Volume 3, Chapter 110 – It’s Over

‘How… how can this… be happening?’

Watching the bloody hole in his chest and feeling his life force drain away, Xue Tian’ao’s darkening eyes were filled with disbelief.

‘I… I am the Chosen Son. How could I… fall here…’

Before Xue Tian’ao could fully grasp reality, the black-haired girl before him slowly raised her hand and lightly snapped her fingers under his despairing gaze.

In the next moment, the blood butterflies swarmed forward again and began to frantically devour his flesh.

In truth, Xue Tian’ao had been gnawed by blood butterflies earlier, but due to the reinforcement of his divine power, the consumed parts had quickly regenerated.

But now? Deprived of that powerful regenerative ability, Xue Tian’ao’s flesh was devoured bit by bit by the blood butterflies at a visible speed.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!”

Without the protection of divine power, the pain Xue Tian’ao endured was naturally far beyond anything he had felt before.

In an instant, he let out a series of heart-wrenching and terrifying screams.

However, those shrill shrieks soon vanished as his tongue was swallowed by the blood butterflies in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t just his tongue; every part of Xue Tian’ao’s body was being rapidly consumed. In a mere moment, the once majestic and handsome Chosen Son was reduced to a crimson skeleton, and even that skeleton vanished into nothingness under the devouring swarm.

Xue Tian’ao’s consciousness gradually sank into darkness amidst a flood of negative emotions like despair, panic, regret, and resentment.

As the final fragment of Xue Tian’ao’s skull turned to ash, peace finally returned to the area around Yumo.

The endless blood butterflies dancing in the sky broke apart one by one, transforming into crimson particles that eventually dissipated with the wind. The terrifying fluctuations of Shadow Essence that had blanketed the entire capital and made countless people tremble also dispersed, releasing many from that suffocating pressure.

The aftershocks of the violent crimson power even shot straight into the clouds and thoroughly cleared away the smoke that had blotted out the sun.

An hour after the Abyssal Demon horde launched their total assault, bright sunlight once again shone upon the land of Sky Dome.

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However, Sky Dome was no longer the prosperous and beautiful city it had been an hour ago. The entire metropolis was shrouded in massive negative emotions like fear and despair. Ruins, broken walls, and bloody remains were everywhere. The corpses of Sky Dome’s defenders and Abyssal Demons were scattered throughout the city, which, combined with the raging fires in every direction, looked like a depiction of hell.

The glory of the past was no more.

With the disappearance of the golden divine power and the demise of Xue Tian’ao, the world around Yumo finally returned to tranquility. Along with it, her heart also found peace.

Once the loathsome and thick divine power aura dissipated, the eerie whispers within Yumo’s heart ceased abruptly. The strange black aura that had clouded her soul also vanished like smoke. Her drive for slaughter and destruction was gone, and her former rationality reclaimed its high ground.

The bloodlust and tyranny in the black-haired girl’s eyes were gradually replaced by her familiar gentleness and innocence.

The terrifying Abyssal Demon girl who had just effortlessly annihilated the Chosen Son with a wave of her hand had returned to being a harmless and cute young lady.

The moment she returned to her senses and looked at the empty, clear sky before her, Yumo suddenly knit her brows and her crimson eyes were filled with confusion.

‘Huh?? I… what was I… doing??’

‘Weren’t we… wait, the Chosen Son? Didn’t that guy Xue Tian’ao attack me suddenly? Where is he?’ Yumo asked herself inwardly.

As she wondered, the scenes that had just occurred played back rapidly in her mind like a slideshow, filling in the memory gap instantly. The moment her memory was complete, Yumo’s eyes widened.

‘Huh?!’

‘Huh?!’

‘I… I killed Xue Tian’ao?!’

‘I… I… I killed that Chosen Son?!’

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‘Are… are you… kidding me?!’

At that moment, the black-haired girl couldn’t help but roar frantically in her mind, and she even clutched her head tightly with her hands, refusing to accept the reality. Her beautiful crimson pupils trembled uncontrollably as a feeling of helplessness and panic filled her gaze.

