Chapter 944: Sealed Within the Cosmos Tower

The two blades, one massive and one slender, collided in an instant, and the impact rang out with a sharp, crystalline crack that cut through the air like glass shattering.

Ethan’s expression changed immediately. His soul-formed body flickered violently, once, then again, and on the second flicker he nearly faded from sight entirely, his form turning so faint it was barely there. The pink-gold soul blade he had summoned didn’t merely break upon contact with Yurix’s weapon, it collapsed completely, dissolving into scattered fragments of energy that vanished almost as soon as they appeared.

Yaya’s array was still active, silently enforcing its rule. Any Soul Energy within the prison that lost its owner’s control was instantly drawn away and absorbed, and Ethan’s dissipated power was no exception. Compared to Yurix, the gap between them was still far too wide.

Yurix’s lips curled further, his smugness deepening as he took in Ethan’s state.

Ethan felt his chest tighten. ’Not enough?’

But then something shifted.

A faint trace of pink-gold light did not disappear with the rest of the shattered blade. Instead, it pressed forward, unwavering, cutting straight toward Yurix as if guided by its own will.

Ethan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

At the same time, the arrogance drained from Yurix’s face. A chill ran through him, sharp and instinctive. The pink-gold light slipped through his soul blade as if it did not exist, completely ignoring the defense.

He reacted quickly, his instincts saving him. The light had already reached his chest in the span of a heartbeat. He twisted aside to avoid the avatar’s incoming kick, his hands moving so fast they blurred, condensing a thick soul shield nearly a foot wide in front of him.

The pink-gold light touched it. A soft, almost delicate slicing sound followed, like silk being parted.

Yurix lowered his gaze slowly, disbelief spreading across his face as horror crept in. The light had already passed through the shield and entered his body. It did not vanish inside him but instead shrank, condensing into something finer, more concentrated, before spreading outward in thin threads that branched through his form like veins.

He reached toward it instinctively, trying to grasp whatever was happening to him, but the moment his fingers brushed the shrinking light, a scream tore from his throat.

His hand began to change before his eyes, hardening, crystallizing. The same transformation spread across his chest, creeping outward with unstoppable momentum.

Yurix poured all of his strength into resisting it, Soul Energy surging wildly through his body as panic took hold.

"What is this?! Stop it... make it stop!"

No matter how fiercely he fought, the crystallization continued its advance.

Ethan exhaled slowly, his nerves easing just a fraction as he recognized what was happening. The Buddha-Demon Resonance Magnetic Light was working.

The last time he had triggered it by accident, he had discovered that it had no effect on inanimate objects. Yurix’s soul form was not a simple object, nor was it truly alive in the conventional sense, yet it still counted as a living entity. And this light targeted life itself. Anything living that it touched would be turned into crystal, even something as intangible as a soul.

’So Vasuki did leave me something useful after all. First decent thing that bastard ever did.’

But the relief did not last long.

After a few moments, the spread of crystallization slowed noticeably. Yurix’s chest and neck had already turned completely pink-gold, and his right arm up to the wrist had been overtaken, rendered rigid and unresponsive. Yet the rest of his body remained unchanged, as if something was holding the effect at bay.

When Yurix lifted his gaze again, the hatred in his eyes was so intense it felt almost tangible.

Ethan felt a flicker of frustration. He had only managed to draw out a small portion of the light’s power, and it was not enough to finish the job.

Yurix’s fury was building, his aura swelling as if he were about to erupt—

"HAH! WATCH ME TAKE YOU! COSMOS TOWER, RISE!"

The sudden shout startled Ethan so much that he flinched. It was the avatar, striking a dramatic pose as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.

Behind him, the nine-tiered tower lit up from the base, one level after another, each layer flashing into brilliance in rapid succession until the fourth tier shone brightly. The structure solidified in an instant, expanding as it rose into the air above Yurix. A vortex formed beneath it, and a beam of light shot downward, locking him in place.

"What...?!"

For the first time, genuine fear appeared on Yurix’s face.

Ethan was just as stunned. He had always assumed that tower was nothing more than decoration, an ornamental manifestation of the avatar’s existence. Clearly, he had been very wrong.

The tower descended without hesitation, swallowing Yurix whole. The moment he was trapped inside, it shrank rapidly, returning to its place behind the avatar as if nothing unusual had happened.

"Still acting tough?" the avatar said with a grin. "I’ll refine you myself."

Ethan could only stare, momentarily at a loss for words. The shift in the battle had been so abrupt that it barely felt real. Yurix had lost a third of his body to crystallization, but his overall combat strength had not dropped enough to explain how easily he had just been captured.

