Mingzhi tightened her grip on the Heavenly Ghost Crow's head, dragging him through the air like a captured criminal.
Yet, before she could humiliate him further, a massive pulse of energy surged from his body.
*Boom!~*
A blast of darkness mixed with a radiant layer of white exploded out, forcing Mingzhi to narrow her eyes as she retreated. In the next instant, the man's figure twisted, his white robes shredding into motes of light as his form ballooned and reshaped into a massive beast.
Before the Autarchs' wide eyes, an awe-inspiring beast emerged.
The Heavenly Ghost Crow's magical beast form spanned nearly a thousand meters across. One wing was pure obsidian, looking as though it was darker than the abyss, while the other blazed with blinding, holy brilliance, full of sacredness.
His body was lean yet powerful, cloaked in layers of flowing black-and-white feathers that shimmered with an eerie, heavenly light as though he descended from the heavens. His eyes, now huge orbs, retained their split colors. One a pit of bottomless darkness, the other a piercing white sun. His beak, long and slightly curved, gleamed like it could slice space itself, and his talons radiated a cold, deathly mist.
There was a layer of dark fog around him, indicating that his entire body was a radiance of darkness energy and had nothing to do with light energy. At the same time, a halo of intertwined black and white mist circled around his crown of ghostly white feathers, creating an oppressive majesty that weighed heavily on all below the Autarch Stage.
It was the characteristic of a Kingly Heavenly Ghost Crow.
"Hehe~"
But Mingzhi merely chuckled coldly.
"So you think transforming will change your fate?"
Mingzhi took two steps forward.
Her body shimmered, twilight energy blossoming like a dream made real. A mysterious haze of light and darkness, like the meeting point of dawn and dusk, enveloped her. Mingzhi's hands wove through the air, shaping the energy into a massive sword forged from pure twilight essence.
"If I wanted to end this quickly, I would've used devouring energy and stripped you into a bald bird already," she remarked lazily, her twilight sword humming with terrifying prowess, "But where's the fun in that?"
*Boom!*
The Heavenly Ghost Crow screeched furiously, blasting out torrents of cursed darkness laced with white purity. It was as though it wasn't darkness energy at all. The two extremes wove together into a mystical force that could annihilate most enemies, yet when it struck Mingzhi's twilight energy, it simply melted away, as though daybreak dissolving the thickest night.
With a flick of her wrist, Mingzhi manipulated the surrounding space itself, folding the layers of space tightly around the Heavenly Ghost Crow. His massive body jerked and struggled, unable to freely flap his scrunched-up wings.
"You-!"
And then, she appeared before his giant face and struck.
The twilight sword slashed downward, not just across physical flesh but across concepts themselves.
*Rip!~*
Wherever the sword passed, heat and cold, light and darkness, life and death, sunlight and moonlight, nearly every two halves of everything collapsed and mingled into a mysterious dichromatic brilliance. It was neither bright nor dark, neither hot nor cold. It was as though it was a power that couldn't be countered by anything.
"Screech!~*
The Heavenly Ghost Crow howled in pain, deep gashes tearing open across his heavenly body. Blood, if it could even be called that- poured like silver liquid and dissipated from the power of twilight. The Heavenly Ghost Crow's blood was indeed silver, another reason why they were called a blessed race, although scholars argued that it was because they were Magical Soul Beasts that were a variety of their own.
"You think you can survive without kneeling?" Mingzhi's voice reverberated like a devil pronouncing judgment, "You are nothing before me."
She stood in the air, coldly glaring with a wicked smile.
The King-Tier Heavenly Ghost Crow flapped his wings desperately, releasing more barrages of darkness and light, but the oppressive twilight swallowed everything. Mingzhi's attacks were relentless, her control over space perfect, giving him no room to recover, much less retaliate.
Mingzhi... dominated the battle completely, causing countless jaws to drop.
"Enough!"
Mingzhi raised her head and gazed at a green-white-robed fairy with serene blue hair that flowed like the mist. Her brows raised.
"Oh, if it isn't Venerable Knight Lussandra. What brings you here?"
"To stop the Divine Emperor of Death's forces, of course."
Venerable Knight Lussandra uttered, her voice containing authority and grace. As her voice fell, thousands of Heaven's Warriors descended from the skies, each one radiating the prowess of a genius, although they were in the minority. Still, there were at least four hundred Empyreans and Autarchs among them, a minority in the Late Stage.
It was a terrifying force, making the skies change color and tremble.
Mingzhi's gaze turned cold, "What's this? I thought we had an agreement?"
"Yes, it only dictates that we, the Divine Sentinel Order, won't interfere with the execution of the Ghostly Crow Realm Master. You can kill him as you please, but we will defend the Ghostly Crow Lower Realm, awaiting its next ruler."
"What a load of crap~" Mingzhi scoffed, her eyes giving off a dangerous look, "If we killed him, his loot would belong to us. In the same way, as long as the Ghostly Crow Realm Master is alive, you must also not interfere with what he owns, which is this Lower Realm's Realm Core. Otherwise, you're breaking your word."
"…"
Venerable Knight Lussandra went silent.
"Besides," Mingzhi giggled, "What are you Heaven's Warriors trying to do surrounding us in the Verdant Vale Lower Realm for a whole month? How long are you going to keep this up and do nothing?"
"We haven't strayed from our words. Not a single Divine Sentinel Order's warriors are present there. If they are there, then it must mean they are from the other Heaven's Warriors Organizations."
Venerable Knight Lussandra answered, "As for the Realm Core being the Ghostly Crow Realm Master's property, it would be the case if he owns the realm, but the Heavenly Ghost Crow Clan says that they have temporarily allowed the Ghostly Crow Clan to own it, and make up to their mistakes from the past. Clearly, this realm doesn't belong to him alone. Even if he's the Realm Master, he's not like the Azure Tree Realm Master, who has owned the realm from its formation. Instead, Realm Master Yughen inherited it from his ancestors, so it could be argued it is a clan's proper-"
"Alright, alright." Mingzhi scoffed, shaking her head, "I can see why a Heaven's Warrior like you would be agreeable to make an agreement with an Anarchic Divergent. You can think so flexibly and act wisely. Consider me impressed~"
She cupped her hands and bowed. However, she inclined her head above, smiling wickedly.
"Last time, I didn't get to kill all of them because they escaped. Have you turned traitorous enough to bring them back and let them die this time around?"
"…!"
There was finally a glint of anger in Venerable Knight Lussandra's eyes.