Another earth-shaking roar resounded, shaking the heavens. Just before the Divine Lord's blade made contact with Zephyro, his figure reemerged from the fiercely burning flames.
Compared to before, he was vastly different.
On his forehead, the mark of Nanook's blessing, the imprint of Destruction, emitted a black mist. Zephyro's body was clad in armor laced with molten lava, encasing his torso and limbs.
Behind him was a black-and-red robe, emblazoned with the image of a dusk beast—ferocious, terrifying, and savage…
"Could this be the true power of the Emissary of Destruction, the Zephyro known as 'One Against Ten Thousand'?"
Jing Yuan's eyes were filled with gravity. Though he couldn't precisely gauge Zephyro's limits, he could make a rough estimate.
Based on the power Zephyro was displaying, it would take at least three of Jing Yuan to have a chance at fighting him to a draw.
In contrast to Jing Yuan's solemnity, Qingque appeared much more relaxed. She was merely curious about Zephyro's new outfit. Honestly, it looked quite stylish. She wondered how it would look on Yun Fan… cough, cough, cough, off-topic.
"Woman, you're even more infuriating than Phantylia. Today, I'll make you pay for your recklessness and stupidity! You'll pay a bloody price for your actions!"
Hearing Zephyro's words, our Miss Qingque was utterly speechless. Was this guy really the Zephyro of legend, the merciless killer who struck fear into countless hearts?
How come, from the moment they met, all she'd heard was this guy's incessant chatter? He was practically a blabbermouth.
"Look, Mr. Overconfident Zephyro, can you please stop flapping your lips? Don't tell me that when you destroyed other planets, you just drowned the locals in your spit with all that talking?"
Jing Yuan: ???
Zephyro: ???
Guinaifen and the live stream audience: ???
Hearing Qingque's words, Jing Yuan's body trembled. In his memory, Qingque was usually a lazy girl, but when it came to speaking, she was always polite and courteous to everyone.
For her to say something like this… it was completely out of character.
In Guinaifen's live stream…
The audience, still reeling from the shock of the battle between the two and Zephyro, was dumbfounded. After a brief silence, the live stream erupted with a tidal wave of comments.
"My god! This is like a cow riding a rocket—utterly out of this world!"
"Hiss~ Watching that Emissary of Destruction, my legs are shaking even through the screen. This young lady is truly a heroine among men!"
"No, no, the focus isn't there. Didn't you hear what the Annihilation Lord said? She's an Emissary of Causality, the Emissary of the Lord of Samsara!"
"I noticed. She's incredible. It's said that the conditions for stepping onto the Path of Causality are extremely stringent. As far as we know, across the cosmos, there are fewer than ten who have tread this Path. I never expected our Xianzhou to have an Emissary of Causality."
"By the way, does anyone in the live stream know this young lady?"
"I have an impression. This Emissary is named Qingque. She's my colleague, working at the Luofu's Divination Commission."
"Holy crap! This Emissary lady has such a sharp tongue? I love it!"
"Haha, her tongue isn't just sharp—it's sweet too. I've tasted it."
"Heh, upstairs, wake up. It's still daytime."
At the Vidyadhara encampment, in Bailu's bedroom, Yun Fan leaned back on the girl's bed, watching the comment telling him to wake up. The youth sighed with a mix of helplessness and amusement.
Ugh, where's the trust between people? He was telling the truth, and no one believed him…
Long before Zephyro's invasion began, Yun Fan had been lurking in Guinaifen's live stream. It wasn't that he had predicted anything; he had simply stumbled upon Little Gui's stream.
Thinking that she was a character in the story, he decided to check it out. By sheer coincidence, he caught the moment of Zephyro's invasion.
"It's just Zephyro alone, huh. Looks like that Phantylia is hiding somewhere, biding her time."
Just as Yun Fan suspected, at that moment in the Abyssal Realm, Phantylia was absorbing the power of Abundance from the Ambrosial Arbor, using its trunk to shape a perfect physical form for herself.
Of course, while crafting her body, Phantylia didn't forget to keep an eye on Zephyro's situation. Truthfully, she didn't believe Zephyro could handle both an Emissary of Causality and an Emissary of the Hunt at once.
Her original plan was for Zephyro to lie low for a while until she had completed her physical form. Then, with two Emissaries of Destruction striking together, they'd have at least a better-than-even chance of destroying the Luofu.
Why only better-than-even? Because during her previous encounter with Qingque at the Scalegorge Chamber, Phantylia had felt Qingque's power, which was at least on par with her own.
As for General Jing Yuan, though it sounded a bit arrogant, Phantylia was confident that in a one-on-one fight, he was no match for her.
Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility that he had some hidden trump card, which is why Phantylia estimated their chances at just over fifty percent.
Using the power of her Path to observe Zephyro, now in his strongest form and facing two Emissaries simultaneously, Phantylia's lips curled into a cold smile.
"Heh, Zephyro, you fool. I hope you can buy me a bit more time. Otherwise, no one will be able to save you…"
— — — —
"You… you damned woman, fool, arrogant wretch!!"
Qingque's scornful words landed in Zephyro's ears like fuel on a fire, adding insult to injury.
With a whoosh, Zephyro's rage burned even hotter. The Emissary of Destruction raised his arm… no, his claw, for in his armored state, his arms had transformed into claws resembling those of a dusk beast.
As the claw descended, a scarlet claw mark hundreds of meters long shot toward Qingque, as if to tear her to shreds.
Watching the massive claw mark fall from the sky, Qingque merely pouted. With a wave of her small hand, dozens of jade plaques flew from her sleeve.
With a hum, the plaques, originally only a few inches in size, expanded in the wind. In an instant, they transformed into massive objects, each over ten meters long and wide.
Snap! Snap! Snap…!
With crisp sounds, the jade plaques interlocked, forming a colossal shield, hundreds of meters in length and width, standing resolutely before Qingque.