Global Descent: I Alone Can See Hidden Evolution Paths

Back inside the panoramic viewing lounge of the ship, Yoo Ji-a raised an eyebrow, swirling her glass of wine with a soft chuckle. "Well, look at that. She has claws. Most mortals faint or swoon instantly when husband flashes his starlight."

"Give her five minutes," Liu Xiao smiled smoothly, resting her chin on her hand. "Pride is a heavy armor, but it shatters very quickly in the outer void."

Min-jae looked at Azshara, his dark eyes sparkling with quiet understanding. He uncrossed his arms and held his hands up in a placating gesture, stepping back. "Alright, alright. No need to look like you’re ready to fillet me. If the Blood-Empress prefers to walk her own path, I’m not a tyrant who forces guests against their will. The door is wide open."

Azshara blinked, clearly caught off guard by his casual dismissal. She had expected threats, a display of force, or arrogant demands. Instead, he was simply letting her walk away.

"You... you are just letting me go?" Azshara narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"I don’t keep prisoners who don’t want to be here," Min-jae said smoothly, turning around and walking casually back toward the starlight portal that led inside the ship. "Though if you change your mind about the hospitality, the snacks inside are fantastic, and my wives are surprisingly welcoming."

"I would rather dissolve into cosmic dust than step foot on your vessel!" Azshara spat. With a sharp flick of her wrist, she turned into a streak of blood-red lightning, shooting off across the crimson horizon of the floating realm to continue her campaign alone.

Min-jae stepped back into the lounge, the portal sealing behind him. Lin Miao immediately trotted over, her nine white tails twitching with amusement.

"Well, she’s certainly feisty," Miao giggled, resting her hands on her hips. "Give her an hour before she runs into something she can’t handle."

"Make it twenty minutes," Major General Ye-rin snorted, pointing toward the external tactical monitors.

High above the obsidian canyons, Azshara sped through the crimson clouds, her heart hammering against her ribs. Despite her defiant words, her mind was in turmoil. The sheer, terrifying ease with which that man had nullified her ultimate technique—and the strange, confusing warmth of his kiss that still lingered on her lips—frustrated her to no end.

’I am Azshara! I don’t need a man, and I certainly don’t want to stay with a man with his harem’! ’she scolded herself mentally.

Suddenly, the space around her warped violently.

Three colossal spatial rifts ripped open across the sky, completely cutting off her escape route. Out poured an army of towering, multi-armed Void-Fiend Warlords—ancient, monstrous entities wielding corrupted shadow-spears and dark stellar energy. Leading them was Malakor, Azshara’s eternal rival and the disgraced exiled prince of a neighboring shattered dimension.

"Well, well, well. Look who wandered out of the seal alone,"Malakor sneered, his multi-faceted eyes gleaming with sadistic malice as he hovered before her, flanked by a hundred elite void-warriors. "The great Blood-Empress, wandering the realm without her precious dynasty to protect her. We’ve been hunting for your spiritual signature for weeks, Azshara. Hand over the Abyssal Core, and we might make your execution quick!"

Azshara’s face went pale. Her spiritual energy was already running low from her earlier clash with Min-jae, and she was heavily outnumbered.

"Malakor... you cowards!" Azshara snarled, gripping her obsidian blade as blood-red lightning surged around her. "You allied with the void-fiends just to usurp my bloodline?!"

"War doesn’t care about honor, little princess," Malakor laughed darkly. "Kill her! Leave no trace of the Abyssal Dynasty!"

The hundred void-warriors surged forward simultaneously, unleashing a barrage of dark, reality-tearing energy beams straight at Azshara.

She fought like a demon, slicing through the front lines with desperate, furious swings of her blade, but the sheer volume of attacks overwhelmed her. A massive shadow-spear caught her unawares, piercing straight through her shoulder armor.

"Aghh!" Azshara screamed out, blood spraying from her shoulder as she plummeted out of the sky, crashing hard onto a jagged obsidian boulder below.

Malakor hovered above her, raising a massive, dark energy blade to deliver the final blow. "End of the line, Blood-Empress."

Azshara stared up at the descending blade, her glowing crimson eyes flashing with bitter regret. ’Is this... really how my dynasty ends? Before I could even reclaim our honor?’

Just as the blade was a fraction of a second away from impaling her heart, the space directly in front of her shattered like fragile glass.

A casual, unbothered hand reached out from the spatial tear and caught Malakor’s massive dark energy blade with two fingers.

The entire atmosphere froze.

Malakor pushed down with all his might, his multi-faceted eyes widening in horror as his blade refused to move an inch. "What—?! Who dares—?!"

Min-jae stepped smoothly out of the portal, looking as if he had just strolled out of a relaxing afternoon tea party. He wore his loose black silk shirt, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, glancing down at the heavily bleeding, battered Blood-Empress lying at his feet.

"You know, for someone who claimed she didn’t need any help and would rather dissolve into cosmic dust, you’re making a terrible mess of the landscape, Azshara," Min-jae teased smoothly, looking down with a warm, playful smirk.

Azshara blinked her bloodshot crimson eyes, staring up at him in utter disbelief. "Y... You... why did you come back?"

"Because my wives pointed out that my collection of dramatic queens was incomplete without a stubborn, black-haired empress," Min-jae replied lightly.

He didn’t even look at Malakor. He simply raised his left hand and snapped his fingers.

[True God Authority: Absolute Obliteration.]

A silent, golden ripple washed over the sky. In less than a microsecond, Malakor and his entire army of a hundred void-fiends simply vanished, erased down to the last subatomic particle without leaving behind a single speck of dust.

The sky went dead silent.

Azshara stared upward, her breath catching in her throat. Her wound was leaking golden-red blood, and her energy was completely depleted. Before she could pass out from exhaustion, a soft, emerald-green light washed over her.

Liu Xiao stepped gracefully out of the portal behind Min-jae, her hands glowing with divine healing energy. She gently knelt beside Azshara, placing her hand against the bleeding shoulder wound.

In less than three seconds, the deep, ugly gash closed up entirely, knitting skin, muscle, and bone back together with flawless perfection. Azshara’s strength instantly returned, and her breathing steadied.

Azshara sat up, staring at Xiao in absolute shock, and then looked back up at Min-jae, who was offering her a hand to help her stand.

"You... you saved my life," Azshara whispered, her fierce pride finally cracking as she took his hand, letting him pull her gracefully to her feet. "Why? After the way I spoke to you..."

"Because I’m a reasonable emperor," Min-jae smiled, gently brushing a stray lock of ink-black hair away from her face. "Now, care to explain why an entire army of void-fiends was hunting you across this realm?"

Azshara lowered her gaze, biting her lower lip, her crimson eyes swimming with a mixture of sorrow and burning ambition. "I... I was trying to win the Ancestral Vault competition. If I conquer the final trial, the primordial throne will restore my family’s supreme bloodline power, and I can rise my clan out of the ashes... but I was too weak..."

She looked up at him, her pride entirely replaced by a desperate, beautiful vulnerability.

Min-jae wrapped his arm securely around her narrow waist, pulling her flush against his chest, his dark eyes glowing with absolute confidence.

"Well, why didn’t you just say so?" Min-jae murmured softly against her ear. "You want to restore your clan and conquer the vault? Consider it done. We’re going to win this competition together."

Azshara’s breath hitched, her cheeks turning bright red as she looked up into his confident, handsome face, feeling her icy heart melt completely for the very first time.

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