The top floor of the Black Spire was no longer a room; it was a swirling vortex of physics-defying violence. The air pressure alone was enough to crush a normal human, heavy with the oppressive weight of the Void Eye and the murderous intent of a Tier-7 Warlock.
Patriarch Wraith did not move from his pedestal. He didn't have to. He simply flicked his fingers, and the shadows in the room—cast by the eerie violet light of the sphere—peeled themselves off the walls. They elongated, sharpened, and solidified into Shadow Stalkers, faceless soldiers armed with blades of condensed darkness.
"Kill them," Wraith commanded, his voice bored. "Leave the pig. I want to dissect it."
The Shadow Stalkers surged forward, a silent tsunami of black ink.
"Code Red!" Su Ye shouted, spinning his shovel. "Lin Fan! Full output! Don't worry about the warranty! Luo Bing! Turn this room into a freezer! Gao Ming! Be shiny!"
"I was born shiny!" Gao Ming screamed.
He ripped off his outer cloak, revealing a suit he had stitched together from shattered pieces of the pirate mirrors and polished Star-Iron. He looked like a disco ball having a panic attack. He leaped into the center of the room.
"Witness the Radiance of the Narcissist!"
Gao Ming struck a pose. The violet light of the Void Sphere hit his suit and scattered in a thousand directions. The beams of light cut through the gloom, slicing into the Shadow Stalkers.
The shadows hissed. Wherever the light touched them, they smoked and dissolved, their intangibility disrupted by the sheer chaotic refraction.
"It works!" Lin Fan cheered. He engaged his gauntlets, overruling the safety limiters. [Overclock: 120%]. His armor vented steam, and he punched the air. BOOM. A sonic shockwave blasted a hole in the approaching shadow ranks.
"Cover me!" Su Ye yelled, sprinting toward the massive glass containment cell in the center of the room.
He didn't run in a straight line. He zig-zagged, slid, and jumped, dodging spikes of solid shadow that erupted from the floor at Wraith's command.
"You move like a rat," Wraith scoffed, raising his hand. A massive claw of shadow materialized above Su Ye, ready to crush him.
"And you fight like a coward," Su Ye retorted. He didn't dodge the claw. He threw a jar.
SMASH
The jar broke on the floor in front of him. It wasn't poison. It wasn't acid. It was Bioluminescent Slime harvested from the caves of the Sky-Eater.
The slime exploded, coating the floor—and Su Ye—in glowing neon green goo.
The shadow claw slammed down. But shadows cannot grab light. The claw passed right through the glowing Su Ye, unable to find a purchase on the luminance.
"Slippery rat," Wraith hissed, his eyes narrowing.
Su Ye reached the glass cell. Inside, the Moon-Silver Fox lay panting, its silver fur matted with blood, its nine tails limp. The void-chains clamped around its neck and paws were pulsing, draining its life essence into the sphere above.
"Little Sun!" Su Ye shouted. "The chains! They are Void-Steel! High in iron, low in calories, but very crunchy!"
Moooo-SCREEE!
The golden chicken dove from the rafters. It landed on the Fox's back. It looked at the thick, black chains pulsating with dark magic. To a normal beast, touching them meant death. To Little Sun, it looked like licorice.
PECK.
Little Sun struck the collar chain. CRUNCH.
Sparks flew. The chain didn't break immediately, but a massive dent appeared. The magic wavered.
"Insolence!" Wraith roared. He abandoned his pedestal, floating toward the cage. "That beast is the key to the new world! Get away from it!"
He fired a bolt of pure necrotic energy at the chicken.
"Zhu Zhu! Intercept!"
The Void Pig, who had been eyeing the massive Black Sphere above, heard his name. He didn't want to leave the buffet, but he saw the bad man shooting at his chicken-brother.
Zhu Zhu leaped. He intercepted the necrotic bolt mid-air.
GULP.
He ate the death magic. It tasted like spoiled milk. Zhu Zhu gagged, shook his head, and then turned his attention back to the real prize: the Eye of the Void.
Zhu Zhu trotted under the floating Black Sphere. He opened his mouth. He anchored his hooves into the obsidian floor.
He inhaled.
It wasn't a breath. It was a cosmic vacuum.
The Eye of the Void, a singularity of hunger, suddenly felt a greater hunger pulling at it. The violet energy streams feeding the sphere bent. They twisted. Instead of flowing into the sphere, they began to spiral down into the pig's mouth.
"WHAT?" Wraith stopped mid-air. "He is... consuming the Void? That is impossible! The Void consumes all!"
