The surging evil intent drew in the surrounding demonic energy, beginning to forge a body for itself. In the blink of an eye, the demonic energy had already encircled the Evil Thought Cocoon, becoming a tool driven by its will.
The energy was completely absorbed into the large cocoon, and the boiling black and red colors finally settled. A jet-black hand, laced with countless bloodshot veins, reached out from within.
Accompanied by a strange and piercing tearing sound, a girl with black and red hair crawled out of the Evil Thought Cocoon in a beast-like posture.
She looked exactly like Luo Shuangyue, with a pair of butterfly wings on her back that were similar to those of the Holy Sovereign and identical to Luo Shuangyue’s. However, anyone could tell the difference between her and the real Luo Shuangyue at a single glance.
She emitted an incredibly terrifying, murderous aura. Just by standing in midair, she filled those below with a spine-chilling sense of dread.
It was as if she were the harbinger of the world’s end.
“Give her back… Give her back to me!” The girl hung her head, her black and red hair falling like a waterfall down the sides of her face, making her look like a vengeful spirit crawling out of a horror movie.
The moment she appeared, her gaze fell upon the black-purple gemstone clutched tightly in Xia Mo’s hand. A constant sense of emptiness and fragmentation echoed from the depths of her soul. This feeling drove her to madness, making her want to snatch that gemstone at all costs to make herself whole again.
‘Does she want to use that face to make me show mercy?’ The Holy Sovereign did not know the true identity of the girl before her. She assumed it was merely a trap set by the evil intent to interfere with her desire to fight.
Unfortunately, the Holy Sovereign was not a soft-hearted person. Even if the evil intent wore her daughter’s face, she would not hesitate to attack.
She knew that her daughter was currently lying safely in the palm of Xia Mo’s hand.
This ugly, beast-like girl before her was nothing more than a fake created by evil thoughts.
The best way to deal with such a disgusting creature was to use her full power to send it straight to Hell!
Sunlight erupted from the long sword in her hand. The Holy Sovereign transformed into a streak of silver light and took the initiative to charge at the Evil Thought Girl.
Then, the earth began to shake.
‘Is this a battle between truly powerful beings?’
Watching the two streaks of light constantly colliding in the sky, Xia Mo lowered her gaze, no longer attempting to see the details of the fight.
It was too fast and too powerful. It was a domain that she currently could not touch or understand.
The level of this battle went far beyond simple clashes of Magic Power or numerical values; it involved various methods that Xia Mo could not comprehend.
It was as if the Holy Sovereign were manipulating the world itself to fight.
‘A Holy Sovereign like this shouldn’t have any rivals in this world, right?’
However, the Evil Thought Girl shattered Xia Mo’s perception. The methods the Holy Sovereign used had very little effect on her. Many times, Xia Mo saw the Holy Sovereign’s attacks vanish for unknown reasons before they could even land on the girl.
The aftershocks of the battle had already completely destroyed the Sanctuary. Fortunately, the Sanctuary was just a gathering area, and there were no vital resources inside.
As long as the Holy Sovereign could win this battle, the Sanctuary could easily be rebuilt.
But if the Holy Sovereign lost, the entire world would be finished. The existence of the Sanctuary would be meaningless.
‘But is that thing really that strong?’ What actually surprised Xia Mo was the Evil Thought Girl’s strength. One had to remember that the Holy Sovereign was currently holding Senior White Night’s sword. It was equivalent to the two strongest people from two different worlds working together against her. Even so, the Evil Thought Girl showed no signs of defeat.
Even more absurdly, Xia Mo felt that the Evil Thought Girl wasn’t even focused on the battle. She was constantly trying to find a way to break free from the Holy Sovereign’s entanglement.
And her goal seemed to be… over here?
With this thought in mind, Xia Mo left the people of the Sanctuary and moved alone to a more isolated angle.
Soon after, she saw the Evil Thought Girl change the direction of her breakthrough. Her target was still exactly where Xia Mo stood.
‘Alright, it’s confirmed. Her attention isn’t on the fight; it’s on me.’
But why would she target Xia Mo?
Xia Mo didn’t think she was a particularly special existence, so the girl’s abnormality wasn’t because of her, but because of something she was carrying.
