257: Chapter 257 Vera's Demise, Shen Xiyun's Resurrection! (Two Chapters Combined)

Queen Lilia's body, vast as a mountain range, hung there as if it had become an unshakable pillar of the Northern Territory's sky.

Her jade-like scales shimmered with moonlight-like luster under the brilliant sky, each one engraved with ancient, primitive patterns.

Facing the beam of [Divine Light Spirit Eye] that Vera, in shock and rage, had unleashed with all her might—a beam capable of instantly purifying a legendary powerhouse into nothingness—Lilia did not even dodge.

"Hmph!"

She let out a cold snort as deep as thunder, her massive beast head tilted slightly, and her chest met that dazzling divine light head-on!

Boom!

The divine light exploded like a shattering sun, the blinding radiance causing even those watching from afar to be briefly blinded, while the shockwave of energy raged in a ring, shaving off the tops of several snow Peaks below!

When the light dissipated.

On Queen Lilia's scale-covered chest, there appeared only a charred mark, wisps of blue smoke rising, but not even a few scales had been shattered!

A hint of a queen's arrogance even flashed in her huge eyes.

"How is this possible?"

Vera was shocked and angry.

Her Innate Divine Favor Talent, used at full strength, couldn't even break her defenses?

"Old hag, is your attack just scratching an itch for this Queen?"

Lilia's mocking voice rolled over the sky like thunder. She raised that giant claw that blocked out the sky, destructive air currents swirling around it, and once again slapped it down toward Vera with simple, brutal force!

"World-Ending Claw!"

At the same time, the flame Dragon transformed from Lu Chen had already torn through space and arrived!

Under the augmentation of [Nine Beasts into One] and [Power of Prairie Dragon Fire], his Dragon might was vast, and the god-slaying spear turned into the sharpest point of cold light among the Dragon's teeth, piercing straight at Vera's back!

With the World-Ending Claw in front and the god-slaying Dragon spear behind, Vera was plunged into a bitter battle!

She screamed, her [Clear Void Pupil] flickering crazily, her figure twisting space in the nick of time as she attempted to evade.

At the same time.

[Divine Light Spirit Eye] transformed into layers of light shields to protect herself.

Bang!!!

Lilia's giant claw struck the light shield first, and that divine light shield, capable of resisting the bombardment of a Forbidden Spell, shattered instantly!

Vera was shaken by the residual force, her blood and Qi roiling, her protective divine light swaying violently, but she didn't lose any health.

And just at the moment when her old strength was spent and new strength had not yet been generated—

"Shh!"

The god-slaying spear, like a venomous Dragon leaving its cave, was about to pierce the gap in her semi-god power protection.

A ripple in space suddenly appeared behind Vera, and Lu Chen's attack missed.

Subsequently, Vera's figure retreated violently, her eyes filled with resentment, anger, and a hint of... fear that even she was unwilling to admit!

The combined effort of Lu Chen and Lilia—one with invincible strength and defense, resisting everything, and the other with strange and tricky attacks, deadly beyond measure—was a seamless cooperation!

Despite having the cultivation of a Peak semi-god and dual Divine Favor Talents, she was beaten into having no power to fight back, forced to parry awkwardly and retreat step by step!

"I must guard against the effects of Lu Chen's weapon, otherwise, if I am hit, I will definitely die!"

On the other side,

Hera's situation was equally dire.

The Yiren King, Alien King Dong Ligee, completely demonstrated why he could be called the "Yiren King"!

He stepped on the air with bare feet, his palace robes fluttering, and his stunningly beautiful face was cold and murderous.

Under his mental direction, the nine Tier-10 beast pets launched an offensive like a violent storm, carrying a strange rhythm.

The Myriad-Foot Demon Octopus's shadow tentacles entangled space, the Star-Hatching Behemoth spat out breath that disintegrated matter, the Netherfire Ghost Spider wove a web that burned the Soul... The nine great beast pets each displayed their Divine Ability, coordinating with each other to trap Hera firmly in the center of the battle circle.

And the Yiren King also displayed the terrifying strength belonging to a Yiren, his own talent combined with the merged Invading Monster talent, various active talent effects bombarding like a rainstorm—he was simply a humanoid monster!

Hera was beaten into retreating step by step, the sacred barrier around her already shattered and broken. The scepter in her hand dimmed, fine beads of sweat seeped out on her dignified and noble face, and her aura was already chaotic.

She burned her Divine Power to the limit, but could only barely hold on.

"Yiren King! So terrifying!"

Hera also noticed that a world-ending beast had suddenly appeared, and the balance of the battle had changed; there was nothing she could do.

Alien King Dong Ligee's red lips curled slightly, revealing a cold, stunning smile, but his actions were merciless: "Daring to step into the Great Xia to cause trouble, you must pay the price! Get out!"

He formed seals with his slender hands, and the nine great beast pets roared to the heavens simultaneously, their attack power suddenly increasing by another thirty percent!

"Pfft!"

Hera finally couldn't hold on, and she spat out a mouthful of blood, the divine light around her body instantly dimming.