"My pig has a very robust digestive system," Su Ye said, placing his hand on the glass of the Fox's cage. "He once ate a bag of holding. He's fine."
Su Ye ignored the Warlock and focused on the Fox.
Zzzzt.
He activated the Ancestral Link.
He was pulled into a Spirit Plane of blinding white snow. In the center sat a colossal Nine-Tailed Fox, its fur like moonlight, its eyes weeping pearls.
"You came..." the Ancestor's voice was weak, echoing like wind in winter branches. "The chains... they burn..."
"We're breaking them," Su Ye projected warmth and reassurance. "But I need you to wake her up. She's given up. Tell her to fight."
"She is drained... she has no strength..."
"She doesn't need strength," Su Ye said. "She needs anger. They treated her like a battery. Remind her that she is a Queen."
The Ancestor's eyes opened wide. The weeping stopped. A low growl began in the snowy realm.
"Yes... We are the Moon. We do not fade. We eclipse."
The connection snapped back.
In the cage, the emaciated Moon-Silver Fox opened its eyes. They weren't weak anymore. They were glowing with silver fire.
CRUNCH.
Little Sun finally bit through the collar chain. The metal snapped.
The containment seal broke.
"NO!" Wraith screamed, realizing his power source was disconnected.
The Fox stood up. She was weak, thin, and bleeding. But as the chains fell away, she let out a sound that shattered the glass walls of the cell.
YIP-ROAR.
It was a sonic boom of pure spiritual pressure. The glass exploded outward. Su Ye shielded his face as shards flew past him.
The Fox stepped out of the wreckage. Her nine tails fanned out. They began to absorb the ambient moonlight filtering through the shattered roof (courtesy of the Storm Dragon outside). Her fur began to glow, regenerating before their eyes.
She looked at Patriarch Wraith.
If looks could kill, Wraith would have died a thousand times.
"You kept me in a box," the Fox's voice echoed in everyone's mind, telepathic and cold as ice. "For ten years."
Wraith backed away, his shadow shield raising automatically. "I... I made you a god! I was feeding you to the Void to elevate you!"
"I am already a god," the Fox snarled.
She lunged. She didn't bite. She swiped with her tails.
[Divine Art: Nine-Moon Execution.]
Nine beams of silver light slashed through the air. They cut through Wraith's shadow shield like it was paper. They sliced into his smoky robes.
Wraith screamed as the holy energy burned his corrupted flesh. He was thrown backward, crashing into the control console of the Eye.
"The Eye!" Wraith shrieked, bleeding black ichor. "If I cannot have it, no one will!"
He slammed his hand onto a red rune on the console. [Self-Destruct Sequence Initiated.]
The massive Black Sphere above Zhu Zhu began to vibrate. It turned from violet to an unstable, blinding white.
"It's going critical!" Lin Fan yelled, his armor screeching warnings. "It's going to implode! It will take the whole Spire with it!"
"Zhu Zhu!" Su Ye shouted. "Finish your meal! Hurry up!"
Zhu Zhu looked at the destabilizing bomb of cosmic energy. It was getting too spicy. It was fizzing.
Squeal! (It's too big!)
"Expand!" Su Ye ordered. "Unlatch your jaw! You are the Gluttonous God! Eat it or we all turn into dust!"
Zhu Zhu closed his eyes. He dug deep into his lineage. The shadow behind him—the avatar of the Glutton—expanded until it filled the room.
The physical pig opened its mouth impossibly wide.
GLOMP.
Zhu Zhu leaped into the air and swallowed the entire shrinking, exploding Eye of the Void.
He landed on the floor with a heavy thud.
His belly was distended, glowing white hot. He looked like he had swallowed a lightbulb the size of a beach ball. He vibrated. His cheeks puffed out.
"Don't burp!" Su Ye dove and clamped his hands over the pig's snout. "Everyone! Brace for containment!"
Zhu Zhu's eyes watered. The explosion happened inside his stomach.
Mmph... MMPH...
His body expanded like a balloon, then rapidly shrank back down. A puff of smoke came out of his ears.
He swallowed. He blinked.
Burp. (Spicy.)
The room went silent. The apocalypse had been digested.
Patriarch Wraith, slumped against the broken console, stared in horror. "He... he ate the singularity. That contained the energy of a thousand souls..."
"High protein," Su Ye shrugged, picking up his pig. Zhu Zhu felt heavy, dense, and very warm.
"Now," Su Ye looked at the defeated Warlock. "About that eviction notice."
BOOM.
