Chapter Five

1

"Whew! That was scary." Lilith lay casually on the sandy ground, the capture of the residual soul bringing a strong pulling force that had paralyzed both of her arms.

"Thirsty?" I collected and filtered clean water in my hand, dripping it onto Lilith's face.

"Ah~~"

Lilith opened her mouth, the cool and refreshing droplets of water quenching her thirst, and I let out a gentle laugh.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Lilith, why are you so curious? I just laughed, and you have to ask so seriously?"

"No, your face says: 'This girl is really silly!'"

At that moment, I felt the presence of an unscrupulous Angel from The Human Realm.

"You're not silly at all, quite clever actually. Just now, that residual soul excels at triggering the explosive power of the soul. If it were still alive, it could even control the life and death of lower beings. It's like a small Pluto of the Dragon race."

Suddenly, Lilith's expression turned pained as the power of the Dragon race surged within her body, causing the environment around us to darken in an instant, and the residual soul began to gather. I immediately drove away these attracted residual souls, or else Lilith would be in danger.

"Still unstable!" Through Lilith's contract, I entered her consciousness, monitoring the movements of this residual Dragon soul. Torn between Lilith's pain and madness, I sat on top of her, restraining her hands with mine.

"If we're going to recover this scoundrel, we can't give up!" Lilith and I worked together to erase the consciousness of the residual Dragon soul completely, not allowing it to act on its own whims.

"I... might need to rest for two days." Lilith finally calmed down, feeling extremely restless and unaccustomed to the power of the Dragon soul within her. She needed some time to control this power.

"Let's go back. The awakening of the Demon King should also be complete." I lifted Lilith up on my back, realizing that sending her to retrieve the Dragon soul was a mistake and that I should be the one to become stronger.

"Do they awaken that fast? This is the accumulation of millions of years of grudges!"

"Without extraordinary determination, how can one become the Demon King? Moreover, the divine and demonic originate from humans, a truth they understood from a young age, but no one dared mention it, nor did they want to."

"It seems like there's a special power in battle in The Human Realm." Lilith's senses were keen, detecting a rare power in battle in The Human Realm, and this was a fact.

"It's Qin Ying, the Phoenix-transformed Qin Ying."

"Wow? Phoenixes are truly beautiful. I saw a Phoenix in my father's album once, with its dazzling posture and graceful demeanor. I remember that Phoenix was white. Are there also multicolored ones? Are they powerful?"

"Yes, a long time ago, there was one that appeared, it doesn't matter if they are strong, they are just beautiful. But later, it died."

"Didn't you say Phoenixes are reborn every hundred years? Do they need external forces to truly die? Who did it?"

"I did, because I died, she died too..."

"Oh, your ex-wife." Lilith understood. The multicolored Phoenix was the Phoenix clan associated with the Qin family, the last generation of Dragon Consort who perished immediately after the death of the Demon Dragon. It was strange, though. Since my first visit to The Demon Realm until now, I haven't seen or felt the presence of the Phoenix clan. What have they gone through in the thirteen million years and where have they disappeared to?

"All the people are dead, please don't be jealous!"

"Eat your ghost, there are plenty of jealousies in school. What's the point of being jealous of someone who has passed away?" Lilith leaned against my back, at this moment, I was hers.

The Human Realm, Qin Ying in phoenix form was circling in the sky, the depraved Angel had been restrained, the bombing-type Angels from The Divine Realm had already retreated, this depraved Angel was actually prepared to abandon them long ago.

At this moment, the eighteen-winged Angel Nofice appeared above the depraved Angel, conducting judgment and fallen decree. The depraved Angel's eyes showed anticipation, he longed to become a Fallen Angel. When he found out that a comrade had become a Fallen Angel in the last war, he was eager for it as well.

All warships retreated ten kilometers, assessing the damage. The retaliatory attacks from The Divine Realm had a "hurting the enemy by a thousand, sacrificing oneself by eight hundred" effect. Although it seemed unwise, their intention was to show the ambition of the human and divine races, they would not stop.

Qin Ying and Nofice, back in their normal human forms, faced the Fallen Angel whose grotesque face had now returned to a delicate one. A standard Angel gesture was offered to the "Grand Judge".

Afterwards, he would proceed to where he should go.

Qin Ying saw Nofice's wings, once all white, now transforming back into black and white, she was greatly shocked. She had thought Nofice could maintain her wings as white as snow.

Nofice couldn't explain it either, she just knew that when she dealt with targets who were Angels or Fallen Angels, she would become one of the targets.

"The upper gods are going to join the war!" Nofice looked into the distance, a light as small as a bean, she could sense the wingless upper gods, they could not tolerate the repeatedly low morale of the Angels. It was likely the depraved Angels would no longer be used frequently. Nofice wanted to liberate them, but it was not appropriate to visit The Divine Realm at this stage, she needed to find the remaining depraved Angels.

