Chapter 150: The gap

Color was the first thing to disappear.

The blue of the sky, the red painted across the airship hulls, the black covering the Harpies’ wings... all of it seemed to be drained away by an invisible hand, leaving behind a gray-white world stretching for kilometers around Qing Lian.

The wind stopped.

Even the dust particles floating in midair became motionless.

The spatial tear in the distance also shook violently, ripples constantly appearing across its surface as though it were enduring an unimaginable pressure.

The expressions of all four elders changed at once.

The combined pressure they had just released did not even have time to form a stalemate before it was crushed apart.

It felt as though four waves had crashed simultaneously into a wall stretching all the way to the horizon. The instant they touched it, they were forced backward.

Bang!

One Elven elder’s knee slammed heavily into the ground.

The other immediately planted his staff down to support himself, but the moment the shaft bore the pressure, a sharp crack rang out and fractures rapidly spread across its surface.

The old Beastkin roared, every muscle in his body tightening. Both feet sank deep into the metal runway, yet his body was still being forced downward little by little.

The Harpy elder lasted the longest.

His enormous wings trembled violently.

One second.

Two seconds.

Boom!

In the end, one knee still crashed heavily against the ground.

The entire area fell silent.

From beginning to end, Qing Lian had remained completely still. Even the black hair behind her had not moved in the slightest.

She slowly raised her head.

Crack.

A hair-thin fracture appeared across the sky.

Then came a second.

A third.

Black cracks hundreds of meters long rapidly spread outward, making the sky above look like a sheet of glass being subjected to pressure far beyond its limit.

Those who had originally been standing at a distance merely to watch the commotion immediately fell silent.

Some creatures even unconsciously retreated dozens of steps farther away.

Laira, standing behind Ethan, also became serious.

She had once been knocked down by Qing Zhu and had personally witnessed that bamboo split an entire mountain in half.

But Qing Lian had not actually attacked yet.

She had merely released her aura.

And space was already beginning to crack.

Qing Lian looked at the four figures kneeling before her, her voice remaining as calm as it had been from the beginning.

"I do not want trouble."

She paused briefly.

"Everyone came here to wait for the Challenge Gate."

The pressure in the air increased again.

Crack!

Another fracture tore across the sky.

The Harpy elder immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Only then did Qing Lian continue:

"But if you insist on causing trouble for the people I brought here..."

Her eyes turned cold.

"I do not mind wiping all of you out right here."

Silence.

The atmosphere was so heavy that even heartbeats seemed clearly audible.

No one believed those words were merely an empty threat meant to frighten them. The reason for the silence was much simpler.

Everyone understood that Qing Lian could truly do it.

Several seconds later, she withdrew her aura.

Boom!

Color instantly returned.

The wind resumed blowing across the runway, sweeping the dust particles that had been frozen in midair down to the ground.

The four elders gasped for breath as though they had just been dragged up from the bottom of the sea.

The Elven elder used his cracked staff to push himself back to his feet. His expression was extremely ugly, but in the end, he still did not dare argue further.

He turned toward the younger members behind him.

"Go."

The Third Harpy Queen immediately frowned.

"But..."

"Go."

This time, even the Harpy elder spoke coldly.

The female Harpy stared at Ethan for a long time, her unwillingness almost written plainly across her face, but eventually she still spread her wings.

Before leaving, she lowered her voice until only those nearby could hear.

"We cannot do it outside."

Her eyes turned completely cold.

"Once we are inside, kill him."

The scarred Elf also glanced at Ethan.

"Qing Lian cannot protect him forever inside the challenge space."

The remaining groups exchanged silent looks.

After the suppression they had just witnessed, none of them were foolish enough to continue causing trouble directly in front of Qing Lian, but the killing intent within them had clearly not disappeared.

Ethan calmly watched each group leave.

Qing Lian turned around.

"Let us go."

"Mm."

Ethan followed her.

However, before leaving the runway, he still raised his head to look at the cracks in the sky that were slowly closing.

He had once believed that his growth speed was already extremely fast.

Platinum stage 2.

A Legendary Heavenly Gate.

Three Partners.

Along with a large number of powerful items.

But only after standing directly behind Qing Lian and personally witnessing her force four powerful experts to their knees with nothing more than her aura did Ethan truly understand the gap.

It was so vast that he still could not see its end.

’When will I reach that level?’

The thought remained in Ethan’s mind for only a few seconds.

He withdrew his gaze and continued walking.

Perhaps that day was not as far away as he had once imagined.

The temporary resting area was established inside an old airship hangar.

From the outside, the place looked as though it was on the verge of collapsing, but the internal structure remained relatively sturdy. Qing Zhu used only a few simple items to establish barriers against dust and noise, after which Qing Lian’s people divided the interior into several separate resting areas.

