Outside the southern wall of Mingdu, at the garrison of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion—one of the Five Hands Protecting the Nation—an atmosphere of suffocating silence reigned.
Ju Zi, clad in military uniform, walked alone through the camp that was usually buzzing with activity but was now enveloped in a deathly stillness.
Normally, the air would be filled with the fiery laughter of her sisters. But now, those comrades who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder and trained with her stood rigidly in place like puppets. Their auras were ice-cold, resembling lifeless stone statues, a shocking contrast to their former liveliness.
Scenes of warmth with her sisters flashed through Ju Zi's mind: their tacit cooperation on the battlefield, facing life and death together, sweating profusely and encouraging each other on the training ground, sitting around chatting, teasing and joking without restraint, and even the younger sisters playfully demanding gifts from her.
Now, all of it had turned to ash.
Ju Zi subconsciously glanced at the Command Spell on her hand, and her eyes instantly dimmed. A flood of self-reproach drowned her.
If not for her, how could these sisters of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion, who were like family, have met such a fate?
Although they still retained their human appearance, and at first glance, aside from the cold aura they emitted, they looked no different than before, Ju Zi knew better than anyone that their inner beings had been consumed by the embers of destruction, stripped of human emotion, becoming colder and more numb than machines.
Now, they looked straight through Ju Zi as if she were transparent, without any of their former intimacy or warmth.
Ju Zi bit her lip hard until blood was drawn. The metallic-tasting blood slowly trickled down the corner of her mouth, but this physical pain was nothing compared to the torment in her heart.
She suppressed her profound grief, refusing to let tears fall, for she knew that the person she was about to face would not tolerate the slightest sign of weakness. Exposure of fragility would lead her into an abyss of eternal doom.
The main tent of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion, once Ju Zi's command post, had changed hands.
An elderly woman with a slightly weathered face, clad in fiery red military attire and holding a long sword engraved with a Fire Phoenix pattern, stood silently guarding the entrance.
This was Fire Phoenix Douluo, Luan Feng, the former leader and current deputy leader of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion.
She was a Rank 94 Title Douluo and a Rank 9 Soul Engineer, whose martial soul, the Fire Phoenix Sword, was incredibly powerful.
Sensing Ju Zi's arrival, Fire Phoenix Douluo slowly raised her eyes. In that instant, an almost imperceptible light flashed within them.
However, the light was fleeting, vanishing in a moment. She immediately returned to her expressionless, cold state, mechanically moved aside, and let Ju Zi pass.
Looking at this elder who had always treated her like a granddaughter, giving her endless warmth and care, Ju Zi's eyes instantly welled up. Her throat felt constricted, and a thousand words were stuck in her chest, ultimately condensing into a faint "I'm sorry," which vanished into the air.
Ju Zi lowered her head, her steps heavy, as she walked past Fire Phoenix Douluo. She dared not meet the old woman's eyes, afraid she would completely break down under that gaze.
Fire Phoenix Douluo watched Ju Zi's retreating figure. A flicker of fire instantly ignited in her eyes.
But this flame was like a candle in the wind, quickly extinguished. She once again sank into coldness and deathly silence.
As a Rank 94 Title Douluo, that momentary emotional fluctuation was already the last glimmer of her humanity.
Faced with the irresistible power of the Lord of Annihilation, she had no choice but to surrender and descend into the abyss of destruction.
The moment Ju Zi stepped into the main tent, her vision shifted. The small tent space instantly transformed into a vast, boundless cosmic starry sky.
This was a fragmented sub-dimension that had been separately carved out, devoid of any signs of life. Only the wreckage of planets drifted in the cold void, permeated with endless silence and desolation.
Ju Zi was already accustomed to this. She had entered this sub-dimension many times and was used to its weirdness and stillness.
Standing steadily on a fragment of a meteorite, Ju Zi's gaze slowly swept forward. When she saw the figure not far away, a flash of uncontrollable awe and deep fear crossed her eyes.
The Lord of Annihilation, Celenova, was like a deity emerged from a myth, possessing a flawless face—an ultimate beauty filled with divinity and oppression.
