C1849 Using the Common People to Threaten

Mo Baichuan suddenly turned to Yu Yuan and asked, "Why have you come?"

"I..."

Yu Yuan, who had intended to join the battle via the Nest of Perdition after Tschick's death in Darkpinion and witnessing the golden deer's appearance, found himself at a loss for words.

Zu Ann was right; before his arrival, the Dark Phoenix had seemed relatively composed.

Now, it appeared the Dark Phoenix was on the verge of going mad, just as she had in the Dark Star.

The Great Demon God Grec, along with numerous ninth-level Demon Gods, were in the midst of rebuilding their realm in the Dark Star. The Dark Phoenix, in a brief frenzy, had already destroyed a third of the stars in that region.

If the Dark Phoenix's frenzy were to take place in the Everlands, the consequences would be just as reckless...

With this thought, a chill ran through Yu Yuan's heart.

"I've discovered a method for alien beasts to advance to the tenth level. Even without the evilkind of the Everlands, I will have a tenth-level Beast God under my command. Should the Everlands be destroyed and the evilkind perish, the more numerous alien beasts from beyond will still infuse me with unending vitality."

The supreme Dark Phoenix's cold eyes slowly closed.

Yet, all archdemons who were disloyal to Shadow's Keep and had not sworn fealty to her, regardless of their location, whether in the Everlands or the extraterrestrial void, seemed to see her indifferent gaze.

Her phoenix eyes, as if crystallized within the hearts of the archdemons, watched them coldly.

Those loyal to the Untamed or independent from both the Marsh and Shadow's Keep felt a sudden fear of impending doom and realized a stark truth.

When the Dark Phoenix needed them, she could strip them of everything at any moment.

"You can observe, but if you, Yu Yuan, dare to intervene, then..."

When the Dark Phoenix opened her eyes once more, she turned her gaze to the left.

At that moment, Qin Luo of the Ruby Hand had not only arrived, but he had also brought Zhou Cangmin with him.

Two fiery streaks cut through the mist at the marsh's edge, marking the arrival of the Ruby Hand's two formidable experts at the site of the Nest of Perdition, following Zu Ann.

Along their journey, they encountered the skeletal remains of beasts, stripped of flesh and blood, a harrowing sight indeed.

"Yu Yuan..."

Zhou Cangmin, clad in white, had reached the middle period of the Unbound Realm. Upon his arrival, he caught sight of the figure on the Dragon Slaying Stage and seemed at a loss for words.

"Ruby Hand, Hellbreed, Zhou Cangmin."

The Dark Phoenix, hovering above the Nest of Perdition, her face a picture of beauty, suddenly twisted into a malevolent sneer. "That capricious Starway in the Kobran, you once opened it solely for him."

"You enjoy covertly aiding him? Without your meddling, Hellbreed, he wouldn't have so quickly gained the favor of the Primal Blood!"

Zhou Cangmin was taken aback.

He then came to the stark realization that the Dark Phoenix, within her Phoenix Shrine, had long since uncovered the secret he had desperately concealed—that he had assisted Yu Yuan in traveling to the Kobran, enabling Yu Yuan to acquire the complete life sequence.

"You!"

The Dark Phoenix's finger, terrifyingly long, glimmered with a dazzling blood light.

Her finger, from a distance, targeted Zhou Cangmin's chest.

Puff!

Zhou Cangmin's heart was reduced to mush, his real body's flesh and organs refined in an instant into a beam of blood light, merging with the decaying heart.

With a whoosh, the Dark Phoenix extended her finger, and in her palm materialized a small, shriveled, crimson heart, seemingly the very one that had burst within the High Oracle.

This withered heart, wrapped in threads of blood light, miraculously plumped up in an instant.

In contrast, Zhou Cangmin was left like an archdemon, a mere shell of skin and bones, his organs and flesh utterly gone.

"Ugh!"

From within Zhou Cangmin's husk came a frantic cry of alarm, as if he had only just comprehended his fate.

"Your Highness, the Demon Emperor, mercy is the mark of a great ruler!"

Qin Luo of the Ruby Hand, his face turning ashen, conjured a barrier as radiant as the sun, attempting to shield Zhou Cangmin.

"Futile."

Zhou Cangmin, his face now skeletal, watched as his Solar Spirit escaped his body. His Lunar Spirit and dominant soul were forcibly infused into it.

Zhou Cangmin's real body slowly collapsed to the ground, lifeless. Now manifesting as the Solar Spirit, he spoke with a ghostly pallor, "It appears I have no hope of ascending to the ranks of the Supreme God."

Without his real body, and after the fusion of his Lunar Spirit and dominant soul with the Solar Spirit, he was at a loss for how to proceed with his cultivation.

