Oppressive, solemn atmosphere blanked over the Raging Clouds Plateau.
For an instance, it was as if time came to a halt and all color was lost.
Even the deafening thunder was inaudible as Noire stared blankly at the scene ahead of him.
Desolate thoughts clouded his thinking as a new feeling began to well in his heart, though he wasn't sure what exactly this feeling was.
His eyesight captured three women with disheveled hair, torn clothing and charcoal skin.
They seemed to have suffered an instantaneous yet infinite soul shredding pain.
Judging from their posture as each laid there with a firm hold onto their heads, some even tried to knock their forehead onto the crisp floor in agony prior to death.
Noire didn't even notice Arima and Anastasia as they landed not far from him, though the latter was devoid of life as she tiptoed timidly towards what she believed to be Tianshi.
When the Monster Qi struck, because the process of breaking through from Ether to Twilight, and from Twilight to Eclipse heavily revolved around one's direct spirituality and not the dantian, Anastasia's Monster Qi found a passage to wreak havoc directly into the Knowledge Sea.
The torture of having one's soul directly assaulted was beyond the scope of recognition of anyone who hasn't personally experienced it.
Now, three innocent women had to adopt the Heavenly Tribulation while being inanimate, they were unable to distribute the quantitative forces of heaven and earth essence, much less stabilize their dantian's expansion.
Tianshi, Yue, and Ning'er.
They laid there with their bodies bent in unsightly angles, their skin chard black and decaying by the second.
Faint leakage of Qi Essence can be subtly felt through the air, as a thin cloud of Monster Qi mist loomed over their lifeless bodies.
No spirit and no cultivation base, one can say they have died in the most horrific way possible.
"..."
From the Phoenix palace, everyone had their words caught in their throat from such a scene.
It was true they didn't care about humans, but this was too brutal of a spectacle.
Especially Kirin and Lady Feng, they both had bloodshot eyes as they looked at the Phoenix Queen with contempt and loathing.
For the past years, one can say that the two of them were the most acquainted with Noire and his company.
Kirin couldn't help but recall the words of Noire when she told him he was being too intense on training them.
He said that she should know better about having a weak company means more trouble.
She knew very much.
A Phoenix has a long lifespan, and correspondingly an extended growth period.
The number of Phoenix Maidens is already scarce and any life matters. This caused the palace to always be on alert and in a state of post-anxiousness.
Thinking about it now, the Queen decided to throw Noire under the bus for this very reason, to pave a decent growth environment for their younger generation.
So far, the Phoenix Household had a lofty attitude of arrogance because the entire continent lacked a Celestial Entity. Now, with a second Celestial level being, the Northern Region is just a dangerous hell ground for the young birds who can't even take a human form yet.
If left alone, the younger generation will die, and once the Queen dies as well, their entire race is done for.
Kirin couldn't help but look around at the remaining Maidens and think, 'We are all but the dead weight for her majesty the Queen... If she had to tread with our safety in her mind, then...'
Kirin didn't dare go further and helplessly bit her bottom lip before withdrawing her gaze at the projection.
"..."
Horrified. Noire was staring directly towards the hidden eye in the sky.
It gave not only Kirin, but the entire collection of onlookers that Noire was directly looking through their souls.
Even with the obscure mask, Kirin can imagine the pair of cold, indifferent eyes.
Arima is probably the only carefree individual in the setting.
He doesn't know what happened, nor does he care, he casually walked over towards Anastasia who sat by Tianshi's lifeless body without saying a word.
"Damn... Your daughter doesn't look so good."
Anastasia trembled at the sarcastic tone coming from Arima. She didn't even have the heart to get mad at him, even if she got mad she wouldn't be able to do anything.
Arima did not pity such women.
As a proud man, even he wouldn't steep as low as to attack someone in their most vulnerable state. In his opinion, Anastasia deserved this cruel fate which heaven bestow upon her.
Break...
Arima was about to take delight in Anastasia's plight, slowly tear down her mentality, then abduct her to his liar.
Then he picked up a subtle yet crisp cracking sound as if a porcelain dish was split in half.
Looking back, he saw Noire's mask crumble.
Arima was instantly happy!
'Without that dog-shit mask, let's see how you'll cope with my magnificent aura!' Arima's blood boiled with anticipation.
"..."
Crack...
Countless fissures spread along with Noire's jade mask like a delicate spider web before it crumbled into tiny fragments, revealing a heavenly sculptured face with sharp features.
Even Arima was struck speechless, that face should be concealed for the sake of maintaining general order.
