Beneath the black curtain that blotted out the sky, the Golden Sacred Dragon hung high in midair, its blood spilling down and staining the trunk of the nearby Golden Ancient Tree gold.
Blood flowed ceaselessly from the enormous hole in the dragon's chest, a miserable sight.
Its entire head slowly drooped, its scarlet eyes dimming, without a trace of their earlier arrogance.
"Huh? So fragile? I thought I could play a little longer."
Huo Yuhao twisted his arm, giving it a vigorous stretch. Looking at the dragon overhead, he summoned threads into his hand once more, then abruptly pulled them taut.
The straightened threads sliced like blades, cutting straight through the thick dragon scales and into its body.
In an instant!
The hundred-meter-long Golden Sacred Dragon was neatly sliced into eight pieces.
Its entire body dissolved into countless streams of light energy that dispersed into the air. A small portion gathered in midair, finally forming an aged figure.
Mu En's previously straightened back hunched again, his graying hair drifting in the air. The wrinkles on his face were so deep they looked capable of crushing two flies between them.
Most horrifying of all, a gaping hole had appeared in his chest. His grayish-white robe clung tightly to his chest, as though it had fused with the flesh there.
Mu En panted incessantly, the hole in his chest rising and falling as his life force dissipated at an utterly terrifying rate.
Mu En knew his condition perfectly well. Had the divine power within his body not kept him clinging to his last breath, that punch would have killed him on the spot.
He immediately pulled a golden bead from inside his robe. Dragon patterns pulsed across its surface as though alive.
The presence of a true dragon emanated ceaselessly from it. The Dragon Core's presence was exceedingly savage, and even restrained by Soul Power, the faint dragon might seeping out still chilled the heart.
Without the slightest hesitation or concern for the Dragon Core's savagery, Mu En shoved it straight into the hole in his chest.
The Dragon Core erupted violently. Its dragon might surged into Mu En's aged, frail body like a force that crushed rotten wood, rampaging through his meridians and mercilessly destroying everything within him.
Mu En grunted and dropped to his knees in midair in agony. Both hands clamped over his chest as hoarse howls poured from his throat.
His piercing, agonized cries resounded through heaven and earth, passing through the slime barrier and straight into the ears of everyone in the Garden.
Everyone in the Garden jumped at the cries, their scalps tingling and goosebumps practically falling all over the ground.
What kind of cries were these? Within the terror was a longing to live. Invisible spiritual power affected everyone, and agony echoed through every mind.
Everyone in the Garden was directly affected. Those with weaker cultivation actually fell to their knees like Mu En, clutching their chests in pain.
Huo Yuhao let out an explosive shout. His immense spiritual power formed a hundred needle points that stabbed straight into the Seas of Consciousness of everyone in the Garden.
Huo Yuhao's control over his spiritual power was excellent. The needle points pierced straight through Mu En's spiritual power and picked it out.
Stimulated by his spiritual power, everyone's Sea of Consciousness instantly cleared. The members who had fallen also climbed to their feet.
"Everyone, enter the Golden Ancient Tree. Proceed according to plan!"
A voice rang out simultaneously in the minds of all the Shadow Garden members on the ground. It was Huo Yuhao's command.
Without hesitation, the Garden members moved, turning into black shadows as they rushed inside the Golden Ancient Tree.
"Number 683, surround them first."
The squad leader among the Garden members pointed at the unconscious inner court students as he spoke to Number 683.
Without hesitation, Number 683 swung a longsword in a circle through the air. Ice-blue color covered its blade before it stabbed fiercely into the ground.
"Ice Prison!"
Starting from the longsword, ice spread rapidly toward the inner court students. Extreme cold filled every student's body, and in an instant, they were imprisoned within a jail shrouded in ice.
Mu En was still howling, but gradually, his voice grew quieter.
His body twitched from time to time, and golden scales slowly began growing in places. This piqued Huo Yuhao's curiosity.
Mu En suddenly plummeted from the air. The savage presence of the Dragon Core in his chest receded, and it actually began absorbing his strength.
At that moment, Mu En was like a candle guttering in the wind, his breath thin as a thread, ready to step onto the Yellow Springs in the next second.
Old tears streamed uncontrollably down Mu En's face. He stretched a trembling hand toward the Golden Ancient Tree and sobbed, "My revered ancestor Tang San! Please look upon me and save this aged soul of mine. I am willing to offer everything I have in return..."
"If a god would really save you, do you think you would have ended up like this?"
Huo Yuhao chuckled. His threads arrived in the blink of an eye, wrapping directly around Mu En's body. Then his fingers abruptly clenched, leaving Mu En suspended in midair like a puppet, utterly lifeless.
Huo Yuhao lightly crooked a finger, and the threads immediately wound around the Dragon Core in Mu En's chest.
Whoosh!
The threads brought the Dragon Core straight back into Huo Yuhao's hand.
Huo Yuhao held the Dragon Core between two fingers and examined it carefully. Finding nothing beyond its dense, savage presence, he put it away in his storage ring.
Then Huo Yuhao stirred his Soul Power and flew toward the Golden Ancient Tree.
