Shi Yan’s body lay there, utterly devoid of any life fluctuation, which greatly puzzled Zhen Ru. Though Shi Yan was right before her eyes, he projected an eerie sense of being separated by boundless space.
Layers upon layers of spatial ripples isolated her from him, and she noticed that the strange insects she had placed within Shi Yan’s Sea of Consciousness were beginning to show signs of losing contact with her.
Initially, she had merely assumed that the subtlety of the Spatial Mysteries, coupled with the seal of the barrier, was preventing her soul and consciousness from locking on accurately.
However, as time dragged on, a trace of impatience gradually began to surface.
An inexplicable sense of foreboding welled up in her heart; she felt something was fundamentally wrong, sensing that the unfolding events were slowly slipping beyond her grasp.
Deep within Shi Yan’s Soul Altar…
A vast and limitless starry sky, like an infant universe teeming with vibrant life, hung suspended above the Sea of Consciousness. Within it, the stars shone brilliantly, each one emitting a dense aura of energy. The countless stars woven together in that sea formed an extraordinarily magnificent and dazzling mystical tableau.
In one corner of that starry expanse, earthworm-like creatures, each as long as an arm, fearlessly devoured a colossal star.
Surprisingly, the foul essence brought forth by these earthworms was actually capable of affecting this domain.
As the primary soul of Shi Yan, the master of this domain, his consciousness was invaded, leaving his soul power and awareness muddled and constrained. It seemed he could no longer command everything within the domain, unable to alter its very structure.
A brilliant star was being tainted, rapidly consumed, while the earthworms split with uncanny speed, their numbers growing exponentially.
The situation grew increasingly perilous!
A blinding shaft of light suddenly shot forth from the Rune Pagoda of Profound Mysteries, piercing into the domain!
As that ray of light swept through, Shi Yan’s domain underwent astonishing transformations!
The pure power he had painstakingly refined by slaying the strong cultivators of the four great tribes, which had previously been scattered throughout the domain’s corners, now responded as if summoned. These pure energies transformed into beams of dazzling light, all merging into that singular ray!
That light, like a miraculous living entity, instantaneously became overwhelmingly potent, wielding the hand of Rule to forcibly reverse the disadvantage within the domain.
“Boom!”
The brilliant light descended with a crash, completely enveloping the clustered earthworms and the riddled, shattered star. Within that intense light, the earthworms did not die, but rather writhed and contorted incessantly.
Simultaneously, a pure soul imprint separated from Shi Yan’s primary soul.
A strange phenomenon occurred within the radiance: the earthworms released by Zhen Ru began to change, transforming into living beings!
They morphed into small humanoids, each branding Shi Yan’s soul, covered in grotesque thorns and armored plating across their bodies.
Though the appearance of each small figure differed, their physique was uniform. If magnified, they bore a striking seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Shi Yan in his Primal Body form.
It was like the birth of an entirely new race!
The imprints Zhen Ru had painstakingly carved into their life essence were utterly erased!
The intense light pierced out of the domain and shone into his Sea of Consciousness. Within that sea, the billions of split earthworms instantly melted away, like snow incinerated by fierce flames!
The entities constraining Shi Yan’s Soul Altar were eradicated in the shortest possible time.
“Puff!”
The powerful beam, which should have remained within Shi Yan’s domain, suddenly exploded outwards. Following the individual points of light throughout the domain, the rest of the energy shot through the Heaven and Earth within Shi Yan’s acupuncture points, surging from those points into his physical body, which was sealed by spatial energy.
The mutated Vermilion Gold Spirit Ants, which permeated every corner of his flesh and blood, were also rapidly incinerated to ash, just like the foreign entities in his Sea of Consciousness.
“Hiss, hiss!”
Thick smoke billowed from Shi Yan’s entire body, as if he were catching fire. Amidst the swirling smoke, his body, stiff for so long, suddenly stirred.
Zhen Ru stumbled back repeatedly in disarray, her delicate frame staggering. The hard ice blocks of the secret chamber shattered and cracked underfoot, threatening to bring down the entire room.
Fear flashed across her eyes; the composed confidence she once held was utterly gone. She realized she had completely lost connection with the two creatures she had painstakingly cultivated.
The mutated Vermilion Gold Spirit Ants and those strange earthworms had been fed with her vital blood and nurtured with soul essence. Consequently, those two creatures had even inherited the innate divine abilities of the Myriad Forms Clan.
These miraculous entities, capable of resisting even the Devouring Profound Mystery, had inexplicably perished, taking with them years of Zhen Ru’s painstaking efforts. The shock wounded her spirit and body, instilling in her for the first time the realization that Shi Yan was not to be taken lightly.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
Layers of spatial ripples exploded, and sharp blades of brilliant space pierced everywhere, tearing the very ground into fragments.
The palaces situated above collapsed one after another. Many members of the Phantom Clan shrieked in terror, shouting down toward the depths of the earth.
“Bitch! Die for me!”
Amidst the dense smoke, countless starlights converged, and a magnificent river of stars materialized, positioning itself above Shi Yan’s head.
He did not transform into his Primal Body. Instead, he pointed toward Zhen Ru, who was cornered in a tear of collapsing space. The eight islands, each corresponding to one of the eight great evil powers, churned in surging blood-water and hurtled toward her. Almost simultaneously, his recently depleted and grievously injured body began to rapidly heal, nourished by intense life fluctuations.
The elegance of the Life Profound Mystery was the fundamental marvel of the ancient Undying Demonic Blood, capable of converting the energy of the Life Profound Mystery to generate blood, reconstruct bones, flesh, and sinews, achieving the terrifying state of indestructible energy and eternal physical form.
