Chen Ran's question was like an invisible shackle, locking down every flying vessel trying to flee.
The eyes of all the Immortals and Gods, demons, and monsters were nailed to the two images.
On the left was Emperor Withered Bone.
Though he was in skeletal form, there was a strange sense of "perfection" about him.
Every bone in his body seemed like a work of art personally carved by the Great Dao, containing the ultimate mysteries of the laws of death.
His existence was the embodiment of "eternity" and "immortality."
On the right was the Mechanical Immortal.
It was twisted, ugly, and covered in marks of crude assembly and patchwork repairs.
It was clumsily using external force and technology to imitate that "immortal" form.
Between the two lay the gap between a poor imitator and a perfect creator.
Everyone understood what Chen Ran meant.
The ultimate goal pursued by the Star Devourer Civilization—the so-called "Mechanical Immortality"—would ultimately turn them into something like Emperor Withered Bone!
This discovery was even more chilling than the appearance of the Netherworld Realm itself.
"So... that's how it is..."
Guang Chengzi's lips trembled.
"The end of immortality is not transcendence. It is... becoming a monster."
"This is not the Great Dao at all!"
A Jie Cult Immortal roared.
"This is a curse! A plague! Any civilization that tries to touch eternity will eventually be assimilated by it and become part of it!"
At last, they understood.
They understood why Emperor Withered Bone carried an aura that felt familiar to them, yet terrified them beyond measure.
Because that was precisely the "immortality" all of them had dreamed of and pursued through countless years of cultivation!
Yet when that "immortality" was revealed before them in its real, hideous form, it brought nothing but endless revulsion and fear.
"It is a cancer."
Nuwa's voice rang out on the bridge, heavy with exhaustion.
"A cancer cell on a universal scale."
"It will infect every world that longs for immortality, devour them, and turn them into things like itself."
"We... have nowhere to run."
Those words completely extinguished the last trace of hope in everyone's hearts.
Run?
Where could they run?
As long as they still pursued longevity and the Great Dao, they would never escape the ultimate fate of this "cancer cell."
At that moment, despair turned into rage.
A violent fury with nowhere to vent needed an outlet.
"It's all your fault!"
A Demon Marshal suddenly pointed toward the flagship, toward Chen Ran.
"You! You started that so-called 'Bloody Wanted List'!"
"You forced Old Ancestor Fuhai into rebellion! You opened this Gate of Hell!"
"You brought this monster here!"
That accusation instantly ignited the entire fleet.
"That's right! It was him!"
"A mere mortal! What right does he have to order us around?"
"If not for him, we would still be in the Primordial World, guarding our own sacred grounds!"
"Hand over command!"
"Get out of our fleet!"
The furious roars converged into a terrifying tide, threatening to swallow Chen Ran whole.
The alliance members who had just created miracles under his command now wanted to tear him to pieces.
Guang Chengzi and the Chan Sect immortals watched coldly.
Zhao Gongming and the Jie Cult disciples frowned tightly, but did not speak to stop them.
Before absolute fear, the alliance's order collapsed once more.
The atmosphere on the bridge was oppressive to the extreme.
Youchao Shi and the other human leaders had already drawn their weapons, shielding Chen Ran firmly behind them.
Chen Ran looked at the faces on the screen, twisted by fear.
He was neither angry nor disappointed.
He merely calmly brought up another file.
It was the most detailed investigation report on Old Ancestor Fuhai.
He made the report public.
"Look carefully."
His voice overwhelmed every roar.
"The four locations where Old Ancestor Fuhai established the Blood Sacrifice formations were Mount Kunlun, the Eastern Sea, Mount Nanming, and the Northern Sea."
"The Heavenly Net System conducted deep scans of the earth veins there."
"Those formations were not built recently."
Chen Ran's finger swept across the screen.
Ancient geological scan images appeared before everyone.
"Their formation foundations were buried thirty thousand zhang beneath the earth veins. The rock layers above them can be traced back to before the Witch-Demon Cataclysm."
"Old Ancestor Fuhai was not the builder of the formations."
"He was only a gatekeeper, a key responsible for offering the sacrifice at the final moment."
Chen Ran's gaze swept across the stunned faces.
"Did you think that if we had not hunted him down, this gate would never have opened?"
"You are wrong."
"This gate was destined to open from the era of the Witch-Demon Cataclysm onward."
"Old Ancestor Fuhai's Blood Sacrifice was merely a trigger, a coordinate."
"Its true purpose was not to summon Emperor Withered Bone."
Chen Ran changed the display.
The screen showed the towering blood waves of the Netherworld Blood Sea and Ancestor Minghe's gloomy face.
"Its true purpose was to deliver a 'pledge of allegiance' to a certain being."
"Ancestor Minghe never wanted to incite internal chaos in the Primordial World."
Chen Ran enunciated each word, revealing the truth that froze every soul.
"What he wanted was to sacrifice the entire Primordial World in exchange for Emperor Withered Bone's 'gift,' so that he himself could become an 'immortal' being like that!"
"From the very beginning, our enemy was never the Mechanical Civilization."
"It was these two peerless fiends—one within, one without—both seeking to gnaw away our entire world!"
The entire fleet fell deathly silent.
The truth was too cruel, too heavy.
They had believed they were facing a war they could resist.
They had never imagined that they were already sacrifices laid upon the dining table, waiting to be carved up.
Amid that suffocating silence.
A shrill, top-priority alarm suddenly sounded.
"Warning! A high-energy life-form is rapidly approaching!"
"Identifying signal... Golden Crow Bloodline!"
"It is Crown Prince Lu Ya!"
The news instantly lifted everyone's spirits.
Xihe rushed to the screen at once.
A small shuttle craft came charging desperately from the distant depths of chaos.
Behind it, a crimson streak of light pursued it relentlessly, radiating a pure aura of slaughter.
It was the Yaksa King!
He had not died!
And he had actually pursued them all the way here!
What made everyone's scalps go numb even more was this.
There was only one life signal aboard the shuttle craft: Lu Ya.
Xing was gone.
A weak transmission from Lu Ya, sent with the last of his strength, connected to the flagship.
It was neither a sentence nor a word.
It was a single character, repeating over and over in an endless loop.
"Moon!"
"Moon!"
"Moon!"
Before you continue