Chapter 420 – The Spirit Sovereign

“… The pursuers… are back again… Let others draw their hatred… You hide carefully… We’ll arrange for someone to come and assist you as soon as possible…”

The wind cut past Yuwen Tong, carrying a faint, cold, and decaying scent.

She reached up to her left shoulder, and purple light seeped from between her fingers as she slowly drew out a prismatic crystal roughly half the length of her finger from within her body.

Inside the transparent crystal, a blooming narcissus was sealed, emitting a shimmering white glow, like a finely crafted piece of art.

Yuwen Tong held the prismatic crystal in her hand for a few quiet moments, then let it go expressionlessly.

The beautiful narcissus prism plummeted from the sky, disappearing into the reddish water region below, shrouded in black aura, and vanished from sight.

Having done all this, Yuwen Tong continued forward.

Before long, she stopped.

Here was a colossal ancient beast’s skeleton, floating on the blood-red water region. Most of its body was submerged in the water, with only a rhinoceros horn-like skull exposed.

Three rhinoceros horns jutted upward like strange peaks, and the entire skull towered hundreds of meters high, resembling a small mountain standing on the water.

Yuwen Tong descended onto one of the black rhinoceros horns at the top of the skull.

Below the rhinoceros skull, a massive black aura climbed upward like a black snake, forming a Black Tide that continuously engulfed the skull.

The calm of this water region had been thoroughly disrupted, and even the most oblivious could tell that an anomaly was on the verge of occurring.

Yet Yuwen Tong seemed entirely oblivious to this, simply sitting cross-legged as purple energy haloed out from her being.

Countless loose cosmic energies in the void were drawn in, gradually forming a vast and invisible vortex in the sky, with its focal point being Yuwen Tong’s body…

It was unclear how much time elapsed.

When the black aura had engulfed half of the skull’s peaks and the purple halo around Yuwen Tong had expanded to a diameter of several dozen meters at the peak, a sound of something piercing through the air suddenly came from afar.

Within the halo, Yuwen Tong’s eyes snapped open, instantly absorbing all the energy and halo back into her body.

She lifted her head, looking towards the direction from which the sound came.

In the next second, her eyebrows furrowed, and she gazed coldly as a figure rapidly approached.

Before Yuwen Tong could speak, the newcomer spoke first.

“Oh? What a coincidence. Lord Tong, what brings you here as well?”

Yuwen Tong remained silent, merely staring expressionlessly at the other person.

Under her intense gaze, the other person faltered and finally abandoned the weak excuse, saying, “Alright, alright, I admit it wasn’t a coincidence… But since I’m here, you can’t just send me back, can you?”

Yuwen Tong paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, “How did you find my location?”

Beforehand, she had thoroughly checked herself, discarded all communication devices, and deliberately lingered in the water region for a long time.

If it was an impending enemy who found her, it wouldn’t be surprising.

But being caught up by Lu Yuan so quickly piqued her curiosity.

“By intuition… or perhaps fate’s guidance,” Lu Yuan replied earnestly.

He was serious, but Yuwen Tong didn’t believe him at all. She turned away, unwilling to engage.

Lu Yuan shrugged helplessly, his smile slowly fading.

If, on the way here, he was simply puzzled and curious, now facing Yuwen Tong’s battle-ready stance, he truly felt a weight pressing on his heart.

[Chaos divination] had only told him that he should come.

As for why he should come or what was actually happening, he didn’t know.

Standing beside Yuwen Tong, who was continuously adjusting her state, Lu Yuan watched the increasingly agitated Black Tide below. His eyes flickered as he was just about to ask Yuwen Tong what was happening.

At that moment, an inexplicable surge of strong unease and a sense of imminent danger erupted within him.

Before Lu Yuan could react, a deep purple glow rapidly enveloped him.

Time seemed to stretch infinitely in that instant.

A force pulled Lu Yuan’s body to the side.

Within the hazy purple light, Lu Yuan watched helplessly as a silver, shimmering tentacle, etched with intricate patterns, extended from afar.

It brushed past him, inching its way backward.

“Boom!”

A terrifying Strength exploded beneath the water region, causing the peak of the skull to shake violently. A massive amount of black aura mingled with red water erupted, like a nuclear bomb dropped into a muddy swamp, turning everything into chaos and wreckage.

“Whoo-“

Regaining his consciousness, Lu Yuan panted slightly, his face pale, as he watched the silver tentacle that nearly pierced his heart swiftly retract.

