C2146 One of the Participants
Ghouls from Straikepera, along with those that had formed at the border, emerged in droves, coming into everyone's view.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
An invisible aura seeped from the bodies of the Ghouls, blending with the cosmic energy.
The chilling cosmic energy of Zagreus swept up the power within the Ghouls and surged toward the greenish-grey Divine Bird, giving rise to more Dead Storms.
The greenish-grey Divine Bird, with wings vast enough to eclipse the sun, ceaselessly devoured the energy of the Star River and dispersed the death force.
Giant Dead Storms arose with each flap of the Divine Bird's wings, casting themselves toward the living stars.
The Otherkin of Zagreus found themselves shrouded in the deathly shadow cast by the Divine Bird.
Chen Qinghuang, without invoking her Divine Visage, hovered amidst the nest charged with death force, adorned in a gown etched with exquisite phoenix patterns and her customary imperial crown.
Her head bowed, her true face remained hidden from view.
Beneath the Divine Bird, Qinghuang's figure was diminutive, yet she captured the gaze of countless onlookers in Zagreus.
She was an embodiment of danger, the epicenter of death, yet her beauty was unparalleled, exuding a sinister allure.
Her very existence was a paradox, as if designed to challenge the norms.
From a distance, Yu Yuan's soul stirred with memories becoming ever clearer.
He and the Secular Bird Queen appeared to have been graced by the God of Destiny, their fates intricately intertwined.
He had not been part of the battle that saw the fall of the Dark Phoenix and the Annihilation Nebula.
Back then, the Everlands were still emerging, a realm ruled by the Nagas.
Yet, tens of thousands of years later, he was indeed present for the Secular Bird Queen's first phoenix-like rebirth.
As the God-King Taiyin, wielding authority over the Dragon Slaying Stage, he encountered the Uxthar Tree in a remote part of the Star River. The tree, with branches piercing through stars, voraciously siphoned their power.
The Divine Tree spared no one, not even its own kin, absorbing flesh, plant essence, and cosmic energy alike.
Yu Yuan saw the Uxthar Tree as an immensely evil giant tree, so he used the Dragon Slaying Stage to smash it.
Ultimately, he managed to break the Uxthar Tree.
He later discovered that the Uxthar Tree's frenzied actions, collecting flesh and plant essence with its branches in the secluded Star River, along with cosmic energy, were all for the first rebirth of the Secular Bird Queen.
The divine tree had cultivated a bloodline chain within itself to ensure that upon the secular bird's rebirth, it would immediately possess formidable combat strength.
Yu Yuan shattered the divine tree with the Dragon Slaying Stage and, through it, learned the precise location of the Secular Bird Queen's rebirth.
He sought her out and found the newly reborn Secular Bird Queen, who had taken the form of an exquisitely beautiful Wingkind girl.
He was utterly captivated by her.
While the Secular Bird Queen was still integrating her power and recovering her memories, she unexpectedly encountered him.
He felt a surge of compassion.
During their brief time together, they exchanged insights on cultivation techniques, the Way of Heaven, and blood magic.
Through him, the Secular Bird Queen learned many intricate Mind Magic techniques, while he gained knowledge of the cosmic giant beast's bloodline from her.
But before the Secular Bird Queen could fully mature and refine her bloodline's power, Dark Phoenix Zhiya arrived.
Zhiya, seeing him with the newly reborn Secular Bird Queen, immediately showed her most ferocious side, entering a state of horror that left him astonished.
Zhiya had meticulously calculated the Secular Bird Queen's rebirth location with the intent to absorb her control over rebirth, death, and destruction bloodlines, aiming to ensure her absolute demise.
However, the dragon slayer Yu Yuan intervened, aiding the Secular Bird Queen in her rebirth once more.
Because of their conversation, she gained an understanding of human Mind Magic and learned that the true Dark Phoenix often wandered the extraterrestrial realm with the Phoenix Shrine, paying less attention to the Everlands.
Thus, the Secular Bird Queen whimsically decided to place her second rebirth of beings within the Everlands.
Years later, she was reborn as Chen Qinghuang in the Everlands.
