"Damn it..."

"What is that..."

At that moment, the warriors of the Ventecenia Kingdom and the soldiers of the Gulad Empire alike were all frozen in terror by the centipede-like Evil Dragon before them, shrouded in black mist.

Its grotesque form defied all reason, and the destructive aura filling the air made every heart feel as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand.

In an instant, Fear overwhelmed all will to fight. They turned instinctively, wanting only to flee this hellish battlefield.

But how could the Evil Dragon Jinli, high in the sky, give this "Food waiting to be slaughtered" any chance to escape?

Like a world-destroying god descending upon the Mortal Realm, its colossal body coiled slowly in the clouds as black Dragon Breath spewed endlessly from its fangs, raining down upon the earth below.

Any soldier touched by the Dragon Breath was instantly engulfed in black flames, turning to wisps of scorched ash and scattering in the wind before they could even scream.

Even "Flame Fire," the Companion Ancient Dragon that had been with Flame Emperor Galukasa since childhood, inseparable from him, could not escape this fate.

The Evil Dragon Jinli suddenly lunged down with its massive head. Its fang-filled maw, like the gaping mouth of the Abyss, snapped shut and bit Flame Fire’s body in two as if it were a loaf of bread!

Dragon Blood gushed from the severed ends like lava. Jinli, without hesitation, tossed its head back and swallowed both halves of the dragon’s corpse. The black mist instantly enveloped the dripping blood, leaving not a single trace behind.

Witnessing this, Flame Emperor Galukasa’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. The flames surrounding his body flared violently from extreme shock and rage, and his voice trembled uncontrollably.

"You!?"

"What are you doing!?"

He took a sharp step forward, the magma-like fury in his chest about to erupt, and glared down at the massive, black Evil Dragon floating a hundred meters below his feet.

"If you kill all my men, what use is all this Powerful strength you’re giving me!?"

Jinli’s colossal, thunderous voice suddenly exploded in his ears. Every word was wrapped in an undeniable authority that was nearly suffocating.

"Calm down!"

It paused, its gigantic head turning slightly, its crimson compound eyes staring at the Flame Emperor standing on its head. A hint of hidden fanaticism laced its voice.

"Beyond this Plane World you’re in!"

"There are countless other Plane Worlds identical to yours!"

"In the future!"

"You’ll have plenty of opportunities to show what you can do!"

"Countless life forms will bow down and submit to you!"

"Most of the people here cannot be corrupted by the Power of Dark Abyss in my body!"

"Therefore, I don’t trust them. Rather than leave these liabilities around to become an eyesore and a nuisance later, it’s better to let them become my meal now!"

"Besides, for creatures I kill with my own hands, I can drain every last drop of Life Power from their bodies!"

Its compound eyes suddenly brightened, the fanaticism in its voice growing stronger.

"Don’t forget!"

"The more Life Power I absorb!"

"The more Powerful my Divine Chosen Power will become!"

"And the faster the great Primordial Deities will return from the Dark Abyss!"

"When that time comes!"

"You will be a true Divine Chosen One!"

Hearing this, Flame Emperor Galukasa fell into a long Silence. The flickering flames around him gradually subsided, and he said no more.

The anger in his eyes faded, replaced by a glimmer of understanding.

Because while the Evil Dragon Jinli’s attacks seemed indiscriminate...they were, in fact, selective.

For instance, the troop of Extraordinary Dragon Cavalry that Flame Emperor Galukasa had personally trained and the Companion Ancient Fire Dragon he had grown up with were all slain.

But those Imperial soldiers who were highly compatible with Jinli’s Power of Dark Abyss, who already knew of the Primordial Deities’ existence, were completely unharmed.

Moreover, these survivors were the core members of the Imperial Legion led by Flame Emperor Galukasa, the ones holding command authority—his true "companions" whom he had mentioned before.

Although Flame Emperor Galukasa had never personally experienced the power of a Divine Chosen Lord, the non-stop, day-in-and-day-out chatter of the Lord Players had given him a rough understanding of the logic behind it.

