Chapter 467 What?! Still at his peak?!

When the silver-gray light in the mystic light mirror suddenly lit up, and that boundless silver-gray Void Realm along with the giant python phantom woven from spatial rifts appeared on the screen...

The gasps on the Liu family plaza had not yet fully subsided.

But on the high platform where the Grand Elders were located, the atmosphere had already completely solidified.

All the Grand Elders' gazes were fixed firmly on the mystic light mirror. On those old faces that usually showed no emotion, every kind of emotion was written at this moment.

There was shock, confusion, anger, skepticism, and a faint, unwilling-to-admit panic.

Because the scene in the mystic light mirror had explained everything.

Grand Tutor Dongxuan had truly entered the challenge space.

He was really going to fight.

"He went in... He actually went in!!" A veteran Grand Elder with white hair and beard pointed at the mystic light mirror, his fingertips trembling slightly, his voice becoming sharp and hoarse from extreme excitement. "How does he dare?! His Beast Tamer pets haven't recovered yet!! I saw with my own eyes just now that that dark attribute beast's Aura was hidden after firing its last shot!! That Golden Flame True Dragon's Domain skill had shrunk by at least forty percent!! How long has it been since then?! Has it even been a quarter of an hour?! Not even half a stick of incense!! What is he going to fight with?!"

"Insane! Simply insane!"

Another conservative Grand Elder shook his head repeatedly, his face full of disbelief.

"That is a Void Guardian! The guardian phantom of a Radiant Sun Peak-grade void seed! According to the challenge rules, its Realm will be raised by ten levels based on Grand Tutor Dongxuan's highest-Realm Beast Tamer pet. That dark attribute beast is Purple Gold Rank Eighth Tier; raising it by ten levels makes it a combat power above Meteor Rank Sixth Tier!! Meteor Rank fighting against Purple Gold Rank, that is a whole major Realm difference!! This is not a cross-Realm challenge; this is suicide!!"

"No... wait..."

Supreme Elder Liu Yunshan, standing in the center of the crowd, suddenly furrowed his brows. His voice was not loud, but it caused the surrounding Grand Elders who were discussing to fall silent simultaneously.

"Has anyone considered a question? Since Grand Tutor Dongxuan entered the Liu family, has there been any action he has taken that was without certainty?"

This sentence was like a basin of cold water poured over the heads of all the Grand Elders.

Everyone looked at each other, speechless for a moment.

That's right!

From the moment this teenager entered the Liu family until now, every step he took was outside everyone's predictions, yet every step was taken steadily, and he had never failed.

He never did anything without certainty.

"But..."

Liu Lie's voice rang out from the crowd.

This conservative Grand Elder, who had just been swearing that it was impossible for Grand Tutor Dongxuan to recover his Beast Tamer pets within two days, had a face even gloomier than before, but he still stubbornly shook his head.

"Even so, what is he going to fight with? The consumption of Beast Tamer pets is an objective fact; it cannot be made up for by Aura and self-confidence alone. Those three Beast Tamer pets had already reached their limit when fighting the Azure Ancient Dragon; we all saw that with our own eyes. Even if Grand Tutor Dongxuan has many trump cards, the spiritual power recovery of Beast Tamer pets always takes time, right? He can't just conjure three fully-recovered Beast Tamer pets out of thin air, can he?"

"Unless..."

Another Grand Elder suddenly lowered his voice, his tone carrying a guess he himself dared not believe.

"Unless he has three other Divine Beast Bloodline Beast Tamer pets of the same level?"

Once this was said, the entire high platform went quiet.

"Three others?"

Supreme Elder Liu Yunshan's brows furrowed even deeper.

He slowly shook his head.

"Impossible. Cultivating three ancient Divine Beast Bloodline Beast Tamer pets simultaneously is already a once-in-ten-thousand-years configuration. Not to mention how rare Divine Beast Bloodline Beast Tamer pets are, just the consumption of Mental Energy for a Beast Tamer to sign contracts with multiple high-Bloodline Beast Tamer pets simultaneously—as a sixteen-year-old teenager, his Mental Energy and Soul strength ultimately have an upper limit. Three is already unfathomable; six? Absolutely impossible."

