Chapter 5516

The aura streaked forward like a viper, arrowing straight for Jared’s chest.

Jared gave a curt, disdainful snort. With a lazy flick of his sleeve, a torrent of invisible force poured out of him—a tidal wave of power that slammed into the two robed cultivators.

The pressure gathered above their heads like a mountain carved from midnight stone. Every breath they tried to draw collapsed in their lungs, every tendon locked beneath a weight that felt geological.

“What—” The syllable scraped out of their throats, raw and panicked, before either man could think of anything wiser to say.

Color drained from their faces, and muscles twitched. Knees buckled until the pair hung partway to the ground, shivering as though winter had crawled inside their bones.

“Y-You… who are you, really?” one of them managed, the question quavering so hard it was barely a word at all.

Jared did not answer. He simply walked-slow and deliberate, the wind of the wasteland parting around his boots-each step a hammer-blow against the men’s pounding hearts.