Chapter 918: The Arrival of the Black Empyrean Phoenix

He chose to be reborn as a Thunder Dragon. It appears he's not confident in himself. No matter how powerful the first Thunder God used to be, it's doubtful he could stand against me now.

Ling Xuan sneered impatiently as he stared at the black crystal orb in his hand. At this point, the campaign to wipe out the True Gods of the human race in the Bewildering Dustlands had become dull to him.

Suddenly, all the spatial rifts started to seal shut one after another.

Zi Wu, startled out of his wits, darted out of one as if his feet were on fire, making it just in time. Expression twisted in alarm, he cried, "Who?! Who is disturbing the spatial rifts and making an enemy of the Void Race?!"

"It's me." Pang Lin's sweet voice rang out, like that of a girl next door.

All the Outer Gods glanced around in confusion, exchanging looks as they searched for the source of her voice.

Even older True Gods like Lin Baixiang, Du Tianyan, and Mu Qingya—still struggling to resist the corruption of the blood-colored worlds and the sinister life energy—revealed puzzled expressions.

"Who is that?"

This was the question on everyone's lips.

Outer Gods and True Gods alike searched for the speaker, but no one could determine where the voice had come from.

"Little Lin?!" Su Wanrou from the Pure Land Sect trembled from emotion, a glint of bewildered excitement flashing in her clear eyes. "Is that you? Little Lin?"

The others did not recognize Pang Lin's voice, but there was no world where Su Wanrou would not.

Su Wanrou had regarded Pang Lin as the future pillar of the Pure Land Sect from the day she arrived, pouring all of the sect's resources into nurturing her and selflessly passing down her cultivation insights.

Pang Lin had not disappointed her. She had advanced at an astonishing pace, breaking through realm after realm, her brilliance seemingly unmatched in her generation.

To this day, Su Wanrou still did not know Pang Lin's true origins, nor where she had vanished to. Nevertheless, she had never imagined that she would hear Pang Lin's voice in this time of utter despair.

"Am I dreaming? I have to be. Maybe Ling Yun's terrifying power has overwhelmed me to the extent that I'm imagining things..." Su Wanrou murmured in disbelief.

"Master, it's me."

It was undoubtedly Pang Lin!

This time, her voice was no longer sweet and gentle, but imbued with supreme authority. It was cold, solemn, and commanding, like the voice of an emperor deciding the fate of his subjects.

Su Wanrou had never heard Pang Lin sound like this before, but even so, the resemblance was undeniable.

This was Pang Lin! The same little girl who once trained in the Pure Land Sect after inheriting the Celestial Phoenix's legacy! This was her disciple!

"Little Lin!" Su Wanrou cried out in a trembling voice, "Cut all connection with this region immediately! It's far too dangerous here. We're destined to die and be buried here!

"Little Lin, stop projecting your voice here! You'll die if they trace it back to you!

"Live on! Go tell your brother and the younger generation in the Abyss to never leave! Never leave the Abyss!" Su Wanrou urged frantically, desperation dripping from her lips.

The starry skies were unbearably harsh. Most of the older generation True Gods had been hunted down, and the few survivors would perish shortly. Even the younger generation like herself would also die here in the Bewildering Dustlands.

The splendor of the starry skies, with its radiant civilizations and brilliant starry regions, had never truly existed for the human race. The starry skies did not belong to them.

All the True Gods of the human race in the starry skies would eventually meet the same fate: Death.

In Su Wanrou's eyes, forever remaining in the Abyss was a far better outcome than being hunted in the starry skies. Su Wanrou wanted her beloved disciple to live peacefully within the Abyss and abandon all thought of leaving.

As Pang Lin's master and as the Sect Master of the Pure Land Sect, she felt it was her duty to guide Pang Lin toward a path of survival.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Girl, you have to live on! Please take charge of the Pure Land Sect once I'm gone. Keep our sect standing tall!" Su Wanrou screamed her final plea.

"Pang Lin?"

"That was Pang Lin's voice?"

"How did she transmit her voice here?"

Li Wang, Zhu Ji, and the others muttered in confusion.

Suddenly, Li Zhaotian noticed something unusual. The ancient God of Life atop the colossal World Tree wore an expression of grave contemplation.

Ling Yun viewed everyone in the Bewildering Dustlands as mere ants beneath his feet. Even lofty Outer Gods like Ling Xuan were met with that same gaze.

Why has Pang Lin's voice brought that heavy expression to Ling Yun's face? How strange,

Li Zhaotian thought in bewilderment.

