The moment Hu Qi appeared.
A layer of white frost covered his body, and even the raindrops falling from the sky turned into ice crystals.
It was as if in that single instant,
the surrounding temperature had plummeted to a terrifying low.
The invisible Domain Power threatened to freeze him solid right where he stood.
However,
seeing this,
Hu Qi merely frowned.
He let out a cold snort.
VMMM!
The sword "Dusk" on his back hummed!
Its sound was like the clash of steel.
The extreme cold Domain enveloping him was suddenly torn apart by an invisible wave of Sword Energy.
"Oh?"
A soft exclamation of surprise suddenly sounded nearby.
Looking toward the sound,
the effeminate, armored man with long, flowing hair had appeared not far in front of Hu Qi at some unknown point.
He was somewhat surprised to see Hu Qi break free from his Domain Power.
The reason Sequence Five Professionals are called Lords
is because, regardless of their chosen path, once a Professional successfully advances to Sequence Five,
they become capable of using their own Spirituality to leverage the Spirituality of the outside world, like a walking source of spiritual radiation.
They can form their own unique Domain, with themselves at its center.
The range and power of the Domain varies for each Professional depending on their strength.
But one thing was always the same.Within this Domain,
any Professional who had not reached Sequence Five,
once caught inside,
would be suppressed by the Domain Power, unable to exert even a fraction of their original strength.
While lower-Sequence Professionals might be able to fight above their station in certain situations by relying on the unique aspects of their path,
once a Professional reached Sequence Five and gained a Domain, such a thing was no longer possible.
Fundamentally, the two were on completely different levels of existence.
But now, the impossible had happened right before his eyes.
In his perception, this man had not reached Sequence Five at all.
And yet, his Domain of extreme cold had been shattered.
"Interesting! Tell me, how did you do that? Perhaps I’ll spare your life!"
The long-haired, effeminate man—Duke—approached Hu Qi step by step.
His eyes glinted with an eager curiosity, a desperate desire to understand the unknown.
It was as if he was certain that Hu Qi could not possibly escape his grasp.
Hu Qi stood in the curtain of rain,
not responding to Duke’s question.
The crimson glow in his eyes only intensified, and upon closer inspection, the cross-shaped sigil deep within his pupils began to slowly rotate.
Hu Qi looked at the Sequence Five man before him.
This level of power.
It would make someone an absolute powerhouse, whether in a secret society, the Church, or the Federation.
Before, it would have been a different story.
He would have turned and fled without a second thought.
But things were different now.
There’s an old saying: you should look at someone with new eyes after an absence of just three days.
But for him, it didn’t take three days. Three breaths were enough.
At this thought,
a slight smile touched his lips.
But the words he spoke left Duke baffled.
"Sequence Five? It’s a pity. You’re too late."
—In that instant!
All sound in the vicinity vanished, as if devoured by some unseen force.
A bone-chilling pressure suddenly descended.
In Duke’s vision, a pair of shadows that blotted out the sky rose up behind Hu Qi.
They were a pair of enormous, pale wings, which suddenly unfurled like a descending night, blanketing the earth. In that moment, the falling rain froze solid in mid-air.
Time itself seemed to grind to a halt.
"Hm? This is... Domain Power? You’re Sequence Five?!"
The long-haired man’s composure instantly shattered, replaced by unconcealable horror.
He tried to move, but was horrified to find his body felt as if it were trapped in a mire. His movements became incredibly sluggish, and even the Spirituality within him had nearly stagnated.
"Impossible... A Domain of this magnitude... You..."
His voice trembled with shock.
The next second!
—ROAR!!!
A pale white Giant Dragon materialized behind Hu Qi.
The instant it appeared, it opened its mouth and unleashed a torrential blast of searing white light, a blinding pillar that shot straight toward the long-haired man!
—AH!
A scream ripped from Duke’s throat.
The corners of his eyes threatened to tear as a mortal crisis washed over him.
With no time to think,p>a translucent, honeycomb-like crystalline shield materialized around him.
He tried to block the fatal blow.
CRACK!
Then, the scene shifted.
The white light and the Giant Dragon vanished without a trace.
In their place, Hu Qi now stood before him.
A flash of light from a sword had pierced the shield.
Duke instinctively jerked his head aside to dodge, but the sharp blade still scraped past his face.
An explosion of pain erupted as warm blood trickled down his cheek.
The razor-sharp blade had torn a grisly gash across his face, peeling back skin and flesh to reveal the horrifying crimson of his gums.
"You..."
Duke’s expression changed.
How could he not understand now?
Everything he had just experienced had been an Illusion Technique.
’His eyes are strange!’
The thought had barely flashed through his mind
when a loud BANG erupted!
The crystal barrier before him shattered.
Duke used the recoil from the explosion to leap gracefully onto a distant tree branch.
He formed a hand seal in front of his chest. Countless ice crystals condensed in the air, transforming into sharp Arrows that shot toward Hu Qi.