23: The anger of Yuanying, the oriole behind

Above the sky, winds and clouds swirled.

A massive azure hand, formed from immense Divine Thought and wood-elemental Spiritual Qi, tore through the clouds, blotting out the sky and sun, and slowly descended towards Jiang Chen’s location.

Before the giant hand even landed, the Law’s pressure from a higher-tier being had already caused the earth for several miles around to sink inch by inch!

Space, like solidified amber.

The air, so dense it couldn't be dispersed.

Jiang Chen’s Myriad Laws Dao Body was enduring a terrifying force, one of being repelled and crushed by the entire world.

He felt like a pebble thrown into a steel-making furnace; everything around him was trying to melt and erase him.

Resisting directly?

It was utterly impossible.

Jiang Chen didn’t even entertain the thought.

The Nine Aperture Star Sea within him spun frantically at this moment.

All of his Formless Life Essence was not used to construct any defenses, but instead poured entirely into the aperture representing the “Array Dao Heavenly Heart”!

His eyes instantly transformed into an infinitely deep starry sky.

In his vision, this space, solidified by Nascent Soul Divine Thought, was no longer an unyielding plate.

It had become a vast net woven from countless fine, taut energy threads.

And that azure wood cauldron giant hand was the source of power driving this net.

This net appeared seamless.

But under the extreme analysis of Jiang Chen’s “Array Dao Heavenly Heart,” within the structure of those countless interwoven threads, he found a point.

A Domain of absolute “nothingness,” smaller than a needlepoint, created by the mutual extrusion and counter-impact of Divine Thought power.

A structural singularity that Law could not touch, and power could not interfere with.

Just a split second before that azure wood cauldron giant hand, carrying world-ending might, crashed down with a roar.

Jiang Chen moved.

His body twisted sharply in a posture no Mortal could ever achieve.

He was like a boneless fish.

Or like a wisp of smoke that happened to slip through a window crack.

He “slipped” into that imperceptible singularity.

Boom—!!!

The azure wood cauldron giant hand slammed down heavily.

The earth groaned violently, and centered on the impact point, a terrifying palm print a hundred zhang deep abruptly appeared!

Within the palm print, all matter was crushed into its most primitive dust.

The destructive shockwave once again swept away the surrounding poisonous miasma and remaining trees.

A thousand li away, Hundred Herb Valley.

Deep within the Forbidden Ground, that Nascent Soul Ancestor let out an extremely faint “Oh?”

In his Divine Thought perception, at the very instant the giant hand struck, the aura of that “ant” had vanished into thin air.

Not crushed, not annihilated.

But as if, from the very beginning, he had never existed at that spatiotemporal coordinate.

The Karma he had locked onto was broken.

This feeling was like a Mortal gathering all his strength to punch violently into water.

Empty, with power nowhere to be used.

This caused his state of mind, which had not wavered for hundreds of years, to ripple for the first time.

And just as his Divine Thought attack missed, creating that momentary pause.

An unforeseen change suddenly occurred!

A shadowy figure appeared silently behind Mu Changqing, who had fallen unconscious on the ground.

It was the hunchbacked old man.

In his hand, he held a pale bone blade less than a foot long.

A faint green light emanated from the bone blade, clearly indicating it was coated with a deadly, fast-acting poison.

Without the slightest hesitation.

The bone blade traced a cold arc, precisely slashing across Mu Changqing’s neck.

“Puff.”

A soft sound.

This Golden Core Late Stage Elder of Hundred Herb Valley didn’t even have time to let out a grunt before his head rolled to the side, his life force completely extinguished.

The oriole was behind.

Shadow Tower, at the most crucial moment, plucked this ripe peach.

The hunchbacked old man moved swiftly.

He grabbed the Storage Pouch from Mu Changqing’s waist and picked up the cracked azure wood cauldron.

Then, without even looking, he threw both items with all his might towards the center of the giant palm print!

The transaction was complete.

Almost simultaneously, Ghost Hand’s hoarse voice, tinged with a hint of playfulness, resounded directly in Jiang Chen’s mind.

“The second descent of Nascent Soul Divine Thought requires ten breaths. This is your only chance.”

In the center of the giant palm, smoke and dust billowed.

Jiang Chen’s figure emerged from that “singularity,” once again “existing” in this world.

He caught the flying Storage Pouch and azure wood cauldron, and without even a glance, stuffed them into his embrace.

Ten breaths?

He didn't want to stay even for one breath longer.

Turning around, he unhesitatingly rushed in one direction.

There, deep within the Mist Forest, was an escape route he had already scouted with his “Array Dao Heavenly Heart.”

An underground river leading directly a hundred zhang deep into the earth.

He clearly knew that the gap between him and a Nascent Soul Cultivator at this moment was a dimensional difference.

Any hint of greed or lucky would lead to true death.

He rushed into an inconspicuous pile of rubble, stomped on a disguised rock, revealing a dark cave entrance, and leaped in.

The cold river water instantly engulfed him.

Almost on the third breath after he jumped into the underground river.

Above the sky, the Nascent Soul Ancestor’s second Divine Thought attack descended!

This time, it was no longer a materialized giant hand.

Instead, it was an even more violent, more enraged Divine Thought storm, sweeping down!

“Booming!”

Wherever the Divine Thought storm passed, the entire Mist Forest, along with the hundred-zhang-thick topsoil, was forcibly ripped up and then crushed into dust by the violent power!

A giant, bottomless crater, even larger than the previous palm print, appeared on this land.

However.

The underground river perfectly isolated the Divine Thought’s probing.

The enraged Nascent Soul Ancestor plowed the entire area three feet deep, but only found Mu Changqing’s cold corpse and the remnants of the Disciples that had long turned into pus.

The target had vanished.

Hundred Herb Valley, this time, had lost both its wife and its soldiers.