By then, tens of thousands of years had passed. The Boulderdawn had fallen to Han Miaoyuan and the Dark Phoenix, and he had ascended to become the God of Medicine, Hong Qi.
By chance, he once again encountered the newly reborn Secular Bird Queen and felt compassion stir within him.
He saved the Secular Bird Queen for a second time.
Before he had fully awakened, unaware of his actions as the dragon slayer, Chen Qinghuang, having awakened earlier, integrated both sets of memories, thus learning all the details before him.
Chen Qinghuang remembered that during her first rebirth, she had shared a brief time with him, during which they had discussed their cultivation methods.
Regrettably, the Dark Phoenix arrived swiftly, and Chen Qinghuang was compelled to undergo a second rebirth.
It was Chen Qinghuang's prior knowledge of all the memories that allowed her to surge in battle power while he was still weak, leading her to find him first.
Chen Qinghuang proactively invited him to the Zagreus Astral Domain to explore the tenth level of the Lunarphite, shatter one of Grec's revival sites, and secure a dragon egg.
Once hazy memories now crystallized in Yu Yuan's mind.
He watched the present Secular Bird Queen with a complex gaze as she descended into madness again, triggered by the presence of enigmatic symbols of death.
"The Sky Fiend has arrived!" Zhong Chichen exclaimed.
At the Starway, where cosmic energy churned violently, the Sky Fiends from the other side were exulting.
"Lady Kaiya!"
"Lord Youqian!"
"Lord Saca!"
The cheers echoed.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A vast meteor sea, embodying the profound meaning of Mother Earth, materialized above the Starway.
A towering Stoneborn warrior, his eye sockets ablaze with blue-black flames, stood atop the innumerable meteors.
The Great Demon God Saca, having emerged from the Abyss, shattered the lands sought by those fleeing to the mountains of the Wasteland, refining them.
His numerous dark wills drifted like shadowy clouds through the meteor sea, and with the earth's power at his command, he cast a light of devil souls upon the lifeless stars.
As the Dead Storm manifested, stars that had been devoid of life began to fracture with an ominous crackling sound.
Stars shattered, breaking apart and transforming into a multitude of meteors.
"Go!"
Saca, still at the far end of the Star River, channeled the power he had mastered and directed it at the azure-grey Divine Bird, declaring, "Heavenly Stones descend!"
Millions of massive meteors, under the command of Saca's devil soul, hurtled toward the Divine Bird whose wings spanned the sky.
The meteors became a torrential rain, their momentum immense.
As they plummeted, they collided with one another, creating a spectacular display of fiery sparks and flashes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The azure-grey Divine Bird's wings were battered by the relentless meteor shower. The nascent Dead Storms brewing around it were instantly snuffed out in explosive bursts.
The immense Divine Bird, struggling to flap its wings, was clearly impaired and became instantly infuriated.
The Solar Spirit, having taken the form of the Divine Bird, and Chen Qinghuang, standing before the Deathwing Lair, both fixed their gaze on Saca's position, witnessing the descent of the three mighty Demon Gods.
"Hehe!"
Saca bared his teeth in a loud, derisive laugh.
Ascending from the Starway, he advanced toward Chen Qinghuang, accompanied by a cascade of rolling meteors.
"Secular bird, it's you once more!"
Saca's laughter boomed as he taunted, "Do you recall, a hundred thousand years ago in the Annihilation Nebula, when you perished and I was among those who brought you down?"
"We joined forces to slay you then, and today, a hundred thousand years later, I shall grant you death once again!"
The Sky Fiend is eternal, and Saca is among the most ancient of the Demon Gods within their kin.
Both he and Sable have been steadfast followers of Bertain, always under his protection.
Bertain, who usually remained in Zionidall, seldom engaged in the strife between humans and Otherkin.
Thus, Saca has survived from a hundred thousand years past to the present day.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Countless gargantuan meteors, akin to miniature landmasses, followed Saca's lead.
The towering figure of Demon God Saca was a sight to behold, his devil souls weaving through the meteors, multiplying his presence, all of them laughing heartily with unbridled vigor.
