Chapter 966: Long-Hidden Secrets

The supreme will always descended when a God King was born.

Few knew of this matter. Even Sovereigns like Fu Ya, Tian Yu, and Luo Hongyan were unaware, but Yi Hao knew it well.

Yi Hao had deliberately delayed his arrival precisely so he could bring the supreme will into the world. He allowed Fu Ya to fall and even went so far as to kill Tian Yu, forcing Luo Hongyan to ascend as a God King ahead of time.

Now that Luo Hongyan was a God King, the supreme will of the starry skies could finally descend.

Luo Hongyan's majestic body trembled violently. The energies in the Primordial Chaos Starry Region and the surrounding starry regions poured into her.

These streams of energies shimmered with the brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars. The chill of frost, the blaze of flame, the fury of lightning, and the vibrancy of life energy were all infused into them. Faint arcs of lightning flickered across their surface, and motes of the Heavenly Daos gleamed like crystalline shards.

This...

Pang Jian could sense that the Primordial Chaos Starry Region had bridged itself to myriad starry regions. Energies from distant stretches of the starry skies flooded in, turning this once-barren starry region into one of the most energy-rich places in all creation.

Luo Hongyan's divine aura was like a black hole, swallowing all in its grasp. Even the energy of the Ruin Realm strained to break free and converge upon her.

Through it all, the unfathomable presence of the supreme will flowed along with the incoming energies into Luo Hongyan, streaming into her Divine Persona and gathering within the Dao Source of Light that was her heart.

Her crystalline wings, layered like an armored mantle, grew ever more unyielding. Dazzling radiance burst forth from them, illuminating her figure. Luo Hongyan's beauty seemed to transcend the realms of both the mortal and the divine.

Arcs of Dao-infused lightning silently appeared in her translucent Divine Persona, which took on a lustrous silver sheen. Her Divine Persona gradually started to resemble the silver eye formed from the Pearl of Fate.

"It's descended!"

In the Ruin Realm, the five Great Demon Gods, freed from the shackles of fate, the Bee Sovereign, the World Tree, as well as Ying Yue, Han Yi, and Mu Duo, all sensed Luo Hongyan's strange transformation.

The dazzling light permeating the starry region dimmed, and an expression of struggle surfaced on Luo Hongyan's face. Her divine power surged, and her body grew stronger, but she appeared to be in unbearable agony.

"Pang Jian!" Her tumultuous eyes locked onto Pang Jian. A faint figure in a crimson gown took form deep within her pupils.

Wreathed in blood-colored light, the figure bloomed like a bewitching crimson lotus, its petals unfurling with fiery brilliance.

One scene after another unfolded in the depths of Luo Hongyan's eyes.

Luo Hongyan drifted through the Solitary Mountain Range as a spirit, descending into Ning Yao's body to walk the world in her stead. It was the time when she first met Pang Jian.

In this memory, she was not the aloof Sovereign of Light. She was simply Luo Hongyan. Once, before her awakening, she had been a flesh-and-blood woman with emotions.

Luo Hongyan's gaze softened as she whispered, "Pang Jian."

A tremor rippled through Pang Jian's mind.

The Luo Hongyan he knew had resurfaced at last.

"I'm still here. I still exist. I..." As if roused from a long dream, Luo Hongyan curved her lips into a sad smile and murmured, "I never wanted to awaken. I never wanted to become a Sovereign. The pursuit of a higher realm was her desire, not mine."

She sighed, quiet but heavy with unrestrained emotion.

"Humanity. Passion. These are the opposite of the supreme will." Yi Hao let out a sardonic laugh. "The greater our achievements and the higher our cultivation realm, the closer we come to it.

"You've already become a God King. What place is there for emotions?

"What now? Do you wish to awaken a Divine Persona and pit your humanity against it?"

Yi Hao shook his head with a faint smile.

"It's already too late."

Silvery radiance flooded Luo Hongyan's sea of consciousness, deepening its imprint within her Divine Persona and erasing what little remained of her own will.

"I..." Luo Hongyan opened her mouth as if to speak, but confusion clouded her face.

The Illusory Void Realm, flitting through the spatial rifts, suddenly halted. The massive Black Empyrean Phoenix fixed its pitch-black eyes upon Luo Hongyan. Those cold eyes seemed to be scrutinizing both Luo Hongyan and the will of the starry skies.

