The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

The torchbearers at the two strongholds in Dongjiang Province and Lincang Province noticed the anomaly in the sky almost simultaneously.

The dark vortex expanded too quickly, from a few hundred meters straight ahead to covering the entire sky in just a few breaths.

Almost simultaneously, the wireless communication channels within the base erupted in chaos, with various voices overlapping, but the core instructions were quickly unified.

The leaders of both outposts issued the same order almost simultaneously: retreat to the outposts and close all portals!

The torchbearers, who had just left the stronghold, began to run faster toward the portal. Their boots clattered on the ground of the deep dark realm, and the light curtains of the portals went out one after another.

At the Yunshang Province base, Elder Wei, Zhu Yuanzhi, and the others raised their heads almost simultaneously.

The black vortex had expanded to the point where its boundaries were no longer visible. The sun and stars were no longer visible, and the entire sky was covered by that swirling darkness. Only at the edges could one vaguely see a pattern of dark gray and dark red interwoven, slowly flowing.

Old Wei's expression was calm, his hair at his temples trembled slightly in the wind, and his lips were pursed into a thin line.

Zhu Yuanzhi stood to his side and slightly behind, his square face etched with deeper wrinkles than usual, his gaze fixed intently on the darkest spot at the center of the vortex.

Zhao Xuan stood a little distance away from the city wall, his hands braced on the edge of the crenellations, his knuckles turning slightly white.

Wang Qi and Gongsun Baizhan stood side by side on the inner side of the city wall, towards the back.

Neither of them looked well. Gongsun Baizhan had one hand pressed against his chest, while the other gripped the edge of the city wall, his breathing more rapid than usual. Wang Qi was slightly better off, but a thin layer of sweat had formed on his forehead, and his knees were slightly bent, as if something was pressing down on him, making it difficult for him to stand upright.

Gongsun Baizhan gritted his teeth, forcing out a voice that carried an ambiguous tone of confusion or distress: "What... is that...?"

Wang Qi shook his head without saying a word, only turning his gaze to Wu You's back in front of him.

Wu You stood at the very front of everyone, his gaze fixed on the center of the vortex in the sky. His Clear Sword Heart was still trembling slightly, but the frequency of the trembling was more stable than before.

The God of Beasts uttered only the words "The big one is coming" and then fell silent, as if waiting for something to settle down.

Wu You remained silent, knowing that pressing for answers now was pointless; what was meant to happen would happen eventually.

He was certain of only one thing: the event that caused the God of Beasts to lose his composure like that was definitely not simple. The situation ahead was likely to be a tough battle, and it might even cost him his life again!

Just then, a muffled thud, deeper than any of the previous tremors, came from the depths of the dark underground, as if the skeleton of the entire space had been twisted forcefully.

The black vortex, which had expanded to its limit, suddenly stopped, like a hand clasped tightly together, and then began to shrink its edges slightly inward, as if it were gathering some kind of power at its center.

At the same time, the spatial tremors that had lasted for so long disappeared completely in an instant, all the shaking and dragging sensations returned to zero, and everything around stabilized.

Wu You understood: This meant the aggregation process had completely ended, or rather, it had been completely completed!

On the edge of the penalty area, both sides, who had been locked in a stalemate, stopped fighting simultaneously.

The swords and knives of the men in black trench coats ceased, and the surging energy around the dark figures slowed down. Everyone raised their heads at the same instant.

The torchbearers, whose heads were surrounded by rotating lights, looked solemn. The dark figures covered in black runes also shifted their gaze from their opponents, looking up at the giant vortex in the sky that was shrinking at its edge.

Then, a huge, hideous head covered in gray scales slowly emerged from the very center of the vortex.

The head's outline resembled some ancient dragon species, but its lines were harder and heavier than any creature Wu You had ever seen in the records.

Several rough bony ridges are distributed on both sides of its skull, extending from above the eye sockets to the back of the head. Layers of gray scales cover every inch of the surface, with dark silver edges that gleam coldly in the faint light deep within the vortex.

Two vertical pupils were set in the center of his eye sockets like emeralds, but the green was not a clear emerald green, but an extremely cold green, like the cold green emanating from the depths of a glacier that had been frozen for tens of thousands of years!

The moment those vertical pupils emerged from the vortex, they began to slowly rotate, scanning the locations of the three strongholds below before stopping in a certain direction.

The voice of the God of Beasts rang out again, this time shorter and more abrupt than ever before, and the same sense of disarray returned: "How could it be Him?!"

Wu You was startled.

He could almost sense a suppressed emotion in the word "He" of the God of Beasts.

He quickly reviewed the information he had previously obtained in his mind—according to the previous judgment of the God of Beasts, the merged deep dark domain could at most accommodate beings of the level of a god-child.

What exactly is the rank of this being revered as "He"? Could he be a true deity?

Or is it that beings at the level of a divine child can already be referred to as "He" by the God of Beasts?

But no matter what, judging from the surprise in the God of Beasts' words and the oppressive feeling that was constantly pressing down from the center of the vortex, the other party was definitely not simple!

Without hesitation, Wu You asked in his mind, "You know... 'He'?"

The God of Beasts remained silent for a moment. When his hoarse voice rang out again, the loss of composure in his tone had largely subsided, replaced by a more complex and somber tone: "He is a sinful dragon."

"Is he a divine being of the Sinful Dragon Clan?" Wu You asked again.

A hoarse voice sighed, "It's the Sinful Dragon."

Upon hearing the hoarse voice, Wu You didn't have time to ponder why the God of Beasts' tone was so complex. His pupils constricted sharply: There should only be one who could be called a Sinful Dragon by the God of Beasts!

Is the other party truly a deity?! Or rather, that deity from the Sinful Dragon Clan?!

No, if the other party is truly a god-level being, then even if he burned his life out, he would still be crushed to death by a single finger, right?

How can we fight like this?

The hoarse voice seemed to know what Wu You was thinking.

He paused, as if considering how to phrase it more accurately, before continuing, "You have likely encountered very few sinful dragons, so it's normal that you don't know this kind of information, which is considered secret even among gods."

"Although the Sin Dragon Clan is called a race, in reality, all individuals within the clan—from deities to newborns—have always shared the same consciousness."

"That consciousness is the true form of the Sin Dragon."

"And this sinful dragon is only at the 'divine child' level."

After hearing the God of Beasts' explanation, Wu You immediately thought of two terms: cluster consciousness? clone?

In other words, the opponent's physical capabilities are only at the "God Child" level, but its CPU is connected to a true god-level being?