Suddenly, Mingyin rose to his feet and activated his vision, channeling soul energy into it. His eyes revealed no trace of killing intent. Only cold, unwavering resolve remained within their gloomy depths.
He inhaled slowly, then exhaled. He was preparing to confront Mu Guiying, yet he was still struggling to adapt to Vision Oath.
"My Sovereign Path possesses several powerful artifacts, but my foundation is too weak for me to use them effectively. I need to obtain more artifacts. If necessary, I will kill every one of them!"
Mingyin was about to advance and crush his enemies when he sensed something unusual.
No—what he felt was an intense heat rising from beneath the ground. It was not coming from the mountain itself.
"Wait… I can feel heat? How?"
He glanced at Mu Guiying and the others. None of them seemed affected. When they noticed Mingyin looking around in alarm, he realized that they could not sense the heat at all.
The Region Continent was destined to collapse one day, but it was not supposed to happen for another three weeks.
"Wait a minute… Nooooo!"
...
The tremors were not limited to the mountain. The land outside it began to shake as well.
Across the Region Continent, grass covered the landscape, coastlines, and roads. Small rivers wound through the terrain, while tall trees rose above countless bushes and distant mountain ranges.
Many villages stood abandoned. Some had been built from bamboo, others from wood, and a few from rough stone.
The only city that remained inhabited was Renewal City. It trembled violently as the disturbance spread through it.
Renewal stood atop a massive, stone-like peak shaped like a towering building.
As he sat there, his expression hardened. His eyes narrowed into those of a predatory beast, and killing intent glimmered within them.
A dark smile spread across his face—one so unsettling that it could frighten anyone who saw it. However, no one below was paying attention to him.
Several people sat beneath the building-shaped peak. Ancient symbols resembling ruined inscriptions covered the ground around them.
The edges of those symbols began to glow as numerous immortals sat cross-legged within the formation. Their attention remained fixed on the towering peak.
Men and women alike looked upward in panic. Sweat ran down their faces as they struggled to comprehend what was happening. When they saw Renewal sitting there without concern, he finally broke the silence.
"Do not worry. The Region Continent is not collapsing. Instead, it will explode in two days and twenty-four hours. Many powerful sects will likely come here, but that is precisely what I want.
"The final two days and twenty-four hours will become one of the greatest battles in the history of the mortal world. Our people will become witnesses to a world-shaking tribulation.
"All of you immortals have received a boost to your cultivation and are far stronger than before. Those two days and twenty-four hours may be the last of your lives. However, if you survive, your cultivation will rise dramatically, and I will become an Apex Peak Artist!"
Not far away, Future Overlord stood outside the city walls. Over the past few days, he had grown to a height of seven feet. The golden sculpted armor covering his body had become broader, longer, and heavier. A purple sash hung around his waist, while the wooden man's sigh rested behind him.
"You can come out now!"
His voice carried an authority and pride that seemed capable of defying reality itself.
The ground beneath him suddenly trembled, and heat surged upward. Only he could sense it at first, but Mingyin and Future Overlord both felt the same scorching presence.
Future Overlord adjusted his mask and stepped forward. A group of immortals stood in the distance, but the moment his gaze settled on them, the pressure in his eyes became terrifying.
An old man stared back in shock. Several immortals stood behind him, and they too met the Dragon Warrior's gaze. None of them had expected to be discovered.
The old man had been holding a telescope. The instant he realized Future Overlord had noticed him, he recoiled, his eyes filled with horror.
He and the other immortals had been born on the Region Continent and sent to spy on Renewal and his companions. From their position, they had also observed a strange, enormous temple surrounded by dragon-shaped pillars.
The old man had already sent his junior back to the Immortal Continent to deliver the information. The elder of the Zhou Lian Sect had ordered them to return, but something had gone terribly wrong.
"No… He survived five hundred years of torment? That is impossible!"
The old man rose to his feet, unable to conceal his shock.
...
Future Overlord slowly removed his mask.
For a moment, it remained suspended between his fingers. Then he released it.
The mask struck the trembling ground with a sharp crack.
The immortals in the distance stared at his uncovered face. Their expressions changed one after another, disbelief collapsing into terror.
"B-Bullshit!"
"Is that… Mingyin's killer?"
Every immortal stared forward in disbelief. They were looking at someone who should not have existed, yet stood before them alive.
The supreme leader who had once failed to seize Mingyin's artifact had survived. He was also the strongest Fire Immortal in the world.
His face was now fully visible. High cheekbones framed a sharp jawline, and his features were more refined than any blade. His long eyelashes were perfectly shaped, while his eyebrows extended outward before curving downward like burning tails.
His hair gleamed before bursting into flames. White strands drifted around him like the heat of a furnace, and six horns rose from his forehead.
He stared ahead and released a quiet sigh.
Then he took one step forward.
That single step became the beginning of their destruction.
Armor erupted around his body, forming a crushing shell as he released a thunderous roar. The force of it tore through the air and knocked several immortals from their feet.
Before they could recover, Future Overlord vanished.
Swoosh!
The space where he had stood collapsed inward.
He reappeared before the immortals with a faint smile. His hand expanded, becoming larger and broader as dragons emerged from his fingers. Their bodies twisted around his arm, their jaws opening in silent fury.
The immortals barely had time to raise their defenses.
Future Overlord's hand descended.
The impact shattered the ground.
Several earth-shaking explosions followed in rapid succession, each one swallowing the last. Defensive barriers broke apart. Figures were hurled through the dust. The formation beneath them split open as the force of the attack drove everything into the earth.
When the dust finally began to settle, the immortals beneath the Supreme Leader had been defeated.
Future Overlord stood tall amid the devastation. His armor shifted around him, twisting like living muscle as flames crawled across its surface.