"Then what if it isn't three others?"

Liu Lie suddenly took over the conversation. After a brief moment of gloom, his face regained a bit of certainty.

"Maybe he just went in to take a look? Maybe he doesn't intend to challenge immediately? After entering the challenge space, you can exit at any time as long as you don't summon your Beast Tamer pets. Maybe Grand Tutor Dongxuan just wants to scout the Void Guardian's bottom line first, and wait until his Beast Tamer pets have recovered before officially challenging?"

This explanation eased the expressions of quite a few Grand Elders.

"Makes sense. Scouting the bottom line first, then choosing the right time to challenge—that is logical. Although Grand Tutor Dongxuan is a Prodigy, he wouldn't really use three exhausted Beast Tamer pets to hard-clash with a Meteor Rank guardian."

"Exactly, exactly. He's mostly just wanting to see the Void Guardian's appearance and Aura to have a baseline in his heart. After all, entering the challenge space doesn't consume attempts; taking a look doesn't cost anything."

"Phew!!! That's good, that's good. I almost thought this kid was really going to go up and rush with exhausted Beast Tamer pets. Thank goodness, it seems he also has a sense of proportion."

The Grand Elders spoke one after another, the tension on their faces gradually easing.

But Liu Qingyun did not.

He stood at the very front, hands behind his back, his gaze fixed tightly on the silver-gray Void Realm in the mystic light mirror.

His mouth did not relax, his brows did not unfurl, and the blue vein faintly throbbing on his forehead did not disappear.

Because his intuition was telling him.

This matter was not that simple.

Although he hadn't dealt with Jiang Yun many times, from the ancestral grounds to the treasury, he had already figured out this teenager's style of doing things.

This Grand Tutor Dongxuan never did anything meaningless.

Entering the challenge space would never be just to take a look.

If he went in, it meant he was prepared to fight.

But...

What did he have to rely on?

Relying on those three Beast Tamer pets that had just finished fighting the Azure Ancient Dragon?

The consumption of those three Beast Tamer pets was real; he had seen it with his own eyes, it couldn't be wrong.

If the Beast Tamer pets hadn't recovered, what was he going to fight with?

Unless...

Liu Qingyun's pupils shrank violently.

A thought he had been trying to deny now uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.

Unless those three Beast Tamer pets had already recovered.

Unless the scene he had witnessed earlier—the Beast Tamer pets recovering from near-death to their Peak within minutes—was not a coincidence, not a one-time use Divine-Grade Medicinal Pill, not a trump card that would be gone after one use, but some kind of Heaven-Defying ability possessed by Grand Tutor Dongxuan himself.

If that was really the case...

Then everything made sense.

Why Jiang Yun dared to walk toward the void seed immediately after fighting the Azure Ancient Dragon.

Why he dared to trigger the challenge Restriction when everyone thought he needed days to recover.

Why he hadn't shown any hesitation from start to finish.

Because for his Beast Tamer pets, the concept of recovery time simply did not exist.

Liu Qingyun's hands clenched tightly in his sleeves, his knuckles emitting a few faint cracking sounds from excessive force.

His premonition was getting stronger and stronger.

That familiar, ominous premonition of being rubbed into the ground by reality.

That familiar rhythm where every time he thought something was impossible, he would be heavily slapped in the face by reality right after.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to the Grand Elders behind him, but swallowed the words back.

Forget it.

Even if he said it, they wouldn't believe him.

And...

What if this premonition was wrong this time?

Liu Qingyun left a last shred of luck for himself in his heart.

"Maybe... maybe he really is just scouting the bottom line..."

He muttered silently and repeatedly in his heart, as if brainwashing himself.

However, his increasingly tense face and the fists clenched tighter and tighter in his sleeves had betrayed his true inner thoughts completely.

Meanwhile, in the mystic light mirror.

Inside the challenge space.

Jiang Yun stood upon that boundless silver-gray Void Realm, his feet stepping on the void, causing silver ripples to spread out.

He did not summon his Beast Tamer pets immediately, but instead raised his head, his gaze piercing through the void, firmly locking onto the giant python phantom in front of him, which was woven from spatial rifts.

