The phenomenon that occurred across the world during Shengyuan's awakening had every cultivator on edge; shaken by the tremendous strength.
In the vast city of Heaven's Feel industrial zone, panic flooded the city as the clouds above distorted, forming storm clouds that were pitch black in color. At the heart of the industrial area stood a towering skyscraper with banners that flickered on and off, the reporter on the screen glitching as the storm clouds interfered with the electricity.
Inside the skyscraper was no different from the outside — office workers frantically went across the building, some taking the elevators to go to the lower levels for safety, while others stared at the screen showing the weather broadcast and Neuro-Qi signal from the leylines connected to the city.
"Wind speed over 600 kilometers per hour."
"Sea levels rapidly rising."
"A magnitude 5 earthquake just hit the Lesser World."
The shouts and screams of the workers drowned out the frantic machines recording the data they analyzed.
On the top floor, however, was less tumultuous.
A man with short brown hair stood at the large window, staring at the storm clouds rolling in the distance — each flash of lightning reflected in his onyx eyes and lit up his face; the man boasted a tall physique, even the suit he wore held on for dear life, not wanting to relinquish its hold on him. The man hummed, his lips thinning as he did.
He was Marquis El Grigory, the Chief Executive Officer in charge of the building itself.
"What could be happening?" Marquis mused to himself. The Qi that had flooded the city rattled the core pillars of his company building and sent chills down his spine.
Something Marquis had long forgotten how to feel.
The door to his office swung open.
Marquis looked at the person from the corner of his eye. "What is it?"
The woman who had barged into the office placed the document folder on the table and adjusted her round-rimmed glasses — she looked at the gigantic body of Marquis. "Sir... it is bad. The leylines are unstable. The strange aura that overloaded our circuits before this was determined to be the main cause of this."
Marquis remained silent.
Whatever was happening was bound to upset the balance.
---
Lia huddled over Damon as the sword from Yakeen drew closer — her eyes wide, tears threatening to fall as they trembled. Her knees firmly rooted to the ground, unable to move as the dawning feeling of death embraced her, the shrieking cry from Yakeen enforcing her paralysis even further. She blinked and a plea in her heart was made.
*Yuanchen, Help me!*
As the sword crossed the distance between her hair and neck, a force stopped the attack, making it bounce back much to both their shock — Lia glanced up at the small creature that stood on her shoulder with its hands stretched out, the dreaded feeling of despair spontaneously washed away by the relief of being rescued.
Yakeen was not that fortunate; the force he struck exerted the same magnitude of force back at him, launching him back into the white void — he coughed blood on the ground and got to his feet.
If looks could kill, Yuanchen would have died due to the look Yakeen shot his way — Yakeen knew that it was the man's doing, and seeing how he was easily dispatching his clones, he knew he had a slim chance of escaping with his life. The whiteness around them made it impossible to communicate with the outside, as he had tried when he was attempting to kill the girl.
"Crafty bastard," Yakeen cussed and looked at his hand... Great, just great, he had broken fingers. His lips thinned and he began formulating a plan to escape.
His chance of victory was slim to none.
Yuanchen went to one knee — his hand clutching his head as flashes of pain split his skull in two; the moment of pain caused the white void to fizzle out and shatter in sporadic parts.
Yakeen, seeing this, sheathed his sword and stood up, blood covering his face, his neat hair messy and his regal clothes torn — he grinned. "Fate has spared me for another day, it seems." He disappeared from sight, using the cracks in the void to escape.
Lia's hazy eyes gleamed with hope. They had managed to ward off the assassin; they had managed to win for the day, and she placed Damon gently on the ground — she quickly got up and stumbled toward Yuanchen, who had succumbed to the pain and fell face-first on the ground. She held his head in her lap and caressed his dark hair, her eyes softening.
It felt like a day ago when she had met him, when he fell from the sky, and now days later, she had this unexplainable warmth and butterflies in her stomach.
---
Marquis sat in his office — veins visible on his forehead as he stared at the screen with multiple faces on it.
"Marquis, do something about this."
"Indeed, the cities are in danger."
"What was the root cause of that? What could have caused the unnerving Qi that brought such a calamity?"
Out of the many faces visible on the screen, a bald man with blue tattoos on his head spoke. "That was an ancient force awakening, something that has not been felt in five centuries."
Marquisʼ eyes widened — he finally understood why he had felt that amount of nervousness and fear earlier. "You don't mean..."
The old man nodded, his face stoic as ever. "Yes, one of them has awakened."
"One of them?"
"What is this about, Chairman Yuan? Elaborate for the rest of us."
Yuan grimaced. "It is folklore, even to someone as old as myself, but there existed people who could cause tidal waves with their hands, move the world itself. And I fear they have begun their move."
Silence reigned supreme for a split second, and chaos followed again.
"Why weren't we told?"
"Someone as powerful as this needs to be allied with us."
"Agreed."
Marquisʼ brow ticked and he slammed his hands on the table, annoyed at their chattering. "Calm yourselves, elders. I will personally get to the bottom of this myself."