Lin Yuan hovered in the void, quietly watching as Ling Shen King's form and soul collapsed.
Then, with a casual wave, he collected all the weapons and treasures left behind by the Grand Ling royal.
"The royals of the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom really are tricky to deal with, especially that power to transform into 'spirit' just now. Even a Heavenly Sovereign would probably find it a headache."
Lin Yuan sighed inwardly.
To become 'spirit' was to merge into and become one with the spirit of all things.
And since spirit existed in everything, unless facing a Heavenly Sovereign, this move of Ling Shen King was basically invincible.
"But it just so happens to be countered by me."
Lin Yuan mused to himself. Ling Shen King became 'spirit,' merging into all things.
But Lin Yuan's physical divine power "World" formed an external universe centered on himself.
Within this domain, he could control everything.
In truth, just relying on the external universe’s control, even if it could suppress Ling Shen King who'd become 'spirit,' it would be hard to force him out.
The external universe could only be sustained for a limited time.
But after Lin Yuan's internal universe fused with and devoured the Sunborn Genesis, wherever the external universe extended, it was as if Sunborn Genesis itself had descended.
Within that range, Lin Yuan's control over space, time, and all things reached its peak, which was why he could easily force Ling Shen King out of his spirit state.
Using the internal universe as his foundation, combining "World" and "Sunborn Genesis," Lin Yuan’s powers had become truly terrifying.
And this was just the enhancement of the "World" divine power.
The fusion and devouring of the Sunborn Genesis by his internal universe had also greatly strengthened his foundation in ways hard to measure.
Plus, with the concealment provided by his internal universe, unless Lin Yuan went all out or fully activated "World," no one would realize he had powers so closely tied to the Sunborn Ancestor.
"Hm?"
After storing away all Ling Shen King’s weapons and treasures, Lin Yuan glanced through them.
Among the many weapons, the silver longsword was the most striking—it was Ling Shen King’s main weapon.
"Heavenly Sovereign-grade weapon?"
Lin Yuan saw at a glance what level this weapon was—Heavenly Sovereigns of this source world corresponded to "Great Saints" of the Chaos Void.
"Not bad."
Lin Yuan was quite satisfied. He might not use swords himself, but a Heavenly Sovereign-grade weapon could easily be traded for other resources of the same level.
This silver sword, favored by Ling Shen King as his main weapon, was considered outstanding even among Heavenly Sovereign weapons.
Besides the silver longsword, there was also a Heavenly Sovereign-grade armor and several other weapons, and in terms of treasures and rare items, Ling Shen King’s collection was exceptionally rich.
"Core royals of this source world really are wealthy..."
Lin Yuan felt pleased—he could guess that these weapons and treasures were probably most of Ling Shen King's wealth.
Normally, even in a local war between two ancient kingdoms, the participating Great Sovereigns wouldn’t bring their best weapons or treasures with them.
After all, the battlefield was unpredictable, and if they died, those things would just fall into enemy hands.
But Ling Shen King? As an extreme core royal, it had never occurred to him that he might die.
Of all the possible outcomes he’d imagined, the worst was that Qingfen Domain also had an extreme core royal, leading to a stalemate. Even then, he never considered he’d actually fall here.
And that was reasonable—an extreme core royal was invincible among Great Sovereigns. Unless a Heavenly Sovereign appeared?
And if a Heavenly Sovereign joined the battle, it meant the entire war was escalating.
Even so, a Heavenly Sovereign wouldn’t easily kill an extreme core royal like him.
After checking through his spoils—
Lin Yuan looked down at the battlefield.
At that moment, the two or three dozen Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom Great Sovereigns—whether newly advanced or at their peak—were all fleeing desperately.
Clearly, they’d heard the result of Lin Yuan’s fight with Ling Shen King.
"Trying to run?"
Lin Yuan’s mind flicked.
Dealing with ordinary Great Sovereigns, he didn’t need to use "World" again. (ZA WARUDOO!)
Whoosh—
The power of Sunborn Genesis swept out, and the two or three dozen Great Sovereigns were scooped up like fish, completely suppressed.
"Milky Way!"
All of them were terrified.
"Relax, I’m not going to kill you."
Lin Yuan spoke directly.
The best use for these prisoners wasn’t to kill them, but to ransom them back to the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom after the war.
