Sea God Lake, on Sea God Island.
Gazing up at the sky-piercing Golden Tree and deeply sensing the restrained yet vast, terrifying life force within, Phantylia could not help but show a trace of excitement and determination in her thoughts.
Without hesitation, the cyan flame drew tight, turning into an infinitesimal stream of light that, like a drop of water merging with the sea, silently darted straight into the ancient, colossal trunk of the Golden Tree and vanished.
At this moment, Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er, and the others fighting to the death beyond the city walls knew nothing of what was happening behind them in the forbidden zone.
They were still expending everything to protect the city beneath their feet—unaware that the very core they swore to guard, their greatest heritage, had already been quietly infiltrated by their most dangerous foe.
"Hm?"
No sooner had she merged her consciousness into the Golden Tree's vast inner sea of life energy than Phantylia's powerful mental body gave the slightest pause, her tone tinged with clear surprise.
As a Heliobus—pure energy without form or substance, her sensitivity to spiritual power far surpassed any soul master in this world. She was an absolute expert and sovereign in the spiritual realm.
Almost upon entering the Golden Tree, her immense perception detected a discordant note.
Deep within the ocean of pure life energy inside this great tree, beyond those soul fragments that had voluntarily merged and become its nourishment, there hid two unusually powerful, condensed, and environment-alien independent spiritual entities.
"How interesting… truly unexpected."
Amusement and mockery rippled through Phantylia's thoughts, like a hunter discovering unexpected prey.
"So there are 'kindred' who beat me to it? Decent taste."
She had already read Di Tian's memories and was no stranger to the concepts of divinities and divine sense on the Douluo Continent.
In her view, so-called divine sense was essentially spiritual power elevated through some special method to the extreme—hundreds of times purer and stronger than that of ordinary soul masters.
What she now sensed from these two spiritual entities was precisely genuine divine sense.
One of them was especially powerful, its mental fluctuations like an endless, deep sea—vast and grand—radiating a solemn, sacred, inviolable aura, standing guard with unwavering devotion by the side of the other, relatively weaker, divine sense, shielding it tightly.
The other, relatively weaker divine sense felt brimming with vitality, flexible yet indomitably tenacious. Its current state drew Phantylia's keen interest.
It was slowly and continuously assimilating, absorbing, and merging the Golden Tree's immense life energy. At this rate, it seemed intent on refining and devouring this ancient sacred tree—the life core of the Douluo Star—making it a part of itself.
Which happened to be exactly what Phantylia intended to do next.
"It seems this trip will be even more entertaining than expected."
Filled with the thrill and greed of a child finding a new toy, Phantylia began moving silently toward the source of those two divine senses.
A variable had appeared in her plan, yet Phantylia felt no irritation. Instead, the cyan flames in her mind's eye flickered with deeper interest and playfulness.
If a true divine body had descended, with her current not-yet-restored strength she might have needed to bide her time and tread carefully.
But now, it was merely two divine-sense avatars, severed from their bodies… To the Lord Ravager, they were like rare delicacies delivered to the door of a starving traveler—an unexpected boon, not a problem.
The Heliobus were rare pure-energy lifeforms in the cosmos, whose existence hinged on devouring all spiritual energy and emotional waves.
And Phantylia, a paragon among Heliobus and a Lord Ravager, had achieved near-law mastery in the spiritual domain.
What soul masters on the Douluo Continent could only yearn for—divine sense—was, to her, merely a refined and larger-magnitude aggregate of pure spiritual power—still her favorite food in essence.
She even began cheerfully calculating: after devouring these two high-quality divine senses with a hint of divinity, to what level could she restore her power? Twenty percent? Thirty?
By then, seizing this vast-energy Golden Tree would become a breeze—easily corrupted, assimilated, and made into the most perfect vessel.
Her formless consciousness, greedy and graceful, spread through this life-filled spiritual sea, quietly drawing near the two lighthouse-like sources of divine sense.
Within the Golden Tree—this sacred domain that should have been serene and pure—a perilous, bloody spiritual struggle beyond mortal comprehension was about to begin in secret.
