"We've been discovered!" Panic flashed through Dong Xun's heart, but he didn't just start cultivating, so he quickly calmed down.
"Will the main body reabsorb you directly? If there's still a chance, let's leave here immediately!"
Having been with the Luxuriant Blossoms soul fragment for many years, Dong Xun certainly knew that she'd already developed self-awareness and was by no means as simple as a clone of her original body, so she definitely wouldn't want to meet her main body like this.
But now that things had developed to this extent, some matters were beyond their control.
"It's too late…" The Luxuriant Blossoms soul fragment spoke again, but this time, her voice didn't tremble. Instead, it only contained deep despair.
Dong Xun's heart froze. He subconsciously wanted to leave this place, but he clearly didn't know what a preferentially-treated apostle meant to a god.
In just the blink of an eye, two rays of divine light landed in front of them. Two tall and imposing apostles stared at Dong Xun with apathetic eyes.
"That's him." One of them seemed to confirm Dong Xun's identity, while the other nodded and reached out to grab Dong Xun without any hesitation.
Dong Xun had yet to put away the longsword in his hand, so he simply stabbed towards that person while rapidly retreating at the same time.
Unfortunately, his resistance was completely useless. The opponent sliced Dong Xun's sword in half with just a light wave of their hand. Instead, the apostle grabbed Dong Xun's shoulder with one hand, preventing him from moving.
Merely a casual grab made Dong Xun feel all the laws in his body being suppressed. He could not move an inch and could only watch his opponent helplessly.
It was the first time Dong Xun faced such an enemy, but he already realized what it meant.
"Star Ruler Realm!"
Greater gods' apostles were formidable because they could even break through the limitations of Tier 4 when borrowing their greater god's divine power. Even the most ordinary Tier 5 powerhouse was not someone that a Legend Rank expert could oppose.
Dong Xun couldn't resist at all, and the Luxuriant Blossoms soul fragment in his mind immediately fell into a voluntary slumber, sinking herself into the depths of Dong Xun's consciousness in an attempt to escape Rolensia's search.
Even though she knew her chances of succeeding were impossibly slim, she couldn't think of any other solutions.
After the two apostles caught Dong Xun, they immediately took him away without even looking at Qi Zhi from beginning to end, as if the latter was just an insignificant character.
After Dong Xun was taken away, Qi Zhi looked around her but didn't see any Heaven-God Alliance members showing up. Finally, she began to connect some dots.
...
"Did you kill Claude?" Rolensia's calm and indifferent gaze landed on Dong Xun's face like moonlight, making him feel like he couldn't hide anything from her.
"Y-Yes…" Dong Xun subconsciously answered, feeling as if his entire body was no longer under his control.
Rolensia sighed softly.
Over ten thousand years had passed, somewhat blurring her impression of Claude. Very little of their former friendship remained, or else the latter would not have been killed so easily.
As long as Rolensia was actually paying attention to him instead of simply using divine power to passively protect him, she could have saved Claude.
But now that things were like this, Rolensia didn't have many regrets. Perhaps ending Claude's immortal existence was a good thing for him.
"Why do you want to kill him?" Rolensia's voice was still calm, but the power that penetrated people's hearts had not weakened.
Dong Xun was just a Void Cutter and could not hide anything from a greater god. He answered honestly, "I am a member of the Heaven-God Alliance. This is the organization's mission…"
"Heaven-God Alliance?" Rolensia raised a slight brow. She didn't expect this.
Because of Gu Nan's matter back then, she no longer belonged to the Heaven-God Alliance. Her first impression was that Zi Luo Elder was taking revenge on her.
But she immediately dismissed this possibility. Firstly, there was no reason for Zi Luo Elder to know who Claude was, and secondly, it was pointless for him to use this kind of thing to retaliate against her.
Rolensia's gaze hit Dong Xun's face again, as if she wanted to pierce into the depths of his mind and cut open the deepest parts of his soul.
That Luxuriant Blossoms soul fragment's stubborn resistance was obviously entirely useless. She had no room to hide in front of Rolensia.
"It's my soul…" Rolensia recognized it as soon as she saw the soul fragment. "From back then…"
She recalled how she sliced apart her soul and had it transported into the Myriad Heavens in order to ascend to a greater god back then. She didn't expect a soul fragment to still be floating around outside.
But now, this soul fragment appeared in such an unexpected way.
"Is it purely a coincidence, or did someone do it on purpose?" The greater god's subconscious caution made Rolensia wonder if this was part of some greater plot.
"Go investigate," Rolensia ordered her apostles.
...
"It's my turn now," Gu Nan's voice rang out as he slowly stood up from inside Azure Sky Heaven.
Mu Qishuang already knew his entire plan and that he wanted to kill Rolensia with it, but she wasn't very optimistic about Gu Nan's plan.
The reason was very simple. She didn't believe that with a greater god's caution, Rolensia would easily step into Gu Nan's trap.
Even if Gu Nan asked Azure Sky Heaven to come forward as a front so that Rolensia's in-depth investigation wouldn't be effective… this whole matter still lacked a proper temptation.
To put it simply, Rolensia had no need for the soul fragment. She could absorb the soul fragment and step into the trap, but she could also choose to not absorb the soul fragment out of caution.
She just needed to keep the soul fragment in her hands and not let it be controlled by others.
"You're not familiar with Rolensia." But Gu Nan replied thus, "She will definitely not want something like this that was delivered right to her door. But sometimes, merely being cautious might not necessarily be enough to stop her from eating the poisoned apple."
Gu Nan glanced at Mu Qishuang. "If she finds out that I was the mastermind behind this matter, then she will send Dong Xun far away and find a place to completely destroy him."
"Then what if she finds out it's me?" Mu Qishuang very cooperatively asked.
"She's going to want to see what exactly you're trying to do."
...
"Azure Sky Heaven?" Without much effort, Rolensia found the organization who manipulated Dong Xun's actions.
After so many years, the Heaven-God Alliance had become an organization with quite a complicated web of members. Mu Qishuang could manipulate Dong Xun's actions from within, and Rolensia could naturally also find traces of this.
As Gu Nan expected, after a moment of silence, she quickly had Dong Xun brought before her again.
Rolensia's finger gave a light tap, and Dong Xun felt a chill on his forehead, as if something was being pulled out. His heart sank to rock bottom, knowing that ultimately, he failed to save the Luxuriant Blossoms soul fragment.
Although Rolensia extracted the soul fragment, she had no intention of absorbing it. Instead, she completely wrapped it up with the power of laws, intending to destroy her own soul fragment.
"What in the world are you trying to do?" She murmured, planning to use the destruction of her soul fragment as a threat to force the mastermind behind the scenes to express their attitude.
If they didn't… then she would merely lose a soul fragment that she had no intention of absorbing in the first place.
What Rolensia didn't expect was that after the soul fragment left Dong Xun's body, another power began to awaken inside his body.
Sorry, this was the real poisoned apple.