The Void Guardian.

Its figure was massive and eerie, the thirty-zhang-long giant python body woven from countless twisted spatial rifts, its edges switching back and forth between substance and nothingness. In the silver-gray halo surrounding it floated countless shattered space fragments, each fragment refracting different scenes of different-dimensional Void Realms.

Although according to the challenge rules, before he summoned his Beast Tamer pets, this phantom's Realm was not yet activated, and its Aura was in a dormant state.

But even so, standing in front of it, Jiang Yun could still feel a sense of oppression completely different from the Azure Ancient Dragon.

The Azure Ancient Dragon's oppression was an overwhelming, domineering, absolute-power-crushing Dragon Might.

While the Void Guardian's oppression was a more hidden, more chilling, and more hair-raising Law erosion sensation.

It didn't crush you with power; it made you feel that the entire space you were in was under the opponent's control.

Every breath of air you took, every inch of space you stepped on, was within the opponent's Law radiation range.

"Weaker than the True Dragon's Might, but trickier."

Jiang Yun whispered to himself, and then a faint light that only he could see appeared in the depths of his pupils.

Entry Manifestation talent, activate.

His gaze fell on the Void Guardian, and a translucent entry panel unfolded before his eyes.

[Void Guardian] (Space attribute)

[Race]: Void Rift Python · Guardian Phantom (Space attribute)

[Realm]: Not activated (Currently not synchronized with the challenger's Beast Tamer pet Realm)

[Aptitude]: Unknown (Phantom has no fixed Aptitude, combat power synchronizes with Realm)

[Introduction]: A guardian phantom projected by the power of the Ten Thousand Beast Battle Formation, using the void seed left behind after an ancient Void Divine Beast fell as a guide. Its main body prototype is the ancient Void Rift Python, one of the guardian beasts under the Void Divine Beast, residing in spatial rifts all year round, feeding on space fragments, and possessing terrifying space control power.

This phantom inherits the complete combat instincts and all skills of the Void Rift Python. Although it has no autonomous consciousness, its combat reactions and skill connections are in no way inferior to the main body.

Its space attribute skills are eerie and varied, extremely difficult to predict and defend against, making it one of the opponent types that all challengers least want to face.

[Innate Talent Skill]:

Void Stealth (Legendary · Passive):

The Void Guardian's body naturally merges into the space Law. Any non-locking attack has a forty percent probability of being directly penetrated by spatial distortion and failing to hit.

When the Void Guardian enters a movement state, this probability increases to sixty percent.

This effect has its probability halved against attacks containing Law power.

Spatial Rift (epic):

Open a spatial rift, gushing out violent spatial turbulence from the rift, causing large-area spatial tearing damage to all targets on the straight-line path.

Spatial turbulence carries a spatial erosion effect. The space around the target hit will continue to distort for three breaths; during this period, all movement commands will have random position deviations.

Void Anchoring (epic · Control Skill):

Condenses void anchor chains in the space around the target, imprisoning them within a three-foot radius of their original position.

The anchor chains are formed by the power of the Space Law, ignoring conventional physical and spiritual energy defenses, and can only be broken free using the power of Law or space-attribute skills.

The imprisonment lasts for three breaths, during which the target cannot move or perform any Space Jump type skills.

Dimensional Mirror (Legendary · Buff Skill):

The Void Divine Beast can condense the power of the Space Law around itself, creating two dimensional mirrors with an Aura identical to the original body.

The mirrors possess fifty percent of the original body's attack power, take no damage, and last for ten breaths.

The mirrors cannot be distinguished from the real one by any reconnaissance skills, and the original body can instantly switch positions between any of the mirrors.

Void Collapse (Legendary · Burst Skill):

Designate a space collapse point in the target area; the space within a hundred-zhang radius rapidly shrinks toward the collapse point, forming a small Void Realm black hole.

During the collapse, all targets within the range will be pulled toward the center of the black hole by an irresistible spatial gravitational force. Once formed, the black hole lasts for five breaths, dealing spatial tearing damage to surrounding targets every breath. After five breaths, the black hole explodes, dealing a massive range finishing damage.

