"I had no choice. The Qi deviation turned out to be something else. Although I knew the thing in his spine meridian wouldn't be normal deviant energy, I didn't expect it to turn out to be a parasite," Mo Lingtian said as he flew closer to the drained, massive ball of energy.
"The previous method I had devised to solve it couldn't work, and there was no way he was letting me leave here alive without curing him. Even if I did escape, there will be no safe haven for me in the wilderness anymore," he continued.
"It's already too late... if the changes happening in here are this bizarre, he must have already seen what is happening outside," the Chief Commander said with a sigh.
"What is happening?" Mo Lingtian asked curiously as he turned away from the drained ball of light.
"Come in and see for yourself," she replied.
Immediately, Mo Lingtian's consciousness shifted, dropping down onto the familiar shore of his inner sea.
"This is why the Chief said you must have encountered another strange opportunity," one of the aides by the Chief Commander's side said, guiding Mo Lingtian's gaze upward.
Thousands of miles away from him was a massive, vertical dimensional tear ripping from the sky downwards to the sea beneath. It emitted dangerous pulses of energy, violently pouring out a light remarkably similar to the energy of the Cosmic Tree.
"Senior, what is this?" Mo Lingtian asked, his mouth falling open at the sheer scale of the sight in front of him.
"Lingtian, that ball of light you absorbed triggered the life form of the Great Transformation Art. It has gained sentience and forcibly implanted its own plane inside your sea of consciousness," the Chief Commander explained as she took a few steps forward.
"But I haven't even cultivated the techniques of the Great Transformation Art, how could this be?" Mo Lingtian said, his eyes widening in fright.
"Now, there is trouble waiting for me both inside here and outside," Mo Lingtian muttered, closing his eyes and tightening his fists angrily.
"The only problem you have to concern yourself with is that old thing outside," Si, one of the commanding generals, interrupted as he walked forward to where the four of them were standing.
Mo Lingtian turned to look at the Chief Commander for further explanation, but she didn't reply. Instead, she took a casual step forward. Instantly, Mo Lingtian, the two aides by her side, and Si were catapulted past thousands of miles, reappearing directly in front of the massive vertical dimensional tear.
As the violent pulses of light energy blasted through the rift, the Chief Commander simply raised her hands, instantly blocking the devastating influx with a massive barrier dome that covered the four of them.
With another step forward, she strode straight into the dimensional tear, breaking into the world hiding behind the pouring, violent energy.
Now inside this new space, Mo Lingtian, the Chief Commander, her two aides, and Si slowly descended onto the ground at the foot of the Cosmic Tree. Its massive size, brilliant light, and flowing pure green cosmic energy pulsed steadily within its roots, leaves, and stem.
Unlike the violent, continuous burst of energy from the dimensional tear leading to it, the Cosmic Tree itself was completely calm, drifting graciously to the gentle passing waves of light energy in this isolated world.
"Senior, you subdued it...?" Mo Lingtian asked as they all looked up, completely caught away by the breathtaking calmness and serenity of the Cosmic Tree.
"No..." the Chief Commander replied, immediately pulling Mo Lingtian from his daze as he sharply turned to look at her.
"Then who did?" Mo Lingtian asked.
"Look. When the dimensional tear tore open, I immediately rushed into this space to quell the source of the violent pulses. But by the time I got here, your hybrid core had already seized control of it," the Chief Commander said, pointing to a crater in the middle of the Cosmic Tree's massive trunk.
Mo Lingtian immediately diverted his gaze, reversing the motion of the Devil Converging Seal forming on his pupils as his sight zoomed effortlessly toward the center of the tree.
"Death energy?" Mo Lingtian suddenly exclaimed when he clearly saw the specific part of the hybrid core exerting its control.
"The death half of your core, right? I was also puzzled when I saw it..." the Chief Commander said as she adjusted her mask.
"According to Lord Broclyx, his Great Transformation Art was inspired by the spiritual plant of the founding ancestor of my devil clan. Normally, if the Cosmic Tree should resonate with any kind of energy in today's era, it should be with the void energy - the devil part of my hybrid core, not the death energy," Mo Lingtian analyzed, his eyebrows furrowing deeply.
"That should be the least of your worries. Look, the Death Domain has begun to evolve, and the Patriarch is beginning to notice the changes," the Chief Commander warned. All of them looked up, viewing the physical reality outside directly through Mo Lingtian's eyes.
"This old monster..." Mo Lingtian muttered, calmly running through his thoughts to figure out a desperate countermeasure.
"What if I run through the techniques of the Great Transformation Art... maybe I..." Mo Lingtian started, before he was sharply cut short by the Chief Commander.
"It's too risky. You could play around with the Devil Converging Seal because it's a technique akin to your own bloodline. But it's not the same with the Great Transformation Art. It's an ancient demonic cultivation method; it is not something you can easily modify," she warned, sighing deeply.
"The death energy!" Mo Lingtian suddenly yelled, his eyes lighting up in sudden realization.
"The strength of your domain law is on par with a Sovereign Immortal, but after all, you are still only in the Qi Refining Realm, several realms behind him. You can't..." the Chief Commander began again, before Lingtian interrupted her.
"No, no, no. Parts of his spine meridian have been blazed by my death flame," Mo Lingtian said, waiting for them to catch on to his ruthless logic.
"Whatever dies by death energy..." one of the aides muttered slowly.
"...Can be resurrected and controlled by death energy," the other aide completed, their eyes also lightting up in realization.
"That means there is a mark of death on his spine meridian. If you can dispel the green phantom parasite and convince him to accept the spine meridian back into his body..." the Chief Commander added, slowly stroking her chin.
"There's no need to convince him. That cunning old thing will want to make absolutely sure his spine meridian is fully cured and integrated into his body before he attacks Mo Lingtian to steal his domain law," Si stated bluntly.
"Yes. Once I fully dispel those things powering the parasite, I'll find more chances to further refine the spine meridian with the death flame before integrating it back into his body. That way, I can escape his greedy fangs the moment he acts," Mo Lingtian concluded, the group reaching a deadly consensus.
"Alright. But how are you going to dispel those things?" the Chief Commander asked, as they all turned their view toward the pitch-black space where Mo Lingtian's soul consciousness was still hovering.
"When I first entered there, those creatures were actively avoiding the blue ball of light. But immediately after the lines from my Death Domain advanced, they sharply retreated back to the blue sun, which devoured them completely," Mo Lingtian answered.
"Go back then. Find a way to solve those wraiths and refine the spine meridian with the death flame before you insert it back into his body," the Chief Commander ordered, walking past Mo Lingtian. With two long steps, she catapulted them all back to the other side of the vertical dimensional tear, returning them to the safe shores of his sea of consciousness.
"Yes," Mo Lingtian nodded in reply before severing his connection, throwing his consciousness back into the pitch-black space where the lingering wraiths still floated after the blue sun's destruction.