Deep within the Sea God Pavilion, the air in the deserted ancient-wood corridor was still and cool.
Phantylia, having completely consumed and fused with Yan Shaozhe's body and taken possession of all his memories and aura, slowly straightened.
She moved in Yan Shaozhe's body, wearing his familiar look of calm refinement.
A long green robe draped over his upright figure. From the outside, she was indistinguishable from the real Yan Shaozhe. Even if Mu En came in person, he would have been hard-pressed to tell them apart by aura and bearing alone.
Phantylia raised a hand and lightly rubbed her knuckles, a playful smile curling her lips.
Her defeat at the Golden Tree and her forced, ignominious retreat had been among the few setbacks she had suffered since descending upon this plane.
If taking it by force would not work, she would play a different game.
She would lie low at the heart of Shrek, move among its players as Yan Shaozhe, watch the show, stir the pot, and provoke conflict—turning this dull struggle over the plane into a feast of The Destruction all her own.
"It seems I'll have to enjoy myself properly this time."
She murmured under her breath, her gaze drifting toward the Golden Tree as she recalled A Zhu, whom she had crushed and destroyed.
To be honest, A Zhu's existence was an embarrassing stain on her history as a Lord Ravager.
She had sensed a faint ember of kindred destruction within A Zhu. That tenuous connection alone had given A Zhu the barest trace of The Destruction.
But such a sinister, narrow-minded, greedy, foolish ant with such paltry ambitions was an insult to her Aesthetics of Destruction!
The Lord Ravagers even had a group chat. Gui Tou (Guiji) suffered the worst public embarrassment, flooding it