Her skin was abnormally pale, devoid of color, like eternal, unmelting ice and snow. Her pure white hair cascaded like a waterfall, drifting freely behind her. She wore pure white garments, making her appear like a transcendent fairy.
However, her eyes were hollow and indifferent, so deep they seemed capable of seeing through all things. When meeting her gaze, one felt as though they could witness the birth and annihilation of stars, containing a terrifying will capable of destroying everything.
Encircling her head and feet were two rings of ink-black starlight, radiating a mysterious and dangerous aura.
A low, eerie hum constantly resonated around her body, like the roar of a collapsing star. This sound seemed to possess substantial power, causing the surrounding space to slightly warp, appearing as illusory and dangerous as air being scorched by high heat.
Celenova's power was already beyond the natural order.
Normally, a Servant should not possess such terrifying power, capable of threatening the safety of the Douluo Star itself.
But the vast negative energy leaking from the black hole of the Tomb of Gods provided the powerful catalyst for the birth of an existence as heaven-defying as Celenova.
Although she could suppress her power to move freely on the Douluo Continent, as the Herald of Destruction, Celenova was unswervingly fulfilling her mission of annihilation. Why would she restrain her power for fear of destroying the Douluo Star?
However, her absolute rationality prevented her from directly confronting the Douluo Star's Plane Will. Instead, she adopted a compromise: creating this sub-dimension and concealing her true form within it.
This way, she would neither provoke the instinctive resistance of the Plane Will due to excessive power release nor be restricted in her movements within this exclusive space as she plotted her grand scheme of annihilation.
Celenova, the Lord of Annihilation, regarded destruction as the inevitable, even sacred, destination and purification for all things in the universe.
In her perception, everything in the world has a lifespan, and when that limit is reached, destruction is the only outcome.
Due to this, she had almost none of the emotional fluctuations typical of humans. Joy, anger, sorrow, pity, hesitation—all were, in her eyes, impurities that hindered the efficiency of destruction.
Her "mind" operated like a precise and cold machine, adhering to a frigid, efficient, and goal-oriented logic of annihilation.
She precisely evaluated the target, rapidly calculated the optimal path of destruction, and then executed it without hesitation until the target was thoroughly erased.
In her plan, directly confronting the Plane Will was not the best way to achieve annihilation, which is why she settled for the current method.
"The time is now. Execute the mission!"
Celenova finally spoke. Every syllable of hers seemed to contain boundless power, carrying a substantial spiritual pressure, like heavy hammers relentlessly striking Ju Zi's heart.
The voice seemed to come from the depths of the cosmos, cold and resolute, reaching the core and proclaiming the arrival of annihilation, brooking no doubt or resistance from anyone.
Under this powerful spiritual pressure, Ju Zi felt as though she had fallen into an ice cellar. Cold sweat poured down her, her forehead covered in dense droplets, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Countless times, she had considered suicide in her despair, wanting to end it all and perish with Celenova, thus escaping this endless torment and suffering.
However, the burning fire of hatred in her heart and her deep fear of Celenova made her abandon the thought time and time again at the crucial moment.
Furthermore, she still had a backup plan left by Lu Jingming, which made committing suicide extraordinarily difficult.
Ju Zi even suspected that even if she died as the Master, Celenova would certainly have the means to extend her existence and continue to implement her terrifying concept of destruction on this continent.
And Lu Jingming would absolutely not allow her to die easily.
If she didn't still have value, she would probably have been assimilated by the power of destruction like everyone else, becoming a member of Celenova's Anti-Matter Legion—a mere walking corpse.
Celenova's objective was clear, and her actions were as efficient as a storm.
Now, with all preparations complete and the stage set, and the necessary players in position, she naturally wouldn't hesitate or delay any longer. She would launch her journey of annihilation in the most direct and destructive manner.
She would not play complicated games, and unless necessary, she would never waste a single second.
Because her existence itself was the materialization of a catastrophe capable of making the entire world tremble.
"Yes!"
