Solanky stepped down from the tree branch and faced the Saint calmly.
"I'll give you a choice," he said. "Accept the special herbs I refined during the trade in exchange for the slot token, or hand the token over willingly. Do that, and we can all leave here peacefully."
His composed tone only made the atmosphere more oppressive.
To several Peak Entity cultivators standing behind the Saint, those words sounded like an open insult.
Before the Saint could respond, three Peak Entity experts stepped forward.
Eager to earn the Saint's favor, they decided to eliminate Solanky themselves.
Without another word, they charged from different directions, surrounding him in an instant.
Solanky remained perfectly still.
He slowly raised one hand toward the nearest attacker.
Then...
He made a simple grasping motion.
The charging cultivator suddenly froze.
An invisible force wrapped around his entire body.
It felt as though a colossal hand had seized him like an insignificant insect.
No matter how fiercely he struggled, he could not move.
Solanky slowly tightened his fist.
CRACK!
The invisible pressure increased.
The Peak Entity felt both his body and spirit being crushed simultaneously.
His vision darkened.
Moments later, he lost consciousness forever.
Just like that...
A Peak Entity expert had been annihilated in seconds.
The remaining two attackers stopped dead in their tracks.
One instinctively turned around and fled toward the Saint with everything he had.
Fear had completely replaced his courage.
Solanky smiled faintly.
He made no attempt to pursue him directly.
Instead...
He tossed the velvet sphere into the air.
As it floated above him, Solanky began chanting in the ancient language of the Forsaken people.
The tiny sphere immediately began expanding.
One meter.
Three meters.
Ten meters.
Dozens of meters.
By the time it stopped growing, the once harmless-looking sphere had become an enormous velvet orb suspended in the sky.
The aura it emitted was sinister beyond imagination.
Dense Velvet Cloud of Contamination churned both inside and around its surface.
Countless black chains slowly emerged from within the sphere.
At the tip of every chain hung a razor-sharp black velvet needle.
This...
Was the absolute control over the Velvet Cloud of Contamination.
It was a supreme inheritance the Forsaken God had passed to Solanky without reservation.
Four chains suddenly shot toward the fleeing Peak Entity.
Their speed exceeded even the terrifying needle that had killed Participant PE45800RTY.
The Saint's expression changed drastically.
Without hesitation, he expanded his domain and intercepted the incoming chains while rushing to rescue his subordinate.
Solanky's lips curled upward.
He clenched his fist.
Instantly, the four chains twisted through the air like living serpents.
Instead of colliding head-on with the Saint's attack, they skillfully curved around it.
Had they chosen to clash directly, even the slightest delay would have allowed the fleeing cultivator to escape.
Watching from the shadows, the Saint Emperor officiator narrowed her eyes.
Her thoughts raced.
This mysterious old man possessed one shocking trump card after another.
Should she intervene...
Or continue observing?
She hesitated.
At that very moment, one of the chains pierced straight through the fleeing cultivator's leg.
The remaining three wrapped tightly around his body before violently dragging him toward the velvet sphere.
The Saint finally lost his composure.
Right before his eyes...
A mere Peak Entity was slaughtering his subordinates one after another.
His authority had been completely trampled.
With an angry roar, he drew his spear from his internal world.
The weapon erupted with transcendent power as he thrust it toward the chains.
CLANG!
The spear shattered all four chains.
The Saint caught his subordinate before he disappeared into the velvet sphere.
But...
He was already too late.
Nearly ninety-three percent of the man's energy had been completely eroded.
Even worse...
His consciousness was on the verge of collapse.
Frowning deeply, the Saint placed a hand upon the man's forehead.
His spiritual sense entered the cultivator's Sea of Consciousness.
What he found left him stunned.
The vast consciousness world that should have existed there...
Was gone.
In its place stretched an endless sea of dense velvet mist.
It occupied almost the entire consciousness world.
There were no stars.
No continents.
No life.
Nothing remained.
Only contamination.
The Saint instinctively withdrew his spiritual sense and staggered backward.
His face became unusually pale.
He hurriedly searched through his memories for every poison, forbidden technique, and mind-corrupting art he had ever encountered.
Everything happened within a single heartbeat.
Suddenly...
His pupils contracted.
"Impossible..."
"This is the legendary Velvet Cloud of Contamination."
"No wonder my subordinates fell so easily."
He quickly calmed himself.
