The Third Apostle

The Heavenly Calamity Cult…

A flicker passed through Lu Yuan's eyes. He glanced at the chaos in the sky — gradually dying down — and kept his Shadow Clone trailing after the two green-robed figures.

The three Saints above had gained a clear upper hand by now. It wouldn't be long before they could turn their attention elsewhere.

And those two — it seemed they were still rallying others?

Lu Yuan decided to try intercepting them. At the very least, he could buy the three Saints a little time.

…

Belok and Mu Jing flew swiftly forward, drawing steadily closer to the Spatial Rift. Along the way, Mu Jing produced a peculiar green crystal.

The crystal pulsed with faint light, then dissolved into streaks of green radiance that vanished from where he stood, shooting off in all directions.

Those beams of green light were nearly invisible against the sky smothered in ghostly green flames — had Lu Yuan not possessed his keen spatial awareness, he would have sensed almost nothing passing by.

After launching the green light, Belok and Mu Jing slowed their pace, apparently waiting for others to converge on their position.

From within the distant shadows, Lu Yuan's Shadow Clone watched their retreating backs. After a moment's thought, he stepped forward and vanished.

The next instant, the Shadow Clone reappeared directly beneath the Spatial Rift.

He wanted a closer look first — to see exactly what this Grand Archbishop-corrupted Spatial Rift looked like, and get a clearer picture of the situation.

If possible, he intended to seal it shut. That way, those Heavenly Calamity Cult suspects would have no route of escape.

Standing beneath the rift, the Shadow Clone tilted its head back to study it.

The gash in space was enormous. Green flames burned within it, and waves of corrosive energy poured ceaselessly outward. Even his Shadow Clone, Lu Yuan suspected, couldn't last long inside — this was Aberration power, inherently corrosive by nature. Linger too long and you'd either burn to ash or be Aberrated.

Around the terrifying rift, he sensed the spatial threads in a state of utter chaos.

That disorder was many times more complex than the Spatial Rift he had repaired on Ice Vein Star.

Even with his Saint-grade Spatial Type Transcendent Gene, the sight of it made his head swim.

Even at full effort, sealing spatial threads this tangled would demand an enormous expenditure of energy and concentration.

Yet he noticed the threads were already moving on their own — writhing, straining to mend themselves. The only thing slowing the recovery to a crawl was the green flames circulating around them.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes.

He thought back to the Spatial Rift he had encountered in the Valley of Night. Tianming Sage had possessed no Spatial Type Transcendent Gene, yet through sheer personal power alone had managed to repair that rift.

*Is this the Land of Origin's Fundamental Essence — its self-repair function?*

Something clicked.

Then his gaze shifted to a spot not far from the Spatial Rift.

There stood a barren mountain peak, and seated cross-legged atop it was a Kaman. Like Mu Jing and Belok, this Kaman wore green robes, and his aura was enormously powerful.

A Saint.

Lu Yuan's brow creased.

*He hadn't expected another Saint out here.*

And there was more.

Sweeping his perception across the area, he picked out several concealed presences nearby — not as powerful as the Kaman Saint, but Battle Emperor-level all the same.

*They've posted a Saint to guard the Spatial Rift because it's a critical chokepoint — to ensure no one destroys it.*

*These people are nothing if not careful.*

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

He looked up toward the direction the two green-robed figures were heading. They were still some distance from the central zone of the Dark Night Forest — roughly a hundred thousand kilometers or so.

At a Saint's speed, that was nothing. But since they were waiting for others to assemble, they were moving slowly.

Still in his body inside Dark Night City, Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed. He glanced at the battle in the sky — now gradually quieting — and a bold idea took shape.

…

Mu Jing and Belok drifted slowly forward when two streaks of green light closed in at speed.

They were two humans in long green robes — both bore a pair of long horns and blood-red skin, their builds cadaverously gaunt. Their robes matched the style of Mu Jing and Belok's, but where Mu Jing and Belok wore intricate blood-red patterns on their sleeves, these two bore white ones.

The pair drew near and immediately came to stand before them, bowing low.

"My Lords."

Mu Jing looked them over with cool indifference. Belok's two pairs of eyes swept across them, and he split into a grin — a vicious, leering smile. Both green-robed figures ducked their heads slightly, fear flickering across their faces.

Belok let out a short grunt and looked away without a word.

The four of them continued forward.

