Chapter 980: Killing Xing Huan

The baleful currents seeping into the stars gnawed at Xing Huan's divine consciousness, corrupting them until he could no longer wield his Dao of Star.

Xing Huan lost control over the stars, no longer able to command them to descend upon the towering Hall of Gods. The suffocating pressure pressing in on the Bee Sovereign immediately lightened.

The Bee Sovereign atop the Hall of Gods was still wrestling with the weight of Pang Jian's earlier words.

He knew I was the incarnation of the Soulstream!

he thought, compound eyes sweeping over his surroundings. The bizarre mist itself felt saturated with Pang Jian's aura.

Strange. This is all far too strange.

The vast blue Soulstream pressed against the barrier of the Nether Abyss, ready to break free into the starry skies, yet hesitating despite it.

Could this be a trap?

The Bee Sovereign feared that Pang Jian would seize the Soulstream to refine once it left the Nether Abyss. Deep down, he simply could not let go of the suspicion that the supreme will of the bizarre mist had descended into Pang Jian.

As the Bee Sovereign scanned his surroundings, he noticed that the Divine Court of Thunder had stalled, unable to breach the sky-shrouding shield of bronze. Bai Zi's baleful currents, too, had been dealt with.

Pang Jian—or perhaps, that supreme will—is paving the way for the union of my two selves?

The Bee Sovereign wavered indecisively.

***

"Pang Jian!" Xing Huan cried, shaken to the core.

His towering body was in an unremarkable star, wrapped in layers of starlight. The silver core of the star exuded dense stellar energy with every heartbeat-like pulse.

This stellar energy purified his body and Divine Persona until they were both radiant, stabilizing his recent ascent as Sovereign.

At that moment, he became aware of a foreign corruption tainting his body through means beyond his comprehension. He found himself powerless to expel it. It even prevented him from fully imprinting the Dao of Star upon his heart.

The profane desires and wicked impulses of the beings in the starry skies...

Xing Huan's face darkened.

It's the doctrine of the Dao of Demon!

Only now did he finally understand the true terror that was Pang Jian.

While Xing Huan had witnessed Pang Jian battling Fu Ya, Tian Yu, and even Yi Hao from the Abyss, he had not truly grasped the depth of Pang Jian's combat prowess. In fact, he had simply assumed that Pang Jian had merely been relying on borrowed strength from Yan Hao's skull and the World God Pendants.

After all, Pang Jian had just ascended as a Sovereign. His cultivation would not ordinarily be sufficient to stand on equal ground with a God King like Yi Hao. That was one of the reasons Xing Huan had chosen to switch sides.

Only after Pang Jian launched an attack on Xing Huan did he realize that he had actually underestimated Pang Jian.

His Sovereign body can resist all three of us, even without help from his Immortal Divine Soul.

Xing Huan could see the Duke of Thunder and Bai Zi through the stars in the region.

The Divine Court of Thunder no longer descended, and the Duke of Thunder's lightning vortexes could not break through the bronze shield.

Bai Zi was in even worse shape. Her eyes were clouded with confusion, unable to comprehend how and why her baleful currents in the Soulstream were being turned against the stars in the Primordial Chaos Starry Region.

A foreboding chill crept into Xing Huan's heart.

The Duke of Thunder is restrained, and Bai Zi's strength is unraveling. I—

Xing Huan's line of thought was broken by the churning of demonic energy and festering emotions. These corrupting forces seared through his divine consciousness in the stars like acid.

As a result, his awareness grew muddled, and his thoughts fell into a haze. There was no longer room for his wandering speculation.

"That supreme will enslaved the minds of both the Duke of Thunder and Bai Zi. I can accept that. But you, Xing Huan, you chose this path yourself. You chose to follow Yi Hao and that will. For that, you deserve death," Pang Jian declared from atop the bronze shield. "Soul Annihilation!"

The boundless bizarre mist imposed no restraint upon Pang Jian. His fierce glare pierced through the bizarre mist, driving straight into the depths of an inconspicuous star and locking unerringly onto Xing Huan.

A dark-golden blade of light, forged from pure soul essence, manifested above the star, steeped in the obsession to annihilate all souls. It cleaved down toward where Xing Huan hid at the star's core.

The star's rocky crust could do nothing to stop the blade from carving straight into Xing Huan's sea of consciousness. Its sharp edge carried the will to shatter his soul as it drove unerringly toward his Divine Persona.

