Time seemed to slow down.

For Lin Mo, courtesy of the [Adrenaline-Surge Espresso Shot] coursing through his veins, the world had practically ground to a halt when his vision turned white and he got transported inside the Anchor.

Right as his vision cleared, the chaotic, booming battlefield sounded like a muffled, slow-motion recording.

He saw the droplets of blood suspended in mid-air, coughed up by Patriarch Liu. He saw the desperate expressions of the Spirit Severing Ancestors as they poured their qi into defensive barriers that were cracking like sugar glass under the Avatar's oppressive aura.

He saw the child-like Highland Sovereign Avatar with its small hand raised, reality actively warping and distorting around its fingertips in a kaleidoscope of unnatural colors.

And he saw the incoming wave of chaotic energy, a stray backhand sweep of the Avatar's conceptual manipulation, rippling directly toward the spot where he had just materialized.

If that hit him, his physical body and his soul would shatter into pieces. His current strength was just too weak to confront a being at that level.

Nevertheless, that's why he put a safeguard in place.

The [Aegis-Weave Emergency Blanket] draped over his shoulders flared with a brilliant, blinding white light.

FWOOSH!

The wave of destruction crashed into him and immediately vanished. Or at least, weakened.

Instead of getting disintegrated, Lin Mo was blown away a few meters from where he appeared.

A split second later, the blanket dissolved into fine, gray ash that drifted harmlessly to the ground, its singular, miraculous purpose fulfilled.

"Worth every spirit stone I saved up from my daily salary," Lin Mo whispered as his chest thrummed wildly at the thought of how dangerous that was.

As the effect of the espresso wore off, making his senses return to normal, he stood up straight and dusted his shoulders.

"Boss?! What are you doing here?!" Liu Xiaoyu called out from the backline, her golden armor flaring. She had been strictly ordered to stay within the tuning fork's radius, and seeing Lin Mo suddenly drop into the deadliest zone of the battlefield nearly gave her a heart attack.

Is Boss crazy? She thought to herself. Even though she already acknowledged him as someone who couldn't be compared to a regular cultivator, his strength was still far from hers. That's why she even volunteered to lead the strike team instead of him.

Unfortunately, Lin Mo couldn't hear her thoughts.

"Oh. I'm here to deliver necessary assistance, Xiaoyu." Lin Mo replied, tapping on his head before locking his sight onto the small, terrifying figure of the Highland Sovereign Avatar. "Remember, I was watching. And this new patron… has quite a temper."

Upon saying that, he drew the [Starfall Judgement Revolver].

The sleek, star-flecked metal hummed in his hand, resonating with the [Psionic-Tempered Starlight Qi] in his dantian.

He pointed it at the Avatar before transmitting to Liu Tianfeng and the Ancestors, "Patriarch Liu, dear customers. This thing is unstable. It's bleeding energy just to maintain its form. This artifact of mine has a unique ability that can suppress it slightly. I just need you all to distract it. Oh… And let me handle Vespera."

Naturally, he hadn't forgotten about the Dreilling. From his position, he could see the previously indifferent and majestic Vespera looking like a cornered rat.

Her immaculate, aristocratic features were contorted into a mask of pure agony. Blood poured from her eyes, nose, and ears, cascading down her dark, woven robes.

Her hands were thrust forward, trembling violently as pulsating psychic tethers anchored her directly to the avatar.

At this point, she's also forcefully funneling her own life force to prolong the stability of the premature Highland Sovereign Avatar. Because if it disappears before the countdown ends, she will be truly doomed.

When her mercury-like eyes locked onto Lin Mo, he instantly sensed it.

In response, he made a gesture of tipping his imaginary hat. He was clad in [Decanus Set] so… rather than looking like a cordial Shopkeeper, it appeared as though he was mocking the woman.

"You..." Vespera's sharp voice rang in his ears. It was more like a screech of someone at the end of her rope, "Convenience Saint… must you mock me, a noble being?!"

"Dear customer, I apologize if it looks that way to you, however, I'm afraid we have to end this now. We can't allow your realm to grasp a foothold in ours." He replied telepathically before fully cutting her off.

At this same moment, Liu Tianfeng had just finished launching a few more blows to the Avatar, keeping it busy.

When he landed on the ground, he shouted in response to Lin Mo's words.

"Understood, Shopkeeper!"

To a supreme expert of his caliber, trusting a junior with his life went against every instinct forged over centuries of cutthroat cultivation. But this wasn't a junior. This was the Convenience Saint.

