Xing Shang and Wei Yun, being within the Illusionary Domain, naturally saw dozens of illusory projections of themselves manifest. These projections were originally mere phantoms, possessing no offensive power whatsoever.
However, a bizarre event unfolded at that moment.
The several dozen illusions formed in their likeness suddenly seemed imbued with life, injected with surging vitality, and shockingly, they broke through the boundary to aggressively assault their true selves.
Xing Shang cultivated the profound mystery of Lightning, while Wei Yun practiced a rare doctrine of Cloud. With a flicker of thought from Xing Shang, his Primeval Realm materialized. Bolts of lightning erupted and exploded within it, connecting heaven and earth with earth-shattering might.
The thousands of lightning bolts within the Primeval Realm, thick as colossal serpents, instantly shifted from ethereal to solid upon receiving Xing Shang's divine power. They coalesced before his eyes, transforming into a vast river of lightning. Within that river, thunder roared and lightning flashed, spewing dazzling sparks of fire and emitting the sound of devastating, surging ferocity.
The dozens of Xing Shang illusions were engulfed by the coalesced river of lightning before they could even approach him.
Wei Yun formed hand seals. As the seals materialized, tens of thousands of multicolored clouds soared from his palms—crimson, deep black, azure, grey, green. These vibrant clouds swirled around him like immense balloons, each one infused with Wei Yun's spiritual power and imprinted with his life essence.
The several dozen Wei Yun illusions were instantly restrained by the clouds he released, stuck fast as if glued by tar, utterly unable to move.
Both Xing Shang and Wei Yun were at the Primeval God realm, possessing profound cultivation and high attainment. Upon seeing the sudden change in their illusions, they immediately assumed some faction within the Thousand Illusions Sect was targeting them. They instantly manifested their Primeval Realms and unleashed the subtleties of their profound mysteries, fearing that complacency would lead to a disadvantageous position.
Yet, they had clearly overestimated the depth of those dozens of illusions. They concentrated their full power, summoned their Primeval Realms, and activated their supreme mysteries, unleashing everything they had. But they discovered that those phantom projections... were truly just phantoms. The illusions were utterly pulverized and dispersed by their river of lightning and their boundless clouds, vanishing without a trace.
When they looked beside them, within the overlapping spatial layers, their illusions reappeared, seemingly unchanged from before.
They felt a crushing sense of defeat, as if all their might had struck nothing but the void.
The river of lightning above Xing Shang’s head and the multicolored clouds around Wei Yun possessed magnificent momentum, yet their faces froze, their expressions growing strange as they stood dumbfounded.
Ban Yu merely glanced at Shi Yan, his eyes filled with astonishment.
The surrounding martial artists of the Giant Wave Merchant Guild also turned their gazes toward Shi Yan, secretly stifling chuckles.
A realization dawned in their minds: Shi Yan must be pulling strings behind the scenes, for they had witnessed his marvelous capabilities before.
“Ahem,” Ban Yu coughed lightly, frowning as he glanced around.
Wei Yun and Xing Shang, who had been momentarily stunned, followed the glance, looked toward Shi Yan again, and instantly understood.
...Shi Yan himself had no illusions manifesting in the overlapping spaces.
The two immediately realized that Shi Yan possessed a unique comprehension of the Illusionary Domain, capable of employing exquisite techniques to manipulate the illusions. Recalling Shi Yan’s arrogant proclamations earlier, Xing Shang and Wei Yun finally understood that the terrifyingly powerful but utterly weightless illusions they just faced were clearly conjured by Shi Yan.
Xing Shang and Wei Yun were enraged. They saw clearly that Shi Yan was trifling with them, deliberately playing a joke.
There was nothing more humiliating than this!
Behind Shi Yan, in the house, Ouyang Luoshuang’s bright eyes flashed with astonishing light, her cheeks gleaming like polished jade, her heart deeply startled.
