Feeling the effects of worldly restriction, he felt intrigued. The cultivation advantages of a Spatial Resonance cultivator could be summed into two abilities: Spatial Prison & Spatial Mark. Those at the Spatial Resonance Phase had the innate ability to absorb, unleash, and refine spatial energies. These spatial energies can integrate with the ambient space alongside their spiritual strength to establish a Spatial Prison, restricting one's movements, circulation of astral force, suppressing the Astral Soul, and interfering with spiritual sense.
While a Spatial Mark can mark a target with their spiritual sense and then infuse their astral force with spatial energies, allowing one's astral force to trail the mark. This allowed almost impossible to dodge attacks.
The stronger one's Spatial Resonance, the stronger these two abilities, and typically, only those at or above this cultivation phase could resist. If not, they would be restrained and followed by relentless attacks.
Wei Wuyin was currently feeling this power for the first time. His eyes lit with a silver brilliance, tapping into his Void Force and releasing it into the surroundings. Instantly, the spatial cage was like a rock turned into water as it was softened and dissipated away.
An exclamation of utter shock resounded from afar. Clearly, it wasn't the middle-aged elven woman that had unleashed her spatial cage, but the approaching male elf.
Wei Wuyin didn't retreat, deciding to meet palm with clenched fist, his draconic force unleashing itself into his hand.
"ROAR!" A faint dragon's roar echoed in the surroundings, twisting the world and producing violent winds as the two appendages met in direct conflict. A booming sound instantly erupted, and a cry of pain was heard as a figure was blasted back into a nearby building, causing its immediate collapse.
Wei Wuyin didn't halt his movements, sharply turning to the middle-aged elven man who wielded a thin sword now, slicing down towards him. A waterfall-like wave of astral force crashed down on him. The world rumbled, but Wei Wuyin was unaffected.
He observed the inherent light energies within, feeling its immense speed arrive at him in the blink of an eye. The refinement of light energies accelerated the circulation and travel speed of astral force, making it nearly impossible to defend. In a normal situation, just the spatial cage and this enhanced speed would leave Soul Idol Phase cultivators helpless and defeated.
This was the absolute advantage of cultivation, and why each phase was an absolute chasm of power difference. But Wei Wuyin's astral force wasn't slower. In fact, it seemed to be slightly faster as he conjured an astral ward that met the waterfall of astral force.
Bang!
He was actually sent back, crashing into a building with an explosive sound.
The elf man finally arrived on scene, turning towards the collapsed building that the middle-aged woman smashed into. He sent a spiritual transmission to the building, "Are you okay?!" His youthful skin and wizened eyes revealed concern, not expecting his wife to be pushed back.
"I'm fine!" The woman shouted, shooting out of the building and arriving near the middle-aged man, shock still apparent within her solemn gaze. "Who is that?!" She asked her husband, but her husband had no answer. Instead, he turned to the building that Wei Wuyin crashed into.
"Let's find out," the middle-aged man's eyes brightened as his astral force started to gather. He was about to unleash a powerful art!
"Wait!" The woman shouted, causing the man's flow of astral force to become sluggish. He turned to his wife in shock, only to see the horror in her face. His heart sunk.
"Ju'er is inside!" She screamed, causing the man's head to snap back to the building. His eyes became needlepoints as he shot off, explosively dashing towards the building.
"Too late." A voice resounded from the building as a shadow explosively exited from the ceiling of the building, revealing a black-clothed male with a female between his left armpit, held like a bag of sand. The female elf was Ai Juling!
Her eyes closed and her aura was thoroughly subdued. She was captured!
As for the shadow, the man who held her? It was Wei Wuyin!
After realizing that two Light Reflection Phase experts had appeared, he quickly realized that unless he went all-out, it would be troublesome to defeat these two. So he captured Ai Juling, and his heart finally relaxed.
With her in his grasp, he no longer needed to hold back for fear of harming her by the shockwaves. After all, her cultivation base was only at the Soul Idol Phase, and she was nearby. A battle of this level might cause her death, and he didn't want her to be like Jian Daiyu, the swordswoman in the Myriad Yore Continent who was eviscerated before he got the chance to court her.
"Ganshu, unhand her!" The middle-aged man demanded, his eyes burning with blazing fury, and his aura was fully erupted at this moment. But this anger was clearly unable to be released.