Dimensional Banishment (Legendary Grade · Special Skill):

The Void Divine Beast uses the power of the Space Law to tear open a dimensional rift behind the target, directly banishing them into the different-dimensional Void Realm.

The banished target will suffer continuous erosion damage from spatial turbulence within the different-dimensional Void Realm and cannot interact with the outside world or receive any buff effects.

The banishment lasts for five breaths, after which the target is forcibly returned to their original position, with their movement speed reduced by fifty percent for three breaths after returning.

This skill has an extremely long cooldown and can be used at most twice in a single battle.

Void Divine Body (Legendary Grade · Passive Buff):

When the Void Divine Beast is in a space-type environment, all space-attribute skill damage is increased by one hundred percent, skill cooldowns are reduced by thirty percent, and all non-space-attribute damage received is reduced by thirty percent.

In the phantom state, this effect will gradually stack the amplification multiplier as the battle progresses, up to an additional fifty percent increase in skill damage.

...

Jiang Yun's gaze scanned the Entry Manifestation panel line by line; with each line he read, the brows beneath his silver-white mask furrowed tighter.

Seven skills.

One epic grade area damage, one epic grade single-target control, one Legendary Grade buff Clone, one Legendary Grade area burst, one Legendary Grade single-target banishment, plus one Legendary Grade passive buff.

This skill configuration, although not as high in grade as the nine True Dragon innate skills of the Azure Ancient Dragon, is absolutely more troublesome, if not worse.

Although the Azure Ancient Dragon is strong, most of its skills are of the head-on, brute-force type.

Dragon Breath, Dragon Might, Dragon Flame, Dragon Domain; all its skills press down straightforwardly. Although fighting it is difficult, at least every move can be clearly seen, and a countermeasure can be found for every technique.

But the Void Divine Beast before him has seven skills, half of which are the eerie and unpredictable space type.

The passive has a probability of ignoring attacks, the control skill ignores conventional defense, the Clones cannot be distinguished from the real one, the burst skill is an area space collapse plus a black hole finisher, and there is even a Sun-Level single-target skill that can directly banish the target into the different-dimensional Void Realm.

This fighting style is completely different from the Azure Ancient Dragon.

The Azure Ancient Dragon fights you head-on with brute force, while the Void Divine Beast plays dirty.

You attack it, and it passively dodges.

You get close, and it locks you down with Void Anchoring.

You focus fire on it, and it activates Dimensional Mirror Clones, making you unable to tell which is real.

You pull back, and it bombards you from a distance with spatial rifts and Void Collapse.

You find an opening and want to take it down in one wave, and it immediately uses Dimensional Banishment to lock your main damage dealer into the different-dimensional Void Realm for five breaths.

"It truly lives up to being a space attribute. The core concept of this skill set can be summed up in four words: disgusting and troublesome."

Jiang Yun took a deep breath, the gravity in his eyes deepening.

But he had no intention of retreating; on the contrary, the corners of his mouth curled slightly upward.

"However! The Realm span is lower than the Azure Ancient Dragon. The Azure Ancient Dragon stacked from Amethyst Eighth Tier to Diamond Rank Nine, a full nine Realms. As for this one, at most, it stacks ten levels from Nether Abyss's Amethyst Eighth Tier, putting it roughly between Diamond Rank Six and Seven. Although it's two major Realms behind, it's less than one major Realm higher than the Diamond Rank Nine Azure Ancient Dragon. And while its skills are eerie, its frontal lethality is clearly not as tyrannical as the True Dragon innate skills. As long as the tactics are arranged properly, it's not impossible to break the situation."

His gaze swept over the skill list again, and his mind had already begun to rapidly construct a tactical framework.

The passive dodge of Void Stealth is a big trouble.

Forty percent base dodge, sixty percent when moving.

But the probability of this passive is halved against attacks containing the power of Law.

In other words, Nether Abyss's Origin Law attacks have a natural suppression effect on this passive.

Void Anchoring is a single-target control that ignores conventional defense and must be broken using the power of Law or space-attribute skills.