Lin Yuan had no personal hatred for these war captives—it was just a matter of opposing sides, nothing personal.
Besides, even if he killed them, they wouldn’t truly die; with their life-saving measures, they’d be reborn at the cost of losing a main battle body.
It wasn’t worth much.
Trading these captives for ransom from the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom was far more in Lin Yuan’s interest.
These Great Sovereigns had fought for the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom. Now that they were captured, did the kingdom really plan to just let them go?
"Lingwei King?"
Lin Yuan’s expression shifted slightly as he looked far away.
There, an aura was quickly retreating.
Swoosh.
Lin Yuan’s figure disappeared.
Moments later, he appeared beside Lingwei King.
Compared to these ancient kingdom royals who focused on mining their bloodline power, Lin Yuan was just as skilled at comprehending rules, especially the fusion of time and space, which he’d reached the eighth level in ages ago.
Recently, he’d kept improving his understanding of Chaos secret patterns, which also helped advance his mastery of all kinds of rules, including space-time fusion.
So unless his target was a royal who specialized in escape, no one could get away from Lin Yuan.
"Milky Way, are you here to capture me?"
Lingwei King, sensing Lin Yuan closing in, stopped running and simply stood there.
"Impossible."
He shook his head, and his body and soul began to dissipate.
Other Great Sovereigns could be taken captive and ransomed back.
But not him—not as a Grand Ling royal, and certainly not as a prisoner of the Liyang Ancient Kingdom. That would be a disgrace for the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom.
So—
The moment he realized he couldn’t escape, Lingwei King decisively destroyed this body.
Better to lose a body than to lose face as a royal.
Lin Yuan felt a twinge of regret, but he’d expected it.
That was why he’d gone all out against Ling Shen King, instead of trying to suppress him—it was clear the other would rather self-destruct than be captured.
This was the only choice for an ancient kingdom royal.
"Still, a good haul."
Lin Yuan collected Lingwei King’s belongings. Though not as impressive as Ling Shen King's, they were enough to be considered wealthy among Great Sovereigns.
"This time out..."
A smile appeared on Lin Yuan’s face. With the wealth of Ling Shen King and Lingwei King, plus the treasures from dozens of Great Sovereigns—
He planned to ransom those Great Sovereigns back to their kingdom, but would definitely take all their valuables and weapons first. After a quick tally, Lin Yuan realized he’d made a huge profit.
Not to mention, aside from all the loot he got from the enemy,
He could still use his battle achievements to exchange for treasures from King Chisong.
And with Lin Yuan’s performance—single-handedly turning the tide of battle—how much credit would he earn?
Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom.
Within a certain royal palace in the capital—
In the depths of countless formations and restrictions, a white crystal suddenly glowed softly, then gathered into a figure—Ling Shen King.
Using a life-saving measure to “revive,” Ling Shen King’s aura was extremely weak.
But compared to his physical and soul weakness, his spirit was in even worse shape.
"I actually died?"
"To die face-to-face at the hands of a being who isn’t even a Heavenly Sovereign?"
Ling Shen King muttered. He could feel that Lin Yuan was definitely not a Heavenly Sovereign—at most, like himself, a Liyang Ancient Kingdom core royal who’d grown to the extreme.
A core royal at the limit was supposed to be invincible among Great Sovereigns; even if they couldn’t beat another of the same level, they shouldn’t lose—much less be killed outright.
"Was it because... my bloodline talent was countered by that Milky Way?"
Ling Shen King began to replay the fight, images flashing through his mind.
He'd used his strongest move, merging into the “spirit” of all things—but in the end, that Milky Way had some unknown method that granted absolute control over the world, even reversing the control of all spirit.
That was the key. After merging into “spirit,” Ling Shen King was almost unbeatable, but also lost access to many other powers.
Plus, after being forced out of that state, his shock left him wide open to be killed by Milky Way.
"If I hadn’t used the 'spirit' move, maybe I could’ve lasted a bit longer..."
Ling Shen King thought to himself.
Yes—
Just lasted a bit longer.
Though he realized he was countered by Milky Way, that near-absolute control at the end—no matter what, even without using the "spirit" move, the result would have been the same.
He might have lasted a little longer.
Maybe bought a bit more time for the other Grand Ling Great Sovereigns to escape?