"Hongyan, do you still remember how you first came into contact with the Dao of Light?" the Black Empyrean Phoenix asked from the Illusory Void Realm.

The interwoven spatial rifts dotted around the starry region trembled with waves of energy, thunderstorms erupting within them.

The Illusory Void Realm, suspended within one such spatial rift, started to expand, as if preparing to return to the Primordial Chaos Starry Region.

"Hongyan?"

Those listening were all left stunned.

Since when was the Black Empyrean Phoenix so familiar with the Sovereign of Light?

This question was on everybody's minds.

"Hm?" The dazed Luo Hongyan froze at the voice, then she pushed her will to its limits, forcing herself to remember.

A scene abruptly surfaced in her eyes.

Back then, Luo Hongyan had been a prodigiously gifted girl of the Celestial Race, renowned in her homeland for her beauty.

One day, as she wandered through a field of flowers, she encountered a lively azure bird. The bird landed gracefully on her shoulder, chirping in human speech. From that day on, it became her constant companion.

That bird was not merely her companion but also her mentor. It told her of the mysteries within her bloodline, expounding the profound truths of the Dao of Light, and guiding her on the forging of her path.

The azure bird was the reason her bloodline could advance at the extraordinary pace it did. Soon, her comprehension of the Dao of Light surpassed that of every peer in her race, but just before she ascended to godhood, the azure bird vanished, never to appear again.

When she forged her Divine Persona of Light, the praise she desired most was from that azure bird. Even after becoming a God, she searched far and wide for it, but never found a single trace.

Until now.

The azure bird in her eyes transformed into a soaring black phoenix!

The aura of darkness churned wildly in the depths of her gaze. An aloof disdain for all beings could be seen in that black phoenix's eyes. At the same time, a terrifying aura of destruction, annihilation, corrosion, and toxins mixed with the darkness.

Luo Hongyan, on the verge of losing herself to the invading supreme will, was shocked to her core.

The foundation of her beliefs had been shaken.

Her eyes locked onto the Illusory Void Realm in the spatial rift and upon the Black Empyrean Phoenix within.

"It's you!" Luo Hongyan's scream tore through large swaths of the starry region, fracturing it further. The already splintered Heavenly Daos twisted and snapped apart.

Her mind was in chaos.

Never in her worst nightmares had she imagined that the azure bird she viewed as her spiritual pillar was actually the Sovereign of the Fey Race!

The Black Empyrean Phoenix, whom she had vowed to destroy and whose Dao of Darkness she had long sought to seize, was her greatest benefactor on the path to godhood!

Without that azure bird—without the Black Empyrean Phoenix—she could never have ascended so smoothly as a Sovereign.

But how could this be? It defies all reason!

The Black Empyrean Phoenix, hidden in the Illusory Void Realm, smiled. "It's me."

The smile on Yi Hao's face dropped as he turned a solemn gaze toward the Illusory Void Realm, reaching out with his divine consciousness to commune silently with the will of the starry skies.

"Something's wrong. There's something I don't know about. This isn't right." The Sovereign of Fate warily probed the tangled threads of fate, checking if there was truly a strand of fate that bound Luo Hongyan and the Black Empyrean Phoenix together.

Pang Jian was frozen in disbelief.

They know each other?

Cut off from everything, he had no one to consult. He could only stand atop the God King's skull, staring blankly between Luo Hongyan and the Black Empyrean Phoenix in the Illusory Void Realm.

Questions churned in his mind. He was left with the surreal feeling that he was dreaming with his eyes open, unable to distinguish illusion from reality.

Light and darkness were opposite forces. That was an unshakable truth. The Black Empyrean Phoenix was the embodiment of darkness itself, the pinnacle of the Dao of Darkness.

Luo Hongyan, the Sovereign of Light, had reigned supreme upon the opposing Dao of Light. Since becoming a Sovereign, she and the Black Empyrean Phoenix had been natural enemies, each seeking the other's destruction.

Moreover, Luo Hongyan even longed to seize the Black Empyrean Phoenix's Dao of Darkness.

It seemed unimaginable that the reason she could even claim the mantle of the Sovereign of Light in the first place was because of the Black Empyrean Phoenix.

