Rainbow Sky was a medium-sized planet with a population of over twelve billion. This only considered the cultivators and mortals, not the other forms of life such as insects, birds, reptiles, fishes, and other things needed for an ecological system to sustain itself over time. If they were considered, then to say it housed trillions of living beings would not be an exaggeration.
It was home to many forces and promising talents, outstanding beauties, and hardworking folks that simply sought to provide for their family. These people had dreams, ambitions, and plans for the next day. Whether to travel the planet, visit far-off family members, explore the stars, or confess their love to another. It was numerous; it was endless.
Those bright lights, on this day, half of them were met with a brief shadow covering their sight. They might have looked up, or been unaware as they napped, or too engrossed in the bodies of their loved ones to notice, but the shadow appeared.
It was large and it was emanating fiery light, heat scorching fiercely. The lucky ones were incinerated instantly. The unfortunate ones were on the other side of the planet. They felt the quakes, the feeling of something wrong at the cusp of occurring, yet they couldn't react as the earth beneath them cracked and lifted, the sky scorched by heat, and their flesh melting almost instantly after.
These people might not know why they died, but they felt death approaching.
The scene sent everyone into a stunned silence. They watched as the magma fist spared no life on Rainbow Sky. The devastating power of an Earthly Saint was fully revealed at this moment.
It was often said that Ascended beings have the mighty power to destroy continents, planets, even starfields, yet few had ever really seen it take place. In the times of war, perhaps this was the case, the power that led to thousands of starfields to be reduced to less than two dozen. A measly two dozen.
Wu Yu's heart felt as if it had stopped, his senses felt every life be snuffed out. A tremendous wave of emotions surged through his heart, and he couldn't help but look away as the planet met its final moments. It didn't explode. It didn't crumble into innumerable pieces. It just melted from the scorching heat and became a mass of hot rock.
The magma fist mercilessly passed through the planet with ease, as if it was merely paper, shooting past the planet, yet its remnant power had caused this catastrophic scene to unfold.
Utterly devastating…
"..."
"...No. No, no, no! Wh-what have you done? WHAT DID YOU DO?!" A crazed, hectic, emotional voice exploded outwards in the form of a spiritual burst. A mixture of vigorated rage, distressed confusion, and unnerving disbelief encapsulated it all. It was torn, heavy-hearted and fueled by shock.
San Luoyang shouted out. The Ascended beings weren't talking vocally, but through publicly available spiritual messages that anyone with the appropriate sense level can grasp with ease. Yet at this moment, he shouted vocally, and the Dark Void, a vacuum, trembled ceaselessly. Just from the reverberations of space, the experts on scene easily understood his words.
But they were confused.
San Luoyang was shouting towards Wu Yu!
Wu Yu halted his 2nd Grand Transformation, conserving his Imperial Heaven Aura, and he looked at San Luoyang. "Think," was all he said, as he looked at the Ever-Knight beside San Luoyang. The tangerine-colored eyes within the helmet were slightly bulging with shock. Clearly, even this Earthly Saint was caught off-guard.
The discomfort in Wu Yu's heart unraveled itself, producing tremendous doubts in his mind. He looked towards the trail of blood that the Ever-Knight left behind, finding his struggling form that was attempting to use Temporal Reversion to heal his physical injuries. Unfortunately, it seemed the intermittent bursts of time energy was a sign of continuous failure.
The neck portion of their armor was drenched in dark-red blazing blood that elevated the temperature of the Ever-Knight's immediate surroundings. The Imperial Heaven Aura was quite skilled at hindering healing efforts, including space and time energies. Now that it was reinforced by his Awakened Mystic Intent, this Ever-Knight would have to purge out the Imperial Heaven Aura before attempting to heal.
However, from that unsteady Mystic Aura of theirs, that kick of Wu Yu had severely wounded them. They wobbled as they kept trying to revert the tremendous damage they suffered. The brown-colored eyes of the Ever-Knight weren't fixed on the devastated Rainbow Sky as one would expect, but Wu Yu.
Wu Yu stared back into those cold, analyzing eyes, as if they were looking for some confirmation of sorts. This caused Wu Yu's thoughts to stir with frantic effort.
A glint of realization entered his thoughts as his eyes widened, and then turned to Rainbow Sky and with haste, shot towards Rainbow Sky with unsettling speed. Shortly after, a fierce, mind-shaking roar of rage and mourning rippled for hundreds of thousands of miles. All the spectators felt it. They felt unnerved by such an emotionally-fueled roar.
