The outer heaven overturns the inner heaven!

A single world suppresses a single man!

Although King Zhao’s face could not be gazed upon, one could still sense it—his attention on Ruan Qin, his astonishment at the Sī Xuán Underground Palace.

"No need to see me off!"

His movements could not be caught by the eye.

Yet an indescribable power seemed to follow upon this voice and begin to affect the world.

As if it were a concept, a faith, and yet it could also be concrete down to each brick and stone, each blade of grass and tree. Those frail individuals, insignificant as motes of dust, had also once raised their heads to look upon the starry sky.

Like spring giving birth to a hundred grasses, yet also like a prairie fire sweeping the wilds.

Subtle changes in the fine rules pried at the fundamental structure of this heaven and earth, shattering the blockade at the level of rules.

The azure thunder coiled about King Zhao’s body suddenly vanished into nothing!

His Dao Body turned half-transparent.

Then, like a water balloon that could no longer bear its burden, it silently burst apart.

Fragments beyond counting flew, dancing like butterflies.

Thus all power was erased in one sweep, and every trace was taken away by him.

King Zhao’s true body had already fled.

Standing atop the dome of the Sī Xuán Underground Palace, Ruan Qin reached back, pulled out the Moyu hairpin, and decisively drew a stroke forward!

A Gate of Starlight appeared before him; the gorgeous Star Gate opened, and from within a corner of a robe fluttered lightly down, descending into the center of his left palm.

The posture of that robe corner was actually graceful and lovely, hovering as though a celestial maiden.

This was what King Zhao had left behind!

Not that it could bestow any meaning of gender upon King Zhao.

Rather, this external manifestation of posture precisely represented strength.

Beauty is power.

Naturally, King Zhao could not permit even a corner of his robe to be seized by Ruan Qin. To leave an object in the hands of the present Star Divination Grandmaster was far too dangerous a matter!

Thus although his true body had already fled far away, it turned back once more, shaking heaven and earth as it descended with a mighty power.

In the distance thunder rumbled, as if the heavenly drums were beating.

This was a suppression on the level of rules.

The entire firmament seemed to faintly cave in!

It gave one a terrifying pressure as though the world itself had reached a dead end.

Ruan Qin raised his head and looked to the sky, his expression unchanged. That ghostly light surged wildly; the Sī Xuán Underground Palace shook in response, and an inexhaustible power surged straight into the heavens, like mountains propping up the sky, firmly resisting the pressure that King Zhao exerted.

The two mighty powers collided with each other, unable to reach a conclusion for the moment.

But the corner of the robe lying in Ruan Qin’s palm suddenly unraveled strand by strand, disintegrating into the smallest of existences. Or perhaps that was, returning to the "one" of the Sea of Origin.

So then, had King Zhao still managed to erase what he left behind?

Jiang Wang, who had watched this battle from the side, was just thinking this when he saw Ruan Qin lightly arch a brow, gracefully pin the Moyu hairpin back into his hair, and let the forefinger of his left hand suddenly blaze with flowing radiance as he traced a small circle in front of him.

That small circle became a real existence, and within it was a wisp of exceedingly fine aura, twisting like a dragon or snake.

The aura King Zhao had left upon that corner of his robe had been captured!

Rumble—!

A startling bolt split the long sky, like a jagged blade light, utterly rending the Star Vault.

Of course King Zhao would not allow such a situation to occur.

He even wished to break through the blockade and engage Ruan Qin, who controlled the Sī Xuán Underground Palace, in direct combat.

But at this very moment, from Qi Territory all the way to Xia Territory, along that ten-thousand-li route that had already been completely conquered, the battle banners suddenly snapped in the wind, and violet qi was rising!

If he were entangled even a moment longer, another True Monarch from Qi Country would immediately arrive!

"Laughable that the world has so underestimated you, Ruan Qin!"

He left behind only this sentence, and then even the voice was wiped away.

In an instant the sky cleared and the clouds thinned; all abnormal phenomena vanished completely.

This time King Zhao had truly gone, because if he did not leave now, he would certainly be kept here.

Thus all around fell into tranquility, with kindly winds and gentle warmth.

The world seemed never to have experienced any waves.

The Sī Xuán Underground Palace that had blazed across heaven and earth returned once more to the depths below.

Only the Star-Patterned Tiger Platform outside Guiyi City silently greeted the Heavenly Light, as if the star patterns upon it had existed since ancient times, showing no sign of the extraordinary.

Ruan Qin, whose face was excessively young, stood alone at the center of the Star-Patterned Tiger Platform, like a young gentleman admiring the scenery here.

He glanced at Su Guanying and Jiang Wang, who were racing back at full speed, then closed his left hand around that little circle of starlight, while his right hand stretched level toward the sky and gently lifted upward.

Outside the Tiger Platform, Shi Mingcheng—who had been slapped deep into the earth from afar by King Zhao—was pulled out. The terrifying force that had suppressed him was also casually dispersed by Ruan Qin.

"Damn it all!" The fierce-looking Shi Mingcheng stepped back onto the Star-Patterned Tiger Platform in a single stride, and, not even bothering to examine the changes to this place, cursed resentfully, "Equality Country’s guts have grown too damned big. Next time I go anywhere I’m bringing an army!"

Everything was as usual over at the Linzi Star Observation Tower; Ruan Qin had concealed himself in Xia Territory in order to suppress any possible upheavals after the recent pacification of the South Border. He, a堂堂 present-day True Monarch, had not moved a single step, sitting here in concealment for over half a year.

This trump card, the Sī Xuán Underground Palace, was not actually prepared specifically against Equality Country. It was just that Equality Country happened to be the most rampant, so it was flung straight into Equality Country’s face.

That Equality Country had actually dared field a strike on the level of King Zhao was something Shi Mingcheng had not anticipated beforehand. That slap he took was an undeserved one. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

By the time Shi Mingcheng and Su Guanying returned, the battle was already over. Compared to Su Guanying, Shi Mingcheng had taken a far more solid beating.

Of those who had clearly seen the entire battle between King Zhao and Ruan Qin, aside from Ming Shouqi, the Palace Master of the Sī Xuán Underground Palace, it was in fact only Jiang Wang. Because he did not possess the level of threat that would require King Zhao to exclude him from the battlefield.

"Lord Supervisor." Jiang Wang gave Ruan Qin a slight bow and said, "With this strand of aura, King Zhao’s true identity should no longer be able to hide!"

"The aura is fake." Ruan Qin shook his head with a faint smile. "To capture King Zhao’s true aura in that kind of situation—I am not capable of that."