Before long, two more green-robed figures rushed in and joined their group.

Then, without warning, tendrils of deep, abyssal dark mist curled out of nowhere. Darkness bloomed in an instant, engulfing Belok, Mu Jing, and all four of the green-robed subordinates alike.

Both Belok and Mu Jing narrowed their eyes at the same moment, expressions turning ice-cold.

They swept their perception across the surroundings — and found it suppressed. They could sense no further than a hundred kilometers in any direction.

"A Saint?" Mu Jing asked flatly, slowly scanning the area.

Belok answered with a thunderous roar. Bizarre green veins blazed to life across his body; a green, magma-like substance erupted from his skin. His frame swelled, ballooning to a full hundred meters in height, and his aura detonated upward.

That surging pressure was enough to make the Shadow Sacred Domain tremble.

At a distance, Lu Yuan's eyes tightened slightly. He hadn't expected this Aberrated Saint to rattle the Shadow Sacred Domain through raw aura alone.

Far more powerful than the green dog.

Still — nothing insurmountable.

Shadow Clones materialized in a dense tide: four hundred in total. All four hundred reached out simultaneously toward the two Saints, hands closing on empty air.

The next instant, pale, grayish-white hands tore through the void, seizing toward Belok and Mu Jing.

Both Saints seized up. Their bodies locked in place, faces draining pale.

Saint Grade Combat Technique — Hand of Death.

Though a Shadow Clone's Hand of Death carried only half the potency of Lu Yuan's true self, a Saint with sufficient strength could focus and resist the worst of its negative effects. But two hundred accumulated strikes on a single target was another matter entirely. Even the most formidable Saint would buckle under that mounting toll.

Both Mu Jing and Belok felt waves of weakness washing through them. Their eyes went wide, shock plain across their faces.

In that same instant, they felt space solidify around them.

Layer upon layer of spatial constriction collapsed inward, trapping their already-weakened bodies and making even movement difficult.

Both Saint-level powerhouses snarled and erupted into full force — green flames blazing wildly around them. Space shattered piece by piece, wisps of grayish mist driven back.

This forced the Shadow Clones into a continuous chain of Hand of Death strikes and spatial restraints.

For a moment, the two sides locked into an uneasy equilibrium.

A fragile one. The auras of both Saints kept climbing — it wouldn't be long before they broke free.

Lu Yuan's true body, still inside Dark Night City, bore a faint pallor. A Spirit Crystal crumbled to powder in his palm.

Simultaneously wielding two Saint-grade Combat Techniques was taxing even for him, and he was being forced to replenish his Spirit Power at an accelerated rate.

*These two Saints are considerably stronger than the green dog,* he noted inwardly. *Two hundred Shadow Clones suppressing each of them, and they'll still break loose before long.*

*That said — I've grown considerably since those days.*

Still, for his purposes, this window was enough.

At the Spatial Rift.

The Kaman Saint who had been meditating cross-legged on the barren peak snapped his eyes open to a wall of impenetrable darkness.

His dark-green eyes narrowed to slits. Flames kindled slowly within them.

Then he saw it — dark shadow figures materializing from every direction, all extending their hands toward him at once.

Pale, grayish-white hands burst from the void, raking toward the Kaman Saint.

He froze in place, color draining from his face.

In the same moment, space sealed shut around him.

The Shadow Clones and the Kaman Saint were deadlocked.

While that standoff held, the Battle Emperor-level cultivators concealed nearby on the barren peak jolted awake, one by one. They looked up toward the summit.

When they saw the dense, suffocating darkness swallowing the peak, their faces went ashen.

"My Lord?!"

A woman among them — striking of face, but with skin clothed in gray-white Scale Armor — let out a low, startled cry.

Then her shadow beneath her twisted. A Shadow Clone rose from it in an instant, and the next moment, an impenetrable curtain of darkness collapsed over her.

One by one, the other Battle Emperor-level fighters around her were drawn into the Shadow Sacred Domain as well.

Against Battle Emperor-class opponents, the Shadow Sacred Domain was nearly absolute — their perception stripped almost entirely away. With Shadow Clones already in position, holding them in place was trivial.

Lu Yuan chose not to kill them immediately.

Killing them would have been simple. But if he struck them down and the sensation reached the three Saints nearby — or triggered some reaction from within the Land of Origin — it wasn't worth the risk.