Where did this emotion come from? The lives lost on Rainbow Sky or was it more?
A starry light from the scorched and slowly fragmenting surface of Rainbow Sky shot back into the Dark Void, approaching the Ever-Knight at high-speed. A wave of abhorrent killing intent erupted from the starry light.
The Ever-Knight with tangerine-colored eyes quickly realized the devolving situation. They acted without hesitation, enveloping San Luoyang in a bubble of mystic power, sending them back to the Voidship that was far, far away, and shot towards the space between Wu Yu and the Ever-Knight, intending to intercept the former.
The other injured Ever-Knight's eyes blazed with fiery light. The Ever-Knight didn't hesitate to bring out a small pearl-like silver object the size of a typical wrecking ball, and then he shot towards Wu Yu with it closely following.
The Ever-Knight sent out a spiritual wave that carried a single message. The message caused the spectators to reel and gasp, confusion and shock apparent. They observed as the brown-eyed Ever-Knight brought out a Shell World Pearl, began to form hand-seals, activated it, and the three Earthly Saints, Wu Yu included, vanished in a burst of silver light.
They were all shocked by this event. Then they saw the smoldering remains of Rainbow Sky, their noses sniffing as if they could smell the burnt flesh of billions. Some of them felt sick to their stomachs, realizing why Earthly Saints were once again prevented from fighting in territories. No wonder other powers restricted them from entering. Others shook their heads in pity, the loss of life was heavy.
Few planetary formations could protect the living beings from an assault, especially Earthly Saints that were stronger than the average. Not even the Soul of Mysticism Phase expert guarding the planet survived.
However, for those with strong enough spiritual senses, they felt that it was an accident. The control of the magma fist had been severed by Wu Yu's attack, causing this event. It was unfortunate, and likely why the Ever-Knight resorted to using the Shell World Pearl after realizing that Wu Yu was too difficult to easily suppress as they had expected of a newly ascended Earthly Saint.
Just unfortunate.
Who could've seen this coming?
San Luoyang was frantic, staring at Rainbow Sky with his hand over his heart, feeling the pain from this event. While he didn't know why the Ever-Knight had attacked without his order, he knew that the Ever-Knights of Evergod were a loyal trio that only acted in accordance to the King of Everlore, Vice-President Evergod, or his orders.
He knew that the Evergod must've sent down orders to directly capture Wu Yu, but even he likely didn't expect this event. San Luoyang could only roll in his distressed emotions, blaming Wu Yu unjustly. With some time passing, he realized his spur of the moment words were unfair.
In the far off distance, an archaic Voidship distanced itself from the battle. At the edge of the deck, pressed against the railing, a pale-faced Wen Mingna stared at the fiery blaze and the devastated planet with calm eyes. Yet within those depths were unfathomable emotions.
A touch on her shoulder caused those emotions to leak with a start, only sealing itself after turning her head to see the closed-eyed Wei Wuyin. His handsome face and calm expression caused her heart to tremble slightly.
Wei Wuyin 'looked' at the direction of Rainbow Sky. "Did you know?" Three words formulated a question that caused Wen Mingna's hands to clench around the bar of the railing so hard her knuckles turned white.
Wei Wuyin slowly nodded, seemingly acknowledging this answer, and removing his hand from her shoulder.
Wen Mingna lowered her head, her brows interlocked as if she was on the verge of crying. "Do…you blame me?"
"..." Wei Wuyin didn't answer her immediately. This was his fault, in a way. If he had ordered Wu Yu to escape immediately with all his effort upon exit, leaving that message in the earth instead, then Wu Yu wouldn't have stayed and got caught in this scheme.
However, ifs were ifs.
Wei Wuyin soon answered Wen Mingna, "No, I don't. I'll never blame someone for saving my life, and the life of Bai Lin and themselves. It would be selfish of me, stupid of me, and against my nature."
Wei Wuyin placed his hand softly atop Wen Mingna's, causing her heavy grip to loosen slightly. She turned her teary-eyed gaze towards Wei Wuyin with some surprise. When she saw that warm smile, she felt her mind stall.
"Thank you," Wei Wuyin wasn't one to say these two words easily, but Wen Mingna deserved all of it and more. Not just for her willingness to give her life to give him information about Hell, not even understanding the tremendous importance and significance this carried for him, but her continued efforts to support him.
He couldn't fathom why this outstanding woman was willing to do all this for him. Even now, he couldn't recall a single moment that would cause Wen Mingna to perform any of these tasks so thoroughly and completely. Perhaps it was simply in her nature to give her all no matter what, perhaps it was something more.
