The second Sun split itself, which took only a mere seconds as opposed to thousands of years.

Yin Na saw what was happening, and judged that he had less than only two weeks before the second Sun’s split half will cross its eating distance to reach him and Ouyang Fang’s forces.

This was to be the most frantic means of communication he would share with his generals, as he had less than two weeks’ time to enact emergency plans.

The world-shaking danger and excitement gave Yin Na a moment of inspiration, which miraculously unlocked the coveted ability within him: Soul Articulation!

“Ouyang Fang!” Yin Na’s soul cried out.

Not a single Soul Orb within the realm wasn’t shocked. Even the 3 Suns could not believe it: their hated imminent rival had already obtained their skill which took eons to cultivate for them!

Yin Na’s voice was not able to destroy anything like Zhuang You Lang’s voice. It wasn’t loud or powerful like the second Sun’s voice either; it sounded simply like his voice with a reverb effect slapped on.

“Ouyang Fang! The time has come, old friend.”

Ouyang Fang immediately knew what Yin Na was referring to.

If he still had a mouth and lungs, he would let out a sigh full of meaning.

Ouyang Fang reflected on his grand life within the span of merely two breaths. He had lived in a far more ancient time than Yin Na had, during the time of the Yue, and when his body died he was many times his elder.

Yet Yin Na had fascinated him from the very beginning. He had been slowly devouring and having narrow escapes for who knew how many eons, and to be honest had practically given up hope of ever being able to devour his way out of this realm. As far as he was concerned, he was simply going through the motion, until the massive Soul Orb that he had been orbiting for a few centuries abruptly split itself multiple times, effectively inviting self-destruction and suicide.

He watched as the millions of Soul Orbs nearby rushed to devour this giant Soul Orbs’ completely exposed and vulnerable divisions, but due to his unique personality, chose not to partake in the devouring frenzy.

“What is the point?” he thought. “They’re getting all excited but sooner or later they will lose their gains and return back to the start, just like I did so many times.”

But instead, he noticed one original orb from the self-destructed giant. This was the remaining Soul Orb that was Yin Na.

Ouyang Fang noticed that there were a few dozen— no, almost a hundred other Soul Orbs that also chose to remain idle and observe alongside him.

Like him, they were perplexed by this giant’s strange action of throwing away a lifetime’s worth of gains in an instant. But unlike Ouyang Fang, they were also filled with malice, jealousy, and resentment.

If there were a scenario to mirror this scene in the mortal world, it would be like Yin Na ditching all his rich possessions in front of a crowd of bandits, who simply paused to stand and stare before inevitably attacking him.

Ouyang Fang followed the angry rush of the mob that eyed Yin Na’s remaining tiny Soul Orb. He himself was only 10-li in size, and honestly didn’t care to make any gains during the venture. He merely wanted to observe this strange Soul Orb’s behavior for a little longer.

“This Soul orb is really skilled and cunning in his movements!” Ouyang Fang thought, as he watched Yin Na swerve and twist through a sea of hostile Soul Orbs trying to devour him.

Ouyang Fang kept a safe distance while he watched other Soul Orbs get swallowed for being blinded by resentment and malice. It was a real shame, he thought, but he continued to follow Yin Na.

After about two days, every pursuing Soul Orb gave up, except Ouyang Fang.

Ouyang stopped when he saw the strange Soul Orb also stop. He didn’t know what to do, now that the chaos had ceased. If only he could talk within this realm!

But then, the Soul Orb started doing strange movements.

“What’s this?” Ouyang Fang thought. “This movement is…unreasonable.”

But then he noticed that the dancing movements were carefully measured, and kept in scale. With a start, he realized with profound shock that this strange Soul Orb had danced the characters, “我” (Me)!

He remained fixated on this Soul Orb until he had finished his dance, which took an hour. In this realm, they had no bodily fatigue, and Ouyang Fang’s patience and studious mind never once wavered in transcribing Yin Na’s dance into pictographic characters.

With great excitement and anxiety, he began returning Yin Na’s message as he attempted the same daring dance!

From then on, his uneventful and boring life within the realm changed.

How many eras had he devoured through without the company of another fellow human? He felt that he was going slowly insane, with zero purpose in this strange plane between life and death other than to continually devour and avoid being devoured.

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He wanted so badly to experience the pleasure of being able to talk and be listened to again!

Yin Na gave it to him.

Yin Na was incredibly intelligent, even when limited by the few words he could dance. He also listened and always had something witty or validating to say in response to Ouyang Fang’s words.

This was the happiest he had been for untold years since leaving the room of the Jade Brick where he had to play 800 games of Mahjong with the grumpy spirits trapped inside!

Ouyang Fang also knew in the back of his mind that he was being emotionally exploited and manipulated.

Even though he was a righteous cultivator to the core, he was not stupid. He knew that Yin Na kept many secrets from him and probably hid unfathomable deviousness within his cunning mind.

He also knew that would never have gotten this far in his Soul Orb cultivation without him, and that to oppose Yin Na was futile anyway.

It was either to get swallowed by one of the Suns, or to abide by Yin Na’s plans.