Xing Huan's sea of consciousness encompassed an ancient starry expanse that mirrored the one etched on his forehead. The myriad stars within flared with radiant brilliance, weaving defenses around his Divine Persona in an attempt to withstand the soul blade's onslaught.

The stars blazed ever brighter, flooding Xing Huan's sea of consciousness with dazzling brilliance. However, even as they shone bright, baleful currents quietly emerged within those same stars.

Black, violet, and viridian currents of malignant emotions and twisted Daos festered within Xing Huan's sea of consciousness, gradually poisoning it.

The radiant starlight dimmed.

The dark-golden soul blade, steeped in the deathly will to annihilate all things, sliced seamlessly into Xing Huan's Divine Persona, obliterating his divine consciousness and nascent soul bodies with it.

Xing Huan's newly forged soul bodies unraveled like smoke, the stars in his sea of consciousness dimmed, and his Divine Persona shattered into shards no larger than a fingertip. The baleful currents swiftly tainted the fragments that scattered across his corrupted sea of consciousness, leaving nothing but contaminated remnants.

The shattering of his Divine Persona and the pollution of his soul echoed violently back into Xing Huan's body. The fledgling Sovereign in the heart of the star collapsed, his towering body crumbling as the star itself quaked and split apart.

***

Yi Hao stared as the star cracked and fissured before breaking apart into drifting rubble. Xing Huan's lifeless body was scattered among the debris.

"He died, just like that?" Yi Hao muttered in disbelief. "How could you fall so easily? You were a newly ascended Sovereign like him. How could you be so weak?"

Linked as he was to the supreme will of the starry skies, Yi Hao knew that Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul was occupied with shielding the four Fey Gods from the tide of the will's corruption and could not extend much aid to his physical body.

Of the two Pang Jians, Yi Hao only viewed his Immortal Divine Soul as posing any real danger, largely because he believed the supreme will of the bizarre mist had descended upon him.

In Yi Hao's eyes, only the supreme will of the bizarre mist could have killed Xing Huan. Yet, through it all, Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul had not stirred.

Pang Jian had effortlessly halted the Duke of Thunder's Divine Court of Thunder, redirected Bai Zi's baleful currents away from the Soulstream, and killed Xing Huan with his Sovereign-level body alone.

Yi Hao's expression hardened, the silver gleam in his eyes darkening.

Pang Jian's physical body has a Divine Persona in his sea of consciousness. Is there a way to taint that Divine Persona again, or even destroy it outright?

Yi Hao steeled himself as he once more called upon the supreme will's power.

The silver eye above Yi Hao glowed ever brighter. Arcs of Dao-infused lightning intertwined within its depths. A cold, indifferent will descended upon Pang Jian's Divine Persona again, seeking to either smother his self-awareness or split his Divine Persona apart.

"Again?" Pang Jian sneered, his gaze locked on the silver eye. "Do you truly believe that staining my will again would make me yield?"

The seven emotions and six desires of the inhabitants of the bizarre mist converged within Pang Jian's sea of consciousness and encircled his golden Divine Persona.

This second attempt to corrupt Pang Jian failed. The supreme will of the starry skies was unable to shake Pang Jian's sense of self.

***

"Yi Hao, you appear to have too much time on your hands." Luo Hongyan frowned. "You even had the leisure to use that Li girl from the Abyss to cast your divine techniques while still communing with it. I was mistaken in thinking that restraining you would be enough to stop you from meddling."

Worlds of light and darkness unfurled behind her, mingling with her divine aura as they surged to engulf the God King of Fate.

Yi Hao was submerged in Luo Hongyan's boundless divine aura. The Wheel of Fate was forced into motion, circling his body.

The silver eye above his head merely stared impassively at Luo Hongyan.

"You had one chance to descend upon me," Luo Hongyan said fearlessly as she stared directly into the silver eye. "You failed. There will never be another chance for you!

"I pity you. Without a body of flesh and blood, you can only rely on God Kings like us, descending into us to proclaim your existence. Is this all you can do? I would very much like to see what spectacle you can muster after descending into Yi Hao."

The Star of Light upon which she stood flared with blinding radiance, locking upon the silver eye above Yi Hao's head. Then, it abruptly dimmed, its radiance giving way to darkness.