"Phew..." Shawn Young let out a long sigh, then carefully placed the head of the ghostly Yin Zhengcheng back onto his corpse. He gently laid the body down, making sure the head and neck were joined together.
After finishing this, Shawn picked up the Oblivion Katana, intending to leap toward Annabelle Hung. But as soon as he moved, a sharp pain shot through his right shoulder, and blood began to pour out—the wound from the blade was deep.
Startled, Shawn had no choice but to abandon the idea for now. Instead, he sat cross-legged in a corner of the ruins, closed his eyes, and sent his consciousness into the illusionary sea, heading toward the Heavenly Sanctuary.
After a moment of spinning, Shawn's consciousness entered the Heavenly Sanctuary. But what he saw shocked him—the entire sanctuary was shrouded in a vast white mist, with no scenery at all. Even the Red Dragon and his wife, the Thousand-Year Earth Dragon, who usually guarded this place, were nowhere to be found!
"How could this be? What on earth happened here?" Shawn was utterly horrified.
"Master... Master... we, we're beginning to enter the phase of etherealization..." Suddenly, the Red Dragon's voice came to his ear, sounding utterly exhausted.
"Etherealization? What's that supposed to mean?" Shawn asked, puzzled.
"It's the precursor to ascension—like a snake shedding its skin. As long as we survive the etherealization stage, we can become true divine dragons!" the Red Dragon replied.
"Uh... I see. So what about Mai? Where did you hide her?" Shawn immediately thought of Mai Kanda's soul, which was hidden in the Heavenly Sanctuary.
"Mistress Mai... her soul is just like ours—it's etherealized too, waiting for the day when your cultivation is fully complete!" the Red Dragon said.
"Fully complete my cultivation? How am I supposed to do that? Besides, I just got stabbed—was hoping to get some sacred pills from you guys for healing, but now you're all etherealized..." Shawn grumbled.
"Master... there's nothing we can do. In the cycle of the Dao, once cultivation reaches this stage, it's out of our hands. If you want to achieve full completion, hurry up and overcome your Heavenly Tribulation! It's about to erupt inside you..." the Red Dragon suddenly said.
"What? My Heavenly Tribulation is about to erupt? How do you know?" Shawn was shocked. With powerful enemies all around, if the tribulation struck now, it was basically suicide!
"I can sense it because I'm in the etherealization phase. Yours is about to hit, and this time it will be the most intense yet. Survive it, and you'll be free; fail, and you'll die, your Dao destroyed... You need to get out of here first! All our hopes rest on you!" the Red Dragon urged anxiously.
"But... in this situation, it's nearly impossible for me to leave Moonlight Valley!" Shawn felt escaping Moonlight Valley was way too difficult now.
"Master, I can't talk anymore—I'm about to enter my cocoon. You have to figure something out! Please..." With that, the Red Dragon's voice faded into the void, leaving only the endless mist.
Left with nothing, Shawn could only leave the Heavenly Sanctuary, feeling dejected. He decided to tackle the immediate crisis first.
Opening his eyes, Shawn felt another wave of intense pain in his right shoulder. He gritted his teeth, endured it, and channeled his vital energy to temporarily seal a few acupoints—the stabbing pain eased a bit.
He leaped onto the ruins and looked out—battle had reached a fever pitch. The plaza was littered with corpses, rivers of blood flowing everywhere. Jade Swann wielded the Raikiri Dagger, fiercely battling onmyoji from the Nine Chrysanthemums Society.
Meanwhile, May Gu and Rachel Sasaki were drenched in blood, standing back-to-back and fighting off a swarm of ninjas surrounding them.
Meanwhile, Luna Xiao was fighting dozens of samurai on her own. Though danger was everywhere, she still managed to protect herself.
The fiercest battle was near Annabelle Hung. With Andrew Qi and Master Wuxiang attacking her together in their demonic states, even someone as powerful as Annabelle could only hold her ground. Shawn could tell that if she didn’t have the Celestial Severance Blade to defend herself, she’d be finished by now!
Without hesitation, Shawn sprang toward Annabelle Hung, knowing that if he could take down Andrew Qi and Master Wuxiang, the rest of the enemies would be no problem!
Just as he reached Annabelle, the sky suddenly flashed with crimson light—the blood-red full moon blazed brighter than ever, and countless meteors began to fall. The whole sky turned a bizarre shade of blood red.
"Whoosh... whoosh..."
A deafening flapping sound echoed across the sky. In the distance, Shawn saw a massive 'cloud' racing toward them.
Focusing his gaze, he realized it was a swarm of bats—black-headed with white bands—returning in huge groups. They glowed with a ghostly red-black light, like stars scattered across the heavens.
The bats swarmed above the plaza’s Obsidian Tower, flapping madly around it as if worshipping.
Shawn stared in shock, a strong premonition rising in him—something truly terrifying was about to happen...
Sure enough, after circling the Obsidian Tower several times, the bats stopped midair. The red-black glow from their bodies shot toward the tower, and in an instant, the sky was filled with black radiance—like thousands of black threads being absorbed by the Obsidian Tower.
After releasing the red-black glow, the swarms of black-headed, white-banded bats exploded midair like popping beans, dissolving into clouds of black mist!
In an instant, all those bats turned into a black cloud and were sucked into the Obsidian Tower!
The Obsidian Tower blazed with radiance, extending nine black, ethereal petals in all directions—no more, no less, exactly nine!
Surrounded by nine ethereal petals, the Obsidian Tower radiated fierce, surging demonic energy, its aura piercing the clouds. Darkness engulfed the sky, with only the Obsidian Tower standing tall...
"Boom!" A figure appeared atop the tower—it was Daniel Feathercloud, hair wild, laughing madly at the sky. He shouted, "A hundred thousand gods and demons, a hundred thousand drops of blood! I've done it, I finally succeeded! The Nine Heavens Demoness has finally been forged by me! I am the greatest onmyoji in history..."
As Daniel Feathercloud laughed maniacally, a body radiating fierce demonic energy slowly rose from inside the Obsidian Tower, floating in the air and shining with overpowering demonic light!
Shawn looked up and saw that the figure floating in the sky was Fiona Nangong. Her appearance hadn't changed, but Shawn could feel she was utterly transformed—no longer even human...
(irrelevant filler, skip translation)