The extreme of Destruction.
The allure of Abundance.
When those two forces converge into a single vessel—
What is born?
The answer stood before them.
The Undying Divine Fruit — Phantylia.
Jing Yuan's brows furrowed tightly.
The towering figure before him rivaled even his Lightning Lord in scale.
Terrifying.
He knew exactly what Phantylia was.
A heliobus.
An energy lifeform.
And worse—
An Emanator of Destruction.
Heliobi were notoriously difficult to eliminate.
They could divide. Split. Manifest multiple forms.
This colossal body before them?
It might not even be her true core.
Even if this body could be destroyed—
The seeds she had planted within the Luofu would remain.
And that was the true danger.
Phantylia never liked straightforward annihilation.
That was crude.
Inelegant.
She preferred precision.
A slow incision.
One cut at a time.
Divide faith.
Break trust.
Let suspicion rot a civilization from within—
Then harvest what remained.
That was her aesthetic.
Which was why she ambushed Tingyun.
Why she smuggled the Stellaron into the Luofu under a borrowed identity.
Why she manipulated Dan Shu of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus—
Promising immortality once the Arbor revived.
Why she arranged for mara-inducing medicine to be mixed into the Alchemy Commission's cauldrons—
So Cloud Knights would hesitate.
Doubt.
Fear one another.
Had Evan not intervened early—
The Luofu would already be fractured beyond repair.
Jing Yuan had reconstructed her entire strategy thanks to Evan's deductions during that chess game in the Divine Foresight.
External enemies unite a people.
Internal collapse destroys them.
Phantylia was terrifying not because of raw power—
But because she understood civilization.
"Hehe~"
"Evan dear~"
"I truly wanted you at my side."
"Why betray me?"
The Arbor roared.
Lotus blossoms erupted around them—
Beautiful.
Deadly.
"Cut her connection to the Arbor!" Evan barked instantly.
"Jing Yuan—target the lotuses!"
"Dan Heng, March, Stelle, Mr. Yang—focus her body!"
Phantylia laughed.
"You truly show no mercy to this lovely body of mine~"
"This is the sacred relic of Abundance."
"Even the Reignbow Arbiter had to personally sever it."
"And you think you can destroy a form forged from the Undying Divine Fruit?"
Wind and petals surged forward.
"Careful!"
Welt planted his cane.
"Quasi-Black Hole!"
A massive singularity formed.
Welt wasn't Emanator-tier—
But gravitational distortion still disrupted her airflow.
The battlefield shook.
Evan raised his hand.
A barrier materialized instantly, shielding everyone.
"What technique is that?" Jing Yuan asked sharply.
"No idea."
"Made it on the spot."
The Authority of Reason.
Construct first.
Understand later.
Reconstruct afterward.
Simple.
"Stop talking."
"She's tough."
"We're already in a raid—forget honor!"
"Jump her!"
Before the words finished—
Countless rain-butterflies transformed into sword qi.
Tai-Xu Sword Form — Swallowing Rain!
The blade light slammed into the Arbor's Root.
BOOM.
The colossal trunk sank an entire meter into the sea.
It didn't break.
But—
Phantylia screamed.
Her elegant torso split open.
Her expression twisted from laziness to fury.
"INSOLENT MORTAL!"
The wound regenerated instantly under Abundance's blessing.
And then—
Thousands of Abundance lotuses erupted across the battlefield.
The Ancient Sea flooded with monstrosities.
Jing Yuan raised his weapon.
"Radiant Spirit, heed my command!"
"Strike without mercy!"
The sky darkened.
Lightning Lord descended.
The divine projection bestowed by Lan, the Reignbow Arbiter.
Each Xianzhou general inherited this authority.
The colossal Lightning Lord lunged forward—
Only for Arbor roots to surge upward, blocking the blow.
Phantylia smirked.
"The Arbiter's General?"
"Pathetic."
"You cannot unleash your full strength."
"This is your homeland."
"Unless you intend to destroy Scalegorge entirely."
"As for that half-Dragon Lord?"
"Insufficient."
"The only slight threat…"
She glanced at Welt.
"That black hole."
"But against my Arbor body?"
"Meaningless."
"Is that so?"
A calm voice cut through her arrogance.
Evan stepped forward.
Energy condensed in his hand.
"Divine…"
"Ultimate Transformation…"
"The ineffable beyond form…"
The sky trembled.
A colossal Xuanyuan Sword manifested above.
The blade shimmered—
With three Path energies.
Primarily Erudition.
But faint traces of—
Preservation.
And—
Permanence.
Phantylia's eyes widened.
That Dragon Lord aura—
It resonated with Scalegorge itself.
The Ancient Sea churned violently—
As if welcoming its sovereign.
"Tai-Xu—"
"Sword God!"
The blade descended.
Flaming.
Blinding.
Emanator-tier.
Wait.
No.
Erudition Emanator?
Impossible.
She knew every Emanator under Nous.
Zandar.
Herta.
The Primum Doctor.
There was no fourth.
Unless—
Her pupils constricted.
"You…"
"The newly ascended 85th Genius of the Genius Society…"
"Evan."
Too late.
The Xuanyuan Sword fell.
And stabbed down—
Between Phantylia and the Arbor.
The impact split heaven and sea.
Even Jing Yuan gasped.
"So this…"
"Is the true Tai-Xu Sword God?"
A scream tore through the battlefield.
"AAAAAH—!"
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