Artimasia had never been this terrified before.

For her, whether in the past or now, this was the first time she had ever tasted this feeling.

Like burning flames, yet also like a freezing current sliding down Artimasia’s throat, flowing into her stomach. Artimasia could even feel her own stomach being corroded, pierced through. Then that terrifying, eerie energy continued to drip downward, clinging to the bones, flesh, and organs lining the inside of her body, slowly yet relentlessly eroding them, claiming every inch of surface.

No, don’t, let me go!

But it wasn’t just a change on the physical level; Artimasia even felt her Soul begin to waver. The thoughts in her mind gradually grew chaotic, as if an invisible giant hand was flipping through her memories like files in an archive—opening them, browsing, then tossing them aside.

Those memories that Artimasia had once discarded, even sealed away, once again surfaced in her mind. Yet right now, Artimasia couldn’t even stop any of it; she could only pray, beg, hope the other party would stop wantonly toying with her memories and Soul.

But.........

I don’t give a damn about that!

Duanmu Huai, who was rifling through Artimasia’s Soul, decisively shoved that faint wail aside. He wasn’t interested in whether this woman lived or died. What Duanmu Huai was looking for was the connection rooted deep in her Soul to the Dragon God! He had already sensed it—that evil, nauseating presence, like the stench of a shattered toilet bowl. And now what he had to do was follow that stink and then kill it!

Right here!

Duanmu Huai kicked the door in front of him open, and the surrounding mental world let out a shrill, piercing scream. But Duanmu Huai couldn’t be bothered with such details. He stared at the spiritual world before him, then strode inside.

The entire room was blank, with only scattered building blocks toppled on the floor; there wasn’t a single human figure anywhere. At first glance, it seemed like just a normal empty room.

But Duanmu Huai could feel it—right here, the very center of that dense stench!

"Boom, boom, boom......!"

The walls around him cracked apart, and thick, massive tentacles smashed through the mental barriers like vines, emerging from behind Duanmu Huai, forming an army that advanced forward. They rose high, then whipped forward with all their strength, smashing apart the pure white mental barrier in front of them!

"Crack—bang!"

The wall that had looked smooth and clean shattered like an eggshell, and the twisted thing hidden within this mindscape surfaced along with it.

At first glance, it wasn’t a living creature.

Or rather, at least from the outside, it didn’t have a body or facial features like a living creature should. What was hidden behind the pure white wall looked more like a mass of multicolored mist. It—or they—floated in the air, looking more like some kind of natural phenomenon.

And the moment he saw this bizarre phenomenon, Duanmu Huai’s heart jolted!

This is.........!

"Lady Artimasia!"

Seeing Artimasia being tightly gripped in Duanmu Huai’s hand like a Puppet, the Dragon head let out an enraged roar. It manipulated the body it had parasitized to soar high into the air, then opened its maw wide, aiming at Duanmu Huai. Behind it, veins stretched out like fuel hoses on a car, reaching down to connect with the Royal Palace below. Look closely and you would see that at the end of those veins were people. Including the King, the Queen, Guards, and even Servants.

By now they had all collapsed on the ground like dried corpses, all their blood drawn out, supplied, and condensed into the Dragon head. The latter opened its jaws, took aim at Duanmu Huai, and then a sudden jet of blood burst out from the Dragon head—and vanished.

Blazing lightning fell from the sky, turning into a Sharp Blade that slammed heavily into the Dragon head. With all its attention focused entirely on Duanmu Huai, the Dragon head clearly hadn’t expected someone to sneak-attack from behind. Before it could react, the exploding thunder completely blasted that massive Dragon head into fragments.

"Phew........."

Only then did Hei Chuan Chi Yin reveal herself on top of the nearby High Tower, watching her surroundings cautiously.

At her side, Fureya wore a smug expression.

"Well? My idea wasn’t bad, right? The Hero is super eye-catching; as long as he’s there, everyone’s gaze gets drawn to him first. For a Magician, that’s the perfect timing. As long as you focus and pick the right position, even a powerful enemy can be taken out with a single Critical Hit."

"Isn’t that just common sense? Big sis, you always make the simplest things sound so complicated."

Princess Noren sighed helplessly, then turned her gaze toward the battlefield.

"Let’s focus on the surroundings for now. Hm... I wonder if there are any other Blood Clan left........."

Before she finished speaking, Princess Noren suddenly shivered.

"Chi Yin, Defense, now, full power!"

"Eh?"

A dazzling flash erupted from the ground.

A beam of light shot straight into the sky, piercing the thick clouds like a Sharp Blade stabbing into the heavens. The shockwave that exploded out was like an invisible giant hand, sweeping everything around flat in an instant.

Hei Chuan Chi Yin didn’t even know what had happened. She just instinctively cast a protective spell, and then her whole body was blown into the air like a pebble caught in a typhoon, before crashing heavily to the ground. Everything around her was spinning and tumbling; she couldn’t tell up from down, north from south. Her ears rang, the world seemed shattered, and even Hei Chuan Chi Yin herself felt like she’d been ripped apart.

No one knew how long had passed before the storm around them finally began to subside. Hei Chuan Chi Yin lifted her head and looked around, then gasped in shock.

The once-prosperous Royal City had completely vanished. All around her there was only dust, rubble, and the howling wind. No people, no screams—like everything had been utterly obliterated, as if the whole world had been destroyed along with it.

