Volume 6, Chapter 79 – A Sinister Smile, A Hidden Malice

His breath nearly stopped. Renoval’s crimson eyes locked onto the golden-haired man on the sofa with unyielding fixation, every single nerve stretched to its absolute limit.

What……what was going on……

According to the intelligence he had gathered beforehand, Ryan had clearly been blown apart — his skull shattered by a restraint technique — dead beyond any doubt.

Yet the person before him now, whether in face, build, or soul aura, was identical to that spineless, lecherous puppet in every way.

A man who was already dead — why had he come back?

What unsettled him even more was the indescribable pressure emanating from Ryan at this moment — not curse power, not spiritual power, but a bone-deep cold, like countless icy serpents slithering through his pores and into his very soul. The dread it inspired was even more intense than what Renoval had felt facing Ulutiel and Polarvitan.

“What are you?”

Renoval’s voice rasped like a broken bellows — weighted with sharpened wariness and rage.

Whatever this thing before him was, though its aura and appearance were identical to Ryan’s, Renoval was absolutely certain this was not his chosen puppet. Absolutely not.

The puppet he had handpicked before had been a useless wretch who couldn’t even defend himself — he could never have possessed an aura this suffocating.

Faced with Renoval’s interrogation, Ryan didn’t answer. He simply set down the crystal glass in his hand, the easygoing smile at the corner of his mouth slowly fading — replaced by an unimaginably sinister and unsettling grin.

It was not a smile any human face should form. The corners of his mouth nearly tore all the way to his ears, baring a row of bone-white teeth. His eyes held not the slightest warmth — only pure, soul-shaking madness.

“Heh……heh heh heh heh……”

A low laugh seeped up from Ryan’s throat, like rusted metal sheets grinding against one another — grating and bone-chilling.

That voice……

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?!!

Wait — could it be?!

In an instant, Renoval’s entire body went rigid. His pupils contracted sharply as a wave of cold dread surged from the base of his spine straight to the crown of his head. That voice — it was identical to the whispers that had granted him power moments ago, that had urged him not to retreat but to charge at Bai Xingwu instead!

“You……you, what are you?! No — this is Yao Xing……you shouldn’t be able to appear here?!”

Renoval trembled, shaking his head repeatedly as if trying to deny what he was seeing.

His body shook beyond his control. The remnants of his curse power crashed chaotically within him, and the searing pain from his wounds grew sharper with every second. He tried to draw on his last reserves of power to activate a teleportation spell and flee — but his limbs felt like they’d been filled with lead, and wave after wave of tearing pain radiated from the depths of his soul, making it impossible to even begin channeling energy.

At that moment, Ryan slowly rose to his feet. The air around him began to distort. A blurred, grotesquely warped silhouette emerged silently behind him — formless, shifting, as though countless black shadows had tangled themselves together, its surface crawling with dense, tightly-packed mouths, every one of them screaming without sound. It shared its origin with the smiling shadow that had appeared behind Renoval earlier, but it was larger — and far more sinister.

“No……don’t……”

Renoval sucked in a sharp breath and frantically twisted toward the door, desperate to get out of this room. Every instinct screamed at him that staying any longer would mean his end.

His obsession was unfinished. He couldn’t fall here like this.

Then —

The instant Renoval threw the door open, the sight before him sent a fresh wave of icy dread crawling up his spine.

Dozens of maids and guards from the building were standing outside the door — seemingly having materialized from nowhere, like ghosts, all watching him in utter silence. Every single one of them wore the same sinister, ear-splitting grin as Ryan. And behind each of them, the same warped shadow seemed to linger.

The instant all those eyes fixed on him, Renoval felt his very soul freeze solid.

And then —

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His vision began to blur. From all seven orifices, purple-black blood slowly seeped out, trailing down his cheeks and dripping onto the expensive carpet below. The putrid aura radiating from those twisted shadows was almost tangible, eroding his already nearly-shattered soul without pause. The agony became unbearable — his legs gave way beneath him, and he crashed to his knees.

“Thud——”

His forehead struck the cold floor. Renoval’s last flicker of consciousness held onto the image of Ryan’s terrifying smile — and then darkness swallowed everything. He collapsed completely, his body going limp against the ground, all movement ceasing.

Ryan looked down at the unconscious Renoval. The warped silhouette behind him gradually faded, dissolving back into his body. He walked slowly toward Renoval, the smile at the corner of his mouth growing more unsettling by the step.