She cast a resentful glance at Alien King Dong Ligee, then glanced at the precarious Vera in the distance, knowing that the situation was irretrievable, and if she stayed, she might lose her own life here.

"Vera, I've done my best, take care of yourself!"

She left a hateful sentence, crushing a rune stone covered with divine patterns in her hand.

Hum!

A blazing divine light enveloped her, instantly tearing through the encirclement of the beast pets, and she escaped into the Void Realm, disappearing without a trace.

She had fled, fled back to the Divine Cavalry Order. In this battle, the Divine Cavalry Order's plot had failed, and Deputy Commander Hera had been seriously injured and defeated!

The Yiren King did not pursue, merely sweeping a cold glance at the direction where Hera had disappeared.

"The Deputy Commander of the Divine Cavalry Order has actually become a Tier-10 semi-god, yet the Commander, Zeus, still hasn't appeared. Could it be that he went to challenge the Divine Transposition Duel?"

"If that is truly the case, then the Divine Cavalry Order's scheme is huge. Do they want to achieve dual gods? I hope my worries do not come true!"

Immediately, the Yiren King's figure flickered, and he appeared on the side of Vera's battlefield.

Seeing Senior Yiren King appear, Lu Chen was overjoyed: "Vera, today, you must die!"

At this moment, the battlefield had turned into three against one!

The Yiren King let his nine Tier-10 beast pets, filled with Evil Qi, disperse, faintly forming an encirclement, completely sealing off all of Vera's possible retreat paths!

With Queen Lilia crushing down like a mountain, Lu Chen's god-slaying spear light following like a shadow from the side, and the Yiren King's infinite firepower output from the back... Vera was plunged into a truly desperate situation with no chance of survival!

"No! I am not reconciled! I have plotted for a hundred years, and the godhood is right before my eyes! How can I fall here!"

Vera was disheveled, appearing like a mad demon, her originally holy face twisted by extreme hatred. She was crazily burning her life-bound Divine Power, putting up a desperate struggle.

However, facing two Peak semi-gods, plus Lu Chen's endless trump cards, madness could not make up for the gap.

As Lilia once again resisted her full-strength attack and used her giant claw to slap her into stumbling backward, the Yiren King's various Fusion talents struck instantly, completely shattering Vera's semi-god power.

"Kid Lu, now's your chance!"

The Yiren King reminded.

Lu Chen seized that fleeting, absolute kill opportunity!

"Divine Light Break!"

Lu Chen's eyes were as cold as ten-thousand-year black ice. Man and spear became one, turning into a bloody rainbow that pierced the heavens and earth!

This strike condensed all his anger and killing intent toward Vera, and condensed all his pain and guilt for what happened to Shen Xiyun!

"Pfft—!"

The god-slaying spear accurately pierced Vera's chest, and the god-slaying spear's active effect was successfully triggered!

Vera's movements suddenly stiffened. She looked down, looking at her chest in disbelief, watching the divine light points dissipating continuously.

"I... actually..."

Her voice was hoarse, filled with endless unwillingness and regret. In her low-health state, her Divine Power dissipated like a breached river, and even maintaining flight became difficult.

An invisible ripple instantly enveloped Vera, forcibly suppressing all her buffs, recovery abilities, and special statuses. A 10-minute healing-prohibition mark appeared above her head!

The divine light circulating around Vera suddenly stalled, and her aura withered visibly!

"Roar! I refuse to accept this! I am the semi-god Vera, I should be the first god of the Human Race!"

Vera had gone completely insane.

Lu Chen stood holding his spear, looking down at the dying Vera, his voice like a judgment from the Nine Nether Hell: "Using Big Boss Shen Xiyun as a container is the reason for your death!"

Just as Lu Chen was preparing to deal the final blow to Vera and completely annihilate her—

"Wait! Big Boss!"

A strange light flashed in Queen Lilia's huge eyes, and she suddenly spoke to stop him, "The Soul of that Big Boss Shen Xiyun you mentioned... has not completely dissipated!"

"What?!"

Lu Chen turned his head sharply, looking at Lilia, an unbelievable brilliance erupting in his eyes: "What did you say?! Big Boss Shen Xiyun, she..."

Queen Lilia nodded her huge head, her tone certain: "This Queen is most sensitive to Soul fluctuations! Although this old hag's Soul has occupied the body, the original owner's Soul still has remnants; it has not been completely swallowed and assimilated, and there is still a chance for recovery!"

At this time, the Yiren King, Alien King Dong Ligee, also flashed close, a hint of realization flashing in his beautiful eyes: "Vera was too impatient. She only wanted to gain power quickly to compete for the godhood, so the Fusion was not perfect! If special methods are used to help her lock this last trace of blood and Soul connection, and then assisted by powerful Soul attacks, it is not impossible to turn the tables!"

Lu Chen's heart began to beat violently, and a huge hope surged into his heart like a tidal wave!

He stared fixedly at Vera's gradually dimming body and asked urgently: "What should be done?!"

The Yiren King said quickly: "Among the Tier-10 Invading Monsters I have fused with, one possesses a special talent that can briefly lock her current low-blood state, forcibly maintaining the connection between the Physical Body and the remnant Soul without it extinguishing!"

