No Survivors

Lin Ming led the Five Elements Sect members, slowly descending from mid-air, like a god who controls life and death, onto this plain filled with an aura of despair.

At this moment, Zi Yan, standing beside the Altar, felt the strain of summoning and controlling the Primordial Void Dragon Ancestral Soul was too great. Her petite body swayed slightly, and the suffocating deep purple light and vast Dragon Might might surrounding her receded rapidly like a tide.

Her face was pale, and her breathing seemed weak; clearly, she wouldn't be able to use that terrifying power again for the time being.

Seeing that Zi Yan had broken free from the despairing state of her Ancestral Soul, the remaining members of the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan, including the Black-robed Old Man Huang Xuan, the White-haired Man, and the exhausted Feng Qing'er, all felt a slight sense of relief, as if a massive boulder weighing on their hearts had been lifted a crack.

Without the utterly insurmountable power of the Ancestral Soul, although Lin Ming and the others remained powerful, at least... that seemingly hopeless situation now appeared to offer a sliver of possibility for struggle and survival?

They even began subconsciously calculating how to use their remaining strength to desperately break through that Soul Restriction, perhaps offering a glimmer of hope.

However, the fleeting sense of relief and ease that had just arisen because of Zi Yan's exhaustion was not even fully formed in their hearts before it was completely crushed by the next scene, turning into a deeper despair and chill!

Lin Ming walked slowly towards them, his face calm and expressionless. He simply raised his sleeve and waved it lightly at the empty space beside him.

"Buzz!"

"Buzz!"

Two completely different, yet equally chilling figures appeared out of thin air like ghosts, silently hovering beside Lin Ming!

On the right is a body with an eerie, frosty white color, as if it were covered in Frost Mark.

However, this body covered in Frost Mark also flowed with a dark golden hue similar to that of Puppet One, but slightly lighter, perfectly blending the two completely different textures of ice and frost.

It exuded an aura like the frost of the twelfth lunar month, causing fine snowflakes to condense in the air around it and fall in a flurry.

The energy fluctuations faintly emanating from its body clearly indicated that it had reached the level of Three-Star Dou Venerate! This was a powerful existence that was in no way inferior to the two-star Heavenly Demon Puppet created by the array!

This was none other than the Frost Puppet, one of the three Puppet Lin Ming originally possessed!

If it were merely the addition of this Three-Star Dou Venerate level Frost Puppet, although it would be despairing, the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan might still harbor a sliver of crazy thought: to fight to the death with their numbers and remaining strength.

So, when their gazes involuntarily and with terror fell upon the figure to Lin Ming's left, all their thoughts and hopes were instantly frozen and shattered!

That was also a Puppet.

Its body is slightly more slender than Frost Puppet and Puppet One, and its entire body has a more peculiar ice-gold color, as if it is covered with a layer of ice-gold armor that will never melt.

It stood there quietly, without any movement or even a breath, appearing at first glance to be nothing more than an exquisite ice sculpture.

However, in the instant everyone's attention was focused on it—

The ice-gold Puppet, with its tightly closed eyelids that looked as if covered in ice crystals, suddenly... opened its eyes!

What kind of eerie eyes were those? There were no pupils, only two slowly rotating, Ice Purple Gold lights, like cosmic vortexes!

The instant those eyes opened!

"Boom--!!!"

An indescribable, terrifying pressure, like a primordial ice field that had been dormant for billions of years suddenly erupting, or like the weight of the entire starry sky suddenly pressing down, burst forth from the Puppet's body, enveloping everyone present!

Nine-Star Dou Venerate!

That was an aura that was absolutely at the level of Nine-Star Dou Venerate, an aura that was so despairing it was suffocating!

Before this aura, even the Five-Star Dou Venerate Huang Xuan, the one who summoned the Ancestral Soul Zi Yan, and the unfathomable Lin Ming all seemed so... insignificant! Like a firefly compared to the bright moon, or a stream compared to the vast ocean!

Under the pressure of this aura, the entire Beast Spirit Barrier space emitted subtle yet clear cracking sounds, and the golden light barrier rippled violently, as if it might collapse at any moment!

The crimson earth of the plain below was instantly covered with a thick layer of ice, harder than High-Grade Steel, centered at the feet of the ice-gold Puppet, and it spread rapidly!

The moment this aura appeared, the legs of the Thunder Venerate, the Earth Tiger Clan Leader, the Silver Moon Wolf Clan Leader, and others went weak, and they almost knelt down. Their faces turned ashen, their eyes filled with unprecedented fear and blankness, their minds went blank, and even their ability to think was stripped away by this absolute pressure.

The Black-robed Old Man Huang Xuan, the White-haired Man, Feng Qing'er, and all the members of the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan were as if all their strength and soul had been instantly drained away. They stared blankly at the ice-golden Puppet its eyes open, their faces drained of color, leaving only boundless despair and deathly ashes.

Nine-Star Dou Venerate...

It was actually Puppet at the level of a Nine-Star Dou Venerate!

If only I had known...

Had they known that Lin Ming possessed such a terrifying Puppet, capable of sweeping away everyone present and even causing a massive upheaval in the Middle Continent...

Even if they knew that the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit was inside the Beast Spirit Barrier, even if the Ancient Void Dragon couldn't summon the Dragon Soul...

They would absolutely not dare to set foot here!

That wasn't a stroke of luck at all; it was walking into a trap, courting death!

