Corrupt Creations

First Shadow felt their aura reaching an equilibrium and couldn't help but get genuinely impressed. 

"Oh? You've grown that much? Impressive!" 

"Do you think I would always stay as that underdog you could kick whenever you wanted?" 

"This is actually even better. Now I can transform that cute puppy face of yours and extract the best expression of fear ever!" There was a black light of obsession passing through her black eyes, telling Seth that if she were ever to accomplish that, it would be the day she would have the best orgasm of her entire life. 

"Fear? You're wrong. I would never fear you and I've never feared you. Those times you used to sharpen me with those cruel methods, were indeed painful and I would never like to return to them. But not even once I had avoided you; not even once, you were able to make me feel fear." 

First Shadow heard his words and smiled: "Is that so? So, it's even better than I thought. It means it is really worth it the trouble, doing everything just to extract that expression from you." 

Just after she finished talking, the whole sky above her, darkened all of a sudden. It was like night belonged to her and First Shadow could call it at anytime and anywhere she wanted. 

A gloomy sensation suddenly enveloped the whole environment. As if only death and darkness would reign in that area. The blackout would forever rule over that valley. 

There were no dark clouds hovering above them like when Qiao Xuan called his lightning storm. The darkness was a pure mass of dark elemental energy that had suddenly been gathered there by First Shadow's will. Together with it, a dense Mana that was announcing that the battle was about to start, swirled around her body. 

"Then let's see how you will get out of this situation. Raining Nightmare!" 

Swoosh! 

Suddenly, the darkness started to fall from above like a downpour. Each drop of darkness, had the supreme prestige of a Mana Sovereign and was able to kill a cultivator like Serene in less than a second. 

Seth looked up and saw those hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of droplets coming down at that entire area and he was about to take his greatsword out of his internal dimension, to combat her ability, when suddenly, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a fiery orange dot. 

Impressively, that orange dot moved hundred times faster than those droplets of darkness and before anyone could understand what it really was, it had already turned into a giant flaming phoenix that covered the whole horizon. 

Screech! 

That phoenix dived inside the huge mass of darkness that was concentrating high above and all the fire contained inside of it, suddenly burst out. 

BOOM! 

Above their heads, the Phoenix Flames cleansed everything. Every single drop of darkness that was falling down was consumed in that explosion, vanishing without a trace. 

Serene watched as the whole sky was being painted with flames, shocked to her core. 

Seth immediately recognized that those flames were from the Ancient Phoenix Beast, but he didn't know an individual that cultivated Phoenix Flames and was strong enough to fight against a Mana Sovereign entity like First Shadow. Not even once, the idea of that person being a certain someone crossed his mind. 

Serene was completely out of words. That location was not a place for a person at her level of strength to be, definitely not. Just being there, drained her of all the energies and if not for Seth's protection, she would've been dead already. 

First Shadow on the other hand, frowned. Someone dared to bother her, while she was having her fun. She didn't know of a Mana Sovereign cultivator well-versed in flaming arts, but even though she didn't know who it was, she already hated that individual. It didn't matter who it would be, just the fact of bothering her at that moment, was already a crime worth of death penalty. 

"Who's there?" As she asked, First Shadow saw that from high up on the skies, where that Phoenix had just exploded, two different pillars of flames came spiraling down. They descended quite fast, stopping right before Seth's body. 

Seth was shocked that those two pillars of flames were coming down at him, but that shock didn't amount to anything, near the surprise he felt when he saw who those people really were. 

"Lilian?! Yuyin?!" 

Unknowingly, he was already smiling. He really wanted to meet the both of them, but meeting them in a situation like that, was very surprising. 

"Big Brother Seth! I missed you." Yuyin said with a smile. 

Seth instantly noticed that behind her smile, there was a maturity that shouldn't have been there. She was forced to adulthood by the Phoenix Spirit, at least mentally. In reality, there was still one month left for Yuyin to turn into an adult physically, but her eyes were very mature-like already. 

Suddenly, Seth remembered something and a heavy sense of guilt assaulted him. The feeling was strong enough to suppress his happy smile and was even capable of making him forget the situation he was in for a second. 

Even before looking at Lilian, he knelt down in a single knee, since he still had to support Serene's body and looked downwards. 

"Lilian, I've failed you. I... I don't even know how to express this, but I'm..." 

"Stop. You don't need to apologize." Lilian suddenly said. 

Seth felt puzzled and finally looked towards her face. When his eyes met with hers, he was dumbstruck. Lilian's changes were divine-like. A divine tier transformation that changed her completely. 

She was already a very beautiful and graceful lady when she was at the Profound Qi Realm, but now, she was past the word stunning. Her beauty had transcended mortality and it seemed that it had evolved even more than her internal energy. 

Lilian was now a Mana Sovereign initial-stage Realm cultivator, something that has been attained by many in the history of this continent. But the beauty threshold she had just attained, only three other individuals in this whole world were at that level. She was now as beautiful as Rina; Serene and that Glazed Lake Goddess were. 

Her vermillion hair and scarlet eyes were so enchanting, that Seth didn't even hear her words properly. He was having that same astonished expression he had, when he saw Rina's and Serene's beauty at the first time. 

"If not for you, my father, Yuyin, and I would have been dead when our dogshit of an uncle had betrayed use. At that time, you had saved us from demise and the three of us were already in debt to you. Get up, I don't deserve that apology from you." 

Seth's heart was crazily racing for many different reasons. He felt guilty for what had happened with Huo Shihong, since it was partially because of him, that Velgor had turned his attention towards the Blazing Phoenix Sect. However, what he didn't know, was that sooner or later, Velgor would have sent his assassins there, because of that purple Skystone mine. 

Talking about those purple Skystones, Velgor had spent almost every single one of them charging up the Banshee Crystal Core, but it had been thoroughly cleansed by Lexi. What a waste of precious resources. 

Seth was about to stand up, when suddenly the darkness element in that whole area started to act rampant. First Shadow gave a shit about their reunion and was about to attack them as they talked. 

"So disrespectful." Lilian's vermillion hair began to burn and the temperature around them started to rise. The second Mana Sovereign Realm battle was about to start. 

"Disrespectful? What about me? I was here first and this should have been my moment with him, not yours!" 

Swoosh! 

A vortex of darkness suddenly opened in the sky above Lilian and it started to exude a pulling force, as if trying to swallow her entirely. Her hair danced with a burning radiance, but her body didn't move an inch from where she was. 

"Yuyin. Bring them out of here. The farther the better." Lilian said in a calm voice. 

Seth stood up and was about to contest her decision when suddenly, Yuyin's small and delicate hand grabbed his arm. 

"Big Brother Seth, let's go." 

"Wait..." 

"No. Big Sis knows what she is doing. Come..." Yuyin wasn't that naive little girl anymore and even her intonation was passing a certainty, that she shouldn't be transmitting. 

"But Lilian is going to..." 

"Big Brother Seth, don't forget you have to protect Serene! How are you supposed to maintain her safety in a situation like this?" 

Seth realized she was right and closed his eyes. He had to make a choice, so he chose to believe in Lilian. Looking at her beautiful silhouette one more time, he turned around and said: "Alright, let's go." 

Yuyin pulled Seth, as they prepared to go away, but suddenly, dark Mana fluctuations started to happen around them.