1124 The Yang-Spheres True Purpose

“What?”

“You plan to kill us all?”

“You’re an absolute madman!”

“What about us? We’ve been a loyal subject for thousands of years. Where is our talisman?”

Millions of differing cries boomed out in unison, making it hard for anyone to hear anything. John glanced at Araxus, who held the spatial talisman in his hand, looking at them with wide eyes. He stared at the talisman for quite some time, then glanced at John.

“You want it?” he asked, much to John’s surprise.

“Use it and become complicit in the deaths of ten million cultivators? That’s not my style,” Araxus said, a light sneer in his voice, clearly enraged by the Yang-Sovereign’s actions.

“Then I’ll pass as well,” John declined, feeling his approval and friendship towards Araxus surging like a raging bonfire.

“I expected as much,” Araxus smiled, then flashed away towards the stadium. There, John saw him hand the spatial talisman to a Meridian Forging girl, one who had a look of horror and fear on her face. She accepted the talisman with wide eyes, tear-filled eyes, holding onto it tightly.

A surge of cultivators crashed towards her, trying to steal it from her. A quick surge of power from Araxus blasted them away, doing enough damage to keep them at bay. The girl began to cry, mumbling something to Araxus. He smiled and clasped her hands around the talisman, then used his own Qi to activate it.

The girl was enveloped in a thick spatial power, then vanished a moment later. Araxus returned to John’s location moments later, his expression determined and resolved for whatever came next. The two exchanged a head nod, then looked around as tens of thousands of talismans flared to life, bringing those who had chosen to accept the Yang-Sovereign’s offer out of the Yang-Sphere.

John looked towards Naelia, who Zuri now stood at her side, released by the Prime Shadow after the death of Azurae. He watched a teary-eyed Naelia be taken away by the talisman, forced to leave by Zuri. John nodded to her, relieved to see Naelia leave, who nodded back.

The Yang-Sovereign watched those who accepted his offer leave, then returned his gaze to the Prime Shadow and Sword-Saint.

“So, what happens next?” the Prime Shadow asked coldly.

“This!” the Yang-Sovereign said, a formation disk appearing in his hand, which activated instantly. At that moment, the entire inside of the obsidian Yang-Sphere flared to life as millions of fiery formation runes flared to life, activating in an instant.

BOOM!

A wave of crushing pressure suddenly permeated the entire Yang- Sphere, slamming into every single person like a brick wall. Those on the weaker side were instantly crushed against the ground, some flattened nearly to death against their seats. The stronger cultivators were able to continue standing, but were shocked to find that their power had been cut off from them.

“My dantian! I can’t access my dantian!”

“My cultivation! It’s restricted!”

“What have you done to us?”

Millions of panicked cries boomed out in unison as the cultivators within felt their powers fleeing from their control. John felt this pressure envelop him as well, wrapping around his essence like a cage, making it impossible for him to access the powerful Qi stored within. No matter how he tried, he was unable to summon Qi from his essence dantian, making him feel like he had lost a limb.

He couldn’t even access his spatial rings or spatial realm, as that required Qi to be able to do so.

He glanced to the side, and saw Araxus and Lilian with looks of shock on their faces, clearly suffering from the same thing. He then looked back up to the Prime Shadow, who usually looked like a deadly grim reaper, but now looked much more like a mortal old man. The edge, the danger that permeated from him was no longer there.

“Such a powerful formation,” the Prime Shadow said grimly, testing his power but finding it out of his reach. “Just how much did this cost you to create?”

“A lifetime of resources, the accumulated wealth of my entire Yang- Dao Sect and more” the Yang-Sovereign replied calmly as he began to fall slowly from the sky.

“The Yang-Sovereign as well!” Some called out, noticing that the Yang-Sovereign himself seemed to have been weakened the same as everyone else. The Yang-Sovereign moved to the platform once more, landing on it as his power faded.

“So, you’ve drained us all of our power, yourself included,” the Sword-Saint said as he landed on the ground, no longer able to fly well. “Do you really think you can take us all in battle if all our powers are restricted? You are not a body cultivator. You cannot defeat us all alone. Even if you were, you could not defeat all of us.”

“You are correct, Sword-Saint,” the Yang-Sovereign nodded. “My cultivation is restricted as well. For this repression formation to be all-powerful, it needed to have no exceptions to who it restricted, no flaws in its design. Only by ensuring that there was no flaw, no countermeasure, no way to bypass its restriction could I be confident in its success.”

