Although he had Wang Dong'er with him, any place with shadows was Ye Chen's safest cover. Taking advantage of the phoenix being unable to divide its attention, the two quickly approached. The distance between them rapidly shrank, and soon, they could see their target with the naked eye.
At this moment, Ye Chen was only a thousand meters away from it in a straight line. He had reached the optimal position and could not get any closer.
Black, black, black, red—four Soul Rings that surpassed everyone's understanding silently rose beneath Ye Chen's feet. The Blood Red Soul Ring representing a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast blazed brightly as an ancient, primordial, terrifying aura instantly spread outward from Ye Chen. What followed was boundless light.
The other soul beasts, which had already kept far away because of this divine phoenix, were frightened once more and fled even farther away. Meanwhile, the phoenix at the critical moment of its nirvana suddenly awoke. Scarlet flames lit up within the two hollows where its eyes had once been, seemingly revealing a human-like gaze.
That aura gave it a faint sense of familiarity, while an intense fear instinctively rose in its heart. That fear seemed to originate from the deepest depths of its soul, as though the Phoenix Ancestor had descended upon the world. Even this former sky overlord that had once dominated the ancient continent found it difficult to muster any desire to resist.
It wanted to find the owner of that aura and see what sort of terrifying existence could possess such a presence.
It even harbored a sliver of hope, hoping that this was an ancestor of the phoenix race who had learned of its plight and come to free it from its suffering.
In short, it considered countless possibilities, but never once did