Instantly killed the nest mother! Lin Yuan: Warm-up over, the big one is coming!

Silence.

A deathly silence.

The wind blew through the basin, kicking up a handful of ash—the only trace the larval Nest Mother had left in this world.

Gu Ningxue, Aila, and Chen Ruoxi remained frozen in place, their expressions still twisted in sheer horror, like three stone statues whose Souls had been snatched away.

Their brains had completely crashed.

One second ago, it was a terrifying monster with overwhelming ferocity that could tank Sword Qi.

The next second, it had turned into a handful of ash?

Wiped out... by a single finger?

What exactly happened in between?

They hadn't even seen it clearly!

Only Su Li, relying on dynamic vision far beyond ordinary people, managed to catch a faint afterimage.

In that instant.

What burst from Lin Yuan's fingertip wasn't Sword Qi at all.

It was a beam of... light.

A beam of golden divine light, pure to the extreme and condensed to the limit, as if it could purify all the filth in the world!

The speed of that light had completely exceeded the scope of her understanding.

It wasn't flying.

It was traversing!

The moment Lin Yuan raised his finger, it had already appeared inside the Nest Mother's skull.

There was no process.

Only the result.

What terrifying control!

Su Li's knuckles turned white from the force of her grip on her sword hilt, her heart churning with stormy waves of shock.

She had always thought she had overestimated Lin Yuan's strength.

But looking at it now... what she saw was still just the tip of the iceberg.

Just how strong had this man become?

"Gulp."

Gu Ningxue swallowed with difficulty, her throat so dry it felt like it might start smoking.

She turned her head, looking at Lin Yuan as if he were a monster, her voice sounding a bit airy.

"It's... just... gone?"

"Otherwise?"

Lin Yuan withdrew his finger and even flicked his sleeve with distaste, as if he had just been stained by something dirty.

That calm and composed manner made it look as if he had merely crushed an insignificant ant.

"..."

Gu Ningxue was completely speechless.

What else could she say?

Before, she had blustered about being able to crush a small spider with one finger.

As it turned out, the man really did use one finger to instakill a fully-formed monster.

This slap to the face... was loud and clear!

"Alright, the monster is dealt with."

Gu Ningxue took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in her heart, and put on an expression that said 'the matter is concluded perfectly'.

"I don't want to stay in this godforsaken place for even another second."

She looked at Lin Yuan, her tone carrying a hint of taking it for granted.

"We can go back now, right?"

Aila and Chen Ruoxi also nodded repeatedly, their faces full of agreement.

After experiencing such an event, they now only wanted to leave this place of trouble as quickly as possible and find a safe spot to recover.

However, Lin Yuan didn't even lift an eyelid.

He folded his arms across his chest again and calmly spat out two words.

"No rush."

"What?!"

Gu Ningxue's pitch instantly rose an octave.

"No rush? What else do you want to do?"

"Could there be a second one here?"

She subconsciously looked around, fearing that some other ghostly thing might crawl out of a corner.

"Not exactly."

Lin Yuan's gaze fell on the very center of the basin, beside that shattered egg.

His tone was as calm as still water, yet it made everyone present feel an inexplicable chill.

"It's just that there's still one more matter to handle."

Su Li's heart tightened, and she immediately followed up: "What matter?"

Lin Yuan didn't answer directly.

Instead, he asked an unrelated question.

"Aren't you curious?"

"Why would this Void Nest Mother choose to lay its seed in this godforsaken, desolate place?"

Everyone was stunned.

Right.

Why?

The Spiritual Qi here was thin, nothing grew, and it was just a barren basin of jagged rocks.

Logically, no creature would choose to reproduce in such a place.

"Why?" Gu Ningxue asked instinctively.

The corners of Lin Yuan's mouth curled up slightly into a meaningful arc.

He slowly stepped forward, walking toward the center of the basin.

As he walked, he revealed the hair-raising answer in a tone that was almost a proclamation.

"Because this is their favorite kind of place."

"For the Void Zerg, nowhere is more suitable to be a cradle than here."

His steps stopped at the spot where the egg had originally been.

He raised his foot and lightly stomped on the black rocky ground beneath him.

