Lan Jue didn't know what Jun Yongye's attack was, but he could feel the depth of its power. It was as if the world itself was being torn apart. It was even more direct than the Wine Master's Cosmagus.
But there had to be something to it.
Lan Jue's palms curved. Bolts of lightning swirled around his body. Black and white lightning crackled and bloomed.
Every time it bloomed, it repeated the process of expansion and contraction.
The pressure around him grew stronger and stronger. An invisible force bore down on him. His Taiji had a hard time expanding.
In the face of that power, he could only watch helplessly as his lightning continued to disintegrate.
Then the process repeated itself.
It was terrifying. This was the first time Lan Jue had ever felt anything like this.
It wasn't just his energy and body that were being squeezed. Even the energy core in his chest and even his mind were being squeezed by this pressure.
Strangely, Lan Jue felt as if his body was collapsing. It was as if space itself was collapsing.
No!
He couldn't let this go on.
Lan Jue bit the tip of his tongue. His eyes flashed as he pulled his hands back to his sides. The Core in his chest exploded with a blinding light. A small black and white yin-yang symbol emerged from his chest. The white part of the symbol shone brightly.
Lan Jue's aura of righteousness surged from his body. He thrust out nine palms.
Nine palms overlapped. White light erupted from them. Although each light disintegrated as soon as it appeared, the lightning in front of Lan Jue's eyes continued to grow.
Then something strange happened.
More and more.
It was as if the white light had been condensed to the limit.
Suddenly, a black dot appeared in the center.
Lan Jue's pupils shrank to the size of a needle.
His right hand flared with a brilliant white light. His index finger pointed forward, right at the black dot in the center of the white lightning.
In that instant, time seemed to stop. The white dot and the black dot instantly fused together, and the space that was originally collapsing suddenly intensified.
It was as if the entire world had been sucked in.
A muffled explosion rang out, followed by a violent tremor in the entire competition stage.
The audience watched as Jun Yongye swung his sword, and then space itself collapsed. Lan Jue was trapped within. Lan Jue lost control of the chaotic Taiji energy.
However, in the next moment, an extremely strange change occurred in the collapsed space. The first thing that appeared was that the collapse of the space was …
It was Lan Jue's own body.
Lan Jue thrust out nine palms in a row to stabilize himself.
Following that, he pointed his finger again.
This finger caused the sky and earth to change color. With his body as the center, an unparalleled azure thunder instantly erupted. The light of the thunder was blue at first, then it turned gold, silver, and finally incandescent.
Jun Yongye's sword buzzed, and then he was sucked into it.
He swung his sword three times in a row, severing his connection to the suction. He retreated like a bolt of lightning.
In the next instant, the barrier around the competition stage began to tremble violently, and the circular barrier began to rapidly collapse inwards. It was as if an unparalleled vortex had suddenly appeared within it, and it was pulling at the barrier.
"Not good!" The Terminator growled. He leaped into the air, accompanied by the Epochrion.
This was the Major League Arena, with a hundred thousand spectators. If something went wrong, the lives of a hundred thousand people would be at stake!
The Major League, as the organizers of the tournament, couldn't afford to be held responsible.
The destruction of the shield meant they hadn't prepared well enough. Even the Paragons couldn't afford to lose too many people.
The two Paragons appeared in the air above the arena at the same time. They spread their arms wide, and the entire arena was enveloped in a wave of energy.
The Terminator and the Epochrion had worked together for a long time, and were familiar with each other's abilities.
The Epochrion's rainbow light and the Terminator's black light melded into one. The two energies merged to form a new shield of light.
By the time they'd finished, the ring's defenses had been shattered. A powerful gravitational force pulled in the two Paragons' shields, causing them to collapse in on themselves.
Due to the fusion of the black and rainbow energy, the audience could no longer see what was happening on the stage. However, they could see that the newly formed light barrier had suddenly become strange due to the internal suction force. It was as if a person had suddenly sucked his face in and completely caved in.
