Once again, Lu Ran broke out of the White Jade City Wall, and the view ahead opened up.
He used his Extre Eye Power, searching for the figure of the Pangda Jade Venerable, quickly concealing himself, his silhouette flashing again and again.
Where are you?
Jade Venerable, where are you...
Lu Ran’s single flash covered dozens of kiloters, his dog-like eyes searching in the dim and desolate world for the colossal entity emitting a radiant white glow.
Suddenly, his rapidly flashing figure ca to a stop.
A Jade Venerable troop ca into view.
A large number of Jade Venerable minions were surrounding a massive jade sculpture, continuously speeding towards the East.
"Hu~~~"
The jade robe fluttered.
The Pangda Jade Venerable held her forehead with one hand, occasionally clutching her hair, looking very pained.
She did not know who she was.
Nor did she understand where she was, or what had happened.
This feeling was simply terrible!
What terrified the Jade Venerable even more was a small living being destroying her, the most special of all her "selves."
It must have been the most powerful one!
And that tiny species was so terrifying, so fierce and strong...
"You’re here."
A hoarse voice abruptly ca from ahead.
The Pangda Jade Venerable’s forward-flying figure ca to a sudden halt!
Along with her, countless Jade Venerable minions also stopped, each more stiff-faced than the other.
"Hu~"
In the next instant, the Jade Venerable clan was shocked to discover that the energy within them was uncontrollably rushing outward.
Streams of mist flew into the sky, eventually converging at one spot.
A small figure finally appeared in the empty space up ahead.
The Emperor-robed Youth?
The Pangda Jade Venerable’s expression changed dramatically!
It’s him!
It was him who, sowhere unknown, killed the most powerful one of herself.
"Crack! Crack..."
The energy within the Jade Venerable minions rapidly drained, their bodies crawling with fissures.
Only the Pangda Jade Venerable’s energy was abundant, able to continuously supply Lu Ran.
"It’s a good move, Lu Ran; you knew you couldn’t defeat and chose to erase my mories."
Rarely, a Jade Venerable minion spoke.
They all had independent souls and consciousness, created before the Jade Venerable lost her mory, naturally inheriting the essence of the original master.
It was evident the minion was speaking in the voice of the body.
"I can fail."
"I can also perish."
"But rember, Lu Ran! Deep inside, you know I’m right, God Demon must be destroyed!"
Lu Ran remained silent, watching as the skin of the Jade Venerable minion peeled piece by piece.
Slowly breaking apart, it was truly poignant.
There were many Jade Venerable minions present, yet none struggled, none resisted.
This scene was indeed sowhat ironic.
Because the minions faced death calmly, without hysteria, still as noble and graceful as ever, not diminished in past elegance.
In contrast, the Pangda Jade Venerable shielded in the rear, showed a look of panic, her body trembling fiercely.
"You think you’ve found the way, you think you can forever constrain God Demon, don’t you?"
Another Jade Venerable minion spoke, her jade body steadily shattering, mass amounts of energy draining away.
"No, Lu Ran!"
"Those stones will always be dirty stones; their roots are rotten."
"One day you’ll regret it, Lu Ran; you... heh, maybe you won’t regret it."
A faint smile surfaced on the Jade Venerable minion’s face, her shattered eyes gently glanced at the Emperor-robed Youth:
"Maybe you’ll beco like those filthy and despicable stones, equally decayed."
A Jade Venerable minion shattered.
Her entire body turned into a pure energy body, surging towards Lu Ran.
"Crack! Crack!"
The second one, the third one...
Dozens to hundreds of Jade Venerable minions, shattered consecutively, leaving only one Pangda Jade Venerable, bewildered, suspended in place.
"You, you called... were we once friends?" The Pangda Jade Venerable trembled and asked.
Lu Ran remained silent, watching the panicked living being.
Evidently, she wanted to survive.
The words of the minions contained no ntion of friendship, at most forcefully insisting that Lu Ran internally recognized her philosophy.
Yet about the matter of mory erasure, she never ntioned a word.
"Did we have a... difference in opinion? Because... because of the stones?"
The Pangda Jade Venerable’s words abruptly stopped, suddenly flying backward.
Because the small creature ahead held a blade, approaching.
It was precisely this blade that had absorbed the energy of the Jade Venerable minions, stripped them of life, and now continued to strip away her energy.
"I surrender." The Pangda Jade Venerable suddenly spoke.
Lu Ran’s expression froze slightly.
It’s hard to imagine such words being spoken by the Jade Venerable’s mouth.
"Alright, is that alright?" The Pangda Jade Venerable trembled and asked, "I surrender, I agree with your philosophy, I... I don’t want to die."
That pair of eternally cold and indifferent eyes now revealed a hint of pleading.
Lu Ran sighed inwardly.
He knew, the Jade Venerable was already dead.
The true Faceless Jade Venerable could never utter words like "surrender," "agree with your philosophy."
The Jade Venerable before him, everything was blank.
Without having undergone various experiences, she could not have been sculpted and molded into the Faceless Jade Venerable that Lu Ran recognized.
She reverted to being the most ordinary mber of the White Jade Clan.
As a creature inexperienced in the ways of the world, she instinctively wanted to survive, just wanted to live, is that wrong?
Of course, it’s not wrong.
