"This… They manipulated the Anchor's fundamental laws?" Vespera slowly whispered as the temperature in the room seemingly lowered. "No one told me this is possible… Is it… that Shopkeeper?"

She stood up and waved her hand, accessing the interface that the Anchor System granted to Zyrith that he passed to her. It signified that she's at the helm of the staging Outer Realm.

She clearly recalled that, other than the few options that allowed her to set up the defenses and the placement of spawning points, there wasn't anything there regarding raising the accessibility restriction.

While it was true that it happened when Xylos violated something, she hadn't expected that the natives of the Realm of Nine Heavens could actually do it.

More than that, they're forced to wait before the restriction on their side to be lifted.

Before Xylos or Zyrith could react to the messages and Vespera's reaction, the space right next to the entrance shattered like fragile glass.

Following, a terrifying bolt of purple lightning tore through the dimensional fabric, striking the floor with devastating force.

The resulting shockwave sent Zyrith tumbling backward and forced Xylos to cross his enlarged arms to avoid being blown away.

From the epicenter of the crater, arcs of electricity lashed out, incinerating the surrounding violet veins.

As the dust cleared, Liu Tianfeng stood tall. His robes whipped around him in a self-generated gale. His eyes burned with purple sparks and the density of his Void Refinement aura collided with the oppressive Highland Domain, creating visible, jagged sparks in the air where the two opposing energies clashed.

"I hear there's a bunch of foreign entities encroaching on our realm. I guess that's you!" Liu Tianfeng said in a calm tone, yet his voice carried the oppressive weight of his thunder. He cracked his neck, surveying the Dreillings with absolute disdain. "Which one of you long-eared freaks is the 'Vespera' my granddaughter mentioned? Step forward and receive my fist!"

If Xiaoyu heard him acting like this, she'd probably laugh out loud at how comical he sounds. But Liu Tianfeng didn't mind that at all. He could feel it. Even though he's already at the peak Void Refinement Stage, the pressure of the Highland Domain on him suppressed 20% of his strength.

Furthermore, he already noticed the cocoon that evoked a disturbing sense of danger in him. Whatever was inside it, he determined that he had to prevent it from waking up.

Vespera floated upward as energy chains seemed to shift and weave around her. With the suppression lifted, her aura expanded, trying to match Liu Tianfeng's tempest with a visible manifestation of her psychic waves.

"A native who has barely touched the edges of true power," Vespera transmitted, her psychic voice attempting to drill into the Patriarch's mind like needles. "You possess brute force, but your mind is an open book. I shall unravel your sanity and make you watch as your body tears this your own throat apart."

Her lips slightly curved as she exuded supreme confidence in her ability to pierce through mental defenses.

Raising her slender finger, Vespera wiggled it slightly as though she was pulling on a string.

And soon after that, the space around Liu Tianfeng instantly warped. An invisible, psychic vice gripped him from all sides like an invisible chain. Then, it started burrowing within his body. A direct assault on his spiritual sea and an attempt to paralyze his motor functions and hijack his nervous system.

However, Liu Tianfeng merely scoffed and the invisible chains broke. Vespera was thrown backward by the backlash, crashing against the cocoon.

When she looked up, Liu Tianfeng reached into his robes and pulled out an empty container of the [Mind-Fortress Syrup] he had consumed, tossing it casually to the ground.

"Too bad. Your mind-weaving tricks are useless to me. The Shopkeeper's brews are far more potent than your whispers!"

The old man then stomped his foot, unleashing a lightning stomp.

Above him, a thundercloud emerged and immediately covered half of the entire core area.

Dozens of thick, purple lightning bolts rained down simultaneously, aimed indiscriminately at everyone within the room.

The Dreillings panicked. The Mind-Weavers evoked a shield by weaving their Highland Energy while the Flesh-Shapers tanked it with their bodies.

Vespera's eyes narrowed. She raised her hands, forming a translucent, psychic barrier that caught the lightning bolts which then expanded to shield the other Dreillings.

The entire area shook violently as the energies collided in a stalemate of blinding light and deafening noise.

"Xylos! Zyrith!" Vespera commanded, struggling slightly to contain the sheer, unrefined output of the Patriarch's attacks. "Flank him! Rip his physical vessel apart while I bind his soul!"