The entire Spire lurched violently to the side. The floor tilted thirty degrees.
"Master!" Luo Bing slid toward the edge. "The structural integrity is gone! The Dragon outside broke the main support!"
"The tower is falling!" Lin Fan screamed.
Through the shattered ceiling, they could see the massive head of the Storm Dragon tearing chunks out of the Spire's upper levels. The anti-gravity generated by the now-eaten Eye was failing. The Black Spire was crumbling into the abyss.
"We need to leave! Now!" Su Ye grabbed the Fox's scruff (she looked offended but allowed it) and tucked the pig under his arm.
"Little Sun! Grab Gao Ming! Lin Fan, grab Luo Bing! Window!"
"Window?" Gao Ming shrieked as the chicken grabbed his cape. "We are forty thousand feet up!"
"Aim for the mountain!"
Su Ye jumped.
They leaped out of the shattered top floor of the Black Spire, plummeting into the open air of the Shattered Peaks.
Behind them, the massive obsidian tower groaned. It snapped in half. The upper section, where they had just been, crumbled and fell into the mist below, taking the screaming Patriarch Wraith with it.
"We're falling!" Gao Ming flailed. "I can't fly!"
"I can!" The Moon-Silver Fox broke free from Su Ye's grip. She didn't fall. She ran on the air. Silver lotus flowers bloomed under her paws with every step.
"Grab my tails!" The Fox commanded telepathically.
Su Ye, Lin Fan, and Luo Bing grabbed onto the massive, fluffy tails of the Divine Beast. Little Sun, carrying Gao Ming, flew alongside.
They glided through the air, watching the destruction of the Dark Beast Sect's headquarters. It was a magnificent disaster.
"Target acquired," Su Ye pointed.
Below them, drifting steadily through the chaos, was the Twilight Stable on the back of the Sky-Eater. The mountain had eaten the ventilation grate and was now waiting patiently.
"Senior Tortoise! Catch us!"
The Fox dove. They landed on the courtyard of the stable with a collective thud.
Safe.
Su Ye rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. He looked up at the sky. The Storm Dragon was still tearing apart the ruins of the Spire, venting its frustration on the inanimate rock.
"We did it," Luo Bing whispered, staring at the white-furred Fox standing regally in the center of their stable. "We saved a Divine Beast."
The Fox looked around the stable. She sniffed the air. She looked at the pig, who was currently asleep (food coma). She looked at the chicken, who was preening its feathers.
Then she looked at Su Ye.
"You," the Fox said, her voice echoing in his head. "You smell like badger dirt. And you wear ridiculous clothes."
"I'm Su Ye," he sat up, dusting off his uniform. "Welcome to the Twilight Stable. Rent is free, but you have to help with the dishes."
The Fox narrowed her eyes. Then, surprisingly, she sat down and wrapped her tails around her paws.
"I am Moonbell," she said. "And I accept your hospitality. For now."
"Master!" Lin Fan called from the helm. "The Spire is gone! But the shockwave... it woke up the neighbors!"
Su Ye looked at the radar. The destruction of the Spire had sent a massive seismic ripple through the Shattered Peaks.
Dozens of red dots appeared on the map.
"The other Sects," Su Ye realized. "They felt the Void Eye disappear. Everyone is coming to see who stole the battery."
He stood up, grabbing the wheel.
"Let's get out of here," Su Ye said. "Set a course for the Eternal mist. We need a place to hide and digest."
"Digest?" Gao Ming asked.
Su Ye pointed at Zhu Zhu. The pig was glowing with a strange, pulsating light. The fur on his back was shifting, forming patterns that looked like galaxies.
"He ate a singularity," Su Ye said. "I think he's about to evolve."
[System Notification:]
[Evolution Imminent.]
[Subject: Void-Swallowing Swine.]
[Catalyst: The Eye of the Void.]
[Warning: Evolution may result in dimensional instability, excessive drooling, or the accidental consumption of a timeline.]
"Great," Su Ye sighed. "Just what we needed. A pig that eats time."
He turned the key.
"Sky-Eater," Su Ye commanded. "Let's go home. Or at least, away from the angry dragon."
The mountain rumbled, turned, and vanished into the thickest cloud bank, leaving the ruins of the Dark Beast Sect behind them.
But as they fled, Su Ye didn't notice one thing.
In the pocket of his uniform, the Black Ring of Patriarch Wraith was pulsating again. A faint, red light blinked.
It wasn't a call. It was a tracker.
And far away, in the Imperial Capital, a signal was received.