Not just Ryan — the maids and guards filed in as well, closing silently around Renoval on all sides.

In the next moment, they spoke in near-perfect unison:

“Time to eat……”

――――――

Meanwhile, on the scorched earth outside Clavino.

With the violent clash of energies finally concluded, the surviving soldiers in the surrounding area were gradually consolidating toward the First Military Base. What had once been a sturdy military installation was now nothing but rubble from the fierce battle — mounds of shattered concrete and twisted steel filled the air, and faint traces of both curse power and Augury Force still lingered in the atmosphere.

Xi Xuan descended to the ground carrying Xing Wu, who had reverted to her infant form. He was just about to advise her to behave and rest quietly — when the little one suddenly wriggled out of his arms, made a dash on her stubby little legs with quick pattering steps toward a pile of broken rock not far away. Half-buried in the ash and rubble was the pink little backpack that had been blasted clear across the battlefield. Though the bag was mostly burned away, the miniature milk bottle was still firmly secured in the side pocket, completely undamaged, with very little of the milk inside spilled.

Well.

The milk bottle’s build quality was frankly absurd……

Baby Xing Wu dragged the backpack out with considerable effort, unscrewed the bottle, and tipped it into her mouth. The warm milk slid down her throat, and a familiar surge of energy instantly flooded through her entire body. Violet Augury Force burst from within her at a visible rate, wrapping around her tiny form: the pink onesie transformed into a crisp and spirited violet dress-armor, the short wispy infant hair erupted into long silver-white locks falling to her waist, shimmering with a faint violet radiance.

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In no more than three seconds, Xing Wu had fully restored her older form. She raised a hand to smooth her hair, patted the dust from her clothes, her face still carrying that small satisfied look that came after drinking her milk — with only the lingering embarrassment of her involuntary infant transformation remaining in her eyes.

“Phew……finally back to normal. The infant form is way too humiliating.”

Xing Wu muttered under her breath, then turned around — and met Xi Xuan’s utterly baffled expression.

“Hmph~”

The girl crossed her arms in proud tsundere fashion.

Her infant form was for her foul mother to hold. Not for anyone else~

“Uh, drinking milk to transform? What the hell kind of mechanism is that?”

Xi Xuan murmured to himself in bewilderment.

Just then —

“Lord Xi Xuan!”

From the other direction, the soldiers who had followed Xi Xuan’s aura here were clambering one after another over the ruins, making their way to this spot. A Divine Martial Realm officer leaped down from the rubble with a single bound, striding quickly forward to Xi Xuan and snapping off a sharp, formal military salute. His voice was full of confused awe:

“Lord Xi Xuan, are you — are you alright? And if I may ask, what exactly happened here? What was that evil god aura just now?……And that Divine Graced Realm presence — was that from you as well?”

The other soldiers crowded in as well, all eyes converging on Xi Xuan.

After all, they had clearly sensed this entire battlefield being smothered under a terrifying curse power aura — which had then swiftly been overwhelmed and suppressed by an even more immense Augury Force.

An Augury Force of that scale — it could only belong to the legendary Divine Graced Realm.

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A Divine Graced Realm powerhouse!!

If they truly had such a warrior on their side, perhaps they would never need to fear the Trinity of Malevolence again.

And Xi Xuan, as the Second Seat of the First Celestial Augur Knights, might, after a thousand years of cultivation, have genuinely reached that legendary realm!

Faced with the eyes of every soldier fixed on him with desperate expectation, Xi Xuan shook his head helplessly.

“No. That wasn’t me. I’m no Divine Graced Realm existence.”

The moment those words landed, visible disappointment swept across every face in the crowd.

But in the next instant, Xi Xuan raised a hand and pointed to the silver-haired girl standing behind him, a meaningful smile pulling at the corner of his mouth:

“It wasn’t me — it was her.”

“Huh??”

The soldiers froze. After a brief, stunned pause, all attention shifted to the beautiful silver-haired young woman standing behind Xi Xuan:

“Th — this young lady?”

Xi Xuan raised his voice so that it rang out clearly to everyone present:

“Let me make a formal introduction.”

“This is Miss Bai Xingwu — daughter of the Alabaster Sovereign, the chief of the First Celestial Augur Knights. She is the one who crushed that evil god force and purified the Corruption just now. The Divine Graced Realm aura you all sensed, and the violet sword light that blanketed the sky and purified everything — every last bit of it was her doing.”