C457 No One Knew the Evil'!!

A glass bottle skimmed the ocean floor.

Mo Yan, a youth from the Devil Palace, caressed the Kyara Demon Blade—a saw-toothed weapon as massive as a mountain—as tenderly as one might stroke a lover's skin, his eyes brimming with adoration.

"Chi la!"

A tiny spark of blood shot from his fingertip like electricity, merging into the blade's steel.

This infamous Devil Blade from the annals of the Devil Palace swallowed his blood light, its Artifact Soul seemingly leaping for joy within.

Those who practiced the Dao or possessed secret arts within their souls could hear the life of the Devil Blade if they were but close enough.

As Mo Yan's hand brushed the blade, fleeting Demonic Marks danced mysteriously into view.

Then, his eyelashes quivered.

His pupils dimmed, casting an eerie pall of deathly stillness, as if his soul had vanished.

It was as though his spirit had plunged into the depths of the Devil Blade.

A clear ripple of his essence emanated from the Kyara Demon Blade. Mo Yan appeared to fade away, while the blade itself began to glow, drawing the gaze of all present.

The bizarre transformation was fleeting.

Moments later.

Mo Yan jolted as though snapping awake from a profound nightmare, sweat beading on his forehead. His demeanor and presence had undergone a drastic shift.

The once carefree and jovial Mo Yan now wore an expression of stern coldness.

"Turn the glass bottle around; we must seek out the Fallen Star Eyes!"

He commanded Chi Nandou with an air of indisputable authority.

"Ah? Why?"

Chi Nandou, clutching the Bone Devouring Shuttle, pulled his focus back from the bone-crafted shuttle aimed ahead. "We're nearly at the other boundary. With the power of the Bone Devouring Shuttle combined with the glass bottle, I'm confident we can penetrate that deep blue veil," he asserted.

The rest were baffled, unable to grasp why Mo Yan would issue such a directive at this pivotal moment.

"I'll say it again! Turn back and search for the Fallen Star Eyes!" Mo Yan insisted with unwavering resolve.

Since his emergence from the Evil Cauldron, he had never before presented such a grave and commanding presence, one that was almost unsettling.

Fei Yi, hailing from the Devil Palace, noticed the change in his expression and felt a sense of foreboding.

"Could this lead to unnecessary trouble? Chi Nandou, Hou Tianzhao, and Lin Yue aren't exactly pushovers. They only follow orders that align with their interests. But if there's a misstep, if they're led to their doom, I doubt they'll comply so easily," Fei Yi pondered.

He was well aware of the tactics Chi Nandou, Hou Tianzhao, and the others employed while traversing the Quietus Continent.

Fei Yi genuinely feared that they were unaware of Mo Yan's true stature and wouldn't respect the Devil Palace's authority.

"You've already mentioned that we may not come out on top in a fight against the Fallen Star Eyes," Hou Tianzhao said with a hearty laugh. "You also acknowledged that Yu Yuan is a tough opponent, one you're not sure you can handle. So what's this? A sudden change of heart, wanting to wipe them out?"

"I think we should avoid any extraneous complications," Chi Yin of the Filthy Spirit Sect interjected.

Mo Yan looked at them and clarified, "We're not going to turn back and fight them, but rather, we'll join forces with them."

"What?" Chi Nandou gasped in surprise. "Has the Blood Offering Altar already targeted them? If that's the case, we need to make a swift exit and break through the Deep Blue Veil!"

"It's not the Blood Offering Altar. It's that bizarre fish that's been following Yu Yuan. It's called the Chaos Roc, hailing from the Outland Star River," Mo Yan explained.

"A celestial anomaly!"

"That strange fish, a senior member of the Demon Race? It's actually an extraterrestrial being?"

"It all makes sense now!"

Upon recalling the totem pillars, Chi Yin and Lin Yue experienced a moment of revelation.

"The Chaos Roc is on a rampage, intent on annihilating everyone on the Fallen Star Eyes. Their fate doesn't concern me, but if it gets its fins on the Evil Cauldron, the trouble will be immense," Mo Yan inhaled deeply. "Yu Yuan is up there, and he's taken the Evil Cauldron with him! That cauldron will endow the Chaos Roc with tremendous power."

Lin Yue reacted with alarm. "He's managed to refine the Evil Cauldron?"

Mo Yan nodded in agreement.

"What about us?" Chi Nandou hesitated.

"If the Chaos Roc seizes the Evil Cauldron, even if we manage to escape the Dark Blue Curtain, survival is far from guaranteed!" Mo Yan said coldly, his gaze piercing. "I've been in touch with Heixun. He needs us to double back and join forces with Yu Yuan to confront the Chaos Roc. We cannot allow it to break free from the Dark Blue Curtain!"

"Understood!"

Mention of Heixun spurred Chi Nandou into action, and without further delay, he redirected the flow within the glass bottle.

"Lord Heixun! What are your commands?"

"What's the status at sea? Are the elders who led us here aware of our plight?"

"Are they still alive?"

A wave of excitement swept through the crowd as Mo Yan brought up Heixun, prompting a flurry of questions.

Mo Yan's brow creased as he replied, "Nearly all those at sea have perished."

"Ah!"

...

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In the sea, a lethal, invisible miasma sped through the water. With the cessation of the Fallen Star Eyes, the miasma had finally found its way to them.

The radiant barrier of star energy, conjured by the Fallen Star Eyes, shimmered brilliantly, repelling the encroaching miasma.

As the miasma collided with the star energy barrier, what was once unseen by the naked eye began to reveal itself, illuminated by the scattering starlight.