The rank of Supreme God? It was out of the question.

Boom! Puff! Puff!

Members of the Chamber of Commerce, like Ho Zhan, suddenly found themselves devoid of vital energy, one after the other.

Skeletons, nothing more than skin and bones, crashed to the ground.

Those who had reached the Solar Spirit Realm managed to escape with their Lunar Spirit and dominant soul, seeking refuge in a special Solar Spirit Body to survive.

For those who had not formed a Solar Spirit, once their physical bodies decayed, only their Lunar Spirit would drift out from their skeletal remains, manifesting in the Marsh like solitary ghosts.

Their dominant souls and heaven souls could not merge with the Lunar Spirit and were thus fated to fade away.

However, at least the Lunar Spirit could pursue the path of necromancy after leaving the body.

There were weaker ones still. Some sect disciples who came to the Marsh for training hadn't even broken through to the Lunar Spirit Realm. After the Dark Phoenix stripped them of their vital energy, they were truly on a path to death.

Without the Lunar Spirit, and without having forged a Solar Spirit, the three souls of heaven, earth, and man, bereft of their corporeal body, would slowly drift back into the cycle of reincarnation.

"Do you see that?"

The Dark Phoenix, hovering above the Nest of Perdition with a massive Blood Rune overhead, addressed everyone.

"Every creature in the Everlands, whether bird, beast, insect, or mosquito, along with human cultivators, commoners, and archdemons—if they possess a corporeal body, they fall under my dominion!"

She spread her slender arms, extending them toward the wings at her back, as if seizing the hearts of all beings.

"I decree that Zhong Chichen and Loong Jie must die."

She cast her gaze downward, observing the Chronowyrm writhing in agony and the golden dragon that had ceased its destruction of the nest's withered branches. "Anyone who dares to thwart me cares not for the lives of the countless beings in the Everlands. Mo Baichuan, will you challenge me now, or would you rather witness the annihilation of mortal life?"

Mo Baichuan, perched atop the lid of the Serpentflame furnace, was a man of few words.

At that moment, he could do nothing but maintain his silence with a somber expression.

Unlike the Dark Phoenix, who was indifferent to the fate of the Everlands' inhabitants, he could not afford to provoke her at such a critical juncture, treating their potential deaths as a mere joke.

To Yu Yuan, the Dark Phoenix before him was akin to the lifeblood of the Primal Blood Continent, wielding the power to dictate the survival of all Blood Fiend kin.

In the Everlands, she commanded the sacred way of blood, capable of stripping away the flesh and blood of any creature.

Without their flesh and blood, mortals would inevitably perish, and the same grim fate awaited the evilkind.

Only the mightiest cultivators, possessing a Lunar Spirit, could continue to exist, and with a Solar Spirit, they could survive.

Once a cultivator achieved the Supreme God seat and manifested the Primordial Spirit, Lunar Spirit, and Solar Spirit, they could traverse the cosmos without their corporeal body, beyond the Dark Phoenix's grasp.

The issue was that the odds of ascending to such heights were one in a billion, a rarity among rarities.

"Fine, I'll just observe."

The Dragon Slaying Stage gradually retreated, increasing the distance from the Nest of Perdition, careful not to incite the volatile Dark Phoenix.

She leveraged the lives of Everlands' denizens as a threat, and given his knowledge of the Dark Phoenix, he was convinced she was capable of such an act and utterly indifferent to their annihilation.

His withdrawal signaled a stance of detached observation, yet privately, he committed the massive blood-colored evil spell to memory.

"Rising above the blood source of the Everlands' beings and using their deaths as leverage, how can this be resolved?"

He was in seamless communication with the Solar Spirit at the distant Abyssal Gate. His Solar Spirit was closely monitoring the gate's activity and had not noticed Jihui's hasty approach.

Could the Solar Spirit make a brief return to the Everlands? Was there a chance to shatter the Dark Phoenix's bloody hold over the blood of the Everlands' inhabitants?

He was acutely aware that the only force capable of reversing the tide and stopping the Dark Phoenix from menacing the myriad souls of the Everlands was his own Solar Spirit.

A mournful cry echoed!

The Seven-Colored Dragon, its scales marred with wounds, swayed its body, gradually succumbing to weakness and futility.

Loong Jie let out a sorrowful roar, realizing he was likely unable to save the Rainbow Sage, and abruptly charged toward the humanoid phoenix shadow amidst the deep purple smoke.

"Save, save me."

The Seven-Colored Dragon moaned feebly, its gem-like, rainbow-hued eyes moving from Loong Jie to the Dragon Slaying Stage.

Yu Yuan gave a subtle nod.

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