However, there was something strange about Noire, as if the strange aura lingering about him slowly unveiled and took the initiative to reveal itself.
Arima couldn't exactly pinpoint what was it, but he felt a looming crisis.
Just then, Noire's pupils began to dilate and fluctuate back and forth between their inborn reptile nature and the humane concealment.
Desolate, ancient breath began to diffuse out of Noire's skin with a faint, barely audible dragon chant.
Noire took slow steps whilst he simultaneously urged himself to suppress the bloodline of his dragon from erupting.
If his Dragon Force erupted, due to the disparity between his current physique's capacity and the onslaught of his Dragon Force, his bones would fracture and his tissues would tear apart.
He'd become nothing but a mass of energy without a suitable host, and would forcefully retreat to the 6th dimension against his will.
Once he returned, his strength as a Dragon won't be enough to cope with the hidden dangers of the Celestial God Palace.
For the first time in his life, Noire realized what sort of feeling was welling up in his heart.
Weakness!
He was weak, utterly weak!
He thought that he can cheat his way to the pinnacle of human practice, yet he didn't think that his cheats are his biggest nemesis in this fragile body!
Even if he wants to avenge Tianshi, Yue, and Ning'er.
Even if he wants to kill Arima, Anastasia, and uproot the entire Northern Region and the Phoenix Household.
He can't, at least not now.
Noire's pupils continued to radiate a majestic golden shimmer that bathed Arima and Anastasia.
Arima was a Celestial Entity, although he could cope with the pressure, he found himself slowly crumbling to involuntary wound up prostrating.
As for Anastasia, although Noire hadn't willed it so, she felt her internal organs swell up and contract before imploding.
Cough!
A foam of scorching blood poured down her orifices, if she doesn't stop the internal bleeding, she's ought to die sooner or later.
Noire staggered lightly and closed his eyes midway.
If anything, he doesn't want them to die yet, at least not like this.
Anastasia must live with what she had accomplished till the day of his return to this shit hole of a continent.
Forcefully revolving his 'Spiral Ecliptic Virtue', Noire began to suppress his overflowing Dragon Force back into the dantian, slowly releasing his Fire Qi and Qi Essence, coupled with the Eclipse Blessing Bloodline, his dragon force was slowly yet surely regressing into his body.
Without a delay, Noire began drawing ancient patterns in thin air, utilizing the Eclipse Essence and its innate suppressive force to draw a seal.
Soon, a transparent Eight Trigram seal that emitted an otherwordly aura formed at the tip of Noire's finger before assimilating into his abdomen.
This entire process took about an incense stick of time, and throughout the entire ceremony, even Arima didn't dare make arbitrary movements, much less Anastasia who was on the verge of following in her daughter's footsteps.
- - - -
After a cup of tea's time, Noire settled in a lotus position as he kept revolving the 'Spiral Ecliptic Virtue' to finalize the sealing.
Fascinating tranquil flames spiraled around Noire's body in the form of a Flood Dragon, though Noire wasn't aware of this.
Through the revolving of 'Spiral Ecliptic Virtue', a minuscule amount of Dragon Force fused with his Fire Qi Essence, enough to evolve his Fire Qi mastery to the third stage, thus allowing his flames to gain life-like spirituality.
Due to the lack of Dragon Essence, his flames didn't instantly form a True Dragon, but a Flood Dragon.
Still, a Flood Dragon was a pinnacle existence that only roamed the core continent. And in Arima's scope of knowledge, even those are scarce.
Both he and the Phoenix Queen could only speculate that Noire had assimilated some inheritance of a Flood Dragon by relying on the help of the Imperial family.
Kirin, Lady Feng, and even the Phoenix Queen have already arrived and personally helped clean up the corpses of Tianshi, Ning'er, and Yue.
During the process, whenever Kirin inadvertently caught a glimpse at Noire's struggling expression where his killing intent would unintentionally leak, she can imagine the struggle he's going through against his will to slaughter everyone involved in the death of his companions.
She could only resign herself to fate... If so he willed to harvest her life, she doesn't have the right to complain, much less fight back to earn forgiveness.
Unlike Human Practice, one's order in the bloodline hierarchy is what matters most for them.
Although she is a Phoenix, her bloodline is so thin that Peak Eclipse is already her evolution limit.
As for the Queen, ever since she stepped into the Celestial, her bloodline quality began to decline.
In front of Noire's vigorous bloodline of a Flood Dragon, which is a few steps below the ranking of a True Dragon, unless it was a Phoenix from the core continent, they stand no chance whatsoever.