Yu Yuan gripped the sword sheath tightly, pointing it at the Chaos Roc. From within, beams of sword light periodically burst forth, patching the weakening cage of light and maintaining the confinement of the Chaos Roc.

The Chaos Roc, now resembling a withered old man, sat grounded, tending to the severe wounds at his midsection.

His head hung low, ignoring all others as he concentrated solely on mending his injuries.

Kong Banbi, Du Huang, and the rest longed to offer assistance but were at a loss for how to proceed, their anxiety palpable.

"No, something's not right!"

Lau Ying, whose control over the Fallen Star Eyes had been usurped by the Chaos Roc and compromised by an alien force, suddenly sharpened her focus. She looked up at the glowing barrier created by the Fallen Star Eyes.

"Pfft!"

The once intangible malevolent qi materialized into the shape of a fist and slammed against the star energy light screen.

The light screen shimmered with an abundance of starlight, yet the bizarre energy infused by the Chaos Roc was unexpectedly neutralized, at least in part.

Lau Ying alone could perceive the abrupt cessation of the Fallen Star Eyes Artifact Soul's lament—a sound audible only to those who could listen with the three souls of heaven, earth, and humanity.

A spark of realization flickered in Lau Ying's eyes.

"No, this isn't malevolent energy... it's not malevolent energy at all!"

Stunned, Kong Banbi of the Sword Sect also sensed the anomaly, spurred by Lau Ying's observation. He pointed at the fist-sized cluster of energy and speculated, "Could it be an already formed evil spirit?"

The entity, no larger than a fist, repeatedly collided with the light shield, not dissipating but growing in strength and gradually taking shape.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Simultaneously, other streams of malevolent energy naturally converged and fused into it.

Its form continued to morph, expanding significantly.

In mere moments, after engulfing all the malevolent energy drawn by the Evil Cauldron, it swelled to the size of a millstone.

"The malevolent energy generated by the trial participants Mo Yan and the others slew couldn't possibly coalesce into an evil spirit so swiftly! And even if it could, it wouldn't be this formidable!" Kong Banbi mused, his expression revealing his bewilderment. After a pause, he offered, "There's only one explanation: the evil spirit was already lurking at the bottom of the Ember Waters. It existed beforehand! It must have detected the emergence of the Evil Cauldron and was drawn here, beckoned by its allure!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The ever-transforming, burgeoning evil spirit relentlessly battered the Fallen Star Eyes' light shield.

As specks of starlight fell, the strange luminescence instilled by the Chaos Roc miraculously vanished.

The Artifact Soul's cries ceased; instead, it seemed to anticipate the evil spirit's intensified onslaught.

An epiphany struck Lau Ying, and she declared, "The entity controlling the Fallen Star Eyes is likely designed to thwart the evil spirit! That old man probably foresaw that the Evil Cauldron's arrival would summon such a spirit, spontaneously drawing it to converge and pour into Yu Yuan's body!"

With a whoosh and a surge of dark demonic light, the massive cauldron that the group had previously seen topple beneath the island burst forth from Yu Yuan's chest and dantian.

"The Evil Cauldron!"

"It truly is the Evil Cauldron!"

"You were right; Yu Yuan has actually refined the Evil Cauldron and integrated it into his dantian!"

As they witnessed the now watermelon-sized Evil Cauldron, emitting a sinister glow, serenely hovering over Yu Yuan's chest, exclamations of shock filled the air.

"I can control the Fallen Star Eyes again!" Lau Ying, who had been struggling to expel the force imposed by the Chaos Roc, and was in a state of utter misery, cried out ecstatically after coughing up several mouthfuls of blood.

The relentless assault by the mysterious "evil spirit" had completely depleted the Chaos Roc's power that had been constraining the Fallen Star Eyes.

Following Lau Ying's outcry, the Chaos Roc, confined by a cage of sword light and severely wounded at the waist, snapped its eyes open—a chilling pair, one crimson and one pearly white, glaring at Yu Yuan. "You let it in, thinking it was a wise choice? Kid, do you even know what it is? Once it enters the Evil Cauldron, will it still be yours?"

"Think it through carefully!"

As the Chaos Roc focused on healing its wounds, it sensed the approach of the Fallen Star Eyes and issued a warning to Yu Yuan.

Upon hearing this, Lau Ying, who had just wrested control of the Fallen Star Eyes and reestablished a connection with the Artifact Soul, was momentarily dumbfounded.

"What, what?"

The Fallen Star Eyes blazed with light, the star stones at its core igniting one by one. Overwhelmed by the influx of star energy, Lau Ying was at a loss.

"Wait! Hold on!"

Kong Banbi's urgent cries halted Lau Ying, who was on the verge of opening the Fallen Star Eyes alongside the Artifact Soul and allowing the evil spirit to enter, urging her not to act recklessly.

Lau Ying quickly conferred with the Artifact Soul, reinforcing the Fallen Star Eyes and thickening the protective light screen.

This was to ensure the evil spirit couldn't easily invade, to stop it from stepping inside. Gaining control of the Fallen Star Eyes had been no small feat, yet Lau Ying found herself repeating the same actions as before.

"Yu Yuan! Can it come inside?" She gazed at Yu Yuan with a pitiful expression, overwhelmed by the recent turn of events which had far exceeded her expectations, making her question her own intelligence.

Shouldn't the evil spirit that emerged out of nowhere be assisting Yu Yuan and the Evil Cauldron in confronting that extraterrestrial entity?

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