He merely lifted his right hand. Two fingers pressed together like a blade, he drew a line through the pulsing core where the three beast-souls converged.
No thunder pealed. No blinding aurora split the sky. Only a filament of five-colored light, so slender it could have been a trick of the eye, flickered from his fingertip and vanished. An instant later, a deep, metallic hum shook the air.
The Threefold Beast-Soul Array shuddered as though struck by an invisible warhammer. The spectral Titan-Force Ape, Windlash Leopard, and Obsidian-Armored Rhino shrieked in despair, then burst like soap bubbles and were gone.
The three disciples who served as living keystones recoiled as if lightning had passed through their spines. Blood sprayed from their lips. Faces drained of color, they staggered back and collapsed, staring at Jared with the hollow horror of children who have seen the world end.
The array was ruined.
From the moment Jared stepped into the formation to the moment it crumbled, fewer than three heartbeats had passed.
Fast. So fast that no one in the arena had time to react. So fast that every sneer, every doubt, every half-formed insult froze on a hundred faces only to shatter under the weight of what they had just witnessed.
The Myriad Beast Altar sank into an even deeper silence than before, an oppressive, suffocating hush in which a falling needle would have sounded like a bell.
Eyes bulged, mouths hung open. To every onlooker, the scene felt less like reality and more like some impossible fable come alive in broad daylight.
He… He really broke it? With a single, lazy swipe?
A Level Seven Human Immortal cultivator? Shattering the Threefold Beast-Soul Array in a blink?
How could that be?
Gavin and Yvette trembled so hard their fists rattled at their sides. Every fiber of their bodies wanted to roar.
Do you see now? This is the strength of the man who saved us!
High on the platform, Paxton lurched to his feet. The composed dignity he wore moments earlier fell away, replaced by raw, blazing shock.
Bartram’s thick fingers yanked at his own beard until several hairs came free; he did not even notice, his round face frozen in terror-struck awe.
Arden’s sneer froze. Hand shaking, he tried to point at Jared, jaw working soundlessly, yet not a single word would leave his throat.
“No, this can’t be!” His cry split the hush that had blanketed the Myriad Beast Altar. He spun in place, clutching at the only excuse he could find. “The array was battered, drained after so many challenges! Its power plummeted, and that wanderer just happened to stroll in at the perfect moment. Yes… Yes, that must be it!”
Although the explanation sounded brittle even as it left his lips, the disciples who could not stomach the truth clung to it the way drowning men grab driftwood.
“That’s right! Elder Aileron has to be right! The formation weakened!”
“That outsider’s luck was obscene; he walked in while the array lay on its last breath!”
“If he’s truly capable, let him face a formation running at full strength!”
Jared stood amid the rising clamor, face set in stone, as though the uproar were no more than distant wind.
At last, he turned his calm gaze on the rattled elder and spoke in a voice as mild as spring rain. “Oh? Then tell me, what sort of formation would convince you I didn’t simply profit from a bargain sale?”
Stung, Arden bellowed without thinking, “If you’re that confident, you should try the Beast-Slaughtering God Array of our sect!”
The words hit like thunder. Ripples of stunned silence washed across the crowd, even Paxton’s eyes narrowing a fraction.
Paxton’s voice rumbled at once. “Arden, watch your tongue. The Beast-Slaughtering God Array is distilled from our sect-guarding grand array, hardly a toy to brandish at will.”
Across the mental link, Gavin’s baritone and Yvette’s breathless soprano overlapped in urgent whispers. “Sir, don’t! That array still demands nine core disciples at Level Four Heavenly Immortal or higher. It once trapped and killed a Level Six Heavenly Immortal foe. Entering it is courting death!”
Its very name, Beast-Slaughtering God Array, spoke of power vast enough to bring divinity low. Even in simplified form, it dwarfed the earlier Threefold Beast-Soul Array beyond comparison.
To every onlooker, the elder’s challenge looked like a razor-edged gamble: either force Jared to quit in disgrace or let the array maim, perhaps erase, him outright.
No one truly believed the newcomer would accept the challenge. This was no longer about proving skill. It was wagering one’s life.
Realizing his own rashness, Arden inhaled sharply, but there was no taking back what he had said.