Letting out a faint sigh, Ling Yun said, "It's been many years since I last heard your voice."

The shift in Pang Lin's voice was one that Ling Yun was intimately familiar with. Even Pang Lin's projection in the Ruin Realm had not carried this tone.

What Ling Yun was familiar with was not Pang Lin per se, but the Black Empyrean Phoenix. He knew all too well what that slight change in voice truly signified.

Ling Yun's utterance had everyone's attention swiveling back to him.

"Lord Ling Yun!" Ling Xuan's heart raced at the realization that something was wrong. "Who is it, my Lord? Who is speaking?"

Very few in the starry skies or the bizarre mist could command such cautious reverence from Ling Yun. Moreover, for this being to cast its voice here likely meant they could also descend in their physical body.

The fabric of space shattered like a mirror.

Unlike a spatial rift, which merely showed a tear in space, this shattering revealed a tunnel. At the far end of it lay a star wreathed in darkness.

"The Dark Star!"

"The Dark Star of the Ancient Fey World!"

"The pitch-black celestial body that the Black Empyrean Phoenix refined!"

The Outer Gods were shaken to their core.

Boundless darkness surged forth from the Dark Star like tidal waves, flooding the tunnel.

A petite figure stepped out of the darkness.

Her dazzling form emerged fully into view. Bolts of lightning danced around her, her aura melding seamlessly with the shadows. The pressure she exuded made even Outer Gods struggle to breathe.

Thunder rumbled violently. Devastation, carnage, bloodlust, and brutal madness churned within the darkness, erupting in wave after wave of terrifying blasts that drove its relentless spread.

Before long, the darkness trailing in her wake collided with Ling Yun's life energy.

Bolts of Dao-infused lightning twisted like serpentine dragons, flaring with apocalyptic bursts of light.

Two ancient beings, once unmatched in the starry skies and the bizarre mist respectively, clashed for the first time in their new forms, their divine powers slamming headlong into one another.

Pang Lin's Dao wildly battered against Ling Yun's profound truths of life.

Fissures split open in the air. The battle between these two titans of the past was more than the Bewildering Dustlands could withstand.

The sky crumbled. Streams of light pierced lifeless stars, reducing them to dust. The fabric of space tore apart as lightning infused with Dao and will lashed out, twisting the very nature of reality.

"This divine might!"

"Such terrifying divine power!"

"It can only be that Black Empyrean Phoenix!"

The Outer Gods all instinctively backed away.

The True Gods near the World Tree stared wide-eyed at the radiant Pang Lin as if looking at a stranger.

"She..." Even her master, Su Wanrou, was dumbstruck.

No matter how hard she tried to wrap her head around it, she simply could not fathom the situation. Her disciple had appeared in the Bewildering Dustlands—when they were at the brink of their demise—and clashed head-on with the ancient God of Life. Even more shocking was the fact that she was holding her ground against him!

"She's the Black Empyrean Phoenix we saw in the Seventh World! Sect Master Su, just what kind of disciple did you take in?!" Li Wang's teeth chattered as he spoke.

"The Black Empyrean Phoenix!" Li Zhaotian's shoulders shook violently, and the sword soul within his divine sword let out a shrill hum.

Wu Yuan, stunned into silence for a long while, finally mumbled, "So that's how it is."

There was no need for further explanation. The reactions of the Outer Gods, Ling Yun's uncharacteristic solemnity, and the overwhelming might that Pang Lin revealed left no room for doubt.

Only the Black Empyrean Phoenix could make Ling Yun so wary.

After all, the Black Empyrean Phoenix had been the foremost contributor to Ling Yun's downfall!

A colossal mirror flew out from the tunnel and hovered high above the Bewildering Dustlands, filling the entire sky!

Any remaining spatial rifts instantly sealed shut. The fabric of space smoothed over in a blink. It was as if that mirror had made the fabric of space in the entire region immutable. No divine power could breach it.

"The Illusory Void Realm!" Zi Wu exclaimed, finally understanding why the spatial rifts had malfunctioned.

The Void Race's ancestral artifact, passed down through many generations, was actually in the hands of that Black Empyrean Phoenix! Worse still, she had even been brought into the Bewildering Dustlands to suppress them!

"I come from the Ancient Fey World. I will lead you out of this place alive. Today, I will repay what I owe to him and the Abyss."

With that, Pang Lin gracefully descended to the top of the World Tree in a rolling tide of darkness, standing face-to-face with the ancient God of Life, Ling Yun.