Chapter 405: New Soul Slave

Within the Cold Light Realm, atop a vast and desolate mountain range.

At the peak of this mountain range, a lotus with a crimson, crystal-like body now grew.

If any other powerful being appeared here, they would immediately recognize this crystal-like lotus as a rare cosmic treasure—single bloom worth more than several supreme artifacts.

Yet around this fire lotus, invisible energy shields now surrounded it, tightly locking in the aura it emitted.

Beside the shield stood a towering figure clad in black battle armor, seated in meditation—it was one of the leaders of the You Mo Zunzhe, a chief of the Youming Monkey line of the Meng Yao Zu.

"After such a long span of time, this fire lotus is finally about to mature!"

The You Mo Zunzhe gazed at the nearly ripe fire lotus beside him, a faint smile appearing on his face: "It seems my luck still holds—after all this time, no other powerhouse has discovered this lotus!"

"Judging by its condition, this lotus should fully mature in a few hundred years. Once I present it to the clan's treasure vault, I can replace my ordinary supreme artifact weapon with a high-grade one!"

In truth, the You Mo Zunzhe's original supreme artifacts were still quite valuable—he possessed not only a high-grade supreme artifact weapon, but also a high-grade supreme artifact armor and soul-type supreme artifacts…

But previously, he was slain by Zifeng Zunzhe and others allied with Cangwu Zunzhe, and all his supreme artifacts were seized.

Fortunately, he still had some wealth left, so after the Meng Yao Zu's high council reversed time to resurrect him, he quickly paid the resurrection cost, then accumulated more over time, eventually reacquiring a supreme artifact weapon and armor!

"Wait!"

The You Mo Zunzhe silently seethed inside: "Damn Zifeng Zunzhe! Damn Cangwu Zunzhe… One day, I will make you pay!"

Though he thought this, the You Mo Zunzhe knew well that his chance for revenge in the future was extremely slim.

As for Zifeng Zunzhe and the others, he might someday unite with other strong members of his clan and kill them;

but Cangwu Zunzhe was a top-tier cosmic overlord—even if he broke through to the Lord Realm, he might still be powerless against him.

Yet just as the You Mo Zunzhe's mind raced with these thoughts, he suddenly sensed a peculiar spatial fluctuation.

Hum!

As a powerful spatial ripple spread outward, the You Mo Zunzhe's face turned pale with shock.

"Worse! It's a Lord Realm being!"

Though deeply unwilling, the You Mo Zunzhe's face immediately softened into respectful deference.

He had no chance to struggle against a Lord Realm being—how could he dare provoke this unknown Lord?

At the same time, a figure hundreds of kilometers tall, clad in purple-gold armor, appeared before the You Mo Zunzhe—he was Lu Qingshan, having teleported in.

"Damn! It's the Wanjie Zhuzhu of the human race!"

Upon seeing Lu Qingshan's figure, the You Mo Zunzhe's heart plunged into utter despair.

If another Lord Realm being had appeared, perhaps they might have abandoned the fire lotus—since it held little value to a Lord, and still needed hundreds of years to mature.

But now, the You Mo Zunzhe no longer cared about keeping the lotus—he only wondered if he could even preserve his life from this Wanjie Zhuzhu.

After all, this Wanjie Zhuzhu was a powerful figure of the human race, already deeply hostile to the Meng Yao Zu.

Though Lord Realm beings normally never attacked Zunzhe, there was no guarantee this Wanjie Zhuzhu wouldn't go mad.

Moreover, the You Mo Zunzhe was inside the Zushen Secret Realm—there was no way to call for help from his clan's powerhouses, for the strongest beings the Meng Yao Zu and its alliance possessed within the Zushen Sect were merely two top-tier cosmic overlords, utterly incapable of saving him if Lu Qingshan attacked.

As for the Meng Yao Zu's own Lord Realm beings, they had no right to enter the Zushen Secret Realm at all.

Realizing this, the You Mo Zunzhe immediately sent a distress message to his direct superior, one of the Zushen Sect's Guardian Lords: "Fengtian Shen Zhu."

After he had comprehended the fifth layer of the Beast God Dao, he too became a peripheral member of the Zushen Sect, and at that time he chose to join Fengtian Shen Zhu's faction.

But the Zushen Sect did not forbid its peripheral members from fighting among themselves, so it placed no restrictions on Lu Qingshan (as seen in the original story with Luo Feng, Fei Jing Wang, and Peifeng Zunzhe).

If it were a battle between Zunzhe, such as when he was previously ambushed by Cangwu Zunzhe and others, Fengtian Shen Zhu would naturally not intervene.