The existence of a Nine-Star Dou Venerate is, in a sense, the embodiment of despair for those of them who are at most Five-Star Dou Venerate!

As a result, what followed was completely predictable, and could even be described as... a one-sided cleanup.

With a slight thought, Lin Ming knew he wouldn't need to take action himself.

The newly appeared ice-gold Puppet, exuding the terrifying aura of Nine-Star Dou Venerate — the Ice Puppet —simply raised its finger covered in ice crystals and gently pointed it in the direction where the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan members were located.

"Click... click..."

There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor any dazzling energy radiance.

All that could be seen was that the bodies of the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan, led by Huang Xuan, the White-haired Man, Feng Qing'er, were instantly eroded and frozen from the inside out by an invisible, extremely cold power!

Their expressions froze in a moment of despair and terror, their eyes quickly dimmed, and their Life Aura vanished like Zhu Huo extinguished by a gale in an instant.

Clean, crisp, and even possessing a strange... aesthetic.

Meanwhile, Puppet One and the Three-Star Dou Venerate level Frost Puppet rushed into Thunder Venerate and the remaining, terrified Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan and Wind Thunder Pavilion Dou Zong followers like two deadly streaks of light.

The wind howled as the fist struck, and frost spread.

The massacre, or rather the cleanup, was carried out in silence.

Faced with overwhelming power, resistance seems so ridiculous and powerless.

In just a dozen breaths, apart from the two Clan Leader of the Silver Moon Wolf Clan and the Earth Tiger Clan who were deliberately left behind, all the other intruders, including Thunder Venerate, were slaughtered, leaving only their bones behind.

Their corpses, along with their Storage Ring, were swept up by an invisible force with a wave of Lin Ming's sleeve and absorbed into his mysterious Inner World, where they were placed alongside the corpses of the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan he had previously slain outside the Beast Taming Sect Ruins.

These materials may become used in the future to Pill Refining, Puppet, or study bloodlines.

As for why the two Clan Leader of the Silver Moon Wolf Clan and the Earth Tiger Clan were left behind, it was certainly not out of kindness to let them go.

At this moment, the two Clan Leader, who were the absolute rulers of their respective clans, had already been beaten to a pulp by Puppet One and Frost Puppet, leaving them barely alive. Their breaths were weak, their bodies covered in wounds, and they lay limp on the ground, their eyes filled with fear and pleading.

At Lin Ming's signal, Qing Lin immediately stepped forward. In his emerald green eyes, Three Small Flower Phantoms slowly rotated, emitting profound Soul Fluctuation.

Qing Lin extended her slender fingers, her fingertips shimmering with a faint blue light. Following the profound beast-taming techniques she had inherited from the Beast Taming Sect, she began to inscribe Soul Contract mark of absolute loyalty and inviolability deep within the souls of the two Clan Leader.

This process was undoubtedly painful and humiliating for the two Clan Leaders, but given the absolute difference in strength and their survival instincts, they couldn't even muster the thought of resistance and could only passively endure the brand that penetrated deep into their souls.

The moment the Soul Contract was fully completed, the last trace of struggle in the eyes of the two Clan Leader vanished, replaced by absolute obedience and awe.

Then, under Qing Lin's control, the enormous Nine Profound Nether Python let out a low hiss, and together with the two Silver Wolf Clan Leader and Earth Tiger Clan Leader who had just been subdued and transformed into half-human, half-beast forms, they were enveloped by the light projected from the blue Three Flower Mark in Qing Lin's eyes.

With a flash of light, both the enormous Nine Profound Nether Python and the two Clan Leader vanished into thin air, absorbed into the unique space within Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, a space capable of containing living beings.

This is precisely why Yu Cang, the last Sect Master the Beast Taming Sect, said that Qing Lin was the perfect successor of the Beast Taming Sect. The power and potential of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils combined with the secret techniques of the Beast Taming Sect far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

Of course, some might wonder why not have Qing Lin control the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan as well, wouldn't that create many more powerful henchmen?

There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, although Qing Lin's inheritance is perfect, his own strength and Soul Power are ultimately limited. Controlling multiple powerful beings at the Dou Venerate level at the same time, especially races like the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan with their proud bloodlines and powerful souls, would be a huge burden and could even cause a backlash. He is not capable of doing so at present.

The main reason lies in the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit!

This item is of such great importance that it's practically defying the heavens! Once the news leaks out, the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan will surely mobilize its entire clan to frantically vie for it. With such a grand display, just like in the original story, the Dragon King of the three Dragon Island of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan —north, south, and west—will also learn of it.

If anything goes wrong, they'll all probably end up dead without a burial place. So, this information must not be leaked at all.

Of course, the safest approach would be to slaughter everyone on his side except himself, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin, thus ensuring absolute safety.

However, Lin Ming couldn't be so ruthless towards his own people, so he had to find another way to deal with them.

After the battlefield was thoroughly cleared and all potential dangers eliminated, the plains finally returned to silence. Only the lingering stench of blood and residual energy still spoke of the brief but brutal conflict that had just taken place.

The gazes of the Five Elements Sect members shifted once again, filled with anticipation, excitement, and a touch of awe, all fixed on the Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit atop the giant stone Altar in the center of the plain, which, despite the turmoil, still floated quietly, radiating an alluring glow!

The time has finally come to collect the treasure that has been planned for so long, the treasure that will enable Zi Yan's ultimate evolution.