Thinking of this, Xia Mo’s gaze immediately fell on the black-purple gemstone in her hand.
That was it. The only thing she had that could attract the girl was the gemstone where Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness resided.
But… why?
Why was the Evil Thought Girl so obsessed with chasing this gemstone that she didn’t even care about the threat right in front of her?
Boom!
Pure White Light smashed into the Evil Thought Girl, sending her flying a short distance. However, she didn’t seem to care about the attack at all. She continued to advance toward that specific direction regardless of the cost.
Even the Holy Sovereign realized something was wrong. The girl’s fighting spirit seemed too low; she wasn’t focusing on the battle at all.
From the beginning, she had been stubbornly moving toward one place. Their several exchanges only happened because the Holy Sovereign stood in her way.
Glancing at the path the girl was taking, the Holy Sovereign’s silver-white eyes constricted slightly.
That place… was Xia Mo, and the Original Magic Power of Luo Shuangyue protected in her palm.
The Evil Thought Girl’s target couldn’t be Xia Mo, so the answer was obvious.
Her target was Luo Shuangyue.
Thinking of this, the Holy Sovereign’s attacks became even more violent and rapid. ‘To dare target my daughter… she really thinks little of me.’
As the Holy Sovereign’s offensive intensified, the Evil Thought Girl finally had to shift her attention back, attempting to defend while continuing to move forward.
Counterattack?
She didn’t want to counterattack.
Counterattacking was a waste of time. Her goal from start to finish was to take Luo Shuangyue back and make them one whole again. Everything else was secondary.
Killing the Holy Sovereign or destroying the world held far less importance to her than reclaiming Luo Shuangyue.
In fact, those actions were merely conditions that would allow her to be with her other half forever without being disturbed by anyone else.
The white light hit her body, and it was painful, but she could endure it.
Her body, woven from evil thoughts and demonic energy, possessed terrifying magic resistance. Even the Pure White Light from another world — a power with supreme lethality against monsters — could not leave a wound deep enough to seriously injure her.
If it weren’t for that sword, and if the Holy Sovereign’s power were just a little bit weaker, she could have defeated this annoying person with one hand and gone to reclaim her other half.
The sword edge struck her, making her soul throb with pain.
In her senses, the distance between her and her other half was not getting closer despite her efforts; instead, it was growing farther away.
‘No, I can’t let this go on…’
Finally, the Evil Thought Girl’s mind turned a corner. She finally realized that she had to defeat the person blocking her path before she could successfully pursue her other half.
Clink!
The falling white sword was blocked by a jet-black scythe. The girl’s bloodshot black eyes slowly fell on the Holy Sovereign’s indifferent face.
“Then I’ll kill you first!”
Boom!
The Evil Thought Girl’s focus had shifted, and the battle in the sky reached a fever pitch.
Now, Xia Mo truly couldn’t understand anything.
She couldn’t even tell who had the upper hand. She could only see two colors of light flashing across the sky and the terrifying aftershocks that seemed capable of tearing the entire sky to shreds.
This battle had undoubtedly surpassed the human level. It was a fight between two gods!
Xia Mo wanted to take Luo Shuangyue and run further away to avoid being swept up in a battle she couldn’t even touch. However, when she actually tried to leave, she found the gemstone in her hand let out a series of painful tremors.
It wasn’t that Luo Shuangyue was stopping her from leaving; it was that the act of leaving caused Luo Shuangyue immense pain.
Bang!
At that moment, the battle in the sky also underwent a slight change. The Evil Thought Girl, who had been fighting on equal terms with the Holy Sovereign, suddenly stiffened in midair. She clutched her head and let out a mournful cry.
In a battle of this intensity, a momentary pause was enough to tip the scales instantly.
In the next instant, a white Sword Light pierced into the Evil Thought Girl’s chest, burning a large hole that exited through her back.
A clean, see-through wound appeared on the girl’s body. This undoubtedly caused her massive damage.
Even her soul suffered no small injury from this strike.
And all of this was because of the sudden tearing pain in her soul. This pain could not be blocked, as it acted directly upon the soul. As for where it came from…
The girl’s gaze drifted toward the distance once again.
Someone was trying to completely sever the connection between her and her other half, so both of them were feeling this tearing pain simultaneously.