Among his three Beast Tamers, Nether Abyss has Origin Law and can break free; Little Skylark has the ten thousand thunders of the Wind-Thunder Calamity Domain, which might also interfere with the condensation of the anchor chains; Little Fire lacks the power of Law, so once anchored, it can only endure for three breaths.

Dimensional Mirror.

Two Clones, take no damage, cannot distinguish between real and fake, and the original body can instantly switch between mirrors.

This skill is the biggest variable; if not handled well, the firepower of the three Beast Tamers will be dispersed, causing output efficiency to be greatly reduced.

Dimensional Banishment is the biggest threat.

If it banishes Nether Abyss to the different-dimensional Void Realm for five breaths, losing the support of Origin Law to break defenses, the output of Little Fire and Little Skylark will be greatly reduced.

If it banishes Little Fire, the main damage output will be missing, and the battle will fall into a passive state.

"So the core idea is: cannot let Nether Abyss be banished, cannot let Little Fire be focused, cannot let Little Skylark lose maneuvering space."

Jiang Yun prioritized them in his mind, and the tactical framework gradually took shape.

He suddenly remembered another thing.

While at Sky Dome Academy.

That Lin Xinmu who challenged him.

Amethyst Tier 3, and his Beast Tamer was of the space attribute.

The reason Lin Xinmu dared to be so arrogant back then was largely because he relied on the eerie and troublesome nature of his space-attribute Beast Tamer, as well as the suppression of Realm.

Space-attribute Beast Tamers indeed have a natural combat advantage among the same tier; those elusive displacement skills and defense-ignoring control methods can often take out an opponent in one combo before they even understand the situation.

"Perfect, today I will use you as a practical textbook for my space-attribute Beast Tamer. After this fight, I will have a better grasp of how to deal with Lin Xinmu's space-attribute Beast Tamer in the future."

Jiang Yun's mouth curled slightly, and then he hesitated no more.

He raised his hand and slashed across his chest, and three rays of light of different colors shot out simultaneously.

The first ray.

Golden flames burned intensely, like the rising sun.

A huge dark golden Dragon body raised its head from the golden flames, its dragon horns jagged and its reverse scales standing on end. The Water-Fire Dragon Domain unfolded behind it with a boom, the sea of golden flames and the deep blue water Domain intertwining into a Taiji light wheel, dyeing half the sky of the entire silver-gray Void Realm in interwoven gold and blue.

As soon as Little Fire appeared, it let out a heaven-shaking Dragon roar; the True Dragon might contained within the roar caused the surrounding silver-gray spatial ripples to stagnate.

The second ray.

Wind and thunder intertwined; divine feathers of azure and pale purple suddenly unfolded in the Void Realm, and the thirty-meter wingspan stirred up violent wind and thunder air waves.

Little Skylark flapped its wings and appeared from the wind and thunder vortex. The three long purple feathers on its head fluttered in the wind, and the miniature thunderstorm patterns in its pupils suddenly lit up. The Wind-Thunder Calamity Domain expanded crazily in all directions with it as the center, and ten thousand thunders resounded in unison within the Calamity Domain.

The third ray.

Gloomy as an abyss, silent and soundless.

Nether Abyss walked slowly out of a twisted shadow, its long, lean, pitch-black panther body glowing with a faint purple halo, and the light of the dark attribute Origin Law in its Law Eyes was like two cold, icy stars.

It did not make any sound, but the dark attribute Origin Law power permeating its body had already caused the surrounding space to slightly distort.

Three Beast Tamers.

In Peak condition.

Majestic.

Unstoppable.

Just at the moment the three Beast Tamers appeared.

The Void Divine Beast's Aura exploded.

Silver-gray light shot into the sky from its massive python body woven from spatial rifts, and its Aura soared as if it had taken a rocket.

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Purple Gold, Diamond...

It surged all the way from a dormant state, and the Realm barriers were pierced through layer by layer as if made of paper.

When the Aura finally stabilized, the pressure emitted by the Void Divine Beast had reached a whole new level.

Diamond Eighth Tier.

From Nether Abyss's Amethyst Eighth Tier baseline, it increased by eight Realm levels, landing exactly at Diamond Rank Seven.

Two full minor tiers lower than the Azure Ancient Dragon.