"W-what the hell happened?"

"I don’t know either."

Princess Noren appeared behind Hei Chuan Chi Yin and shook her head.

"I was just watching that woman, and suddenly I had a really bad feeling—my premonitions are usually spot on with this sort of thing."

"If it weren’t for your damned bad premonition, maybe nothing would’ve happened."

Fureya complained unhappily.

"............"

Hei Chuan Chi Yin didn’t bother with the sisters’ squabble between the other two. She just stood there dumbly on this wasteland, staring at the dust all around. Where was this place? Where was the Royal City? Hei Chuan Chi Yin still remembered that Royal City as a place full of high-rises and Castles, but now the whole city seemed to have been completely annihilated, like it had been wiped off the surface of the earth by a nuclear explosion. All those people, those who had just been walking and running on the streets, and the original residents of this city—no, none of that mattered. What mattered was: where was Xiao Ai?

Luckily, Fureya was at least pretty reliable when it came to Magic.

"I can feel Brave Lord’s presence. This way."

Under Fureya’s guidance, Hei Chuan Chi Yin found Duanmu Huai in a pile of dust in the distance. At the moment he was desperately crawling out of the dirt, covered head to toe in grime.

"Mad, this is what they mean by ’often walk by the river and you’re bound to get your shoes wet.’ No, this time it’s not even my fault..."

Duanmu Huai crawled out of the dust and waved at Hei Chuan Chi Yin.

"Thanks, what rotten Luck, running into that kind of bastard......" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Ah, no, it’s nothing... Xiao Ai, what exactly happened just now?"

Hei Chuan Chi Yin hesitated for a moment, but still couldn’t help asking. Duanmu Huai gave her an answer.

"Honestly, not much. I just wanted to use that woman to see if I could track down the Dragon God—the bastard who turned those guys into Blood Clan."

"And you failed?"

"No, I succeeded."

"???"

She had to admit, after hearing Duanmu Huai’s answer, Hei Chuan Chi Yin was full of question marks. She’d thought he had failed, or accidentally triggered some trap. But if he’d clearly succeeded, why did things end up like this?

Duanmu Huai didn’t answer Hei Chuan Chi Yin’s question. Right now his expression was equally grim.

Just like he’d told Hei Chuan Chi Yin, he had successfully found the Dragon God.

But the problem was... the other side’s identity was a bit unexpected.

It wasn’t a Dragon God, but a Star Gods.

Yup, that same pain-in-the-ass thing.

And it wasn’t even one of those Star Gods that had obtained a metal body and an independent personality; in essence it was closer to that original salted fish orbiting the sun and soaking up radiation.

Back then the Star Gods were, strictly speaking, more like a kind of "natural phenomenon." It was only after Fear of Death lured them into metal bodies that the Star Gods gained self-awareness—that’s how it was supposed to be.

But his earlier contact with that Star Gods made Duanmu Huai overturn that idea.

The thing had no physical form, but it clearly possessed consciousness. Not only that, it even left Duanmu Huai with a single sentence.

"That which has yet to exist"......

Duanmu Huai clenched his fists, face serious. Star Gods were different from Evil God. When it came to this sort of background-level boss, players actually knew very little. Basically, the Star Gods players were familiar with were the ones that already had bodies of their own, not this kind that still maintained an almost primordial state.

But at least Duanmu Huai could be sure of one thing.

Not easy to deal with.

After sensing its presence, Duanmu Huai had used his Power of the Ancients and gone head‑to‑head with that Star Gods without any fancy tricks. That was also the cause of the sudden explosion.

To put it simply, it was fifty–fifty.

Even using the Power of the Ancients that could corrode the mind, Duanmu Huai could only inflict half damage on the Star Gods, while the other half was completely immune. How to put it... it felt like something was there, but he couldn’t hurt it at all, like a phantom that hadn’t yet become solid, which he couldn’t interfere with, and thus couldn’t truly exist.

"Forget it, let’s not worry about that for now. Where are we?"

Duanmu Huai shook his head, temporarily pushing aside what he couldn’t understand, and asked. Faced with his question, Hei Chuan Chi Yin’s expression was a bit complicated.

"We seem to... have come back."

"Huh???"

As unbelievable as Duanmu Huai found it, that was indeed the truth. Who knew what kind of chain reaction his clash with the Star Gods had caused; in any case, both Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin had been thrown out of that world and back into their original one.

"Never thought you could actually punch through a world’s Boundary. It’s beyond imagination."

After sensing the spatial fluctuations around them, Fureya was speechless as well.

"The surrounding space has completely Collapsed. As things stand, there’s no way to open a passage back over there."

"What a hassle."

Faced with this result, Duanmu Huai was more than a little speechless. According to Fureya, his clash with the Star Gods had crushed the Subspace like it’d been run over, leaving it fragile as hell. If they tried to open another passage to that world, the Boundary between the two sides—which was already shattered like eggshells—might just completely Collapse.

Yeah, the consequences could easily be worse than that poor bastard who blew up his own house by making a phone call.

"Nothing we can do."

Duanmu Huai took out his phone, glanced at it, and sighed helplessly.

"We’ll just have to go back first and take it from there."

The Boundary here was already too fragile, so they’d just have to change their angle and find somewhere less fragile to start over.