The immortals were dead. Only scattered remains remained within the shallow craters left behind.
Future Overlord examined his hand.
Then he smiled.
He drew a deep breath and released a roar at the top of his lungs.
The air around him froze.
For one instant, even the flames seemed to stop moving. Then the frozen air shattered and scattered like vapor beneath an invisible pressure.
Future Overlord closed his eyes and entered a state resembling unconsciousness. In truth, his consciousness had already begun to leave his body.
It extended forward, passing through the surrounding space and searching for the next threat.
"After Mrs. Spirit told me that I was the Dragon Warrior, she taught me the Dragon Soul Core Formation Path. I can no longer use Wood Path, but if I find a path similar enough to mine, I may be able to cultivate two paths.
"With the Dragon Warrior inheritance and Fire Path, I can become stronger. Unfortunately, she refused to let me use the artifact that would allow me to cultivate Wood Path, Fire Path, and Dragon Path together.
"Dragon Path allows me to extend my consciousness and detect genuine danger.
"And the danger is beneath me, isn't it?"
Future Overlord's consciousness returned to his body.
His eyes opened.
He raised his hand and slammed it into the ground.
A massive crack spread across the earth. The ground buckled as soil and dust erupted into the air, leaving a deep scar that raced toward the ruins below.
"So you were hiding there, you worthless piece of trash."
Beneath him lay the ruins of an ancient arcane site. Beautiful stone statues surrounded the area, while a young man sat calmly in the center, holding a glass-covered stone.
Sun Tzu could be seen through its surface.
The young man looked up.
His eyes widened.
The final sight he witnessed was Future Overlord's hand descending toward him.
The attack struck.
Bam!
The Rolex shattered.
The shockwave tore through the ruins, scattering fragments of stone and glass in every direction.
Future Overlord rose into the air with a smile, brushing the dust from his body as though nothing had happened.
Mrs. Spirit leaned against a nearby wall, smiling as she held a token between two fingers. She looked genuinely surprised, as though she had witnessed something fascinating. Then her expression twisted into an unpleasant grin.
"That was a rather brutal way to end the life of an innocent man, wasn't it?"
Future Overlord extended his hand and looked behind him.
The Region Continent was destined to collapse within a few days, and the process would begin very soon.
Mrs. Spirit looked upward, nodded, and stepped forward with a proud smile.
"Wasn't it foretold by the Seer Path that a new dawn would arrive? The old age would become the new age without anyone realizing it, and a dragon would emerge—one who would lead his people to victory and achieve complete domination."
Future Overlord smiled and nodded.
"Judging by how things are progressing, it seems that this person will stand above even the greatest geniuses…"
Before he could finish, the wall of the stone city shook violently.
The tremor was different from the ones before.
This time, the wall did not merely crack.
It opened.
Huge, monstrous openings appeared across its surface, each one spreading like a wound through the stone. Ancient radiance poured from within, bright as the sun and cold as death.
The immortals below Renewal froze.
Then something stepped through.
A Peak Artist at Stage One.
A Peak Artist at Stage Two.
And finally, a Peak Artist at Stage Three.
The three figures emerged without a sound.
None of the Strangers possessed physical bodies. Each had a strange spiritual form, with a star-like object floating within its chest. Their bodies flickered faintly, as though they existed between reality and some distant realm.
They stood motionless, their faces blank and emotionless.
They resembled puppets waiting for orders.
One of them, however, appeared different.
Its expression was colder than the others, almost devoid of comfort or warmth. Strangely, its features also bore a faint resemblance to Mingyin.
The figure slowly turned its head.
Its empty gaze swept across the trembling city.
Then its lips moved.
"Mingyin… where are you?"
...
Renewal stood atop the peak with a smile as the immortals below cried out in alarm. The ruined symbols beneath them began to shine with greater intensity.
The light spread through the formation, crawling beneath the feet of every immortal.
Renewal looked upward and ponder .
"When I died, the elder of the Region Continent learned that a prophecy was about to be fulfilled. It foretold that the Region Continent and all his descendants would eventually perish.
"The elder feared for his descendants. Shaken by the prophecy, he ordered them to preserve my body after his death. They filled it with blood for millions of years, and the process continued without interruption.
"However, some of his descendants secretly placed the final fragments of their souls inside the three temples belonging to my terrifying beasts. Their soul energy sustained those fragments and allowed them to remain alive.
"Now, they are not the only ones. Several ancient legends are hidden within these walls because I have used the lifespans of the immortals beneath me.
"Do you know what this peak is called? It is the Legend Soul Core. When someone dies, their soul may either descend beneath reality or remain within it. Those who remain can form a Soul Spirit Core.
"I transplanted the lifespans of these immortals into each Soul Spirit Core.
"The sacrifice was enormous. Many people gave their lives to keep those legendary souls alive and active—including the elder.
And those below me are unaware their would died soon .
"They have lost forty percent of their power and no longer possess minds of their own, but I can control them through my consciousness.
"You do not need to be a soul cultivator. At this moment, I can simply use other people's lifespans.
"Everyone here is pouring their soul energy into the formation without realizing it."
The immortals below began to tremble.
Some tried to stand.
None of them could move.
"[Ashoka Eagle], the name of this peak, is consuming their lives as well. In one second, the process will be complete!"
The symbols beneath them flared.
The light climbed higher, wrapping around their bodies like chains.
"Sacrifices are necessary for anyone who wishes to stand above the world—or rule it.
"If I reach true enlightenment one day, I will bring all of you back to life. I will restore your bodies completely.
"For now, however, I possess no power beyond sacrificing you."
Renewal's smile widened as the formation reached its final stage.
"One day, you will understand my nihilism!"