The handbell exerted a sinister influence upon the several thousand meters of space in the arena. A sense of disgust was universally felt; nausea, blindness, and a generally nameless malaise. A shadowy haze seemed to set in over the arena. The bright sun and blue sky were no longer, obscured by a billowing gray. Mie Chenzi raised his left hand high into the air and shook the bell.

Ring, ring, ring. The sound was best described as bizarrely magical. It resounded outwards from the stage. Nothing unusual about the noise appeared at first hearing. But when it echoed and resonated with the material of the arena itself, the reverberations created a strangely mesmerizing tune that filled up the space. The flow of air itself was altered. The atmosphere filled with a kind of disorientation and bafflement that couldn’t easily be described.

Though he was both airborne and well-hidden, Jiang Chen nevertheless fell into a brief daze. His face colored in the next moment. The sound of the bell had the power to attack a person’s consciousness! It brought discord to its listeners’ hearts. It wasn’t merely a mental...