Chapter 1222
The Descent of Shang Tian Si
Eivass, who had been slightly complacent, became vigilant again after receiving Grey’s letter.
Last year, Eivass had viewed the Ouroboros Ring as a doomsday-level disaster on par with World Destruction, and had developed himself with all his might, trying to prevent its arrival.
However, the two Ouroboros Ring rituals so far had made Eivass gradually become somewhat complacent. After all, the descents of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy and the Blood Heavenly Envoy had been much ado about nothing.
Although the Fallen Heavenly Envoy completely dominated and controlled Star Antinomy, Star Antinomy had already been on the verge of collapse before its descent. The Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s arrival was merely the last straw that broke the camel’s back. At the same time, Lucifer’s Wings completely restrained all of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s abilities, allowing Eivass to resolve the most difficult first Ouroboros Ring.
After the first victory against a Heavenly Envoy, Eivass’s Beast of Sin obtained a Heavenly Envoy Fragment. From then on, battles at least had a basis for victory, allowing him to operate around that foundation rather than relying solely on willpower, gambling with his life, and praying for miracles.
The Blood Heavenly Envoy who descended after that could even be considered half an ally. It was not so much that Eivass defeated the Blood Heavenly Envoy, but rather that they had jointly defeated the Son of the Void, and then the incinerated Blood Heavenly Envoy had given its power to Eivass, who was its comrade-in-arms.
Now, the Flame Heavenly Envoy who descended in the northern lands had finally fully displayed the destructive power of a descended Heavenly Envoy.
The fact that the Dwarves dared to summon the Flame Heavenly Envoy and had a “contingency plan” ready, along with the resolve to execute it, indicated that they must have prepared a considerable number of Fifth Tier Extraordinary individuals. The lineup that challenged the Fallen Heavenly Envoy back then consisted of eight to nine Fifth Tier individuals, including a former Eternal Pope, who was “the strongest in the world,” and who died on the spot. This was information that could be easily investigated. Since the Dwarves had even obtained the Ouroboros Ring ritual, they would have definitely obtained this information as well.
Combined with the Dwarves’ apprehension towards the Elves… a former Eternal Pope, even without the augmentation of the Supreme Holy Crown, would at the very least be considered equivalent to two Fifth Tier individuals. Their confidence in completing the Ouroboros Ring independently, and even their intention to slay the Flame Heavenly Envoy immediately after negotiations failed, indicated that they must have prepared at least twelve Fifth Tier individuals. Considering the Dwarves are a fanatic race that would hoard all sorts of weapons for thousands of years in remote mountains, it was not impossible for this number to double.
The result was that they didn’t even make a ripple before being completely swallowed. According to Grey’s letter, the Flame Heavenly Envoy wasn’t even injured! An ancient race whose existence predated humanity, a super-empire that had hoarded countless high-tech weapons and high-level Extraordinary individuals… under the Heavenly Envoy’s wrath, they vanished like snow in the sun in the blink of an eye.
The destruction of a nation, the demise of a civilization, the remaining survivors forced to flee their original homeland, and even the map itself completely altered – even the millennia-old never-melting snow mountains of the north had turned into black mountains burning with eternal flame! This scale of catastrophe finally reminded Eivass of the disaster when the Shadow Heavenly Envoy descended upon Avalon in another timeline… and at that time, the Shadow Heavenly Envoy wasn’t even that offensively powerful!
“This is what the true Ouroboros Ring is like…” The Flame Heavenly Envoy’s immense destruction of the northern lands made Eivass completely wary of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s descent.
If the Red continued to burn and kill like this, eventually a Lord would reach their breaking point. No one could tolerate the gradual approach of chronic death. Before the disaster truly arrived, someone would always lose their mind and desperately want to make a big move.
Therefore, Eivass specially used his authority as the King of Winged Ones, instructing the Harpies to report all information to him immediately during this period.
About a week passed.
During this time, nothing happened. Everything was as peaceful as the clear blue, cloudless sky above Anxi. Apart from the increasingly heated wars stirred up by the Red, no new major events occurred elsewhere in the world. Even the wars that broke out a week ago began to subside.
Some Lords appeased the people with massive concessions and incredibly generous welfare policies, causing the rebel armies in those cities to immediately lose their popular support, crumble in an instant, and be betrayed by others. Other Lords, unwilling to part with their wealth and status, ordered stricter crackdowns and were eventually backstabbed by their guards and followers within a few days, overthrown by the rebel armies… thus entering a state of peace.
The increasingly powerful and increasingly fanatical Red made the entire Anxi tremble. Reforms that were difficult to implement due to resistance from various societal forces suddenly became overwhelmingly smooth under external pressure – this was the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi, which had remained unchanged for hundreds, even thousands, of years! Unresolvable conflicts were forced to self-adjust under the death threat of the Red… those obstinate factions that insisted on going to war with the Red would even be assassinated by assassins and Curse Masters dispatched by others.
The problem here was… the Red was actually not strong at all. It was just that they completely disregarded not only the lives of commoners but also their own lives and those of their companions. This meant that tactics that could have forced them to surrender by killing or capturing a portion of their members were completely ineffective. They cared about nothing and feared nothing. Rather than seeking fairness and innovation, they were like the flames they held in their hands – their only pursuit was death and destruction. They were as terrifying as common robbers who suddenly turned into berserk zombies.
However, even so, they were still not invincible. This was because the Red was too uneven in quality. Apart from their leader Hassan, the rest of the Red combined could barely fight a Fifth Tier individual. Even Hassan himself could hardly resist multiple Lords. If Lords who had reached the Sixth Tier, or their Ritualists, could unite and form a small team of four, they could easily defeat Hassan. Once the leader died, the rest would be routed like so many clay figurines.
Yet, even this level of cooperation was unacceptable to the Lords. No Lord was willing to share power with others, nor was any Lord willing to set aside all their vigilance to cooperate with or obey the command of other Lords. Although they were nominally equal, even “colleagues” of the same Path and the same profession… the Lords were like warlords controlling various regions, absolutely incompatible with each other. If given the chance, they would find ways to destroy their rivals. They would rather choose reform, handing over some power and interests to their own Free People and slaves, than to trust other Lords.
In fact, if not for this mutual distrust and conflict, if the Lords of a few nearby medium-sized city-states could form a united military alliance, other Lords of similar scale could not have survived such a joint encirclement. The snowball effect would have continued to grow… Anxi remained scattered like stars in the sky, without forming a few opposing military alliances, precisely because “everyone distrusted everyone.”
And under such circumstances… on July 1st, the Lord of Holy Spring City suddenly sent out letters summoning other Lords. The Harpies immediately brought the news to Eivass. At the same time, Eivass, as the Lord of Heaven City, also received one. The content of the letter was simple – it was regarding some important information he had recently obtained and decided to share with everyone.
Since Holy Spring City was a city-state bordering the Taichu Empire, it was easier to receive news from Taichu there. According to the information from Aimel Nour, the “Forgiver,” the Lord of Holy Spring City, the Taichu people secretly held an Ouroboros Ring ritual yesterday. The one summoned to the lower realm was a newly ascended Heavenly Envoy, Shang Tian Si of the Path of Balance.
