The Tai-Xu Sword God descended like divine judgment.
Three Paths intertwined within a single blade—
Erudition — to pierce illusion and unravel truth.
Preservation — to anchor will and defend resolve.
Permanence — the Dragon Lord's authority over cloud and rain.
Fifteen percent resonance with Permanence.
Enough.
The sword struck Phantylia and the Ambrosial Arbor simultaneously.
Her scream tore across Scalegorge Waterscape.
Her body could regenerate.
Her flesh, born of Abundance and Destruction, could reform in an instant.
But Tai-Xu's Divine Form did not merely cut matter.
It cut concept.
Tai-Xu's Godly Essence was the shaping and extension of Imaginary energy itself.
Formless.
Omnipresent.
The sword was not in space—
It was space.
Thus it cut everywhere.
And nowhere.
The Arbor could mend flesh—
But not severed cognition.
Not a fractured link.
Phantylia felt it.
Her connection to the Arbor—
Weakening.
She should have left.
Her objective had already succeeded.
The Stellaron crisis.
The Arbor's revival.
Seeds of doubt planted within the Luofu.
Even if the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus were dismantled—
Suspicion among the higher ranks would remain.
A General who allowed a Stellaron into his territory.
A revival of the Ambrosial Arbor.
That alone was enough to destabilize authority.
Her goal had been achieved.
But she was angry.
Calculated destruction gave way to pride.
And now—
She faced two Emanator-level threats.
Jing Yuan.
And Evan.
"Well done."
"Well done indeed, General."
"And you… Genius."
"You wounded my most beautiful body."
Her tone dropped.
"Tell me…"
"If I forced you to kill your companions—"
"How would you feel?"
"Jing Yuan."
"If you fell to mara and became a void soldier—"
"Would Luofu collapse once more?"
Two massive Arbor roots lashed toward Evan and Jing Yuan.
Stellaron energy surged within them.
"Trying to turn us into void thralls?"
March lost a Six-Phased Ice arrow instantly.
Dan Heng's Ancient Sea surged.
"Azure Dragon's Roar!"
Lightning Lord descended again.
Water dragon coiling around divine thunder—
The roots were severed instantly.
They crumbled.
Phantylia's expression flickered.
That Tai-Xu strike had crippled most of her Arbor synchronization.
Those roots carried almost no power.
Evan smirked.
"Your roots seem… underperforming."
Phantylia hissed.
"I can summon more!"
"More roots! More lotus blooms!"
"Erudition's genius."
"Hunt's General."
"How long can you endure?"
Evan stepped forward calmly.
"Oh?"
"Let me show you something."
The sky darkened.
Even the Lightning Lord seemed small in comparison.
"Phantylia."
"Have you ever seen a star shatter?"
He raised his hand.
Space twisted.
A colossal celestial body formed above them.
Not a projection.
Not a distortion.
A true gravitational singularity.
Vaster than anything Welt had ever created.
Vaster than the black hole used to tear apart Borisin warships.
Even Phantylia—
Even Lightning Lord—
Seemed like insects before it.
The Ancient Sea trembled first.
Water was ripped upward—
Suspended inverted in the air by impossible gravity.
Scalegorge shook violently.
Phantylia's pupils contracted.
"That… that's impossible!"
"You cannot summon IX's void!"
In the Xianzhou's perception—
A black hole symbolized Nihility.
But this was not IX.
Welt's breathing tightened.
This was not simulated gravity.
Not a pseudo-singularity.
It was a true gravitational construct.
The Authority of Reason did not require full comprehension.
It created—
Then I understood.
Reality bent to conceptual reconstruction.
If the world's structural tolerance allowed it—
It could exist.
Jing Yuan stared.
So this was the power of the Genius Society's prodigy?
Not divine inheritance.
Not bestowed authority.
But constructed law.
Dan Heng's water dragon coiled instinctively around him.
Even he was stunned.
Only Evan remained relaxed.
He lowered his hand.
"Drop."
Gravity surged.
A crimson-black flash cleaved upward from the ground.
Evan vanished—
Reappeared—
All within 0.1 seconds.
Phantylia roared.
"An illusion!"
"I wield Abundance and Destruction!"
Golden-dark energy exploded from her body.
Countless roots erupted.
Lotuses bloomed violently.
She attempted to rupture space itself.
Evan stopped moving.
Smiling faintly.
The black hole descended.
It swallowed her entirely.
Space tore.
Matter stretched.
Arbor fragments ripped apart under tidal forces.
The Ancient Sea lost gravitational pull and crashed downward—
Only for Evan to casually deploy a barrier over his companions.
No one even got wet.
Phantylia screamed.
Her massive form distorted—
Compressed—
Fractured—
Shattered.
A system prompt rang softly in Evan's mind.
[Hidden Treasure Detected.]
[Hunt?]
Evan's lips curved upward.
"Hunt."
The Scalegorge Hidden Treasure was his true objective.
[Hidden Treasure Acquired.]
[Gold-tier probability: High.]
[Open?]
"Open."
[Opening…]
[Congratulations.]
[You have obtained: Ambrosial Arbor Fruit — Undying Divine Seed.]
Evan's pupils gleamed.
The Immortal Divine Fruit.
The core of Abundance itself.
Not the crude fusion Phantylia used—
But a purified fruit.
His smile deepened.
"Phantylia…"
"You really are generous."
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