The Terminator's face darkened. Even the Epochrion frowned.
They could feel the power of the Paragons. Even more frightening was the fact that this wasn't the kind of power a Paragon could wield through their comprehension of protogenia. This was the power of a Paragon.
In theory, an Adept shouldn't be able to unleash an attack like this.
It defied the laws of protogenia.
But no matter what they thought, the situation had already unfolded.
The truth was right in front of them. Lan Jue had created this terrifying transformation.
The incredible changes were yet to come. When that point collapsed to its limit, Chen Xiaobei's eyes widened.
There was a crisp crack, and the space within the barrier exploded.
A terrifying wave of energy erupted from the two Paragons. The Paragons' shields, which had been shrinking a moment ago, suddenly expanded to their limits.
It was like a balloon being inflated.
The edge of the barrier was close to the audience.
Only now did the audience realize they were afraid.
They could feel the terrifying power contained within the shield. The pressure was so great that they slumped in their seats.
Was … was this really something a human could do?
The Terminator and the Epochrion were equally shocked. The Paragon roared, and an enormous shadow appeared behind him. It had three heads and six arms, and each arm was attached to a giant hammer. The six hammers smashed into the air, and space itself cracked. Six balls of black light shot out from the cracks and poured into the barrier, stopping it from expanding further.
The Spacetime Dominus was not idle either. The rainbow light emanating from her body suddenly became pure white.
Behind her, the shadow of a huge clock emerged. This clock looked very old, and there was a pendulum below it. The pendulum swayed gently, and time seemed to have stopped. On the light shield below, a strange light film of time appeared.
All the energy that struck the light membrane became sluggish.
The Terminator's eyes flashed with a black light. Under the pressure of his terrifying power, the barrier began to shrink inward. The energy that had exploded within it began to calm down.
Two Paragons had to use their Domains to quell the explosion. It was a testament to the power of the attack.
The two Paragons didn't have time to worry about the safety of the two competitors.
The Gourmet had long since risen to his feet, but he couldn't do what the two Paragons could do on his own.
He couldn't even stop them. Although he couldn't see what was happening, he knew Lan Jue wasn't in a good state.
But if they let that terrible energy explode, it would kill over a hundred thousand people!
And that wasn't even counting the excited spectators gathered outside the Major League Arena.
Finally, under the combined pressure of the two Paragons, the energy within the arena began to subside.
After another minute, the two Paragons withdrew their Domains.
When the audience saw the arena, they sucked in a breath of cold air.
The recently repaired arena was gone. It was as if the superalloy had evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace behind. All that was left was a hundred-meter deep crater in the ground.
In the center of the crater, Lan Jue struggled to his feet. His golden tunic and robes were no more than a beggar's suit. Thankfully, they hadn't completely disappeared.
The mask on his face was gone, revealing his true features.
His hair was a mess, and he looked like a mess.
The White Blademaster, Jun Yongye, was nowhere to be seen. In front of Lan Jue floated a dark blue sword.
It was identical to Jun Yongye's sword, but there were a few more runes etched into its surface. The runes glowed with a faint light.
Suddenly, a halo of light erupted from the sword. It coalesced into Jun Yongye.
Jun Yongye was a sorry sight. His clothes were more tattered than Lan Jue's, and his face was pale. He had used up too much energy.
Their eyes met, and the two of them could see the sympathy in each other's eyes.
"I lost," Jun Yongye said helplessly.
"It wasn't easy for me either!"
Lan Jue extended her right hand to him. Jun Yongye shook it, and the two of them smiled at each other.
"But it was worth it," Jun Yongye said.
Lan Jue's face twitched. How did this guy get so out of line? Like Xuanyuan Shishi, he said things she didn't understand.
Step by step, step by step towards victory. Step by step, step by step.
That's what I wanted to write.
I hope you'll enjoy it. It's a new week, and I'm looking for votes.
(To be continued …)