It was stillness. The stars stopped twinkling. The millions of Nether Wraiths hung in the air like statues, their red eyes wide open. The remaining cultivators of the Summoning Beast Pavilion were frozen mid-breath. The giant beasts were frozen with their mouths open.
Nexus frowned. Her perfect brow creased in confusion. She could feel her own peak sovereign power being locked down. She could not move a finger.
Opposite her, the Phantom Wraith Sovereign also frowned. His cruel smile was gone. His twisted horns seemed to dim. For the first time in his long life, he could not feel the space around him. He could not command it. Someone else was commanding it for him.
Both of them, the strongest beings on the battlefield, turned their locked eyes toward the one person who was still moving freely.
Huai.
Huai chuckled again.
As he did, his white veil did not fall. It broke apart. It turned into countless tiny fragments of light, like stars shattering. The fragments floated up and disappeared into the sky. They entered the Heavenly Dao itself.
The moment the veil was gone, the frozen world broke.
On the ground, Ling Zhan gasped and took a deep breath. Ling Tian stumbled back. Ancestor Ling Wei felt his heart start beating again. Yao Shen and Yao Lingxi clutched each other, their legs weak. They all looked up at Huai in horror.
Nexus also felt her body become free. She could move again. She turned to look at Huai, and real fear entered her eyes. She had stood beside him for months. She had called him Citizen Huai. She had planned to protect him. Now she understood. He had never needed protection. He could control the Heavenly Law with just a chuckle. She had never seen through him at all.
In the sky, the millions of Nether Wraiths also unfroze. They trembled in place, not daring to move.
The Phantom Wraith Sovereign, Gorgon, stared at Huai's face. For the first time, his face was clear to everyone. It was a young face, calm and bright under the sun. It was almost gentle.
Gorgon gritted his teeth. His voice shook. "Who... who are you?" he asked. "It's impossible for us to not have details of someone like you."
Huai looked at Gorgon and smiled. His face was glowing in the sunlight.
"Do you think that you are capable enough to have details of me?" Huai asked. His voice was soft. "You filthy wraiths. The moment you landed in human territory, your demise became inevitable."
Then Huai lifted his hand. Three beams of light appeared beside him. The light twisted and formed into three clear projections. They were three figures, all Nether Wraiths.
Gorgon's face turned grim. The blood drained from his dark skin. He started stammering, his confidence gone.
"How? How did you know them?" he said. "Kael'thul, Xarax, Morgoth! Aren't they the ones who went to an ancient planet called 'Earth'?"
Nexus spoke before she could stop herself. Her surprise broke through her shock.
"Earth?" she asked. "That ancient planet where humanity first bloomed before reaching the universe? You found that planet?"
Gorgon did not even glance at her. His eyes were locked on Huai. His voice was hoarse. "Are their deaths related to you? Are you the one who destroyed our troops that went to that place?"
Huai only smiled.
That smile made Nexus and Gorgon both feel cold. In Nexus's head, one thought kept repeating. Just who is this Shen Huai? He appeared out of nowhere. Even the Nether Wraiths, who have terrified humanity for ages, are afraid of him.
Huai waved his hand. The three projections of Kael'thul, Xarax, and Morgoth flickered and vanished.
"So you are all from the same place," Huai said, nodding in satisfaction. "Then Earth is still here in this plane!"
Gorgon frowned. Only he knew the truth. Earth was not in this plane. It was in a completely different one. If this person did not know where Earth was, then how did he kill them there?
Huai tilted his head. "Or is it not here? Is it in a different plane?"
A shiver ran through Gorgon's whole body. One second he thought Huai was bluffing. The next second, he felt pure terror. This person was reading him like a book.
Huai sighed. "They wanted to destroy humanity on Earth and take control of it. So I removed them from existence."
Gorgon almost fell out of the sky. His worst fear was true. This was the person who had erased three of their strongest powerhouses without leaving a trace.
Huai's eyes became calm. "Now it is your time."
He did not raise his hand. He did not chant. He simply looked at them.
First, the millions of Nether Wraiths behind Gorgon went silent. Their red eyes dimmed. Then, like candles being snuffed out, they were gone. No scream. No explosion. No dust. One moment they filled the sky. The next moment, the sky was empty. They were removed from existence. It was clean and absolute. ancestor Gui already lost all hope from his body and mind , he fell on the void...
Gorgon saw it happen. His army, his race's elite force, was gone in a blink. He broke.
"No! No!" he screamed, his voice cracking. He dropped to his knees in the air. "Mercy! Great one, have mercy! I can serve you! I can give you worlds!" Tears of black ichor ran from his red eyes.
Huai said nothing. His face was still calm.
Gorgon's terror turned to rage. "You think you can kill me? My clan will hunt you! You don't know the power behind us ! This small plane is nothing ,The Wraith Ancestor will..."
Huai looked at him. Gorgon stopped mid-sentence. His body went stiff. Then he faded. He did not turn to dust. He did not burn. He just became transparent, then clear, then nothing. As if his existence was removed from the heavenly dao itself. He was gone, just like the others. Erased.
The few remaining beasts and cultivators from the Summoning Beast Pavilion tried to flee. They turned and shot toward the void. But they slammed into an invisible wall. The area was already sealed. Huai had locked it when he froze space earlier. There was no escape.