She had not seen Shi Yan for many years; this reunion was purely accidental. When she first saw him, hope had sparked within her. However, upon discovering Shi Yan’s cultivation was only at the Primeval God realm, she immediately extinguished that thought, knowing escape would likely be difficult.
For this reason, when she looked at Shi Yan, there was no intense pleading in her eyes.
—She did not want Shi Yan to intervene because of her.
She believed Shi Yan was no match for Xing Shang and Wei Yun, and that any forceful action would only result in him suffering and dragging her down with him.
Yet, Shi Yan had later arrogantly uttered Xize’s real name, saying he would settle the matter with Xize. Then, he went on to declare that even Xize was not qualified to discipline him, which further astounded Ouyang Luoshuang.
Like Ban Yu, she didn't believe Shi Yan’s words held any basis, because she understood what the Shattered Hall represented. She knew that in the vast sea of stars, those who dared oppose the Shattered Hall were truly few and far between.
She had dismissed Shi Yan as overly boastful.
Then, Shi Yan used spatial profound mysteries to toy with Xing Shang and Wei Yun, causing those two to overreact by unleashing all their profound skills. This sight made her both amused and terrified; she feared Shi Yan could not withstand the wrath of Xing Shang and Wei Yun, and her heart grew anxious.
At this moment, her fears materialized. Xing Shang and Wei Yun shifted their target, now focusing entirely on Shi Yan.
The river forged from bolts of lightning, and the myriad colorful clouds, under the control of the main souls of Xing Shang and Wei Yun, plummeted from the void, bearing down with overwhelming, cataclysmic force.
It's over...
Ouyang Luoshuang couldn't help but close her eyes, sighing inwardly, feeling a pang of guilt for causing Shi Yan to suffer because of her own predicament.
“Eh!”
She heard Ban Yu gasp in surprise, opened her eyes abruptly, and then froze completely, her beautiful eyes blazing with dazzling, strange light.
The river of lightning descended, and countless clouds rained down, yet they strangely vanished, disappearing instantly without leaving a trace.
Along with them, Shi Yan was gone.
Like her, Xing Shang, Wei Yun, Ban Yu, and the martial artists of the Giant Wave Merchant Guild all looked around the perimeter of the Illusionary Domain with stunned and bewildered expressions, instinctively searching for something.
She desperately wanted to know what had happened.
“How could this be?” Ban Yu murmured.
He had clearly seen that at the moment the river of lightning and clouds from Xing Shang and Wei Yun plunged down, Shi Yan, the intended target, suddenly grinned maliciously and casually made a pull with both hands.
That single pull was nothing short of transmuting decay into magic, as if rewriting the very rules of the heavens and earth, solidifying the void, or perhaps tearing it apart?
Ban Yu did not understand the true meaning of spatial mysteries, nor did he know the profundity of Shi Yan’s action. But he knew that under that pull, the terrifying attacks of Xing Shang and Wei Yun had vanished mysteriously, as if swallowed by an invisible spatial barrier, sealed away in some unknown, mysterious place.
And Shi Yan had disappeared along with that pull.
“Look!”
Suddenly, a martial artist from the Giant Wave Merchant Guild shouted out, pointing with a trembling finger in one direction.
Everyone followed the gaze.
Within what should have been an overlapping space, there were seven merchant ships, Ban Yu, Xing Shang, Wei Yun—everyone present!
In addition, there was one extra person, and two additional marvels.
Shi Yan was inside too, standing on a merchant ship as if he hadn't moved at all. Above his head, the river of lightning was frozen, and countless multicolored clouds were suspended, as if he had paused them in time.
In that space, all of them were held in their previous postures, completely motionless, with only Shi Yan among them looking toward their direction with a cold smirk.
Extremely eerie! Every single one of them felt a spine-chilling fear, a sense of encountering a ghost, and profound spiritual unease.