"Is it okay?" The Pangda Jade Venerable saw Lu Ran stopped and cautiously inquired.
Lu Ran suddenly asked, "How many bodies like yours are there?"
The Pangda Jade Venerable pursed her lips but did not speak.
Lu Ran spoke softly: "If you don’t voluntarily tell , I’ll still get the answer."
He had many ways to get the answer.
For instance, finding out for himself, as the Jade Venerable’s mories are stored in the form of Floating Life Coins, piece by piece within the Fiery Phoenix Patterned Gourd.
"Four!" The Pangda Jade Venerable trembled.
The initial hesitation to respond was instinctive self-protection. Now speaking truthfully, it’s clear to her that she has no right to conceal anything.
Even less the right to deceive.
"Aside from you, there are four others." Lu Ran nodded, it seed in the other four major war zones of the world, one Great Jade Venerable remained.
It seed their consciousnesses were still connected.
Otherwise, this Pangda Jade Venerable could not have given such an accurate answer.
Since their consciousness is interconnected, marking this Jade Venerable with the Phoenix Soul Brand should an the other Pangda Jade Venerables could also surrender to the Ran Sect?
"Wait for here." Lu Ran conjured a bloom of Other Shore Flower in his hand.
As the Emperor-robed Youth departed, a deathly silence fell across the heavens and earth.
The Pangda Jade Venerable stood alone.
She did not flee.
She could not bear the consequences of doing so.
The Pangda Jade Venerable did not know where the Emperor-robed Youth had gone, nor how she would be dealt with, but she knew she could not escape his grasp.
Sure enough, seconds later, a teleportation array opened up.
Within the array, a statue of the sa dinsions descended.
But it wasn’t as beautiful as she was.
After all, she was made of white jade, gleaming white and gentle, while the unfamiliar statue ahead was just made of dull stone.
"You, surrender?" A cold voice echoed.
"Yes, yes." The Pangda Jade Venerable nervously twisted her fingers, nodding repeatedly.
Jiang Ruyi’s emotions were complicated as she looked at this once-arrogant Pangda Jade Venerable.
Everything felt so unreal...
She lowered her gaze, looking at the Emperor-robed Youth in her palm, hesitant to speak.
Lu Ran sent a ssage: [Leave the Phoenix Soul Brand within her soul, then we can retrieve the other Great Jade Venerables from the four war zones.]
Everything,
can be completely resolved.
"Mm." Jiang Ruyi pressed her lips together and raised the Magic Artifact.
"Chirp~~~"
A lodious phoenix cry sounded.
A golden Phoenix Illusion flew straight to the Pangda Jade Venerable’s brow.
The Jade Venerable Clan seed specifically born to counter "Tomb".
Her unique body material prevented the Tomb from corroding; the soul she kept within her unique material was difficult for the Tomb to reach.
Yet aside from countering the Tomb, the Jade Venerable Clan suffered at the soul level.
When attacked by the Cold Night Sword Domain·Life Afterlife Tribulation, she would freeze in place, dazed and lost.
Burned by Phoenix Divine Fire, she would wish for anything but to live.
At this mont, faced with the Phoenix Soul Brand, the Pangda Jade Venerable also let out a miserable cry: "Ah... Why? I’ve already surrendered, sob sob... sob sob... why continue to hurt ..."
"Shh." Lu Ran suddenly appeared in front of her.
His small hand gently rested on her giant white jade eyeball, his hoarse voice surprisingly gentle: "Truly surrender, don’t have disloyal thoughts.
It’ll be over soon, I promise, the pain will be gone quickly."
"Sob ~ sob sob..."
Responding to Lu Ran was the Pangda Jade Venerable’s anguished sobbing.
If possible, Lu Ran truly wished the being before him was still the original Faceless Jade Venerable...
Within nine short minutes, a Phoenix Soul Brand was etched deep in the Jade Venerable’s Divine Soul.
Unexpectedly to Lu Ran and Jiang Ruyi, within half a quarter of an hour, the Pangda Jade Venerable stopped her wailing cries.
This ant she truly had no ulterior motives.
In the face of absolute power, a creature driven solely by survival instinct indeed had no other path to take.
"Phew~"
Jiang Ruyi slowly floated forward.
She reached out her hand, smoothing the unruly long hair on the Pangda Jade Venerable’s forehead, for the first ti examining this blurred face at such close proximity.
With their consciousnesses interconnected, the other mindless Pangda Jade Venerables similarly submitted.
Otherwise, the Jade Venerable before them could not have settled down.
"Lu Ran, how do you plan to deal with her?"
"Since she’s joined the Ran Sect, let them watch."
"Watch?"
"Watch whether the God Demons under my rule will truly decay." Lu Ran mumbled.
Jiang Ruyi silently nodded, her fingers reached before the Jade Venerable’s eyes.
Lu Ran just leaned back, directly resting on her fingertips, gazing upwards at that stunning inverted visage.
Gradually, a smile appeared on Lu Ran’s face.
Full of the aning of liberation.
It’s over.
The powerful external enemy was entirely vanquished and submitted to the Ran Sect.
This ti, it’s truly over.
...
The novel concludes tomorrow.
Thank you all for your companionship along the way.
Upon completion, there will likely be several side stories, uh... specifically I’ll cover it in the closing remarks.
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