These "companions" spared by Jinli were the same type of existence as the "Divine Chosen Soldiers" mentioned by the Divine Chosen Lords. They all possessed an absolute, one-hundred-percent, unquestionable Loyalty to a specific Deity, and would never harbor any dissent.

Furthermore, they could also be enhanced by some of the Evil Dragon Jinli’s special abilities, making them far more Powerful than ordinary soldiers.

And so, while controlling the terrifying black Dragon Breath that poured down like an inky waterfall, slaughtering the soldiers of both Ventecenia and Gulad in droves and leaving nothing but scorched ash and screams in the black fire’s wake, Jinli used a telepathy-like ability to speak clearly inside Flame Emperor Galukasa’s mind, as if the two were just friends having a casual chat.

"Speaking of which."

"Those ’Void Evil Gods’ that the Pseudo-Gods fabricated out of thin air."

"They seem to have been modeled after the Primordial Deities from other Planes, the ones who were forcibly suppressed and sealed into the Dark Abyss by them."

"I’d guess they initially used those suppressed and sealed Primordial Deities."

"They probably thought it would make the ’game’ more exciting."

"But then they realized it was too dangerous. These Primordial Deities who wielded the Power of Dark Abyss could overturn their rule at any moment, so they swapped them all out for their own people and created a bunch of fake Void Evil Gods..."

Jinli seemed to be in a particularly good mood today. Even as the black Dragon Breath from its mouth continued to reap lives, it patiently explained these past secrets to Flame Emperor Galukasa, revealing, bit by bit, many truths the Flame Emperor had never known before:

"These Primordial Deities have existed since the birth of the Plane Worlds. They long ago merged with the very fabric of those worlds."

"If you want to kill them completely...you’d have to destroy the entire Plane World along with them."

"But those Pseudo-Gods just want to use these Plane Worlds as their personal playgrounds."

"They don’t actually want to destroy them."

"So, of course, they weren’t going to destroy the ’toys’ they worked so hard to find just to deal with these troublesome Primordial Deities."

"In the end, all they could do was resort to sealing, a temporary fix at best, to trap the unkillable Primordial Deities..."

Jinli’s telepathic voice was tinged with unconcealed scorn. Below, the black Dragon Breath continued to ravage the ground, and the air was filled with the smell of smoke and endless screams.

"And in the last round of their so-called ’game’..."

"...the Pseudo-God Believers of this world couldn’t even withstand the second phase, the Evil God Invasion. In the end, they just up and fled."

It paused, a cold light flashing in its compound eyes, and its tone grew even more mocking.

"Of that entire massive faction, only one guy called the ’Black King’ was left, putting up a pointless, last-ditch resistance."

"He had a group of incredibly Powerful Sielo Knights under his command...and had somehow obtained immense Divine Power."

"He could take on ten enemies at once."

"But without the support of those Pseudo-God Believers, he was no match for the minions of those fake Evil Gods, and could only die filled with resentment."

"The result was that the entire Plane World was forcibly reset. The old civilizations that once existed were completely destroyed overnight. In their place rose the factions you know today: the Gulad Empire, the Ventecenia Kingdom, and the Elf Kingdom."

"What’s more, a thousand years have passed in this world."

"But in the Plane World where the Pseudo-God Believers reside, less than a single year has gone by."

"Because I found a Lord Player among those Pseudo-God Believers who participated in the previous game. He didn’t realize he’d been to this Plane World before, but I could clearly distinguish the Life Power within him. His current age is no different from what it was a thousand years ago..."

While it spoke, the Evil Dragon Jinli had silently flapped its mist-shrouded wings, arriving above a city of the Ventecenia Kingdom.

Its thousand-meter-long body hung in the clouds, blocking out a vast swathe of sunlight. It lowered its head slightly, the crimson specks of light dancing in its compound eyes precisely locking onto the soldiers of the Ventecenia Kingdom and members of the Hafke Alliance who stood on the city walls, weapons gripped tight, their expressions grim.

"What was that guy’s game name this time?"

"Aha!"

"I remember now!"

"Moonlit Observation!"

"Too bad he’s not here right now!"

"Otherwise, after not seeing him for a thousand years, I’d really love to have a personal taste of an old acquaintance, JIE JIE JIE..."