"And now, it's your turn. Are you ready?"
Lam Minh's direct challenge, coupled with the arrogant aura of someone just reborn from the dead, made the already tense space even more oppressive.
Zeros, who had always maintained a cold demeanor, curled his lip for the first time, forming a wicked half-smile. "I've been ready for a long time."
But the one-on-one battle Lam Minh expected did not happen.
The Holy Master, who was still observing from a distance, suddenly gave a slight nod, signaling to Faker and Zeros. It was a signal they seemed to have tacitly agreed upon beforehand.
A new plan. Plan B.
Rewind to the time before New Year's Eve, on a high cloud layer, hidden from all scrutiny.
Seven figures stood there. The Holy Master, Faker, Zeros, and the other four Holy Envoys.
"We will play a surprise game," the Holy Master began, his voice emotionless. "To bring a 'New Year's gift' to the weaklings below."
"So what is the plan? And what do you want?" Faker asked, the calculating gaze of an old fox in his eyes. He wouldn't act without seeing a benefit.
"Plan A," said the Holy Master. "The seven of us Nascent Souls will appear simultaneously, flooding their airspace, creating enough pressure to force Lac Long Quan and that brat Lam Minh to show themselves. We must kill that brat. You and I, Faker, will hold back Lac Long Quan together. The remaining five of you," he looked towards Zeros and the four Holy Envoys, "your mission is to kill Lam Minh at all costs."
Faker frowned. "But even the two of us combined may not be a match for Lac Long Quan, especially when he's enraged. Moreover, there's the rumor about that kid's immortal rebirth ability. Will this plan succeed?"
"I know," the Holy Master replied calmly. "That is why I have a Plan B."
Faker and the Holy Envoys all looked at him.
"Our mission to hold back Lac Long Quan is just a play. The main trump card will be Zeros and these four Holy Envoys. If the rumor of his rebirth is true," the Holy Master looked at Zeros, "then your mission will no longer be to kill him. It will be... to capture him alive."
"Capture him alive?"
"That's right," the Holy Master said, his voice turning cold. "An individual with infinite rebirth ability, if allowed to continue growing, will become an unfathomable threat. We must capture him, lock him in the 'Black Prison,' the darkest and most remote dungeon of the Holy Temple. Use 'Black Water Stone' to shackle him, completely sealing his cultivation and all his abilities."
(Black Water Stone is a strange type of ore with the ability to neutralize and seal all types of energy.)
"That imprisonment will continue until all of humanity is annihilated," the Holy Master concluded with utter calmness.
Faker shivered inwardly upon hearing this. This plan was too cruel. It wasn't just killing; it was eternal torture, stripping away all hope. He knew this plan would surely touch Lac Long Quan's reverse scale, and there was no telling what would happen after. But the temptation of eliminating a potential threat was too great.
Back to the battlefield in outer space.
Upon receiving the signal from the Holy Master, Zeros said nothing.
The aura on his body suddenly skyrocketed terrifyingly.
BOOM!!!
A pressure even more powerful than Tenth's before erupted from him. He was clearly an Early-stage Nascent Soul, but what he was emitting now was no longer confined to that level. It was powerful, sharp, and so cold that the surrounding space seemed to freeze.
That terrifying aura pressed straight towards Lam Minh.
Lam Minh, who had just been reborn and hadn't even finished "warming up," was hit head-on by that pressure.
He felt as if an entire planet had just slammed into him.
His body, despite being in the [Immunity] state, was unharmed, but it was hit by an irresistible force, sending him flying backward.
He shot straight out of the atmosphere, hurtling into the endless void of space. He completely lost control, his body spinning in the vacuum.
"Damn it!" he cursed inwardly. This was the first time, even in his immortal state, that he had been so utterly overwhelmed.
He immediately activated the Dragon God Battle Armor. The powerful black and red dragon wings spread out, helping him stabilize his body in space.
But, just as he regained his footing.
He felt a cold gaze staring at him from behind.
It was Zeros.
Somehow, he had appeared right behind him, without a sound.
And in his hand was a pitch-black energy sphere.
It wasn't large, only about the size of a basketball. But the dark energy within it was compressed to the extreme, causing small, terrifying cracks to appear in the surrounding space, as if it were about to collapse.
Zeros gave Lam Minh no chance. He pushed the energy sphere towards him.
A true life-and-death crisis had just begun.
...
The pitch-black energy sphere, carrying a power that could crack space itself, slowly flew towards Lam Minh. Its speed wasn't fast, but it had locked onto him, leaving him no path to escape.