"Why is it you? Why would it be you?! Why?!" Luo Hongyan's surging emotions allowed her to break free from the invasive will and stubbornly hold on to her own.

She needed an answer! Her hunger for it outweighed any foreign will trying to overtake her. Even the supreme will of the starry skies could not lay claim to the memories and radiance of light in her sea of consciousness.

"I needed a worthy opponent," the Black Empyrean Phoenix said with unnerving calm. "I always knew such an opponent could only be born among the Celestial Race. I searched and waited for someone like that for a long time.

"You cannot imagine how overjoyed I was when I finally found you. You, Hongyan, were the one I waited all that time for—the one capable of standing as my equal in the battle to come. And you haven't disappointed me."

The tiny figure of Pang Lin stood atop the Black Empyrean Phoenix's head, her lips curved in a faint smile. Her gaze on the near-shattered Luo Hongyan carried the air of an elder regarding a junior.

"Your path with the six Divine Personas, the remnants of my body lying dormant in the Seventh World, and even your journey into the Abyss in a human vessel were all nudged forward by my will."

"All by you?!" Luo Hongyan shrieked, voice teetering on the edge of madness. Only the crimson-robed figure could be seen in her eyes. Her humanity seemed to have taken over.

Pang Lin's earth-shaking revelation took precedence over everything else, even the attempts of the supreme will of the starry skies in erasing all mortal feelings.

"My life and my path were all done according to your will? What meaning does my life have then?! Black Empyrean Phoenix! Is this how you treat me?"

Luo Hongyan was truly and utterly furious for the first time in her life. It was a searing rage that reached her core.

Every step of her life was the result of another's manipulation. She felt like nothing more than a puppet, stumbling through life as nothing more than a piece on another's chessboard.

Her heart seethed with angry disbelief and unwillingness.

"Damn it! I can't believe I'm only learning the truth now!"

Even the encroachment of that supreme will would have to wait until she unraveled the truth!

Her radiance flared anew beneath the silvery radiance. The profound truths of the Heavenly Daos, encompassing the essence of myriad Gods, had only just been refined into her Divine Personas, but she forcibly erased them.

A tidal wave swelled through her mind. Her divine power and radiance blazed. She would spare nothing to get an answer out of the Black Empyrean Phoenix!

"What exactly are you trying to do?! Black Empyrean Phoenix, what do you seek to accomplish through me? Tell me!"

Her piercing voice echoed through the shattered Primordial Chaos Starry Region.

The entire starry region appeared on the verge of collapse. The vast torrents of energy pouring into her detonated at her command, exploding annihilation around her body.

"My purpose?" Pang Lin frowned in thought. "Hongyan, there are things I didn't fully grasp back then. Perhaps it was simply that I hadn't looked far enough.

"I once thought to push you into becoming a Sovereign and seize your Dao of Light so I could ascend as a God King.

"My original goal was exactly like yours. It was my guiding principle. But I no longer think that way."

A faint smile curved her lips.

"I can give you the thing you desire, Hongyan. In fact, I can give it to you right now."

With a soft swish, the Black Empyrean Phoenix soared out from the Illusory Void Realm and flew toward Luo Hongyan.

Halfway through her flight, the Black Empyrean Phoenix abruptly burst apart, her Dao of Darkness dissipated into thousands of streams of pitch-black radiance.

Each stream merged with Luo Hongyan, flowing into her sea of consciousness and becoming part of her Divine Persona.

Luo Hongyan had pursued the fusion of light and darkness since ascending to godhood. At last, she had obtained the thing she had yearned for all her life.

This was the reason she had joined forces with Tian Yu and Fu Ya to ambush the Black Empyrean Phoenix all those years ago, but even that battle had not granted her what she truly desired.

Later, in the Abyss, she forged a human vessel and infiltrated the Seventh World, attempting to refine the "dead" Black Empyrean Phoenix, only to fail again.

She had even tried to seize the Black Empyrean Phoenix's Dao of Darkness during the battle in this starry region and had failed a third time.

The repeated failures had rooted despair in her heart.

Finally, Yi Hao had forced her to ascend as a God King with an imperfect Dao.

Only now, after her ascension, did the Black Empyrean Phoenix willingly abandon her body, offering up the thing of Luo Hongyan's dreams.