A heavy sorrow welled up in Pang Jian's heart.
The Black Dragon King had not shed a single drop of blood despite being decapitated and hacked to pieces. This was because an extreme cold had frozen his body.
Traces of radiant divine power still lingered around his severed head and cleaved-up body. It was clear that Luo Hongyan had been the one to strike him down, condensing light into an unimaginably sharp blade to slice him into pieces.
Xiao Hei, can you still hear my voice? Pang Jian asked.
The Black Dragon King remained completely silent. Not even the faintest stir came from his heart. It was as if he had already died.
Suppressing his anger and grief, Pang Jian used the faintest thread of resonance to observe the battlefield as carefully as he could, trying to piece together the exact events that had transpired. He wanted to use this battlefield to gauge the state of Luo Hongyan and Yan Lie.
He soon noticed a light flaring above the Black Empyrean Phoenix's remains. It was Qi Xu, engulfed in flames.
Qi Xu had become nothing more than a vessel after the Primordial Demon possessed her. Now, her remains, divine soul, and sacred artifact were all burning together in a massive sphere of blazing light.
Near one segment of Xiao Hei's body—specifically, by his claw—lay another corpse, torn nearly beyond recognition.
The Black Dragon King's divine power and combat strength had surged under the Black Empyrean Phoenix's guidance, enabling him to kill Qi Xu in battle, leaving the Primordial Demon without a vessel. Jing Sha, too, had likely fallen to the Black Dragon King.
For him to have grievously wounded the Primordial Demon and slain Jing Sha, even while faced with Yan Lie, Sha Jia, Ah Man, and the Primordial Demon, truly showed the Black Dragon King's might.
His bloodline, innately attuned to darkness, made him the perfect blade for the Black Empyrean Phoenix. Unfortunately, while he had played a critical role in the struggle, he had still fallen in the end.
The Black Dragon King was reduced to a dying flame running out of oil. Wisps of dark-green soul essence wandered through his skull, heart, and the scattered segments of his broken bones.
This drifting soul essence belonged to the Primordial Demon. Luo Hongyan had likely used it as a pawn, and it had paid dearly for it.
The Primordial Demon was now using the Black Dragon King's soul and remains to gather back the power it had lost in battle.
A pitch-black radiance, so dark it devoured all light, shrouded the remains of the Black Empyrean Phoenix, stretching larger than any continent within the Abyss. Auras of destruction, ruin, toxins, and corrosion spread outward from that black radiance.
The Black Empyrean Phoenix's remains had become a bizarre source of energy, yet for some reason, Luo Hongyan had not capitalized on it or refined it into her own.
Pang Jian speculated that she still lacked the strength to extract the mysteries buried within the Black Empyrean Phoenix's remains.
That could be why she needed the three additional clusters of Fortune to forge her Divine Personas of Life, Darkness, and Fire. Only after doing so could she wield the power necessary to claim everything within the Black Empyrean Phoenix's remains.
The presence of both light and cold made it clear that Luo Hongyan had played a major role in the brutal conflict.
Did Luo Hongyan order Yan Lie to strike me because I'm unworthy of her time? Or is it because she's no longer at full strength? Pang Jian wondered.
Pang Jian? The Primordial Demon's cold voice rose faintly from within the Black Dragon King's skull. Let me tell you a secret. Most of the Black Empyrean Phoenix's divine power has already been successfully transferred.
The path of the Black Empyrean Phoenix's rebirth was never confined to this body. Any powerful Fey Race warrior or Fey God in the Abyss could be her incarnation.
Luo Hongyan used me, giving me nothing more than the Black Dragon King. Never once did she allow me to so much as touch the Black Empyrean Phoenix's remains.
You—wait! Demonheaven's cloak!
The aura of death suddenly exploded from within the Black Dragon King's remains, violently severing Pang Jian's connection to the Black Dragon King's soul and cutting off communication with the Primordial Demon.
Pang Jian's gaze flickered as he gazed down at Luo Hongyan beneath the pitch-black canopy of demonic energy.
She stood atop the roof of the City Lord's Mansion, her black eyes holding only a detached calm as she said, "I'll offer you one more thing. Once Pang Jian is dead, that demonic cloak will be yours as well."
Her words were meant for the Primordial Demon.
"The Black Dragon King's remains, Demonheaven's cloak, the Dao of Demon within the Abyss will all be yours. If you still can't ascend as a Sovereign with that, you'll only have yourself to blame."
Luo Hongyan made no effort to hide her words from Pang Jian. After all, whether or not the Primordial Demon became a Sovereign did not matter. What she sought was the realm of the God King.
If she could claim the full legacy of the Black Empyrean Phoenix, fuse light and darkness into one, and integrate the powers of destruction, ruin, poison, and corruption, then she would be ready to challenge the threshold of the God King.
Once she became a God King, it mattered little if the Demon Races gave birth to another Sovereign. At that point, she would stand as the king of all Gods within the Hall of Gods. Even the Primordial Demon would fall under her command.
Giving up a portion of power and offering the Primordial Demon a chance to become a Sovereign was a price she was willing to pay.
"Yan Lie, do it," she ordered once more.
Fire God Yan Lie obediently unleashed his awe-inspiring true form, his divine domain unfurling with it.
The sea of demonic energy was set ablaze. The wicked thoughts within turned into fuel, feeding the roaring flames.
"My Dao of Fire can burn through anything—souls, thoughts, emotions, desires, artifacts, steel, even water. As long as it's within my divine domain, it'll ignite." Yan Lie grinned. "Pang Jian, if this demonic cloak had fallen into the hands of Fa Ji or He Motian, I doubt even I could have stood against it.
He shook his head with disdain.
"Your cultivation realm is too low to bring out the true power of that cloak. Even if you could unleash its true power, you still wouldn't be a match for me."
Yan Lie's blazing divine domain spread outward across the sea of demonic energy, igniting everything in its path.
Crimson arcs of lightning, manifestations of Yan Lie's comprehended Dao of Fire, roamed through the sea of flame, further intensifying the inferno.
Even Pang Jian's divine sense felt an unbearable heat from the crimson arcs, as though his very soul was being set alight. A high-ranking God like Yan Lie truly was formidable.
"Cold," Pang Jian muttered.
A cold energy spread within the surging sea of demonic energy, forming frozen mountain ranges and glacial stars.
Frigid Demon Realms resonated with the cloak, channeling icy currents through their connection. Glaciers, glacial stars, and waves of absolute cold flooded into Yan Lie's divine domain, clashing head-on with the crimson arcs of lightning.