, and sharp crystal shards all quieted down, like the most loyal soldiers awaiting their master's command.

Bai Cheng's heart sank heavily.

All doubts and all hopes for a lucky break were shattered at this moment by this pure and terrifying presence.

This man might have truly... once touched the supreme realm of Monarch.

The shocking words he had spoken earlier about the System, the Infinite Realm, pawns, and obliteration suddenly became incredibly heavy, weighing down on everyone's hearts.

The man's aura crushed over the stone platform like a landslide or a tsunami; it wasn't a simple suppression of energy intensity, but an overlooking from a level of rules.

The air seemed to solidify into ice, with every breath pulling against heavy shackles.

"Scatter! Pin him down!" Bai Cheng's sharp cry tore a rift through the stagnant air.

Her figure was the first to turn into an afterimage, the Scythe in her hand drawing a deep black arc. She didn't strike directly at the man,

but instead slashed at a chain beside him that was surging with lava-like brilliance, attempting to disrupt the flow of energy.

The others understood instantly.

Ye Liangchen's long blade stirred up a mournful emerald storm, sweeping toward the restless activated tentacles to clear a path for the others.

Liu San and Leng Ningxue, one ice and one fire, cooperated tacitly despite their conflicting attributes. Ice walls and waves of fire intertwined, blocking the deformed monsters attacking from the ground and rock walls.

Yu Nian and the other team members formed a battle formation, pouring various long-range attacks and control skills toward the center like a rainstorm, not seeking to harm the enemy but only to delay any possible action from the man.

However, how could a gap in strength be easily bridged by numbers and tactics?

The man didn't even move his feet.

He merely raised a hand, his fingers curling into a loose grip.

The surging attacks—ice spikes, flames, and energy arrows—weirdly deflected and melted away three zhang away from him, as if they had crashed into an invisible, distorted force field.

The Black Moon slash aimed at the chains was blocked by a barrier that appeared out of nowhere, mixed with three types of terrain energy, and exploded into a sky full of light specks.

He flicked his other hand lightly.

Buzz!

The space around the stone platform suddenly compressed inward as if collapsing.

Liu San and another team member, who were about to rush in to harass, were struck as if by a heavy blow. Their protective energy shattered instantly, and they were sent flying back while spitting blood, slamming heavily against the rock wall.

"Too slow." The man's voice was devoid of emotion, but his gaze was like a precise scanner, instantly locking onto a relatively weak direction in the battle formation.

This was the area defended by Lvdou and two other support-type team members.

He flicked a finger.

A thread of three-colored energy—refined to the extreme and blending scorching heat, cold poison, and corrosive vitality—silently crossed the chaotic battlefield, shooting straight for Lvdou's forehead!

This strike seemed subtle, yet it contained a terrifying rule-erosion power capable of instantly obliterating an ordinary King level.

"Lvdou, watch out!"

Leng Ningxue shouted a warning. Disregarding her own safety, she forcibly contracted her frost domain to the extreme, attempting to freeze that thread.