Jiang Yun felt the final stable Realm Aura of the Void Divine Beast, and a flash of realization passed through his eyes.

"Sure enough, the Azure Ancient Dragon stacked from Purple Gold Rank Eight to Diamond Rank Nine, stacking ten Realms. Although the challenge difficulty of the void seed is eight Realm levels higher, this is a vague concept based on the grade of the treasure, and the actual increase is also about nine Realms. Plus, the strength of the Void Divine Beast's phantom body is not as good as the True Dragon remnant Soul, so it finally settled at Diamond Rank Seven, two tiers weaker than the Azure Ancient Dragon."

The corners of his mouth curled slightly.

"This is much easier to fight."

...

Meanwhile, outside the mystic light mirror.

The atmosphere in the square exploded the moment Jiang Yun summoned his three Beast Tamers.

Not because of how high the Void Divine Beast's Realm was, nor because of how exciting the duel in the challenge space was, but because...

The condition of those three Beast Tamers.

A young Disciple of the Liu family widened his eyes, his mouth open wide enough to fit a fist, and his finger pointed at the image in the mystic light mirror, trembling violently.

"Wrong!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!! Everyone, look at Grand Tutor Dongxuan's Beast Tamer!! That Water-Fire Dragon Domain of the golden flame True Dragon!! It had clearly shrunk by forty percent when finishing up earlier, and now it has fully unfolded again!! And the luster on the dragon scales is even brighter than before!! When did it recover?! When?!?"

"The Wind-Thunder Calamity Domain of that Wind-Thunder Divine Roc has also recovered!!"

Another Disciple screamed.

"When it finished fighting the Azure Ancient Dragon just now, the density of the thunder in the Wind-Thunder Calamity Domain was clearly thinned by at least half!! Now look!! Ten thousand thunders resounding in unison!! It's even denser than before!! How is this possible?! It hasn't even been half an incense stick of time, right?! Half an incense stick ago, it was still panting heavily!!"

"The most exaggerated one is that dark beast!! Look closely at the faint purple halo around its body!! When it finished fighting the Azure Ancient Dragon, it could barely open its eyes, and now that halo is even richer than before!! Its Aura has fully recovered!! That terrifying skill probably drained ninety percent of its spiritual energy, and it refilled in half an incense stick of time?! This is even more outrageous than taking a Divine Pill!!"

"All three!! All three have recovered!! Peak condition!!"

A Disciple clutched his head with both hands, fingers buried deep in his hair, his face a mask of confusion and shock as his worldview was shattered and then desperately pieced back together.

"What is going on with Grand Tutor Dongxuan's beasts?! Do they not need time to recover?! We all witnessed that battle just now; every one of those three beasts reached its limit—a real limit, not a facade!! And yet, look at them now!! In less than half an incense stick of time, they are as spirited as if they'd just woken up from a nap!! This defies all logic!! It doesn't follow any rules of beast recovery!!"

"What means has Grand Tutor Dongxuan used?! Even a Legendary Grade recovery Medicinal Pill couldn't possibly restore three beasts to full strength within half an incense stick of time, could it?! Those are three Purple Gold Rank Divine Beast Bloodline beasts!! Their spiritual energy reserves are several times larger than those of beasts at the same level!! They should require even more time to recover!!"

In the area where the deacons and managing Elders were located, the depth of shock was clearly a level higher than that of the ordinary Disciples.

The white-haired deacon Elder leaned heavily on his cane, his knuckles turning pale from the excessive force.

He stared fixedly at the three imposing beasts in the mystic light mirror, a look of extreme complexity flickering in his cloudy, aged eyes.

"This cannot be a Medicinal Pill… I have lived for so many years and have never seen any Medicinal Pill capable of restoring Purple Gold Rank Divine Beast beasts from exhaustion to their Peak state within half an incense stick of time. Even the legendary Divine-Grade recovery Medicinal Pill can only affect a single beast at a time, and the recovery process itself takes time. But these three beasts—they all recovered at the same time, within a mere half an incense stick of time. This is no longer something a Medicinal Pill can achieve."

"Then what is this?" a managing Elder nearby asked urgently.

