I stood in silence, staring at the massive vat overflowing with blood-red liquid. My mind churned with memories of Ethan Zhang, Earth Soul—confusion, dread, and the question of why he had become this. The Blood Jade was a shock that cut through my tangled thoughts.
Earth Soul's only reason for coming here was the Blood Jade. The moment he was discovered, he fled, refusing to share a single word with us. His silence was a wall I couldn't break.
"It's late. Ethan Zhang must be drifting into sleep now."
At that moment, a voice sounded behind me. Vermilion Bird came to my side, placing a hand on my forehead. Instantly, I saw Rachel Lan floating in the liquid—those cracks on her body had lessened since I last saw her.
"Thank you."
I said this, stood up, and walked to the vat, quietly watching Rachel Lan inside. Soon, I pushed thoughts of Earth Soul aside. The most urgent thing now was to find a way to awaken the Azure Luan egg and ensure it could hatch successfully.
"Still can't awaken your instincts?"
I nodded. This was far harder than I could have imagined. Too many years spent as a ghost—my human strength had long since vanished, swallowed by darkness. To awaken it now felt almost hopeless.
"Have more faith in yourself, Ethan Zhang. You are a man of conviction."
Vermilion Bird muttered something. I nodded, sleepiness creeping over me. I yawned, and then—suddenly—the ground convulsed beneath us. In a flash, Vermilion Bird and I shot out of the basement, flying into the air.
A rumble echoed as if an earthquake had struck, making the Four Sacred Realm beneath the starlit sky even more hauntingly beautiful. The Saints, who had been sleeping, soared into the air, awakened by the disturbance. The entire realm was roused. The Saints floated upward, and the tremors came from directly across the Vermilion Bird Realm.
This was no ordinary earthquake, but the collision of immense forces. With a whoosh, Vermilion Bird rose, transforming in an instant into a colossal golden phoenix, radiant and terrifying. Its size kept growing, unleashing a pure, overwhelming power that stunned all who witnessed it.
The Vermilion Bird grew so vast it nearly blotted out the entire Vermilion Bird Realm.
"It's here," someone murmured.
At that moment, Ai appeared beside me, quietly staring into the distance. With a thunderous roar, a massive cloud of sand swept toward us, visible even to the naked eye.
My eyes widened. In the night sky, a dark mass approached—sand, stones, trees all swept up in a violent current. The entire Four Sacred Realm was in the path of the onslaught. The ground at the realm's edge had already split open.
A piercing Vermilion Bird cry split the night. Suddenly, the bird beat its wings, sending a torrent of golden light surging toward the oncoming chaos.
With a deafening explosion, I shielded my eyes with my hand as the night sky blazed with gold. The roar of a tiger thundered past my ears. Gritting my teeth, I crouched low, as savage winds swept through everything in the Four Sacred Realm.
The entire Four Sacred Realm began to shake. Suddenly, streams of white energy appeared overhead, guiding the turbulent air upward as if directing the chaos itself.
Gradually, everything settled. The Vermilion Bird, blazing like a sun in the night sky, shrank back to its normal size. But the wasteland before us was ravaged—sand, stone, soil, and shattered plants littered the ground.