"Master, you've taken human form!"
Ji Shiyou heard Mingyue call the unfamiliar little girl "Baobao."
He paid no mind to the ball of light or any abnormalities, exclaiming in surprise.
"Brother-in-law, it's me.
Aren't you surprised? Aren't you shocked!"
Baobao hopped in front of Ji Shiyou.
She acted cute and said,
"The辈分 (generation ranking) is all mixed up."
Mingyue stood aside, silently complaining in her heart.
"Baobao, you noticed it too?
I felt it just now, the power within that ball of light.
It's the same as the one I encountered with the grey-clothed man on the Elf Continent."
Mingyue listened to Ji Shiyou and Baobao, one calling him Master, the other Brother-in-law.
Her mind was in a whirl, and she spoke up.
"Grey-clothed man? Same power.
What happened when you went to the Elf Continent this time?"
Ji Shiyou was very curious about what Mingyue had experienced on her trip to the elven world.
Baobao had taken human form.
And there was this grey-clothed man, which made him very intrigued.
"It's hard to explain in a word or two. Let's talk about it when we get back!"
This mission to the elven world was a bit complicated.
Mingyue decided to discuss it upon their return, as the icy wilderness was hardly a place for conversation.
Thus, the three of them flashed away, leaving the Glacier Valley.
None of them remembered the unconscious Ren Jian lying on the ground.
In the deepest reaches of the endless void, everything was a hazy grey.
No world existed there, not even starlight could penetrate.
It was like primordial chaos, a realm of absolute stillness.
As if it were a forgotten corner of the universe, unvisited and untouched.
There was no life, no light, no color.
Time itself seemed to cease, with no beginning and no end.
The appearance of a grey figure broke the silence.
However, it was merely a fleeting glimpse before vanishing into thin air.
It turned out that behind this void lay another dimension.
"Master, Wei Zhen has failed.
The Elf World was not destroyed. I beg for your punishment, Master!"
The grey-clothed figure knelt upon a mass of grey energy, speaking to a swirling vortex of light.
If Mingyue were present, she would have recognized this person as the same grey-clothed man who had escaped from the Elf World.
And in this space, the swirling lights capable of condensing Chaos Beasts were everywhere, in countless numbers.
"I am aware of all that transpired.
Wei Zhen, do you know where you went wrong?"
A deep, resonant voice echoed, seeming to come from miles away yet also from right beside him.
It filled the entire space, yet the speaker remained unseen.
"Wei Zhen should not have been impatient and sought immediate success.
If I had waited a little longer, until the Tree of Life withered,
the elves would have perished, and no one could have activated the World Power.
I could have easily destroyed the Elf World,
and completed the task assigned by Master, without delaying Master's grand plans."
Wei Zhen lowered his head, confessing his mistake.
"You still don't know what you did wrong, how foolish.
I will tell you. Your greatest mistake was not in failing to destroy the Elf World, but in failing to recognize a treasure when you saw one.
The red sash you placed in the heart of the Elf World is called the Creation Red Sash.
Because you failed to identify its worth, it has now been claimed by a master.
As a result, not only was the Elf World not destroyed, but the soon-to-be-destroyed Tianlong Star was also saved."
The voice spoke again, calm and unhurried, devoid of any anger.
Yet, to Wei Zhen, it sent shivers down his spine.
"This subordinate deserves death. This subordinate's eyes were blind.
I thought that red sash was merely an ordinary fire-attribute magic treasure, and never expected it to be so important.
Please, Master, grant this subordinate another chance to atone for my sins."
Wei Zhen pleaded incessantly, like a prisoner about to be led to the execution ground.
"I do not need such foolish beings in my employ.
I never lack for those who can carry out tasks.
You are not even human, why are you so afraid of death?"
As the voice faded, Wei Zhen exploded with a bang.
Like a Chaos Beast, he transformed into a ball of energy.
It was then absorbed by the nearest ball of light, vanishing completely.
The ball of light that had consumed Wei Zhen, after churning, transformed into a human form.
"Greetings, Master!"
He was a young man, appearing to be around twenty years old, with a bright and sunny disposition.
He knelt on the ground and said loudly,
"Very well. You will depart now and carry out your mission in a past world.
This is the mission content. Your identity has already been arranged. Go!"
The mysterious voice spoke, and a grey light sphere the size of an egg appeared out of nowhere.
It drilled into the man's forehead and disappeared.
"Your subordinate obeys!"
The man stood up, flashed, and vanished from this strange space.
Tianlong Star, Purple Gold Palace.
"So, the nameless fire that caused the high temperatures in the Elf World
was Golden Crow Fire? It seems the ice-sealing problem is still unresolved.
However, it wasn't a wasted trip if Master could take human form.
But you say the power on that grey-clothed man
is the same as the power of that light sphere. Is that a coincidence?
After all, power is power, regardless of the world.
Just as this world has elemental powers, other worlds will too."
Ji Shiyou said this after listening to Mingyue's experience in the Elf World and pondering.
He had cultivated Golden Crow Fire in the Moonflower Realm and knew its power.
Although powerful, it was not enough to melt the ice seal of this world.
"I hope it's a coincidence, but you're wrong to think Golden Crow Fire is useless.
The Golden Crow Fire you know is the flame emitted by ordinary Golden Crows.
The nine Golden Crow remnant souls sealed within the Creation Red Sash are the direct offspring of the Demon Emperor Jun.
They are the royal lineage of the Golden Crow clan, and their Golden Crow Fire
is called Three-Legged Golden Crow Fire, hundreds of times more powerful than ordinary Golden Crow Fire. It's different.
Have you heard the story of the descendants shooting down the sun? These nine little brats almost burned the primordial world.
That's why, even with the seal of the Creation Red Sash, they almost destroyed the Elf World.
This is the best proof. Besides,
whether it succeeds or not, let's have Baobao try and see!"
"Baobao, Baobao!
What are you doing? That's Bajiu."
Mingyue had been talking to Ji Shiyou. When she turned to ask Baobao
if she was confident she could melt the thick ice surrounding Tianlong Star, she immediately yelled in annoyance.
Because at that moment, Baobao was fiddling with the reddish-red stone that encased Bajiu.
"I know, Sister.
I can still sense Brother Bajiu's aura.
It's so funny, Brother Bajiu isn't a bird, why has he turned into an egg?
Sister, do you think I can hatch him?
I haven't seen Brother Bajiu for a long time, and I miss him."
Baobao pushed the stone and was about to sit on it.
"Hatch him? What an idea.
Bajiu is different from you. That's not an egg, it's the Blazing Sun Pearl."
Mingyue walked over, pulled Baobao off the stone,
and explained Bajiu's situation to her.
"So Brother Bajiu is so great, sacrificing himself to save everyone.
Baobao understands that being encased in a shell is very uncomfortable.
Then let Baobao help him break this annoying shell!"
Baobao finished speaking and slapped the stone.