Rule resonance.
When a Mighty One employed the power of a rule, unowned rules would resonate in kind.
This was akin to striking a bell: a neighboring bell would vibrate from the shockwave, emitting a faint chime of its own.
If a bell were colossal enough, the reverberation would become unfathomably vast—vast enough to obliterate everything. And that was precisely why those worlds were being destroyed.
Hong Xiguan and Wu Song threw punches at blistering speed, both constantly ramping up their tempo until they had long exceeded the speed of light by countless multiples.
To their eyes, creatures moving at normal velocities appeared entirely frozen.
Neither of them unleashed any abilities of cataclysmic destructive scale; they merely imbued their fists with the pure force of their rules, relentlessly trading blows. The moment one's rule power faltered, that person would be crushed.
In fact, when Yu Xian first turned his attention to Hong Xiguan and Wu Song, both were still in peak condition. Yet Yu Xian was certain that misfortune awaited them.
For while he was coveting their legacies, another Mighty One was lurking in the shadows, watching hungrily—one whose strength surpassed both of theirs.
In truth, possessing the Zhen Realm gave Yu Xian something of a dimensional strike advantage over Mighty Ones. The Zhen Realm was the finest telescope across the myriad heavens and realms, as well as the ultimate reconnaissance tool.
Under normal circumstances, if a Mighty One wished to flee or hide, tracking them down was extraordinarily difficult.
A Mighty One would deploy endless deceptive measures and even dispatch avatars to lure pursuers away, ensuring their true body was never found.
Yet through the Zhen Realm, Yu Xian could lock onto a target unerringly. No matter what remote nook or cranny they hid in, Yu Xian could ferret out their sanctuary.
That was how the Eye-Snatching Demon had died.
One should not assume the Eye-Snatching Demon had been naive enough to make no preparations.
In reality, his precautions had been absurdly thorough: avatars, bloodline auras, misdirection formations—he had used them all. Even his hiding place had been protected by countless traps, magic circles, an alchemical labyrinth, and Mighty One–tier concealment techniques.
Alas, before Yu Xian, all of it had been useless. Yu Xian had struck right in his face, wiping him out alongside every single one of those preparations with overwhelming force.
The current situation was no different.
Neither Hong Xiguan nor Wu Song realized they were being stalked; they were still clashing frantically.
Yet Yu Xian had already spotted the Mighty One hiding behind thirty-six layers of barriers. It was a female Mighty One who bore a striking resemblance to a young Zhang Min.
She sat atop a petal-less lotus receptacle capable of cloaking her aura. The lotus seeds around her spun continuously, while her gaze remained fixed on Hong Xiguan and Wu Song.
Both Hong Xiguan and Wu Song carried the scent of Calamity Origin.
Two tigers locked in combat.
Once both were grievously wounded, she would make her move!
Yet just as she was busy scheming, a shapely leg materialized out of thin air and planted a vicious kick right on her backside. Her eyes turned savage. As she flew backward through the air, she twisted her waist and thrust a sword finger at the leg, cleanly severing the gorgeous limb in two on the spot.
However, she had also been kicked clear out of her barrier. In an instant, Hong Xiguan and Wu Song, who had been locked in mutual combat, froze simultaneously and turned their eyes toward her.
"I was just... passing by. Yes, passing by! Please continue, pay me no mind!" The woman stiffened for a moment, then hurriedly offered a bright smile.
Disgust flickered in Wu Song's eyes. He proposed, "Kill her first, then we settle things between us?"
"Agreed!" Hong Xiguan replied.
The woman's expression instantly changed. She spun around and bolted, cursing as she fled, "Bastard! Don't let me find out who you are, or I'll grind you to ash!"
With one fleeing and two in pursuit, the trio quickly vanished into the depths of the Tree Universe.
"What the heck?"
"She actually ran? What a coward."
Watching this unfold, Yu Xian muttered to himself in mild disappointment.
He had assumed that once his kick forced the female Mighty One into the open, she would realize concealment was impossible and just step up to finish off Hong Xiguan and Wu Song. Instead, she hadn't even made a move before turning tail and running.
"Could it be because of me?"
Rubbing his chin in the Zhen Realm, Yu Xian suddenly realized he might have been a bit too impatient.
The female Mighty One was completely capable of taking on both of them at once, but Yu Xian's sneak attack had spooked her. Thus, after being exposed, her first thought hadn't been seizing any spoils, but getting away.
It was rather like tossing a snake into a glass terrarium with the intent that it would eat the rat and the toad inside. Yet upon landing inside, all the snake wanted was to escape, darting and probing all over, while the rat and the toad attacked it until the snake was eventually killed by them.
"Whatever, next."
Recognizing that his meddling had led Hong Xiguan and Wu Song to join forces against the woman, Yu Xian sheepishly changed the channel to see what other Mighty Ones were up to.
In truth, he couldn't really be blamed for his impatience.
For Mighty Ones to determine a victor between themselves simply took far too long.
If that female Mighty One had actually stepped in against Hong Xiguan and Wu Song, the duration would have been drastically shortened—from months or years to just a couple of weeks.
Yu Xian hadn't been able to resist lending a kick solely to speed up the process; he just hadn't considered how the female Mighty One would perceive it, and so he had bungled things.
Over the ensuing period, the myriad heavens and realms remained bustling. Mighty Ones fought one another for Calamity Origin, while others destroyed worlds to directly extract it.
The most wretched victims were the innocent worlds, obliterated out of nowhere, where countless living beings perished without ever understanding why.
It was like a tranquil afternoon when a child brings boiling water to an anthill, watches the ants scurry in and out, and pours the boiling water right into the mound.
The ants had no way of comprehending what had happened; they only knew they were dying.
After becoming a Mighty One, Yu Xian's greatest impression was how utterly fragile worlds were. Each one was like a bubble; if he wished, a light poke could pop and destroy a massive world.
Whether it was the power of Chaos and Myriad Phenomena or the power of Grand Dao Myriad Phenomena, under the influence of rule power, both could easily trigger rule resonance across all matter, effortlessly vibrating a world into primordial soup.
What was life?
In the past, Yu Xian would grieve or rage over the death of a single person or a handful of people.
In his youth, his blood had run hot as well. But having lived for thousands of years, he looked upon all life and felt it was largely the same. Apart from his family and close friends, there was very little he genuinely cared about anymore.
After all, who would care about mayflies that turned to ash in the span of a single nap?
Moreover, caring held no meaning whatsoever.
In the Tree Universe right now, for instance, every single second saw Mighty Ones destroying worlds, and every single second saw countless lives instantly reduced to part of a Calamity Origin.
The lives within those worlds had their own pursuits, their own dreams, their own ambitions, and their own yearnings.
Yet it was useless.
With a mere wave of a Mighty One's hand, it all vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing more than a number: Calamity Origin +1.
Chapter 698