Her thoughts lasted only a second. The Holy Sovereign would not give her much time to adjust. After a moment, the hole in her chest was refilled.
The battle began once again, but this time, the Evil Thought Girl was slowly being suppressed by the Holy Sovereign.
—
While the Holy Sovereign was gradually suppressing the Evil Thought Girl, the intense soul pain also jolted Luo Shuangyue awake from her unconscious state.
It hurt. It hurt so much. It was even more painful than when she had previously severed herself from Little Butterfly.
At that time, she and Little Butterfly were only temporarily separated, and a lingering connection still existed between them.
But now, even that connection was being assaulted. Once those ties were gone, her soul would never be complete again.
She was too weak — so weak that she couldn’t even control demonic energy. She could only use a faint spirit wave to communicate the situation to Xia Mo.
Luo Shuangyue’s awakening surprised and delighted Xia Mo for a moment, but then she became troubled by what Luo Shuangyue had said.
After a brief exchange with Luo Shuangyue, Xia Mo finally learned the identity of that Evil Thought Girl.
‘Little Butterfly? How did she become like this…?’ Looking at the girl in the sky who looked almost exactly like Luo Shuangyue, Xia Mo’s eyes widened. So, this wasn’t something the evil intent had deliberately created to disturb the Holy Sovereign’s mind; it was because the soul inside the body originally looked like this.
‘To protect me, she absorbed all of the evil intent into herself. And when Dad brought me out, she didn’t bring Little Butterfly along.’
In truth, the Holy Sovereign didn’t even know of Little Butterfly’s existence. Even if she had, she didn’t have the strength at the time to save Little Butterfly, who had already been corroded by evil intent.
‘This won’t work. She’ll die.’
“But she’s already being controlled by evil intent, and you’ve become like this. How can we save her?” Xia Mo looked down at the half-gemstone in her palm, feeling that this situation had reached a total dead end.
She instinctively wanted to ask Luo Shuangyue: ‘Do you really have to save Little Butterfly?’
That child was born from an unsuccessful evolution in the first place. She wasn’t supposed to exist.
But as the words reached Xia Mo’s lips, she felt that saying such a thing was far too selfish and ugly. Little Butterfly had become this way to save Luo Shuangyue. No matter what, she couldn’t do nothing and watch Little Butterfly pass away in such a hideous state.
‘I don’t know either, but if she dies, I definitely won’t have it easy.’ Feeling the faint soul pain coming from the distance, Luo Shuangyue gave a very pragmatic and realistic reason.
Having half of one’s soul destroyed was no joke. If luck was poor, her half of the soul would also shatter and die because the other half perished.
The connection between her and Little Butterfly was too close. They were essentially the same person. If one died, how could the other survive?
“So, do you have a way?”
‘There should be one, but it requires the cooperation of Dad and Little Butterfly. As long as Little Butterfly honestly accepts purification, perhaps we can protect her soul while purifying the evil intent.’
The most difficult part of this was making the corroded Little Butterfly stop and accept the Holy Sovereign’s purification.
“The difficulty is quite high.” Xia Mo looked at the terrifying battle in the sky, and the corner of her mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
The Holy Sovereign would be easy to convince, but what about Little Butterfly?
She didn’t look like someone who was in the mood to listen to reason.
And more importantly, how was she supposed to send Luo Shuangyue into that battlefield?
The battle between the Holy Sovereign and Little Butterfly wasn’t something just anyone could interfere with. Even a powerhouse like the Six-eyed Crow would only have one fate if they entered recklessly: being torn to pieces by the aftershocks.
“We don’t have the ability to step into that battle at all. If we get even a little bit closer, we’ll be crushed by the aftershocks,” Xia Mo said helplessly.
Luo Shuangyue didn’t need to be mentioned; she would be finished if she were even lightly touched.
Xia Mo was much the same. Her Blooming Grade strength was nothing in the face of that battle.
Everything seemed to have reached a dead end. Was there really no hope?
‘Is there any way for me to forcibly break into that fight?’ Xia Mo pondered.
‘Even if I completely burn myself out, the power I’d gain wouldn’t be enough to reach the Full Bloom Class, let alone interfere in a battle that far exceeds it…’
‘This is a deadlock. A total, absolute deadlock.’