359: Chapter 359 What just happened?

The Intern Researcher's voice, filled with doubt, sounded particularly abrupt in the deathly silent observation stand.

His words, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly shattered everyone's frozen state.

Team Leader Liu snapped back to his senses, shifting his gaze from the snowy screen to look around blankly.

"The data! Where's the data!" he roared subconsciously.

"Reporting, Team Leader... all monitoring equipment overloaded and burned out thirty seconds ago!"

"What?"

Team Leader Liu dashed to the main control console, looking at the precision instruments emitting green smoke, completely stunned.

Burned out?

The S-grade monitoring equipment specially supplied by the Organization, top-tier gear capable of recording battles between Mythical-level Professionals in real-time, had just... burned out?

What had just happened?

He tried hard to remember, but his mind was a complete blank.

It seemed... Miss Lin Yao's attack was about to land.

And then?

Then, there was no then.

It was as if the entire world had skipped a frame; all that earth-shattering energy and world-destroying momentum had vanished into thin air.

Like a grand movie reaching its climax when the player suddenly freezes, and upon clicking play again, it has already jumped to the end credits.

"Old Zhang, did you see clearly just now?" Team Leader Liu turned his head toward the most senior analyst.

The Old Analyst adjusted his glasses, his eyes behind the lenses equally filled with confusion.

He opened his mouth, but not a single sound came from his throat.

A ten-minute battle of attrition?

His judgment from a moment ago sounded like a massive joke now.

In his thirty-year career, having analyzed over a thousand high-spec battles, he had never seen such a bizarre sight.

Energy is conserved.

Such a massive torrent of spells couldn't just vanish into thin air.

Where did it go?

...Inside the Duel Arena.

Lin Yu looked at everything before him, understanding perfectly.

I overdid it.

His initial plan was simply to use the extreme low temperature of the Frost Technique to freeze Lin Yao's spell structure, making her realize that energy application wasn't just about being grand.

But he had underestimated the qualitative change this Apprentice-level spell underwent after a billion-fold amplification.

It was no longer just simple "cold."

It was a power that brought all matter's movement to an absolute standstill at the atomic level.

In that instant, extreme cold enveloped the entire arena.

Air, energy, light, and even the bioelectric signals that thoughts depend on were all frozen.

Thus, most people present didn't "see" the process of the spells being frozen.

Because their very act of "seeing" had also been paused.

To them, the world had merely stuttered for a moment.

Only a tiny few whose Spiritual Power was strong enough, or those closest to the core, could barely catch the anomaly of that moment.

Lin Yu's gaze fell upon Wen Yan in front of him.

This elite of the Fangs Special Operations Team was currently maintaining a posture with his hands clasped together, motionless.

The thin layer of frost covering him was rapidly dissipating.

But he himself stood there stiffly, like a shell whose soul had been extracted.

Lin Yu knew that he had noticed.

But so what?

He turned around and walked toward his sister, who was also in a daze.

Lin Yao's small face was deathly pale.

Unlike the people on the observation stand, she wasn't completely unaware.

The moment the torrent of spells was about to leave her hands, an indescribable fear stemming from biological instinct seized her heart.

It wasn't a confrontation of power, nor the annihilation of energy.

It was a kind of... "end."

She felt like what she was about to release wasn't a spell, but a fragile piece of glassware.

And her brother was the hammer that could easily smash it to pieces.

So, subconsciously, she stopped her casting.

All the energy dissipated within her body.

"Still want to fight?"

Lin Yu walked up to her and raised his hand, rubbing her head just like when they were children.

Lin Yao's lips quivered, but she couldn't form a complete syllable.

"Brother... I..."

Her teeth were chattering uncontrollably, and her body shook like a leaf in the autumn wind.

It wasn't because of the cold.

It was the severe backlash from the torrent of spells being forcibly stopped and dissipated within her body. Every inch of her meridians and every single cell was enduring the tearing of violent energy.

Lin Yu reached out, his warm palm covering the top of her head.

A soft, emerald-green light slowly flowed from his palm into Lin Yao's body.

Vitality Nourishment.

The warm current surged through her limbs and bones like spring rain, instantly extinguishing the raging fire within her. That tearing pain was quickly smoothed over and healed.

Lin Yao's shaking gradually stopped, and a hint of color returned to her pale face.

She looked up, staring blankly at her brother, her bright eyes filled with lingering fear and confusion.

Just now... what exactly happened?

...On the other side of the Duel Arena.

The thin layer of frost covering Wen Yan had long since vanished without a trace.

He had regained his ability to move.

But he didn't move.

He stood frozen in place like a stone statue.

His brain experienced a thirty-second period of absolute blankness.

It wasn't blurred memory or slow reaction; it was a piece that had been completely hollowed out.

Before that blankness, his last perception was that almost negligible white chill wafting from Lin Yu's fingertip.

Then... there was no then.

When his consciousness reconnected, the world had returned to its original state.

No.

That's not right.

From inside Wen Yan's body came a faint sound of shattering.

The Composite Defense System he took pride in, formed by stacking dozens of top-tier techniques, was disintegrating layer by layer and collapsing inch by inch, starting from its innermost core.

Silent and soundless.

Even without triggering any alarms.

His defense was like a hollow shell with all its supports removed from within; a gentle touch would turn it to dust.

A chill shot up from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.

It wasn't physical low temperature, but the most primitive fear stemming from the unknown and absolute power.

He whipped his head around, staring fixedly at Lin Yu.

That man was gently patting his sister's back, as if comforting a frightened kitten.

That composure and calm formed a piercingly sharp contrast with the turbulent waves currently crashing in Wen Yan's heart.

Countless possibilities flashed frantically through Wen Yan's mind.

Space freeze?

Time stop?

Rule erasure?

No... none of those.

Those concepts, though powerful, still left traces and energy fluctuations that could be captured.

But in that moment just now, there was nothing.

Not just matter, not just energy—even the very concept of "thought" itself had been paused.

A thought so absurd that he himself found it insane emerged uncontrollably.

Could it be... that even thoughts were frozen?