"But there must be limits."
"According to ancient records, only Saint Emperor transcendent entities can unleash its true destructive potential by combining it with spiritual power."
"He cannot possibly maintain its full strength."
"If I kill him quickly..."
"I'll claim the Velvet Cloud for myself."
"With it, even powerful transcendent entities would fear me."
His greed instantly overcame his caution.
The Saint looked toward Solanky.
The old man still stood quietly in the distance.
He seemed completely unconcerned.
That infuriated the Saint even more.
Without another word, he vanished.
His speed surpassed what even powerful godlike beings could perceive.
His spear tore through space as it thrust toward Solanky.
At the same moment, Solanky secretly sent a voice transmission toward the hidden Saint Emperor officiator.
"Do not interfere."
Hidden within the void, the officiator rolled her eyes.
She neither agreed nor refused.
She simply remained silent.
Seeing her reaction, Solanky relaxed slightly.
Even so...
He never allowed her to leave his perception.
He slowly drew the rod Goldie had once gifted him.
The weapon of a Saint Venerable transcendent entity.
Without hesitation, he swung it toward the incoming spear.
BOOM!
The collision erupted like two collapsing worlds colliding together.
The earth beneath them exploded into countless fragments.
Yet the fabric of the Beyond Realm remained perfectly intact.
Its space was simply too stable to shatter.
The impact hurled Solanky backward.
The Saint merely stumbled several steps before regaining his footing.
Watching everything unfold, the officiator quietly muttered,
"Able to clash head-on with a transcendent Saint..."
"And he hasn't even used a major technique yet."
"Interesting..."
The Saint stared at Solanky with disbelief.
"How is this possible?"
"You are only a Peak Entity."
"How can you exchange blows with a Saint without dying?"
Solanky steadied himself and laughed.
"Haha!"
"This is exhilarating."
"So this is what fighting a Saint feels like."
"My blood is finally starting to boil."
His eyes shone with excitement.
"Enough warming up."
"This time..."
"Come at me with everything you've got."
The moment his words fell...
Solanky charged forward.
His rod swept through the air.
The Saint's expression darkened.
His patience had completely run out.
He activated his transcendent domain.
The surrounding world immediately distorted.
Reality itself seemed to bend beneath his authority.
Solanky instantly recognized what was happening.
Unlike the flawless Absolute Domain wielded by the Saint Emperor officiator, this domain still possessed imperfections.
More importantly...
It could not be maintained indefinitely.
The Saint immediately began drawing upon the faith of his countless followers.
Life force...
Spiritual energy...
Belief...
Everything poured into the expanding domain.
Within its boundaries, he could suppress the strength of every enemy.
Their techniques would weaken.
Their attacks would lose effectiveness.
Their very existence would be rejected.
Having personally witnessed a true Saint Emperor's Absolute Domain before, Solanky immediately noticed the difference.
This domain was incomplete.
But if the Saint successfully borrowed the faith of the billions of citizens within Abope City...
It would rapidly evolve into something far more terrifying.
Breaking free would then require a Half-Step Nine Peak Turns technique.
He could not allow that to happen.
Without hesitation, Solanky retreated beyond the expanding edge of the domain.
Then...
Using the Karma Erasure Escape Method, now elevated to the Saint Venerable level, he abruptly reversed direction.
While retreating, both of his hands continuously formed mysterious seals.
At the same time, he never stopped monitoring the hidden officiator.
The longer this battle continued...
The greater the chance she would interfere after uncovering too many of his secrets.
He could not permit that.
Each seal condensed a faint crimson character in front of him.
One after another...
The characters floated in the air before being engraved directly into Goldie's rod.
With every new engraving...
The rod grew larger.
Longer.
More imposing.
Several meters at a time.
At the same time, the surrounding space became increasingly stable.
The Saint's expanding domain gradually lost its influence over that region.
The Karma Induction Tracing Arts silently took effect.
Every strand of karmic suppression the Saint attempted to impose upon Solanky through his domain was continuously erased before it could fully manifest.
In truth...
Solanky could have ended the battle long ago.
But he chose not to.
This fight had become an invaluable opportunity.
A living Saint using his domain without reservation.
There was no better chance to understand its principles.
He intended to study every fluctuation.
Every law.
Every mystery.
Only then could he create a domain of his own...
Or completely dismantle one when he faced a stronger transcendent enemy in the future.