The white column swallowed the ritual circle whole, and Wei Liang threw himself over Feng Yao and Shen Yue a half-second before it hit, Void root flaring wide open to catch what raw, uncontrolled qi it could.
"Absorb what you can, let the rest pass," Xu shouted, voice strained. "Don't try to hold all of it—"
Pain tore through Wei Liang's chest like nothing he'd felt since the seventh gate first broke, the sheer volume of unstable energy far beyond anything a controlled fight had ever thrown at him. He gritted his teeth and held the shield anyway, feeling something c***k deep in his own meridians under the strain.
The column collapsed as fast as it had risen, the ritual circle's carved earth scorched black, trees within thirty paces flattened outward from the epicenter. Silence rang loud
