"Francis?"

Mr. Duan looked at the golden phantom condensed from the Sacred Law in mid-air and raised an eyebrow.

He blinked. This old fox, who had always holed up in the Holy City and remained indifferent to external changes, actually popped up at this time and dared to stand openly on the opposite side of him.

A smile hung on Francis's face, his ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) golden robe particularly eye-catching against the backdrop of volcanic ash. He let out a sigh: "Your Excellency Duan, your movements are too fast—so fast that this world is on the brink of collapse. For the citizens of the Free Federation and for the survival of all living things, I have no choice but to take a side at this time. I cannot stand by and watch you devour all the Laws."

"For the citizens of the Free Federation?"

Mr. Duan heard the most ridiculous joke in the world; he let out a sneer and curled his lip.

"Stop making me laugh."

Mr. Duan stared at Francis.

He saw through the decay and evil hidden beneath this young shell.

"To be able to recover to your current youthful state, you must have sacrificed quite a few people, haven't you?" Mr. Duan thrust his hands back into his trench coat pockets and looked directly at the other party: "Let me guess. The civilians in Losga City and Newt City who evaporated overnight? One million? Or two million?"

Francis's eye twitched, but the smile on his face still did not fade.

"You talk a good game, full of benevolence and morality. You're just doing this to let your own rotting bones continue to linger on a bit longer." Mr. Duan tilted his chin: "Originally, I considered that you were already not far from death, with only one breath left, so I wasn't in a hurry to deal with you. I wanted to let you fend for yourself in this Great Purge. Unexpectedly, you've taken the initiative to come out and seek death!"

Francis, having had his disguise completely torn away, did not continue to argue and said: "Words are useless. The winner takes all, and history is always written by the victors. Today, I shall join Your Excellency Chaidamen to deal with you and completely uproot this tumor that is plaguing the present world!"

"Just with you two?" Mr. Duan sneered, as high-dimensional pressure spread outward like a tsunami: "Do you really think two Peak SSS-ranks can contend with me? You simply don't understand what a Transcendent means!"

However, just as Mr. Duan's voice fell.

"Rumble—!"

A burst of thunder sounded in the sky. Above the Old Day Mountains, which were originally completely obscured by black volcanic smoke, a black rift actually split open by force.

Countless thick, deep-purple bolts of lightning shuttled and intertwined within the clouds, forming an electrical grid capable of destroying heaven and earth. That will of heaven, which represents the lowest-level logic of the world and is sworn to erase all variables, locked its destructive spearhead onto Mr. Duan in mid-air.

Mr. Duan withdrew his smile. The surrounding space was forcibly reinforced by the Laws of the Heavenly Dao, and his power of annihilation was suppressed.

Chaidamen's hundred-zhang-tall flaming body rolled violently in the sea of lava, and he laughed heartily, his laughter shattering the volcanic ash filling the sky: "Delightful! Duan! To think that even the will of heaven would choose to help us at this time! Now, do you still think we can't contend with you?!"

At the same time.

Great Xia Country, East Sea City.

The night was deep, and all was silent. Only the underground base of the Eternal Night Guild remained brightly lit.

The long mahogany dining table was a mess of cups and plates. On the tabletop, which had held at least a hundred exquisite dishes, not even a drop of soup remained. There were no other guests at the table; only Tsubaki, who had transformed into human form, sat alone at the table.

She picked up a snow-white napkin, wiped her grease-stained mouth, and nodded to Zhou Huai, who was standing not far away.

"Thank you for the hospitality."

Afterward, Tsubaki looked at the empty plates and gave unsparing praise to the food: "It seems your present world isn't so useless after all. At least in terms of the variety of food, it performs very richly, and the taste is very delicious. It's much more interesting than us gnawing on those dry spirit fruits in the ancient times."

Zhou Huai leaned on the sofa, looking at the swept-clean tabletop, and muttered secretly: "She can really eat..."

He couldn't help but glance at the other's belly, which was still as flat as before. That was an amount of food sufficient to stuff several hundred strong men—the whole roasted sheep, deep-sea demon whale meat, and high-grade exotic beast ribs added up to several tons! He wondered where all that food went after eating so much?

Tsubaki caught Zhou Huai's gaze; she saw through his thoughts and let out a laugh.

"Don't look, my stomach doesn't store this food." Tsubaki extended a slender finger and pointed at her abdomen, "Our digestive System is different from yours as humans. As soon as this food enters my body, it is decomposed and converted into nutrients to repair my original life force."

She stood up, stretched, and continued: "Alright, this table is finished; you can arrange the next one. But this time, try to serve some fresh vegetables and spirit plants. I'm tired of all that big fish and meat; I need to neutralize it."

Zhou Huai rubbed his temples and turned to wave at Jasmine, who was waiting to the side. Jasmine understood and turned to go to the logistics warehouse to arrange for new ingredients.

In fact, Zhou Huai was currently rubbing his hands together; he had originally planned to set out for Sakura Country overnight.

After all, the current Sakura Country, under the bloody suppression of the Insect Emperor Caesar, could be completely regarded by Zhou Huai as his own backyard and exclusive resource pool.

But just a few hours ago, the Puppet regime of the Divine Dynasty sent back emergency intelligence. Now, strange phenomena are appearing one after another outside the Ise Grand Shrine; the sky is splitting, the earth is collapsing, and the energy fluctuations from the revival of the Ancient Ruins are becoming more and more violent.

If not handled properly, the entire Tokyo City might be completely destroyed by that power.

The Divine Dynasty he had worked so hard to establish would also go down with it. Not only would he lose a stable channel for collecting Divine Artifacts and experience, but it would also disrupt his entire strategic deployment. This was not what he wanted to see.

It's all the fault of this woman named Tsubaki!

Insisting on tasting the delicacies of this world on the grounds of replenishing her Origin power at this critical juncture, she had forcibly delayed several hours of his precious time.

However, since what's done is done, Zhou Huai also used these few hours of free time to carefully study the Heaven-Defying divine skill he had just learned—All Phases as One.

Back in the Simon City Ruins, he had originally thought that after his Clone fused with him, it would be equivalent to completely dissolving into the main body, unable to return to the form of an independent individual as before.

Now, after several repeated tests, it seemed he had been narrow-minded. The wonders of the high-dimensional Laws far exceeded his imagination.

As long as he had a single thought, the power fused into his body would quickly strip away. His Clone could still fly out of his body as smooth as silk and re-condense into an entity with an independent panel and skills.

In this way, he could still do as before, hiding behind the scenes and controlling his Clones to go to various parts of the world to do business and investigate intelligence. This would save him from having to do everything personally in the future, which would surely exhaust him to death.

Just as Zhou Huai was secretly sighing at the practicality of this skill.

"Ding—!"

A crisp and mechanical System notification sound rang out without warning in the depths of Zhou Huai's mind.

【smart core ai 2.0, upgrade complete!】