Huai turned to Nexus. "Block all communication devices," he said simply. "All of them. Now."
Nexus blinked. Then her eye twitched.
Oh. The realization hit her. So this is why he wanted my help.
She thought back to his calm request moments ago. She had thought it was for some grand strategy. She had thought she would fight a sovereign to the death. Instead, he wanted her to play signal jammer.
She could destroy all the communication jade slips and spirit networks herself, sure. But finding and collecting them later would be a pain. Too much paperwork. Too many hidden ones to track down. Better to just block them all at once and let him handle the cleanup.
She let out a long breath. She looked at the empty sky where millions of Wraiths had been. She looked at Huai's calm face.
So I'm tech support now. The great peak Galaxy Sovereign Nexus, reduced to a communication blocker.
She almost cursed out loud. Instead, she raised her hand. Silver light spread out from her palm and covered thousands of light years in an instant. Every transmission jade, every escape talisman, every hidden distress array went dead.
"All signals blocked, Citizen Huai," she said, her voice completely flat.
Down on the ground, Yan munched another melon seed. He already ate a bowl full of melon seeds during the whole procedure...
Ancestor Gui Wuyang watched the last Nether Wraith vanish. His body was shaking without control.
"Mercy! Mercy!" he screamed, his voice breaking. He kowtowed in the air toward Huai, again and again. "Your Highness, have mercy! I was blind! I was a fool!"
Huai did not look at him.
Gui Wuyang turned his desperate eyes to Nexus. "Lady Nexus! Please! Speak for me! We had no choice! The Wraiths forced us!"
Nexus did not even glance at him. Her silver eyes were fixed on Huai. To her, Gui Wuyang was already dead. He was not worth a second of her attention.
Huai finally spoke. His voice was calm, but it carried across the sky for everyone to hear.
"Mercy?" Huai said. "You brought monsters into human territory. You gave them our people to eat. You pointed their blades at your own kind."
He looked down at the ground, then back at the sky. "Humanity will remember the punishment. Every time someone sees you, they will remember the price of betrayal."
He waved his hand once.
The remaining elders of the Summoning Beast Pavilion began to scream.
" Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhh! Ancestor save us ....ahhhhhhh! "
The sound was terrible. It was loud enough that the whole Shadow Star shook. Feng-Bao, Shi-Gu, Ju-Ling, and every single disciple. One by one, their bodies broke apart into gray dust. Their screams echoed in the air before silence fell again.
On the ground, Ling Zhan gulped. Ling Tian could not swallow. Ancestor Ling Wei held his chest. Yao Shen covered his daughter Yao Lingxi's eyes, but she had already seen. The physicians behind them fell to their knees, their faces pale.
The entire Summoning Beast Pavilion army was gone. Only Gui Wuyang was left.
Now it was his turn.
Huai did not move. He only released his aura. An invisible force grabbed Gui Wuyang. It lifted him higher into the void, far above the planet. It pinned him there, spread out like a criminal on display. The force was so strong that every person in the Red Lotus Galaxy could see him if they looked up. They are cultivators ,any star level cultivators can even see light years away .
Then Huai raised his hand toward the sky. The clouds parted. The Heavenly Dao responded. Golden laws appeared in the air like chains.
Huai did not kill him.
He pointed one finger. A single black mark flew from his fingertip and entered Gui Wuyang's chest.
"The Rotten Dao Curse," Huai said softly.
The effect was instant.
Gui Wuyang's eyes went wide. He screamed. It was not a scream of pain. It was a scream of pure horror.
His Qi, the energy he cultivated for ten thousand years, turned black inside his body. It became rotten Qi. It started eating him from the inside. Every cell in his body felt like it was being chewed by a thousand insects. His skin turned gray and cracked. His muscles decayed and then healed, only to decay again. The pain was endless.
And he would not die. His body would not return to normal. The process would repeat. Ten thousand times. Only after that would he finally get the mercy of death.
Huai's voice then boomed. It was not loud. It was heavy. It reached every corner of the Red Lotus Galaxy. It passed through walls and mountains and formations. It entered the ears of every human.
"People of the Red Lotus Galaxy!"
In the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion, in the Red Lotus Formation Hall, in the Martial Soul Sect, doors burst open. Disciples ran outside. Elders stopped their cultivation. Ancestors who had been in seclusion for centuries opened their eyes in horror and flew into the sky.
They all looked up. They saw the man pinned in the void. They recognized him. It was Ancestor Gui Wuyang of the Summoning Beast Pavilion.
Huai's voice tore through the sky.
"Summoning Beast Pavilion betrayed humanity. They became subordinates to the Nether Wraiths."
"They brought Galaxy Sovereigns of extraterrestrial races into our human territory."
"They dared to defy humanity!"
"The whole sect is annihilated."
"Now this is the punishment for choosing to betray humanity!"
As he finished speaking, the curse fully activated.
A huge scream tore through the whole galaxy. It was Gui Wuyang's voice, filled with agony that would not end.
Everyone shuddered in fear.
On the Shadow Star, Ling Zhan and the others could not speak. Nexus watched with a calm face, but her hands were clenched tight. Yan stopped eating his melon seeds.
The entire Red Lotus Galaxy had just seen what happens to traitors of humanity.