“You dare destroy my Vermilion Gold Spirit Ants! Even if I can’t drain your fresh vital blood, I will still destroy you!”
Zhen Ru’s slender, tall figure retreated lightly, like a piece of willow catkin. In a flash, she slipped out of the collapsing space and reappeared outside the Phantom Clan territory the next moment.
“You dare cause such an upheaval in the Phantom Clan territory? You are courting death! I’d like to see how Mandiss manages to kill you!” Shi Yan roared with grim laughter.
Transforming into a streak of starlight, he too exited the pulverized ice chamber and manifested across the wide territory of the Phantom Clan.
Strangely, he suddenly noticed that the Phantom Clan lands seemed drastically sparser than before. The remaining clan members were widely dispersed and made no move to surround Zhen Ru.
He vaguely sensed that something was amiss.
“Mandiss? She cannot help you. Everything in the Phantom Clan is under my command now!” Kandis’s voice echoed from a distant palace. As the words fell, she appeared beside Shi Yan and Zhen Ru amidst the twisting vortex of a hurricane. “Your Charm Concubine, Mei Ji, has also been imprisoned by Fandler. Oh, I forgot to mention, Fandler is deeply infatuated with Mei Ji—he doesn’t even mind that she’s been involved with you for so long.”
Upon hearing this, Shi Yan suddenly flew into a rage. Gusts of baleful energy, like dense blood dragons, surged toward the sky, causing his eyes to glow crimson.
The eight islands steeped in blood erupted violently from the earth, surging toward Kandis and Zhen Ru. The Profound Mysteries of Death, Soul Control, and Destruction spun wildly, generating endless waves of sinister auras under the impetus of his negative powers. These evil fluctuations formed terrifying mental impacts that struck directly into the minds of Zhen Ru and Kandis!
“Boom, boom, boom!”
The blood-soaked islands crashed into the whirlwinds one by one. A divine light flashed in Kandis’s eyes as she used her own Profound Mysteries to fight back.
Zhen Ru, however, had strangely vanished, disappearing without a sound. Yet, her unique aura remained.
She had merely utilized the innate divine ability of the Myriad Forms Clan, concealing herself in the shadows, twisting her soul, divine body, and aura so that she could not be immediately detected.
The eight islands were the source of the Profound Mystery inheritance from the Bloody Lineage’s sacred land in those years. First obtained and refined by Putai, he was later swallowed by Shi Yan, which conversely strengthened him, turning them into a spectacle within his domain.
These eight inheritance towers, when combined with the Evil Profound Mysteries, possessed a magnificent power, their might no less than that of divine artifacts!
And he, having slain so many cultivators from the four tribes, had refined immense power, with much negative emotion lurking within his acupuncture points. Now, all of it was unleashed, pouring into those evil islands, instantly amplifying their power. They could not only destroy physical objects, but the mental evil power condensed from the negative forces could also corrode souls.
They were truly monstrously perverse.
Kandis used the hurricanes derived from the Wind Profound Mystery to contend against the eight islands, challenging Shi Yan at the Second Heaven of the Domain Ancestor realm; naturally, she was not at a disadvantage.
But those waves of negative soul and mental impact, carrying endless residues of resentment, despair, fear, rage, and bloodlust, frantically hammered against her Soul Altar, making it somewhat unbearable. She had to divert energy to construct a defense line from the soul power in her Soul Pool to block the soul bombardment.
As a result, she held no advantage.
“Such potent strength! The intensity of this power—it probably, probably reaches the level of the Second Heaven of the Domain Ancestor realm!” Kandis thought, secretly astonished. She focused her gaze, sensing with her soul, and discovered that the aura emanating from Shi Yan was profound and unfathomable; even she could not gauge its depth immediately.
“He is currently on the cusp of breaking through to the Second Heaven of the Domain Ancestor realm! This is bizarre; in such a state, any normal person would focus entirely on the breakthrough, never engaging in battle! Yet, he is fighting us right now, capable of breaking through at any moment! Damn it, my two creatures seem to have accelerated the changes in his domain!”
Zhen Ru’s anxious voice suddenly resonated within Kandis’s sea of consciousness, causing Kandis’s expression to shake violently.
In the midst of a breakthrough phase?
She considered this carefully, staring deeply at Shi Yan for a while, and finally understood—Zhen Ru’s judgment was correct. The reason she couldn't precisely determine Shi Yan’s realm was that at this moment, Shi Yan existed in the unstable breakthrough interval between the First and Second Heavens of the Domain Ancestor realm, making it difficult to define.
“Keep his attention; I will deliver the fatal blow!” Zhen Ru’s voice echoed once more in Kandis’s mind. “Keep enraging him! Make him lose his reason, make him violently frenzied. This way, he will surely suffer a setback in his cultivation. Forget about breaking through the boundary; he will self-detonate and die!”
Kandis’s eyes lit up, and she sighed inwardly at the viciousness of Zhen Ru’s scheme. “Fandler is currently holding Mei Ji captive. I instructed him not to act recklessly. However, you stole the Fallen Star River that was supposed to be his. Will he be so blinded by rage that he acts irrationally? That remains to be seen.”
Kandis knew perfectly well that Fandler dared not make a rash move, but she kept fanning the flames to drive Shi Yan into madness.
“Roar!”
Shi Yan completely lost control, instantly swelling into the monstrous form of his Primal Body, like a towering giant, stomping down on one of the palaces.
“Get out!” His furious roar seemed to echo throughout the entire heaven and earth, shaking the cosmos.
“Splat, splat, splat!”
Countless starlights exploded from within the palace. Amidst the starry torrent, Fandler, covered in blood, fled in disarray, his eyes harboring hidden resentment as he looked at Kandis.
…RQ