As soon as Yurix was sealed, every remaining red spirit in the area exploded into clouds of crimson mist. Though it was not pure Soul Energy, Yaya absorbed it all the same without hesitation.

Inside the tower, Yurix struggled, but that was all he could manage. The structure appeared almost translucent from the outside, yet none of his attacks made any visible impact. The avatar wrapped his arms around the tower, channeling steady waves of radiant, majestic energy into it, reinforcing the seal and accelerating the refinement.

Ethan watched in silence, a strange mix of emotions stirring within him.

His avatar was far more capable than he had ever realized. He had underestimated him completely. The core that formed his very existence was clearly something extraordinary.

That nine-tiered tower had once been his own core, the one his mother had removed and sealed in the Extreme South. Somehow, it had developed its own consciousness, transformed into this independent entity, and forced Ethan into refining it as an avatar rather than reclaiming it outright. Looking at it now, he could not help but wonder if he had made the worse end of that deal.

"If you could seal him like this," Ethan said at last, his voice carrying a sharp edge, "why didn’t you do it earlier?"

If the avatar had used the Cosmos Tower from the beginning, Ethan would not have been pushed to such a desperate state, and Yaya would not have been injured.

The avatar rolled his eyes, completely unapologetic. "You didn’t ask, genius. You said, ’help me beat him up.’ So I beat him up."

Ethan opened his mouth, then closed it again. There was nothing he could say to that.

"You little..." he muttered under his breath. "Just wait."

The avatar ignored him and continued focusing on refining Yurix. Thin wisps of Soul Energy began to leak from the tower, drifting into the surrounding space. It was clear that fully refining him would take time, but the outcome was no longer in doubt.

Yaya withdrew her branches, their wounds slowly mending as the energy around them grew denser.

Ethan’s mindscape was now filled with thick mist, so dense he could barely see through it. All of it was Soul Energy. Given time, it would settle and flow into his Soul Lake, strengthening him significantly. And once the avatar finished refining Yurix, even more energy would be released. The gains from this battle would be immense.

When he absorbed it all, his Soul Energy would surge to an entirely new level.

His second life had begun because he was a Soul Wielder, and that foundation had never changed. No matter how many other abilities he acquired, whether druid forms or anything else, they all felt like additions from the outside. Soul Energy, on the other hand, belonged entirely to him.

"Huh? What’s that thing he’s holding? It’s resisting the tower’s refining power."

The avatar had practically flattened himself against the tower, peering inside with exaggerated curiosity. Now reduced to barely half a meter tall, the tower made Yurix appear tiny as he sat trapped on the fourth level.

Ethan stepped closer, narrowing his eyes.

Yurix had stopped struggling altogether. He sat cross-legged, holding something dark between his hands. Even as Ethan watched, Yurix spat it out from his mouth. It emitted a faint glow, though it was clearly incomplete, more like a fragment than a whole object.

"Can’t refine him if he’s holding that," Ethan said, frowning. He did not care what the object was, only that it was interfering with the process.

"Tch. What’s in my tower is mine. Take it."

The avatar reached out casually, making a grasping motion. Inside the tower, a massive spectral hand appeared above Yurix and snatched the fragment away in an instant.

A soft whoosh followed as the fragment appeared in the avatar’s palm.

Inside the tower, Yurix leapt to his feet, screaming upward in fury, though no sound escaped. His expression twisted into something almost feral.

"What a useless piece of junk," the avatar scoffed, tossing it aside without a second thought before pouring even more energy into the tower. Without the fragment’s protection, Yurix was slammed flat against the floor, his resistance collapsing instantly.

"Ha! Told you," the avatar said, grinning as he shot Ethan a wink. "Without that thing, I’d have refined him in seconds."

Ethan ignored him and walked over to the fragment. Anything capable of resisting the Cosmos Tower’s power was far from ordinary.

He reached out and picked it up. A mechanical chime echoed in his mind.

[Ding! System Notification: Item discovered—Divine Shard 1/4.]

Ethan froze.

He glanced around instinctively, but no one else reacted. Yaya, the children, even the avatar all continued what they were doing as if nothing had happened.

Only he had heard it.

"Divine Shard..." he murmured under his breath. "Sounds impressive. One out of four... collect all four and what, become a god?"

The Divine Sea Temple had four temples. Was it possible that each one contained a shard like this? And somehow, this one had ended up in Yurix’s possession.

The moment the fragment settled fully into his grasp, a cold, emotionless voice echoed within his mind.

"Submit, and I will grant you limitless power."

"Submit, and I will grant you immortality."

"Submit, and you shall coexist with my divinity."

At the same time, the fragment began to emit a strange, winding energy that coiled around him like a living thing.

Ethan’s eyes widened slowly as recognition dawned. He knew this feeling.

"It’s..."