In front of the Green God Tower, though Shi Feng's words were neither servile nor arrogant, the entire street had fallen deathly silent. Every pedestrian, along with Han Yifeng and the others, wore expressions so dark they defied description, and their eyes carried a trace of dread.
"That's Master Wu Ming! Has he lost his mind?"
Han Yifeng watched Shi Feng stand his ground without the slightest retreat and felt as though his legs might give out beneath him.
For residents who had long lived in the Upper District, a Mental Master was an untouchable figure of the highest caliber. A Mental Master with a two-star advanced access card was someone you absolutely could not afford to offend — not even the top-tier organizations on the Foundation Level dared to cross one. Setting aside the fact that a two-star Mental Master could invoke a charge of disrespect and have someone expelled from the Upper District for an extended period, even in everyday encounters with those who were too ignorant or brazen enough to provoke one, a Mental Master had every right within the Upper District to teach such a person a thorough lesson.
Afterwards, there might be some punishment from the Green God Corporation — a deduction of contribution points, perhaps — but such penalties were nothing to a Mental Master.
Though Shi Feng's words hadn't directly insulted Master Wu Ming, they were undeniably a public slap to the face.
Han Yifeng couldn't fathom why Shi Feng hadn't simply asked Qin Baiyi to step in and smooth things over. Instead, he had to walk forward and confront the man himself. The man was insane!
At that moment, even Han Rongrong — bold as she was, the same woman who had previously wanted to fight Shi Feng — couldn't hide the tremor of fear in her eyes.
Because at this moment, even the dullest person on the street could feel it — a piercing, bone-deep chill descending over their entire body like the onset of winter.
Killing intent!
A killing intent so terrifying that Han Rongrong had never experienced anything like it before.
It was the kind of killing intent that could even conjure hallucinations in a person's mind.
And for a split second, even someone like Han Rongrong — a body-refining half-step Grandmaster — felt the sensation of her own death. Her hands and feet began to slip beyond her control, trembling uncontrollably.
It was as if a monstrous beast were crouching right beside her, staring at her with unblinking eyes, then suddenly lunging to take a bite. The pain, searing and soul-deep, felt utterly real. The terror in her heart burst free at last, flooding every inch of her body…
A short distance away, Wei Yang Qianhen's face had also darkened, clearly finding the mental pressure from Wu Ming difficult to bear.
"So this is the power of a two-star Mental Master?" Wei Yang Qianhen gazed at Master Wu Ming, who stood perfectly still, her expression unspeakably grave.
She had sparred with Qin Baiyi before and understood how formidable a Mental Master could be.
But compared to the Wu Ming standing before them now, Qin Baiyi might as well have been a different species entirely.
A Mental Master like Qin Baiyi could far surpass experts such as herself in terms of mental perception and brain activity — even amplifying his subjective sense of time by more than tenfold in an instant, his thought processing speed no longer bound by human limitations. That alone was extraordinary.
But the current Wu Ming had moved beyond merely accelerating his own cognition. He could genuinely influence the will of others through mental force — like a far more advanced application of hypnosis.
And this mental oppression wasn't even targeted at her specifically. It was merely the residual overflow of his mental energy. It was nearly impossible to imagine what kind of hellish abyss one would be plunged into if one were directly targeted…
Of everyone present, only Qin Baiyi's complexion held up somewhat, but even he was clearly affected.
"It's over. Wu Ming has already broken through to that level! This kind of mental oppression — without a mind that has reached the Master level, you can't fully resist it…" Qin Baiyi cursed inwardly, his gaze involuntarily shifting to Shi Feng beside him.
In his eyes, Shi Feng was an exceptional talent. Not only had he achieved the Grandmaster stage of Transformation at such a young age, but his mental level had also reached the absolute pinnacle of the Special Tier. According to intelligence reports, he had even defeated several body-refining Grandmasters — he might be only half a step away from becoming a Mental Master himself.
Originally, Qin Baiyi had planned to learn more about Shi Feng before introducing him to his own master.
But now everything was ruined.
Mental oppression was no simple matter of scaring someone. It worked by unlocking and releasing the deepest fears lurking within a person's mind, dragging them fully into the open. Those who couldn't withstand it would fall into mental isolation, or suffer complete psychological collapse — and that was considered perfectly normal. Those with weaker constitutions might even be frightened to death by their own inner demons.
Even individuals with exceptionally strong mental fortitude would be left with lasting psychological shadows under this kind of mental oppression, which would severely hamper their future mental development.
In general, only three-star bigshots from the Middle District could project mental oppression like this. The fact that Wu Ming was able to deploy it now — while not quite on the level of a true three-star Mental Master — clearly meant he was not far off. He had perhaps already placed one foot over the threshold…
And the scene that followed left even Qin Baiyi momentarily stunned.