Lilia added: "The Soul attack must be done without harming Shen Xiyun's remnant Soul, slowly swallowing or stripping away Vera's Soul!"

A terrifying light erupted in Lu Chen's eyes instantly: "My army of ten million Soul-Devouring Rats can cause a Soul-devouring effect! Number Seven!"

"Squeak—!"

Number Seven shrieked in response and immediately darted to Lu Chen's side.

Although its body size was not large, it was pitch black as ink, its eyes scarlet, emitting a terrifying Soul fluctuation that swallowed everything—it was the [God-Devouring Rat] Number Seven, Belut, who had already evolved to SSS-level legendary status!

At the same time, in the Void Realm, countless shadows squirmed, and dense, tens of millions of S-level [Soul-Devouring Abyss Rats] revealed their figures.

Soul fire jumped in their eyes, and their invisible Soul-devouring Domains overlapped, making the Soul rules of this world tremble because of it!

"Senior Yiren King, we can begin!"

Lu Chen said.

"Blood Hell Soul Gate!"

The Yiren King nodded and released the active effect of the Three-Headed Blood Hell Hound Invading Monster talent. The talent power turned into countless fine threads, instantly piercing into Vera's broken body, forcibly stabilizing the last trace of vitality and Soul connection that was about to collapse.

"Imprison!"

Lilia's giant claw gripped the air, releasing an imprisonment-type Forbidden Spell. The powerful imprisonment force formed a cage, tightly fixing Vera's body in the air, making it impossible for her to even detonate her Divine Soul.

"Number Seven, devour the Soul!"

Lu Chen gave the order, his eyes determined.

"Squeak squeak squeak—!!"

Ten million Soul-Devouring Abyss Rats hissed sharply at the same time, and the invisible Soul impact, like billions of fine needles, converged into a destructive torrent, accurately bypassing the faint remnant Soul of Shen Xiyun, and fiercely slammed into the Soul consciousness dominated by Vera!

And the God-Devouring Rat, Number Seven, turned into a black lightning bolt, pounced directly onto Vera's forehead, opened its small mouth, and sucked fiercely!

"No—!!!"

Vera let out the last roar of her life, full of extreme resentment and unwillingness: "Plotting for many years... yet in the end... I made wedding clothes for others! Lu Chen!!! You ruined my plan to become a god!!!"

Amidst her miserable wails, her Soul consciousness, like a candle in the wind, was stripped away, torn apart, and swallowed bit by bit by the Soul-devouring power of the millions of rats and the God-Devouring Rat's devouring talent...

She could clearly feel that her control over this perfect body was rapidly slipping away.

The despair and unwillingness of making wedding clothes for someone else drove her crazier than the physical pain!

Finally, when the last trace of the Soul imprint belonging to Esther Vera was completely swallowed by the God-Devouring Rat, Number Seven.

The battlefield fell into a brief silence.

The Yiren King canceled the blood-locking skill, and Lilia also released the imprisonment.

They simultaneously released powerful recovery Forbidden Spells.

Lu Chen also immediately cast the [Life Divine Spring] Forbidden Spell to help Big Boss Shen Xiyun recover.

I saw the body of Shen Xiyun, which was floating in mid-air, the evil and resentful aura that originally belonged to Vera receding like a tide, and the wounds healing slowly under the recovery Forbidden Spells of the Yiren King, Lilia, and Lu Chen.

Those tightly closed eyelids trembled slightly.

Subsequently, under Lu Chen's gaze, which was so nervous he almost held his breath, those eyes slowly opened.

A trace of confusion first flashed in her eyes, then returned to the clarity of the past, only with a hint of weakness and the daze of having survived a disaster in the depths.

She looked at her hands with some confusion, and then looked at the surrounding battlefield, which was in a mess and seemed to have experienced the apocalypse.

Finally, her gaze fixed on the young man in front of her who was holding a scarlet spear, his eyes filled with undisguised excitement and concern.

She spoke gently, her voice carrying the hoarseness of just waking up and a hint of uncertainty: "Lu Chen? I... wasn't I used as a container by the teacher? What is this..."

Looking at those familiar eyes that had regained their radiance, listening to the voice that was cold in memory but now carried a hint of fragility, the string in Lu Chen's heart that had been tight all this time finally loosened completely, and a huge joy surged up to his nose.

He took a deep breath, suppressed his churning emotions, and a relieved, incredibly sincere smile appeared on his face, as he said clearly, word by word: "Welcome back, Big Boss Shen!"

Not long after.

Lu Xiaoyun and the others arrived.

Lu Xiaoyun threw herself into Shen Xiyun's arms: "Wuwuwu, Teacher, it's so good that you're back."

Guild Master Xuanyuan Jing and the others gasped: "Oh my, a Peak semi-god! Our Great Xia has three of them all of a sudden, doesn't that make us invincible in the world?"

Just as everyone was rejoicing.

Strange phenomena suddenly arose in the sky of Blue Star, black storms and thunder surged, just like the apocalypse!