"Milky Way... could it be that the core royals of the Liyang Ancient Kingdom have made progress breaking the Heavenly Sovereign bottleneck? Is that why Milky Way had such power?"
Ling Shen King steadied himself and speculated.
Lin Yuan’s power was obviously abnormal—a full level above normal extreme core royals, yet he hadn’t become a Heavenly Sovereign.
So Ling Shen King had this suspicion.
"That’s actually good."
"It means that after reaching the limit, core royals still have a path forward. There’s still hope of advancing further."
His eyes burned with excitement. Compared to the pain of defeat, knowing the path wasn’t blocked anymore was even more important to him.
Swoosh.
Lin Yuan, after collecting Lingwei King’s spoils, vanished again and returned to the battlefield.
"Senior Milky Way." Chijue King approached, visibly excited and grateful. "I never thought you’d pass by here and lend a hand. If not for you, dozens of nearby domains would probably have fallen."
"It’s nothing," Lin Yuan said, understanding the other’s implication.
Chijue King had clearly taken him for a core royal from the Liyang Ancient Kingdom who’d grown to the extreme.
Given Lin Yuan’s strength and the fact that he’d used Blazing Sun Divine Body techniques, no one would believe he wasn’t an extreme core royal.
Lin Yuan didn’t deny it—after all, it explained his current power.
"Senior Milky Way," King Chisong hurried over as well, speaking with guilt: "I didn’t know your true identity before, so I spoke out of turn. Please forgive me, senior!"
Lin Yuan had met King Chisong once before after defeating Great Sovereign Leige; the latter’s attitude had been fine, but now, knowing Lin Yuan's identity, he was uneasy.
"No need for that," Lin Yuan replied indifferently.
"So what next?"
"Shall we invade Zimeng Domain?"
Lin Yuan glanced at the two royal Great Sovereigns, speaking casually.
Now that all the Great Sovereigns from Purple Dream and the surrounding dozens of domains had been suppressed, the enemy was basically a shell.
If King Chisong wanted to attack, there would be little resistance.
"Invade Zimeng Domain?"
King Chisong hesitated, then shook his head. "Better not. With Ling Shen King dead, the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom will definitely respond. Even if we took it, we couldn’t hold it. There’s no need."
He had no ambitions—just wanted to avoid mistakes.
As long as he could keep Qingfen Domain, that was enough.
"Fair enough."
Lin Yuan nodded.
King Chisong's reasoning was sound.
In the distance—
More than twenty Great Sovereigns exchanged glances, thoroughly shocked by what they'd just seen.
They’d expected a hard-fought battle—but Ling Shen King had barely held out.
"Senior Milky Way’s strength..."
Great Sovereign Axe was stunned; Great Sovereign Redleaf was no better.
Especially Redleaf—she’d always gotten along well with Lin Yuan and had never imagined this newly advanced Great Sovereign was an extreme core royal.
Especially seeing Lin Yuan’s true power now—it might be more than just “extreme core royal.”
Qingfen City.
In the teleportation array zone.
Suddenly, the largest teleportation array lit up, and after a few dozen breaths, several figures appeared.
At their head was an old man with a red beard, followed by three or four young men and women.
"Ling Shen King of the Grand Ling Ancient Kingdom actually reached the extreme. Impressive."
One of the young men spoke, glancing around and relaxing a bit. "Looks like we made it in time."
Since Qingfen City was unharmed and the teleportation array still worked, it meant Ling Shen King hadn’t attacked it yet.
So their journey wasn’t wasted.
These were reinforcements sent by the Liyang Ancient Kingdom’s capital, having learned that Ling Shen King’s power exceeded expectations.
The three or four youths were all royal Great Sovereigns, while the red-bearded old man was an extreme core royal.
There were few core royals in the entire Liyang Ancient Kingdom, and even fewer who had grown to the extreme.
That the red-bearded elder could arrive so quickly showed how much importance they placed on the war between Qingfen and Zimeng Domains.
"Hm?"
The old man’s gaze grew surprised as he looked toward the battlefield.
"What is it?" The three or four young men, seeing the old man unmoving, grew anxious.
They didn’t know how Chijue King and King Chisong had managed to hold off an extreme core royal like Ling Shen King for so long.
But it was obvious the sooner they arrived, the better.
"No need to worry."
The old man glanced at the youths and said, puzzled, "The war is already over."
...
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