Wei Wuyin's eyes flared as he noted the middle-aged woman's similar appearance and the middle-aged man's closeness and reaction. "Parents?" He wryly smiled. The thought of beating on Ai Juling's parents made him feel extremely apprehensive. How would that go over?
Wei Wuyin sighed to himself, but then lifted his gaze towards the spherical light. His silver eyes released faint spiritual light. "You two aren't my match. Stand down, I don't want to harm you." Wei Wuyin declared, ignoring the two as his eyes narrowed.
His bold words caused the two to be severely taken aback, their minds feeling as if they were dreaming. A Soul Idol Phase cultivator just said they, two Light Reflection Phase elite experts, weren't his match? If anyone else heard this, they would probably die from laughing, come back alive, and die again just from how ridiculous it was.
But they had just exchanged a few moves with him, with the middle-aged woman's arm actually breaking from their earlier conflict, and the middle-aged man's attack being brushed off and defended with ease. This caused their rational minds to try to find reasons.
Hidden cultivation base?
Unique treasure?
An expert in the background acting against them?
Whatever the case, the two were in 'their' territory and he had 'their' daughter, there was no way they would listen to his words. If it wasn't for him holding Ai Juling like this, holding her captive, they would've long since attacked.
Wei Wuyin felt a powerful expert watching, observing the entire city like a Continental Guardian. This expert had been watching from the beginning, its spiritual sense spread throughout the entire city. He could tell that this expert was extremely powerful from the spiritual strength it held, likely reaching beyond the Light Reflection Phase.
He just didn't know if it was a Gravity Emission Phase expert, someone at the Sixth Stage, or a Realmlord. If it was the latter, he intended to escape. If he fought against such an expert, forget about protecting Au Juling, the entire city and all its inhabitants might be destroyed by a casual attack.
That will certainly go over very well courting Ai Juling. "Sorry, I had to defend myself and your friends, family, and parents were unintended casualties. That aside, shall we give it a go?" The very thought made his sea of consciousness cringe uncomfortably.
The two parents of Ai Juling were discussing with each other using hidden spiritual transmissions.
"Why hasn't the formation been activated yet?" The mother asked, referring to the restrictive formation laid down by generations. There were two, one in the stronghold and one in the city. Neither of which were being activated at the earliest. The reason the two unleashed pure astral force-based attacks was their desire to prevent mass unintended casualties, so the formations should activate to handle this cleanly.
The father kept his rage-filled expression, but his heart was filled with worry. "I've tried to activate the stronghold formation, but there's no response. I can't even get into contact with the city-wide formation…"
"What? Why?!" The mother asked, but the father was uncertain. He kept trying to activate the formation but to no avail. Left distressed, he didn't know what to do.
Wei Wuyin felt relieved that the two showed concern for their daughter, but he was curious why the expert hadn't acted yet. As for the formations, he had used his Celestial Eyes to find it earlier, and used Eden's spiritual force infused with the aspects of alchemy to locate and refine the central node of the formation.
He couldn't take absolute control of it in a short period of time, but it was deactivated.
"Fine, I'll leave then." Realizing the expert had no intention to act, he shot off, grabbing the human captives and shooting off into the distance in flight. He wasn't using his Zenith Origin State to free the ambient mana, but his elemental wind astral force to fly. For others it might be consuming, but he had four Astral Souls, and they all contained Astral Force that could drown this entire city several times over.
With the human captives in tow, he was departing swiftly.
The parents were instantly spurred into action, and they were about to instinctively follow when they unnaturally halted their movements, twisted expressions on their faces as they looked at each other.
Wei Wuyin noted this, revealing a faint smirk. "Fine then, let's see what you can do outside." He sped up, shooting into the tunnel entrance he had entered from, and with a thought, he channeled elemental earth force infused with Desolate Intent and pierced into the ceiling above.
It didn't take him long before he burst out of the ground, once more seeing the bright sky and open view. He had arrived back to the surface! But he didn't stop, he formed a handseal, and the human captives were sent off like a comet into the distance, alongside Ai Juling.
He looked at the hole he created, his eyes calm and relaxed.
A voice, alluring and graceful, emerged from below. "You're quite arrogant for a Ganshu, aren't you?"
But Wei Wuyin merely smiled as he retorted, "Aren't you the same? To follow me after knowing I'm waiting and unafraid, having the same reservations as you. Aren't you arrogant for thinking I won't kill you?"
The voice went silent for a short moment, and then replied with a charm that was innate. "You can try."
Wei Wuyin grinned.
The ground beneath his feet started to crack apart!
