The elder accompanying Chi Mei nodded, and his decrepit figure walked right towards Xiao Hu.
The elder’s hands flashed with seven-colored light. As it radiated outward, the surrounding space distorted. At the same time, it bulled a thin light from Xiao Hu’s body, which entered the hunched elder’s hand.
As time passed, Xiao Hu’s body grew indistinct.
The surrounding supremes all watched from the sidelines. They didn’t have words to express their terror. However, Yin Hu and the other yao looked relaxed; they knew who these new arrivals were, and that they wouldn’t hurt them.
“Who exactly is Chi Mei?” Chi Mei had been a mystery from the moment they first met. At first, he’d suspected she was a descendant of the Five Elements Great Emperor, but then he heard the yao calling her “My Lady.”
Also, that elder by her side overpowered Xiao Hu with a snap of his fingers.
If she had such a mighty expert to protect her, why did she kick up such a fuss over a single sea condensing pill? Why did she deliberately approach him? What did she want out of him?
Was she in it for the Yao-Sealing Pagoda?
Or the Xuan-Yuan Sword?
Ye Zichen was uncertain, but the way he saw it, he and Chi Mei belonged to two different worlds. There was nothing about him worthy of attracted such a privileged young lady’s attention.
Boom!
A rift tore in the sky, and golden light mixed with lighting surged forth.
Instantly, the entire plane, from the Immortal Region, Heavenly Court, Underworld, and Endless Beast Region to the barren wastes, felt a presence bear down on them. It was so terrifying, they could barely breathe.
It shook all living things.
Countless ultimate experts of the Lower Realms left seclusion and looked up into the rift in the heavens.
It was then that they discovered that, although everyone in their realms of influence revered them, they were petty and insignificant indeed.
They forcefully suppressed their tremors and looked up at the rift. Just what was it, exactly?
At that moment, however….
“Time! Stop!” A golden pendulum clock appeared in the sky. With a single crisp, clear clang, it froze.
The wind paused and the water stilled. It was as if the entire world had been frozen.
After freezing the entire plane, a child riding a blue ox rode into the wastes. “Xiao Family, you’ve crossed the line. We agreed to let you send sky supremes, but that was already a major concession. Even though you hid a wisp of a diviner’s soul in your weapon, I could look the other way. Yet now you’re trying to bring your true body down as well?”
“This has nothing to do with you. Scram!” A furious roar emanated from within the rift as a pair of massive hands emerged and ripped the sky asunder. Before long, a lightning-shrouded middle-aged man emerged. This was none other than Xiao Hu’s true body.
He stepped into the wastes, but as soon as he did, space showed signs of cracking around him; it couldn’t bear the pressure.
“Don’t take this too far!” screamed the child from atop his ox.
“I told you, don’t meddle in others’ business. If you do, I’ll kill you, too!”
Crack! Boom!
A bolt of reddish-purple divine lightning crashed down onto the child, but just before it struck, a colorless barrier instantly manifested around him. Although the boy survived, the lightning destroyed almost half of the wastes.
“Scram!” Xiao Hu glowered and roared, his voice booming. He was like a deity descending to the mortal realm. He stood proudly in the sky and roared at the child with no regard for his feelings.
“You….” The boy glowered at him, but silently stood to the side. At that moment, however, Chi Mei appeared beside him out of nowhere. She reached out and tousled his hair, a hint of a smile in her eyes.
“Don’t be afraid, little brother,” she said with a smile. “Big Sister’s here!”
Next. she turned back to the elder and said solemnly, “Uncle Liu.”
“You want my diviner soul? I’ll be curious to see if you’re even capable of such a thing.” An illusory figure a hundred thousand feet tall manifested behind Xiao Hu. It was a hammer-bearing deity whose eyes flashed with electricity.
When Xiao Hu moved his arms, the illusory deity behind him moved along with him. They swung at the elder with enough force to shatter mountains and split rivers.
“Noisy.” The elder raised his right hand without so much as lift his eyelids. To everyone’s astonishment, Xiao Hu immediately disappeared without a trace.
The shattered mountains then returned to their original state, as did the devastated wasteland. Finally, the rift in the sky knit back together.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
At the same time, the elder held the diviner-soul incarnation of Xiao Hu and condensed it into a soul pearl.
“Why’d you let him escape?” said Chi Mei after the elder handed her the soul.
“The space is too weak here. If I went all out here, I’m afraid I’d shatter the whole plane. Instead, I sent him away. Once you’ve settled things here, it won’t be too late for me to find and eliminate him.”
“Alright. But honestly, the Masters of Laws get worse with every generation.” She looked at the boy astride the ox, sighed, and shook her head.
She glanced at the giant pendulum clock next, then snapped her fingers. It immediately disappeared from the sky, taking the shepherd boy with it.
“Where did it go?” The immortal kings of the lower realms looked up at the sky in bewilderment.
It wasn’t just them. The sky supremes gathered in the wastes looked up to the sky at a loss. Just now, they’d clearly sensed a transcendent presence descend to earth.
“I can’t help but feel like I missed something.” Ye Zichen furrowed his brows too. The clock had frozen him too, but he got the sense that something had happened during that brief interval.
He looked around him, and it was as if nothing had changed. There were still the sky supremes, Chi Mei, and that elder, all standing right where they were before….
Something wasn’t right.
How did Xiao Hu disappear?
Just now, his body obviously hadn’t fully disappeared yet.
“What are you think about, sweetie?” As Ye Zichen considered what had happened, Chi Mei put her hands behind her back like a little girl, walked up to him, and batted her eyes.
Chi Mei, oh, Chi Mei, just who are you? Ye Zichen wondered to himself, then pressed his lips into a smile. “Oh, nothing. Right, where did Xiao Hu disappear to just now?”
“He’s right here,” said Chi Mei. As she spoke, she took the diviner soul and placed it into Ye Zichen’s hand. “Here, a thunder-element diviner soul. It’s for you!”
