Within a massive sealing crystal connected to the ruins' earth, a huge black yak radiated ceaseless dark aura. The crystal imprisoning it, over a hundred meters across, was now covered in dark traces.

Countless threads of dark power seeped from within, and the once-transparent crystal was now ninety-nine percent stained black.

Crack.

Numberless fissures split across the sealing crystal. Inside, the black yak, over a hundred meters tall, struggled to open its eyes.

So tired... so sleepy... so hungry... so fragrant...

What is the meaning of this fragrance...

Its body rejected it utterly, yet it was unbearably tempting...

"At last, at last the seal is broken, human! I will never forgive you!!!!!"

"ROAR!!!!!" Accompanied by a terrifying tremor, the entire sealing crystal shattered completely!!!

At the same instant, the giant black yak opened its eyes wide, and in a flash, cause and effect, the whole of it, came flooding back.

It had been hunting the Iron-Eating Beast pack when a human sealed it away with a legendary Sealing Space!!!

Yet now, more agonizing than its towering rage was the hunger—so hungry, so hungry. Two hundred years of sealing, and though time within had nearly ceased to flow, the power it had expended struggling against the seal was immeasurable.

At this moment, it was even hungrier, even more frenzied, than the Whirlpool Demon Beast that had broken free in the Chaotic Sea.

And just then, a surge of energy—utterly repugnant to it, yet unbearably stirring—arrived at its side.

Repugnant, because it was the power of Yang Flame; stirring, because it was the pure, whole-bodied life energy of Ginseng Baby...

In that instant, the frenzied Black Meteor Yak could not bring itself to care about anything else; in its state of extreme starvation, it could only accept.

Devour it, and some strength would return at once!!!

"Yi. (You, are dead.)"

Meanwhile, Ginseng Baby, drawing ever closer to the Black Meteor Yak, wore a gaze filled with indifference toward life and death.

Next would be the Meteor Yak; if Eleven could not finish it, then it would fall to him, Ginseng Heavenly Emperor, to act.

Ginseng Baby's original plan had been to absorb the power of Yang Flame, and if the evolution failed and it could not endure it, to self-destruct outright, detonating its own power together with the Yang Flame Flower's, annihilating the Black Meteor Yak, and then reviving.

And if the evolution succeeded, then likewise it would self-destruct outright, annihilate the Black Meteor Yak, and then revive.

Whether the evolution and mutation succeeded or failed, it would self-destruct beside the Black Meteor Yak, and then revive.

Originally, when Ginseng Baby had arrived, it had already sensed that the mutation and evolution might fail.

But at the most critical moment, its Will tier advanced to Overlord Will under the scorching of Yang Flame, and with the potential of Overlord Will ignited, it successfully mastered the power of mutation.

Evolution, success!

The Mark of Time automatically updated its current state.

Of course, what awaited the Black Meteor Yak was still the same ending.

With a "boom," Ginseng Baby plunged like a falling sun, and the sky seemed to convulse. The whole firmament darkened first, then a thunderous roar created a world belonging to night.

The pitch-black sky and the bright night moon hushed all things into silence.

Then a dazzling sun rose slowly, entwining with the bright moon.

Beneath the alternation of sun and moon.

RUMBLE!!!!

Endless blinding light spread outward, and in that instant the Black Meteor Yak was jolted from its frenzy, its pupils filled with indescribable shock.

The next moment, its entire body was devoured by the blinding light and fire, and the terrifying energy surge shook heaven and earth, forming a spreading massive explosion; everything within its range would be sublimated outright.

"What in the world!!!!" The Black Meteor Yak had only just awakened from its broken seal and had no idea what was happening. Its gaze was full of terror; it felt only a force threatening its very origin, eroding its weakened body.

Its body, bit by bit, beneath the firelight, slowly crumbled to drifting ash.

The explosion spread with incredible speed!

It directly triggered violent tremors in space itself.

Had the legendary ruins not been able to withstand a demigod-tier attack,

the entire ruin space would likely have collapsed by now.

Even so, the terrifying power of the self-detonation inspired boundless dread.

Ji Li, the spirit of the ruins, for one.

The blast's violent gale spread madly, racing outward at several hundred meters per second and reaching more than ten kilometers before it finally began to slow.

Though its destructive force kept fading, in an instant it had left the entire legendary relic in utter ruin—and yet, unexpectedly, in the process the power of Yang Flame also scorched away and purified the vast majority of the dark radiation inside the relic!!!

Meanwhile, at the relic's edge, where Ji Li had fled carrying Shi Jin at Shi Ying's suggestion, her pupils still brimmed with unparalleled shock.

She stared at the gray-robed elder as though he were a monster.

"Tsk. Hard to absorb moonlight here—can't reach full power, huh." Beside Ji Li, Shi Jin smacked his lips and gave a sinister cackle, leaving this

woman from two thousand years ago with a worldview on the verge of collapse.

What had just happened?

As the relic's spirit, she could now sense with perfect clarity that neither that Ginseng Baby nor the sealed Black Meteor Yak still possessed any trace of life force!!!!

Self-detonation?

Still, though the self-detonation had not reached its full power, the Yang Flame's suppression of dark-attribute power, combined with the Black Meteor Yak's utter weakness, meant the Ginseng Baby had evidently succeeded.

Except that although the Black Meteor Yak's life force was gone, it had not been so thoroughly wrecked that not even scraps remained—though it could hardly be avoided that its body was now reduced to only a tiny, mangled fraction.

At the same time, a miniature Ginseng Baby was reassembling itself within Shi Ying's beast-taming space.

Once the Time Imprint reached the mastery level, it was far more convenient than before: the body could reassemble directly inside the contractor's beast-taming space, without breaking the contract.

At this moment, the newborn Ginseng Baby was still not much different from before—though if one had to say, its ginseng flower now radiated a splendor like that of the sun, searing hot beyond measure.

It was as if a sun-flower had bloomed atop its ginseng body.

[Name]: Undying Sun Ginseng [Species Grade]: High Overlord (Quasi-Mythic)

[Growth Grade]: Monarch-tier [Super-tier Skills]: Source of Life (Mastery+11), Time Imprint (Mastery), Moonburst (Mastery), Plant Control (Mastery+2),

Life Ember (Novice)

[Life Ember]: A super-tier wood-and-fire dual-attribute skill; burns life energy to ignite latent potential!

[Energy Value]: 14.88 million in the outside world.

The colossal relic door had finally split completely open.

The Black Goat Totem and Baichuan Legend watched expectantly as, with the fissure widening, an enormous body tumbled out from within the relic.

It was a roasted ox, as if flame-broiled—its body reduced to char, without the slightest sign of life, and even the radiation upon it scorched clean by some unfathomable power.

Judging by its energy fluctuations, it seemed to have been burned to death only moments ago.

The terrifying fluctuations filling the fissure were so intense that even in the outside world, the Black Goat Totem and the others could sense them clearly!

With a thunderous "boom," it plummeted straight out of the relic.

The Black Goat Totem and Baichuan Legend both had their pupils contract, somewhat bewildered.

Their expressions were stunned.

What had happened...