Smoke and dust filled the deep pit.
The bones in Yue Tian's lower body were completely shattered.
But he did not give up.
Dragging his mangled lower body, leaving a trail of blood on the ground, he slowly crawled toward the [Thousand Mechanisms] staff that had fallen not far away.
"I can't..."
"He just collapsed like that!"
Click!
Just as he was about to touch the Thousand Mechanisms Staff, Bloodblade Guards stepped on Yue Tian's palm.
Yue Tian's hand was crushed into a bloody pulp!
"Ugh!"
Yue Tian let out a muffled groan, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from screaming.
The Bloodblade Guards who had stepped on him simply looked down at him indifferently.
"Da da da."
Phoenix Emperor, wearing high heels, walked up to Yue Tian.
She leaned slightly forward, her exquisite phoenix eyes filled with a haughty pity and mockery.
"What a resilient cockroach!"
Phoenix Emperor sneered, "What, you still dare to resist with this broken stick?"
"An overconfident fool."
"Tell me, who sent you here?"
Yue Tian was in so much pain that his whole body was convulsing, but he forced himself to lift his head.
"Cough cough... Nobody sent me."
"I wanted to see this cannibalistic hell for myself."
Just then, an ordinary ghost messenger ran over.
He knelt nervously on one knee beside the Phoenix Emperor, handing over a document with both hands.
"Report to Lord Phoenix Emperor!"
"Your subordinate has determined that this person's Yue Tian, and he just entered the Second Ring Town a few days ago."
"He's one of the members of that China team!"
"My job is Jailer. Yesterday, I was locked up in the Ox-Horse Factory because I failed to meet my sales target!"
"I have no idea how he managed to sneak in here!"
"China?"
Phoenix Emperor raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze falling on Yue Tian's blood on the ground.
She seemed to see something hidden deep within her genes through that bright red blood.
No wonder his bones are so hard.
"This bloodline, so thin it's practically nonexistent, can barely be considered to share the same origin as us."
"But... you shouldn't have, under any circumstances, sneaked into my forbidden area like a rat in the sewers!"
"Same origin?"
Yue Tian caught the word, but he immediately suppressed his shock.
He forced himself to lift his head despite the excruciating pain of impending death, and stared into the Phoenix Emperor's eyes.
The moment their eyes met!
"Since you are so high and mighty..."
Yue Tian coughed up blood and asked questions at an extremely fast pace.
"Why harvest so many souls?! Even going so far as to hold a groom selection contest?!"
For a fleeting moment, the Phoenix Emperor's eyes glazed over, and it blurted out the answer uncontrollably.
"Because the [source] of Soul Return Town is simply not enough to sustain its operation for long."
"Every hundred years or so, I, the Emperor, harvest the souls of outsiders and those who commit serious crimes within the town, using them as fuel for the Soul Furnace."
"The stronger the soul, the purer the source extracted, and the longer the Soul Return Town can exist."
"This time, I, the Emperor, intend to use this groom selection to sweep up all the top experts from all walks of life..."
"To bring another unprecedented bumper harvest to Soul Return Town!"
The words had barely left his mouth!
Phoenix Emperor's dazed eyes instantly regained their clarity, replaced by a furious killing intent!
"This is... the Interrogator!"
"You... dare to use your Mental System Supernatural Ability against me?!"
The Phoenix Emperor, enraged, laughed instead.
She, a dignified Phoenix Emperor, had her plans exposed by a mere mortal ant!
"Court death!!!"
Phoenix Emperor raised her jade hand, and a powerful aura locked onto Yue Tian, ready to crush him into dust!
However, Yue Tian felt no fear in the face of Arrival of Death.
Instead, he smiled.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
He laughed wildly, with unbridled joy.
Phoenix Emperor's hand froze in mid-air, her brows furrowed.
"What are you laughing at? You're about to die. Even if you know my plan, do you think you can get it out?"
"Cough cough cough... Hahaha..."
Yue Tian shook his head, trembling with excitement. "I wasn't going to live much longer anyway."
"The curse has long been ingrained within me; my wretched life has at most a couple of days left."
"Since we're all going to die anyway..."
"I might as well use my life to expose the conspiracy of you scum to the world!!!"
Buzz!!!
As Yue Tian roared, cracks began to appear on the crimson mask on his face!
[The Torch Dragon Death Mask], a top-tier, one-time-use destructive item!
It has the power to turn users into bombs, enough to raze this underground space to the ground!
Let's die together!
"Let everyone outside see the true face beneath!"
Yue Tian's roar echoed through the underground cave!
The blinding red light forced all the Bloodblade Guards around them to retreat.
Once this energy explodes, the deepest secret of Soul Return Town will be completely revealed to the world!
However.
Just one second before this cataclysmic explosion was about to occur.
But the Phoenix Emperor did not retreat.
She didn't even flinch.
She stood there quietly in the center of that devastating red light.
He looked at the crazed Yue Tian with pity, as if he were looking at a pitiful insect.
"A mortal dares to fight against a god?"
Phoenix Emperor slightly raised its chin, "It's nothing more than a mayfly trying to shake a tree."
Next.
She extended her index finger and lightly traced a line across her thumb.
A drop of crystal-clear blood overflowed.
The drop of blood didn't fall to the ground the moment it left the skin; instead, it remained suspended in mid-air.
Then, a gentle breeze swept by, and the drop of blood suddenly transformed...
It transformed into a wisp of tranquil, pure white, pale flame.
"With this ashes, I send you back to the void; Hellfire the heavens, and all laws become emptiness."
The Phoenix Emperor murmured softly and flicked its finger.