Before the shock and confusion in his heart could surface, in the next breath, he saw-

Not far away in the void, a figure he was all too familiar with appeared silently.

“It’s him?!”

Lu Yuan stared fixedly at the tall, silver-braided youth that came into view, waves of disbelief crashing through his mind.

“How could it be him? Wasn’t he already defeated and had fled?”

Lu Yuan’s expression turned grim, and he instinctively looked at Yuwen Tong.

Yuwen Tong was rather calm, evidently already aware of who their adversary in this battle was.

“Don’t look at me like that. I wish I knew why as well,” Yuwen Tong said to him.

Lu Yuan’s expression shifted, realizing that Yuwen Tong had anticipated the arrival of a formidable enemy and chose to face it alone to avoid dragging him into another risky encounter.

But what he couldn’t have anticipated was that the newcomer was the same opponent, the “silver vine man,” whom he had only recently driven away.

“Even soaking in hot springs immediately after the fight shouldn’t allow him to recover this quickly. Are the medical techniques of advanced civilizations really this amazing?”

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth lightly, feeling the urge to curse.

“Is this like finishing the first round and immediately starting the second?” It wouldn’t be such a big deal to face the same challenge again, but the crucial point was…

From the way the silver vine man had just ambushed them, it seemed his Strength had grown significantly.

Previously, even if Lu Yuan was in his normal state without activating any transformation, the opponent shouldn’t have nearly killed him in a single move.

“I told you.”

Perhaps sensing Lu Yuan’s foul mood, Yuwen Tong spoke calmly, “You shouldn’t have come. I can handle this myself. Your presence will only be a burden to me…”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Lu Yuan shook his head, “We only stand a chance if I’m here. If I weren’t, you’d really be left with no choice but surrender.”

As he spoke, Lu Yuan took a deep breath and reached out to touch his forehead. His eyes fixed intently on the silver-braided youth watching them with a calm expression from afar, and he said in a deep voice, “Let’s do it again. Last time we couldn’t kill him, this time we’ll finish the job. You continue being my eyes, and we’ll… uh…”

Before Lu Yuan could finish speaking, he suddenly noticed a burst of dazzling purple light blooming behind him.

This purple light surged like a tide, engulfing him completely.

The hand he was about to touch to his forehead froze in place, and he turned around to see Yuwen Tong standing at the center of a sea of purple light.

Within the intense purple glow, he could no longer make out Yuwen Tong’s appearance.

He could only see countless brilliant starry points converging into a radiant galaxy flowing from her body.

There was also a light sphere emitting a moon-white glow, conspicuously bright even amidst the intense purple light, hovering silently at Yuwen Tong’s chest.

Surrounded by purple light and the starlit river, Yuwen Tong lightly touched the moon-white light sphere.

Immediately, it expanded, quickly enveloping Yuwen Tong entirely.

Inside the vast moon-white light sphere, Lu Yuan saw countless light spots gather, forming armor-like illuminating components that covered Yuwen Tong’s graceful form inch by inch.

In the next moment, countless light spots exploded.

In the piercing brightness, Lu Yuan instinctively closed his eyes.

When he reopened them, the sight before him left him completely speechless.

The original Yuwen Tong had vanished, replaced by a humanoid Mecha over two hundred meters tall.

The Mecha, forged from an unknown material, emitted a soft moon-white light, with deep purple light routes crisscrossing and connecting all over its body.

A massive luminous semicircle ring hovered behind it, rotating slowly.

Despite its massive size, the Mecha appeared proportionate and slender, exuding an indescribable cold and elegant beauty.

“This is…”

Lu Yuan stood alone atop the solitary peak of the rhinoceros horn, feeling a bit dazed as he gazed at the enormous Mecha that seemed to appear out of thin air.

The massive moon-white Mecha turned its head, its narrow eyes glowing with purple light as it looked at him, and Yuwen Tong’s voice resonated from within the Mecha.

“Haven’t I told you… about the Fate Mech?”

“Fate Mech?!”

Lu Yuan’s mouth dropped open in surprise as he spoke, his expression bewildered, “You’ve received the Fate Mech Legacy already? Did the Bai Family give it to you?”

“Of course not.”

