Re: Evolution Online

Chapter 1472: All gone?

The Blood Prince gritted his teeth indignantly. He was not one to flee from a fight, and now he was forced to do so. It did not sit well with him. He opened his mouth to say something to his brother when suddenly a frighteningly powerful aura erupted from the soul avatar.

"He... He is breaking through again?" Blood Prince felt as if his mind was about to explode. What was this reality unfolding in front of him? He opened his mouth again when the sovereign forcefully shoved him into a teleportation circle.

"Do you still not get it? He is strong because of the armies you brought to his doorstep! Soulweavers devour to reach the pinnacle. I told you to leave, didn’t I!"

The teleportation circle closed quickly and the spell activated, but the Blood Prince could still feel it. The aura that emerged newly was none other than the aura of a Sovereign! He listlessly collapsed on the ground, kneeling down, his eyes empty.

Someone actually broke through to the Sovereign realm in a matter of minutes. No, not even minutes. They achieved that breakthrough in seconds. Then what was the meaning of his goddamn life?

What the hell had he been doing up until now? What were all those years of cultivation for? What was the point of the countless secret realms he had entered, the bloodlines he had devoured, the enemies he had killed, the treasures he had fought over, and the endless years he had spent comprehending the Blood Dao?

He had nearly died more times than he could remember. He had once spent three thousand years trapped at a single bottleneck. He had considered himself fortunate when he finally broke through.

And that bastard had just gone from Dao King to Dao Emperor and then from Dao Emperor to Sovereign while they were standing there watching.

The Blood Prince remained on his knees.

Xerathuna appeared beside him a moment later, thrown through the teleportation passage by the Sovereign just before it closed. She stumbled several steps before stabilizing herself, her robes torn and her normally immaculate appearance reduced to a miserable state.

She looked toward the Blood Prince. "My love—"

The Blood Prince raised one hand. "Don’t."

Xerathuna froze. He slowly rose to his feet, but he didn’t spare her another glance. His expression remained hollow as he brushed the dust from his robes.

"I have some work to do."

"What work?"

The Blood Prince ignored her. Xerathuna reached for him, but he casually flung her aside with a wave of his hand and disappeared into the depths of the Blood Court.

Xerathuna landed several dozen meters away. Her expression darkened. "That bastard." She pushed herself upright and glared in the direction he had disappeared.

"Did he really think only he could call upon a Sovereign?" The more she thought about it, the more irritated she became.

The Blood Prince had summoned his elder brother and suddenly acted as though the appearance of a Sovereign had changed everything. Worse, even that Sovereign had ordered them to flee without attempting to finish Liam.

Both of them were just cowards, good-for-nothing cowards!

Xerathuna’s golden third eye flickered. "My father is already a Dao Emperor. He is standing at the very peak of the realm. He has been preparing for his breakthrough for years, and everyone knows he could become a Sovereign at any time."

She lifted her chin. "When Father breaks through, I would like to see who dares humiliate me like this again."

Her father was no ordinary cultivator. His position within the Celestial Court was immense, his Divine Dao had been refined across countless years, and even among Dao Emperors, few dared provoke him casually. His breakthrough was merely a matter of time.

Then he would become a Sovereign as well. What was there to fear?

Liam had simply reached the realm slightly earlier through some grotesque Soulweaver method. That was all.

Xerathuna’s expression gradually relaxed. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more obvious the explanation became.

"That fucking rat." Her hands clenched. "This is all because of him!"

She remembered the humiliation of being forced to her knees beneath the Divine avatar’s authority, the slaughter of the Celestial Court forces she had brought with her, and worst of all, the expression on Liam’s face throughout the entire battle. That damned smile.

"I will kill him." Golden light flashed around her. "I will fucking kill him one day, even if he dares to become a damned God!"

She paused and then snorted. "As if he will ever become one." Her anger slowly transformed into contempt. "The damned fool probably burnt all of his potential today."

She begrudgingly stood up and took out a token. She then vanished, reappearing in the Celestial court. She was just about to barge into her father’s palace to vent all her grievances when suddenly a few new system notifications caught her eye.

"Hmmm? What is going on with the soul collector?" She immediately teleported again to take a look. While many things needed her attention at the moment, this one was still the top priority.