Moreover, she wasn't emotionless. She felt remorse and guilt, despite having nothing to be guilty about.
Wen Mingna's tears began to slowly fall, and she turned away towards Rainbow Sky. Her eyes that contained guilt and sadness had changed, replaced by determination.
Wei Wuyin thought to himself: 'The Everlore Association...'
Earlier, before San Luoyang's scream, before Rainbow Sky's destruction, before the fight between Wu Yu and the Ever-Knight, directly after Wu Yu had announced himself as the Grand Knight of Neo-Dawn, in the Everlore Association's Central World Realm—Everlore God Realm, in a luxurious sky palace designed in seven-colored light of the Alchemic Dao was floating above a unique Dwarf-sized Solar Star.
The Solar Star had a Mystic Radiance Belt; however, the Mystic Radiance Belt wasn't of the typical mystic color, but of the seven distinct colors of the Alchemic Dao. They were quite beautiful, giving the scenery that it shone upon a unique appearance.
Within the palace known as the Evergod Absolute Palace, a slender male figure dressed in golden-colored robes observed a large oval mirror that reflected an animated scene and released spiritual sound waves. The images were of Wu Yu and Rainbow Sky in the background. He was carrying his confident smile and talked without fear.
From the point-of-view of the displayed scene, one could determine that it belonged to the brown-eyed Ever-Knight. Somehow, the mirror was connected to the Ever-Knight's senses.
"Grand Monarch Wu Yu?" The figure had a husky, alluringly rich voice that contained the epitome of authority, wisdom, and age. Despite that, the chestnut-colored skin of his hands and back of his neck was smooth and youthful, lacking any signs of aging.
They lifted their hand, waving it across the mirror and the image of Wu Yu expanded until only his neck and face was visible in the oval mirror.
"One of that person's old toys? He's alive…" The golden-robed man touched the mirror with a slight tap of his finger, causing it to return back to normal. "So he's the Grand Knight of Neo-Dawn now? Hmph. He survives and the first thing he does is become another's toy, quite pathetic."
A short silence ensued, broken by the man's voice: "But he did reach the Earthly Saint level. This Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn…" That rich voice slowly lowered in tone, carrying a little curiosity.
"First that little bitch's advancement and now this person. If he's truly under a hundred years of age, his potential…"
The scenes on the oval mirror continued until San Luoyang began to leave. This caused the figure to release a hum of amusement and then one of realization. "Scan the planet, search for traces of the Utmost Purity Mist or high-level Alchemic Energies."
The order was immediately carried out as the Ever-Knight glanced at San Luoyang for a brief moment, proceeding to search the planet. Wei Wuyin had created the Divine Edge Spell to seal manifestations of the Alchemic Dao, the emissions of alchemical energies, but not to rid the traces left behind. An oversight on his part, never realizing that he left a trail behind with each concoction.
That instantly caused the Ever-Knight to locate where he had conducted his experiment of the Eighth Source Transcendence Spell!
And so, the golden-robes figure discovered it too.
"It's recent!" The golden-robed figure stared at the oval mirror, viewing the remnant aura, and then recalled Wu Yu's abrupt Earthly Ascension. This was atypical for cultivators to do, unless…
It wasn't planned.
Forced ascensions happened quite often, and they were typically signs of extremely high chances of success. Wu Yu must've experienced this. No wonder…no wonder…
"He must still be on the planet, watching and waiting," the man mused with a hint of a smile in his voice. Unfortunately, the Ever-Knight likely wouldn't be able to find him through whatever concealments he had off a cursory sweep of his senses. He was just about to deliver orders when Wu Yu announced a message to the Everlore Association, and just before he changed it to the entire Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, the man ordered with remarkable swiftness: "Destroy Rainbow Sky; capture Wu Yu."
"..." The Ever-Knight need not respond. He was given orders and he would enact them without hesitation. After all, he was an Ever-Knight of the Evergod.
After the fighting began, the golden-robed man coldly said with clenched fists: "I will not let what happened before happen now. Never again." Those words carried incredible hatred, and those fists radiated tense power. The figure walked away, his seven-colored eyes revealed a light of inner turmoil but steeled resolve.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
A series of hectic explosions occurred in the Shell World Pearl's unique spatial realm, isolated it was, but the powers unleashed were barely being contained!
Suddenly, an implosion occurred as a silver energy halo spread out and expanded, stretching outwards for thousands of miles!
Then, three figures tumbled out of its epicenter.
