Chapter 595 - 366: Invincible

High above the sea of swirling, jade-tinted clouds, the wind howled with icy fury, whipping the edges of Haoran’s imperial black-and-gold dragon robes.

Beside him, Huo Yue stood poised on the invisible precipice of the upper atmosphere.

Her fiery crimson hair danced wildly in the gale like living embers, her sharp, crimson colored eyes narrowing as she peered through the mist toward the sprawling metropolis nestled in the massive crater valley below.

The settlement was vast beyond measure.

Spanning ten million square kilometers across the rugged mountain basin, towering crystalline walls carved from celestial iron caught the midday sun, shimmering with interlocking, iridescent protective arrays.

Giant, pagoda-style fortresses, spiraling towers of polished white stone, and massive floating pavilions anchored by heavy iron chains filled the skyline.

A dense web of spatial rifts and glowing transit arrays hummed constantly around the city gates, swallowing and spitting out caravans, flying spirit vessels, and patrol squads clad in silver armor.

"So that’s the Sky Reaching City?" Huo Yue stared at the city down below, "Looks burnable."

Her lips curled into a cruel, feral smile, her sharp canines gleaming.

To a little flame gremlin like her who likes to burn down things, a sprawling den of enemies covered in wooden roofs, spirit wood towers, and combustible defensive formations was not an imposing fortress—it was merely kindling waiting for a spark.

Haoran just smirked at that, "It is. Why don’t you... give them a little surprise?"

His voice was calm, dripping with careless arrogance, his golden eyes observing the bustling streets millions of feet below as if looking at a mound of termites.

He made no move to draw Azathoth, crossing his hands loosely behind his back, granting her full permission to paint the sky in blood and ash.

Huo Yue grinned.

Then, as she slammed her fist on her palm, five Heavenly Flames instantly flared out of her body.

WHOOOOOOSH!

The temperature in the upper firmament instantly rose, no, it didn’t just rise, it burned!

From her slender shoulders, all her five distinct, Heavenly Flames was burning forth into the sky, tearing the freezing clouds into burning vapor!

To her left roared an oily, pitch-black fire that reeked of the grave and gnawed on the spiritual energy of the air.

To her right surged a crackling flame with vibrant emerald life that fed the inferno until it stood thousands of feet tall.

Across her back erupted a blinding, molten earthen core flame that burned with the wrath of an ancient sun.

Beside it danced a terrifying contradiction of flame that froze the void even as it incinerated matter.

And crowned at the center was the Purifying Crimson Lotus Flame, shimmering in pure, violent scarlet.

Huo Yue brought her slender palms together, her jaw tightening as the five flames were forcefully compressed into a swirling sphere between her fingers!

SKRRRRR!

The sound of five opposing primal laws grinding against one another was like a thousand thunderbolts detonating in unison!

Sparks of violet, emerald, gold, white, and crimson lashed out, violently warping the surrounding space!

Then, slowly, delicately, petal by petal, a miniature lotus the size of a tea bowl took shape between her palms.

It was breathtakingly beautiful, crafted from translucent, crystalline fire, yet the sheer, apocalyptic heat radiating from its core was monstrous!

The atmosphere itself began to catch fire!

The very air, the oxygen, the clouds, the subtle moisture carried by the mountain draft, was incinerated into absolute nothingness!

The sky above the mountain basin turned a scorched, angry violet, and the blue dome of heaven fractured, peeling away in sizzling sheets of spatial distortion!

Birds flying ten miles away vaporized into smoke before their feathers could even singe; ancient glaciers on distant peaks liquefied in the blink of an eye, pouring down the cliffs in boiling torrents of steam!

The sheer density of the heat created an immense gravitational vacuum, sucking the surrounding wind inward and turning the upper sky into a suffocating, airless kiln!

"Heh, disappear!" She fired the flame lotus to the city below.

With a sharp thrust of her palms, Huo Yue sent the crystalline lotus plummeting toward the earth!

It fell like a falling star, small and silent, yet leaving a trail of burning golden crimson plasma miles wide in its wake!

Down below, the people who were minding their own business suddenly noticed the heat.

