The Bronze Sovereign, clad in a sharp, gleaming cyan battle robe that whipped fiercely in the biting wind, raised his hand toward the heavens. The vast clouds overhead were pulled down, gathering as if resting in his palm—a contained hurricane that stole the very daylight.

In that instant of shifting world and violently surging winds, Ling, standing before him, glared with bloodshot eyes. His teeth were clenched so tightly the gums began to bleed. With a ferocious, savage expression, he took a step forward. An invisible, surging presence shot upward, like a divine sword unsheathed, piercing the clouds with a sharp twang of taut string, aimed directly at the Bronze Sovereign.

Two utterly distinct auras stood at opposite ends of the sky.

“Origin…”

An ancient, mysterious chant echoed from above the Bronze Sovereign. He coldly fixed his gaze on Ling and suddenly clenched his fingers, tearing downwards. The grayish-white whirlwind spinning in his grip lashed out like a whip, churning the void until it shattered like a mirror, creating numerous blade-like spatial fragments that swept toward Ling. Where they passed, the very space was torn open, leaving behind a distorted, gaping tunnel.

Ling’s blood-red eyes locked onto the razor-sharp hurricane rushing toward him—a vortex that seemed intent on drilling through his very body. He let out a sudden, fierce roar, raised his fist, and slammed it into the tempest.

Boom!

The entire sky shook violently. The grayish-white hurricane and Ling’s fist collided, locked in a stalemate that didn't resolve immediately. In the area of their clash, air currents whipped and swirled, obscuring vision, revealing only intermittent flashes of lightning flickering within.

Ling ground his teeth, his arm trembling violently, his body seeming unable to bear the pressure. His strong, firm skin actually began to ooze blood, then slowly peeled away in chunks, exposing the blood vessels and meridians beneath, writhing like countless twisted insects across his arm and body.

The skin on his face, too, started flaking off like eggshell.

Yet, his body did not yield or retreat, enduring the onslaught with the stubbornness of a barbarian.

Until, a delicate hand, seemingly extended from the depths of time, grasped his arm. A tall, elegant silhouette drifted gently beside him, stopping before him. A face of devastating beauty was softened by a tenderness like spring water. She murmured softly, “Don’t push yourself. You are no match for him. Let go…”

Ling watched this woman, and his body shuddered violently, as if all the blood within him surged at once. The crimson glow in his eyes immediately receded like the tide, revealing dark, clear pupils. His eyes, lucid and pure, were filled with emotion. Tears welled up, and he choked out, “Sis—Sister…”

Sifigran’s form was like a translucent phantom. A gentle smile touched her lips as she looked at him tenderly. “I am not dead. Do not seek vengeance for me. You must live well… I will wait for you inside the Tower of Time… You must, you absolutely must… live well…” As her voice trailed off, it grew more distant, softer, until it was barely audible. Her image also faded, growing smaller, as if pulled away by an invisible thread across billions of kilometers, finally vanishing completely from sight.

“Sister!” Ling suddenly cried out, and then his surroundings snapped back into focus. The needle-sharp pain in his fist instantly registered, and large patches of his body’s skin were sloughing off, while his blood and meridians showed signs of liquefying.

He stared blankly into the distance, two trails of bloody tears still clinging to his eyes.

“Sister…” he murmured, filled with agony and obsession. After a moment, two sharp glints ignited in his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he declared, “The Tower of Time—Sister, you must wait for me!” With that, he looked up at the Bronze Sovereign, his ferocious, mad eyes brimming with killing intent. He recoiled backward a thousand zhang, roaring, “One day, I will make you die ten times over!”

The Bronze Sovereign frowned, watching Ling quickly flash away toward the distant sky after speaking. He clenched his fist, then slowly relaxed it. He glanced down at the Divine Mountain beneath his feet and ultimately sighed, choosing not to pursue. “You cannot escape. When I obtain the corpse of the Goddess of Light, slaying you a hundred times will be easy enough!” A cold killing intent flickered in his gaze. He then flashed downward rapidly, and the twelve Crystal Palaces atop the Divine Mountain suddenly exploded with fierce force.

The Abyss of Dead Souls.

By the campfire.

The faint firelight illuminated Ye Chen’s cheek, the warm glow dyeing his skin a pale gold, dazzling and captivating. He suddenly asked Mike, “I have fundamentally grasped the basic principles of these twelve types of energy, but how can I smelt and combine them into one supreme energy?”

Mike poked the fire with his stick, making the flame brighter. “Whether it is twelve streams or thirteen streams of energy, they are essentially the same energy. Just as among humans, there are men, women, and hybrids like half-orcs or half-demons, they all share one characteristic: they belong to the human race.”

“You mean… there is a common characteristic among these twelve streams of energy?” Ye Chen stared at him in astonishment, finding the idea incredible.

“Precisely.”

