Senior Brother, Don't Scare Me...

Su Jiu rolled her eyes at him, clearly having no intention of playing guessing games.

Her expression seemed to say, "I haven't even settled the score with you for disappearing without a word for over four months, and now you dare to keep me in suspense? I'll teach you a painful lesson right now."

Su Ji could only curl his lips in dismay, pulling up a stool to sit by the table.

"She is a smart person, and smart people know best how to weigh the pros and cons."

"After witnessing Hui Xing's strength, she knows better than anyone what the consequences of betraying me would be."

He crossed his legs, swinging them leisurely.

"Besides, right now, I am..."

Su Ji paused, a profound and enigmatic smile appearing on his face, before slowly spitting out four words.

"Invincible in this world."

This statement was not an exaggeration.

The reason he was willing to waste some time fighting that Lightning Fire Flood Dragon in the underground lava cave was to test exactly what level his strength had reached in the Great Xia territory after being ravaged by Hui Xing for over four months.

The results were gratifying.

Su Ji felt that he had only used thirty to forty percent of his strength to take down that arrogant late-stage Golden Core great demon.

He hadn't used the "momentum" he learned from Hui Xing, nor the Fallen Dragon Sword.

He hadn't even drawn the Yinfeng Sword.

Never mind...

Summarizing it was too troublesome.

Anyway, he hadn't used any skills, just casually tested it with a few basic attacks and instantly killed it.

With this level of strength, in a place like Great Xia where Nascent Soul experts were extinct, saying he could walk sideways and do whatever he pleased was not an overstatement.

However, his smug appearance, in Su Jiu's eyes, could only be described with one word.

Punchable.

But soon, Su Jiu looked at him suspiciously, her beautiful brows slightly furrowing.

"Who is Hui Xing?"

The smug expression on Su Ji's face stiffened.

Come on.

Couldn't your focus be a bit more normal?

He explained in annoyance, "The dragon in the underground lava cave of Phoenix Roost Gorge, obviously."

"Is that important? Stop asking these pointless questions."

Su Jiu just said, "Oh."

She didn't continue to press the matter, but a fleeting, barely noticeable glimmer of understanding flashed through her clear eyes.

So that true dragon was named Hui Xing.

Seeing that she had completely relaxed, Su Ji leaned in and began to discuss the details of the grand ceremony.

"Junior Sister, the scene will definitely be very chaotic when the time comes. You don't need to worry about anything, just watch the show peacefully from the sidelines."

"Wait for my signal, and then you'll activate our Acacia Sect's grand protective array, cutting off everyone's escape route."

"When that happens, it'll be like closing the door to beat the dogs."

Su Ji was very satisfied with this plan.

Listening to his arrangements, Su Jiu still felt a bit uneasy.

"Senior Brother, isn't this too risky?"

"Among those coming to observe the ceremony, there are bound to be peak Golden Core experts, perhaps even more than one."

"What if... they fight back to the death, and we..."

"Relax." Su Ji patted his chest, looking completely confident.

"They are just a bunch of useless rabble. I'll kill as many as come."

If it were in the past, Su Jiu would have just thought he was bragging with this arrogant attitude.

But now, for some reason.

Su Jiu found herself actually believing him a little.

She felt that after these four and a half months of settling down.

Even though Su Ji still didn't seem very reliable.

He was much more reliable than before.

Perhaps, he really had this strength.

Just as the two were discussing how to divide the spoils of war, and even started debating which sect's spirit stone mine had the best quality.

The smile on Su Ji's face suddenly froze without warning.

He stood up abruptly, his expression turning somewhat ugly in an instant.

"What's wrong?"

Su Jiu immediately noticed something was wrong with him and stood up as well, looking tense.

Su Ji didn't speak.

He just slowly raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through the roof, looking toward the deep night sky.

An unprovoked, heart-palpitating feeling surged from the bottom of his heart without any warning.

It was as if an invisible pair of eyes was coldly watching him from some distant place.

Watching this world, watching all the self-righteous "experts" within this world.

The Glimpse of Destiny talent within his body actually began to operate on its own at this moment.

The grayish-white world descended once again.

Only this time, he didn't see any threads, nor did he see any branching crossroads.

He only saw a single scene.

...

A month later, the succession ceremony was held as scheduled.

Upon the high platform, he sat upright in the Sect Master's seat, with Su Jiu standing by his side.

Below the stage, representatives from the major sects of Great Xia gathered together, a massive and imposing crowd.

The Second Elder of the Puppet Heaven Holy Land, exactly as planned, was the first to step forward. His words were arrogant and his posture domineering, perfectly playing the role of a Holy Land's spokesperson.

