As Zi Linling, Ye Lingyuan, Xuanyuan Xun, Rong Guang, Shen Liuxing, Shangguan Yulin, Elder Du, Dan Qianqiu, Ghost Emperor, and Feng Ning were recuperating, not a single one of them noticed.
With the continuous seepage of blood, the life force of the Prison Demon Star Lord grew increasingly potent.
Suddenly, his finger twitched, his eyelids fluttered, and his eyes opened.
The Prison Demon Star Lord let out a sinister smile, slowly sat up, and began to circulate his cultivation technique – the Blood Demon Great Technique.
As the Blood Demon Great Technique circulated, the blood seeping in from the surroundings rapidly surged towards his body.
In the blink of an eye, the half of his head that had been severed had already grown back, restoring him to his original state.
However, the circulation of the Blood Demon Great Technique did not stop; it only became faster.
Blood continuously poured into his body, and his cultivation rapidly recovered.
Zi Linling, who was still recuperating, suddenly felt an immense palpitation. She opened her eyes and released her divine sense to survey the surroundings.
Soon, Ye Lingyuan also sensed something was amiss. He immediately ceased his recuperation and, together with Zi Linling, began to investigate.
The Prison Demon Star Lord's aura grew increasingly powerful, soon causing all living beings on the Azure Star to tremble in fear.
Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan finally noticed the hundred-zhang humanoid crater. They rose in unison, walked to the edge of the crater, and probed it with their divine senses.
The probe startled both of them.
The Prison Demon Star Lord, who was clearly dead, appeared in their divine senses unharmed, grinning sinisterly at them and baring his teeth.
"This is bad!"
Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan shouted simultaneously, "Quickly set up the formation!"
Xuanyuan Xun, Shangguan Yulin, Shen Liuxing, Rong Guang, Elder Du, Dan Qianqiu, Ghost Emperor, and Feng Ning were all awakened and stood frozen in place.
"The Prison Demon Star Lord has revived! Quickly set up the Nine-Nine Qiankun Hunyuan Formation!" Zi Linling urged.
The eight of them snapped out of their stupor and quickly took their positions according to the formation diagram.
However, before the Nine-Nine Qiankun Hunyuan Formation could be successfully completed, the Prison Demon Star Lord roared with laughter, flying out of the giant humanoid pit and launching an attack on Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan.
Although Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan were on guard, the Prison Demon Star Lord, after absorbing a large amount of blood, had his cultivation skyrocket, nearing the Creation Realm.
Meanwhile, Zi Linling, Ye Lingyuan, and the other eight guardians had only recovered fifty percent of their strength.
With this disparity, the incompletely set up Nine-Nine Qiankun Hunyuan Formation was shattered by the greatly empowered Prison Demon Star Lord, and Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan were instantly critically injured.
The two coughed up blood violently, their bones and internal organs shattered, rendering them unable to continue fighting.
Seeing this, Xuanyuan Xun and the other eight, disregarding everything, launched an attack on the Prison Demon Star Lord.
However, the vast difference in their cultivation levels compared to the Prison Demon Star Lord meant they were quickly subdued and critically injured.
The sudden reversal stunned the beings of the Azure Star.
The figures they once revered as gods were now utterly defeated, filling their hearts with despair.
The extraterrestrial demons, initially stunned, were emboldened and launched a counterattack against the beings of the Azure Star.
The roles of killer and killed, pursuer and pursued, reversed once more.
Shouts of battle, fear, screams, and wails merged into a tragic symphony of war.
The Prison Demon Star Lord stood in the sky, looking down contemptuously at Zi Linling and the other nine, and declared arrogantly, "I should truly thank you! Were it not for you, I would not have been able to absorb enough kindred blood, nor would I have been able to break through the barrier between the Half-Step Creation Realm and the Creation Realm."
"To thank you, I have decided to slaughter all the living beings on the Azure Star and turn it into a death star!"
"All forces of the Prison Demon Star, heed my command: Kill! Leave no one alive!"
Upon hearing their Star Lord's words, the extraterrestrial demons became like whipped dogs, ferociously charging into the beings of the Azure Star and wantonly harvesting their lives.
Despite their unwillingness, Zi Linling, Ye Lingyuan, and the other eight guardians, severely wounded and unable to stand, could only watch as the forests of the Azure Star were decimated.
The doomsday tribulation! This was the true doomsday tribulation!
Zi Linling, Ye Lingyuan, and the eight guardians fell into despair, unsure how they could save the beings of the Azure Star and help it overcome this catastrophe.
The pain of compassion, the pain of powerlessness, the pain of unwillingness, tore at the already riddled internal organs of the ten of them.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft..."
Mouthful after mouthful of blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs, spurted from their mouths.
"Heavenly Dao of the Azure Star, look! Open your eyes and see how these demons are slaughtering your subjects beneath your gaze. Are you truly willing for your subjects to endure such a calamity forever?"
Zi Linling's impassioned questions brought tears to everyone's eyes, including her own.
Perhaps it was the rampant slaughter by the Prison Demon Star Lord that angered the Heavenly Dao, or perhaps the compassion of the ten of them moved the heavens. Suddenly, countless rays of auspicious light illuminated the sky.
The "Human Emperor's Medical Compendium" and the "True Scripture of Creation" both surged out of Zi Linling's body, transforming into sixteen characters within the auspicious light.
"Great love gives rise, creation forms itself! Seven colors return to their places, the universe finds peace!"
As everyone was perplexed, the sixteen characters turned into blinding light and merged into the bodies of Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan.
The gravely injured pair rapidly recovered and, supported by the auspicious light, slowly floated into the air.
The Four Divine Beasts quickly transformed into stone statues and merged into one, then drilled into Zi Linling's body.
A long-lost ethereal voice echoed again, "The Sixteenth Layer of the Seven-Colored Space, the Four Symbols Space, has returned."
Following this, Xuanyuan Xun, Rong Guang, Shangguan Yulin, Shen Liuxing, Elder Du, Dan Qianqiu, Ghost Emperor, and Feng Ning also began to float, gradually merging together, and then into Ye Lingyuan's body.
Ye Lingyuan's body slowly became transparent, and a violently beating heart floated out of his body, also merging into Zi Linling's body.
The ethereal voice sounded again, "The Seventh Layer of the Seven-Colored Space, the Nine Yang Space, has returned!"
"The Seven-Colored Space merges into one, the seed of origin nurtures life, the true heart as a guide, true love as a sacrifice, the beginning of creation, the purifiying Eve, drive out the demons!"
As the words "drive out the demons" boomed in the air, the bodies of Zi Linling and Ye Lingyuan fused together in a peculiar posture.
Life force was drawn from their bodies, forming a giant heart-shaped cocoon outside.