His priority was sealing the Spatial Rift.

Shadow Clones materialized before the rift, where green flames churned and roiled. Life force and natural energy swirled around each one, dense and concentrated, and was driven directly into the surging green flames.

Against the corrosive suppression of Aberration energy, Life and Natural force lacked the sheer effectiveness of radiant light. But compared to his other available types of energy, they held a distinct advantage in this particular context — and that was why Lu Yuan had chosen them over his more destructive options.

Under the combined pressure of over twenty Shadow Clones channeling Life and Natural force into the rift, the torrent of green flames spilling outward dimmed almost instantaneously.

As the green flames weakened, the Spatial Rift's self-repair mechanism roared to life. What had been a glacially slow recovery suddenly surged — the massive rift began to visibly contract, closing at a remarkable pace.

…

Dark Night City.

Lu Yuan continued maintaining his Spatial Vortexes. The Aberrant Beast Tide hadn't thinned at all — wave after wave of Aberrant Feral Beasts poured from the Dark Night Forest like a surging flood, hammering the defensive line.

But after passing through the Spatial Vortex barrier, far fewer made it through to the defenders.

The Battle Emperors, Battle Sovereigns, and Battle Kings on the line felt the pressure, but it remained manageable.

To them, this had become a harvest of Merits.

More than a few cast glances toward Lu Yuan, gratitude glinting in their eyes.

A towering Battle Emperor grinned broadly. "If not for this human brother of ours, with a Beast Tide at this scale — I'm not sure we'd have held the line."

Beside him, an Ink-Wing Race Battle Emperor with a pair of black wings gave a solemn nod. He looked at Lu Yuan, then smiled.

"That young human — I know him. He's one of White Cloud Star Domain's great prodigies. Lu Yuan. First place on both the Prodigy Rankings and the King Rankings."

"Hm? He's not on the Emperor Rankings? At this level of power, he could rank first on the Battle Emperor Rankings too, couldn't he?"

A Battle Emperor from outside White Cloud Star Domain frowned in puzzlement.

A short distance away, an Elf Battle Emperor's expression turned peculiar.

"Lu Yuan only broke through to Battle Sovereign not long ago."

"…"

A brief silence settled over the group.

Everyone stared at Lu Yuan in bewildered disbelief. *Just broke through to Battle Sovereign and already this terrifying — what kind of monster is this person?*

Just then, several of them noticed that Lu Yuan's complexion was gradually going pale, his Spirit Power subtly ebbing.

A stir ran through the crowd.

"Is that… is he straining too hard?"

"Makes sense. He just broke through to Battle Sovereign and he's already fighting at this level — holding back a Beast Tide of this magnitude single-handedly is beyond anything imaginable. Heavy Spirit Power consumption is only natural."

A Nightshade Battle Emperor slipped from the front line and appeared at Lu Yuan's side. An alluring smile curved her beautiful lips as she turned to face him.

"Young Master Lu Yuan, thank you for all you've done for our Dark Night City. You've been pushing yourself so hard — why don't you rest in the rear for a while? I'll make sure you and your companions are well looked after."

As she spoke, she glanced toward Li Qinghe and the other two.

Li Qinghe, Si Tingyu, and Shuangyue had all noticed Lu Yuan's aura growing faint. Worry showed clearly on their faces.

Li Qinghe in particular — this was the first time since leaving Xili City that she had seen him show any sign of weakness.

Lu Yuan — managing his Shadow Clones' suppression of three cult Saints while simultaneously working to repair the Aberration Source — blinked at the Nightshade Battle Emperor's words. His expression shifted into something slightly odd.

*Oh. They must think I'm running low on Spirit Power from maintaining the Spatial Vortexes.*

Lu Yuan: …

He obviously couldn't stop now. What would happen to the Shadow Clones?

He offered a slight smile. "No need — I still have reserves. I can hold on a little longer."

The Nightshade Battle Emperor stared at him, momentarily taken aback. Then warmth flooded her expression, and she looked at him with eyes soft as still water.

"…If you insist, I won't press. But the moment you feel exhausted, Young Master Lu Yuan — please tell me immediately."

Lu Yuan caught her gaze and felt something stir oddly inside him.

*Why is this Battle Emperor looking at me like that? She's not… interested in me, is she?*

The corner of his mouth twitched. He smiled.

"…Understood. I will."