Even Ban Yu, Xing Shang, and Wei Yun were no exception. Despite being at the Primeval God realm, they had no idea what had happened or how to react.
In their eyes, Shi Yan appeared capable of imprisoning, traversing, and altering space, seemingly omnipotent. Within this Illusionary Domain, Shi Yan was too terrifying and mysterious, making them feel utterly incapable of resisting.
Xing Shang and Wei Yun stood frozen for a few seconds, their faces darkening. They simultaneously looked toward Ouyang Luoshuang inside the house.
They understood one crucial point: the place where they were currently situated was reality, and the space where they saw Shi Yan might merely be a reflection of their location. As long as they continued to restrain Ouyang Luoshuang in the real world and transport her to Illusory Star, their mission would be complete.
This brief skirmish against Shi Yan in the Illusionary Domain would be something they chose to forget and never speak of again.
“I told you! I will settle this matter with Xize!”
At that moment, Shi Yan’s cold voice echoed from all directions, as if dozens of Shi Yans were shouting simultaneously, so powerful that it made Ban Yu and Xing Shang’s eardrums rumble and burst like explosions.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Like shattering mirrors, the countless overlapping spaces invisible to ordinary eyes suddenly collapsed and fragmented. Void shards shot out like blades, splashing out billions of glittering slivers.
In that instant, this area of the Illusionary Domain transformed into a meat grinder, capable of crushing every living soul and spirit!
Ban Yu's face turned pale with terror. He shrieked, “Stop! My Giant Wave Merchant Guild has nothing to do with this matter!”
The martial artists of the Giant Wave Merchant Guild revealed looks of sheer dread, driving their war chariots to flee in all directions, trying desperately to evade the impact of the shards, fearing utter annihilation of both body and soul.
Xing Shang and Wei Yun, being powerhouses of the Primeval God realm, knew well that the fragments formed by the collapsing void were the sharpest things in existence. Seeing billions of shards rushing toward them, they glanced at each other in fear and fled, transforming into streaks of lightning and clouds, vanishing in an unknown direction.
They abandoned Ouyang Luoshuang, the Giant Wave Merchant Guild, and everyone else, concerned only with preserving their own lives.
When the torrent of billions of void fragments hurtled toward them, Ban Yu and the Giant Wave Merchant Guild members displayed expressions of despair, secretly regretting bringing the inexplicably powerful Shi Yan aboard and entering the Illusionary Domain in the first place.
They now understood that Shi Yan was clearly a master of spatial mysteries whose attainments were profound. Such individuals, active in the star sea, were the most terrifying beings imaginable. Those scattering billions of void fragments, if directed toward Illusory Star, could potentially tear the star apart.
The Giant Wave Merchant Guild also possessed masters of profound spatial mysteries; they knew the monstrous power that could be unleashed when spatial mysteries were pushed to their absolute limit.
Annihilating a life-bearing star was nothing difficult in the eyes of a top-tier master of spatial mysteries; with a mere thought, heaven and earth could cease to exist, and the destruction of a star was simply a matter of whim and preference.
As those billions of spatial fragments neared them, Ban Yu and the others closed their eyes, awaiting death and sighing at their bad luck, devoid of any will to resist.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
The great destruction that should have occurred did not. Ban Yu abruptly opened his eyes, then his whole body stiffened, the skin of his face twitching uncontrollably.
Beside him, Shi Yan stood quietly, in the exact same spot as before, seemingly having never moved.
As for the countless spatial fragments that had rushed over, they had vanished without a trace, as if they had been nothing more than Shi Yan’s baseless fantasy.
Ban Yu stood dumbfounded for a long moment, then suddenly cupped his hands in a bitter smile. “Young friend possesses immense divine abilities; please cease your games. This old man is quite old now and truly cannot endure any more fright. I implore you, for the remainder of our journey, ensure we proceed smoothly. Please do not scare us again, alright?”
“Depends on my mood,” Shi Yan replied with a carefree smile.