Thump.
A deep, heavy sound echoed throughout the pitch-black cave.
Thump.
The sound grew more frequent, gradually forming a rhythm.
Thump.
Like the heartbeat of the world. When it began to beat again, the atmosphere in the cave started to change.
Thump.
Energy currents from the earth were gradually drawn in, gathering at the center of the chamber. There sat something resembling a large cauldron with its lid tightly sealed.
Power from nature converged until it became visible to the naked eye. The more time passed, the more the intensity of the energy flow within this chamber multiplied. The humidity and stale air were replaced by something purer spreading throughout the room.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The sound like a heartbeat began to increase its rhythm. From once every several minutes, it gradually became ten times, a hundred times per minute.
As if it were the heartbeat of a human being.
Boom!
As if to signal this was the final time, when the outside time moved to noon, the magnificent heartbeat sound from within the cauldron stopped accordingly. Energy currents from the surrounding world were sucked into the cauldron like a rushing torrent, before some glowing light shone so brightly it could faintly be seen penetrating through the cauldron, beginning to spread out.
Boom!
All things around became silent and calm. The world's energy flow that had gathered gradually dispersed back to its normal state. Everything in this chamber became normal, just as it had been before.
"...How many days did I spend concocting this elixir?"
A clear voice tinged with coldness and authority rang out from inside the giant cauldron, before a dimensional rift appeared at the side and sucked the entire cauldron in without leaving a trace.
What appeared in its place was the slender figure of a young woman with long black hair flowing down to her mid-back. Her beautiful face was as cold as a snow princess, but her confused expression as she looked around had overwhelming charm. She looked around in surprise, before realizing that her body was currently naked!
Bai Fanxian remembered that before she began concocting that "elixir," she had still been in good condition. Moreover, the state of her workshop, full of dust, surprised her greatly.
As if no one had entered here in a very long time.
After donning new clothes that appeared from a dimension as if by magic, Bai Fanxian walked around surveying. Besides the dust, everything in the room still looked the same. The numerous elixirs she had concocted, including valuable ingredients, were still in good condition. But some parts had already become invaluable materials.
"...I remember this field contained thousand-year ginseng?"
Before her was a small area filled with dozens of ten-thousand-year ginseng plants. It was an area she had specially created to allow all herbs to grow as if in the wild without needing care. The strange thing was, she remembered that the ginseng she had planted here was merely thousand-year ginseng, wasn't it?
Bai Fanxian continued walking. Even the special wine she had stored emitted a sweet aroma from long aging.
She walked back and forth until she stopped at the door. When she placed her hand on it, the mechanism still responded normally. Nothing was damaged. When her power was sent in like a key, the mechanism began operating while filling this dark room with light once more.
It used her spiritual energy as a power source. Only her companion could create such an invention.
She sent out power again. This time it served as a key. The ancient mechanism slowly moved before opening the long-sealed door once more.
"Hui'er, I'm out."
Hui'er was the name of her close little maid. Every time Bai Fanxian emerged from her workshop, the first thing she would usually see was Hui'er's adorable face rejoicing greatly.
But now, before her was emptiness.
Not only Hui'er—there wasn't even a single living thing here. It was merely a pitch-black cave. Bai Fanxian frowned. Her heaven sense exploded from her body in all directions. But she herself was surprised when she discovered something abnormal.
"...My heaven sense has expanded?"
Heaven sense was something that cultivators at Martial Master level and above could perceive. It was like a radar with oneself as the center point. It allowed the user to sense many things around them. Except normally, Martial Master level would have heaven sense of only about 2-3 meters.
Grandmaster level could sense things within a 20-meter range.
Previously, Bai Fanxian's heaven sense was one kilometer around her. The closer something was, the more accurate it would be. She could even identify the spiritual energy currents in things she sensed. But now the heaven sense she released was completely different.
Because it was much wider than before!
So much so that she didn't even know its limit yet. Because Bai Fanxian could already sense that approximately one kilometer above her head, many people were gathering.
"Ordinary people... Qi Gathering stage... many Cultivator levels... a few Martial Masters... and 3 Grandmasters?"
Moreover, she could also sense that 2 of those Grandmasters were fighting each other, and the remaining person was watching from around them.
"Are outer disciples dueling?"
What she said was genuine puzzlement. Because in her Alchemy Goddess Palace, Grandmaster level could only be outer disciples who weren't very important.
"...Where has everyone else gone?"
Once confirmed, Bai Fanxian's figure disappeared from where she stood, before a faint dimensional rift appeared in the sky over 100 meters above, and Bai Fanxian's graceful figure emerged.
She stared down at the two puny Grandmasters dueling below. No one realized even slightly that she was standing here.
"...What is this?"