Suddenly, a "sonic boom" appeared in the sky above the sea, before the sound was heard, the super-sonic flying gods arrived with a provocative meaning.

"He's here to provoke, ignore him." Nofice remained calm, facing one person with two of them, that god wouldn't actually start a fight, it would be to his disadvantage.

"We can also play a trick on him."

Both girls acted at the same time, a burst of light stimulating the eyes. The flying god, under the glare, didn't get dizzy for a moment, although he quickly regained his sight, he collided with a rock summoned by Nofice. Turning back, it turned out that Nofice had summoned a rock giant. The god pierced through the rock giant with one blow, but hitting a stone head-on would always feel a bit painful. A white magical cannon passed by him in his moment of pause, next to Nofice was the young white fox again. Summoning the adult nine-tailed fox again would be a difficult task.

"He ran away, how lame! Hahaha!" Qin Ying saw the god leave and felt delighted, provokers must be struck down.

"If he could summon the nine-tailed fox, he would have been dead long ago." Nofice patted the young white fox, gave it a candy, and returned to its original place.

The Demon Realm, inside Yu City, my doppelgänger had the demon kings take a light orb back to their territory, to make the army aware.

"Have they truly awakened?" Lilith gazed at the empty house, feeling doubtful about how easily the demon lords would accept the truth.

"It's difficult, because the essence of the challenge lies in them admitting their shared origin with the divine beings. But for the war they desire, I believe they will manage to do it."

"What should we do next?"

"We need to come up with a plan to locate the dragons in the most peaceful and efficient way possible. If they are unwilling to engage in battle, we must still request their aid."

At this moment, Forst Lord entered the room, not leaving as I had instructed.

"My father from years past, is this the final gathering? My army awaits my command to storm into The Divine Realm!"

"Why bother with commands? Just entrust your army to the Snow Queen, especially since she is your daughter."

"Father, you might as well retire along with the ten minus one equals nine demon lords. I am Forst Lord!"

"A good idea. Perhaps retire alongside Lais Guer, merge Han and Snow into one, and I can recruit a new demon lord."

Shaking his head, Forst Lord's reluctance was not due to how much he would lose in this arrangement, but because by doing so, the Snow Queen's territory would become the largest among the ten demon lords, making her a target in the next internal conflict.

"Forst Lord, have you asked Pia the question I asked you to?"

Due to time constraints, I had tasked Forst Lord with questioning Pia about how Marutian had turned the three dragons into humans with external help. The answer lay in injecting the power of the timeline into the dragon core as it was about to become a human. Pia might not understand, but from her description, I deduced that Marutian had manipulated the "timeline" of the closed "time axis" in the old dragon realm.

"Coyalu and I will go find the dragons. Lilith, you stay in The Demon Realm to recuperate. Ultimately, we will meet at the Gate of the Divine and Demonic Realms."

"Qin Yang, have you come up with a solution?"

"Not yet, we'll figure it out as we go." With an unwilling Coyalu by my side, I departed from Yu City. In The Demon Realm, the locations of only three dragons were confirmed, while rumors of others remained unverified and had to be abandoned.

The Human Realm, a stormy island. An Anubis arrived riding the waves, transforming into a human upon reaching the island, completely untouched by the downpour.

"Boss."

"One missing, your brother is gone, Xiang!" Marutian sat by the fire, watching as these Anubis beings returned to him one by one. During this period, they consumed 'hearts' incessantly. Even with only half a strand of soul, they could live well, while also gaining increasing spirituality. No longer the idle gatekeeping stone statues they used to be.

"Boss, I have no idea."

"He has betrayed us." Marutian pointed east, where two figures sat above the Gate of Divine and Demonic Realms, one of them being Hong, now a follower of another dragon.

"I'll bring him back!"

"No need, just ensure that you can intimidate your brother if needed in battle."

"I can!" Xiang had no hesitation. With the hearts consumed, he had acquired many emotions akin to a normal person, making it not easy for him to comply.

"Bring all of you back. I am ready to seize the Demon God Gate. You are my last helpers. Those divine beings can barely handle the demons."

The Anubis chorus agreement, with the demons hidden beyond the Demon God Gate and not something they need to worry about. Their only task was to obey Marutian.

"Boss, about your dragon head..."

"That thing is not the most important. As long as the Demon God Gate is in my hands, the seal on the dragon head will not be an issue. It will be easily dealt with, you should understand that!"

In Marutian's view, the dragon spine was more crucial than the dragon head. He now needed a stronger body to unleash the power of his mighty dragon soul. It was inconvenient without a suitable body, even if this body could transform into a dragon, it still couldn't accommodate his dragon soul perfectly. It was almost there, but not quite.