"Because, right here..."

Lin Yuan's voice paused, each word like a heavy hammer smashing into everyone's hearts.

"...exists a Space Node!"

Boom—!!!

Space Node!

These words exploded in the four women's minds like a clap of thunder from the Nine Heavens!

Their faces instantly turned as pale as paper!

What was a Space Node?

It was the place where the world's barriers were weakest! The closest point of intersection between reality and the Void Realm!

It was a natural... door leading to the endless Void Realm!

No wonder!

No wonder the Nest Mother chose this place!

It didn't want to take root in this world at all; it wanted to use this node as a springboard to directly open a channel to the Void Zerg's home nest!

If it had actually succeeded... the consequences... an unspeakable Fear, like countless cold hands, instantly gripped their hearts!

Just as they were lost in horror at this truth.

A sudden change occurred!

"Buzz————"

An extremely low hum, as if coming from the depths of the earth's core, rang out without warning.

The entire basin, along with the surrounding rolling mountain ranges, began to tremble violently!

Rumble!

Mountains shook! Boulders rolled!

It was as if a giant beast that had slept for ages was slowly waking up deep underground!

"What's happening?!"

Gu Ningxue's footing became unstable, and she almost fell, but was caught by Su Li beside her.

"Is it an earthquake?!"

"No!"

Su Li stared fixedly at the center of the basin, her voice trembling.

"It's not an earthquake!"

The moment her words fell!

The sky went dark.

One second it was a clear sky for miles, the next, the entire vault of heaven looked as if it had been splashed with thick ink, instantly turning pitch black!

One couldn't see their own hand in front of their face!

An indescribable, terrifying pressure swept in from all directions, pressing down heavily on everyone!

That was an absolute suppression originating from the level of life itself!

Tiny!

Powerless!

As if ants were looking up at a god!

"Ugh..."

Chen Ruoxi, the weakest in strength, couldn't even hold out for a second; her legs gave way, and she knelt directly on the ground, her face pale as she gasped for breath.

Aila and Gu Ningxue weren't much better; they plunged their weapons into the ground, using all their strength just to barely keep from falling, their bodies shaking like sieves.

Even Su Li felt as if she were carrying an invisible mountain; with every breath, a tearing pain came from her lungs!

They discovered in horror.

In their perception, the entire world seemed to have come alive!

No!

It wasn't that it had come alive!

It was like a flat piece of drawing paper being suddenly unfolded by an invisible giant hand!

A grander, more terrifying, and more real world was overlaying reality!

Invisibly, something seemed to be crazily expanding outward with this basin as the center!

That extremely terrifying aura made their very Souls tremble!

And in the center of that suffocating darkness and pressure.

The lone figure remained as upright as a pine tree.

Lin Yuan stood there, letting the world change color and the mountains and rivers shake.

That terrifying pressure, enough to instantly crush a Huagang Realm expert into meat paste, was to him merely a passing breeze.

His gaze calmly watched the ground beneath his feet.

There.

Space began to distort.

The air was like red-hot glass, showing a strange ripple-like pattern.

Fine, spiderweb-like black cracks appeared out of thin air and vanished instantly.

Every flicker carried a heart-palpitating Void Realm aura.

"Crack..."

A light sound.

A pitch-black rift finally stopped vanishing and fixed itself in mid-air.

Then, a second, a third... countless rifts appeared, intertwined, and finally tore open violently!

Screech—!!!

As if a black curtain had been brutally torn open by brute force, leaving a hideous gash!

Behind that gash was not mountain rock, nor the earth.

But Chaos!

A chaotic nothingness filled with distorted light and shadow and endless darkness!

There were frantic whispers, spiteful roars, and bellows from ancient times frantically pouring out from that rift!

The Void Gate!

It had opened!

Facing this terrifying scene like the end of the world.

Lin Yuan's face still didn't show the slightest ripple.

He just slowly turned around, his back to that expanding Void Realm rift, and looked at the women behind him who were already nearly scared witless.

The corners of his mouth pulled into a faint arc.

"The appetizer is finished."

That calm voice clearly entered everyone's ears.

"Now, it's time for the main course."