Bai Fanxian sensed that not far from her, something was floating. And it didn't look like a living thing at all. Because it just floated still without moving. At the point that seemed to be its eye, it was staring down at the arena below.
Snap!
Bai Fanxian grabbed the military surveillance drone that was patrolling and recording the battle below with one hand. She flipped it over to examine it with interest, but when she found it had no response except a whirring sound from its propellers, she lost interest.
She intended to leave it where it was. But without being careful, she accidentally crushed the military drone made of special materials until it was mangled in her hand!
"Chief! Drone number 3 suddenly lost video signal!"
"Drone number 3's signal is gone!"
"What on earth is happening?"
A young man in military uniform asked without understanding. Currently, they were in a tent set up at a point slightly distant from the arena. Because this duel involved the military, he had to be careful not to cause damage, watch over safety, and also record the duel properly.
And their drone number 3, which was recording the duel from a high angle, had been damaged for unknown reasons.
"Did it crash into something?"
"Recovering the last image it captured now!" A soldier working on the computer was working hard. But when he was able to recover its final image, he was shocked beyond belief.
"Ch-Chief, come look at this!"
"What? Why are you so shocked?"
But when he leaned down to look at the image on the computer screen, he himself gaped open-mouthed, no different from his subordinate.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, Bai Fanxian frowned. She looked at the drone wreckage in her hand with a strange expression, before throwing it into a dimensional rift that appeared beside her.
This was why they could no longer detect its signal.
It had gone to another dimension!
"My power is strange?"
Bai Fanxian looked at her hands with surprise. From her heaven sense to this uncontrollable physical strength—what had happened to her body?
"...Hmm?"
To test something, the qi in her body suddenly exploded around her for testing. She didn't know at all that merely by lightly releasing her qi, the rain clouds and storm that had been forming for so long were blown away together!
Not only that, the crowd below also felt tremendous pressure until even Martial Master levels like the Tang and Song clan leaders were pressed down to lie on the ground.
As for cultivators at Martial Master level and below, they all fainted in the instant they felt that pressure!
Making now over 80% of the group below simultaneously unconscious.
As for the 2 Grandmasters who were fighting, Zheng Renyi and Ma Fufeng, they couldn't stand either. Both their legs were like they wouldn't obey commands. They bent down until it was as if they were kneeling.
Both were stunned speechless. When they turned to see each other's shocked expressions and confirmed it wasn't the other side's doing, they sighed with relief.
Because if it really was the other side's doing, there would be no need to waste time on this meaningless duel. Because the power level they felt was truly on a different level!
Thud!
In the middle of the arena, besides Ma Fufeng, another middle-aged man's figure appeared. He was in full military dress uniform. When he arrived, he knelt and clasped his trembling hands helplessly while staring up at the sky above.
"G-Great One, could you please reveal yourself to this humble one?"
The point his gaze was fixed on was where Bai Fanxian was standing. When Ma Fufeng and Zheng Renyi regained their senses, they quickly looked in the same direction. This made them see that several hundred meters up in the sky, a figure was standing.
When those rain clouds were blown away, the clear sky appeared in their place. So it wasn't difficult for Grandmaster-level cultivators like them to see.
Knowing that this pressure came from a human being like themselves, both swallowed hard. Because merely the spiritual pressure from this unknown being made them have to kneel in prostration, without needing any attack even once.
Meanwhile, once Bai Fanxian confirmed what she needed, she stopped releasing spiritual energy from her body. That made the people below feel as if a heavy mountain had been lifted away. They could move again. The people below didn't know at all that Bai Fanxian paid them no attention whatsoever. She murmured to herself softly before her figure disappeared from that sky.
"...It succeeded, then?"
Were her last words before leaving.
.
.
.
"Wh-what just happened?"
Tang Tianjie and Song Weinan slowly got up from their state of almost being buried in the ground. Both looked around in disbelief. Almost everyone had fainted, leaving only a few people. And those few were all familiar faces with reputations.
But the condition of those still conscious was extremely pitiful.
"...Grandfather, what was that just now?"
Strangely, Song Ruixi hadn't fainted like the others. When that pressure fell upon her, she could maintain consciousness. Though her condition was no better than others.
"...Grandpa doesn't know either."
Song Weinan refused with confusion. But when he looked at the center of the arena, he had to be surprised. Because besides the two duelists, Eastern King Ma Fufeng and Sword Saint Zheng Renyi, there also appeared the figure of a middle-aged man in full military dress uniform kneeling.
"Th-The Grand Marshal?"
Song Weinan's words made his close friend Tang Tianjie quickly turn to look. And once confirmed, he asked his friend with surprise.
"So the Grand Marshal also came to watch this duel?"
"I don't know either... It seems so."
"...But what really happened?"