As Bai Zemin listened to the voice of the female silhouette that had suddenly appeared it was as if a minute or two had passed, but in reality, it had been no more than a brief instant.
In the distance, the expressions of Fire Sorrow, Eternal Phoenix, Long Tian, and Lucifer froze.
“What’s that?” Eternal Phoenix spoke. Her voice was noble and soft like that of a proper empress who had been at the peak for a long time.
The eyes of Empress Phoenix flashed and widened in shock as she looked at the blurry silhouette growing weaker and weaker in front of the practically dead human, “Is that a soul?”
“… Looks like one.” Long Tian frowned tightly as he felt a bad premonition in his heart, “But it’s clearly not any kind of ghost… Besides, that soul came out from inside the body of that human brat.”
This kind of situation was far from normal, because it was impossible for two souls to exist inside the same body. The reason was very simple; the soul and the body always needed to be in sync, the slightest imbalance would end up causing the body to explode or the soul to collapse.
‘This damn human can’t come up with something extraneous now!’ Long Tian gritted his teeth in his heart as he wished for Bai Zemin’s death thousand times over.
How could he not wish for Bai Zemin’s death after having made such a big bet with Lucifer? It was a bet he could not take back!
While everyone was in shock and experiencing different emotions, Lucifer looked at the blurry silhouette in the middle of the white mist with confusion, “That is…”
Although Lucifer wasn’t very good with the matter of souls, at least he had some knowledge. At the end of the day, Lucifer was a being who had lived for too long so it was normal for him to know more than others even in the less explored fields such as the field of souls.
Somehow, Lucifer felt that he had felt that length of soul somewhere… It was not exactly the same, but very similar.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t think too much as not only was that blurry female silhouette soon swept away by the wind along with the white mist but the 9-Headed Immortal Dragon that had been carrying his attack for a couple of seconds finally broke free completely.
The sound caused by the toxic beam fired by the green head was that of an explosion; the explosion that was born as a result of the sonic barrier being shattered.
‘Yes!’ Long Tian clenched his fist with a big smile slowly forming on his face.
If the attack connected there was no doubt that Bai Zemin would die. This was because while the attacks of the green head were not as destructive or domineering as those of the red head and the blue head, each attack of the green head had toxic gas powerful enough to corrode even 5 Rank metals in a matter of seconds once it made contact with its target.
Fire Sorrow raised her right hand and a magical circle began to form on it. Although her movements seemed to be slow, her speed was so high that even the toxic beam traveling a little faster than the sound barrier was slow in comparison.
She had made a vow to herself, and was about to honor it now.
Fire Sorrow’s actions took Lucifer by surprise. It all happened too fast, and his distraction about the soul that had appeared from Bai Zemin’s body made his heart clench as he realized that he wouldn’t make it in time to stop her.
Just at that critical moment for everyone where many things would change after another instant, a split second before the toxic beam came into the 100-meter range near Bai Zemin, and a split second before Fire Sorrow activated her defensive barrier, a pillar of bright red light burst from Bai Zemin’s body and soared into the sky in a flash.
BOOM!!!
The pillar of red light that soared into the sky was clearly made of mana and magic, but it still turned into a kind of impenetrable wall that stopped the advancing toxic beam launched by the green-colored head of the 9-Headed Immortal Dragon in its tracks.
“You and your pointless stubbornness!”
As the neck of the green-colored head kept leaning forward and the giant mouth of the green head wide open to allow more and more magical power to continue to flow out and thus fueling the power of the toxic beam, the other eight heads of the beast roared at the same time.
The next instant, the necks of the black, blue, and red heads moved forward at the same time as the three mouths opened wide and launched their respective magical attacks.
Lightning from the black head, ice from the blue head, and fire from the red head.
Seeing the four magic beams with enough power to destroy an entire city and annihilate millions from the distance might have been a beautiful sight for the humans were it not for the fact that the one using such attacks was their enemy; an enemy that could soon turn around and kill them all with a single breath.
But most stunning of all was that even with all the 9-Headed Immortal Dragon’s magical power, the four magical shots failed to break the wall of red light that was still rising in the form of a column into the sky and dispersing all the gas clouds that had formed in the area 20 kilometers around the battlefield.
“Thank god… Thank god…” Nangong Lingxin fell to her knees.
Bai Shilin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue worriedly, and seeing the crystalline tears running down her face as her lip trembled she couldn’t help but silently move closer to give her mom a tight hug.
In Shangguan Bing Xue’s beautiful sky-colored eyes, the image of the bright red pillar of light blocking the four dragon breaths was reflected. There was fierce golden lightning crackling noisily at the four meeting points and the spatial barrier in the area was covered with bigger and bigger cracks… but she only cared about one thing.
It was at that moment that Shangguan Bing Xue realized that being stubborn about her own feelings was absurd. It was then that she fully understood how she felt.
“I see…” She gently caressed Bai Shilin’s silver hair as she stared at the distant scene, and in a somewhat dazed voice muttered, “So this is love…”
Being her first time feeling such an emotion and now fully aware of it, Shangguan Bing Xue felt dazed and fearful. Strangely, however, she also felt great relief when she stopped denying the reality and somehow also felt excited for the future.
“Second in command… you’re the only one who didn’t know.”
Kang Lan’s voice attracted Shangguan Bing Xue’s attention.
