Liang stared at the enormous egg before him, unable to hide the anticipation in his eyes.
This was no ordinary spirit beast egg. It belonged to an ancient race from the Devil Realm known as the Infernal Void Serpents, a primordial lineage said to possess power and potential that surpassed even ordinary true dragons.
Unfortunately, the egg had long since lost its life force. The creature inside had died ages ago.
If it had still been alive, Liang would never have been able to obtain it.
He raised his hand, and a drop of crimson blood appeared above his palm before falling onto the egg.
The ancient runes covering its shell immediately began to glow. One by one, they awakened, responding to the blood that had touched them.
Liang smiled in satisfaction.
This was blood essence from a Dark Phoenix, a legendary race that lived in the deepest regions of the Devil Realm. These creatures possessed terrifying vitality and could be reborn endlessly through their Infernal Flames.
Although only a single drop remained, it still contained a trace of that extraordinary power.
As the blood essence seeped into the shell, a faint sign of life began to emerge from within the egg.
Next, Liang took out the Reincarnation Dao Crystal.
He dripped his blood essence onto its surface until the entire crystal turned crimson, then carefully placed it on top of the egg.
The moment they touched, the crystal began merging with the shell. Its translucent surface gradually dissolved, sinking into the egg as a new set of ancient runes appeared in its place.
Liang's smile widened.
The moment he had been waiting for was finally approaching.
He picked up the Heavenly Soul Grass and absorbed all its essence, leaving nothing behind. Then he formed a series of complicated hand seals and began chanting in a low voice.
Each seal carried immense power.
Gradually, his physical body began to disintegrate. His skin, flesh, blood, and bones broke down into streams of energy, leaving only his Nascent Soul floating in the chamber.
But even that was temporary.
The Nascent Soul slowly broke apart, scattering into countless particles of light until nothing remained but a single translucent sphere.
This was Liang's pure consciousness.
An invisible force drew it toward the egg. Without resistance, it entered the shell and merged with the creature within.
Silence filled the chamber.
Then, without warning, a blinding light erupted from the egg.
The light spread violently through the chamber before gradually settling into a steady pulse.
When it finally faded, the aura surrounding the egg had completely changed. It was ancient and profound, carrying a terrifying presence that had never existed in the chamber before.
At that moment, the heavens reacted.
Dark clouds rapidly gathered across the entire world. The air filled with violent energy as a Heavenly Tribulation descended.
Terrifying bolts of lightning rained down, destroying everything in their path. Cities, mountains, cultivators, and mortals were all caught in the devastation.
The destruction was unprecedented.
Gradually, the tribulation began concentrating on the ten great cities built upon the Dragon Earth Vein. Even peak cultivators and powerful devils struggled to withstand its might.
Amid the chaos, however, almost no one noticed a particularly destructive bolt striking a hidden location.
Its power far exceeded that of the other lightning strikes.
Liang had anticipated this.
He knew that merging with the egg would trigger a Heavenly Punishment unlike anything the world had witnessed for thousands of years.
Yet he had never considered abandoning his plan.
To him, power and immortality were worth any price.
His physical body was gone, and his Nascent Soul had been completely destroyed. By all conventional standards, Liang was already dead.
Only the essence of the Heavenly Soul Grass remained, preserving his consciousness and allowing him to maintain his existence.
Under normal circumstances, the Reincarnation Dao Crystal would have allowed him to enter the cycle of reincarnation while retaining his memories.
But the fusion of the crystal, his blood essence, and the egg had produced an entirely different result.
Rather than entering the ordinary cycle of reincarnation, Liang had been reborn directly inside the body of the dead creature.
He had accomplished something that no cultivator had ever managed before.
He had used his own soul to resurrect a dead primordial being.
As though the heavens had finally identified their true target, the tribulation grew even more violent.
All the lightning in the sky began converging above Blood Moon City.
The air shook as an enormous mass of tribulation lightning gathered overhead. Then, with a deafening explosion, it descended upon the city.
In an instant, Blood Moon City was erased from existence.
One of the ten great cities, home to millions of inhabitants, vanished completely. Not a single person survived, and even the ruins were reduced to dust.
Yet amid the war and destruction spreading across the world, almost no one paid attention to what had happened.
Those who noticed were too busy fighting for their own survival.
When death could strike at any moment, there was little room to worry about anything else.
Liang had begun planning all of this years ago, back when he realized he could not break through to the Spirit Severing Realm and later discovered the Reincarnation Dao Crystal.
He knew that his rebirth would inevitably attract the attention of the heavens. There was no way to conceal such an event under ordinary circumstances.
Only a catastrophe on a global scale could provide the cover he needed.
That was why he had sought the help of the devils.
After years of searching, negotiations, and careful preparation, he had finally put his plan into motion.
As the war spread, countless lives were lost. The Heavenly Tribulation alone claimed an unimaginable number of victims, destroying even the remains of powerful cultivators.
The number of dead was beyond counting.
Meanwhile, the battle between the Spirit Severing Realm ancestors and the Five Devil Kings continued to rage.
Five more peak cultivators from the remaining cities soon joined the fight, each confronting one of the Devil Kings.
The battle had reached its most intense stage when something unexpected happened.
The summoning formation that had brought the Devil Kings into this world suddenly reversed its function.
An overwhelming force seized their souls and began dragging them back toward the Devil Realm.
The five Devil Kings struggled desperately against the pull. Their expressions twisted with disbelief and fury as they realized what was happening.
Their enraged roars shook the battlefield.
"LIANG YIFEI!"