"Ancestors! Do not hold back! Burn your essence if you must! Give the Shopkeeper his opportunity to aid us!" Liu Tianfeng commanded.

He bit his own tongue, spitting a mouthful of essence blood onto his palms. His stormy aura compressed and expanded, turning from a wild tempest into a singular, vibrating point of catastrophic pressure.

"Liu Clan Secret Art: [Heaven-Devouring Thunder Calamity]!"

Liu Zhongzhu unleashed the same secret art, supporting his father.

Ancestor Swordpoint of the Cerulean Cloud Sword Sect closed his eyes. His physical body seemed to turn translucent, merging entirely with his sword intent.

"My sword has no regrets," He whispered, unleashing a torrential river of cerulean light that defied the very concept of distance.

The rest of the Spirit Severing Ancestors followed suit.

They abandoned all defense, burning their essence to unleash attacks that painted the walls in a blinding spectrum of elemental fury.

It was an assault that could have wiped a mid-tier sect off the map of the Eastern Abyssal Domain in a single breath.

The child-like Highland Sovereign Avatar, hovering effortlessly above the sludge, finally turned its mercury-like eyes away from Lin Mo and toward the incoming attacks.

Its expression remained perfectly blank. Just like before, it only waved its hand, activating two of its traits.

Reality Warping and Concept Devourer.

The collision was entirely silent.

Liu Tianfeng's world-ending thunder calamity struck the invisible wall of the Avatar's domain and slowed down. The roaring, destructive lightning seemed to crawl, traversing what little distance between it and the target. The destructive concept weakened and a wall seemingly appeared right in front of it.

Nonetheless, it still managed to pierce through it, reaching the avatar.

Ancestor Swordpoint's peerless sword intent struck next followed by all the techniques the other ancestors unleashed.

However, the same as Liu Tianfeng's attack, the ones that reached the Avatar were all but weakened.

The Ancestors stumbled back, coughing up blood from burning their essence. But their sacrifice was not in vain. The Avatar's attention was entirely consumed by the effort of blocking seven simultaneous, ultimate attacks.

"Good customer service means stepping in when the frontline staff is overwhelmed," Lin Mo muttered, his voice unnaturally steady despite the pounding in his chest. "My turn."

He leveled the [Starfall Judgement Revolver] and adjusted his aim.

Using his ability to see the psychic tether, he aimed at the flickering, unstable connection between the Avatar and the struggling Mind-Weaver, Vespera. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He thumbed back the hammer. He channeled seventy percent of his total starlight qi reserves into the cylinder, feeling his meridians burn with the sudden, massive output.

Stellar Flare!

Lin Mo pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The sound echoed like a profound, resonant boom that felt like a star collapsing inward.

A sphere of pure, highly condensed starlight shot from the barrel, traveling like a distortion in the air, carrying traces of unyielding order.

The [Stellar Flare] struck the space directly between Vespera and the Avatar and expanded rapidly into a blinding silver supernova.

[Starlight Suppression effect applied.]

The area became bathed in the purifying starlight qi and the effect was immediate.

The psychic tether of the Highland Energy that Vespera used to funnel her energy and life force had been annihilated.

The Avatar let out a soundless shriek of agony as its form began to flicker.

"No! My masterpiece!" Vespera screamed, the backlash of the severed connection hitting her with the force of a physical blow. She fell to her knees, blood pouring from her eyes and nose.

"Patriarch! Now!" Lin Mo yelled, his vision swimming as the adrenaline crashed and exhaustion threatened to overtake him.

Liu Tianfeng didn't hesitate. Seeing the Avatar's destabilized form, he seized the opportunity.

He condensed all his remaining power into his right fist. The purple lightning turned almost black with intensity.

He crossed the distance in a single bound, bypassing the dissipating silver light of the Steller Flare, and slammed his fist directly into the chest of the Avatar.

The peak Void Refinement strike detonated inside the unstable entity.

A shockwave of mixed violet energy and purple lightning ripped through the cavern, shattering the remaining incubation pods and tearing deep fissures into the stone walls.

The Highland Sovereign Avatar exploded, reduced to a massive cloud of raw, unrefined foreign energy that violently dispersed into the atmosphere.

The oppressive, suffocating pressure that had dominated the room vanished instantly.

As for Vespera, Lin Mo used his movement technique to traverse the distance and knocked her out. Instead of directly killing her, capturing her like that Centurion from the Argent Covenant Realm could give them a better understanding of the Highland Realm.