C1108 Do You Have the Right?(2)

Tian Zang offered a smile, clearly pleased with the attention he had garnered. He resumed his tale.

"Regrettably, Noeyr believed the Dragon Slaying Stage was unclaimed and that her Voidweaver lineage could wield this relic of her ancestors. She assumed that Yu Yuan's fortune was due to a former servant girl and that he had stumbled upon the Dragon Slaying Stage by chance. She was convinced that Yu Yuan had not earned any true recognition."

Tian Zang's voice dripped with sarcasm, his scornful gaze fixed on the unconscious Noeyr.

"By now, you must realize the truth. Your Voidweaver blood can only manipulate a fraction of the World-Sundering Stone's original power. The subsequent engravings, imprints, and seals—those magnificent forces belonging to another—you cannot even begin to disturb."

"The Chronowyrm and the frost wyrm, long deceased, were only accessible because Yu Yuan had removed the residual force binding their remains. Only then could you leverage your bloodline to nudge the World-Sundering Stone ever so slightly. And only then, coupled with the secular bird's nest, could you achieve the feat of linking the Dark Realm with Ionodios."

"But that's as far as it goes."

Tian Zang shook his head and delivered his verdict: "Do not harbor grand hopes for what was never yours to claim, lest you invite retribution."

Whoosh!

A towering Shura with a stern countenance and no armor stepped from the shadows of the Deathwing Lair into the half-light.

At his arrival, every Shura in the Dark Realm instinctively turned their gaze toward him.

Beru, Leo, Mia, Canli, and other Otherkin powerhouses shifted uneasily, inhaling sharply.

The Shura, brows furrowed, approached Noeyr, who lay in a pool of blood, and uttered a silent, soft shout.

His voice, though quiet, reverberated within Noeyr's body and soul, imbued with a healing strange power that swiftly roused Noeyr from her comatose state. After a few groans, she opened her eyes.

"Youqian."

He stood above the darkness, his gaze fixed on the Ghost King perched atop the Blood Altar. "You, who should have been our ally in battle, chose instead to bow before the Everlands' archenemy. As the most gifted of the Hellbreed, does that not fill you with shame?"

"Shame?"

Tian Zang rose slowly from his meditative pose.

His form, indistinguishable from that of a human, began to swell as he stood. Within moments, he towered as tall as the Blood Altar.

His dark green body pulsed with the purest Yin Qi, coursing like a river within him.

The distinct aura of the Land of Terror emanated from him like tidal whirlpools, instilling a soul-deep terror in the remaining Star-Spawned Terrors.

"When I battled the beings of the Everlands, you, Sinton, were but a mischievous boy. Have you ever ventured into the Everlands, hunted by numerous cultivators and archdemons? When I commanded the Star River, you were coddled by Sabonis, never even tasting true combat."

"Think I should feel shame? Sinton, do you even have the right to suggest it?"

"No matter how hard you work or struggle in this life, you'll only reach the power and bloodline level you have now. This is your limit, Sinton. I had already reached it when I first entered the Everlands. Had I not been confined to Moonfall Sanctuary, I would have ascended to Demon God status, just like Grec."

"Do you really believe you have the right to sit as my equal and dictate to me?"

His rebuke silenced the platinum Shura who had emerged from the shadows.

The armorless Shura man, bristling with natural spines, was none other than Sinton, the eldest son of Blood King Sabonis and the pinnacle of the ninth level bloodline, skilled in leading armies.

Sinton was a strategic mind, yet his personal combat strength and potential were not extraordinary.

Within the war-loving Shura race, only the mightiest warrior earns worship, respect, and the right to claim the title of Blood King.

Sabonis had long declared that his youngest son, slain in the Everlands by Nie Qingtian, was the true heir.

He alone possessed the potential and the right to challenge the pinnacle of the tenth level bloodline and to become the next supreme warrior after Sabonis.

—Not his eldest son, Sinton.

The Blood King's judgment on the potential of his kin had never faltered. Thus, to his people, Sinton's bloodline had reached its zenith at the ninth level peak.

It was impossible to go any further.

This issue was a source of unspoken agony for Sinton, yet he revered his father to his core, confident that his father was incapable of error in this regard.

After Tian Zang laid bare the wounds of his heart, Sinton was rendered silent.

The turmoil within him was immense, though his expression barely shifted. He turned to the newly awakened Noeyr and asked in a grave tone, "What happened?"

The confusion in Noeyr's eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by a gleam of intelligence. The Voidweaver elder instinctively scanned her surroundings until her gaze settled, with a slight tremor, on Yu Yuan at the edge of the Dissolving Fortress.

She saw in Yu Yuan's eyes the same brilliance that emanated from the World-Sundering Stone beneath her feet.

The faint remnants of time-altering power within her conjured a series of images and the words Tian Zang had just spoken surged into her mind.

Time rewound ever so slightly, and in a flash, she understood everything.

"Yu, Yu Yuan..." she uttered the name, her voice quivering.

Above the Dissolving Fortress, the imposing figure of Yu Yuan immediately drew everyone's gaze, and they also noticed Yu Yiyi, who was paying homage to him with ancient rites.

The Stormcrowned Emperor, the Indigo Wraith, and the secretly returned Hei Xun wore peculiar expressions.

The ritual was eerily familiar to them, for they too had once knelt before the master of the bronze coffin, swearing fealty in the same manner.

Boom!

The Dragon Slaying Stage trembled violently, like a frenzied dragon struggling to escape its chains.

Noeyr was lifted off the ground by the tumultuous stage, coughing up blood repeatedly as her veins and organs sustained various degrees of injury.

Sinton's face turned pale with shock. His towering figure hurled toward the Dragon Slaying Stage like a cannonball.

A cataclysmic force, capable of rending chaos itself, erupted from within the ninth-level platinum Shura, pressing the unruly stage down into the depths of Absolute Darkness.

Sinton's tension and gravity were palpable to all, as if he were confronting the gravest of threats.

The eldest son of the Blood King was acutely aware that if the Hex Stone were to be removed, they could forget about consuming Ionodios entirely; they might even sever their own route of return.

Should the conduit between Ionodios and the Dark Realm collapse as a result, no more Shura would be able to traverse it.

His father, still presiding over the Dark Realm and silently observing the unfolding events, would not be able to reach them in a moment's notice.

Without the promise of further support, any forerunners would find themselves isolated and fighting alone!

​