Ferocious blood-colored serpents savagely tore apart Great Demon God Fa Ji's gaunt body. His scales fell off in chunks, and the blood essence within his flesh rapidly drained. Yuan Yi, in his ape form, wielded the crimson Celestial Fey Warhammer from atop the World God Pendant, unleashing carnage in every direction. Bai Zi, Xing Huan, Mu Duo, and Yu Hang had joined forces, each deploying divine techniques and mystical arts to fight back against the savage ape. "Pang Jian!" Bai Zi called loudly. "The ancient ape has embedded his Dao of Life into the continents and stars of the Ruin Realm. He's been laying the groundwork to hunt you down!" Veils of blue light drifted toward the blood-red sky where the giant ape stood like layers of ethereal mist. Soul essence gleamed within them, resembling gemstone-like sigils inscribed with the profound mysteries of the soul. These sigils were arranged in formations reminiscent of grand structures, replicas of the Sunken Crypts. Each abyss had its own Sunken Crypts and Pool of Reincarnations that bore the weighty responsibility of governing life and death. Evidently, these Sunken Crypts held a deep connection to the Soulstream of the Nether Abyss. Strands of spectral tendrils extended from the veil of blue light and the Sunken Crypts within, invading the ancient ape's divine soul and attempting to sever the resonance between his divine soul and physical body. "Pang Jian, we can't get out!" Mu Duo shouted, having realized the moment Pang Jian entered the Ruin Realm that Yu Hang's suspicions and Xing Huan's analysis were nothing but nonsense. "Some sort of mechanism appears to have been triggered once multiple World Gods forced their way in!" Mu Duo of the Wood Race stood firmly on a verdant star, lush with grass and towering trees. The vegetation around him surged with life as his bloodline techniques spread, causing the plants around him to grow at an astonishing pace. Massive trees and flowering vines broke free from the star and drifted toward the towering ape. Meanwhile, Xing Huan of the Star Race continued to swing his platinum divine sword, severing the Dao of Life imprinted in the stars, cutting off the ape's access to the stellar energy. Yu Hang of the Celestial Race was the least involved among them, his wings still smoldering with residual flame from his attempted escape. "It's been sealed off?" Summoning his World God Pendant, Pang Jian tried to leave, only to be met with resistance from the boundary wall. Pang Jian turned his attention downward. Divine sense sweeping outward, he quickly discovered that the ancient ape had secretly infused traces of his Dao of Life within each star and continent. Blood-red spheres interwoven with lightning had been nestled deep within the stars and continents alike. It was as if the Ruin Realm pulsed in resonance with the rhythm of the ancient ape's soul. The whole realm was under his control. No wonder he's a high-ranking God. His understanding of worldly laws and his grasp of a foreign realm are a level above mine. Pang Jian thought, not even slightly worried. After all, his sister had warned him of this possibility before he descended into the Ruin Realm. He had expected this. As Pang Lin suspected, he never truly submitted to her. Pang Jian narrowed his eyes, sensing the shifts in the stars and the continents as he pondered how exactly the ancient ape had reshaped the laws of the Ruin Realm. Wielding the Celestial Fey Warhammer, the ancient ape smashed hundreds of towering trees in one swing. Divine power spilled toward the star where Mu Duo stood, shaking the entire celestial body. The ape pounded his chest with his free hand. "Life Resonance! Geo-Core Ignition!" The magnetic pull of the giant ape's vitality drew in the twenty-four continents below, causing them to move in unnatural trajectories. A vitality-devouring aura burst forth from the continents, enveloping Xing Huan, Mu Duo, Bai Zi, Yu Hang, Fa Ji, and Pang Jian in an oppressive force. The wounded Yu Hang and Fa Ji lost vitality at an alarming rate. Even Xing Huan, Mu Duo, and Bai Zi, though less injured, sensed that their vitality was being siphoned away toward the twenty-four continents below. In contrast, the ancient ape only grew more formidable. A haze of blood-red light wreathed his towering body, which radiated with overwhelming might. His World God Pendant... The pendant beneath Yuan Yi was etched with blood-colored markings that coiled like serpents across its surface. As Pang Jian gazed at those blood-colored markings, an insight into the Dao of Life suddenly surfaced in his mind. Life Drain... Get full chapters from novel•fire.net Those with mastery of a certain aspect of the mysteries of life often wielded the forbidden technique of Life Drain, an unnatural technique that forcibly stripped vitality from living beings to rapidly nourish oneself. At this moment, Yuan Yi was using Life Resonance with the twenty-four continents to trigger a wide-scale Life Drain, sapping the vitality from every living being in the Ruin Realm. This siphoning of vitality would only end on the ancient ape's whim. "Your target was me all along, wasn't it?" Pang Jian snorted, casually flinging the demonic cloak downward. Waves of demonic energy spread out like a vast sea. The cloak transformed into a pitch-black canopy that hovered above the twenty-four continents, sharply separating them from the stars above. Yuan Yi's Life Drain, unleashed through the continents, was cleanly severed. "That's right. You're the one I'm after." The ancient ape wielded the World God Pendant like a massive crimson shield as he soared through the air. Slamming the pendant down upon the veils of blue light, he shattered the gemstone-like sigils that formed the many Sunken Crypts within. With his divine soul no longer suppressed, the ancient ape immediately hurled the Celestial Fey Warhammer toward Mu Duo. The warhammer came crashing down like a crimson meteor. The star where Mu Duo stood was engulfed in a flood of blood-colored light, then struck head-on by the descending warhammer. The star sank halfway down toward the cloak-shrouded continents with a thunderous boom. A massive crater had formed where Mu Duo stood, obliterating the vegetation for li in every direction. Mu Duo groaned, his bark-like body split open with dozens of bloodied gashes. "Pang Jian, Sovereign Demonheaven's cloak won't hold against more than a few of my strikes without the support of the Demon Gods!" the ancient ape roared. Reaching downward with his large hand, the Celestial Fey Warhammer flew back into his grasp, brimming with surging blood essence once more. He then swung the warhammer down toward the pitch-black canopy that divided the stars from the continents. Phantom images of ancient Fey Gods manifested as the warhammer fell, drawn forth by the ancient ape's divine techniques to drive its descent. "Ancient Fey Sky-Rending Art!" The phantom Fey Gods let out primal roars at Yuan Yi's cry. At the heart of the thirty-six stars, blood-red lightning twisted into the likeness of various Fey Gods, converging to empower the devastating warhammer. The fall of the warhammer was like the collapse of the heavens themselves. The pitch-black canopy formed from the demonic cloak was torn apart. The force of the strike even obliterated some of the blood-red names of the Demon Gods imprinted on the cloak. It was as the ancient ape had claimed—Sovereign Demonheaven's cloak could not withstand the fury of his Celestial Fey Warhammer without the support of the Demon Gods.