Lam Minh, despite being in the [Immunity] state, could feel a mortal danger from this sphere. This was no ordinary physical or energy attack.
He didn't dare to be careless. He mustered all his strength, raised the God-Slaying Blade, and swung his most powerful slash towards it.
But a strange scene occurred.
When his sword qi hit the black sphere, it didn't explode. It was simply... swallowed. The black sphere was like a small black hole, absorbing all the energy from his slash, leaving not even a ripple.
"What?" Lam Minh was stunned.
Before he could react, the black sphere touched him.
It didn't explode spectacularly either. It just gently pressed against his Dragon God Battle Armor, then dissolved, turning into countless pitch-black energy threads, like viruses, frantically burrowing into his body through the smallest gaps in his armor.
Lam Minh, at the center of the sphere, didn't feel the explosion of destructive power, but an invasion.
A cold and evil invasion.
Those streams of black energy flooded into every cell, every meridian. They didn't destroy; they assimilated, they corrupted. They surged into his dantian, trying to envelop and corrode his Dragon God Golden Core.
And more terrifyingly, they attacked his sea of consciousness, his very soul.
Lam Minh felt his head spin. Countless negative illusions and ghostly whispers echoed in his mind. Fear, anger, despair... emotions he had tried to suppress were now amplified a thousandfold.
He felt like he was about to suffer a cultivation deviation. The spiritual power in his body began to run rampant.
"Damn it!"
Even the [Immunity] state couldn't resist this bizarre spiritual attack. The system could protect his physical body from harm, but it couldn't protect his mind from invasion.
He knew that if this continued, even if he didn't die, he would become a madman, a puppet controlled by the dark qi.
In his most desperate moment, he used the last of his willpower to roar in his mind, a cry for help directed at the only person who could help him now.
"DAMN IT! UNCLE, SAVE ME!!!"
On the battlefield of the pinnacle experts.
Lac Long Quan, who was still locked in a stalemate with the Holy Master and Faker, suddenly paused. His expression changed drastically. He had heard Lam Minh's cry for help.
He instantly understood everything.
This wasn't an attack. This was a trap.
An incredibly elaborate trap, set just for Lam Minh, to neutralize his trump card, his future chess piece.
"HOW DARE YOU!!!"
A heaven-shaking roar, carrying endless Draconic Might, exploded from Lac Long Quan. The anger of a king, the fury of a grandfather seeing his grandson in danger, caused his power to be completely unleashed.
A set of dragon battle armor, even more beautiful and majestic than Lam Minh's, appeared, enveloping his body. The armor was golden, engraved with ancient patterns, exuding an absolute royal aura.
A Dragon Soul Spear, an invincible divine weapon, also appeared in his hand.
Red-gold energy erupted from his body like a sun, the power of a Peak Late-stage Nascent Soul pushing both the Holy Master and Faker far away.
He immediately wanted to tear space apart and rush to Lam Minh's side to take him away.
But the Holy Master had anticipated this.
His dark figure quickly appeared, blocking Lac Long Quan's path. Faker immediately provided backup, forming an impassable wall.
"SCRAM!!!"
Lac Long Quan let out a roar that shook space itself. He wasted no more words. He swung the Dragon Soul Spear, a simple horizontal sweep that carried the power to shatter stars, lashing straight towards the Holy Master and Faker.
Faced with a full-powered attack from an enraged Lac Long Quan, even the Holy Master had to get serious.
He clasped his hands together, forming a square in front of him, and shouted. "Open!"
A deep, dark spatial portal appeared, trying to swallow the spear.
BOOM!!!
The dark portal lasted only a millisecond before it was shattered by the power of the Dragon Soul Spear.
The spear, though partially weakened, continued its trajectory.
The Holy Master and Faker hurriedly used all their strength to defend, but were still hit.
Both of them were sent flying back by the spear, retreating continuously in space, a trickle of blood seeping from the corners of their mouths.
A single blow had injured two Peak Nascent Soul experts. The power of Lac Long Quan when enraged was truly terrifying.
But he had also been held back.
In just those three short seconds.
When he looked back towards Lam Minh, he was nowhere to be seen.
Both Lam Minh and Zeros had vanished without a trace.
In space, only the four heavily injured Holy Envoys remained, dazed and confused about what had just happened.
Lac Long Quan stood there, in the cold void of space. The fire of anger in his eyes slowly died down, replaced by a terrifying coldness.
His heart, in that instant, felt as if it had fallen into an eternal ice pit.