Immediately after, the Blood Fiend Sect, the Joyous Union Sect, and several other sects that had long been eyeing the Acacia Sect covetously, also jumped out to kick them while they were down. The scene became utterly chaotic.

Everything was exactly like the script he had envisioned.

Su Ji verbally played along with the crowd, but in his heart, he was already calculating which sect to strike first for the most convenient plundering.

He smashed his cup as a signal, letting Su Jiu activate the grand array for a thrilling session of robbers robbing robbers.

When Su Ji revealed his full cultivation.

The Yinfeng Sword combined with the Fallen Dragon Spear, plus the Night King's 'Heart Fighting Spirit' and Xinghui's 'Dragon Might'.

The lifelong proud skills of four super experts from the upper realm were all gathered in Su Ji.

For these Golden Cores of Great Xia, it could be called a dimensional strike.

Even though Su Ji had not yet entered the Golden Core stage.

The so-called peak Golden Cores were nothing more than stray dogs by the roadside in front of him.

A mere scrape would injure them, and a touch would kill them.

Absolutely no one could block even a single move or stance from him.

Su Ji was even filled with immense heroic spirit for a moment, unable to resist shouting, "Who else?!"

Then, a sudden change occurred.

The sky darkened without any warning.

It wasn't the darkness of dark clouds blocking the sun.

But rather a kind of... pure, despair-inducing darkness, as if the light source had been directly devoured by some irresistible force.

Immediately after, an indescribable, terrifying oppressive might—surpassing Golden Core, surpassing Nascent Soul, and even surpassing all of Su Ji's comprehension—crashed down from the nine heavens!

In the face of that oppressive might.

Those arrogant Golden Cores below the stage, every single one of them, were like chicks grabbed by the throat. Without even being able to let out a scream, they all fell to their knees in unison, their bodies trembling violently and uncontrollably.

Even Su Jiu, an existence who had forged a Heavenly Palace Golden Core and whose combat power far exceeded her peers, now had a deathly pale face. Her delicate body trembled slightly, and she couldn't even move a single finger.

The entire world seemed to have been put on pause.

Only Su Ji.

Because he had directly experienced Hui Xing's 'momentum' and had the protection of the Yinfeng Sword, he became the only person in the entire venue who could still barely stand.

But this 'oppressive might' was several times more terrifying than Xinghui's Dragon Might...

Perhaps when she said she wasn't good at fighting, she was telling the truth.

It was just that Great Xia was too weak.

Like a dying sheep in the mouth of a lion, even a few drops of blood falling on passing ants would be a heavy mountain impossible to bear.

Su Ji struggled to raise his head, looking toward the source of that darkness.

He saw a pair of purple, lightning-filled eyes that had silently appeared above the firmament, who knows when.

They just quietly watched them.

Devoid of joy or sorrow, devoid of thought or emotion.

It simply... existed there.

And that alone was enough to make this entire world wail in mourning.

The next moment.

Su Ji saw the entire world, along with all the living beings within it, begin to twist, blur, and disintegrate like casually smeared paint.

Space was shattering; time was annihilating.

Everything was returning to nothingness.

It was a complete obliteration... on a conceptual, fundamental level!

Su Ji's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.

He wanted to draw his sword.

He wanted to resist.

But his body felt as if it were nailed to the spot, completely refusing to obey his commands.

He could only watch helplessly as that all-obliterating power swept toward him like a tidal wave.

Right at the instant that power was about to touch him.

The illusion of the Glimpse of Destiny shattered with a loud crash.

Su Ji jolted awake, gasping heavily for air, cold sweat pouring down his forehead like a waterfall.

"Senior Brother?!"

Su Jiu's worried voice rang in his ears.

She saw Su Ji's face turn deathly pale in an instant. Those eyes of his, which always carried a hint of cynicism, were now filled with nothing but pure, unadulterated terror.

Su Ji did not answer.

Only one thought occupied his mind.

What was that thing?

What on earth... was that thing?!

To cause the entire world to disintegrate.

...

This had completely exceeded the realm of Su Ji's understanding.

Soul Formation?

Or... something higher?

He didn't know.

He only knew that all his trump cards, all his schemes, were nothing but a joke in the face of such absolute power.

Su Ji's expression turned incredibly grim.

For the first time, he felt what true powerlessness meant.

Seeing him in such a devastated state, Su Jiu's heart ached. She reached out a hand, wanting to hold him.

"Senior Brother, don't scare me..."

However, just as her fingertips were about to touch Su Ji's sleeve.

Su Ji suddenly moved.

He snapped his head up, and all the terror and shock in his eyes had completely vanished.