That wisp of pure white flame floated lightly towards Yue Tian.
When that faint white flame came into contact with the world-destroying crimson light erupting from the [Torch Dragon Death Mask]...
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no deafening roar.
There was nothing there.
Like snowflakes falling under the Blazing Sun, the raging crimson energy, upon touching the white flames, silently...
It disappeared.
It has abruptly erased the causal logic of this energy's existence from this world!
"This... this is impossible..."
The madness on Yue Tian's face froze.
He stared blankly at the [Torch Dragon Death Mask] on his face.
This seemingly indestructible top-grade spiritual Spirit Artifact, licked by the white flames, crumbled inch by inch on his face like weathered sand...
Ultimately, it turned to ashes and dissipated into the air.
There was no miracle, no turnaround.
Before those high and mighty gods, mortals are ruthlessly deprived of even the right to choose how to die.
Phoenix Emperor didn't even glance at Yue Tian on the ground again.
She turned gracefully and delivered her final verdict to the Bloodblade Guards beside her.
Throw him into the furnace.
"Yes!"
Two Bloodblade Guards stepped forward, one on each side, and lifted Yue Tian's broken arms, dragging him up from the pool of blood.
They walked toward the mechanical furnace that emitted terrifyingly high temperatures and desperate cries.
Yue Tian's scarred face hung limply, his consciousness beginning to fade.
However, just as he was about to be dragged into the shadows...
Phoenix Emperor's soliloquy drifted into his ears on the gentle breeze of the underground cave.
"Sequence 029, [Interrogator]... belongs to the Judgment Sequence."
Phoenix Emperor's exquisite lips curved into a smile, "To extract the [source], and then give it to him as a gift..."
"That would be perfect."
Buzz!
The moment he heard those words, Yue Tian's pupils, which had been almost unfocused, lit up again!
"Judgment Sequence? A gift for him?!"
In his near-death state, Yue Tian's brain began to work backward!
He bit his tongue, using the excruciating pain to keep himself conscious for the last moment.
He recalled the top-secret information about the Dragon God that Shadow and his group had brought back from that mysterious trial not long ago.
The path to godhood...
Similar types of Supernatural Ability...
Kill...
At this moment, the fragmented intelligence was perfectly pieced together with the Phoenix Emperor's words!
Yue Tian's eyes widened suddenly, the whites of his eyes filled with alarming blood vessels.
"She just demonstrated three powers... fire, ice, and rock..."
"These three abilities seem unrelated, but in essence, they all belong to... [Elemental Sequence]!"
"Similar type of Supernatural Ability... kill..."
"The Judgment Sequence... is given to him..."
Boom!!!
He understood completely!
He finally saw the truth of this world, which was shrouded in a thick fog!
Why can Phoenix Emperor possess three high-level Supernatural Ability?
Because she killed other Supernatural Ability with Elemental Sequence, stripping them of their powers!
Why did she throw herself into the furnace?
Because it's a tool for infusing souls into a vessel!
And the soul is precisely the key to Supernatural Ability!
She will appoint the Interrogator of her soul, who belongs to the Judgment Sequence!
This is for him, who also belongs to the [Adjudication] path!
The so-called path to godhood is neither about comprehending the universe nor about arduous cultivation to break through realms!
Kill!
It's cannibalism!!
The only solution is to kill everyone of your type!
Supernatural Ability of the same sequence!
He trampled over the corpses and flesh of countless of his kind, devouring all their abilities!
Only then can one finally ascend to that one and only divine throne!!!
"Stop..."
The Bloodblade Guards stopped in their tracks.
At this moment, Yue Tian was already perched high on the edge of the Soul Furnace, which resembled the gaping maw of Abyss.
Below, there is dark red lava...
Yue Tian seemed to see countless wronged souls struggling within, letting out mournful screams.
The intense heat baked Yue Tian's hair until it became curly and charred.
"Throw it down."
The ordinary ghost messenger below shouted expressionlessly.
The moment the two Bloodblade Guards released their grip.
Yue Tian's face, which had been ashen, now wore a complex expression.
That was shock, that was sorrow, that was the result of seeing through everything completely...
Let it go.
A feeling of weightlessness washed over him as his body plummeted rapidly towards the bottomless, dark red sea of fire.
As he plummeted in the fierce wind, Yue Tian looked up at the rock face above.
Looking at this pathetic world that is manipulated like a puppet, he burst into wild laughter!
Hahahaha... Hahahahaha!!!
There was no fear of death in that laughter, only mockery of this absurd fate!
"Is this the truth?! Is this the damn path to godhood?!"
Yue Tian's laughter echoed throughout the underground cavern, even drowning out the roar of the furnace.
Tears mixed with blood streamed down his face.
What a pathetic world!!!
"In the end... we desperately wanted to become stronger, to save this messed-up world..."
"Their final trump card is to make us kill each other!!!"
Hahahaha!!!
Thump!!!
The maniacal laughter abruptly stopped.
Yue Tian's body was engulfed by a dark red sea of fire.
Without even a ripple, a generation of China elders vanished without a trace.
Inside the cave, silence returned.
Only the rumble of the mechanical furnace and the ticking of gears continue to operate day after day.
Phoenix Emperor stood still, listening to the last echo coming from the depths of the furnace.
His face remained expressionless; he merely raised his chin slightly, his gaze fixed intently on the furnace's exit.
"The lamentations of mortals are always so noisy."
She gently turned the jade ring on her finger, and the previously blocked opening opened by itself!
The Bloodblade Guards who were still alive rushed forward.
"Pass down the order: tell Shen Yingchun it's time to close the net..."