The moon-white Mecha casually drew a large, slender white combat blade from its waist, pointing the tip towards the silver-braided youth ahead, and spoke calmly, “I picked it up here. It’s likely a core fragment of a Mech left behind by some ancient powerhouse. I patched it up with materials, so it’s barely usable…”

Picked it up…

At this moment, Lu Yuan had no idea what expression to show to convey his internal struggle.

No wonder Yuwen Tong, despite being noticed by the Bai Family, had delayed leaving the planet. It turns out it was to enter the ancestral land secret realm several more times.

While others were picking up “junk” here, she managed to find treasure in the “junk pile.”

“With this skill, why didn’t you use it earlier?”

“Didn’t you insist on carrying me earlier? So, I let you have your moment. Besides, this Mech is damaged, with limited uses. Once it’s used up, it’ll be completely destroyed. I didn’t want to expose this trump card in front of the Bai Family either…”

“Uh…”

Lu Yuan opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

So it turns out Lord Tong didn’t need his help at all-she was holding a royal flush while he insisted on showing off with four threes.

Did he waste his life potential during his three perfect limit breaks and the gathering of three flowers at the apex for nothing?

He once thought his combat power was enough to match or even surpass Yuwen Tong.

But it turns out… Lord Tong is still Lord Tong.

In that moment, Lu Yuan felt a heavy blow hit his heart, leaving him utterly deflated.

“What a cool Mech… does it have a name?”

Accepting reality, Lu Yuan asked weakly.

“It does.”

The Moon-white Mecha gripped its combat blade in one hand, poised to charge forward, and responded calmly.

“I call it… Spirit Sovereign.”

“Spirit Sovereign…”

Lu Yuan blinked, softly repeating the name.

By then, Yuwen Tong, having transformed into the giant Mech, had already flickered and suddenly appeared in close proximity to the silver-braided youth.

The enormous, slender white combat blade slashed out rapidly, its blade shadow invisible, with only the white slash mark visibly extending limitlessly forward in a flash.

Continuous booming sounds echoed in the air, and the black aura that drifted over the waters began to scatter in large swathes.

Under the white slash, the void was split cleanly in two as if it were fabric.

The endpoint of the white slash was right at the center of the silver-braided youth’s forehead.

Just this single slash was enough to make Lu Yuan’s eyes widen in shock.

The speed of Yuwen Tong’s strike had exceeded a hundred times the speed of sound.

He could achieve such speed after his own ultimate transformation.

However, his was pure physical ability, whereas to drive such a colossal Mech required a level of energy and delivered a degree of destructive power that were on completely different scales.

Moreover, he would need to go all out to accomplish this feat.

For Yuwen Tong’s “Spirit Sovereign” Mech, this seemed to be nothing more than a simple attack.

“The boost to combat power from the Mech is just massive…”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

When he previously fought against the silver vine man, he hadn’t fully realized it, but now, watching Yuwen Tong in action, this point was magnified to the extreme.

While Lu Yuan was caught in a wave of amazement, the reaction of the silver-braided youth left him even more astonished.

Faced with Yuwen Tong’s strike, the silver-braided youth’s face showed no sign of surprise or panic; instead, he even managed a smile.

Just as the white slash mark was about to reach him, a myriad of silver vine tentacles suddenly sprouted from his back.

Much like when the silver vine went on a rampage before, these silver vines immediately surged and expanded upon appearing.

Yet, they showed no sign of being out of control; rather, they meticulously and tightly formed layer upon layer of a stable, structured grid around the silver-braided youth.

These layers of grid enveloped the silver-braided youth, forming a massive, tightly-knit sphere.

The white slash struck solidly against the sphere, slicing through its layers of grids.

However, more grids quickly grew within the innermost layers.

When the power of the white slash mark finally dissipated, the tightly interwoven silver vines unfurled, and the sphere of defense unraveled.

Standing silently at the center was the silver-braided youth, who hadn’t even moved an inch.

“This guy…”

Lu Yuan’s pupils contracted slightly, and his expression turned a bit serious.

“Why does it feel like not only did his health bar refill… but he got a whole new brain?”

This maneuvering and combat consciousness seemed to Lu Yuan as if the silver vine man was a completely different person.

It was as if someone who had originally relied on equipment and level to bully others was suddenly swapped out with a skilled player, elevating their skill and awareness to a maximum level.

Their power underwent a complete and transformative evolution.

Lu Yuan had thought that Yuwen Tong’s revelation of this trump card would guarantee their victory in this battle.

But now, it seemed that things weren’t as simple as he had imagined.