…
Meanwhile, atop Shrek's towering walls, the brutal slaughter raged on. The thunder of battle cries and soul skill detonations drowned out every subtle disturbance.
No one knew that Shrek Academy—and indeed the entire Douluo Continent's—most lethal crisis had already bypassed all defenses, slipping in to erode its innermost foundation.
"Time to go. Let Phantylia and those two divine senses have their little playdate. We don't need to stick around for the show—too risky, not worth the ticket."
The doll-like Little Herta walked over to Ningguang and Ganyu with quick, light steps, her crisp, pleasant voice breaking the heavy silence atop the Jade Chamber's upper terrace.
She tilted her head slightly, glanced at the distant wall-front where energies still flared and shouts shook the sky, then precisely flicked her gaze toward the seemingly calm Sea God Lake.
There, on a level undetectable to ordinary senses, two obscure yet overwhelming spiritual waves had begun probing, colliding, and strangling each other like deep-sea leviathans.
Clearly, Phantylia had already engaged the two prior guests within the Golden Tree.
Following Little Herta's gaze, Ningguang looked down at Shrek City's streets.
All core and non-core staff of the Jade Chamber had assembled according to the highest alert plan. They stood in orderly ranks on the plaza beneath the main building, faces tense yet showing absolute obedience to orders.
She was silent for a moment, her slender jade-white fingertips unconsciously caressing the luxurious jade-marrow pipe in her hand. The gilt bowl glimmered faintly in the dim light.
Her tone held a barely perceptible complexity and sigh.
"This city that has stood for ten thousand years—before long, perhaps it will truly become dust in history…"
She had invested far more into Shrek City than most could imagine.
From a humble little loft to today's opulent commercial complex dominating the city center, the resources, planning, favors, and effort poured in were immeasurable.
To say she felt no regret or heartache would be self-deception.
But such business losses, before Lu Jingming's grand design, were paltry—like a grain of sand before a crashing wave.
"Lady Herta, with your true body's capabilities, you could stop Phantylia right now, couldn't you?"
Ningguang did not immediately give the final evacuation order. Instead, she turned, sharp gaze settling on the petite doll beside her.
In her gold-amber eyes that read the world, questions flickered.
She saw clearly that although Yan Shaozhe and the others at the walls were exhausted and at a disadvantage, with their do-or-die ferocity and what remained of the wall defenses, they could last at least another half-hour.
That was enough time for them to evacuate all personnel and materials calmly via preset channels.
Moreover, with this doll-avatar of Herta here, even if circumstances suddenly deteriorated, a single ultra-long-range teleport could whisk the core staff back to Haiyuan City in an instant—no need to rush.
What truly puzzled her was Lu Jingming and Herta's attitude.
Herta's true body was not engaged in the seemingly chaotic battle at Mingdu, and with Key of Infinity's near-bug-level cross-space mobility, Herta was fully capable of descending in person to precisely snipe the Lord Ravager Phantylia.
Even if she could not kill her, she could at least repel or seriously wound her and safeguard the Golden Tree.
Yet both Herta and Lu Jingming, who was issuing orders from Mingdu, tacitly chose to stand by.
As if they had already, wordlessly, accepted the outcome of Phantylia seizing the Golden Tree—and even the destruction of Shrek City.
This was no oversight. It felt like a cold-blooded acquiescence.
"No wonder you'd have that question."
Little Herta put her hands on her hips, her doll face arranging itself into a cute, almost helpless expression.
"You've long managed Shrek City's operations independently, without joining Haiyuan City's top strategic planning. It's normal not to grasp Xiao Ming's deepest strategic logic. But, Miss Ningguang, you're smart enough to understand a basic truth—"
She wagged a finger.
"For some matters—especially ones concerning the course of civilization and continent-wide unification—you absolutely cannot judge by immediate appearances or be blinded by local carnage. You must set your gaze far enough ahead, step off the chessboard, and see the grand layout ten years, a hundred years, even longer down the line."
"I understand."
The doubt in Ningguang's eyes scattered like mist in the wind, replaced by sudden clarity and depth.