Back in the present, Ouyang Fang used Concentrated Splitting to rapidly message to Yin Na: “In the millions, perhaps billions of years I’ve been trapped in this realm, you were the first to introduce the concept of humanity again to me and all of us. Now my savior’s life is imperiled, how can I not do anything to pay him back for the kindness he’d shown me?”

Without another breath of hesitation, Ouyang Fang split himself, and launched one of his halved souls at 1.5 million into Yin Na’s larger 5 million li mass.

Seeing their general’s dedication and moved by the desperation of the situation, Ouyang Fang’s entire army began to follow suit.

“Quick, split yourselves and contribute to Yin Na!”

“There was no hope for me anyway, I’m going to let my entire self be absorbed by Yin Na!”

Yin Na messaged quickly back to Ouyang Fang’s remaining half: “Thank you.”

Ouyang Fang smiled internally, as he then moved himself willingly into Yin Na’s now 6.5 million-li diameter Soul Orb.

His final thought was hoping that Yin Na would remember him when he finally devours the 3 Suns and breaks out of this wretched realm.

All within Ouyang Fang’s army were shocked and moved by this development.

“The General sacrificed himself!”

“Self-sacrifice is the noblest virtue!”

“Better to be eaten by Yin Na than the Sun! Here I go!”

All of Ouyang Fang’s army rushed into Yin Na’s Soul Orb, until his soul increased to nearly 8 million in size. The stragglers who tried to escape for themselves were simply absorbed by the zealots, who then immediately contributed their lives and mass to Yin Na in the end anyway.

But it was still not enough.

The second sun’s mass, even when halved, was simply too big. Its 22-million li soul was approaching Yin Na’s 8 million li soul within a week!

The danger of the situation, plus the immediate acceptance of so many self-sacrificing Soul Orbs into his own mass lent incredible inspiration to him, until he suddenly unlocked another Soul ability:

Soul Displacement!

Yin Na’s heart was full of alarm, as he eagerly awaited the arrival of Zhou Fei. He could even “see” him within range, about a few billion li away, but he simply would not be able to reach him within a week’s time!

But the moment he unlocked Soul Displacement, Yin Na realized he could physically swap the position of Soul Orbs within his army, as if he had arms and hands! Even more powerful, he could do it in an instant!

Yin Na desperately sent his last scouting ants on a errand to command Zhou Fei to do one last mission:

“Absorb your army.”

Zhou Fei immediately did so when he received the message, transforming himself into a 7 million-sized soul, but could not predict what Yin Na had up his sleeve.

During the moment, he was feeling resentful and reluctant of Yin Na’s orders for the first time, as he already observed himself that Ouyang Fang had self-sacrificed himself for Yin Na. While he understood that second Brother Ouyang Fang did it out of love for Yin Na, he was angry that he gave his life for it. Besides, his sacrifice still evidently isn’t enough for Elder Brother Yin Na to resist the domineering mass of a split Sun. There were only three days left, he could not see what hope there was left.

Yin Na observed that Zhou Fei finally ate up all his remaining troops, then he immediately pounced on the opportunity.

The ability cost him a lot of mass in exchange for one use, but it was absolutely worth it as he selected a mere ant in front of him and immediately Soul Displaced him with Zhou Fei’s soul.

In merely seconds, the 7-million sized Zhou Fei appeared right beside Yin Na!

“Yin Na!” Zhou Fei thought. “You unlocked a new Soul Ability at a dire hour!”

Zhou Fei, like Ouyang Fang, was also a righteous cultivator and loyal and good of heart. However, after having grown to a size he never deemed possible, and then understanding Yin Na’s intent as he was beholding his 15-million size soul, he abruptly had a change of heart.

What is it about realizing that your friend will personally deal the final blow that hurts or changes the bravest of souls?

At once, it was like the eons of communicating and supporting Yin Na and building trust and fraternity were turned to ash in an instant.

Zhou Fei was not as clever nor wise as Ouyang Fang, and never actually foresaw the day that Yin Na would devour his own brothers in order to survive.

“Up until now I always naively assumed that Yin Na was going to cultivate us together in the hope that us 3 generals will break out of this realm and reunite in the real world of cultivation. I know Ouyang Fang did it out of his own will, but now that I’m right within eating distance of Yin Na, I’ve never felt such terror and despair in my life! Ouyang Fang, did you know that this was going to happen to us both? We’ve shared so many stories, secrets and memories about our lives, yet not once did you think it necessary to tell me about Yin Na’s true nature?”

His final thought as Yin Na closed in on him was of anger: “Why didn’t you tell me, Ouyang Fang?!”

Yin Na ate Zhou Fei within seconds.

Yin Na was now almost 20-million in size. But it still was not enough against the 22-million sized half of the attacking Sun.

He had less than one day before the other half of the Sun will catch up to him.

“Hehehe,” Yin Na thought. “But there is one last thing.”

Yin used Soul Articulation to speak to his army:

“COME TO ME.”

His Soul Orb army was the largest out of all the 3 generals, and the varying Soul Orb sizes totalled to over 10 million in size!

After seeing what Yin Na had did, the zealots didn’t waste any time and quickly obeyed, while the more free-thinking ones could only tremble in fear.