Mumu took up the most space.

It lay sprawled across the middle of the floor, its body more than three meters tall flattened into a soft black-and-yellow mass. At some point, Laira had settled directly on its back as though it were a chair.

"Mumu..."

The soft creature let out a quiet protest.

Laira lowered her hand and patted it twice.

"Just for a little while."

"Mumu."

Ruo Yan was sitting nearby, cleaning her Soul Threads. She glanced over once before continuing her work, showing absolutely no intention of rescuing Mumu.

The moment Ethan walked in, he saw the scene.

"Do not crush it."

Laira sounded completely confident.

"Mumu is not that easy to break."

"Mumu!"

Laira immediately turned toward Ethan.

"See?"

Ethan looked at one woman, then at one Slime.

He genuinely had no idea what kind of communication those two had developed over the past few days.

Qing Zhu was sitting on a metal crate near the entrance with one hand supporting her chin. When she saw Ethan approaching, she laughed.

"You have quite a lot of friends."

Ethan pulled over the chair opposite her and sat down.

"I feel like you are using the word ’friends’ incorrectly."

"It does not matter. They are all acquaintances."

"Even the ones who want to kill me count?"

"Of course." Qing Zhu’s smile grew wider. "They missed you so much they crossed thousands of kilometers just to find you. Such deep affection."

Ethan sighed.

"When you travel around enough, conflict is unavoidable."

Qing Zhu raised an eyebrow.

"Conflict serious enough that Harpies, Elves, Beastkin, and several other races all want your life?"

"The last challenge space I entered contained many different races."

Qing Lian was sitting beside the window at this moment, slowly raising a cup of tea to her lips.

Ethan glanced at her before continuing.

"At first, we were only competing for resources. Then came an inheritance. In the end, everyone felt that if they allowed me to leave alive, I would become a problem."

He recounted what had happened in the Owin ruins in the simplest way possible.

The rankings. ℯℯ𝑙.

The conflicts.

The Elven group.

The Beastkin.

The Harpies.

The truly important parts, however, Ethan kept to himself.

The Eye of Truth.

The fact that Owin was still alive.

The Great World.

What he had obtained on the data layer.

And how he had used Bone Wraith Serpent to conceal his achievements.

He only revealed enough for everyone to understand why the people outside held grudges against him.

After listening, Qing Zhu let out a soft whistle.

"You really know how to cause trouble."

"Most of it was not started by me."

"But you are usually the one who finishes it?"

Ethan thought for a moment.

"It seems so."

Qing Zhu laughed.

Qing Lian had listened in silence from beginning to end.

Only after Ethan finished did she slowly set her teacup down.

"You hid quite a lot."

Ethan turned toward her.

Qing Zhu also looked at her senior sister.

But Qing Lian only added one sentence:

"There is no need to tell us."

Ethan raised an eyebrow slightly.

"You are not curious?"

"I am."

"Then?"

"Everyone has secrets."

Qing Lian’s gaze passed through the broken window and settled on the spatial tear in the distance.

"If you want to speak about them, you naturally will."

Ethan remained silent for a moment before giving a quiet laugh.

"I like this way of talking."

Qing Zhu immediately narrowed her eyes.

Laira, still sitting on Mumu, also turned her head.

The moment Ethan saw their reactions, he realized his words had sounded somewhat strange.

"I mean the way you handle things."

Laira continued staring at him for several more seconds.

"Mm."

Her tone clearly indicated that she did not completely believe that explanation.

Ethan immediately changed the subject.

"Those people outside will definitely make another move once we enter."

"I know."

Qing Lian did not seem concerned.

Ethan looked at her.

"You are not going to warn me?"

"Warn you about what?"

"They want to kill me."

Qing Lian tilted her head slightly.

"Are you afraid?"

"No."

"Then that is enough."

She raised her teacup again.

"As long as you are strong enough, schemes, magic arrays, and numbers all lose their meaning."

Qing Lian looked toward the areas where the other races were establishing their camps.

"When that time comes, those people calculating how to kill you will be nothing more than clowns dancing in front of you."

Ethan did not answer immediately.

The scene from earlier appeared in his mind again.

Four powerful experts from different races released their pressure simultaneously.

Qing Lian merely stood there.

The world lost its color.

Space cracked.

All four knelt.

That was exactly what she meant.

Once strength reached a certain level, schemes truly lost their original significance.

Ethan lowered his gaze toward his right hand.

Platinum stage 2.

He was still very far from that level.

But looking back at the amount of time that had passed since the day he opened his first Blind Box until now...

It actually had not been that long.

Ethan lightly clenched his fist.

"I understand."

Qing Lian glanced at him.

The corner of her lips curved upward so faintly that it was almost impossible to notice.