C1469 I Took the Initiative!
Yu Yuan stood resolutely atop the Dragon Slaying Stage, his complete form towering.
Crackling and hissing sounds filled the air! The moment his physical form arrived and merged with the Lunar Spirit, the two little worlds within the Dragon Slaying Stage activated the latent cosmic order, manifesting numerous Chains of Order that appeared densely and suddenly.
Yet, this phenomenon was imperceptible to outsiders.
With his Lunar Spirit alone, Yu Yuan's senses were too indirect to trigger the cosmic order, leaving the Dragon Slaying Stage's hidden wonders concealed.
However, with the return of his physical form and the fusion of the Lunar Spirit and Solar Spirit, especially within the Defiled World—a place the Dragon Slaying Stage was fervently suppressing—the concealed Chains of Order were abruptly ignited and roused!
A divine light burst forth from Yu Yuan's eyes, so intense that none dared to meet his gaze. His smile radiated even more brilliantly as a result.
He could distinctly feel the rules of lightning, erupting from the two little worlds, aiming to bind and limit all the ghosts residing in the Defiled World, including the Terra Fiend.
A powerful confidence surged through him. He realized that whether it was Yuan Qingxi, the so-called Voodoo Shade, the Terra Fiend progenitor Huangyin, or the myriad other Terra Fiend variants, they were all constrained by the Dragon Slaying Stage!
Here, the Evil Devils, Voodoo Shades, and Terra Fiends might not find it easy to gain the upper hand in a confrontation.
The sole exception was White Bone, whose stance remained ambiguous. After ascending to godhood, White Bone was no longer bound by the Dragon Slaying Stage. Yu Yuan, as its master, could not utilize the stage to exert any pressure on White Bone.
Among the ghosts, White Bone had reached a supreme level, transcending the limitations of the Way of Heaven, unparalleled and unique.
"Master!" Yu Yiyi's urgent voice echoed from within the Crucible of Evil, her eyes fixed on Yu Yuan with concern.
Yu Yuan caught her meaning and turned to confront Yuan Qingxi, extending his hand with an expectant gesture, "Hand it over!"
Yuan Qingxi paused, taken aback.
Yu Yiyi, emerging from the Crucible of Evil, had a clear connection with Yu Yuan's mind and understood his intentions.
Without hesitation, Yu Yiyi dropped all her defenses, allowing the ice armor to morph into a razor-sharp ice blade.
The ice blade, etched with the exquisite profundity of extreme cold, was firmly grasped by Yu Yiyi as she traced a circle around the rim of the cauldron.
Rip!
The sound of tearing silk echoed from the cauldron's edge as countless, previously invisible soul threads suddenly emerged, only to be severed by the transformed ice blade of the Frost Queen.
The unseen soul threads that had been encircling the Crucible of Evil snapped one by one as they flew out from behind Yuan Qingxi.
The elder of the Bloodbrawlers, feeling a stabbing pain in his palm, had no choice but to release his grip.
As the Crucible of Evil slipped from control, he shook his withered, claw-like hand and exhaled a breath of murky air towards Yu Yiyi.
The grayish-black breath resembled a polluted River Styx, thick with murkiness and teeming with countless Ghouls and Undead.
The Ghouls and Undead filled the river, unleashing their frenzied roars and releasing the utmost negative thoughts of murder, war, and destruction, venting the vilest aspects of living beings.
"You're nothing but a maidservant, and yet you dare to point fingers at us and strut about?" Yuan Qingxi spat out, enraged. His pupils shifted to a ghostly gray-white, stripping away any semblance of human emotion, leaving behind nothing but an empty, numb shell.
An ordinary person, upon locking eyes with him at this moment, might feel as if their soul was being drawn out and controlled by him.
Yu Yiyi, the cauldron spirit, was far from ordinary.
As she faced the filthy, muddied onslaught of air that had morphed into a river, Yu Yiyi couldn't help but scoff, "Nothing but a few rats from the gutter, skulking in the shadows. My master moved the Dragon Slaying Stage and freed you, yet instead of gratitude, you seek to shatter it. You fully deserve your fate!"
Swoosh!
The Crucible of Evil hovered above the Dragon Slaying Stage, directly over Yu Yuan's head. Yu Yiyi, wielding the sharp ice blade transformed by the Frost Queen, seemed to be suddenly filled with newfound resolve.
She watched the murky current rush toward her, unfazed and with a more pronounced sneer of disdain on her lips.
On the Dragon Slaying Stage, Yu Yuan observed the murky current transform into a bizarre stream, catching sight of the surreal Ghoul King. In that moment, his thoughts turned unexpectedly to the Ghoul King. Legend had it that the Evil King Yu Xi had inadvertently discovered the mystique of animating the dead. He had experimented with it but, recognizing its malevolence, chose not to delve too deeply.
Yet, the technique of Animate Dead had spread, giving rise to the Ghoul Sect. The current Ghoul King, a servant of the Abyssal Leviathan, appeared to practice a technique that could be traced back to the Evil King Yu Xi. Upon reflection, the nefarious method of creating ghouls seemed to be an innate ability of the Evil King Yu Xi—originating from the ancient Bloodbrawlers.
Additionally, the soul puppet that Yu Ying had hidden beneath the Yu family estate could completely enslave someone if it contained their soul mark or Lunar Spirit. Qi Yunhong had once fallen under its control. Recalling the Voodoo Shades that had trailed behind Yuan Qingxi like kites when they first met, Yu Yuan had a sudden epiphany: the creation of the soul puppet was either an unintentional act by the Evil King Yu Xi or something Yuan Qingxi had secretly crafted for him, using the forbidden arcane of the Bloodbrawlers.