But if a Lord Realm being like Lu Qingshan bullied a lower-ranked Zunzhe, Fengtian Shen Zhu could not ignore it—after all, the You Mo Zunzhe was still one of his peripheral subordinates.

"There's another fire lotus about to mature!"

Lu Qingshan glanced casually at the fire lotus, then thought inwardly: "I wandered the Cosmic Sea for tens of thousands of years and gained little—this time, encountering a fire lotus is my fortune!"

Yet Lu Qingshan did not focus much on the lotus, for his true purpose in coming here was to enslave the You Mo Zunzhe, who might soon break through to the Lord Realm.

"I only have this one chance—I hope I can succeed at once!"

With this thought flashing through his mind, Lu Qingshan immediately used his ability to control a region of spacetime.

Then, his vast divine power instantly burned, and a vaporized immortal divine force, amplified by the Jiuyou Shihun Bell, surged toward the You Mo Zunzhe.

"How is this possible!"

Seeing Lu Qingshan suddenly burn his divine power to attack him, the You Mo Zunzhe was utterly stunned.

After all, with Lu Qingshan's strength, he could have killed him easily without burning any divine power.

Yet now Lu Qingshan was burning his own divine power—what deep hatred was this?

But in the You Mo Zunzhe's memory, he had never wronged Lu Qingshan at all!

"Worse—it's a soul attack!"

Feeling Lu Qingshan's vaporized divine force seep into his body, the You Mo Zunzhe instantly understood Lu Qingshan's intent: "He wants to enslave me!"

Realizing this, the You Mo Zunzhe was even more bewildered.

After all, in this vast universe, there existed certain unspoken but deeply rooted rules.

Especially among the four peak races, though they constantly fought, they maintained certain tacit understandings.

For example, Lord Realm beings could easily annihilate Zunzhe; Zunzhe could easily annihilate Immortal Spirits…

If Immortal Spirits or Zunzhe provoked supreme beings, their honor being violated, they would be punished and killed.

Even supreme beings occasionally struck down enemies at random—like how Heilin Zhuzhu once killed Laolunsi and others…

But even when targeting weaker foes, they usually relied on physical attacks to obliterate them.

Soul enslavement rarely occurred.

For if a Meng Yao Zu Lord enslaved a human Zunzhe, human Lords would inevitably enslave Meng Yao Zu Zunzhe in return…

Such mutual enslavement would only benefit the mechanical race, which had no soul and could not be enslaved.

Yet now, the You Mo Zunzhe had no idea where he had offended Lu Qingshan—yet Lu Qingshan was willing to break the rules and burn divine power to enslave him!

"Block it! You must block it!"

"You want to enslave me? Impossible! Explode for me!"

Facing Lu Qingshan's soul enslavement, You Mo Zunzhe could no longer care about preserving his life; instead, he sought to self-destruct before being enslaved by Lu Qingshan.

Only in this way would he have a chance in the future to be resurrected by reversing time and space.

Otherwise, once truly enslaved by the Lord of Ten Thousand Worlds standing before him, he would have no chance whatsoever in the future.

In fact, if You Mo Zunzhe, who previously possessed a supreme treasure of the soul type to guard his soul, still had it, he would still have had a chance to self-destruct under Lu Qingshan's illusion attack.

But the key point is that after he was killed last time by Cangwu Zunzhe and others, the soul-type supreme treasure protecting him was already lost!

Without a soul-type supreme treasure to guard his soul, You Mo Zunzhe's soul defense naturally became much weaker.

And Lu Qingshan had been devoting part of his energy over this past period to studying soul attacks and illusions; now, having passed over ten million eons, he had indeed achieved something.

Coupled with the assistance of the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Bell, this high-grade soul-type supreme treasure, there was naturally a great chance to enslave You Mo Zunzhe.

Inside a towering temple within the covered area of the Zushen Sect's Five-Colored Aurora Lake.

Inside this temple stood a tall and burly figure; one saw that his entire body was wrapped in a dark red scale armor, a single horn grew upon his lion-like head, and his body was covered with layers of incredibly complex law secret patterns.

Behind him hung a thick scale armor tail, looking extremely terrifying.

This was Fengtian Zhuzhu, one of the divine protectors of the Zushen Sect, a supreme existence famous throughout the entire Primal Universe and even the entire Sea of Universes.

Just as Lu Qingshan moved against You Mo Zunzhe, Fengtian Zhuzhu also slowly opened his eyes.

"A distress message from You Mo Zunzhe?"

Through the Zushen Token, Fengtian Zhuzhe quickly received the distress message transmitted by You Mo Zunzhe.