His Name is Yao Qing
Lord of Wuji's expression was incredibly ugly.
He had still underestimated Su Zhiwei's control over the Red Dust Domain. To think she could miniaturize the entire Realm into a red flower. For him to rely on conventional means to leave this Realm was already impossible.
"Su Zhiwei... if you think you can trap me like this, you are being too naive."
Lord of Wuji coldly harrumphed, stomping his foot heavily on the ground!
Boom—!!
In the next moment, the ruined earth beneath his feet visibly transformed into silver, and then frantically poured into Lord of Wuji's body... All these materials, soil, stones, buildings, and so on, were assimilated into Lord of Wuji's body. His figure expanded at a terrifying speed!
If the original Lord of Wuji was just a small bug on a red flower petal, now in the blink of an eye, he had become the size of a ping-pong ball, and was still growing at an astonishing speed!
The distance between atoms was frantically stretching. At the same time, the space around Lord of Wuji gradually distorted, seeming to tear through dimensional restrictions bit by bit, forcibly transforming himself into an existence on the same dimension as Su Zhiwei.
If Lord of Wuji's predicament was like the Monkey King in the palm of Buddha, then at this moment, the Five Elements Mountain meant to suppress him had arrived.
Lord of Wuji's chest heaved continuously. The power of "Material Science" was pushed to its absolute limit. His indomitable silver body began to glow with blinding brilliance, and countless materials were born, combined, and interwoven within his body...
His body visibly transformed into an existence akin to a super-giant mecha. A super nuclear reactor the size of a city ignited in his chest, and mountain-like power systems operated frantically in the positions of various internal organs. The surface of his silver body frantically evaporated the air. His right fist clenched, and in the next moment, it transformed into an indestructible celestial material, suddenly swinging out to meet that giant palm!
As this punch was thrown, the surrounding space began to collapse. A full-force strike from Lord of Wuji, possessing forty percent of his peak strength, if it landed on the ground below, could instantly blast a small half of the Red Dust Domain into powder.
Unfortunately... what he was facing right now was a complete Lord of the Red Dust possessing peak Combat Power!
Boom—!!!
At the instant the sky-obscuring giant palm collided with the silver fist, the earth beneath Lord of Wuji's feet suddenly retreated. The red flower containing the Red Dust Domain was moved away by Su Zhiwei, otherwise, the shockwaves of their clash would probably cause an apocalyptic earthquake disaster.
The Red Dust Domain being moved away meant Lord of Wuji's figure lost its fulcrum. That punch and palm collided in the void, and a roaring airwave instantly swept across the Gray World, blasting all mountains within hundreds of miles into debris, along with a batch of Gray World Calamities that happened to be in the vicinity, annihilating them all into nothingness.
In the next moment, Lord of Wuji's body was sent flying backward!
One of his arms exploded on the spot. His silver mangled body streaked across the sky like a meteor, smashing a gorge several kilometers long into the earth of the Gray World, finally coming to a silent stop deep within the earth.
Su Zhiwei's white training uniform fluttered lightly in the wind. She held the Red Dust in one hand and took a step, instantly arriving at the end of the gorge.
"... This is impossible."
Deep within the earth, Lord of Wuji, covered in wounds, stumbled up from the ruins, looking at Su Zhiwei in disbelief. "You clearly slept for over three hundred years, how could your body still be at its peak state... After leaving the Hibernation Pod, you shouldn't be able to live for long! How did you do it?!"
Ever since Lord of Wuji awakened, he had been in an aging, near-death state. He could only extend his life by abandoning his physical body and using the power of "Material Science" to transform himself into the Mercury Moon... But even so, he couldn't solve the problem of his soul, so he painstakingly refined the Philosopher's Stone.
He originally thought that his "Material Science" was special enough that as long as he obtained enough Philosopher's Stones, he could become the first among the Nine Monarchs of this era to restore his peak strength...
But now, he saw an existence that had reached that step faster than him.
A Lord of the Red Dust who had not suffered backlash from the Hibernation Pod, possessed sufficient lifespan, and was still at her peak!
Lord of Wuji didn't understand how Su Zhiwei managed to do it. Could it be that she also had a method similar to the Philosopher's Stone? No, that's not right...
Lord of Wuji's eyes narrowed slightly, staring at Su Zhiwei's skin.
Beneath Su Zhiwei's skin, an Embroidery Diagram was silently flowing, seemingly possessing endless mysteries... Lord of Wuji's brows knitted tighter and tighter. In a daze, he seemed to see behind Su Zhiwei, an old man covered in wounds standing back-to-back with her.
Lord of Wuji was stunned.
The current Lord of the Red Dust was not just the Lord of the Red Dust... She was a peerless masterpiece created by another Demigod of the Path of the Arts after exhausting three hundred years.
Facing such a Lord of the Red Dust, how could he win? What did he have to win with??
"I'm asking you." Su Zhiwei looked down at Lord of Wuji, her voice seemingly coming from the netherworld, "What was the name of the Pathway Chief of the Path of the Arts just now?"
"... What?"
Lord of Wuji was stunned, suspecting there was something wrong with his ears.
"I asked you, what was the name of the old man you injured just now?!"
"..." As if thinking of something funny, Lord of Wuji sneered, "That person gambled his own life to lock the years on your body, and you actually don't even know his name?"
Lord of Wuji's words pierced into Su Zhiwei's heart like needles. The premonition in her heart grew stronger and stronger.
Her fists suddenly clenched tightly, and her entire person fiercely charged deep into the earth. One hand slammed Lord of Wuji's broken shoulder into the gorge, and the other hand beckoned in the void, and a shining sword edge pressed against Lord of Wuji's glabella!
"I'll ask you one last time... what is his name?!" Su Zhiwei was full of killing intent.
Facing Su Zhiwei's lightsaber, Lord of Wuji had no extra expression on his face. He paused for a moment before speaking:
"His name is Yao Qing."
Su Zhiwei's heart suddenly trembled.
Yao Qing...
In Su Zhiwei's mind, the wrinkle-faced old man covered in wounds surfaced once more. He hunched his body, almost burying his head into the ground, not daring to meet her gaze...
"Pathway Chief of the Path of the Arts... respectfully welcomes the return of the Lord of the Red Dust."
"Please take good care of yourself. This old man... will take his leave."
In her memory, the tears that silently rolled down from the corner of the old man's eye were like a sword too heavy to bear, piercing deeply into Su Zhiwei's heart, leaving her heart shattered and in excruciating pain.
It was Yao Qing,
No wonder she could survive without a Hibernation Pod, no wonder she was in the Su Residence as soon as she woke up, no wonder he didn't dare to take another look at her at that time... But, but why didn't he acknowledge her just now?!!
Su Zhiwei felt like she was about to break. Her eye sockets instantly turned red, and even the lightsaber pressed against Lord of Wuji's glabella trembled along with her body.
"Using his own strength to defeat three hundred years of time for you, I admit he is a prodigy of the Path of the Arts." Lord of Wuji spoke indifferently,
"Unfortunately... he is about to die."