At that very moment.
As Yang Chen and the Four Seas Dragon Clan staged this absurd farce of "recognizing their ancestor and returning to their roots" outside Kunlun Mountain,
within the Sea of Karmic Force inside him, within that eternally silent dark abyss imprisoning the endless resentment of the three ancient clans, a silent storm was brewing.
Two immense wills that had once endured as long as heaven and earth, competing with the sun and moon for brilliance, were undergoing an unprecedented violent upheaval.
Phoenix Ancestor.
First Qilin.
They saw it. Through the omnipresent karmic force, they saw everything happening above Kunlun Mountain.
They "heard" the fanatical cries of the Four Seas Dragon Kings, cries born from their souls and carrying the Dragon Clan's hundreds of millions of years of humiliation and yearning.
They "saw" how those thousands of elite dragon clansmen buried their proud heads deep in the dirt, prostrating themselves before their greatest creditor in the supreme salute reserved only for their progenitor.
Absurd.
Ridiculous.
And bone-chillingly cold.
That chill did not come from the outside world. It arose without warning from the very core of their remnant souls, spreading outward and instantly freezing all their thoughts.
Not long ago, they had personally witnessed an even more terrifying "judgment."
They had seen how Ancestral Dragon, that old rival who had once fought them for the position of heaven and earth's protagonist, so proud that he did not even regard Sages highly, had been driven to the brink of shattered logic and collapsed will by a few words from this human called Yang Chen.
They heard Ancestral Dragon's unwilling, humiliated, yet helpless roar.
In the end, they had even watched helplessly as Yang Chen, right before the Ancestral Dragon Remnant Soul, forcibly extracted the Dragon Clan's most fundamental power of fortune and carved a drop of essence blood directly from Ancestral Dragon!
What a domineering, what a humiliating method! He was not collecting a debt at all.
He was subjecting them to a thousand cuts! He was telling these so-called "creditors" that from now on, he would set the rules of the game.
This was not simply "refusing to repay a debt." On top of refusing to repay it, he intended to suck his creditors dry to the bone, devour them alive, and leave nothing behind!
In a corner of the deep Sea of Karmic Force, a blazing flame like a star, yet tightly restraining its light and heat, swayed violently.
That was Phoenix Ancestor's remnant soul. Within the flames, that proud Phoenix Cry, enough to burn through the nine heavens, carried an unmistakable tremor for the first time.
It was fear. An emotion she had believed she had completely forgotten along with the fall of her physical body now transformed into the coldest venom, once more seeping through her will.
Her greatest reliance was the Southern Bright Lihuo, capable of nirvana rebirth and burning all things to ashes. She had once imagined that if this human inheritor of karma dared provoke her, she would unleash Nirvana Fire and let him taste the agony of having his Divine Soul scorched by karmic flames for hundreds of millions of years. It would have been an absolute display of power, the Phoenix Clan's supreme pride.
But now, it seemed utterly laughable. Before that ultimate threat of "everyone returning to chaos together," every divine ability and every kind of power appeared so pale and powerless.
My flames can burn away a Sage's dharma body and reduce a Great Luo's golden body to ashes. But how can my flames burn a madman who embraced death from the very beginning and is ready at any moment to drag the entire primordial world into the grave with him?
He will not fight you at all. He will merely tell you in the calmest tone that he does not want to live anymore.
Power lost all meaning before someone who did not wish to live. To him, her Nirvana Fire, capable of burning all things to ashes, was likely no more than the final dazzling firework before extinction. The feeling of having absolute power completely ignored terrified her even more than being defeated outright.
There was no answer to this move.
As Phoenix Ancestor's will fell into violent turmoil, in another patch of darkness, that will as heavy as a mountain range, bearing the merit of the earth, also let out a low, suppressed growl.
That was First Qilin's remnant soul. His roar no longer carried majesty or weight, but was filled with shock, fury, and apprehension.
He had believed that he was different from the other two clans. The Dragon Clan was domineering, the Phoenix Clan proud, while only the Qilin Clan understood balance and calculation. His original plan had been to use the merit of the earth that he bore to conduct a "dignified" negotiation with Yang Chen. He could grant Yang Chen a portion of that merit to cleanse his karmic force in exchange for repayment of the karma.
He had believed that no living being could refuse the temptation of merit. This deal was fair and reasonable, an embodiment of his wisdom and the best way to resolve the matter.
But now, he discovered that he had been wrong. Terribly wrong.
This monster called Yang Chen did not care about merit at all! No! Rather, he did not lack merit in the slightest! To coax him into staying alive, the Heavenly Dao had bestowed an immense Golden Light of Merit. To keep him from doing anything rash, the Sages were prepared at any moment to offer up their sects' fortune.
The little merit bargaining chip he had been so proud of was simply the greatest joke in the world before the almost indulgent "kindness" of the Heavenly Dao and the Six Sages! His vaunted wisdom and schemes had been crushed to pieces before absolute madness.
He cared about only one thing: whether he was enjoying himself. And... whether he could fleece more, better wool from them "creditors"!
A surge of physical vitality so powerful that even their remnant souls trembled pierced through the barrier of the Sea of Karmic Force and imprinted itself upon their senses. It was irrefutable proof of Yang Chen's explosive rise in strength after fusing with Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood. That pure, brutal physical power, nearly comparable to the ancient Ancestral Witches, made their hearts pound with fear.
Phoenix Ancestor and First Qilin understood at the same time.
Ancestral Dragon was finished. That former "old friend" had completely become nourishment for Yang Chen's growth, a treasure vault that could be tapped at any time.
Now, it would soon be their turn.
After that madman finished digesting the benefits he had gained from Ancestral Dragon, his gaze would inevitably turn toward them. Toward the Phoenix Clan's Nirvana Fire. Toward the Qilin Clan's world-suppressing merit.
For the first time, these two former overlords who had looked down upon all living beings and held heaven and earth's authority in their grasp felt an emotion called despair.
They were like insects trapped in a spiderweb, helplessly watching the spider leisurely suck their companion's brain dry before slowly approaching them with elegant yet lethal steps.
We are not creditors. We are sacrifices.
Regret, delayed by countless epochs, turned into an icy tide and drowned what remained of their pride.
Why did we provoke him in the first place? Why did we test him? We should have played dead, completely played dead, just as we are doing now!
"Hide!"
"We must hide!"
Phoenix Ancestor and First Qilin's wills reached agreement in an instant. They frantically drove the last of their remnant souls' power, attempting to sink deeper into the Sea of Karmic Force, trying to erase their presence to the lowest possible degree, low enough that the madman would be unable to notice them.
However, in the next moment, they discovered something even more despairing.
The omnipresent karmic force was like indestructible chains, binding their remnant souls tightly to Yang Chen's True Spirit. The more they struggled, the tighter those chains constricted, and their existence instead became clearer in Yang Chen's perception.
They could neither flee nor hide.
They regretted revealing themselves so early and provoking this utterly lawless madman who did not follow any conventional logic!
Before you continue