Considering this, it was clear that the Yu family had been inextricably linked with the nefarious Bloodbrawlers due to the Evil King Yu Xi, making it nearly impossible to sever ties completely.
These thoughts flickered through Yu Yuan's mind in an instant, yet they did not distract him from the present.
In that very moment, as the polluted stream approached the Dragon Slaying Stage, Yu Yuan let out a low chuckle.
Crack!
A brilliant white ice light burst forth from a little world on the Dragon Slaying Stage. The ice light was broad, encapsulating numerous tiny soul threads and ghostly lightning, weaving together into an intricate and mysterious Chain of Order. It shone so brightly that any soul or ghost that dared to gaze upon it would have their essence shattered.
The mere radiance was enough to transform the countless ghouls and the Undead within the murky river into wisps of smoke.
The malevolent thoughts of the ghouls and Undead, filled with hatred, violence, destruction, and their negative influence, were all naturally suppressed by the formation of the ice light.
What followed was their punishment and dissolution!
Boom!
The turbid breath exhaled by Yuan Qingxi solidified into a sinister river and, upon being touched by the pristine ice light, exploded like fireworks.
The ghosts and ghouls dissipated into smoke, and the so-called Ghouls turned into thick, polluted Yin Qi that vanished into the earth.
Yuan Qingxi's expression grew somber.
Elsewhere, Huangyin, one of the progenitors of the Terra Fiend, began to emit a low, soft howl.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The bloated demonform, rooted in the Seven-Colored Lake, extended hundreds of slick tentacles.
Each tentacle appeared to be teeming with swarms of little devils, akin to mosquitoes.
The Shadowfox, taking the form of a purple civet, fixed its gaze on Yu Yuan, its eyes flickering with purple flames.
A covert psychic link, as if crafted into an exquisitely carved bridge, was successfully established between Yu Yuan and the creature.
In Yu Yuan's mind's eye, a bridge carved from amethyst appeared, upon which a purple civet sat, gracefully stretching its body and transforming into a bewitchingly beautiful woman.
This woman's visage shifted continuously—now Yuan Lianyao, now Ji Ningshuang, now Liu Ying, and even attempting to morph into Chen Qinghuang...
Yet, as she tried to assume Chen Qinghuang's form to beguile Yu Yuan's heart and lure his soul, she found herself unable to complete the transformation.
The current secular bird, the empress whose whereabouts were unknown, seemed to exert her influence from across the vast expanse of the stars.
Her presence hindered the Shadowfox's metamorphosis!
Failing to assume the form of Chen Qinghuang, the Shadowfox was suddenly beset by an invasive consciousness and let out a piercing shriek.
"The nest, her nest in the Everlands, can still strike at me!"
On the amethyst bridge within Yu Yuan's sea of consciousness, the Shadowfox screamed in agony. Her form twisted into a mass of purple devil soul.
The devil soul swirled into a peculiar vortex, enveloping the amethyst bridge and advancing towards Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit.
Whoa!
Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit surged with infinite strength within his Mindscape.
"Wraithbinding!"
With a mere thought, his Lunar Spirit morphed into an ancient deity, towering and proud, standing since the dawn of chaos deep within the Star River.
This deity, conjured from the Lunar Spirit, wielded a hand that could crush the heavens and earth, and it reached into the purple devil soul.
Crack!
The amethyst bridge shattered instantly, splitting into two segments that formed the Shadowfox's severed body.
As her devil soul roiled, attempting to reform her demonform, Yu Yuan's Lunar Spirit grasped it and hurled it into the outer world.
Whoosh!
The bisected Shadowfox shot out from Yu Yuan's forehead, instantly consumed by the Crucible of Evil.
Elsewhere.
Yu Yuan ascended from the Dragon Slaying Stage, taking the sharp ice blade handed to him by Yu Yiyi.
He then unleashed the Spiritrend and Dread Spawn from the Nine Celestial Slashes upon the greasy tentacles.
Beams of arc light burst forth!
The ice force within the Dragon Slaying Stage, fused with Nie Qingtian's sword spell, turned the monster's tentacles into chopped calamari.
Chunks of tentacle plummeted from the sky, detonating before they could even reach the Seven-Colored Lake.
"Huangyin, as the progenitor of the Terra Fiend Clan, do you truly believe you can act with impunity on your own soil?" Yu Yuan, wielding the transformed Frost Queen, hovered before the Terra Fiend. "Do you not realize that the two Dragon Slaying Stages in my possession were originally intended to suppress this Defiled World? You, Yuan Qingxi, and all the Earth Fiends and ghosts, have you not felt the constraints?"
"What good are your so-called advantages—timing, location, and harmony—against the might of the Dragon Slaying Stage?"
As he spoke, the surface of the Dragon Slaying Stage shimmered with a seven-colored glow.
Instantly, the Seven-Colored Dragon's breath transformed into a host of vibrant Seven-Colored Dragons, darting toward the Crucible of Evil.
The Chronowyrm, once known as the Seven-Colored Dragon God, shared the same vivid hues as the Seven-Colored Lake before us.
It was his burial in the Dragon Slaying Stage that allowed him to become the core of the Chain of Order, tasked with subduing the Terra Fiend Clan!
"I knew it!"
Yu Yiyi, inside the cauldron, exclaimed without a hint of surprise. She gazed down at the little world within the cauldron, a smile playing at the corners of her eyes.
The Bane, encased in ice from the waters of the Seven-Colored Lake, began to thrash about in an attempt to break free.