“How is that possible?” Ye Chen couldn’t help saying. “This includes ice and fire—two extreme energies. One is solidifying, the other is burning. Can they also share a common trait?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Mike smiled, looking up at him. “Ice belongs to water. Both water and fire flow; neither is truly solid. Isn’t that their common characteristic?”

Ye Chen’s heart jolted, as if a completely unimagined, brand-new realm had opened before him, like stepping into a magical world.

He asked no more questions.

In this world, those who prefer quiet contemplation over constant questioning are either arrogant or wise.

Ye Chen was undoubtedly the latter. He lowered his head to ponder. After a moment, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he couldn't help exclaiming, “So that’s how it is! It’s actually this simple!” He almost burst out laughing.

Mike wasn't overly surprised, smiling slightly. “Once you understand many things, they always become simple.”

The Divine Mountain, Ice Crystal Plaza.

Outside the massive, egg-shaped energy barrier, Ye Zhu gazed up quietly for a moment before lowering her head and walking to the barrier’s edge. She reached out and touched the white shield, and a milky white halo emanated from her palm.

She closed her eyes, seemingly completely immersed within. After a moment, when she opened her eyes, a string of ripples appeared on her palm, like dipping a hand into water, and passed straight through.

Her expression remained unchanged as she stepped through, her entire body passing through effortlessly, like smoke. If the eight Emissaries were still present, they would surely have dropped their eyeballs in shock. This barrier, which had taken them countless ages to crack, offered Ye Zhu no resistance whatsoever.

Upon entering the barrier, the soft white light caressed every inch of her skin like a gentle hand. She looked up to see a massive ice bed before her, seemingly frozen for eons, perhaps ten thousand zhang long. The edges of the ice bed were adorned with exquisite carvings of ice, depicting strange insects and beasts, all kneeling in worship.

The object of their adoration was a woman nearly ten thousand zhang tall. A soft, silvery-white robe enveloped her body, from which strands of light radiated, illuminating the entire space brightly and clearly. Her two slender, pale hands rested gently clasped upon her abdomen. Her perfectly sculpted face held a tranquil serenity, as if she were asleep.

Ye Zhu’s body quivered slightly. An indescribable agitation surged up from the blood within her, as if the person lying before her was her closest kin, originating from the same lineage. This profound, deep-seated sensation, like an invisible thread, pulled her body step by step toward the head of the Goddess of Light’s corpse.

The exquisite face in her pupils grew larger and larger. She reached the side of the ice bed and flashed forward, suddenly appearing on the surface of the ice, minuscule as an ant on a vast snowy field, comparable only to the width of a single eyelash on the Goddess of Light’s corpse.

Ye Zhu gazed at the sleeping figure, and a wave of immense sorrow suddenly washed over her. Her body trembled slightly, and clear tears streamed from her eyes. Her heart felt pierced by a sharp dagger; the intense pain made her body shake, and blood slowly began to seep from the corners of her mouth.

“Why…” Her voice was hoarse, her face contorted in pain and grief. The darkness in her pupils instantly flashed with a white rune.

The appearance of this rune seemed to trigger something. The surrounding space abruptly fell silent, and then a milky-white light bloomed on the clean forehead of the Goddess of Light, slowly radiating outward to reveal the skin, like a chrysalis breaking open. The light finally bathed the entire barrier.

Ye Zhu stared, momentarily stunned.

The white light bloomed like an ephemeral flower, then slowly receded, shrinking back into her forehead, where a white rune now appeared.

“This is…” Her gaze was clouded with confusion.

The Dark Sanctuary.

After Ye Zhu entered the white light barrier, in the pile of corpses strewn haphazardly on the ground, the hand of the burly man whose head had been severed suddenly twitched. Then, the severed head lying beside him abruptly snapped open its eyes, shooting out two chilling, sinister beams like sharp swords.

His body slowly sat up, then lifted the head and placed it back onto his neck. The blood that had not yet dried instantly healed together at the neck wound, leaving him seemingly unharmed.

“I hadn't expected the power of the Light God Sword to be this great. Luckily, my cultivation recently broke through to that realm, or I might truly not have withstood it. It’s fortunate this little girl’s strength is too low—only at the peak of the Void Heaven Realm—otherwise she might have sensed my soul had not yet perished.” The burly man looked up toward the barrier, his gaze flickering with apprehension, then swept over the corpses around him.

Cruel and cold light ignited in his eyes. He reached out a hand and pulled over the corpses of the eight dead Emissaries and the old man in the blue robe. “Since you are dead, your bodies shouldn’t go to waste.” As he spoke, he gripped the arm of the old man in the blue robe and violently twisted it off, shoving it into his mouth to tear off a bloody chunk of flesh, chewing loudly. “Old meat doesn’t taste as good.”

He frowned, then his expression suddenly shifted. He turned his head sharply toward the pitch-black darkness behind him.