C988 Close yet Worlds apart

The Second Bane, Blood Moon, met his end within a massive Riftstone, struck down by golden lightning charged with the cosmic order.

Shattered limbs and spilt blood filled the crystal.

President Lyi and Zhou You shared a grave look.

Elsewhere.

Grec, having successfully performed a Crimson Shift to assume Shi Yuxuan's form, let out a soft chuckle and reverted to Shi Yuxuan's appearance.

His peculiar fondness for Shi Yuxuan's visage was a mystery, but aside from the identical physique and features, the surge of his flesh and blood left no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the formidable Demon God, Grec.

Yu Yuan, wielding two Dragon Slaying Stages, found his Lunar Spirit and dominant soul, along with his heaven soul, divided.

His Lunar Spirit, imbued with spiritual wisdom and intent, was anchored in the Dragon Slaying Stage that entombed the Chronowyrm. Memory sparkles burst forth as he adeptly harnessed the Stage's power.

Within the enigmatic space of the Dragon Slaying Stage, the serpentine corpse of the Chronowyrm, along with numerous severed giant dragons, had their dragon's breath and blood awakened.

In that realm, a curious tide emerged, in harmony with the Dragon Slaying Stage crafted from extraterrestrial Hex Stone.

This phenomenon allowed Yu Yuan to create nascent worlds in the spaces he traversed, complete with impenetrable layers of walls unseen and unbreakable by mortals.

He utilized this to thwart Grec's pursuit.

Meanwhile, his heaven soul, not yet having manifested a Solar Spirit or completed its metamorphosis, connected mysteriously with another Dragon Slaying Stage, this one housing a frost wyrm.

The heaven soul, emblematic of wisdom, leveraged the Dragon Slaying Stage to ward off the corruption of Grec's flesh and blood.

The aberrant blood within him was also quelled by his heaven soul, employing the ice energy within the Stage.

Simultaneously, his dominant soul—or rather, his lifesoul—steered the sword sheath, maintaining a link with the cauldron spirit, Yu Yiyi.

Each soul played its part, with the Imperial Envoys manipulating various artifacts and weaving spells in unison to counter Grec.

"What an interesting little fellow."

The Great Demon God, Grec, trailing behind, let out a low laugh upon discovering the intricate layers of space that had been breached.

Grec had become nothing more than a shell of a man, a husk devoid of flesh and blood.

As Yu Yuan made his way toward the Domain Channel pit, he encountered a Shadowkin woman locked in fierce combat with a Poison Cult follower. Her body bore numerous gashes from which dark green blood flowed. An unnatural red gleam suddenly flared in her eyes.

With a whoosh, a series of crimson sword lights burst forth from the sheath under his foot.

"Yu Yuan, how dare you!"

"You!"

Mia, of the Shadowkin, and Wen Lu, of mixed heritage, were visibly shaken. They couldn't fathom why Yu Yuan would bother to strike down a gravely wounded Shadowkin, one on the brink of death, while he himself was in the midst of escape.

Seven crimson sword lights impaled the Shadowkin woman. As she writhed, her flesh pulsating with the completion of the "Crimson Shift," she had not yet managed to transfer all her surging vital energy to Grec. His body, targeted by the sword lights, was torn to shreds.

"So, this can be felt," Grec murmured, his voice emanating from the mangled, bloodied remains.

"Grec!"

"Grec again!"

Mia and Wen Lu instantly grasped the unfolding events.

Subsequently, the extraterrestrial powerhouses and human cultivators who were covertly observing the scene realized that, on his journey to the pit, Yu Yuan could transform into various entities: a formidable archdemon, a Blood Warrior of the Otherkin, or even an inconspicuous disciple of the Ethereal Void or Thunder Sect. At specific moments, he would morph into Grec!

The great Demon God Grec had the ability to instantly project his essence into a puppet through a blood bond.

They witnessed multiple iterations of Grec, some soaring into the air, others already aloft, each wielding powers far superior to those of their own bloodlines. Some pushed the innate mystique of the archdemons to their limits, while others harnessed thunder and lightning, relentlessly pursuing Yu Yuan.

Each encounter showcased a different technique, pushing the puppet's capabilities to the extreme, and sometimes even beyond.