Ju Zi's voice was tinged with an uncontrollable tremor, every word seemingly squeezed through her teeth.
As soon as the word left her mouth, a cold and powerful force instantly enveloped her. The force was so brutal it brooked no resistance, as if it would crush her bones.
She didn't even have time to react before the starry sky anomaly receded like a tide, and she was forcibly dragged back into the command tent outside.
The moment her feet hit the ground, Ju Zi stumbled, nearly falling. A sharp, dull pain erupted in her chest, as if a boulder was pressing down on it, making her cough violently.
The furnishings in the command tent were the same, but appeared distorted and blurred from the recent transition through the sub-dimension. The cold aura of the cosmic starry sky still lingered in the air, clinging to her like a parasite and making her shiver all over.
Ju Zi forced herself to walk out of the tent. Where her eyes landed, the members of the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion were already assembled in neat formation throughout the camp.
Under the moonlight, their figures were as straight as pines yet as silent as tombs. Their once lively eyes were now hollow and vacant, like exquisite but lifeless dolls.
Their formation was terrifyingly neat, every movement precise, but it radiated an unsettling, non-human mechanical quality.
Seeing this sight, Ju Zi's heart plummeted as if into an abyss. An intense feeling of despair swept over her.
She subconsciously looked toward the direction of the Mingdu Imperial Palace, a cold mockery curling on her lips.
Xu Tianran, the self-important Regent, was probably still dreaming of controlling everything.
He thought he could stand on equal footing with the Lord of Annihilation, that he could use this power to achieve his ambitions, yet he didn't know that in Celenova's eyes, he was nothing more than a clown, ready to be crushed at any moment.
Whether it was Xu Tianran or the seemingly powerful Sun Moon Empire, they would all inevitably fall to destruction.
In Celenova's dictionary, the word "ally" simply did not exist. There were only "objects to be annihilated."
Ju Zi was well aware of Xu Tianran's plan: he intended to use the Mingdu Soul Master Tournament as an opportunity to wipe out all the Servants, Masters, and sect powers from the other empires.
First, secretly capture the eliminated members of the sect powers during the competition. Then, when the tournament approached its end, he would combine the strength of the Holy Spirit Sect and the Sun Moon Empire, relying on the Anti-Matter Legion, to launch a fatal strike against the remaining Masters and Servants.
To achieve this plan, he had already set up countermeasures in Mingdu, building countless underground defense facilities. After all, the common people were the foundation of his rule; without them, his empire would become a castle in the air.
He knew that taking the risk of choosing Mingdu as the battlefield would inevitably carry risks, so he had prepared in advance.
Xu Tianran was also aware that the Servants were powerful, and any battle would cause massive damage to Mingdu. But he had prepared for heavy losses in Mingdu; everything could be sacrificed for his greater ambition.
However, he calculated everything except the fact that Celenova disdained to act according to his script.
Now, before the Soul Master Tournament had even begun, with the major powers barely having arrived in Mingdu and the contestants only recently settled in the Mingdu Grand Hotel, Celenova had decisively chosen to make her move.
Ju Zi took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in her heart, and subtly raised her hand to press a small Soul Tool on her waist.
The Soul Tool was dark gold, engraved with intricate patterns. With a light touch, it emitted a barely audible hum. A faint energy fluctuation silently spread out, transmitting towards an unknown distance.
Having done all this, she slowly raised her left hand. The blood-red Command Spell in her palm suddenly burst forth with blinding crimson light.
The red light, like a burning flame, shot straight into the sky, tearing through the dark night.
In the night sky above Mingdu, the red light converged into a gigantic, burning tower motif. The flame at the top of the tower seemed ready to ignite the entire sky, so dazzling it was impossible to look at directly.
This was the Annihilation Totem set by Celenova, the signal for destruction to commence.
If Celenova commanded personally, the Anti-Matter Legion would obey her command as if they were her limbs. Even miles away, they could execute orders precisely, with no need for such a conspicuous signal.
But now, Ju Zi was Celenova's proxy and had to rely on this signal to mobilize the Anti-Matter Legion.
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