32: Vanished in public! This spatial magic terrified the elder!

Inside the Elder Hall, the air was terrifyingly still.

It was so quiet that when Ling Qingzhu's fingertips trembled slightly, the white jade cup of spiritual tea clinked against the red sandalwood table with a very faint 'ding'.

This sound, however, was like a clap of thunder, exploding within everyone's Divine Soul.

Everyone's gaze was fixed firmly on the Golden Silk Phoebe pillar that Su Chen had just been leaning against.

The pillar was still there.

The person was gone.

Just like that, under the Divine Thought lock of over a dozen Saint Kings and Great Sage Ancestors, and under the complex gaze of his Fiancée, Ling Qingzhu, he vanished without any logic.

It wasn't tearing through space.

Nor was it escaping into the Void Realm.

Those present were all existences standing at the peak of the Xuanyuan Continent; their Divine Thoughts could clearly capture the trajectory of a single speck of dust in the spatial turbulence.

But just now, they had captured nothing.

There was not a trace of spiritual Qi fluctuation.

There was not an inch of spatial ripple.

Su Chen's figure was like the reflection of the moon in water scattered by the wind, or ink fading into water, gradually thinning until it completely dissolved into light and shadow.

It was as if he had never truly existed.

It was as if this indestructible Elder Hall, this piece of heaven and earth protected by a grand array, simply had no right to make him stay.

"..."

A Su Family Old Ancestor who had lived for ninety thousand years, whose body had already half-petrified, had his Adam's apple roll with difficulty.

His Divine Thought frantically swept over the place where Su Chen had vanished—once, ten times, a hundred times!

The result was always the same.

Empty.

There was nothing there.

"This..."

Seventh Elder Su's hand, which had originally intended to support Su Chen, was still hanging awkwardly in mid-air. He stared blankly at the air in front of him, the muscles on his old face twitching violently and involuntarily.

Immediately after, a whisper filled with endless shock and trembling was squeezed out from the mouth of an Old Ancestor.

"This isn't teleportation."

Another Old Ancestor added with a raspy voice.

"This isn't even a Divine Ability."

Finally, the highest-ranking Third Ancestor, Su Wangu, in those cloudy eyes that seemed to have seen through the ages, only a thick, inseparable shock and awe remained. He spat out that conclusion that shattered everyone's mind word by word.

"It is... the Dao."

He is the Void itself!

Ling Qingzhu stood frozen on the spot.

Those eyes, as cold as winter stars, were now filled with confusion and emptiness, as if the jade pillar supporting her entire worldview had been shattered into pieces by that dissipating figure with nonchalant ease.

What did he... just do?

In Ling Qingzhu's mind, the sentence from Su Chen's diary uncontrollably echoed with a boom.

[Sigh, in the end, I'm just too kind. I'm so strong, yet I have to pretend to be a weakling, enduring the 'hopeless case' looks from others every day. Who can understand this kind of pain?]

Before, she only thought this was his narcissistic nonsense to the core.

But now, she finally understood.

In that sentence, there was not a hint of boasting.

There was only bottomless loneliness and the bone-deep helplessness after looking down upon all living beings!

Strong!

He was too strong!

So strong that this world had become a cage binding him!

So strong that he had to disguise himself as the most mediocre and lazy Mortal just to barely be 'compatible' with this world that, in his eyes, was perhaps incredibly fragile!

He wasn't pretending.

He was... looking down from above!

And she actually wanted to use that pathetic 'achievement' of narrowly escaping from the Thunder Lion's claws to prove herself to him?

Ling Qingzhu's cheeks instantly turned burning hot.

That feeling was like a child building a castle on the beach, excitedly taking their proudest work and running to a white-haired Immortal who was playing chess above the galaxy, deducing the birth and death of the Universe, and boastfully showing off their 'masterpiece'.

How childish!

How laughable!

Her hand that was ready to take out the jade box had quietly lowered at some point.

