"Boom!"

A shadow fell from the sky, and a spear-wielding warrior beside the high priest leaped forward and roared.

"Get out of the way!"

He grabbed the high priest, and the two tumbled down the steps, entangled together.

With a loud "bang," a boulder the size of a carriage crashed into the spot where the high priest had just been standing, breaking more than a dozen hard stone pillars of the stone hall as it rolled.

Large amounts of flying rocks and falling trees scattered in all directions, dust billowed, and screams echoed throughout the crowd of onlookers.

"Stone Palace! Protect the Stone Palace! Protect the Stone Palace!!"

The high priest rose in a disheveled state, but still couldn't help shouting hysterically to those around him.

But the warriors who defended the stone palace were now at a loss.

How can we protect it? That hand, that power, it's a devastating natural disaster beyond imagination.

Someone was shouting in the distance.

"The mountain is about to collapse!"

With a series of cracking sounds, cracks appeared everywhere, the massive mountain range began to loosen, and the entire stone palace was in a state of being pried open.

The ground cracked open with a series of "crackling" sounds, and those who couldn't dodge in time fell into the abyss with screams of "Ahhh!" as they plunged into the bottomless abyss.

The surrounding lakes overflowed, the rivers surged, and aquatic fish and wild beasts struggled on the dried-up riverbeds like people with their hands and feet bound. Those who were unlucky simply rolled down into the cracked ground.

A real cataclysmic event!

Flying stones, broken tiles, dust, and mud fell freely, with some collapsed rocks resembling cannonballs.

On the other hand, a large number of mountains and stone palaces seem to be subject to a reverse gravitational pull, floating towards the sky.

The two contradictory states are like two invisible giant hands, tearing the entire stone palace and the entire mountain range apart.

This phenomenon was something that even Wu You himself had not anticipated.

He did pour his will and strength into it, but only wanted to capture Best; he had no intention of destroying the entire stone temple or even the entire mountain range.

But the strange thing is that it seems that his power was magnified many times over to this world, and became more unstable, as if he intended to destroy the mountain range and everything around it with a single strike.

With a single thought, flying stones, falling trees, dust, and even splashing water—everything slowed down, as if the flow of time itself had decelerated.

But in reality, time has not changed, because the people around us, regardless of their race, including some fleeing animals, have not had their thoughts and actions restricted.

The high priest of the stone temple leaned on his cane, his legs bleeding profusely, but he shook off the Nivik warrior who tried to help him up.

"It's over...it's all over..."

He looked at the enormous, hazy hand that blotted out the sky, which was still in the air, and fear flashed deep in his eyes.

Then he suddenly realized that it was the sound that had appeared along with the large hand earlier.

'Best! That voice was calling for Best, the spirit of the night owl.'

While the high priest was pondering, the stone temple, along with the mountain range, completely crumbled, revealing two statues inside amidst the slowly drifting dust and stones.

The spiritual totems of the Nivik tribe are the great sage Makuru and the night owl, Master Best.

Wu You, located in outer space on a desolate planet in the real universe, squinted and realized that the statue was the real person when he saw it through another layer of space-time.

“Interesting, Bai Ze, Best has turned to stone.”

The people from various ethnic groups who had not yet escaped gradually calmed down. Apart from a very few unlucky ones who were killed by falling stones, falling into the crevice, or being trampled to death, most of the others were fine or in stable condition.

The high priest wasn't the only one who heard the earlier sounds. Considering who was enshrined in this stone temple, it was hard not to be curious.

Amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd, the two stone statues were lifted off the ground and rose into the air.

In the real universe, Bai Ze was also watching that parallel universe through the point where Wu Youguang's hand reached in.

"Best seems to be dying..."

"Yeah, almost there~"

As he spoke, Wu You couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"This is truly a crucial issue; thankfully, this guy came up with this method..."

Best's injury wasn't due to severe injuries or any influence from a parallel world, but rather because she nearly lost all her life force.

In other words, he almost died of old age.

"This guy reversed the Night Owl's petrification seal ability and sealed himself away. I bet he didn't even think he could succeed at the time."

As Wu You and Bai Ze were talking, a black lightning bolt shot out from the sky from a giant hand in the parallel world.

"Crack~ Boom~"

The two stone statues exploded.

The other races below were merely terrified, while the Nivi guests were filled with excitement. However, their excitement didn't last long. When the smoke cleared, they discovered that two very small stone statues remained in the air after the explosion.

These two stone statues were originally located in the center of the large stone statue. They are much more lifelike than the large stone statue, almost like real people and cats, only they are made of stone.

The black lightning bolt continued to coil around the two stone statues, and with a crackling sound, the two statues underwent astonishing changes.

"No way!"

"By the ancestral spirits! The stone statues have come to life? The Great Sage and the Night Owl, Master Best!"

"Ah~~~~ The Great Sage has been resurrected?"

"There are actually two smaller statues inside the large stone statue, and the smaller statues have come to life?"

Such voices were heard incessantly, and the most excited were the Nevik people who regarded the stone statues as spiritual totems.

The high priest's heart was racing. He remembered the words of the previous high priest before his death, who had warned him that the stone statues in the temple could guide the ancestral spirits back. However, such words were more symbolic than practical, and the high priests, including the previous one, did not take them seriously, or even if they did, they would not have thought of them in this way.

The stone statues came to life, and two... aged figures appeared in mid-air.

The elderly Nevek, with his bald patches, wrinkled face, and loose skin, looked like he had one foot in the grave.

A skinny, mottled black creature, so thin it looked like a gust of wind could knock it over.

Wu You and Bai Ze could hardly bear to look at it, wondering how long Best had actually lived in "history".

The giant hand in the sky flicked its finger, and a gentle breeze blew in from beyond the heavens, making the people on the ground feel refreshed and relaxed.

Up in the sky, Best's cloudy cat eyes seemed to only just realize what was happening when he saw the giant, luminous hand in the sky, and the green energy surging in from beyond the heavens.

The two aged figures in the sky visibly grew fuller in the gust of wind.

Muscles regain their firmness, skin becomes tighter, hair grows back, and bones gradually strengthen.

"Meow~~~~~~~~~~~!!!"

A piercing, ear-piercing meow rang out from the air.

"Meow!! I've finally waited for this day! I've been living like this forever! My Lord, you've finally come, meow~"

Ignoring the bewildered Makuru beside him, Best leaped into the sky, leaving a dark shadow wherever he landed to provide a recoil.