Yan Zaizen's actions were vicious and merciless. His transmitted taunt was essentially the same as shattering a person's belief in themselves, and albeit he used Lang Xue as the target, in truth it didn't matter. As long as he instigated the thought of weakness and inferiority into Yun Xuli, his fate would've been the same.
"Ahhh!!!" Yun Xuli's soul returned to his body. He clutched violently at his head. His eyes bloodshot, revealing a trace of madness and instability. That seemingly handsome and supreme appearance collapsed as his eyes suffused with killing intent and hatred.
However, Yan Zaizen only looked at Yun Xuli with frosty coldness. To him, Yun Xuli wished to take what belonged to him. Anyone who wished to snatch from the jaws of a sovereign must be willing to pay the price. In truth, Yan Zaizen wanted nothing more than to kill him and all those with similar thoughts.
"..." Pinaka stayed silent throughout the fight, but Yan Zaizen's last words were unnaturally vicious. Sure, his Dao was Sovereign Ascension and his personality had always been casual and vicious towards his enemies, but this was true cruelty.
Yan Zaizen's current emotional state was far crueler than before, as if he wished to collapse all those against him with a single fist.
"Ugh…" Yan Zaizen grasped his head and groaned. His eyes, which contained a dark-amber glint, flickered incessantly with various emotions. Deep within, he could feel his soul conflicting somewhat. With a step, he appeared before his protected body and placed his hand upon it. With a thought, his soul reinhabited his body. The moment he did, his eyes flashed with a trace of understanding. There was an innate warmth effusing from his eyes, one that retained his original personality.
The him who laughed at his father's jokes, felt peaceful in his mother's arms, and enjoyed adventure, wealth, and food.
Pinaka realized this sudden change as well.
"Soul bleeding?" Yan Zaizen silently asked. This wasn't the first incident, but it was never this intense. The killing intent and desires he had was truly at the very peak. Looking at Yun Xuli struggle violently as his clansmen arrived attempting to placate his sudden onset of insanity caused a chill to crawl into his spine.
"I'm..." looking at his hands, he felt more himself, "since I broke through to the Gate of Sky Opening, my personality is becoming more combative and cruel. As if all life is my inferior. Could it be...is it truly soul bleeding?" When he discovered his status as a Non-Entity, Pinaka determined that his original state was similar to an artificial soul. After learning that there are other paths out there, he believed in the possibility that he wasn't an artificial soul. It was a possibility, but just a slight one.
Supposedly, his creator's personality was supposed to be integrating into his own. Therefore, there were sudden bouts of changes, such as going against the heavens fearlessly or experiencing memories of his creator's. Is it possible, that wasn't the case? After all, this wasn't just slight personality characteristics.
When he was facing the heavenly gate in his body, an uncontrollable aspect of his existence awakened as if he was a sovereign of all things. With a snap of his fingers, the heavens collapsed! This didn't feel like a memory or a slight personality change but as if his very existence, his very core was someone or something else. He trembled at the thought.
From what he could determine, his keen perception towards the heavens was due to his Non-Entity status, but is it possible...there was more to it? The black hole and kingly existence seemed to be independent yet conjoined with his own existence. What was the story behind them?!
He felt a sudden throbbing headache. There was a sensation of deep exhaustion from his body, soul, and mind. He felt hopelessly tired and simply wished to sleep.
A spatial rift appeared before his head, looking up, his eyes drooped slightly as if he was drained of all his energy. A sudden attraction power erupted from the spatial rift, sending Yan Zaizen through it.
Suddenly, ten existences appeared like shadows. When they arrived, the world stopped moving and became obedient. Zhou Xiuhei was amongst this group, but his eyes contained a trace of coldness. The other nine was directing their gazes towards Zhou Xiuhei, and some of their eyes contained greed and ill-intent.
Shi Yan and Syi were the only two who had relatively calmer expressions. Zhou Xiuhei looked towards Shi Yan and a ferocious glint appeared in his eyes. Deep, immeasurable killing intent erupted as his Royal Fiendgod cultivation base seemed on the brink of complete eruption.
The others' eyes shifted, backing away, looking at Zhou Xiuhei with caution but their gazes of greed and ill-intent didn't change.
"No worries, Senior Xiuhei. I'm looking after my own here." Shi Yan smilingly said, but Zhou Xiuhei eyes only grew colder. When he tried to send Yan Zaizen away to the Xiuhei Titan Hall, but his spatial rift was intercepted and halted by numerous individuals. As such, he also tried to halt their spatial rifts and arrive personally to swoop Yan Zaizen away. Unfortunately, the others followed along and even hindered him. Others may not have noticed, but he even exchanged a few quiet blows with the others during their travel here.
The Yun Clan patriarch was actually killed by him during this brief exchange after attempting to hinder Zhou Xiuhei. The others suffered injuries of varying types, except Syi, Shi Yan, and the middle-aged woman.
Syi arrived first, but a spatial rift had appeared and sucked him away. However, his expression was calm as he looked towards Shi Yan. With the heavenly might of everyone encapsulating the area, even an eighth-floor Heavenly Genesis expert would have trouble sending Yan Zaizen away, but not Shi Yan.
"Where is he?" Zhou Xiuhei questioned.
"If you wish to see him, you can. I've sent him to the Violet Source Palace." Maintaining his smile, he turned towards the others, "I invite you all to come to my Violet Source Palace." His words caused all those to feel enraged but also helpless. From their expressions, they understood that doing so was like handing their fates to Shi Yan.
Zhou Xiuhei, however, didn't hesitate to answer, "Let's go."
Syi nodded as well, "I've always wanted to visit the Violet Source Palace! I wonder how grand it truly is." With a slight chuckle, his canines flashed with a vicious intent.
"If that's all who wish to go, then we should go. After all, he's waiting," said Shi Yan. With a wave of his hand, a spatial rift was produced. The others looked at the spatial rift hesitatingly, but they retreated away. In a split second, only Syi and Zhou Xiuhei remained. They both stepped through the rift without another word.
Shi Yan took one last look towards the others and coldly smiled. They wished to obtain the method to establish their own Miniaturized Heaven, and likely get Yan Zaizen to bestow his dao to others. After all, a bestowed upper-tier dao was more powerful than a true lower-tier dao.
"Hmph!"
He stepped into the spatial rift.