He gently pressed his palm against the ancient tree's trunk. Its rough, warm texture was one of the Golden Ancient Tree's defining traits. His spiritual power slowly passed through his palm and entered the tree.
Huo Yuhao slowly closed his eyes and began sensing the Golden Ancient Tree's interior with all his strength. If possible, he wanted to place his own mark within its body.
Zhang Lexuan and the other three had also just subdued Xuan Zi. He was covered in wounds, breathing out more than he breathed in. His entire face had turned dark purple, and he lay unconscious.
Inside the Golden Ancient Tree.
A Divine Mark of interwoven blue and red hung high in the air, continuously producing large amounts of divinity that seeped into the tree. The divinity then wriggled about like worms, burrowing into unknown places. After some time, it brought strands of white thread made of an unknown substance back into the mark.
Huo Yuhao's spiritual body watched everything happening within the ancient tree's spiritual space, puzzled.
Spiritual power condensed into a small knife in his hand, and Huo Yuhao pierced the divinity worm before him.
The worm writhed wildly, trying to struggle free. Spiritual power burst from Huo Yuhao's eyes, killing the divinity worm on the spot.
He lifted the white thread with the little knife and brought it before his eyes to examine it.
Rubbing his chin, Huo Yuhao condensed another small knife from spiritual power and scraped it across the thread.
The thread showed no reaction. Unlike the dead divinity worm, it possessed no life. Its substance was unknown.
Huo Yuhao grew interested. With a movement of his finger, the white thread flew up. Then a proportionally miniaturized figure emerged from his spiritual body's forehead, looking exactly like Huo Yuhao.
Under the control of his spiritual power, the white thread merged directly into the little figure's body.
The little figure immediately sat cross-legged, placing its two small hands on its knees with its palms facing upward, and closed its eyes.
Now he only needed to wait for the little figure to finish its analysis, even if a problem really did arise.
As long as Huo Yuhao immediately severed his connection with the little figure, his spiritual power would not suffer much loss. The little figure also contained only a sliver of his soul, so it would do him no real harm.
Looking up at the enormous Divine Mark, Huo Yuhao found himself in a bind.
"Child, a Divine Mark like this is very difficult to alter. The divinity it contains is far too difficult to deal with..."
An aged voice suddenly sounded in his mind, offering a warning.
Huo Yuhao's brow furrowed slightly, but soon relaxed again. It seemed Electrolux had awakened within his Sea of Consciousness.
"Child, don't be afraid. My name is Electrolux. That is all I remember."
The gray sphere within his Sea of Consciousness transformed into a blurry figure and spoke.
"Elder Yi, do you have a way to deal with this thing?" Huo Yuhao asked bluntly.
Electrolux looked at the Divine Mark overhead and shook his head. "All I have left now are fragments of divine consciousness. I have no way to erase it. I can sense that you are very powerful, even stronger than I once was, but a Divine Mark like this must be destroyed with divinity."
"Unfortunately, there is no divinity within your body..."
Electrolux explained the reason to Huo Yuhao with considerable difficulty. His fragments of divine consciousness could hold on no longer, and he fell asleep again.
Huo Yuhao propped up his chin. Electrolux's explanation made perfect sense.
Still, practice yielded true knowledge. He intended to give it a try anyway.
Jiang Nannan held a recording Soul Tool, continuously filming Huo Yuhao overhead. "Lord Shadow, if I could see this imposing figure every day, I would be so happy..."
Tang Ya stood beside her, nodding repeatedly. Looking at the footage Jiang Nannan had recorded, she blushed slightly and grew a little bashful.
Tang Ya kept rubbing the hem of her clothes with both hands and asked tentatively, "Nannan, could you give me a copy of the footage in that Soul Tool...?"
"Of course! I have plenty more here... Lord Shadow is very generous, after all..." Jiang Nannan leaned close to Tang Ya's ear and whispered.
Delight filled Tang Ya's face as she continued whispering with Jiang Nannan, their conversation entirely about Shadow.
Watching their lively conversation, Ma Xiaotao kept shaking her head. Pointing at Xuan Zi beside her feet, she asked, "'Sorrow,' what should we do with Xuan Zi?"
Zhang Lexuan placed her fingers on Xuan Zi's pulse and glanced at Huo Yuhao in midair. "Once Shadow comes down, let him decide. Xuan Zi no longer poses a threat to us."
"All right, 'Sadness,' 'Joy,' go inside the Golden Ancient Tree and lead the Garden members in finishing the mission as quickly as possible. Prepare for withdrawal as well," Zhang Lexuan instructed Tang Ya and Jiang Nannan.
"All right, 'Sorrow,' we'll go right away."
"'Sorrow,' we're heading over."
Tang Ya and Jiang Nannan answered simultaneously.
With that, they hurriedly put away the recording Soul Tool, afraid of losing it. After making sure it was safely stored, they walked straight into the Golden Ancient Tree.
None of the four noticed the golden-yellow liquid constantly seeping from where the vanished crown had been. It flowed continuously, gathering together on a branch.
More and more liquid accumulated, leaving the branch swaying precariously. The golden-yellow liquid condensed into bean-sized droplets and slowly fell!
The golden liquid landed on Mu En's corpse, which hung in midair, and seeped into his deeply wrinkled skin...