School beauty Gu thanked him shyly, and Lin Yuan said: Don't keep me from getting off work!

Buzz—

Buzz—

Buzz—

Beams of light descended from the sky, enveloping all the surviving contestants in the wasteland.

The next second.

Shua!

As the light flashed, everyone reappeared on the massive plaza where they had been before the hunt began.

Only...

The atmosphere in the plaza now was a world apart from before!

Dead silence!

It was an absolute silence, ten thousand times more profound than when Lin Yuan had been sleeping earlier!

Every single one of the hundreds of surviving prodigies looked like a puppet whose Soul had been snatched away.

Their faces were pale, their eyes hollow, and their bodies trembled violently and uncontrollably.

No one cheered.

No one discussed.

There wasn't even anyone breathing loudly!

Subconsciously, everyone's gaze turned toward the very center of the plaza, carrying a sense of Fear and awe that came from the depths of their Souls.

There,

A figure slowly emerged.

Lin Yuan.

He still had that same lazy appearance, as if the earth-shattering battle just now had been nothing more than a trivial post-meal diversion to him.

He even let out a yawn and stretched his limbs.

However!

The moment he raised his arm!

Huala—!

Within a hundred-meter radius centered on him,

Every Prodigy let out a terrified scream as if they had seen a ghost, scrambling and crawling to retreat as far back as possible.

It was as if Lin Yuan carried some kind of terrifying virus capable of destroying the world!

In an instant,

A massive, eerie vacuum zone appeared in the center of the plaza!

And Lin Yuan stood there, all alone, right in the center of that vacuum.

Those Scions of Noble Families who had previously clamored to join forces and deal with him now wished they could find a hole in the ground to crawl into!

Only now did they realize how laughable and naive their previous thoughts had been!

Defeat, cripple, or even kill Lin Yuan?

With a bunch of things like them, who were less than ants?

Go and slaughter a god who could summon the stars at will and shatter the earth with a single palm strike?!

This wasn't seeking death!

They didn't even have the qualification to seek death!

He was already an existence from a different dimension!

The gap between them and Lin Yuan was hundreds of millions of times larger than the gap between a human and a speck of dust!

Faced with the gazes of awe, Fear, and even worship from all around,

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

He didn't care.

He was too lazy to care.

He just felt a bit hungry.

And so,

Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of people,

He started walking, unhurriedly heading toward the exit of the plaza.

Everywhere he passed,

The crowd automatically parted to both sides.

Everyone held their breath and lowered their proud heads, respectfully clearing a path to the mortal world for their "god."

No one dared to block him.

No one dared to speak.

It was as if only his unhurried footsteps remained in the entire world.

However,

Just as Lin Yuan was about to walk out of the plaza,

A cold yet somewhat hesitant and nervous female voice broke the dead silence.

"Wai... Wait!"

It was Gu Ningxue!

Everyone's gaze simultaneously shifted to the woman who dared to speak up and stop the "god"!

Gu Ningxue's cold and beautiful face actually bore a rare blush at this moment.

She ran quickly to Lin Yuan, her head slightly lowered, not daring to look at his face, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

"Just now... and before... thank you."

She knew that if it weren't for Lin Yuan, she would likely have perished by now.

If it weren't for Lin Yuan, all the prodigies of Yan Capital would have been wiped out in that conspiracy!

Lin Yuan stopped his pace and glanced at her with some surprise.

Then, in a matter-of-fact tone that was so flat it didn't contain a single ripple, he spoke.

"Oh."

"It was no trouble."

With that,

He didn't even give the Number One School Beauty of the Capital Martial Arts Academy a second look.

He simply turned around and continued walking in the direction of home.

It was as if saving her,

To him, was truly as insignificant as raising a hand to brush off some dust.

"Hey..."

Gu Ningxue suddenly looked up, seemingly wanting to say something more.

But that man's back was already growing distant.

He still had that lazy, indifferent attitude toward everything.

Yet he was so... unreachable.

Gu Ningxue's lips moved, but in the end, she didn't make a sound.

She could only watch blankly as that back moved further and further away.

Still so lazy, still so casual.

As if everything he had just done was truly just like going out to take out the trash.

This feeling... was very strange.

There was both a sense of humiliation from being completely ignored and an indescribable sense of security.

It was as if, even if the sky fell, someone would find it too noisy and just slap it back up with a casual strike.

And she only needed to stand a bit further away so that the dust wouldn't dirty her clothes.

Just as her heart was in a mess and her mind was wandering,

An arm suddenly reached out from the side and draped intimately over her shoulder.

"Yo."

A voice filled with a bit of playfulness and teasing rang in her ear.

"Has our Capital Martial Arts Academy's Eternal Iceberg... finally developed mortal desires?"

Gu Ningxue's whole body stiffened; she didn't need to look back to know who it was.

Aside from Song Yao, that fearless girl, no one would dare to joke with her in such a tone at a time like this.

She somewhat irritably and gently shook off Song Yao's arm, and the blush on her face that hadn't had time to fade deepened by a few shades.

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

She retorted stubbornly, but her voice lacked confidence.

"I just... just went to thank him! He did save all of us, after all!"

"Oh? Just a thank you?"

Song Yao crossed her arms and sized her up with great interest, the teasing curve of her lips growing wider.

"Does just a thank you require blushing all the way down to your neck?"

"Just a thank you, yet even though he left without even looking back, you're still standing here looking longingly?"

"How is it? Are you very disappointed? Our Yan Capital's Number One School Beauty takes the initiative to speak, and he didn't even bother to give you a proper look. That feeling doesn't sit well, does it?"

Every word from Song Yao was like a small needle, precisely pricking Gu Ningxue's proud self-esteem.

"You!"

Gu Ningxue was both angry and anxious from her words, yet she found herself unable to refute them.

Because everything Song Yao said was the truth.

She could only turn her head away, not looking at Song Yao's hateful smiling face, but her gaze uncontrollably drifted back toward the direction where Lin Yuan had long since disappeared through the plaza exit.

"When did you... become so gossipy?" She could only squeeze out this pale and weak counterattack from between her teeth.

"I'm not being gossipy."

The smile on Song Yao's face gradually faded.

In its place was an unprecedented solemnity.

Her gaze also looked toward that exit, her eyes becoming incredibly complex.

"I just feel..."

She paused, her voice kept extremely low, as if afraid of disturbing some forbidden existence.

"...that we were all too laughable before."

"We competed for some 'number one Genius' title, and we fought to the death just for a few more numbers on a leaderboard."

"Looking back now... it's like a group of ants arguing over who can carry a larger grain of rice."

"While he..."

Song Yao took a deep breath, seemingly trying to forcibly suppress the shock in her chest.

But she failed.

"He simply doesn't live in the same world as us. Forming an array with a single thought, Shattering Stars with a Punch, transforming a sword into the vast sea..."

"This kind of gap can no longer be described by the word 'talent'!"

...Song Yao's voice was like a dream.

And Gu Ningxue, standing beside her, seemed to have taken her words to heart. At this moment, she also spoke in a dreamlike voice, saying faintly, "This kind of... massive gap?"