Chapter 983: The Will of the Starry Skies in a Sovereign

The cold spread relentlessly. Before long, even Pang Jian's physical body grew sluggish, his movements heavy and strained.

The Duke of Thunder's roars dwindled into silence. Pang Ling's joyous shouts ceased. The cold frosted over the branches of the World Tree, and the Divine Court of Thunder itself glittered under a creeping rime.

Father.

Pang Ling's voice echoed within Pang Jian's mind.

Beneath Bai Zi's heaving chest came an unnatural rhythm as her heart pounded out of sync. Her flesh split open with fine, bloody fissures, as if invisible blades had carved into her body.

Injured and drenched in blood, she appeared as though on the last thread of life. Yet, she still managed to turn her gaze to Pang Jian with the faintest of nods.

Her raised hand pointed at him, and from her lips spilled a muffled, cryptic utterance.

Every inch of space claimed by the cold quaked with the resonance of the Heavenly Daos. Slender ice lances crystallized before her, each radiating a cutting chill. Tens of thousands of ice lances shot toward Pang Jian in unison.

"Chaos!" Pang Jian roared, forcing every shred of his strength into motion. His Divine Persona quaked violently within his sea of consciousness, flaring with the brilliance of countless Heavenly Daos.

The frost binding him shattered.

A vast starry expanse unfolded before him, an external projection of his Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea. Stars, suns, and moons wove into a great bulwark to defend against the barrage of ice lances.

Bai Zi only shook her head, her voice soft, almost pitying. "You cannot block them."

The ice lances pierced the conjured starry expanse. Their terrifying cold crushed the Heavenly Daos Pang Jian had laid down. Stars infused with the five elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth exploded into nothing. Suns and moons alike were snuffed out like paper lanterns in a gale.

Pang Jian's carefully wrought constellation of defenses collapsed under Bai Zi's frozen might.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Golden lightning crackled across Pang Jian's towering physical body. Coils of draconic arcs entwined his frame as the will of the Dao Source of Metal surged through him, making him appear like a continent made out of steel.

The ice lances impaled him with ease. Thousands drove into his flesh at once. Even his flesh, tempered to the extreme and empowered by lightning infused with the Dao Source of Metal, could not block them.

Pang Jian's blood poured out in torrents, his body becoming as broken and injured as Bai Zi's was.

"It seems you truly aren't that will. Or rather, this body of yours isn't." Bai Zi's voice was tinged with a faint disappointment. "If this body doesn't hold that will, then it's meaningless to me."

Bai Zi's body blurred into a streak of silver radiance. The gray bizarre mist was ripped apart, dispersing as though in fear, leaving a frozen vacuum in its wake.

Her aim was the Bee Sovereign and the Soulstream in the Nether Abyss. She sought to sever their union. Pang Jian's physical body, the Divine Court of Thunder, and the Rank Thirteen World Tree were not her true quarry.

Even the mist cannot stop it...

The Bee Sovereign sighed wearily atop the Hall of Gods.

For the supreme will of the bizarre mist to yield was nothing short of defeat in his eyes.

The will of the starry skies descended into Bai Zi's frail body and snuffed out her life without hesitation. It had overturned the tide of battle with but a single divine technique.

The Bee Sovereign had yet to ascend to Sovereignhood—had yet to merge fully with the Soulstream and his manifestation. There was nothing he could possibly do against such a terrifying force.

I'm still far too weak...

A bitter smile twisted his face.

He wore the hollow expression of one who had expended all his will and cunning, only to end up with nothing, like drawing water with a bamboo basket.

The barrier of the Nether Abyss lay beneath his feet. Just one more step and he could plunge into its depths, merge with his other self, and rise anew.

However, Bai Zi was swifter, having already pierced through the bizarre mist to hover above the Nether Abyss with eerie calm.

"Did you think hiding in the bizarre mist would spare you from me?" The gentleness in Bai Zi's voice froze the marrow.

The Bee Sovereign grimaced, his words caught in his throat.

"Did you think that choosing it would shield you? That you could escape the fate of every other Dao Source?" Bai Zi asked, her tone carrying neither scorn nor compassion, only a cold inevitability.

The Bee Sovereign could say nothing as he stewed in his dread.

The bizarre mist around Bai Zi scattered madly, leaving behind a vast vacuum. The translucent barrier of the Nether Abyss was laid bare. Beneath the barrier churned the blue Soulstream, with the Bee Sovereign's soul body within.

Bai Zi descended lightly, her feet sinking through the barrier itself. With the body of a Nether God and with this grand event loosening the laws, she could easily reenter the Nether Abyss if she so wished.

The fate of not only the Dao Source of Soul but also every living being within the Nether Abyss rested on her whim.

"Pang Jian ascended through my path of forging a Divine Persona. His physical body can never surpass me," Bai Zi said, her eyes gleaming silver.

This signaled the complete erasure of every last trace of Bai Zi. From this moment on, Bai Zi truly no longer existed.

Despite this, the tether between Bai Zi's body and the Dao Source of Soul still pulsed. The blue Soulstream in the Nether Abyss could not hide from the supreme will of the starry skies any longer.

"Come back. Return to me. Become the most vital piece of my being."

Bai Zi's hand extended toward the Soulstream, beckoning gently, like a mother calling a wandering child home. The supreme will's boundless aura seeped quietly through the barrier of the Nether Abyss, spilling across the vast Soulstream as though taming it, compelling the ocean of souls to rise upward toward its call.

"Rest assured. I will not step into your domain and give you an advantage over me," it said calmly in Bai Zi's guise.

The retreating gray bizarre mist suddenly surged toward it in a wild torrent upon hearing these words.

"You wish to lure me in?" It shook its head, silver eyes glinting with scorn. "Do you think I do not see through your ploys? I know that every retreat, every false withdrawal, is only a gambit to trick me inside.

"If a fragment of my will were to sink into your domain, it would be ground to nothing.

"We've battled across ages unending. When have you ever truly bested me? Did you truly think that giving rise to someone like Pang Jian would be enough to oppose me? To claim a single victory? How laughable."

The will of the starry skies in Bai Zi's body remained unmoved, even as the bizarre mist engulfed it. Through it all, its gaze remained firmly fixed upon the blue Soulstream.

The Soulstream breached the barrier of the Nether Abyss and crossed into the starry skies.