"It couldn't possibly be that they recovered on their own, could it? I know full well the spiritual energy recovery speed of Purple Gold Rank beasts. To recover from thirty percent to one hundred percent without meditation or medicine would take at least half a day. Half an incense stick of time? One wouldn't even dare to dream of such a thing."

"I do not know either." The white-haired deacon Elder shook his head slowly, his voice laced with deep shock and confusion.

"But one thing I am certain of: Grand Tutor Dongxuan must possess some kind of recovery means that we cannot comprehend. It is not a Medicinal Pill, nor a treasure, but a more fundamental, more Heaven-Defying recovery mechanism. This kind of method is something I have never seen in the Eastern Region, and I fear it is not even recorded in the ancient texts of the Central Province."

"This is no longer a question of whether he is a Genius or not…" the voice of another managing Elder carried a hint of a bitter smile.

"This is a Prodigy. A true Prodigy. To be able to rewrite even the Laws of beast recovery—such an existence cannot be measured by common logic."

Meanwhile, on the high platform where the Grand Elders were located, there was silence. Utter silence.

When the three beasts appeared in the mystic light mirror in their prime state, the expressions of all the Grand Elders froze in that instant.

Supreme Elder Liu Yunshan's pupils contracted violently, and his knuckles, with his hands clasped behind his back, emitted a faint cracking sound.

Liu Lie's face turned pale as paper in an instant, his lips trembling slightly, yet he could not utter a sound.

On that aged face, which had just moments ago been full of certainty, there now remained only a look of disbelief and the confusion of a worldview thoroughly shattered.

Every word he had spoken so confidently before—the two-day time limit, the impossibility of the beasts recovering, Grand Tutor Dongxuan just going in to take a look—now turned into invisible palms, repeatedly slapping him across the face.

The other conservative Grand Elders were even more ashen-faced. Some had their mouths hanging open, having forgotten to close them; some had their hands frozen in mid-air while clutching their beards; others had subconsciously taken half a step back, as if the scene in the mystic light mirror were some terrifying monster.

"They… they have all recovered…" the voice of one conservative Grand Elder was as dry as sandpaper rubbing together, every word seeming to be squeezed hard from his throat.

"All three… all three have recovered… to their Peak state… and it has only been half an incense stick of time… Just half an incense stick ago, they were panting heavily beside the corpse of the Azure Ancient Dragon… Now, it's as if they've been replaced by three different beasts… What on earth is going on?!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Liu Lie finally snapped out of his rigidity, his voice rising a full octave higher than before, carrying a tone of near-collapsing hysteria.

"I have lived for so many years and have never seen a beast fully recover from such a level of exhaustion in such a short time!! Even Legendary Grade Medicinal Pills cannot achieve this!! Even legendary healing skills cannot achieve this!! These are three Divine Beast Bloodline beasts!! Their spiritual energy reserves are several times larger than those of beasts at the same level!! The resources required for recovery are also doubled!! How is it possible for them to be fully restored within half an incense stick of time?!"

"But the facts are right before your eyes, Elder Liu Lie." Elder Liu Lan's voice suddenly rang out from the crowd, flat and calm, yet it was like a knife precisely plunged into Liu Lie's heart.

"Grand Tutor Dongxuan's three beasts have indeed recovered. Not thirty percent, not fifty percent, but one hundred percent. Furthermore, this has happened before with Grand Tutor Dongxuan; after his beasts finished a fierce battle, they recovered to their original state in less than a minute or two. This is not a coincidence, nor a one-time trump card; it is some kind of Heaven-Defying recovery means he possesses that we cannot comprehend."

Liu Lie's lips trembled violently several times; he wanted to retort, but found he had nothing to say. Because the scene in the mystic light mirror was right there. The three beasts' Auras were full and abundant, their Domains were fully opened, and Dragon Breath and wind-thunder roared in unison—where was there even the slightest sign of over-exertion?

"No wonder… no wonder he dared to immediately trigger the challenge Restriction for the void seed after defeating the Azure Ancient Dragon…" Supreme Elder Liu Yunshan spoke slowly. His voice carried a hint of deep bitterness and self-mockery.

