"Noisy."

Wang Chen didn't even spare the demon a glance. His voice was faint, dismissive, as though he were commenting on an annoying bird chirping too close to his window.

Outwardly, he lounged in the void like a lazy immortal.

Inwardly?

His nerves were strung tighter than a drawn bowstring.

This demon could kill him with a finger.

He knew it.

The heavens knew it.

There was absolutely nothing "relaxed" about him.

Which was why, in the very next breath, he used the reward he'd been saving since the tower.

"Tower," Wang Chen whispered in his heart, "give me the peak strength of the Sword Saint avatar."

The tower's emotionless mechanical voice responded instantly—but he didn't even catch the words.

Because something else hit him first.

A tsunami of raw mana surged into his spiritual space like a star exploding. It squeezed into his meridians, threatening to tear everything apart from the inside.

Wang Chen's entire being screamed.

Too much… too fast—dammit! If this continues, I'll explode!

His meridians bulged as if someone had rammed molten metal into flesh meant only for water.

He could imagine exactly how it would look: a bright, glorious mushroom cloud shaped like Wang Chen.

But then—

A mysterious, ancient force rose from deep within his soul.

A soft, inexorable presence.

Warm. Soothing. Like a mother calming an enraged dragon.

It wrapped around the raging torrent, subduing it, taming it, molding it into his meridians without tearing him apart.

In the span of a heartbeat, Wang Chen's aura changed.

Utterly.

From the moment he arrived to the moment the strength settled—it had not even been one full second.

The demon, already lifting his giant, scale-covered hand, sneered—

A sneer that froze on his face.

Because the pressure that descended next did not belong to a Foundation Building cultivator.

It didn't even belong to a Golden Core cultivator.

Or a Nascent Soul.

The sky buckled.

The lake exploded outward.

Space itself rippled behind Wang Chen's shoulders.

A suffocating, world-piercing, mountain-crushing pressure fell like an executioner's blade—

Peak Deity Transformation.

The demon staggered back as if slapped.

"What… what… how?"

His three pupils shrank to pinpoints, panic flickering for the first time.

"That's impossible—IMPOSSIBLE! He was just—he was just—!"

His voice cracked, disbelief etched into every fiber of his being.

A moment ago, Wang Chen had been nothing more than a Foundation Building cultivator to him.

A puny bug.

An ant to be stepped on.

Now?

That same "ant" stood there like a sovereign deity, his presence so heavy it made the air compress into fine mist.

A mortal stepping into the shoes of a god in an instant.

The demon's entire body trembled.

Even Rong Lua, watching from the sky, felt his soul violently lurch.

Song Po nearly fainted.

Even the blindfolded Zhao Yunfei's knees buckled under the sheer pressure, though strangely the world warped around her to keep her standing.

Li Mei and Lin Huang felt their bones hum with unbearable resonance. Their Dao Hearts quivered like leaves in a storm.

And Wang Chen?

He simply looked at the demon at last.

Not with malice.

Not with fury.

With boredom.

As if he were examining defective produce in a marketplace.

It wasn't only the demon who was shocked.

High above, the Wind and Thunder City Lord stiffened mid-air, lightning dying around his body as his pupils shrank into trembling pinpoints.

A Deity Transformation aura.

An actual Deity Transformation aura.

He had spent his entire life clawing toward Golden Core perfection hoping to one day step into Nascent Soul… and now a man he'd assumed was a mere Foundation Building cultivator casually radiated a presence he had only ever read about in ancient texts.

His mouth moved, but no words came out.

This was the kind of cultivator you didn't fight.

This was the kind of cultivator you worshipped.

It had been ages since the Azure Dragon Continent produced a single Deity Transformation expert. The continent had practically forgotten what one looked like.

But now, standing in the air with a lazy posture and a bored expression,

there was Wang Chen.

The Wind and Thunder Lord bowed his head instinctively, cold sweat trailing down his back.

Song Po, however, wasn't so lucky.

His face drained of blood. His legs trembled. His mind simply broke in half.

"The Master of Phoenix and Dragon Dojo… he… he's at the Deity Transformation Realm…"

His voice came out small.

Empty.

Crushed.

"It's over…" Song Po murmured to no one, shoulders sagging as all the schemes, ambitions, and resentments he held scattered like ashes. He didn't even look at the demon anymore.

There was no point.

Everything he knew had just been rewritten.

Rong Lua wasn't any better.

When he first met Wang Chen, he thought the man was deceptively strong.

Then he thought he was dangerously strong.

Then he thought he was terrifyingly strong.

Now?

The envoy's face twitched.

Peak Deity Transformation… and I… bowed to him…

His future flashed before his eyes—none of it looked good.

If he wanted to be free again, to hold pride again…

he'd need to pray the heavens glitched in his favor.

At least he was still alive.

Barely.

For Lin Huang and Li Mei, it was a different storm entirely.

It was the first time they had seen their master fully release his power.

Lin Huang's eyes burned with reverence, his heartbeat thundering in awe.

Master is already at the legendary Deity Transformation Realm… and yet he hides it so humbly…

He clenched his fists, feeling like he'd been struck by enlightenment lightning.

On the other hand, Li Mei's pupils narrowed, her All-Seeing Eyes spinning as she examined every detail.

Her suspicion only grew.

This aura… this power…

It didn't feel stable the way a true Deity Transformation realm should.

It was like a terrifying storm barely contained within mortal skin.

She couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't his real limit.

Or worse—

That this wasn't his real cultivation at all.

Still, for the first time since arriving here, her shoulders lowered. Her breathing steadied.

Their teacher had arrived.

They were safe.

For now.

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