Inside the bustling markets of Sky Reaching City, merchants had been haggling over high-grade spirit stones, rogue cultivators were drinking fragrant wine in the high teahouses, and sect disciples were browsing the newly stocked spatial weapon stalls.

Then, without warning, the wine in the jade cups began to boil and bubble!

HISS!

The green leaves on the ancient decorative trees lining the boulevards spontaneously burst into roaring yellow fire.

The smooth cobblestones under the feet of the pedestrians turned sticky, then red, then melted into sloshing, bubbling puddles of liquid basalt!

"What... what is this heat?!"

"My skin! My robes are catching fire!"

Cries of panic and shrieks of terror erupted across the city avenues as thousands of people looked up toward the zenith.

Their eyes widened in sheer, mind breaking horror.

The sky was gone.

The clouds were gone.

In their place descended an all-consuming, multi-colored inferno—a colossal dome of blazing crimson, gold, and emerald fire expanding outward like the wrath of heaven itself!

It looked as though a supreme sun had broken free from its cosmic tether and was hurtling straight toward their roofs, promising to vaporize the walls, the arrays, and every living soul into ash!

*

*

*

At this moment, inside the central palace.

Lin Yun leaned back lazily against a plush, velvet cushioned throne carved from dragon bone.

He wore loose, untied robes of fine blue silk, an amused, carefree hum drifting through his nose as he enjoyed the morning.

To his left, a stunning young disciple in translucent gauze robes was fanning him with large, iridescent peacock feathers, creating a gentle, fragrant breeze.

To his right, another kneeling maiden was peeling the purple skin off plump, cold spirit grapes, carefully placing the sweet fruit between his lips.

At his feet, a third maiden sat with a silver knife, delicately slicing thin, crisp wedges from a golden jade apple, placing them onto a carved porcelain plate with sweet, obedient smiles.

Just then, he noticed two presences arriving, and along with them, the temperature suddenly rising.

The grape hovering before his lips began to sizzle, its skin blistering and bursting into warm juice.

The fine silk of his curtains smoked, curling inward, while the cool jade floor beneath his boots radiated a sudden, stinging warmth.

Lin Yun’s leisurely humming halted. His eyelids twitched as his senses registered two powerful signatures hovering directly above his palace roof—one burning like a wild, untamed phoenix, the other deep, bottomless, and chillingly familiar, like a primeval abyss.

Thankfully, they were still within the range of his domain where he is invincible.

A lazy, unbothered smirk curved Lin Yun’s lips.

He didn’t spill his wine; he didn’t even drop the half-eaten fruit in his hand.

What did a falling star matter? What did a sea of celestial fire mean? In this territory, beneath the invisible canopy that spanned every inch of Sky Reaching City, the rules of the universe had long since been rewritten by his system.

He opened his eyes and stood up, and gently flicked his wrist.

SNAP.

*

*

*

At this moment.

Up in the heavens, Huo Yue was leaning over the wind, her eyes gleaming with manic anticipation, waiting to hear the apocalyptic thunder of her five-flame lotus detonating against the city’s grand protective wards, eager to watch the crystalline walls crumble into liquid slag.

But then...

Poof.

There was no explosion.

There was no shockwave.

The five-flame lotus, which had been burning through the very fabric of the atmosphere, simply vanished.

The heat died in a fraction of a millisecond, the blinding light was snuffed out like a cheap candle pinched between two fingers, the melting basalt in the streets below instantly cooled back into dull, gray stone; the boiling air stabilized, and the sky returned to a quiet, undisturbed blue, as if the world-ending attack had been nothing more than a passing hallucination!

"Hm? What happened?" She blinked, confused and shocked.

Huo Yue looked down at her own empty palms, then down at the peaceful city below, her jaw slackening.

She had poured thirty percent of her energy into that fused lotus!

Even a Nirvana Rebirth would have had their flesh scorched to the bone, and even a grand protective array should have groaned and fractured!

How could it simply cease to exist without even kicking up a puff of smoke?!

Haoran simply patted her shoulders and stared in front.

His pale, heavy hand came down firmly upon her tense collar, an unhurried, grounding weight that kept her violent temper from boiling over.

His golden eyes did not carry confusion; they were narrowed, cold, and fixed directly on the empty space fifty paces before them.

Huo Yue stared at him, but then followed his gaze and stared in front.

