The golden lotus flew into the chaotic battle above, spinning wildly.

As it spun faster, the petals began to separate and fall off, forming new golden lotuses.

Soon, thousands of golden lotuses filled the sky.

Qin Ruqing’s red lips curved into a smile as she gracefully uttered a single word: “Explode!”

But they didn’t all explode at once.

Instead, one after another, they exploded in a chain reaction, each blast building on the previous one.

Interestingly, Qin Ruqing had recently been inspired by the techniques of these other geniuses to create this move.

They liked using charged-up attacks, so she thought she’d try one too.

The two fighters, who had been lost in the heat of battle, finally sensed the extreme danger.

Feng Mingyue, seeing the countless golden lotuses, quickly waved her silk-wrapped weapon, catching half of the lotuses.

As soon as the golden lotuses touched something solid, they exploded.

However, the silk-wrapped weapon cleverly absorbed the force of the explosions, redirecting the remaining lotuses to distant places.

Some of these lotuses landed near the hidden spectators, causing a brief panic.

The other half of the golden lotuses was absorbed by a mysterious golden ring wielded by Fifth Lingyu.

The ring buzzed loudly as it filtered out the violent energy from the lotuses, releasing the remaining, less powerful energy in all directions.

Unfortunately, some spectators were still hit by the blasts.

The scene was chaotic.

Initially, the spectators cursed Qin Ruqing, thinking she was crazy.

If she wanted to duel with Feng Mingyue, she should just challenge her directly.

Why interfere with others’ fights?

But when they saw how Feng Mingyue and Fifth Lingyu handled the situation, they began cursing all of them equally.

“Madmen! Every one of them!”

Once all the golden lotuses had disappeared, Feng Mingyue stopped and looked at Qin Ruqing with a cold gaze. “Fairy Ruqing, why did you interfere?”

Fifth Lingyu also looked at her, calmly folding his wide sleeves and saying, “In a hurry to get beaten up?”

Qin Ruqing smiled sweetly and replied to Fifth Lingyu, “There’s no rush to get beaten up.”

Then, turning to Feng Mingyue, she became slightly more serious and said, “It’s fine if you want to enjoy a good fight, but don’t drag the rest of us into it.”

Feng Mingyue frowned, clearly not understanding.

Qin Ruqing politely said, “Please, Fairy, use your divine powers to observe the rules of power around us.”

Others might not be able to see it, but Qin Ruqing believed that Feng Mingyue could.

Feng Mingyue gave Qin Ruqing a cautious look but trusted that she wasn’t causing trouble for no reason.

She took out something resembling a star chart and used a spell to light it up.

After a short while, her expression changed.

She remained calm but finally understood why Qin Ruqing had acted as she did. “There is too much violent power accumulating here. The space can’t handle it, and the Legacy Path is about to undergo a major change. Everyone, prepare yourselves.” This last part was clearly directed at the other spectators.

A chorus of gasps could be heard from the crowd.

After saying this, Feng Mingyue slowly turned to Qin Ruqing and asked, “You knew this was going to happen, so why didn’t you stop it? Why did you use such a powerful spell? You must have realized that using it wouldn’t calm things down, but rather escalate the power surge.”

Qin Ruqing’s smile grew even brighter as she said lightly, “I did try to stop it! You just didn’t listen.”

“Look, the sparks from your fight almost burned my dress!” Qin Ruqing pointed to her dress, showing that it was indeed damaged.

“So, when stopping it didn’t work, I decided to help you along.”

“To make this explosion even more intense.”

As if in response to her words, a terrifying energy suddenly filled the air on the Legacy Path.

The disaster had really begun…!

A sudden change occurred!

The air became heavy, and all the talented people on the path of inheritance couldn’t help but bend over, as if a massive stone had crashed down on them, forcing them to sink under its weight.

Their hearts and internal organs felt like they were being squeezed tightly, causing them to experience intense pressure.

Their skin started to swell with blood until it oozed out in droplets.

“What just happened?”

“I can’t… I can’t breathe…”

“Could this be because of what that monster Qin did…?”

Qin Ruqing was struggling just like everyone else but couldn’t stand being falsely accused.

She clutched her heart and glared fiercely at the person who spoke.

“Didn’t you hear what Feng Mingyue said earlier? You all fought too much, causing the rules to gather and create chaos. I came to stop you, and now you’re blaming me!”

The person shrank back under Qin Ruqing’s sharp gaze but quickly tried to defend themselves. “But didn’t you say to let the explosion come even stronger?”

Qin Ruqing sneered, “So what if I did? You never listen to the good advice, so I had to let you experience the consequences early!”