The cold jade box containing Qin Feng's severed arm and the 'God-Slaying Needle' felt so icy and full of irony in her Storage Ring right now.

She still wanted to use this to claim credit?

It was simply inviting humiliation!

No wonder... no wonder he would look at her with that cold, perfunctory gaze.

No wonder he would directly disappear in a way that was almost like 'fleeing in panic'.

He wasn't angry, and he certainly wasn't punishing her.

He was just... too lazy to explain.

From his Realm, everything she did was like a child's play, not worth mentioning at all.

He didn't even care to listen.

Because that would only make him feel even more... bored and troubled.

A sense of defeat strong enough to crush her Dao Heart, mixed with endless shame, instantly submerged Ling Qingzhu.

She had always thought she was a Prodigy of the Jade Pool, rarely seen in ten thousand years.

But today she realized that the gap between her and that man was not between a mountain and a sea.

It was between dust and the stars!

Just as everyone in the hall was immersed in immense shock and unable to extricate themselves.

"Slap!"

A crisp sound of someone slapping their thigh broke the dead silence.

Seventh Elder Su was the first to react. He didn't go to marvel at that unfathomable spatial Dao.

The focus of his attention was always so peculiar.

He was shaking with excitement, his face flushed with red, pointing at the direction where Su Chen had vanished. In an incomparably proud and boastful tone, he announced loudly to the entire room and to Ling Qingzhu!

"Did you see that! Did you all see that!"

"This! This is the Divine Son of our Su Family!"

"Having just repelled a powerful enemy, he is neither arrogant nor impetuous, unmoved by external things, and even less tempted by beauty!"

"In his heart, there is only the Great Dao!"

"Glimpsing a trace of true intent, he immediately cast everything aside, racing against time to go into secluded cultivation to consolidate it! He wasn't willing to delay for even a single breath!"

"What a firm heart for the Dao! What a terrifying cultivation maniac!"

"With such a Divine Son, why should our Su Family worry about not being able to reign over the Nine Heavens!"

Seventh Elder's words were full of passion and provocation.

Hearing this, the other Elders also nodded one after another in agreement, their faces showing complex expressions of shame and shared glory.

"Indeed! What the Seventh Elder said is absolutely correct!"

"His Highness the Divine Son only has cultivation in his heart. We Mortals are far beyond his reach!"

"Although the Yaochi Saintess is devastatingly beautiful, in the eyes of His Highness the Divine Son, she is probably not as important as a single trace of Dao comprehension."

"Sigh, before this, we actually misunderstood His Highness the Divine Son as someone who craves pleasure. It's truly... a sin, a sin!"

A group of Su Family Elders, each chiming in, began a new round of frantic overthinking and self-reflection.

The way they looked at Ling Qingzhu also changed from 'satisfaction' to deep 'sympathy'.

Poor girl.

To be born with such peerless elegance and talent that is rare throughout the ages.

What a pity she encountered our Divine Son, such a 'cultivation lunatic' who is single-mindedly devoted to the Dao and stays away from women.

This future path as the Divine Son's Consort is likely to be... long and difficult, with slim hopes.

Ling Qingzhu: "..."

Listening to the discussions of the Su Family Elders around her, her heart was filled with a mix of emotions.

Shame, anger, grievance, unwillingness, shock, defeat... all sorts of extremely complex emotions frantically intertwined in her heart, but in the end, they all turned into a deep and helpless sigh.

She looked at the place where Su Chen had vanished. In those cold eyes, the misty moisture had dispersed at some point.

In its place was an unprecedented determination.

Su Chen... so, you weren't angry with me.

You just... simply thought I was too weak, too childish, and were too lazy to deal with me?

At this moment, Ling Qingzhu did not give up.

Instead, an even stronger fighting spirit blazed fiercely from the deepest part of her Dao Heart!

She wanted to become strong!

Become even stronger!

Strong enough to stand by your side, strong enough for you to look at me directly, strong enough... so that you can never escape from me again!