"We were all worried that his beasts had consumed too much, and we were all guessing whether he was just going in to take a look, but he had no need to worry at all. Because for his beasts, the concept of exhaustion simply does not exist. They finish one battle, recover in a minute or two, and then proceed to the next. This speed of recovery… is no longer something that can be explained by common logic."

His gaze landed on the back of the youth in the mystic light mirror, and a flash of complex admiration and helplessness crossed his eyes.

"We have been using common logic to speculate about a person who cannot be measured by common logic. Every time we thought something was impossible, he would tell us it was possible with a resounding slap to our faces. From the ancestral grounds to the treasure vault, from the Nether Phoenix soul crystal to the ancestral dragon essence blood, it has been like this every time. And we…" He let out a bitter laugh. "We still haven't learned our lesson."

These words were like a heavy hammer, striking hard at the heart of every Grand Elder. Indeed, they still hadn't learned their lesson.

Every time they said it was impossible, every time they were slapped in the face. From Gold Rank being impossible to Purple Gold Rank being impossible, from two Divine Beasts being impossible to three Divine Beasts being impossible, from Purple Gold fighting Diamond being impossible to the Azure Ancient Dragon being slain—all along the way, that Grand Tutor Dongxuan used possibility after possibility to slap their faces until they were swollen again and again. And now, another slap. Loud and crisp, merciless.

Liu Lie stood where he was, his face having completely lost all color. His lips were still trembling slightly, as if silently repeating something, but no one could hear what he was saying. The fragments of the teacup he had smashed earlier beneath his feet had now been crushed into even finer debris by the crowd, just like his dignity that had been shattered over and over again.

At the very front of everyone, Liu Qingyun's expression was complex. He had already had this premonition the moment Jiang Yun triggered the challenge Restriction. From the ancestral grounds to the treasure vault, he had personally witnessed too many impossibilities from this Grand Tutor Dongxuan; his immune System had been completely shattered.

Therefore, while the other Grand Elders were still confidently analyzing why the beasts could not possibly recover, he had already prepared for the worst in his heart. And now, that worst-case scenario had become reality. His premonition had been fulfilled.

Liu Qingyun watched the three imposing, fully-restored beasts in the mystic light mirror, watched the youth standing in the Void Realm, calmly appraising the Void Divine Beast, and the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably again and again.

"As expected…" he squeezed four words out from between his teeth, his voice low and hoarse, carrying a sense of deep helplessness and despair.

"This kid… simply cannot be viewed with common logic."

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart, but the heartache surging from the depths of his Soul could not be suppressed no matter how hard he tried. He felt as if his heart were being clutched in someone's hand, being squeezed hard, beat by beat.

The ancestral dragon essence blood was already gone. Now, the void seed would likely not be kept either. Of the three clan-protecting supreme treasures on the seventh floor, it looked like this Grand Tutor Dongxuan was about to take away two of them all by himself. And he, the current family head of the Liu clan, an Eclipsing Moon Rank high-level expert, and a direct descendant of the Old Ancestor Tianxing, could only stand here and watch, unable to even utter a single word of refusal.

Because he had no reason to stop him. Everything was within the rules, everything was within the promises made. The promise was one he had made himself, and the rules were ones he had personally agreed to. The other party had challenged him uprightly and won fairly and squarely; every treasure had been won without a shred of controversy. This was what they called lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own feet. No… this wasn't just dropping it on his feet; this was lifting the rock and smashing it against his own heart.

"Family Head…" the voice of a conservative Grand Elder came from behind him, full of grievance and unwillingness. "Are we really just going to watch him… take away the void seed as well?"

Liu Qingyun was silent for a moment. Then, slowly, very slowly, he spoke a sentence. "A promise is a promise. The Liu clan is a reclusive clan of thousands of years; we must keep our word, and integrity comes first. He won, so the treasure is his."

"Moreover, if you don't give it to him, what can you do to him? Provoke this Prodigy and invite the powerful forces behind him to bring disaster upon the Liu clan?"

When he said this, his tone was steady enough, his demeanor decent enough, and he lacked none of the bearing a family head should have. But only he himself knew. His heart was bleeding. One drop… one drop… and another drop…