‘What… what have I… done…’

To be honest, Yumo truly detested Xue Tian’ao. The thought of grinding his bones to ash had crossed her mind more than once.

But regardless, she had never actually decided to kill him. After all, Xue Tian’ao was the Chosen Son, the ‘male lead’ of this world. If he died, who would stand against the Abyssal Demons in the future? Could Mengxi do it alone?

Although Yumo was very satisfied with Mengxi’s strength and growth speed, relying on her alone to complete the trial and eventually kill her was still nothing but a pipe dream.

To complete the trial, the cooperation of the Main Character Group was essential.

Yumo had always believed this. Therefore, the fundamental goal of this Abyssal Demon attack was not to kill Xue Tian’ao. Rather, it was to use this massive failure to spur the Chosen Son into action, making him realize the cruelty of the world, the importance of partners, and exactly how much he was worth.

She wanted to temper the smooth-sailing protagonist through setbacks to make his character more mature and use the pressure of absolute power to force Xue Tian’ao to break his limits and reach the eighth tier.

Of course, teaching Xue Tian’ao a lesson to vent some personal grudges was also one of the key reasons Yumo had approved Xiao’s actions.

But…

Yumo had only wanted to teach him a lesson…

She didn’t mean to literally grind him into ash.

“How… how could this… happen…”

Gazing down at her hands, Yumo’s voice trembled and a sense of powerlessness filled her heart. When she thought about how the Chosen Son she had waited over five hundred years for had finally appeared, only to be accidentally slapped to death by her, her mood became incredibly complicated.

Earlier, when she saw Li Mo and Li Yu appear on the battlefield, she was worried those two girls would lose control and kill the Chosen Son. The result? Those two children didn’t lose control and ‘obediently’ let the Chosen Son go.

And what about her?

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She actually…

If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have bothered coming over specifically.

For a moment, her heart was filled with regret. Besides regret, Yumo was also deeply worried. Now that the Chosen Son was gone, wouldn’t the success rate of the trial plummet? Could it have already failed? If it really failed, what would happen?

That so-called ‘terrible thing’… what exactly was it?

“Aaaaahhh! This is so annoying!”

Yumo kept shaking her head and let out several distressed cries.

…

After a period of clutching her head and “crying” inwardly, Yumo’s distress and regret gradually subsided.

Xue Tian’ao’s death was an established fact, and no amount of regret could change that.

The Chosen Son was gone.

Since it couldn’t be changed, she could only accept it. Regret was meaningless, so she had to think about how to fix it.

Now that the Chosen Son no longer existed, the only person left in the world with divine power and the ability to complete the trial was Mengxi.

In other words, Mengxi’s importance had skyrocketed further.

If she still wanted to complete the trial, she had to devote all her energy and resources to nurturing Mengxi, the last remaining Chosen One. After all, she was likely the final hope.

Wait.

‘Hold on.’

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‘Mengxi?’

‘Oh right! Mengxi!’

Thinking of Mengxi, Yumo suddenly realized a very serious problem. It seemed she had lost control right in front of Mengxi. Which meant…

‘I used Shadow Essence in front of that girl?!’

‘I, as the eldest miss of the Blackrose Family, used Shadow Essence in front of the Chosen Maiden?!’

‘How… how am I supposed to explain this?!’

At this thought, Yumo couldn’t help but catch her breath. Her crimson eyes trembled as her heart became incredibly conflicted.

‘No, maybe not.’

‘That burst of power was so strong just now, maybe it knocked Mengxi unconscious?’

Thinking this way, Yumo couldn’t help but harbor a sliver of hope. She then snapped out of her conflicted thoughts and turned around somewhat tremulously.

Unfortunately, reality proved that Yumo was overthinking things.

Mengxi hadn’t fainted at all.

Instead, she was sitting quietly on the ruins, silently looking toward Yumo. Then, as expected, the gazes of the two girls met.

‘It’s… it’s over…’

Unconsciously, a drop of cold sweat slowly rolled down Yumo’s forehead.

How was she supposed to explain this now?