“In that case, I, along with every other cultivator here, shall beat you to death with our hands,” the Sword-Saint said, his expression brimming with murderous bloodlust.

The Yang-Sovereign smiled at that, sending a shiver down the spines of all who saw it, as it was not the smile of a cornered opponent, but of one still very much in control.

“My cultivation may be restricted the same as the rest of you, but that does not mean I am powerless. On the contrary, I am the only one here that has any considerable power remaining,” the Yang- Sovereign replied with confidence.

Then, slowly but surely, the Yang-Sovereign began to rise into the air, drawing shocked gasps as no one else could do so. He moved through the air to his position above the Yang-Lotus, his arms stretched wide as his aura began to slowly but steadily grow, soon becoming powerful enough to burn brightly like a blazing sun.

“The Yang Lotus,” Araxus exclaimed, drawing John’s attention. “He’s absorbing the Yang-Qi coming from the Yang-Lotus. He’s absorbing the lotus Qi directly, and is using it as a remote dantian.”

“What? Can you do that?” John asked quickly.

“No,” Araxus shook his head. “The Yang Lotus is the ultimate source of Yang Qi. Only the Yang-Sovereign can withstand that potent Qi, let alone use it. He is the only one here who can do such a thing. While his power isn’t as great as it normally is, compared to the rest of us, he might as well be a god amongst men.”

John looked up at the Yang-Sovereign and felt his power. The Yang- Sovereign normally had a cultivation in the Late Holy Manifestation Realm, but that was no longer able to be felt. Instead, he could feel the general level of power emanating from the Yang-Sovereign, then compared it to what he had felt from others before.

‘Early Holy Manifestation! Using the Yang Lotus as a remote dantian, the Yang-Sovereign has the strength of an Early Holy Manifestation cultivator. Compared to everyone else who is nearly powerless, he truly is like a god amongst men.’ The Yang-Sovereign hovered in the sky above all, his body glowing brightly like the sun. Everyone looked up at him like he was truly a god, looks of fear and horror on their faces.

“Yang-Sovereign!” A deep, almost guttural voice boomed out, drawing everyone’s attention. The Yang-Sovereign shifted his gaze towards the Netherfrost Beast Leader who had spoken, who also seemed to be restricted by the repression formation.

“We will not interfere with these plans of yours,” the Netherfrost Beast leader said. “What you humans do to each other is none of our concern. But we still not stand idly and be caught up in your human schemes. Release us, and we will leave quietly.”

“Release you? Why would I do that?” the Yang-Sovereign scoffed as if he had heard the funniest joke.

The Netherfrost Beast leader’s eyes went wide with rage. “If you dare harm us, the entire weight of the Beast Continent will bear down upon you. You cannot withstand such a-”

“When I have fully absorbed the Yang Lotus, the entire world will become my domain, the Beast Continent included,” the Yang- Sovereign interrupted, then slowly flew towards the Netherfrost Beasts, stopping a short distance away. “I will have no need to concern myself with the opinions of the weak.”

“Besides,” he continued, a sinister smile creeping onto his face, sending shivers down the already frozen spines of the Netherfrost Beasts. “I invited your race for a very specific purpose. After all, I am trying to absorb the most potent and powerful source of Yang in the world. A source so powerful that even with my full strength, I am unable to absorb it.”

Bang!

The Yang-Sovereign’s hand shot out, clasping onto the weakened Netherfrost Beast Leader’s icy neck before it could react. I’s sharp claws began to scrape against the Yang-Sovereign’s arms, but with its power restricted, all it could do was leave faith scratches and nothing more. .

He then lifted the Netherfrost Beast Leader into the air by his neck, then floated back over the center of the arena directly above the Yang Lotus.

“No, even with my full power, I am not able to subdue the Lotus,” he said, looking down below. “As such, the only alternative is to temporarily weaken the Lotus itself so that I may absorb it.”

The Yang-Sovereign then returned his gaze to look directly into the eyes of the panicking Netherfrost Beast. “The ultimate source of Yang can only be weakened by the ultimate source of Yin, and when it comes to Yin, there is no better source than the Netherfrost Beasts!”

The Netherfrost Beast’s eyes went wide with realization and horror, finally understanding why they had been invited by the Yang- Sovereign himself. They had considered it a sign of honor. Instead, it was only a path of death.

Then, in front of ten million wide eyes, the Yang-Sovereign let go of the Netherfrost Beast’s neck, and watched him plunge down into the abyss, directly towards the Yang Lotus.

𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