Abyssal Chronicles

Facing this suddenly manifested temple, Yaohuaba gripped his divine sword tightly, warily watching what lay ahead.

Just as he was wondering where this temple had come from, a melodious but soul-chilling voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Oh ho, still alive? What tenacious vitality you have, just like a cockroach~"

The voice contained surprise and admiration, but mostly... disgust.

?!!!

Huh?!

Following the voice, Yaohuaba jerked his head up toward the top of this demonic temple, where... a bewitching dark-haired girl was leaning against a stone statue, watching him playfuly.

In that instant, driven by instinct, Yaohuaba tightened his grip on his sword and immediately took a combat stance.

"What the hell did you just do?!!!"

He demanded somewhat hysterically.

Unfortunately, Yumo seemed to have no intention of answering. Instead, she shook her head with fatigue and impatience.

"I'm bored with this... It's time to end it."

As these words left her lips, her eyes narrowed slightly, and a chilling killing intent suddenly burst from her crimson eyes, blanketing the vast scorched earth and making the Alliance powerhouses who hadn't yet recovered their wits tremble all over.

...

However, Yaohuaba responded to Yumo's words with a disdainful sneer.

"Heh, hehe, end it? As if it's that easy..."

Clenching his fist.

Struggling to stand up from the ground, Yaohuaba fearlessly met Yumo's gaze.

"Sure, you are strong—much stronger than I imagined. But you think that's enough to win? Our main fighting force is still intact!"

As he spoke, Yaohuaba glanced around with his peripheral vision.

The facts were indeed as he claimed. As veteran Lv9 beings of the Source Star Universe, Heinotim and the others all possessed their own life-saving techniques. Except for the Bessel City Lord, all the other Lv9 beings had managed to preserve their lives using their trump cards. And upon receiving Yaohuaba's signal, they once again rose from the ground, surrounding Yumo.

"Though your attack certainly dealt us heavy damage, as long as we didn't die, we can gradually recover using elixirs and regenerative abilities! Besides, though the allied forces took heavy casualties, they weren't completely wiped out!! We still have roughly forty percent of our combat strength!!"

Yaohuaba roared hysterically.

While roaring, he rudely pointed at the dark-haired girl sitting atop the demonic temple.

"But you!"

"What about me?"

"Don't think I can't tell! After deflecting that wave of attacks and dealing us heavy damage, your stamina is nearly exhausted too! The Shadow power around you has weakened significantly!"

This abyssal girl was indeed unexpectedly powerful, but deflecting our coordinated attack couldn't have been that simple for her either!

She must have consumed massive amounts of stamina too!

The weakened Shadow power around her and her continuous gasping while clutching her chest proved it!

He had no reason to fear this woman.

After reassuring himself, Yaohuaba raised his divine sword and pointed it aggressively at Yumo's forehead.

"In your current state, you still want to finish us off?! DREAM ON!!"

Upon hearing these words, Yumo was slightly stunned but didn't deny it, only smiled meaningfully.

"Well, so that's what you think."

"Am I wrong?"

"Welll, not really..."

Nodding slowly, Yumo cast a meaningful glance at the nearby Lv9s who were continuously healing and recovering their strength, as well as the distant Alliance army desperately trying to regroup.

She couldn't help but press her chest and cough several times.

Indeed, taking on so much damage at once and returning it to the attackers, especially such a large-scale reversal, had placed a certain burden on Yumo's body. The power Reversal was undoubtedly terrifying, but its consumption was equally outrageous.

As a result, after completing this large-scale reversal, Yumo had consumed vast amounts of soul power, and her body had weakened somewhat.

However—

"But the weakening of the Shadow power around me? That's not for the reason you think~"

"What?"

At these words, Yaohuaba frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Because the 'me' you're seeing now... is just a consciousness projection—basically a clone. Isn't it natural for my power to weaken?"

After sneering mockingly, Yumo snapped her fingers right in front of Yaohuaba and the others' confused faces.