Meanwhile, Yu Yuan, with a Dragon Slaying Stage in each hand and standing atop his sword sheath, with the Crucible of Evil suspended above, displayed his own array of techniques. Whether it was the scarlet sword light that could annihilate the world and extinguish life, or warping time and space to conjure numerous barriers and walls, or encasing everything in ice, he was a force to be reckoned with.

He was giving it his all.

Drawing upon every memory from the Dragon Slaying Stage and utilizing every spell and arcane technique at his disposal, he faced the relentless onslaught of new Grecs.

Crack!

His back was shattered by the swipe of a broken claw from an eighth-level white bear, splintering his bones.

As the bear claw detonated against his back, spraying blood and flesh, the white bear, seeing the gap widen, plummeted from the sky, lifeless before it even hit the ground.

Then, an enchantress, taken over by Grec, whipped her serpentine hair through the air.

Innumerable delicate soul threads, woven by the enchantress's Mind Magic, infiltrated his Mindscape, sprouting into a dark brown ancient tree with lush foliage.

The slender branches of the ancient tree lashed out wildly, threatening to rupture his Mindscape.

In that critical moment, the dark cauldron above his head plummeted, encasing his skull. Yu Yiyi harnessed the power of the Crucible of Evil to shatter the enchantress's Spirit Magic.

No sooner had the dark brown ancient tree vanished than a doomed cultivator from the Sword Sect unleashed a ghostly sword spell, its wails echoing like the cries of countless souls within the Root of the Lunar Meridian in the Land of Terror.

The sword light had yet to reach him when the Unbound cultivator from the Sword Sect, along with his Lunar Spirit and Solar Spirit, were utterly extinguished.

The sword spell, a secret he had never before revealed, lay hidden deep within his heart. Once possessed by Grec, he executed it without hesitation.

Yu Yuan was forced to clutch the Dragon Slaying Stage, erecting multiple spatial barriers just to fend off the deadly strike.

Still, the anguished wails and curses of tormented souls descended upon him, only to be subdued and then dispelled with the aid of the Crucible of Evil.

Subsequently, wave after wave of disciples from the Thunder Sect, Ebon Star, and Sunlit Order threw themselves at Yu Yuan in a relentless assault.

Unbeknownst to him, the subtle bond between him and the Soulforge Pool had long since been severed.

He realized he could no longer harness the power of the Soulforge Matrix.

The deep pit was close, yet as he soared towards it, the distance seemed to stretch on endlessly, as if he would never reach its end.

"There's another force within the Domain Channel!"

The instant Zhou Wen grasped the crystalline Four Directions Platform, his face subtly shifted, and he quickly informed President Lyi.

President Lyi, too, was taken aback. He immediately understood that Grec, the Demon God, had overheard their two previous messages and had prepared accordingly.

The Domain Channel within the shadowy pit must have been influenced by Grec's power.

"Han, Elder Han?"

Cao Jiaze, wielding the Starhaven, had already reached the pit. Hearing Zhou Wen's words, he glanced down and spotted a familiar, gaunt old man standing at the mouth of a cave on the pit's rocky wall.

This man was a cultivator skilled in space magic, employed by the Ebon Star.

Although not as advanced as Zhou Wen, being a cultivator at the Solar Spirit Stage, he was a treasured asset that the Ebon Star had invested heavily in nurturing.

He had arrived with the group, but he was supposed to be in the Serpent Spine Mountains, within the territory of the Order of Healing, under Chu Yao's control.

Cao Jiaze was taken aback to see him appear in the pit below. "Elder Han, what brings you here? This place is perilous; you shouldn't be here!"

A cultivator proficient in space magic and at the Solar Spirit Stage was a rare gem for the Ebon Star.

In the next instant, Cao Jiaze's heart raced as he noticed the red gleam in Han's eyes, realizing that Han had come out of curiosity about the battle conditions in the forbidden area.

With his expertise in space magic, he had approached the Domain Channel that linked to the Hellmouth.

Soon after, unbeknownst to him, he fell under Grec's corrupt control, becoming his puppet and exerting influence over the pit.

This also made Yu Yuan's arrival fraught with peril, turning his journey into a long and treacherous ordeal.

​