The person opened their mouth as if to argue more, but Qin Ruqing brought her fingers together, pretending to cast a spell with a threatening gesture.

“Say one more word, and I’ll beat you up!”

Remembering the terrifying golden lotus Qin Ruqing had used before, the person quickly shut up, too scared to speak.

They started to sweat nervously, realizing something important: If Qin Ruqing could easily stop the fight between Feng Mingyue and Fifth Lingyu, her power must be on the same level.

It was a mistake to blame her for the chaos.

She was no pushover!

The chaos caused by the rules was far worse than anyone had imagined.

At first, the pressure just made it hard to breathe, but it was still bearable.

That’s why some people still had the energy to argue with Qin Ruqing. But soon, things got much worse.

The pressure increased so much that no one could even speak.

It was like shrimp being boiled in a pot—they quickly curled up and turned red.

The talented people on the inheritance path were crushed one by one by the overwhelming pressure.

Six beams of light appeared from six directions, and no one was spared.

Qin Ruqing was one of the last to collapse, but she did so earlier than Feng Mingyue and the others.

It wasn’t because she had reached her limit; she simply realized that the pressure was becoming too great for anyone to withstand.

Since everyone would eventually collapse, there was no point in holding out any longer.

She didn’t need to prove anything.

So, Qin Ruqing let herself fall naturally, without any mental burden.

Feng Mingyue was the last to collapse. This top female immortal, with her strong determination, held on until her entire body was filled with blood before slowly falling down.

Once all the geniuses had collapsed, the entire inheritance path became eerily quiet.

It felt as if they were unconscious, yet their minds were incredibly clear because another fierce battle was taking place within their heads.

A hurricane had erupted in everyone’s mind!

It was as if everyone on the Legacy Path had collectively entered a sea of consciousness from the real world.

The sea of consciousness was a vast, white expanse, with a massive gray-black whirlpool-like hurricane in the center that shot straight into the sky.

Wherever the hurricane passed, nothing could survive.

Around the edges of the hurricane, faint silhouettes of people could be seen.

They were scattered, each surrounded by a thin golden light like a mist, and their faces were tense as they struggled to resist the hurricane.

Qin Ruqing noticed the center of the whirlpool, which was a dark, abyss-like hole.

It seemed like a bottomless pit, and just looking at it made her shiver.

Falling into it would likely mean instant brain damage, leading to a vegetative state.

Why brain damage and not physical destruction?

Because she wasn’t in her physical body!

Qin Ruqing quickly realized that this place was similar to a sea of consciousness.

The terrifying hurricane was a manifestation of the invading rules of power.

Being sucked into the core of the hurricane meant having your consciousness swallowed—essentially losing your mind.

Qin Ruqing summoned her small lotus, which floated above her head like a bright lamp.

The pressure on her lessened, and she finally had the strength to look for her third sister and the others.

She saw Feng Mingyue to her left, clinging tightly to something with a silk-like weapon to keep herself from being swept away by the hurricane.

To her right was Fifth Lingyu, surrounded by a golden ring, which seemed to be protecting him without much trouble.

She also spotted a few familiar faces, like Dan Qing and Ming Ying, scattered around…

Suddenly, her spiritual sense detected a large bell.

Qin Ruqing’s eyes lit up—this bell could only belong to Xiao Tang!

Fortunately, the distance wasn’t far.

Qin Ruqing, despite the risk and pressure, pushed the small lotus to its maximum power and bravely moved closer.

The bell, as if sensing her presence, began to hum and move towards her as well.

When the bell and the small lotus were just an arm’s length apart, the bell suddenly shook and quickly covered Qin Ruqing.

The small lotus naturally floated to the top of the bell, as if the two artifacts were meant to be together, continually shining light.

Inside the bell, Qin Ruqing finally came face-to-face with Tang Zifeng.

“Wow, Xiao Tang, your bell is pretty spacious inside!” With the two artifacts working together to fend off the external forces, Qin Ruqing felt much less pressure and could finally speak.

She looked around, touching the inside of the bell with curiosity in her eyes.

“To conserve energy and resist the outside, the artifact has to stay this size. But under normal circumstances, if you wanted to do cartwheels in here, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Tang Zifeng explained warmly, his gaze resting on Qin Ruqing.

“Cartwheels? I’m not a monkey, why would I do cartwheels?” Qin Ruqing turned her smiling face toward Tang Zifeng, but then suddenly, her smile froze.

Oh no, this is such a cramped space, and sitting here side by side with Xiao Tang… Isn’t this like being alone together, just the two of us?

Of course, they had been in situations like this many times before.

In the past, Qin Ruqing wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but now she felt awkward and uncomfortable.

This change in her feelings was definitely due to the influence of the illusion.