Immediately after, her slender form suddenly disintegrated, transforming into dozens of dancing crimson butterflies.

"Consciousness projection? Wh-what does that mean? Wait... don't tell me?!!"

Looking toward the magnificent demonic temple below, Yaohuaba's expression changed dramatically.

The next moment, as if to confirm his uneasy suspicion, a desperate aura of Shadow power instantly erupted from the temple as its center, surging like raging waves in all directions!!! In an instant, it enveloped the entire space within the Eternal Scar Sphere. Not only that, but as Yumo's stamina rapidly recovered, the intensity of this Shadow power continued to climb...

"Heh, hehe... you've got to be kidding me..."

His brow twitching, a bitter smile gradually spread across his face.

This recovery speed—did the previous consumption amount to nothing?

At this moment, Yaohuaba faintly felt a touch of despair.

But soon, this Sword Spirit Clan Lord realized... the more despairing part was yet to come.

"Oh right, there's one more thing I need to correct you on... the ones with the numerical advantage aren't you~"

As Yumo's words reached his ears, Yaohuaba's expression grew increasingly grim.

?!!!!!

Advantage? Not us?!

Don't tell me...

Staring fixedly at the temple gates, Yaohuaba suddenly felt the urge to curse.

The next moment, under everyone's anxious gaze, the tightly shut temple doors—carved with various mysterious symbols and patterns—trembled and slowly opened... One by one, massive, grotesque yet overwhelmingly powerful figures gradually appeared before everyone's eyes. Along with these figures came suffocating pressure...

At the same time, Yumo's voice once again echoed in the ears of these Alliance warriors and powerhouses.

"Now then, ganging up on me just because you outnumber me? How can that be allowed? So... this young lady is going to gang up right back~~ Gang fighting is clearly our abyssal demons' privilege~~"

The voice was so adorably sweet, but to Yaohuaba and the Alliance remnants, it sounded like a devil's whisper...

"Son of a bitch!!!"

Biting his lip hard, Yaohuaba swore for the first time in his life.

At the same time, as if responding to his profanity, a purple sword energy wreathed in violent lightning suddenly expanded rapidly in Yaohuaba's vision, carrying the momentum to annihilate all things...

.....

.....

Meanwhile, in the Source Star Universe, in the middle section of the World Tree...

A massive Alliance fleet had already assembled!

At this moment, the scene in this star region was quite spectacular—countless giant warships arranged in neat formations like a vast star sea, gleaming with silver light. The ships' hulls were embedded with brilliant winged Alliance insignias, each vessel at least dozens of times larger than an aircraft carrier, all radiating powerful energy fluctuations.

As the forces completed their convergence, a grand spatial formation gradually took shape. Under the guidance of vast magical power, a starlight-gleaming dimensional gate slowly opened before the fleet.

The entire fleet was immersed in a solemn, murderous atmosphere, because they knew clearly that they were about to enter the sub-world called 'Sky Nation.' And in this world... an Abyssal Lord had appeared...

Just thinking about facing an Abyssal Lord—the highest combat power of the outer domains—made almost all the soldiers feel uneasy.

Originally, Lawrence, the commander of the assembled forces, hadn't felt nervous.

As a mid-tier Lv9, he clearly understood the strength of Yaohuaba, Heinotim, and the others. A newly emerged Abyssal Lord with insufficient power couldn't possibly defeat them. Moreover, there were other Lv9s present in Sky Nation. As one of the commanders guarding the World Tree, his urgent deployment of forces to Sky Nation was mainly a symbolic response to the abyssal demon alert.

Incidentally, he was prepared to clean up the aftermath.

After all, preventing the spread of Shadow power and protecting other sub-worlds from harm was also very important work.

However, after seeing the battle footage transmitted from Sky Nation, Lawrence began to feel uneasy...

And just now, after his connection with Yaohuaba was severed, Lawrence's heart was beating so fast it nearly jumped out of his chest.

"Damn it... those guys didn't actually screw this up, did they? They were so confident earlier, guaranteeing they could eliminate this Abyssal Lord..."