She hurriedly walked over to the main domain where the grand array was set up. There were a total of five hundred array crystals, and all of them were active. So the problem was not with the array or the array crystals. Then what could be the issue?

Xerathuna tiredly pondered as she examined everything. Her gaze finally landed on the artifact that was starting to take shape. An excited gleam appeared in her eyes as soon as she saw the artifact. This was it. This would be the ultimate weapon that would cement her ascension into Godhood.

With this weapon, she would become the Celestial Goddess who ruled over millions of galaxies! With this weapon, there would be no one who could stop her!

Xerathuna could already imagine crushing that little rat and whatever tricks he had. With a weapon like this, no matter what parlour tricks the rat used, it would all amount to nothing.

Xerathuna’s breathing steadied. A smile returned to her face.

She reached out and ran her fingers through one of the streams feeding the artifact. Countless indistinct whispers brushed against her consciousness before disappearing into the golden light.

Soon she wouldn’t have to tolerate anyone looking down upon her again.

The Blood Prince could crawl back and apologize if he wanted. His brother could keep running from every fucking Soulweaver he encountered. Even her father—

Xerathuna stopped. Her gaze moved back toward the stream beneath her hand. Something had changed. She frowned and touched it again. The pale river continued flowing normally.

Xerathuna watched it for several breaths before turning toward the nearest array crystal. By the time she had inspected the twentieth crystal, irritation had begun replacing her excitement.

"What the hell?" She flicked her hand. Golden symbols appeared before her.

Only 1.72%? Xerathuna blinked in a daze.

The five hundred crystals were active. She could feel every one of them. The spatial channels remained connected, and soul energy was clearly pouring into the domain from countless collection points. Yet the artifact was starving?

Then where the heck was all the soul energy going? Could her father or someone else from the Celestial court... Impossible! Except for her, no one even had access to this domain. It was only open to her and-

Her thoughts froze as a frightening possibility surfaced. The training world! Someone could have entered the training world and accessed the grand array!

Immediately, everything began clicking into place, and a familiar face popped up in her mind. Xerathuna’s entire body trembled from top to bottom as she slumped lifelessly on the ground.

Liam!

All those overpowered breakthroughs and the appearance of hundreds of soul clones... Xerathuna’s eyes slowly moved toward the pale stream flowing into the unfinished artifact. Her lips trembled. "No... No... No..."

Had that bastard actually used her for everything? From the beginning, he had planned all of this and used her own grand array for his ascension?

Xerathuna’s breathing became increasingly uneven. She remembered the training world.

The first time she had seen Liam there, he had been nothing. An insignificant mortal struggling through a place designed to grind down countless challengers and harvest what remained. She hadn’t even bothered to remember how weak he had been.

Then he escaped. After that, everything had gone wrong. Her fingers slowly curled against the ground. It was over. It was truly all over.

Her centuries of hard work, the countless resources she had poured into the training world, the formations she had secretly constructed, the favors she had traded, the worlds she had connected one after another to the grand array... all of it had been for this moment.

Her gaze drifted toward the unfinished artifact.

Golden light continued flowing across its surface, but it suddenly looked painfully thin to her. The magnificent object that had seemed only a short distance from completion now appeared hollow, almost skeletal, with entire sections flickering as the grand array struggled to fill them.

Xerathuna stared at it. She had imagined this moment so many times. The artifact completing, the heavens shaking, her stepping beyond her father, beyond the Blood Prince, beyond every bastard who had ever looked at her and seen only the daughter of someone greater.

Her fingers trembled. "Mine..." Her voice came out hoarse. She dragged herself toward the artifact. "This was supposed to be mine." The golden barrier surrounding it stopped her hand.

Xerathuna pressed her palm against it anyway. For centuries, whenever something went wrong, she had simply pushed harder. More resources. More cultivators. More worlds. More souls. There had always been something else she could sacrifice to keep the project moving.

Now the number hovering beside the artifact remained unchanged.

1.72%.

Xerathuna stared at it until her vision blurred. She had to start all over now? How? How could she even fathom doing something like that? She couldn’t possibly operate outside the system rules once more! The price would be unbearable! The system would simply decimate her into nothingness!

Xerathuna smiled. What the hell? "Ha..." Her shoulders shook as she started laughing. "Haha..." She covered her face. "Hahahaha..." The laughter soon turned into rage-filled wailing screams as she completely broke down.