The wind slowed to a halt. The light bent, folding inward like clear water rippling over a stone.

There, a figure was standing.

He hovered casually in mid-air, hands tucked loosely into his wide blue sleeves, his robes fluttering gently in the breeze.

He looked to be in his early twenties, possessing sharp, handsome features and a posture so relaxed he might as well have been standing in his private tea garden rather than confronting two invaders.

It was Lin Yun.

"You must be the lord of this city." Said Haoran.

His voice was smooth, quiet, and sharp as an iron needle, carrying a heavy, suppressed resonance that vibrated through the quiet firmament.

Lin Yun looked completely relaxed. After all, within his domain, he is invincible.

He tilted his chin slightly, looking at Haoran’s imperial robes and golden hair, then at Huo Yue’s glowing red eyes, as if looking at two stray dogs that had wandered into his front yard.

A dismissive snort left his nose.

"What’s it to you? How dare you try and destroy my city. Believe it or not, I’ll beat you so badly your mother’s womb and father’s balls will feel it."

The crude, vulgar insult rolled off his tongue with effortless, brazen arrogance.

He didn’t care about the young man’s dragon embroidered robes; he didn’t care about the terrifying ancient aura radiating from Haoran’s frame.

To a man who stood at the pinnacle of authority within his borders, the heirs of the grandest imperial clans were nothing more than noisy children playing with sticks.

Haoran’s eyes flashed, "You act more arrogant than me, I hope you have the strength to back that up."

A cold, dangerous smirk played upon Haoran’s lips.

In his entire life, across the upper and lower realms, no one who had spoken to him with such filthy disrespect had ever lived to see the moon rise.

The shadow of Azathoth inside his dantian hummed with dark, eager hunger, ready to devour another soul.

Lin Yun waved his hand dismissively, his eyes full of smug certainty.

"Don’t worry, I’m invincible."

Haoran did not waste another breath.

His eyes hardened into pure, radiant gold, the space between his brows throbbing as the sovereign authority of his living cosmos flared to life!

Haoran extended his right arm forward, "Genesis Protocol: The Law Beyond Heaven!"

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The sky tore open!

Vast, boundless emerald plains, towering primeval spirit trees with leaves of jade, and crystal mountain ranges of pure purple stone erupted from behind Haoran’s back, flooding across the atmosphere!

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon began to manifest through the golden clouds, its massive bronze gears grinding with earth-shattering authority!

The conceptual laws of his living cosmos surged forward like an unstoppable tidal wave, intending to overwrite the local reality, swallow Sky Reaching City into his sovereign stomach, and declare his own absolute rules over the arrogant city lord!

The world was turning green and gold!

The reality of the Imperial Academy was being stripped away!

"Tsk, is that all?"

But then, Lin Yun snorted and suddenly stretched his arms forward and clenched his fist!

CRACK!

There were no incantations, there was no vast display of spiritual qi, Lin Yun merely closed his fingers into a tight, simple fist.

And at that moment, Haoran’s world slowly began to crumble before it can fully be realized!

The verdant plains fractured into grey dust!

The colossal spirit trees dissolved into harmless motes of green smoke before their canopies could fully unfold!

The crystal mountain peaks cracked along their seams, collapsing inward, while the magnificent white marble fortress of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was shoved violently backward into the celestial rift, the golden clouds evaporating into thin air!

The unstoppable, reality-overwriting power of Haoran’s inner cosmos was halted cold, crushed and suffocated by an invisible, immovable barrier that rejected its very existence!

Haoran’s eyes widened.

A genuine shockwave of disbelief rippled through his chest, his boots were forced back half an inch, the backlash of his collapsing world sending a dull, concussive jolt through his dantian.

Never before had his inner world been rejected like this.

Not even against the Sword Emperor—a genuine Supreme Emperor—had his Genesis Protocol failed to take root!

Lin Yun smirked, his posture oozing supreme, untouchable contempt as he lowered his fist and looked at the stunned golden-haired youth.

"I told you, didn’t I? I’m invincible."

Lin Yun took a slow, casual step forward, floating across the empty sky with his hands resting behind his head, his single eye glinting with absolute mockery.

"And I don’t mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fancy way. I am invincible. Straight. Up."