Xylos grinned savagely. His muscles bulged to grotesque proportions. Although Lin Mo pulled out his grafted arms, he still had the technique to manipulate his own flesh. Acidic pores wept from his forearms as he formed two massive, jagged bone-cleavers.

Zyrith, though weaker, began weaving invisible psychic tethers to trip and bind the Patriarch's movements.

They lunged simultaneously.

They believed that even if Liu Tianfeng was a more powerful cultivator than them, they could take him down together.

However, it was at this moment that the strike team stepped inside the Core Area.

"Father!"

"Grandpa!"

"Patriarch Liu!"

Liu Zhongzhu, Liu Xiaoyu and the rest of the elite strike team poured through the swirling portal, stepping into the thunderstorm-bathed nightmare of the Core Area.

The moment they arrived, the oppressive weight of the Highland Domain tried to crush them, but the [Harmonic Resonance Instrument] hanging around Xiaoyu's neck chimed a clear, defiant note.

It reinforced the sphere of pristine white light, preventing it from suppressing them.

"Take them down!" Liu Zhongzhu ordered as he immediately assessed the battlefield. He saw Xylos charging from the left and Zyrith weaving invisible threads from the right.

"Oh, you want a piece of Grandpa? You have to get through me first, Meat-head!"

Liu Xiaoyu didn't wait for orders, though. She immediately became a blur of golden lightning, the protective circle following her.

Clad in her power suit, her speed exploded and rivaled a Nascent Soul Stage expert.

Her father, the Ancestors, the Sect Masters and the Nascent Soul Experts looked at her back before awkwardly smiling.

Understanding they could just jump into the area around her when their minds were about to collapse, they consumed another container of [Mind-Fortress Syrup] and lit more sticks of [Soul-Soothing Incense].

Once that's done, they begin their assault against the long-eared race.

Meanwhile, Xylos barely had time to widen his eyes as the golden comet intercepted him.

"You! You're the assistant!" Xylos roared, swinging his acid-dripping bone cleaver.

"Yeah. That's me. Boss's assistant! Here to deliver the result of your application. Rejected!" Liu Xiaoyu replied with amusement as she met the bone cleaver with her fist, entirely coated in a thick layer of golden lightning.

CRACK-BOOM!

The collision sent a shockwave that rippled through the space around them.

Xylos's bone cleaver, reinforced by his chaotic flesh-shaping arts, splintered under the unreasonable kinetic force of the impact. The vibration traveled up his arm, shattering the joints he had hastily regenerated.

"Gah!" Xylos stumbled back, clutching his mangled limb. "How is your physical output so absurd?! You are but a frail native! You're not even at their level!"

"Frail? Have you forgotten about your little toys? Hehe. I could eat them for breakfast!" Xiaoyu retorted before slapping a [Spirit Embodiment Sticker Seal] with a falcon illustration onto her breastplate.

"Sparky, bite his ankles!" She commanded the wolf cub as the spiritual projection merged around her

Sparky jumped out from behind her with a cute bark before charging around Xylos in a blinding zigzag pattern, discharging paralyzing shocks into his calves while Xiaoyu joined her pet wolf in toying against the fearsome Flesh-Shaper.

Meanwhile, on the right flank, Zyrith's invisible psychic tethers were suddenly severed before they could even reach Patriarch Liu.

"Cut!" A serene voice echoed.

Ancestor Swordpoint of the Cerulean Cloud Sword Sect stepped forward as his flying sword hovered behind him.

Controlling it through a thin string of spiritual energy, he channeled his profound Sword Intent not into the blade before sending it again to the Mind-Weaver.

Zyrith gritted his teeth as the invisible psychic threads tried to catch the sword qi, only to be cut into pieces. He had to jump back to prevent himself from being beheaded.

However, the backlash hit his mind like a physical blow, sending him staggering to his knees, blood dripping from his nose.

Before he could recover, the other Ancestors and Sect Masters didn't hesitate.

A relentless barrage of spells and techniques rained down on Zyrith and the lesser Dreilling nobles.

The high-ranking invaders, accustomed to dominating minds and bending flesh, found themselves pinned down. They could only force a retreat, surrounding Vespera, the cocoon and the Anchor Core.

They all had ugly expressions on their faces as they couldn't accept being put in a humiliating position. They were too used to lording over the weaker races in their realm.