Kang Lan looked at her sideways with an expression that suggested she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she slowly said, “Even though it’s your own emotions you are the last one to realize.”
“I… The last one….?” Shangguan Bing Xue whispered to herself. Suddenly and as if she had thought of something, her head moved slightly and her eyes met Chen He’s, who by that time was already looking at her.
He stared at her for a few seconds, a thousand emotions flashed in his eyes before shrugging his shoulders. With a genuine smile and wide eyes, he nodded, “The last of the last.”
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at him but her eyes seemed to be staring blankly as she slowly nodded, “I… see…”
On the other hand, Jack couldn’t help but smile bitterly as he listened and watched everything, “What’s this emotion called? Glad that guy is still alive but somehow I want to kill him.”
Dylan gave him a sidelong glance before looking back at the pillar of light in the distance and saying in a serious voice, “It’s called jealousy.”
“… Dylan, you want me to put an arrow through your ass?” Jack growled without looking at him.
“Hahahaha!” Robinson burst out laughing and pointed, “Jack, you made the question. What are you complaining about?”
Looking at the now much more relaxed group, Andrea silently approached Angelo who was silently trying to detect all the changes on the battlefield. After a moment without saying anything, she remarked, “Everyone is more at ease now.”
Angelo nodded, and after a brief silence commented, “Bai Zemin is alive, and that skill even stopped dead in its tracks four attacks each of which can be compared to one intercontinental missile. After so much tension they needed to break free, that’s what’s happening.”
The sound of something being casually tossed to the ground followed by footsteps walking away attracted the American team’s attention, and when they turned to look back they saw the small and incredibly sexy Eleanora walking away in the direction of the base.
“Hey, Eleanora, where are you going?” Robinson shouted, perplexed.
Eleanora casually waved her hand as if shooing away a fly and said lazily, “Sleep, what else? I, your great aunt, am tired and need forty hours of replenishing sleep.”
“Forty hours…” Robinson could feel the corner of his mouth twitching fiercely as he muttered not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “We’re high-level soul evolvers but you want forty hours of sleep?… The perfect evolution of a sloth.”
In response, Eleanora raised her hand and gave him the middle finger without looking back.
Bai Zemin’s intercom had been destroyed in the previous explosion that almost killed him, therefore, Eleanora could no longer help him. Her work was done, she had fulfilled her promise and part of the deal she had made with him before.
‘Now it will be entirely on you.’ She sighed in her heart as she walked away.
…
“That… What… What is that…” Long Tian looked at the huge pillar of crimson light with wide eyes and in shock.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know what that was…. Rather, Long Tian could not and would not accept it.
There were few history books that recorded information from the past; past eras, very very ancient ones in which Long Tian had not even been born yet. However, few did not mean any.
In the entire universe, there were about 12 books with information about tremendously powerful soul evolvers. So powerful that if they were alive they would be Leaders of their own factions of Higher Existences… and in 5 of those books that were preserved despite all the trials and tribulations they experienced, there was information about the Heavenly Wolf Sirius.
When the eight factions first tried to break into the Constellation of the Heavenly Wolf but failed, Long Tian skim-read those books a bit. But at that time he did not attach much importance to that information; his pride and arrogance did not allow him to do that.
However, after what happened a year ago in the Constellation of the Heavenly Wolf where the bright star under the name Sirius illuminated the universe, Long Tian understood that his pride and arrogance were worthless in the face of a being that supposedly surpassed the Soul Record. Therefore, he learned about Sirius’s core skills… As well as some of the activations attached to those skills.
“Blood Manipulation…” Eternal Phoenix whispered to herself. Her beautiful fire-bright red eyes reflected the image of the pillar of light stopping the four dragon breaths in the distance as she repeated to no one in particular in a barely audible voice, “Crimson Flame, Blood Immortal Radiance… and this has to be the activation that comes with evolving Blood Manipulation to Fifth Order…”
A Second Order Lower Existence evolving a skill to Fifth Order? and to top it off this was a Manipulation type skill whose evolution requirements were much harder for obvious reasons… The universe and its laws as Eternal Phoenix knew them were slowly crumbling before her very eyes.
Eternal Phoenix couldn’t believe what she was thinking and saying, but the reality was right in front of her, and denying it would be the stupidest thing someone of her level could ever do. It was then that she thought of something and abruptly turned her head to look at Lucifer… it was then that she understood that soon many things were going to change and the false calm of the universe would be shattered into pieces.
“Not bad, little wolf…” Lucifer chuckled as he stared with glowing eyes at the terrifying phenomenon before him.
This was all to some extent within Lucifer’s calculations thanks to all the information Fire Sorrow had given him. But he felt that from here on there would be many surprises to come.
As for Fire Sorrow in question…
Seeing the huge pillar of glowing red light that pulsed like a heart rising into the sky, she was stunned for an instant before the glowing magic circle in the palm of her hand slowly disappeared.
Fire Sorrow slowly lowered her outstretched hand forward, and with a sigh of great relief, she felt her soul return to her body as she closed her eyes.
A small but beautiful smile filled with relief and joy lit up her face as she whispered in a soft voice, “It’s been so long that in the heat of the moment I had forgotten… Third activation of Blood Manipulation, Immortal’s Blood.”
* * * * * * *
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3
